“Do you think,” she said, “that it would be possible for you to write that letter to Mr. Milnathort of which I have spoken so often, to-day?”
“Oh, quite possible,” said Walter, carelessly.
“Will you do it, then? It seems to me very important to your interests. Will you really do it, and do it to-day?”
“I’ll see about it,” Walter said.
“I don’t ask you to see about it. It is nothing very difficult. I ask you to do it at once—to-day.”
He gazed at her for a moment with an angry obstinacy10.
“I see no particular occasion for all this haste. It has stood over a good many days. Why should you insist so upon it now?”
“Every day that it has been put off has been a mistake. It should have been done at once,” Mrs. Methven said.
“I’ll see about it,” he said carelessly; and he went out of the room with a sense of having exasperated11 her as usual, which was almost pleasant.
At the bottom of his heart he meant to do what his mother had asked of him: but he would not betray his good intentions. He preferred to look hostile even when he was in the mind to be obedient. He went away to the little sitting-room12 which was appropriated to him, where his pipes adorned13 the mantelpiece, and sat down to consider the situation. To write a letter was not a great thing to do, and he fully14 meant to do it; but after he had mused15 a little angrily upon the want of perception which made his mother adopt that cold and hectoring tone, when if she had asked him gently he would have done it in a minute, he put forth16 his hand and drew a book towards him. It was not either a new or an entertaining book, but it secured his idle attention until he suddenly remembered that it was time to go out. The letter was not written, but what did that matter? The post did not go out till the afternoon, and there was plenty of time between that time and this to write half-a-dozen letters. It would do very well, he thought, when he came in for lunch. So he threw down the book and got his hat and went out.
Mrs. Methven, who was on the watch, hearing his every movement, came into his room after he was gone, and looked round with eager eyes to see if the letter was written, if there was any trace of it. Perhaps he had taken it out with him to post it, she thought: and though it was injurious to her that she should not know something more about a piece of business in which he was not the sole person concerned, yet it gave her a sort of relief to think that so much at least he had done. She went back to her books with an easier mind. She was far from being a rich woman, but her son had known none of her little difficulties, her efforts to make ends meet. She had thought it wrong to trouble his childhood with such confidences, and he had grown up thinking nothing on the subject, without any particular knowledge of, or interest in, her affairs, taking everything for granted. It was her own fault, she said to herself, and so it was to some extent. She would sometimes think that if she had it to do over again she would change all that. How often do we think this, and with what bitter regret, in respect to the children whom people speak of as wax in our hands, till we suddenly wake up and find them iron! She had kept her difficulties out of Walter’s way, and instead of being grateful to her for so doing, he was simply indifferent, neither inquiring nor caring to know. Her own doing! It was easier to herself, yet bitter beyond telling, to acknowledge it to be so. Just at this time, when Christmas was approaching, the ends took a great deal of tugging17 and coaxing18 to bring them together. A few of Walter’s bills had come in unexpectedly, putting her poor balance altogether wrong. Miss Merivale contributed a little, but only a little, to the housekeeping; for Mrs. Methven was both proud and liberal, and understood giving better than receiving. She went back to the dining-room, where all her books lay upon the table, near the fire. Her reckoning had advanced much since she had begun it, with Walter sitting at breakfast. Her faculties19 had been all absorbed in him and what he was doing. Now she addressed herself to her accounts with a strenuous20 effort. It is hard work to balance a small sum of money against a large number of bills, to settle how to divide it so as that everybody shall have something, and the mouths of hungry creditors21 be stopped. Perhaps we might say that this was one of the fine arts—so many pounds here, so many there, keeping credit afloat, and the wolf of debt from the door. Mrs. Methven was skilled in it. She went to this work, feeling all its difficulty and burden: yet, with a little relief, not because she saw any way out of her difficulties, but because Walter had written that letter. It was always something done, she thought, in her simplicity22, and something might come of it, some way in which he could get the means of exercising his faculties, perhaps of distinguishing himself even yet.
Walter for his part strolled away through the little town in his usual easy way. It was a fine, bright, winterly morning, not cold, yet cold enough to make brisk walking pleasant, and stir the blood in young veins23. There was no football going on, nor any special amusement. He could not afford to hunt, and the only active winter exercise which he could attain24 was limited to this game—of which there was a good deal at Sloebury—and skating, when it pleased Providence25 to send ice, which was too seldom. He looked in upon one or two of his cronies, and played a game of billiards26, and hung about the High Street to see what was going on. There was nothing particular going on, but the air was fresh, and the sun shining, and a little pleasant movement about, much more agreeable at least than sitting in a stuffy27 little room writing a troublesome letter which he felt sure would not do the least good. Finally, he met Captain Underwood, who regarded him with a look which Walter would have called anxious had he been able to imagine any possible reason why Underwood should entertain any anxiety on his account.
“Well! any news?” the captain cried.
“News! What news should there be in this dead-alive place?” Walter said.
The other looked at him keenly as if to see whether he was quite sincere, and then said, “Come and have some lunch.”
He was free of all the best resorts in Sloebury, this mysterious man. He belonged to the club, he was greatly at his ease in the hotel—everything was open to him. Walter, who had but little money of his own, and could not quite cut the figure he wished, was not displeased28 to be thus exhibited as the captain’s foremost ally.
“I thought you might have come into that fortune, you are looking so spruce,” the captain said, and laughed. But though he laughed he kept an eye on the young man as if the pleasantry meant more than appeared. Walter felt a momentary29 irritation30 with this, which seemed to him a very bad joke; but he went with the captain all the same, not without a recollection of the table at home, at which, after waiting three quarters of an hour or so, and watching at the window for his coming, the ladies would at last sit down. But he was not a child to be forced to attendance at every meal, he said to himself. The captain’s attentions to him were great, and it was a very nice little meal that they had together.
“I expect you to do great things for me when you come into your fortune. You had better engage me at once as your guide, philosopher, and friend,” he said, with a laugh. “Of course you will quit Sloebury, and make yourself free of all this bondage31.”
“Oh, of course,” said Walter, humouring the joke, though it was so bad a one in every way.
He could not quarrel with his host at his own table, and perhaps after all it was more dignified32 to take it with good humour.
“You must not go in for mere33 expense,” the captain said; “you must make it pay. I can put you up to a thing or two. You must not go into the world like a pigeon to be plucked. It would effect my personal honour if a pupil of mine—for I consider you as a pupil of mine, Methven, I think I have imparted to you a thing or two. You are not quite the simpleton you used to be, do you think you are?”
Walter received this with great gravity, though he tried to look as if he were not offended.
“Was I a simpleton?” he said. “I suppose in one’s own case one never sees.”
“Were you a simpleton!” said the other, with a laugh, and then he stopped himself, always keenly watching the young man’s face, and perceiving that he was going too far. “But I flatter myself you could hold your own at whist with any man now,” the captain said.
This pleased the young man; his gravity unbended a little; there was a visible relaxation34 of the corners of his mouth. To be praised is always agreeable. Moral applause, indeed, may be taken with composure, but who could hear himself applauded for his whist-playing without an exhilaration of the heart? He said, with satisfaction, “I always was pretty good at games,” at which his instructor35 laughed again, almost too much for perfect good breeding.
“I like to have young fellows like you to deal with,” he said, “fellows with a little spirit, that are born for better things. Your country-town young man is as fretful and frightened when he loses a few shillings as if it were thousands. But that’s one of the reasons why I feel you’re born to luck, my boy. I know a man of liberal breeding whenever I see him, he is not frightened about a nothing. That’s one of the things I like in you, Methven. You deserve a fortune, and you deserve to have me for your guide, philosopher, and friend.”
All this was said by way of joke; but it was strange to see the steady watch which he kept on the young man’s face. One would have said a person of importance whom Underwood meant to try his strength with, but guardedly, without going too far, and even on whom he was somehow dependent, anxious to make a good impression. Walter, who knew his own favour to be absolutely without importance, and that Underwood above all, his host and frequent entertainer, could be under no possible delusion36 on the subject, was puzzled, yet flattered, feeling that only some excellence37 on his part, undiscovered by any of his other acquaintances, could account for this. So experienced a person could have “no motive38” in thus paying court to a penniless and prospectless39 youth. Walter was perplexed40, but he was gratified too. He had not seen many of the captain’s kind; nobody who knew so many people or who was so much at his ease with the world. Admiration41 of this vast acquaintance, and of the familiarity with which the captain treated things and people of which others spoke with bated breath, had varied42 in his mind with a fluctuating sense that Underwood was not exactly so elevated a person as he professed43 to be, and even that there were occasional vulgarities in this man of the world. Walter felt these, but in his ignorance represented to himself that perhaps they were right enough, and only seemed vulgar to him who knew no better. And to-day there is no doubt he was somewhat intoxicated44 by this flattery. It must be disinterested45, for what could he do for anybody? He confided46 to the captain more than he had ever done before of his own position. He described how he was being urged to write to old Milnathort. “He is an old lawyer in Scotland—what they call a writer—and it is supposed he might be induced to take me into his office, for the sake of old associations. I don’t know what the associations are, but the position does not smile upon me,” Walter said.
“Your family then is a Scotch47 family?” said the captain with a nod of approval. “I thought as much.”
“I don’t know that I’ve got a family,” said Walter.
“On the contrary, Methven is a very good name. There are half-a-dozen baronets at least, and a peer—you must have heard of him, Lord Erradeen.”
“Oh yes, I’ve heard of him,” Walter said with a conscious look.
If he had been more in the world he would have said “he is a cousin of mine,” but he was aware that the strain of kindred was very far off, and he was at once too shy and too proud to claim it. His companion waited apparently48 for the disclosure, then finding it did not come opened the way.
“If he’s a relation of yours, it’s to him you ought to write; very likely he would do something for you. They are a curious family. I’ve had occasion to know something about them.”
“I think you know everybody, Underwood.”
“Well, I have knocked about the world a great deal; in that way one comes across a great many people. I saw a good deal of the present lord at one time. He was a very queer man—they are all queer. If you are one of them you’ll have to bear your share in it. There is a mysterious house they have—You would think I was an idiot if I told you half the stories I have heard——”
“About the Erradeens?”
“About everybody,” said the captain evasively. “There is scarcely a family, that, if you go right into it, has not something curious about them. We all have; but those that last and continue keep it on record. I could tell you the wildest tales about So-and-so and So-and-so, very ordinary people to look at, but with stories that would make your hair stand on end.”
“We have nothing to do with things of that sort. My people have always been straightforward49 and above-board.”
“For as much as you know, perhaps; but go back three or four generations and how can you tell? We have all of us ancestors that perhaps were not much to brag50 of.”
Walter caught Underwood’s eye as he said this, and perhaps there was a twinkle in it, for he laughed.
“It is something,” he said, “to have ancestors at all.”
“If they were the greatest blackguards in the world,” the captain said with a responsive laugh, “that’s what I think. You don’t want any more of my revelations? Well, never mind, probably I shall have you coming to me some of these days quite humbly51 to beg for more information. You are not cut out for an attorney’s office. It is very virtuous52, of course, to give yourself up to work and turn your back upon life.”
“Virtue53 be hanged,” said Walter, with some excitement, “it is not virtue, but necessity, which I take to be the very opposite. I know I’m wasting my time, but I mean to turn over a new leaf. And as the first evidence of that, as soon as I go home I shall write to old Milnathort.”
“Not to-day,” said Underwood, looking at his watch; “the post has gone; twenty-four hours more to think about it will do you no harm.”
Walter started to his feet, and it was with a real pang54 that he saw how the opportunity had escaped him, and his intention in spite of himself been balked55; a flush of shame came over his face. He felt that, if never before, here was a genuine occasion for blame. To be sure, the same thing had happened often enough before, but he had never perhaps so fully intended to do what was required of him. He sat down again with a muttered curse at himself and his own folly56. There was nothing to be said for him. He had meant to turn over a new leaf, and yet this day was just like the last. The thought made his heart sick for the moment. But what was the use of making a fuss and betraying himself to a stranger? He sat down again, with a self-disgust which made him glad to escape from his own company. Underwood’s talk might be shallow enough, perhaps his pretence57 at knowledge was not very well founded, but he was safer company than conscience, and that burning and miserable58 sense of moral impotence which is almost worse than the more tragic59 stings of conscience. To find out that your resolution is worth nothing, after you have put yourself to the trouble of making it, and that habit is more strong than any motive, is not a pleasant thing to think of. Better let the captain talk about Lord Erradeen, or any other lord in the peerage. Underwood, being encouraged with a few questions, talked very largely on this subject. He gave the young man many pieces of information, which indeed he could have got in Debrett if he had been anxious on the subject; and as the afternoon wore on they strolled out again for another promenade60 up and down the more populous61 parts of Sloebury, and there fell in with other idlers like themselves; and when the twilight62 yielded to the more cheerful light of the lamps, betook themselves to whist, which was sometimes played in the captain’s rooms at that immoral63 hour. Sloebury, even the most advanced portion of it, had been horrified64 at the thought of whist before dinner when the captain first suggested it, but that innocent alarm had long since melted away. There was nothing dangerous about it, no stakes which any one could be hurt by losing. When Walter, warned by the breaking up of the party that it was the hour for dinner, took his way home also, he was the winner of a sixpence or two, and no more: there had been nothing wrong in the play. But when he turned the corner of Underwood’s street and found himself with the wind in his face on his way home, the revulsion of feeling from something like gaiety to a rush of disagreeable anticipations65, a crowd of uncomfortable thoughts, was pitiful. In spite of all our boastings of home and home influence, how many experience this change the moment they turn their face in the direction of that centre where it is conventional to suppose all comfort and shelter is! There is a chill, an abandonment of pleasant sensations, a preparation for those that are not pleasant. Walter foresaw what he would find there with an impatience66 and resentment67 which were almost intolerable. Behind the curtain, between the laths of the Venetian blind, his mother would be secretly on the outlook watching for his return; perhaps even she had stolen quietly to the door, and, sheltered in the darkness of the porch, was looking out; or, if not that, the maid who opened the door would look reproachfully at him, and ask if he was going to dress, or if she might serve the dinner at once: it must have been waiting already nearly half an hour. He went on very quickly, but his thoughts lingered and struggled with the strong disinclination that possessed68 him. How much he would have given not to go home at all! how little pleasure he expected when he got there! His mother most likely would be silent, pale with anger, saying little, while Cousin Sophia would get up a little conversation. She would talk lightly about anything that might have been happening, and Walter would perhaps exert himself to give Sophia back her own, and show his mother that he cared nothing about her displeasure. And then when dinner was over, he would hurry out again, glad to be released. Home: this was what it had come to be: and nothing could mend it so far as either mother or son could see. Oh, terrible incompatibility69, unapproachableness of one soul to another! To think that they should be so near, yet so far away. Even in the case of husband and wife the severance70 is scarcely so terrible; for they have come towards each other out of different spheres, and if they do not amalgamate71, there are many secondary causes that may be blamed, differences of nature and training and thought. But a mother with her child, whom she has brought up, whose first opinions she has implanted, who ought naturally to be influenced by her ways of thinking, and even by prejudices and superstitions72 in favour of her way! It was not, however, this view of the question which moved the young man. It was the fact of his own bondage, the compulsion he was under to return to dinner, to give some partial obedience73 to the rules of the house, and to confess that he had not written that letter to Mr. Milnathort.
When he came in sight of the house, however, he became aware insensibly, he could scarcely tell how, of some change in its aspect: what was it? It was lighted up in the most unusual way. The window of the spare room was shining not only with candlelight, but with firelight, his own room was lighted up; the door was standing74 open, throwing out a warm flood of light into the street, and in the centre of this light stood Mrs. Methven with her white shawl over her head, not at all concealing75 herself, gazing anxiously in the direction from which he was coming.
“I think I will send for him,” he heard her say; “he has, very likely, stepped into Captain Underwood’s, and he is apt to meet friends there who will not let him go.”
Her voice was soft—there was no blame in it, though she was anxious. She was speaking to some one behind her, a figure in a great coat. Walter was in the shadow and invisible. He paused in his surprise to listen.
“I must get away by the last train,” he heard the voice of the muffled76 figure say somewhat pettishly77.
“Oh, there is plenty of time for that,” cried his mother; and then she gave a little cry of pleasure, and said, “And, at a good moment, here he is!”
He came in somewhat dazzled, and much astonished, into the strong light in the open doorway78. Mrs. Methven’s countenance79 was all radiant and glowing with pleasure. She held out her hand to him eagerly.
“We have been looking for you,” she cried; “I have had a great surprise. Walter, this is Mr. Milnathort.”
Puzzled, startled, and yet somewhat disappointed, Walter paused in the hall, and looked at a tall old man with a face full of crotchets and intelligence, who stood with two great coats unbuttoned, and a comforter half unwound from his throat, under the lamp. His features were high and thin, his eyes invisible under their deep sockets80.
“Now, you will surely take off your coat, and consent to go up-stairs, and make yourself comfortable,” said Mrs. Methven, with a thrill of excitement in her voice. “This is Walter. He has heard of you all his life. Without any reference to the nature of your communication, he must be glad, indeed, to make your acquaintance—”
She gave Walter a look of appeal as she spoke. He was so much surprised that it was with difficulty he found self-possession to murmur81 a few words of civility. A feeling that Mr. Milnathort must have come to look after that letter which had never been written came in with the most wonderfully confusing, half ludicrous effect into his mind, like one of the inadequate82 motives83 and ineffable84 conclusions of a dream. Mr. Milnathort made a stiff little bow in reply.
“I will remain till the last train. In the mean time the young gentleman had better be informed, Mrs. Methven.”
She put out her hands again. “A moment—give us a moment first.”
The old lawyer stood still and looked from the mother to the son. Perhaps to his keen eyes it was revealed that it would be well she should have the advantage of any pleasant revelation.
“I will,” he said, “madam, avail myself of your kind offer to go up-stairs and unroll myself out of these trappings of a long journey; and in the mean time you will, perhaps, like to tell him the news yourself: he will like it all the better if he hears it from his mother.”
Mrs. Methven bowed her head, having, apparently, no words at her command: and stood looking after him till he disappeared on the stairs, following the maid, who had been waiting with a candle lighted in her hand. When he was gone, she seized Walter hurriedly by the arm, and drew him towards the little room, the nearest, which was his ordinary sitting-room. Her hand grasped him with unnecessary force in her excitement. The room was dark—he could not see her face, the only light in it being the reflection of the lamp outside.
“Oh, Walter!” she cried; “oh, my boy! I don’t know how to tell you the news. This useless life is all over for you, and another—oh, how different—another—God grant it happy and great, oh, God grant it! blessed and noble!—”
Her voice choked with excitement and fast-coming tears. She drew him towards her into her arms.
“It will take you from me—but what of that, if it makes you happy and good? I have been no guide to you, but God will be your guide: His leadings were all dark to me, but now I see—”
“Mother,” he cried, with a strange impulse he could not understand, putting his arm round her, “I did not write that letter: I have done nothing I promised or meant to do. I am sick to the heart to think what a fool and a cad I am—for the love of God tell me what it is!”
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1
scrupulously
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| adv.一丝不苟地；小心翼翼地，多顾虑地 | |
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jotting
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| n.简短的笔记，略记v.匆忙记下( jot的现在分词 )；草草记下，匆匆记下 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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remonstrances
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| n.抱怨，抗议( remonstrance的名词复数 ) | |
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antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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exasperation
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| n.愤慨 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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tugging
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| n.牵引感v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的现在分词 ) | |
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coaxing
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的现在分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱；“锻炼”效应 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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creditors
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| n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 ) | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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billiards
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| n.台球 | |
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stuffy
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| adj.不透气的，闷热的 | |
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displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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bondage
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| n.奴役，束缚 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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relaxation
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| n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐 | |
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instructor
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| n.指导者，教员，教练 | |
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delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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prospectless
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| n.章程，简章，简介( prospectus的名词复数 ) | |
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perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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intoxicated
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| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
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disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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brag
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| v./n.吹牛，自夸；adj.第一流的 | |
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humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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balked
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| v.畏缩不前，犹豫( balk的过去式和过去分词 )；（指马）不肯跑 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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promenade
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| n./v.散步 | |
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populous
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| adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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immoral
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| adj.不道德的，淫荡的，荒淫的，有伤风化的 | |
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horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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anticipations
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| 预期( anticipation的名词复数 )； 预测； （信托财产收益的）预支； 预期的事物 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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incompatibility
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| n.不兼容 | |
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severance
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| n.离职金；切断 | |
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amalgamate
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| v.(指业务等)合并，混合 | |
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superstitions
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| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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pettishly
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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sockets
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| n.套接字，使应用程序能够读写与收发通讯协定(protocol)与资料的程序( Socket的名词复数 )；孔( socket的名词复数 )；（电器上的）插口；托座；凹穴 | |
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murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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ineffable
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| adj.无法表达的，不可言喻的 | |
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