'Twas on the evening of a winter's day.'
When two or three additional hours had merged1 the same afternoon in evening, some moving outlines might have been observed against the sky on the summit of a wild lone2 hill in that district. They circumscribed3 two men, having at present the aspect of silhouettes4, sitting in a dog-cart and pushing along in the teeth of the wind. Scarcely a solitary5 house or man had been visible along the whole dreary6 distance of open country they were traversing; and now that night had begun to fall, the faint twilight7, which still gave an idea of the landscape to their observation, was enlivened by the quiet appearance of the planet Jupiter, momentarily gleaming in intenser brilliancy in front of them, and by Sirius shedding his rays in rivalry8 from his position over their shoulders. The only lights apparent on earth were some spots of dull red, glowing here and there upon the distant hills, which, as the driver of the vehicle gratuitously9 remarked to the hirer, were smouldering fires for the consumption of peat and gorse-roots, where the common was being broken up for agricultural purposes. The wind prevailed with but little abatement10 from its daytime boisterousness11, three or four small clouds, delicate and pale, creeping along under the sky southward to the Channel.
Fourteen of the sixteen miles intervening between the railway terminus and the end of their journey had been gone over, when they began to pass along the brink12 of a valley some miles in extent, wherein the wintry skeletons of a more luxuriant vegetation than had hitherto surrounded them proclaimed an increased richness of soil, which showed signs of far more careful enclosure and management than had any slopes they had yet passed. A little farther, and an opening in the elms stretching up from this fertile valley revealed a mansion13.
'That's Endelstow House, Lord Luxellian's,' said the driver.
'Endelstow House, Lord Luxellian's,' repeated the other mechanically. He then turned himself sideways, and keenly scrutinized14 the almost invisible house with an interest which the indistinct picture itself seemed far from adequate to create. 'Yes, that's Lord Luxellian's,' he said yet again after a while, as he still looked in the same direction.
'What, be we going there?'
'No; Endelstow Vicarage, as I have told you.'
'I thought you m't have altered your mind, sir, as ye have stared that way at nothing so long.'
'Oh no; I am interested in the house, that's all.'
'Most people be, as the saying is.'
'Not in the sense that I am.'
'Oh!...Well, his family is no better than my own, 'a b'lieve.'
'How is that?'
'Hedgers and ditchers by rights. But once in ancient times one of 'em, when he was at work, changed clothes with King Charles the Second, and saved the king's life. King Charles came up to him like a common man, and said off-hand, "Man in the smock-frock, my name is Charles the Second, and that's the truth on't. Will you lend me your clothes?" "I don't mind if I do," said Hedger Luxellian; and they changed there and then. "Now mind ye," King Charles the Second said, like a common man, as he rode away, "if ever I come to the crown, you come to court, knock at the door, and say out bold, 'Is King Charles the Second at home?' Tell your name, and they shall let you in, and you shall be made a lord." Now, that was very nice of Master Charley?'
'Very nice indeed.'
'Well, as the story is, the king came to the throne; and some years after that, away went Hedger Luxellian, knocked at the king's door, and asked if King Charles the Second was in. "No, he isn't," they said. "Then, is Charles the Third?" said Hedger Luxellian. "Yes," said a young feller standing15 by like a common man, only he had a crown on, "my name is Charles the Third." And----'
'I really fancy that must be a mistake. I don't recollect16 anything in English history about Charles the Third,' said the other in a tone of mild remonstrance17.
'Oh, that's right history enough, only 'twasn't prented; he was rather a queer-tempered man, if you remember.'
'Very well; go on.'
'And, by hook or by crook18, Hedger Luxellian was made a lord, and everything went on well till some time after, when he got into a most terrible row with King Charles the Fourth
'I can't stand Charles the Fourth. Upon my word, that's too much.'
'Why? There was a George the Fourth, wasn't there?'
'Certainly.'
'Well, Charleses be as common as Georges. However I'll say no more about it....Ah, well! 'tis the funniest world ever I lived in--upon my life 'tis. Ah, that such should be!'
The dusk had thickened into darkness while they thus conversed19, and the outline and surface of the mansion gradually disappeared. The windows, which had before been as black blots20 on a lighter21 expanse of wall, became illuminated22, and were transfigured to squares of light on the general dark body of the night landscape as it absorbed the outlines of the edifice23 into its gloomy monochrome.
Not another word was spoken for some time, and they climbed a hill, then another hill piled on the summit of the first. An additional mile of plateau followed, from which could be discerned two light-houses on the coast they were nearing, reposing24 on the horizon with a calm lustre25 of benignity26. Another oasis27 was reached; a little dell lay like a nest at their feet, towards which the driver pulled the horse at a sharp angle, and descended28 a steep slope which dived under the trees like a rabbit's burrow29. They sank lower and lower.
'Endelstow Vicarage is inside here,' continued the man with the reins30. 'This part about here is West Endelstow; Lord Luxellian's is East Endelstow, and has a church to itself. Pa'son Swancourt is the pa'son of both, and bobs backward and forward. Ah, well! 'tis a funny world. 'A b'lieve there was once a quarry31 where this house stands. The man who built it in past time scraped all the glebe for earth to put round the vicarage, and laid out a little paradise of flowers and trees in the soil he had got together in this way, whilst the fields he scraped have been good for nothing ever since.'
'How long has the present incumbent32 been here?'
'Maybe about a year, or a year and half: 'tisn't two years; for they don't scandalize him yet; and, as a rule, a parish begins to scandalize the pa'son at the end of two years among 'em familiar. But he's a very nice party. Ay, Pa'son Swancourt knows me pretty well from often driving over; and I know Pa'son Swancourt.'
They emerged from the bower33, swept round in a curve, and the chimneys and gables of the vicarage became darkly visible. Not a light showed anywhere. They alighted; the man felt his way into the porch, and rang the bell.
At the end of three or four minutes, spent in patient waiting without hearing any sounds of a response, the stranger advanced and repeated the call in a more decided34 manner. He then fancied he heard footsteps in the hall, and sundry35 movements of the door- knob, but nobody appeared.
'Perhaps they beant at home,' sighed the driver. 'And I promised myself a bit of supper in Pa'son Swancourt's kitchen. Sich lovely mate-pize and figged keakes, and cider, and drops o' cordial that they do keep here!'
'All right, naibours! Be ye rich men or be ye poor men, that ye must needs come to the world's end at this time o' night?' exclaimed a voice at this instant; and, turning their heads, they saw a rickety individual shambling round from the back door with a horn lantern dangling36 from his hand.
'Time o' night, 'a b'lieve! and the clock only gone seven of 'em. Show a light, and let us in, William Worm.'
'Oh, that you, Robert Lickpan?'
'Nobody else, William Worm.'
'And is the visiting man a-come?'
'Yes,' said the stranger. 'Is Mr. Swancourt at home?'
'That 'a is, sir. And would ye mind coming round by the back way? The front door is got stuck wi' the wet, as he will do sometimes; and the Turk can't open en. I know I am only a poor wambling man that 'ill never pay the Lord for my making, sir; but I can show the way in, sir.'
The new arrival followed his guide through a little door in a wall, and then promenaded37 a scullery and a kitchen, along which he passed with eyes rigidly38 fixed39 in advance, an inbred horror of prying40 forbidding him to gaze around apartments that formed the back side of the household tapestry41. Entering the hall, he was about to be shown to his room, when from the inner lobby of the front entrance, whither she had gone to learn the cause of the delay, sailed forth42 the form of Elfride. Her start of amazement43 at the sight of the visitor coming forth from under the stairs proved that she had not been expecting this surprising flank movement, which had been originated entirely44 by the ingenuity45 of William Worm.
She appeared in the prettiest of all feminine guises46, that is to say, in demi-toilette, with plenty of loose curly hair tumbling down about her shoulders. An expression of uneasiness pervaded47 her countenance48; and altogether she scarcely appeared woman enough for the situation. The visitor removed his hat, and the first words were spoken; Elfride prelusively looking with a deal of interest, not unmixed with surprise, at the person towards whom she was to do the duties of hospitality.
'I am Mr. Smith,' said the stranger in a musical voice.
'I am Miss Swancourt,' said Elfride.
Her constraint49 was over. The great contrast between the reality she beheld50 before her, and the dark, taciturn, sharp, elderly man of business who had lurked51 in her imagination--a man with clothes smelling of city smoke, skin sallow from want of sun, and talk flavoured with epigram--was such a relief to her that Elfride smiled, almost laughed, in the new-comer's face.
Stephen Smith, who has hitherto been hidden from us by the darkness, was at this time of his life but a youth in appearance, and barely a man in years. Judging from his look, London was the last place in the world that one would have imagined to be the scene of his activities: such a face surely could not be nourished amid smoke and mud and fog and dust; such an open countenance could never even have seen anything of 'the weariness, the fever, and the fret52' of Babylon the Second.
His complexion53 was as fine as Elfride's own; the pink of his cheeks as delicate. His mouth as perfect as Cupid's bow in form, and as cherry-red in colour as hers. Bright curly hair; bright sparkling blue-gray eyes; a boy's blush and manner; neither whisker nor moustache, unless a little light-brown fur on his upper lip deserved the latter title: this composed the London professional man, the prospect54 of whose advent55 had so troubled Elfride.
Elfride hastened to say she was sorry to tell him that Mr. Swancourt was not able to receive him that evening, and gave the reason why. Mr. Smith replied, in a voice boyish by nature and manly56 by art, that he was very sorry to hear this news; but that as far as his reception was concerned, it did not matter in the least.
Stephen was shown up to his room. In his absence Elfride stealthily glided57 into her father's.
'He's come, papa. Such a young man for a business man!'
'Oh, indeed!'
'His face is--well--PRETTY; just like mine.'
'H'm! what next?'
'Nothing; that's all I know of him yet. It is rather nice, is it not?'
'Well, we shall see that when we know him better. Go down and give the poor fellow something to eat and drink, for Heaven's sake. And when he has done eating, say I should like to have a few words with him, if he doesn't mind coming up here.'
The young lady glided downstairs again, and whilst she awaits young Smith's entry, the letters referring to his visit had better be given.
1.--MR. SWANCOURT TO MR. HEWBY.
'ENDELSTOW VICARAGE, Feb. 18, 18--.
'SIR,--We are thinking of restoring the tower and aisle58 of the church in this parish; and Lord Luxellian, the patron of the living, has mentioned your name as that of a trustworthy architect whom it would be desirable to ask to superintend the work.
'I am exceedingly ignorant of the necessary preliminary steps. Probably, however, the first is that (should you be, as Lord Luxellian says you are, disposed to assist us) yourself or some member of your staff come and see the building, and report thereupon for the satisfaction of parishioners and others.
'The spot is a very remote one: we have no railway within fourteen miles; and the nearest place for putting up at--called a town, though merely a large village--is Castle Boterel, two miles further on; so that it would be most convenient for you to stay at the vicarage--which I am glad to place at your disposal--instead of pushing on to the hotel at Castle Boterel, and coming back again in the morning.
'Any day of the next week that you like to name for the visit will find us quite ready to receive you.--Yours very truly, CHRISTOPHER SWANCOURT.
2.--MR. HEWBY TO MR. SWANCOURT.
"PERCY PLACE, CHARING59 CROSS, Feb. 20, 18--.
'DEAR SIR,--Agreeably to your request of the 18th instant, I have arranged to survey and make drawings of the aisle and tower of your parish church, and of the dilapidations which have been suffered to accrue60 thereto, with a view to its restoration.
'My assistant, Mr. Stephen Smith, will leave London by the early train to-morrow morning for the purpose. Many thanks for your proposal to accommodate him. He will take advantage of your offer, and will probably reach your house at some hour of the evening. You may put every confidence in him, and may rely upon his discernment in the matter of church architecture.
'Trusting that the plans for the restoration, which I shall prepare from the details of his survey, will prove satisfactory to yourself and Lord Luxellian, I am, dear sir, yours faithfully, WALTER HEWBY.'
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1
merged
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| （使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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circumscribed
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| adj.[医]局限的：受限制或限于有限空间的v.在…周围划线( circumscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；划定…范围；限制；限定 | |
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silhouettes
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| 轮廓( silhouette的名词复数 )； （人的）体形； （事物的）形状； 剪影 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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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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rivalry
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| n.竞争，竞赛，对抗 | |
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9
gratuitously
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| 平白 | |
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abatement
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| n.减(免)税，打折扣，冲销 | |
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boisterousness
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| n.喧闹；欢跃；（风暴）狂烈 | |
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12
brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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13
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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14
scrutinized
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| v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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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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16
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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17
remonstrance
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| n抗议，抱怨 | |
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18
crook
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| v.使弯曲；n.小偷，骗子，贼；弯曲(处) | |
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conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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blots
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| 污渍( blot的名词复数 )； 墨水渍； 错事； 污点 | |
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21
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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22
illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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23
edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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24
reposing
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的现在分词 ) | |
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25
lustre
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| n.光亮，光泽；荣誉 | |
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26
benignity
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| n.仁慈 | |
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27
oasis
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| n.（沙漠中的）绿洲，宜人的地方 | |
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28
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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29
burrow
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| vt.挖掘(洞穴)；钻进；vi.挖洞；翻寻；n.地洞 | |
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reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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quarry
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| n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找 | |
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32
incumbent
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| adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的 | |
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bower
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| n.凉亭，树荫下凉快之处；闺房；v.荫蔽 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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promenaded
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| v.兜风( promenade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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rigidly
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| adv.刻板地，僵化地 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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40
prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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41
tapestry
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| n.挂毯，丰富多采的画面 | |
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42
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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guises
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| n.外观，伪装( guise的名词复数 )v.外观，伪装( guise的第三人称单数 ) | |
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pervaded
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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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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constraint
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| n.(on)约束，限制；限制(或约束)性的事物 | |
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50
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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51
lurked
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| vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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fret
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| v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损 | |
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53
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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55
advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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57
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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59
charing
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| n.炭化v.把…烧成炭，把…烧焦( char的现在分词 )；烧成炭，烧焦；做杂役女佣 | |
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accrue
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| v.(利息等)增大，增多 | |
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