The young man shut the door with a sharper slam than any visitor had used that afternoon, and walked up the street at a great pace, cutting the air with his walking-stick. He was glad to find himself outside that drawing-room, breathing raw fog, and in contact with unpolished people who only wanted their share of the pavement allowed them. He thought that if he had had Mr. or Mrs. or Miss Hilbery out here he would have made them, somehow, feel his superiority, for he was chafed1 by the memory of halting awkward sentences which had failed to give even the young woman with the sad, but inwardly ironical2 eyes a hint of his force. He tried to recall the actual words of his little outburst, and unconsciously supplemented them by so many words of greater expressiveness3 that the irritation4 of his failure was somewhat assuaged5. Sudden stabs of the unmitigated truth assailed6 him now and then, for he was not inclined by nature to take a rosy7 view of his conduct, but what with the beat of his foot upon the pavement, and the glimpse which half-drawn curtains offered him of kitchens, dining- rooms, and drawing-rooms, illustrating8 with mute power different scenes from different lives, his own experience lost its sharpness.
His own experience underwent a curious change. His speed slackened, his head sank a little towards his breast, and the lamplight shone now and again upon a face grown strangely tranquil9. His thought was so absorbing that when it became necessary to verify the name of a street, he looked at it for a time before he read it; when he came to a crossing, he seemed to have to reassure10 himself by two or three taps, such as a blind man gives, upon the curb11; and, reaching the Underground station, he blinked in the bright circle of light, glanced at his watch, decided12 that he might still indulge himself in darkness, and walked straight on.
And yet the thought was the thought with which he had started. He was still thinking about the people in the house which he had left; but instead of remembering, with whatever accuracy he could, their looks and sayings, he had consciously taken leave of the literal truth. A turn of the street, a firelit room, something monumental in the procession of the lamp-posts, who shall say what accident of light or shape had suddenly changed the prospect13 within his mind, and led him to murmur14 aloud:
"She'll do. . . . Yes, Katharine Hilbery'll do. . . . I'll take Katharine Hilbery."
As soon as he had said this, his pace slackened, his head fell, his eyes became fixed15. The desire to justify16 himself, which had been so urgent, ceased to torment17 him, and, as if released from constraint18, so that they worked without friction19 or bidding, his faculties20 leapt forward and fixed, as a matter of course, upon the form of Katharine Hilbery. It was marvellous how much they found to feed upon, considering the destructive nature of Denham's criticism in her presence. The charm, which he had tried to disown, when under the effect of it, the beauty, the character, the aloofness21, which he had been determined22 not to feel, now possessed23 him wholly; and when, as happened by the nature of things, he had exhausted24 his memory, he went on with his imagination. He was conscious of what he was about, for in thus dwelling25 upon Miss Hilbery's qualities, he showed a kind of method, as if he required this vision of her for a particular purpose. He increased her height, he darkened her hair; but physically27 there was not much to change in her. His most daring liberty was taken with her mind, which, for reasons of his own, he desired to be exalted28 and infallible, and of such independence that it was only in the case of Ralph Denham that it swerved29 from its high, swift flight, but where he was concerned, though fastidious at first, she finally swooped30 from her eminence31 to crown him with her approval. These delicious details, however, were to be worked out in all their ramifications32 at his leisure; the main point was that Katharine Hilbery would do; she would do for weeks, perhaps for months. In taking her he had provided himself with something the lack of which had left a bare place in his mind for a considerable time. He gave a sigh of satisfaction; his consciousness of his actual position somewhere in the neighborhood of Knightsbridge returned to him, and he was soon speeding in the train towards Highgate.
Although thus supported by the knowledge of his new possession of considerable value, he was not proof against the familiar thoughts which the suburban33 streets and the damp shrubs34 growing in front gardens and the absurd names painted in white upon the gates of those gardens suggested to him. His walk was uphill, and his mind dwelt gloomily upon the house which he approached, where he would find six or seven brothers and sisters, a widowed mother, and, probably, some aunt or uncle sitting down to an unpleasant meal under a very bright light. Should he put in force the threat which, two weeks ago, some such gathering35 had wrung36 from him--the terrible threat that if visitors came on Sunday he should dine alone in his room? A glance in the direction of Miss Hilbery determined him to make his stand this very night, and accordingly, having let himself in, having verified the presence of Uncle Joseph by means of a bowler37 hat and a very large umbrella, he gave his orders to the maid, and went upstairs to his room.
He went up a great many flights of stairs, and he noticed, as he had very seldom noticed, how the carpet became steadily38 shabbier, until it ceased altogether, how the walls were discolored, sometimes by cascades39 of damp, and sometimes by the outlines of picture-frames since removed, how the paper flapped loose at the corners, and a great flake40 of plaster had fallen from the ceiling. The room itself was a cheerless one to return to at this inauspicious hour. A flattened41 sofa would, later in the evening, become a bed; one of the tables concealed42 a washing apparatus43; his clothes and boots were disagreeably mixed with books which bore the gilt44 of college arms; and, for decoration, there hung upon the wall photographs of bridges and cathedrals and large, unprepossessing groups of insufficiently45 clothed young men, sitting in rows one above another upon stone steps. There was a look of meanness and shabbiness in the furniture and curtains, and nowhere any sign of luxury or even of a cultivated taste, unless the cheap classics in the book-case were a sign of an effort in that direction. The only object that threw any light upon the character of the room's owner was a large perch46, placed in the window to catch the air and sun, upon which a tame and, apparently47, decrepit48 rook hopped49 dryly from side to side. The bird, encouraged by a scratch behind the ear, settled upon Denham's shoulder. He lit his gas-fire and settled down in gloomy patience to await his dinner. After sitting thus for some minutes a small girl popped her head in to say,
"Mother says, aren't you coming down, Ralph? Uncle Joseph--"
"They're to bring my dinner up here," said Ralph, peremptorily50; whereupon she vanished, leaving the door ajar in her haste to be gone. After Denham had waited some minutes, in the course of which neither he nor the rook took their eyes off the fire, he muttered a curse, ran downstairs, intercepted51 the parlor-maid, and cut himself a slice of bread and cold meat. As he did so, the dining-room door sprang open, a voice exclaimed "Ralph!" but Ralph paid no attention to the voice, and made off upstairs with his plate. He set it down in a chair opposite him, and ate with a ferocity that was due partly to anger and partly to hunger. His mother, then, was determined not to respect his wishes; he was a person of no importance in his own family; he was sent for and treated as a child. He reflected, with a growing sense of injury, that almost every one of his actions since opening the door of his room had been won from the grasp of the family system. By rights, he should have been sitting downstairs in the drawing-room describing his afternoon's adventures, or listening to the afternoon's adventures of other people; the room itself, the gas-fire, the arm-chair--all had been fought for; the wretched bird, with half its feathers out and one leg lamed52 by a cat, had been rescued under protest; but what his family most resented, he reflected, was his wish for privacy. To dine alone, or to sit alone after dinner, was flat rebellion, to be fought with every weapon of underhand stealth or of open appeal. Which did he dislike most--deception or tears? But, at any rate, they could not rob him of his thoughts; they could not make him say where he had been or whom he had seen. That was his own affair; that, indeed, was a step entirely53 in the right direction, and, lighting54 his pipe, and cutting up the remains55 of his meal for the benefit of the rook, Ralph calmed his rather excessive irritation and settled down to think over his prospects56.
This particular afternoon was a step in the right direction, because it was part of his plan to get to know people beyond the family circuit, just as it was part of his plan to learn German this autumn, and to review legal books for Mr. Hilbery's "Critical Review." He had always made plans since he was a small boy; for poverty, and the fact that he was the eldest57 son of a large family, had given him the habit of thinking of spring and summer, autumn and winter, as so many stages in a prolonged campaign. Although he was still under thirty, this forecasting habit had marked two semicircular lines above his eyebrows58, which threatened, at this moment, to crease26 into their wonted shapes. But instead of settling down to think, he rose, took a small piece of cardboard marked in large letters with the word OUT, and hung it upon the handle of his door. This done, he sharpened a pencil, lit a reading-lamp and opened his book. But still he hesitated to take his seat. He scratched the rook, he walked to the window; he parted the curtains, and looked down upon the city which lay, hazily59 luminous60, beneath him. He looked across the vapors61 in the direction of Chelsea; looked fixedly62 for a moment, and then returned to his chair. But the whole thickness of some learned counsel's treatise63 upon Torts did not screen him satisfactorily. Through the pages he saw a drawing- room, very empty and spacious64; he heard low voices, he saw women's figures, he could even smell the scent65 of the cedar66 log which flamed in the grate. His mind relaxed its tension, and seemed to be giving out now what it had taken in unconsciously at the time. He could remember Mr. Fortescue's exact words, and the rolling emphasis with which he delivered them, and he began to repeat what Mr. Fortescue had said, in Mr. Fortescue's own manner, about Manchester. His mind then began to wander about the house, and he wondered whether there were other rooms like the drawing-room, and he thought, inconsequently, how beautiful the bathroom must be, and how leisurely67 it was--the life of these well-kept people, who were, no doubt, still sitting in the same room, only they had changed their clothes, and little Mr. Anning was there, and the aunt who would mind if the glass of her father's picture was broken. Miss Hilbery had changed her dress ("although she's wearing such a pretty one," he heard her mother say), and she was talking to Mr. Anning, who was well over forty, and bald into the bargain, about books. How peaceful and spacious it was; and the peace possessed him so completely that his muscles slackened, his book drooped68 from his hand, and he forgot that the hour of work was wasting minute by minute.
He was roused by a creak upon the stair. With a guilty start he composed himself, frowned and looked intently at the fifty-sixth page of his volume. A step paused outside his door, and he knew that the person, whoever it might be, was considering the placard, and debating whether to honor its decree or not. Certainly, policy advised him to sit still in autocratic silence, for no custom can take root in a family unless every breach69 of it is punished severely70 for the first six months or so. But Ralph was conscious of a distinct wish to be interrupted, and his disappointment was perceptible when he heard the creaking sound rather farther down the stairs, as if his visitor had decided to withdraw. He rose, opened the door with unnecessary abruptness71, and waited on the landing. The person stopped simultaneously72 half a flight downstairs.
"Ralph?" said a voice, inquiringly.
"Joan?"
"I was coming up, but I saw your notice."
"Well, come along in, then." He concealed his desire beneath a tone as grudging73 as he could make it.
Joan came in, but she was careful to show, by standing74 upright with one hand upon the mantelpiece, that she was only there for a definite purpose, which discharged, she would go.
She was older than Ralph by some three or four years. Her face was round but worn, and expressed that tolerant but anxious good humor which is the special attribute of elder sisters in large families. Her pleasant brown eyes resembled Ralph's, save in expression, for whereas he seemed to look straightly and keenly at one object, she appeared to be in the habit of considering everything from many different points of view. This made her appear his elder by more years than existed in fact between them. Her gaze rested for a moment or two upon the rook. She then said, without any preface:
"It's about Charles and Uncle John's offer. . . . Mother's been talking to me. She says she can't afford to pay for him after this term. She says she'll have to ask for an overdraft75 as it is."
"That's simply not true," said Ralph.
"No. I thought not. But she won't believe me when I say it."
Ralph, as if he could foresee the length of this familiar argument, drew up a chair for his sister and sat down himself.
"I'm not interrupting?" she inquired.
Ralph shook his head, and for a time they sat silent. The lines curved themselves in semicircles above their eyes.
"She doesn't understand that one's got to take risks," he observed, finally.
"I believe mother would take risks if she knew that Charles was the sort of boy to profit by it."
"He's got brains, hasn't he?" said Ralph. His tone had taken on that shade of pugnacity76 which suggested to his sister that some personal grievance77 drove him to take the line he did. She wondered what it might be, but at once recalled her mind, and assented78.
"In some ways he's fearfully backward, though, compared with what you were at his age. And he's difficult at home, too. He makes Molly slave for him."
Ralph made a sound which belittled79 this particular argument. It was plain to Joan that she had struck one of her brother's perverse80 moods, and he was going to oppose whatever his mother said. He called her "she," which was a proof of it. She sighed involuntarily, and the sigh annoyed Ralph, and he exclaimed with irritation:
"It's pretty hard lines to stick a boy into an office at seventeen!"
"Nobody WANTS to stick him into an office," she said.
She, too, was becoming annoyed. She had spent the whole of the afternoon discussing wearisome details of education and expense with her mother, and she had come to her brother for help, encouraged, rather irrationally81, to expect help by the fact that he had been out somewhere, she didn't know and didn't mean to ask where, all the afternoon.
Ralph was fond of his sister, and her irritation made him think how unfair it was that all these burdens should be laid on her shoulders.
"The truth is," he observed gloomily, "that I ought to have accepted Uncle John's offer. I should have been making six hundred a year by this time."
"I don't think that for a moment," Joan replied quickly, repenting82 of her annoyance83. "The question, to my mind, is, whether we couldn't cut down our expenses in some way."
"A smaller house?"
"Fewer servants, perhaps."
Neither brother nor sister spoke84 with much conviction, and after reflecting for a moment what these proposed reforms in a strictly85 economical household meant, Ralph announced very decidedly:
"It's out of the question."
It was out of the question that she should put any more household work upon herself. No, the hardship must fall on him, for he was determined that his family should have as many chances of distinguishing themselves as other families had--as the Hilberys had, for example. He believed secretly and rather defiantly86, for it was a fact not capable of proof, that there was something very remarkable87 about his family.
"If mother won't run risks--"
"You really can't expect her to sell out again."
"She ought to look upon it as an investment; but if she won't, we must find some other way, that's all."
A threat was contained in this sentence, and Joan knew, without asking, what the threat was. In the course of his professional life, which now extended over six or seven years, Ralph had saved, perhaps, three or four hundred pounds. Considering the sacrifices he had made in order to put by this sum it always amazed Joan to find that he used it to gamble with, buying shares and selling them again, increasing it sometimes, sometimes diminishing it, and always running the risk of losing every penny of it in a day's disaster. But although she wondered, she could not help loving him the better for his odd combination of Spartan88 self-control and what appeared to her romantic and childish folly89. Ralph interested her more than any one else in the world, and she often broke off in the middle of one of these economic discussions, in spite of their gravity, to consider some fresh aspect of his character.
"I think you'd be foolish to risk your money on poor old Charles," she observed. "Fond as I am of him, he doesn't seem to me exactly brilliant. . . . Besides, why should you be sacrificed?"
"My dear Joan," Ralph exclaimed, stretching himself out with a gesture of impatience90, "don't you see that we've all got to be sacrificed? What's the use of denying it? What's the use of struggling against it? So it always has been, so it always will be. We've got no money and we never shall have any money. We shall just turn round in the mill every day of our lives until we drop and die, worn out, as most people do, when one comes to think of it."
Joan looked at him, opened her lips as if to speak, and closed them again. Then she said, very tentatively:
"Aren't you happy, Ralph?"
"No. Are you? Perhaps I'm as happy as most people, though. God knows whether I'm happy or not. What is happiness?"
He glanced with half a smile, in spite of his gloomy irritation, at his sister. She looked, as usual, as if she were weighing one thing with another, and balancing them together before she made up her mind.
"Happiness," she remarked at length enigmatically, rather as if she were sampling the word, and then she paused. She paused for a considerable space, as if she were considering happiness in all its bearings. "Hilda was here to-day," she suddenly resumed, as if they had never mentioned happiness. "She brought Bobbie--he's a fine boy now." Ralph observed, with an amusement that had a tinge91 of irony92 in it, that she was now going to sidle away quickly from this dangerous approach to intimacy93 on to topics of general and family interest. Nevertheless, he reflected, she was the only one of his family with whom he found it possible to discuss happiness, although he might very well have discussed happiness with Miss Hilbery at their first meeting. He looked critically at Joan, and wished that she did not look so provincial94 or suburban in her high green dress with the faded trimming, so patient, and almost resigned. He began to wish to tell her about the Hilberys in order to abuse them, for in the miniature battle which so often rages between two quickly following impressions of life, the life of the Hilberys was getting the better of the life of the Denhams in his mind, and he wanted to assure himself that there was some quality in which Joan infinitely95 surpassed Miss Hilbery. He should have felt that his own sister was more original, and had greater vitality96 than Miss Hilbery had; but his main impression of Katharine now was of a person of great vitality and composure; and at the moment he could not perceive what poor dear Joan had gained from the fact that she was the granddaughter of a man who kept a shop, and herself earned her own living. The infinite dreariness97 and sordidness98 of their life oppressed him in spite of his fundamental belief that, as a family, they were somehow remarkable.
"Shall you talk to mother?" Joan inquired. "Because, you see, the thing's got to be settled, one way or another. Charles must write to Uncle John if he's going there."
Ralph sighed impatiently.
"I suppose it doesn't much matter either way," he exclaimed. "He's doomed99 to misery100 in the long run."
A slight flush came into Joan's cheek.
"You know you're talking nonsense," she said. "It doesn't hurt any one to have to earn their own living. I'm very glad I have to earn mine."
Ralph was pleased that she should feel this, and wished her to continue, but he went on, perversely101 enough.
"Isn't that only because you've forgotten how to enjoy yourself? You never have time for anything decent--"
"As for instance?"
"Well, going for walks, or music, or books, or seeing interesting people. You never do anything that's really worth doing any more than I do."
"I always think you could make this room much nicer, if you liked," she observed.
"What does it matter what sort of room I have when I'm forced to spend all the best years of my life drawing up deeds in an office?"
"You said two days ago that you found the law so interesting."
"So it is if one could afford to know anything about it."
("That's Herbert only just going to bed now," Joan interposed, as a door on the landing slammed vigorously. "And then he won't get up in the morning.")
Ralph looked at the ceiling, and shut his lips closely together. Why, he wondered, could Joan never for one moment detach her mind from the details of domestic life? It seemed to him that she was getting more and more enmeshed in them, and capable of shorter and less frequent flights into the outer world, and yet she was only thirty-three.
"D'you ever pay calls now?" he asked abruptly102.
"I don't often have the time. Why do you ask?"
"It might be a good thing, to get to know new people, that's all."
"Poor Ralph!" said Joan suddenly, with a smile. "You think your sister's getting very old and very dull--that's it, isn't it?"
"I don't think anything of the kind," he said stoutly103, but he flushed. "But you lead a dog's life, Joan. When you're not working in an office, you're worrying over the rest of us. And I'm not much good to you, I'm afraid."
Joan rose, and stood for a moment warming her hands, and, apparently, meditating104 as to whether she should say anything more or not. A feeling of great intimacy united the brother and sister, and the semicircular lines above their eyebrows disappeared. No, there was nothing more to be said on either side. Joan brushed her brother's head with her hand as she passed him, murmured good night, and left the room. For some minutes after she had gone Ralph lay quiescent105, resting his head on his hand, but gradually his eyes filled with thought, and the line reappeared on his brow, as the pleasant impression of companionship and ancient sympathy waned106, and he was left to think on alone.
After a time he opened his book, and read on steadily, glancing once or twice at his watch, as if he had set himself a task to be accomplished107 in a certain measure of time. Now and then he heard voices in the house, and the closing of bedroom doors, which showed that the building, at the top of which he sat, was inhabited in every one of its cells. When midnight struck, Ralph shut his book, and with a candle in his hand, descended108 to the ground floor, to ascertain109 that all lights were extinct and all doors locked. It was a threadbare, well-worn house that he thus examined, as if the inmates110 had grazed down all luxuriance and plenty to the verge111 of decency112; and in the night, bereft113 of life, bare places and ancient blemishes114 were unpleasantly visible. Katharine Hilbery, he thought, would condemn115 it off-hand.
收听单词发音 |
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chafed
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| v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的过去式 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
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ironical
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| adj.讽刺的，冷嘲的 | |
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expressiveness
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| n.富有表现力 | |
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irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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assuaged
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| v.减轻( assuage的过去式和过去分词 )；缓和；平息；使安静 | |
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assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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illustrating
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| 给…加插图( illustrate的现在分词 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明 | |
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tranquil
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| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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curb
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| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
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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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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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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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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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justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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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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friction
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| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
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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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aloofness
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| 超然态度 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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crease
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| n.折缝，褶痕，皱褶；v.(使)起皱 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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swerved
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| v.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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swooped
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| 俯冲，猛冲( swoop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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ramifications
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| n.结果，后果( ramification的名词复数 ) | |
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suburban
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| adj.城郊的，在郊区的 | |
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shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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bowler
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| n.打保龄球的人，（板球的）投（球）手 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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cascades
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| 倾泻( cascade的名词复数 )； 小瀑布（尤指一连串瀑布中的一支）； 瀑布状物； 倾泻（或涌出）的东西 | |
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40
flake
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| v.使成薄片；雪片般落下；n.薄片 | |
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41
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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42
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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43
apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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44
gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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45
insufficiently
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| adv.不够地，不能胜任地 | |
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46
perch
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| n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于 | |
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47
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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48
decrepit
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| adj.衰老的，破旧的 | |
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49
hopped
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| 跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花 | |
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50
peremptorily
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| adv.紧急地，不容分说地，专横地 | |
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51
intercepted
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| 拦截( intercept的过去式和过去分词 )； 截住； 截击； 拦阻 | |
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52
lamed
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| 希伯莱语第十二个字母 | |
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53
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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54
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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55
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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56
prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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57
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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58
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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59
hazily
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| ad. vaguely, not clear | |
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luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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vapors
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| n.水汽，水蒸气，无实质之物( vapor的名词复数 )；自夸者；幻想 [药]吸入剂 [古]忧郁（症）v.自夸，（使）蒸发( vapor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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62
fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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66
cedar
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| n.雪松，香柏(木) | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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abruptness
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| n. 突然，唐突 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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grudging
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| adj.勉强的，吝啬的 | |
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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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overdraft
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| n.透支，透支额 | |
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76
pugnacity
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| n.好斗，好战 | |
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77
grievance
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| n.怨愤，气恼，委屈 | |
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assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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belittled
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| 使显得微小，轻视，贬低( belittle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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perverse
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| adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的 | |
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81
irrationally
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| ad.不理性地 | |
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82
repenting
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| 对（自己的所为）感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的现在分词 ) | |
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83
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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84
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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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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86
defiantly
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| adv.挑战地，大胆对抗地 | |
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87
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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88
spartan
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| adj.简朴的，刻苦的；n.斯巴达；斯巴达式的人 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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90
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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91
tinge
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| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
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92
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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93
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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94
provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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95
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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96
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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97
dreariness
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| 沉寂，可怕，凄凉 | |
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98
sordidness
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| n.肮脏；污秽；卑鄙；可耻 | |
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99
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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100
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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101
perversely
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| adv. 倔强地 | |
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102
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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103
stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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104
meditating
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| a.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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105
quiescent
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| adj.静止的，不活动的，寂静的 | |
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106
waned
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| v.衰落( wane的过去式和过去分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
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107
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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108
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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109
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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110
inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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111
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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112
decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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113
bereft
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| adj.被剥夺的 | |
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114
blemishes
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| n.（身体的）瘢点( blemish的名词复数 )；伤疤；瑕疵；污点 | |
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115
condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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