As became persons of their rising consequence, the Gormers were engaged in building a country-house on Long Island; and it was a part of Miss Bart's duty to attend her hostess on frequent visits of inspection1 to the new estate. There, while Mrs. Gormer plunged2 into problems of lighting3 and sanitation4, Lily had leisure to wander, in the bright autumn air, along the tree-fringed bay to which the land declined. Little as she was addicted5 to solitude6, there had come to be moments when it seemed a welcome escape from the empty noises of her life. She was weary of being swept passively along a current of pleasure and business in which she had no share; weary of seeing other people pursue amusement and squander7 money, while she felt herself of no more account among them than an expensive toy in the hands of a spoiled child.
It was in this frame of mind that, striking back from the shore one morning into the windings8 of an unfamiliar9 lane, she came suddenly upon the figure of George Dorset. The Dorset place was in the immediate10 neighbourhood of the Gormers' newly-acquired estate, and in her motor-flights thither11 with Mrs. Gormer, Lily had caught one or two passing glimpses of the couple; but they moved in so different an orbit that she had not considered the possibility of a direct encounter.
Dorset, swinging along with bent12 head, in moody13 abstraction, did not see Miss Bart till he was close upon her; but the sight, instead of bringing him to a halt, as she had half-expected, sent him toward her with an eagerness which found expression in his opening words.
"Miss Bart!--You'll shake hands, won't you? I've been hoping to meet you--I should have written to you if I'd dared." His face, with its tossed red hair and straggling moustache, had a driven uneasy look, as though life had become an unceasing race between himself and the thoughts at his heels.
The look drew a word of compassionate14 greeting from Lily, and he pressed on, as if encouraged by her tone: "I wanted to apologize--to ask you to forgive me for the miserable15 part I played---"
She checked him with a quick gesture. "Don't let us speak of it: I was very sorry for you," she said, with a tinge16 of disdain17 which, as she instantly perceived, was not lost on him.
He flushed to his haggard eyes, flushed so cruelly that she repented18 the thrust. "You might well be; you don't know--you must let me explain. I was deceived: abominably19 deceived---"
"I am still more sorry for you, then," she interposed, without irony20; "but you must see that I am not exactly the person with whom the subject can be discussed."
He met this with a look of genuine wonder. "Why not? Isn't it to you, of all people, that I owe an explanation---"
"No explanation is necessary: the situation was perfectly21 clear to me."
"Ah---" he murmured, his head drooping22 again, and his irresolute23 hand switching at the underbrush along the lane. But as Lily made a movement to pass on, he broke out with fresh vehemence25: "Miss Bart, for God's sake don't turn from me! We used to be good friends--you were always kind to me--and you don't know how I need a friend now."
The lamentable26 weakness of the words roused a motion of pity in Lily's breast. She too needed friends--she had tasted the pang27 of loneliness; and her resentment28 of Bertha Dorset's cruelty softened29 her heart to the poor wretch31 who was after all the chief of Bertha's victims.
"I still wish to be kind; I feel no ill-will toward you," she said. "But you must understand that after what has happened we can't be friends again--we can't see each other."
"Ah, you ARE kind--you're merciful--you always were!" He fixed32 his miserable gaze on her. "But why can't we be friends--why not, when I've repented in dust and ashes? Isn't it hard that you should condemn33 me to suffer for the falseness, the treachery of others? I was punished enough at the time--is there to be no respite34 for me?"
"I should have thought you had found complete respite in the reconciliation35 which was effected at my expense," Lily began, with renewed impatience36; but he broke in imploringly37: "Don't put it in that way--when that's been the worst of my punishment. My God! what could I do--wasn't I powerless? You were singled out as a sacrifice: any word I might have said would have been turned against you---"
"I have told you I don't blame you; all I ask you to understand is that, after the use Bertha chose to make of me--after all that her behaviour has since implied--it's impossible that you and I should meet."
He continued to stand before her, in his dogged weakness. "Is it--need it be? Mightn't there be circumstances---?" he checked himself, slashing38 at the wayside weeds in a wider radius39. Then he began again: "Miss Bart, listen--give me a minute. If we're not to meet again, at least let me have a hearing now. You say we can't be friends after--after what has happened. But can't I at least appeal to your pity? Can't I move you if I ask you to think of me as a prisoner--a prisoner you alone can set free?"
Lily's inward start betrayed itself in a quick blush: was it possible that this was really the sense of Carry Fisher's adumbrations?
"I can't see how I can possibly be of any help to you," she murmured, drawing back a little from the mounting excitement of his look.
Her tone seemed to sober him, as it had so often done in his stormiest moments. The stubborn lines of his face relaxed, and he said, with an abrupt40 drop to docility41: "You WOULD see, if you'd be as merciful as you used to be: and heaven knows I've never needed it more!"
She paused a moment, moved in spite of herself by this reminder42 of her influence over him. Her fibres had been softened by suffering, and the sudden glimpse into his mocked and broken life disarmed43 her contempt for his weakness.
"I am very sorry for you--I would help you willingly; but you must have other friends, other advisers44."
"I never had a friend like you," he answered simply. "And besides--can't you see?--you're the only person"--his voice dropped to a whisper--"the only person who knows."
Again she felt her colour change; again her heart rose in precipitate45 throbs46 to meet what she felt was coming. He lifted his eyes to her entreatingly47. "You do see, don't you? You understand? I'm desperate--I'm at the end of my tether. I want to be free, and you can free me. I know you can. You don't want to keep me bound fast in hell, do you? You can't want to take such a vengeance48 as that. You were always kind--your eyes are kind now. You say you're sorry for me. Well, it rests with you to show it; and heaven knows there's nothing to keep you back. You understand, of course--there wouldn't be a hint of publicity--not a sound or a syllable49 to connect you with the thing. It would never come to that, you know: all I need is to be able to say definitely: 'I know this--and this--and this'--and the fight would drop, and the way be cleared, and the whole abominable50 business swept out of sight in a second."
He spoke51 pantingly, like a tired runner, with breaks of exhaustion52 between his words; and through the breaks she caught, as through the shifting rents of a fog, great golden vistas54 of peace and safety. For there was no mistaking the definite intention behind his vague appeal; she could have filled up the blanks without the help of Mrs. Fisher's insinuations. Here was a man who turned to her in the extremity55 of his loneliness and his humiliation56: if she came to him at such a moment he would be hers with all the force of his deluded57 faith. And the power to make him so lay in her hand--lay there in a completeness he could not even remotely conjecture58. Revenge and rehabilitation59 might be hers at a stroke--there was something dazzling in the completeness of the opportunity.
She stood silent, gazing away from him down the autumnal stretch of the deserted60 lane. And suddenly fear possessed61 her--fear of herself, and of the terrible force of the temptation. All her past weaknesses were like so many eager accomplices62 drawing her toward the path their feet had already smoothed. She turned quickly, and held out her hand to Dorset.
"Goodbye--I'm sorry; there's nothing in the world that I can do."
"Nothing? Ah, don't say that," he cried; "say what's true: that you abandon me like the others. You, the only creature who could have saved me!"
"Goodbye--goodbye," she repeated hurriedly; and as she moved away she heard him cry out on a last note of entreaty63: "At least you'll let me see you once more?"
Lily, on regaining64 the Gormer grounds, struck rapidly across the lawn toward the unfinished house, where she fancied that her hostess might be speculating, not too resignedly, on the cause of her delay; for, like many unpunctual persons, Mrs. Gormer disliked to be kept waiting.
As Miss Bart reached the avenue, however, she saw a smart phaeton with a high-stepping pair disappear behind the shrubbery in the direction of the gate; and on the doorstep stood Mrs. Gormer, with a glow of retrospective pleasure on her open countenance65. At sight of Lily the glow deepened to an embarrassed red, and she said with a slight laugh: "Did you see my visitor? Oh, I thought you came back by the avenue. It was Mrs. George Dorset--she said she'd dropped in to make a neighbourly call."
Lily met the announcement with her usual composure, though her experience of Bertha's idiosyncrasies would not have led her to include the neighbourly instinct among them; and Mrs. Gormer, relieved to see that she gave no sign of surprise, went on with a deprecating laugh: "Of course what really brought her was curiosity--she made me take her all over the house. But no one could have been nicer--no airs, you know, and so good-natured: I can quite see why people think her so fascinating."
This surprising event, coinciding too completely with her meeting with Dorset to be regarded as contingent66 upon it, had yet immediately struck Lily with a vague sense of foreboding. It was not in Bertha's habits to be neighbourly, much less to make advances to any one outside the immediate circle of her affinities67. She had always consistently ignored the world of outer aspirants68, or had recognized its individual members only when prompted by motives69 of self-interest; and the very capriciousness of her condescensions had, as Lily was aware, given them special value in the eyes of the persons she distinguished70. Lily saw this now in Mrs. Gormer's unconcealable complacency, and in the happy irrelevance71 with which, for the next day or two, she quoted Bertha's opinions and speculated on the origin of her gown. All the secret ambitions which Mrs. Gormer's native indolence, and the attitude of her companions, kept in habitual72 abeyance73, were now germinating74 afresh in the glow of Bertha's advances; and whatever the cause of the latter, Lily saw that, if they were followed up, they were likely to have a disturbing effect upon her own future.
She had arranged to break the length of her stay with her new friends by one or two visits to other acquaintances as recent; and on her return from this somewhat depressing excursion she was immediately conscious that Mrs. Dorset's influence was still in the air. There had been another exchange of visits, a tea at a country-club, an encounter at a hunt ball; there was even a rumour75 of an approaching dinner, which Mattie Gormer, with an unnatural76 effort at discretion77, tried to smuggle78 out of the conversation whenever Miss Bart took part in it.
The latter had already planned to return to town after a farewell Sunday with her friends; and, with Gerty Farish's aid, had discovered a small private hotel where she might establish herself for the winter. The hotel being on the edge of a fashionable neighbourhood, the price of the few square feet she was to occupy was considerably79 in excess of her means; but she found a justification80 for her dislike of poorer quarters in the argument that, at this particular juncture81, it was of the utmost importance to keep up a show of prosperity. In reality, it was impossible for her, while she had the means to pay her way for a week ahead, to lapse82 into a form of existence like Gerty Farish's. She had never been so near the brink83 of insolvency84; but she could at least manage to meet her weekly hotel bill, and having settled the heaviest of her previous debts out of the money she had received from Trenor, she had a still fair margin85 of credit to go upon. The situation, however, was not agreeable enough to lull86 her to complete unconsciousness of its insecurity. Her rooms, with their cramped87 outlook down a sallow vista53 of brick walls and fire-escapes, her lonely meals in the dark restaurant with its surcharged ceiling and haunting smell of coffee--all these material discomforts88, which were yet to be accounted as so many privileges soon to be withdrawn89, kept constantly before her the disadvantages of her state; and her mind reverted91 the more insistently93 to Mrs. Fisher's counsels. Beat about the question as she would, she knew the outcome of it was that she must try to marry Rosedale; and in this conviction she was fortified94 by an unexpected visit from George Dorset.
She found him, on the first Sunday after her return to town, pacing her narrow sitting-room95 to the imminent96 peril97 of the few knick-knacks with which she had tried to disguise its plush exuberances; but the sight of her seemed to quiet him, and he said meekly98 that he hadn't come to bother her--that he asked only to be allowed to sit for half an hour and talk of anything she liked. In reality, as she knew, he had but one subject: himself and his wretchedness; and it was the need of her sympathy that had drawn90 him back. But he began with a pretence99 of questioning her about herself, and as she replied, she saw that, for the first time, a faint realization100 of her plight101 penetrated102 the dense103 surface of his self-absorption. Was it possible that her old beast of an aunt had actually cut her off? That she was living alone like this because there was no one else for her to go to, and that she really hadn't more than enough to keep alive on till the wretched little legacy104 was paid? The fibres of sympathy were nearly atrophied105 in him, but he was suffering so intensely that he had a faint glimpse of what other sufferings might mean--and, as she perceived, an almost simultaneous perception of the way in which her particular misfortunes might serve him.
When at length she dismissed him, on the pretext106 that she must dress for dinner, he lingered entreatingly on the threshold to blurt107 out: "It's been such a comfort--do say you'll let me see you again--" But to this direct appeal it was impossible to give an assent108; and she said with friendly decisiveness: "I'm sorry--but you know why I can't."
He coloured to the eyes, pushed the door shut, and stood before her embarrassed but insistent92. "I know how you might, if you would--if things were different--and it lies with you to make them so. It's just a word to say, and you put me out of my misery109!"
Their eyes met, and for a second she trembled again with the nearness of the temptation. "You're mistaken; I know nothing; I saw nothing," she exclaimed, striving, by sheer force of reiteration110, to build a barrier between herself and her peril; and as he turned away, groaning111 out "You sacrifice us both," she continued to repeat, as if it were a charm: "I know nothing--absolutely nothing."
Lily had seen little of Rosedale since her illuminating112 talk with Mrs. Fisher, but on the two or three occasions when they had met she was conscious of having distinctly advanced in his favour. There could be no doubt that he admired her as much as ever, and she believed it rested with herself to raise his admiration113 to the point where it should bear down the lingering counsels of expediency114. The task was not an easy one; but neither was it easy, in her long sleepless115 nights, to face the thought of what George Dorset was so clearly ready to offer. Baseness for baseness, she hated the other least: there were even moments when a marriage with Rosedale seemed the only honourable116 solution of her difficulties. She did not indeed let her imagination range beyond the day of plighting117: after that everything faded into a haze118 of material well-being119, in which the personality of her benefactor120 remained mercifully vague. She had learned, in her long vigils, that there were certain things not good to think of, certain midnight images that must at any cost be exorcised--and one of these was the image of herself as Rosedale's wife.
Carry Fisher, on the strength, as she frankly121 owned, of the Brys' Newport success, had taken for the autumn months a small house at Tuxedo122; and thither Lily was bound on the Sunday after Dorset's visit. Though it was nearly dinner-time when she arrived, her hostess was still out, and the firelit quiet of the small silent house descended123 on her spirit with a sense of peace and familiarity. It may be doubted if such an emotion had ever before been evoked124 by Carry Fisher's surroundings; but, contrasted to the world in which Lily had lately lived, there was an air of repose125 and stability in the very placing of the furniture, and in the quiet competence126 of the parlour-maid who led her up to her room. Mrs. Fisher's unconventionality was, after all, a merely superficial divergence127 from an inherited social creed128, while the manners of the Gormer circle represented their first attempt to formulate129 such a creed for themselves.
It was the first time since her return from Europe that Lily had found herself in a congenial atmosphere, and the stirring of familiar associations had almost prepared her, as she descended the stairs before dinner, to enter upon a group of her old acquaintances. But this expectation was instantly checked by the reflection that the friends who remained loyal were precisely130 those who would be least willing to expose her to such encounters; and it was hardly with surprise that she found, instead, Mr. Rosedale kneeling domestically on the drawing-room hearth131 before his hostess's little girl.
Rosedale in the paternal132 role was hardly a figure to soften30 Lily; yet she could not but notice a quality of homely133 goodness in his advances to the child. They were not, at any rate, the premeditated and perfunctory endearments134 of the guest under his hostess's eye, for he and the little girl had the room to themselves; and something in his attitude made him seem a simple and kindly135 being compared to the small critical creature who endured his homage136. Yes, he would be kind--Lily, from the threshold, had time to feel--kind in his gross, unscrupulous, rapacious137 way, the way of the predatory creature with his mate. She had but a moment in which to consider whether this glimpse of the fireside man mitigated138 her repugnance139, or gave it, rather, a more concrete and intimate form; for at sight of her he was immediately on his feet again, the florid and dominant140 Rosedale of Mattie Gormer's drawing-room.
It was no surprise to Lily to find that he had been selected as her only fellow-guest. Though she and her hostess had not met since the latter's tentative discussion of her future, Lily knew that the acuteness which enabled Mrs. Fisher to lay a safe and pleasant course through a world of antagonistic141 forces was not infrequently exercised for the benefit of her friends. It was, in fact, characteristic of Carry that, while she actively142 gleaned143 her own stores from the fields of affluence144, her real sympathies were on the other side--with the unlucky, the unpopular, the unsuccessful, with all her hungry fellow-toilers in the shorn stubble of success.
Mrs. Fisher's experience guarded her against the mistake of exposing Lily, for the first evening, to the unmitigated impression of Rosedale's personality. Kate Corby and two or three men dropped in to dinner, and Lily, alive to every detail of her friend's method, saw that such opportunities as had been contrived145 for her were to be deferred146 till she had, as it were, gained courage to make effectual use of them. She had a sense of acquiescing147 in this plan with the passiveness of a sufferer resigned to the surgeon's touch; and this feeling of almost lethargic148 helplessness continued when, after the departure of the guests, Mrs. Fisher followed her upstairs.
"May I come in and smoke a cigarette over your fire? If we talk in my room we shall disturb the child." Mrs. Fisher looked about her with the eye of the solicitous149 hostess. "I hope you've managed to make yourself comfortable, dear? Isn't it a jolly little house? It's such a blessing150 to have a few quiet weeks with the baby."
Carry, in her rare moments of prosperity, became so expansively maternal151 that Miss Bart sometimes wondered whether, if she could ever get time and money enough, she would not end by devoting them both to her daughter.
"It's a well-earned rest: I'll say that for myself," she continued, sinking down with a sigh of content on the pillowed lounge near the fire. "Louisa Bry is a stern task-master: I often used to wish myself back with the Gormers. Talk of love making people jealous and suspicious--it's nothing to social ambition! Louisa used to lie awake at night wondering whether the women who called on us called on ME because I was with her, or on HER because she was with me; and she was always laying traps to find out what I thought. Of course I had to disown my oldest friends, rather than let her suspect she owed me the chance of making a single acquaintance--when, all the while, that was what she had me there for, and what she wrote me a handsome cheque for when the season was over!"
Mrs. Fisher was not a woman who talked of herself without cause, and the practice of direct speech, far from precluding152 in her an occasional resort to circuitous153 methods, served rather, at crucial moments, the purpose of the juggler's chatter154 while he shifts the contents of his sleeves. Through the haze of her cigarette smoke she continued to gaze meditatively155 at Miss Bart, who, having dismissed her maid, sat before the toilet-table shaking out over her shoulders the loosened undulations of her hair.
"Your hair's wonderful, Lily. Thinner--? What does that matter, when it's so light and alive? So many women's worries seem to go straight to their hair--but yours looks as if there had never been an anxious thought under it. I never saw you look better than you did this evening. Mattie Gormer told me that Morpeth wanted to paint you--why don't you let him?"
Miss Bart's immediate answer was to address a critical glance to the reflection of the countenance under discussion. Then she said, with a slight touch of irritation156: "I don't care to accept a portrait from Paul Morpeth."
Mrs. Fisher mused157. "N--no. And just now, especially--well, he can do you after you're married." She waited a moment, and then went on: "By the way, I had a visit from Mattie the other day. She turned up here last Sunday--and with Bertha Dorset, of all people in the world!"
She paused again to measure the effect of this announcement on her hearer, but the brush in Miss Bart's lifted hand maintained its unwavering stroke from brow to nape.
"I never was more astonished," Mrs. Fisher pursued. "I don't know two women less predestined to intimacy--from Bertha's standpoint, that is; for of course poor Mattie thinks it natural enough that she should be singled out--I've no doubt the rabbit always thinks it is fascinating the anaconda. Well, you know I've always told you that Mattie secretly longed to bore herself with the really fashionable; and now that the chance has come, I see that she's capable of sacrificing all her old friends to it."
Lily laid aside her brush and turned a penetrating158 glance upon her friend. "Including ME?" she suggested.
"Ah, my dear," murmured Mrs. Fisher, rising to push back a log from the hearth.
"That's what Bertha means, isn't it?" Miss Bart went on steadily159. "For of course she always means something; and before I left Long Island I saw that she was beginning to lay her toils160 for Mattie."
Mrs. Fisher sighed evasively. "She has her fast now, at any rate. To think of that loud independence of Mattie's being only a subtler form of snobbishness161! Bertha can already make her believe anything she pleases--and I'm afraid she's begun, my poor child, by insinuating162 horrors about you."
Lily flushed under the shadow of her drooping hair. "The world is too vile," she murmured, averting163 herself from Mrs. Fisher's anxious scrutiny164.
"It's not a pretty place; and the only way to keep a footing in it is to fight it on its own terms--and above all, my dear, not alone!" Mrs. Fisher gathered up her floating implications in a resolute24 grasp. "You've told me so little that I can only guess what has been happening; but in the rush we all live in there's no time to keep on hating any one without a cause, and if Bertha is still nasty enough to want to injure you with other people it must be because she's still afraid of you. From her standpoint there's only one reason for being afraid of you; and my own idea is that, if you want to punish her, you hold the means in your hand. I believe you can marry George Dorset tomorrow; but if you don't care for that particular form of retaliation165, the only thing to save you from Bertha is to marry somebody else."
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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sanitation
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| n.公共卫生，环境卫生，卫生设备 | |
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addicted
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| adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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squander
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| v.浪费，挥霍 | |
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windings
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| （道路、河流等）蜿蜒的，弯曲的( winding的名词复数 )； 缠绕( wind的现在分词 )； 卷绕； 转动（把手） | |
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unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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moody
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| adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的 | |
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compassionate
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| adj.有同情心的，表示同情的 | |
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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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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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disdain
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repented
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abominably
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| adv. 可恶地，可恨地，恶劣地 | |
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irony
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perfectly
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drooping
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irresolute
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resolute
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vehemence
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lamentable
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pang
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resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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soften
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wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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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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condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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34
respite
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| n.休息，中止，暂缓 | |
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35
reconciliation
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| n.和解，和谐，一致 | |
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36
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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37
imploringly
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| adv. 恳求地, 哀求地 | |
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38
slashing
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| adj.尖锐的；苛刻的；鲜明的；乱砍的v.挥砍( slash的现在分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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39
radius
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| n.半径，半径范围；有效航程，范围，界限 | |
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40
abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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41
docility
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| n.容易教，易驾驶，驯服 | |
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42
reminder
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| n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示 | |
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43
disarmed
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| v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒 | |
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44
advisers
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| 顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授 | |
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45
precipitate
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| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
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46
throbs
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| 体内的跳动( throb的名词复数 ) | |
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47
entreatingly
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| 哀求地，乞求地 | |
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48
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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49
syllable
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| n.音节；vt.分音节 | |
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50
abominable
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| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
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51
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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52
exhaustion
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|
| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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53
vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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54
vistas
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| 长条形景色( vista的名词复数 )； 回顾； 展望； （未来可能发生的）一系列情景 | |
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55
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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56
humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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57
deluded
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| v.欺骗，哄骗( delude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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58
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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59
rehabilitation
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| n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位 | |
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60
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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61
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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62
accomplices
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| 从犯，帮凶，同谋( accomplice的名词复数 ) | |
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63
entreaty
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| n.恳求，哀求 | |
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64
regaining
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| 复得( regain的现在分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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65
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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66
contingent
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| adj.视条件而定的；n.一组，代表团，分遣队 | |
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67
affinities
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| n.密切关系( affinity的名词复数 )；亲近；（生性）喜爱；类同 | |
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68
aspirants
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| n.有志向或渴望获得…的人( aspirant的名词复数 )v.渴望的，有抱负的，追求名誉或地位的( aspirant的第三人称单数 )；有志向或渴望获得…的人 | |
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69
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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70
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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71
irrelevance
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| n.无关紧要；不相关；不相关的事物 | |
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72
habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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73
abeyance
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| n.搁置，缓办，中止，产权未定 | |
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74
germinating
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| n.& adj.发芽（的）v.（使）发芽( germinate的现在分词 ) | |
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75
rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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76
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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77
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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78
smuggle
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| vt.私运；vi.走私 | |
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79
considerably
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|
| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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80
justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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81
juncture
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| n.时刻，关键时刻，紧要关头 | |
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82
lapse
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|
| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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83
brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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84
insolvency
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| n.无力偿付，破产 | |
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85
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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86
lull
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| v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇 | |
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87
cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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88
discomforts
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|
| n.不舒适( discomfort的名词复数 )；不愉快，苦恼 | |
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89
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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90
drawn
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|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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91
reverted
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| 恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
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92
insistent
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| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
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93
insistently
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| ad.坚持地 | |
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94
fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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95
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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96
imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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97
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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98
meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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99
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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100
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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101
plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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102
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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103
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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104
legacy
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| n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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105
atrophied
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|
| adj.萎缩的，衰退的v.（使）萎缩，（使）虚脱，（使）衰退( atrophy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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106
pretext
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|
| n.借口，托词 | |
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107
blurt
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| vt.突然说出，脱口说出 | |
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108
assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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109
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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110
reiteration
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| n. 重覆, 反覆, 重说 | |
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111
groaning
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| adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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112
illuminating
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| a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的 | |
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113
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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114
expediency
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| n.适宜；方便；合算；利己 | |
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115
sleepless
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|
| adj.不睡眠的，睡不著的，不休息的 | |
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116
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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117
plighting
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| vt.保证，约定（plight的现在分词形式） | |
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118
haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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119
well-being
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| n.安康，安乐，幸福 | |
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120
benefactor
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| n. 恩人，行善的人，捐助人 | |
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121
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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122
tuxedo
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| n.礼服，无尾礼服 | |
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123
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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124
evoked
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| [医]诱发的 | |
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125
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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126
competence
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| n.能力，胜任，称职 | |
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127
divergence
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| n.分歧，岔开 | |
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128
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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129
formulate
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| v.用公式表示；规划；设计；系统地阐述 | |
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130
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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131
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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132
paternal
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| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
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133
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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134
endearments
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| n.表示爱慕的话语，亲热的表示( endearment的名词复数 ) | |
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135
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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136
homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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137
rapacious
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| adj.贪婪的，强夺的 | |
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138
mitigated
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| v.减轻，缓和( mitigate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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139
repugnance
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| n.嫌恶 | |
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140
dominant
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|
| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
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141
antagonistic
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| adj.敌对的 | |
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142
actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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143
gleaned
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| v.一点点地收集（资料、事实）( glean的过去式和过去分词 )；（收割后）拾穗 | |
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144
affluence
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| n.充裕，富足 | |
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145
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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146
deferred
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| adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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147
acquiescing
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| v.默认，默许( acquiesce的现在分词 ) | |
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148
lethargic
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| adj.昏睡的，懒洋洋的 | |
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149
solicitous
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| adj.热切的，挂念的 | |
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150
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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151
maternal
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| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
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152
precluding
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| v.阻止( preclude的现在分词 )；排除；妨碍；使…行不通 | |
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153
circuitous
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| adj.迂回的路的，迂曲的，绕行的 | |
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154
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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155
meditatively
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| adv.冥想地 | |
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156
irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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157
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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158
penetrating
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|
| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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159
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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160
toils
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| 网 | |
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161
snobbishness
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| 势利； 势利眼 | |
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162
insinuating
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| adj.曲意巴结的，暗示的v.暗示( insinuate的现在分词 )；巧妙或迂回地潜入；（使）缓慢进入；慢慢伸入 | |
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163
averting
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| 防止，避免( avert的现在分词 )； 转移 | |
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164
scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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165
retaliation
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| n.报复，反击 | |
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