Behind him, in that chamber6 furnished in dark oak and leather of a reign7 or two ago, sat Sir Richard Everard at a vast writing-table all a-litter with books and papers; and Sir Richard watched his adoptive son with fierce, melancholy8 eyes, watched him until he grew impatient of this pause.
“Well?” demanded the old baronet harshly. “Will you undertake it, Justin, now that the chance has come?” And he added: “You'll never hesitate if you are the man I have sought to make you.”
Mr. Caryll turned slowly. “It is because I am the man that you—that God and you—have made me that I do hesitate.”
His voice was quiet and pleasantly modulated9, and he spoke10 English with the faintest slur—perceptible, perhaps, only to the keenest ear—of a French accent. To ears less keen it would merely seem that he articulated with a precision so singular as to verge12 on pedantry13.
The light falling full upon his profile revealed the rather singular countenance14 that was his own. It was not in any remarkable15 beauty that its distinction lay, for by the canons of beauty that prevail it was not beautiful. The features were irregular and inclined to harshness, the nose was too abruptly16 arched, the chin too long and square, the complexion17 too pallid18. Yet a certain dignity haunted that youthful face, of such a quality as to stamp it upon the memory of the merest passer-by. The mouth was difficult to read and full of contradictions; the lips were full and red, and you would declare them the lips of a sensualist but for the line of stern, almost grim, determination in which they met; and yet, somewhere behind that grimness, there appeared to lurk19 a haunting whimsicality; a smile seemed ever to impend20, but whether sweet or bitter none could have told until it broke. The eyes were as remarkable; wide-set and slow-moving, as becomes the eyes of an observant man, they were of an almost greenish color, and so level in their ordinary glance as to seem imbued22 with an uncanny penetration23. His hair—he dared to wear his own, and clubbed it in a broad ribbon of watered silk—was almost of the hue24 of bronze, with here and there a glint of gold, and as luxuriant as any wig25.
For the rest, he was scarcely above the middle height, of an almost frail26 but very graceful27 slenderness, and very graceful, too, in all his movements. In dress he was supremely28 elegant, with the elegance29 of France, that in England would be accounted foppishness. He wore a suit of dark blue cloth, with white satin linings30 that were revealed when he moved; it was heavily laced with gold, and a ramiform pattern broidered in gold thread ran up the sides of his silk stockings of a paler blue. Jewels gleamed in the Brussels at his throat, and there were diamond buckles31 on his lacquered, red-heeled shoes.
Sir Richard considered him with anxiety and some chagrin32. “Justin!” he cried, a world of reproach in his voice. “What can you need to ponder?”
“Whatever it may be,” said Mr. Caryll, “it will be better that I ponder it now than after I have pledged myself.”
“But what is it? What?” demanded the baronet.
“I am marvelling33, for one thing, that you should have waited thirty years.”
Sir Richard's fingers stirred the papers before him in an idle, absent manner. Into his brooding eyes there leapt the glitter to be seen in the eyes of the fevered of body or of mind.
“Vengeance34,” said he slowly, “is a dish best relished35 when 'tis eaten cold.” He paused an instant; then continued: “I might have crossed to England at the time, and slain36 him. Should that have satisfied me? What is death but peace and rest?”
“There is a hell, we are told,” Mr. Caryll reminded him.
“Ay,” was the answer, “we are told. But I dursn't risk its being false where Ostermore is concerned. So I preferred to wait until I could brew37 him such a cup of bitterness as no man ever drank ere he was glad to die.” In a quieter, retrospective voice he continued: “Had we prevailed in the '15, I might have found a way to punish him that had been worthy38 of the crime that calls for it. We did not prevail. Moreover, I was taken, and transported.
“What think you, Justin, gave me courage to endure the rigors39 of the plantations40, cunning and energy to escape after five such years of it as had assuredly killed a stronger man less strong of purpose? What but the task that was awaiting me? It imported that I should live and be free to call a reckoning in full with my Lord Ostermore before I go to my own account.
“Opportunity has gone lame41 upon this journey. But it has arrived at last. Unless—” He paused, his voice sank from the high note of exaltation to which it had soared; it became charged with dread42, as did the fierce eyes with which he raked his companion's face. “Unless you prove false to the duty that awaits you. And that I'll not believe! You are your mother's son, Justin.”
“And my father's, too,” answered Justin in a thick voice; “and the Earl of Ostermore is that same father.”
“The more sweetly shall your mother be avenged,” cried the other, and again his eyes blazed with that unhealthy, fanatical light. “What fitter than the hand of that poor lady's son to pull your father down in ruins?” He laughed short and fiercely. “It seldom chances in this world that justice is done so nicely.”
“You hate him very deeply,” said Mr. Caryll pensively44, and the look in his eyes betrayed the trend of his thoughts; they were of pity—but of pity at the futility45 of such strong emotions.
“As deeply as I loved your mother, Justin.” The sharp, rugged46 features of that seared old face seemed of a sudden transfigured and softened47. The wild eyes lost some of their glitter in a look of wistfulness, as he pondered a moment the one sweet memory in a wasted life, a life wrecked49 over thirty years ago—wrecked wantonly by that same Ostermore of whom they spoke, who had been his friend.
A groan50 broke from his lips. He took his head in his hands, and, elbows on the table, he sat very still a moment, reviewing as in a flash the events of thirty and more years ago, when he and Viscount Rotherby—as Ostermore was then—had been young men at the St. Germain's Court of James II.
It was on an excursion into Normandy that they had met Mademoiselle de Maligny, the daughter of an impoverished51 gentleman of the chetive noblesse of that province. Both had loved her. She had preferred—as women will—the outward handsomeness of Viscount Rotherby to the sounder heart and brain that were Dick Everard's. As bold and dominant52 as any ruffler of them all where men and perils53 were concerned, young Everard was timid, bashful and without assertiveness54 with women. He had withdrawn55 from the contest ere it was well lost, leaving an easy victory to his friend.
Leaving Rotherby in Normandy, Everard had returned to Paris. The affairs of his king gave him cause to cross at once to Ireland. For three years he abode58 there, working secretly in his master's interest, to little purpose be it confessed. At the end of that time he returned to Paris. Rotherby was gone. It appeared that his father, Lord Ostermore, had prevailed upon Bentinck to use his influence with William on the errant youth's behalf. Rotherby had been pardoned his loyalty59 to the fallen dynasty. A deserter in every sense, he had abandoned the fortunes of King James—which in Everard's eyes was bad enough—and he had abandoned the sweet lady he had fetched out of Normandy six months before his going, of whom it seemed that in his lordly way he was grown tired.
From the beginning it would appear they were ill-matched. It was her beauty had made appeal to him, even as his beauty had enamoured her. Elementals had brought about their union; and when these elementals shrank with habit, as elementals will, they found themselves without a tie of sympathy or common interest to link them each to the other. She was by nature blythe; a thing of sunshine, flowers and music, who craved61 a very poet for her lover; and by “a poet” I mean not your mere11 rhymer. He was downright stolid62 and stupid under his fine exterior63; the worst type of Briton, without the saving grace of a Briton's honor. And so she had wearied him, who saw in her no more than a sweet loveliness that had cloyed64 him presently. And when the chance was offered him by Bentinck and his father, he took it and went his ways, and this sweet flower that he had plucked from its Normandy garden to adorn65 him for a brief summer's day was left to wilt66, discarded.
The tale that greeted Everard on his return from Ireland was that, broken-hearted, she had died—crushed neath her load of shame. For it was said that there had been no marriage.
The rumor67 of her death had gone abroad, and it had been carried to England and my Lord Rotherby by a cousin of hers—the last living Maligny—who crossed the channel to demand of that stolid gentleman satisfaction for the dishonor put upon his house. All the satisfaction the poor fellow got was a foot or so of steel through the lungs, of which he died; and there, may it have seemed to Rotherby, the matter ended.
But Everard remained—Everard, who had loved her with a great and almost sacred love; Everard, who swore black ruin for my Lord Rotherby—the rumor of which may also have been carried to his lordship and stimulated68 his activities in having Everard hunted down after the Braemar fiasco of 1715.
But before that came to pass Everard had discovered that the rumor of her death was false—put about, no doubt, out of fear of that same cousin who had made himself champion and avenger69 of her honor. Everard sought her out, and found her perishing of want in an attic70 in the Cour des Miracles some four months later—eight months after Rotherby's desertion.
In that sordid71, wind-swept chamber of Paris' most abandoned haunt, a son had been born to Antoinette de Maligny two days before Everard had come upon her. Both were dying; both had assuredly died within the week but that he came so timely to her aid. And that aid he rendered like the noble-hearted gentleman he was. He had contrived72 to save his fortune from the wreck48 of James' kingship, and this was safely invested in France, in Holland and elsewhere abroad. With a portion of it he repurchased the chateau73 and estates of Maligny, which on the death of Antoinette's father had been seized upon by creditors74.
Thither75 he sent her and her child—Rotherby's child—making that noble domain76 a christening-gift to the boy, for whom he had stood sponsor at the font. And he did his work of love in the background. He was the god in the machine; no more. No single opportunity of thanking him did he afford her. He effaced77 himself that she might not see the sorrow she occasioned him, lest it should increase her own.
For two years she dwelt at Maligny in such peace as the broken-hearted may know, the little of life that was left her irradiated by Everard's noble friendship. He wrote to her from time to time, now from Italy, now from Holland. But he never came to visit her. A delicacy78, which may or may not have been false, restrained him. And she, respecting what instinctively79 she knew to be his feelings, never bade him come to her. In their letters they never spoke of Rotherby; not once did his name pass between them; it was as if he had never lived or never crossed their lives. Meanwhile she weakened and faded day by day, despite all the care with which she was surrounded. That winter of cold and want in the Cour des Miracles had sown its seeds, and Death was sharpening his scythe80 against the harvest.
When the end was come she sent urgently for Everard. He came at once in answer to her summons; but he came too late. She died the evening before he arrived. But she had left a letter, written days before, against the chance of his not reaching her before the end. That letter, in her fine French hand, was before him now.
“I will not try to thank you, dearest friend,” she wrote. “For the thing that you have done, what payment is there in poor thanks? Oh, Everard, Everard! Had it but pleased God to have helped me to a wiser choice when it was mine to choose!” she cried to him from that letter, and poor Everard deemed that the thin ray of joy her words sent through his anguished81 soul was payment more than enough for the little that he had done. “God's will be done!” she continued. “It is His will. He knows why it is best so, though we discern it not. But there is the boy; there is Justin. I bequeath him to you who already have done so much for him. Love him a little for my sake; cherish and rear him as your own, and make of him such a gentleman as are you. His father does not so much as know of his existence. That, too, is best so, for I would not have him claim my boy. Never let him learn that Justin exists, unless it be to punish him by the knowledge for his cruel desertion of me.”
Choking, the writing blurred83 by tears that he accounted no disgrace to his young manhood, Everard had sworn in that hour that Justin should be as a son to him. He would do her will, and he set upon it a more definite meaning than she intended. Rotherby should remain in ignorance of his son's existence until such season as should make the knowledge a very anguish82 to him. He would rear Justin in bitter hatred84 of the foul57 villain85 who had been his father; and with the boy's help, when the time should be ripe, he would lay my Lord Rotherby in ruins. Thus should my lord's sin come to find him out.
This Everard had sworn, and this he had done. He had told Justin the story almost as soon as Justin was of an age to understand it. He had repeated it at very frequent intervals86, and as the lad grew, Everard watched in him—fostering it by every means in his power—the growth of his execration87 for the author of his days, and of his reverence88 for the sweet, departed saint that had been his mother.
For the rest, he had lavished89 Justin nobly for his mother's sake. The repurchased estates of Maligny, with their handsome rent roll, remained Justin's own, administered by Sir Richard during the lad's minority and vastly enriched by the care of that administration. He had sent the lad to Oxford90, and afterwards—the more thoroughly91 to complete his education—on a two years' tour of Europe; and on his return, a grown and cultured man, he had attached him to the court in Rome of the Pretender, whose agent he was himself in Paris.
He had done his duty by the boy as he understood his duty, always with that grim purpose of revenge for his horizon. And the result had been a stranger compound than even Everard knew, for all that he knew the lad exceedingly well. For he had scarcely reckoned sufficiently92 upon Justin's mixed nationality and the circumstance that in soul and mind he was entirely93 his mother's child, with nothing—or an imperceptible little—of his father. As his mother's nature had been, so was Justin's—joyous. But Everard's training of him had suppressed all inborn94 vivacity95. The mirth and diablerie that were his birthright had been overlaid with British phlegm, until in their stead, and through the blend, a certain sardonic96 humor had developed, an ironical97 attitude toward all things whether sacred or profane98. This had been helped on by culture, and—in a still greater measure—by the odd training in worldliness which he had from Everard. His illusions were shattered ere he had cut his wisdom teeth, thanks to the tutelage of Sir Richard, who in giving him the ugly story of his own existence, taught him the misanthropical99 lesson that all men are knaves100, all women fools. He developed, as a consequence, that sardonic outlook upon the world. He sought to take vos non vobis for his motto, affected101 to a spectator in the theatre of Life, with the obvious result that he became the greatest actor of them all.
So we find him even now, his main emotion pity for Sir Richard, who sat silent for some moments, reviewing that thirty-year dead past, until the tears scalded his old eyes. The baronet made a queer noise in his throat, something between a snarl102 and a sob103, and he flung himself suddenly back in his chair.
Justin sat down, a becoming gravity in his countenance. “Tell me all,” he begged his adoptive father. “Tell me how matters stand precisely—how you propose to act.”
“With all my heart,” the baronet assented104. “Lord Ostermore, having turned his coat once for profit, is ready now to turn it again for the same end. From the information that reaches me from England, it would appear that in the rage of speculation105 that has been toward in London, his lordship has suffered heavily. How heavily I am not prepared to say. But heavily enough, I dare swear, to have caused this offer to return to his king; for he looks, no doubt, to sell his services at a price that will help him mend the wreckage106 of his fortunes. A week ago a gentleman who goes between his majesty107's court at Rome and his friends here in Paris brought me word from his majesty that Ostermore had signified to him his willingness to rejoin the Stuart cause.
“Together with that information, this messenger brought me letters from his majesty to several of his friends, which I was to send to England by a safe hand at the first opportunity. Now, amongst these letters—delivered to me unsealed—is one to my Lord Ostermore, making him certain advantageous108 proposals which he is sure to accept if his circumstances be as crippled as I am given to understand. Atterbury and his friends, it seems, have already tampered109 with my lord's loyalty to Dutch George to some purpose, and there is little doubt but that this letter”—and he tapped a document before him—“will do what else is to be done.
“But, since these letters were left with me, come you with his majesty's fresh injunctions that I am to suppress them and cross to England at once myself, to prevail upon Atterbury and his associates to abandon the undertaking110.”
Mr. Caryll nodded. “Because, as I have told you,” said he, “King James in Rome has received positive information that in London the plot is already suspected, little though Atterbury may dream it. But what has this to do with my Lord Ostermore?”
“This,” said Everard slowly, leaning across toward Justin, and laying a hand upon his sleeve. “I am to counsel the Bishop111 to stay his hand against a more favorable opportunity. There is no reason why you should not do the very opposite with Ostermore.”
Mr. Caryll knit his brows, his eyes intent upon the other's face; but he said no word.
“It is,” urged Everard, “an opportunity such as there may never be another. We destroy Ostermore. By a turn of the hand we bring him to the gallows112.” He chuckled113 over the word with a joy almost diabolical114.
“But how—how do we destroy him?” quoth Justin, who suspected yet dared not encourage his suspicions.
“How? Do you ask how? Is't not plain?” snapped Sir Richard, and what he avoided putting into words, his eloquent115 glance made clear to his companion.
Mr. Caryll rose a thought quickly, a faint flush stirring in his cheeks, and he threw off Everard's grasp with a gesture that was almost of repugnance116. “You mean that I am to enmesh him....”
Sir Richard smiled grimly. “As his majesty's accredited117 agent,” he explained. “I will equip you with papers. Word shall go ahead of you to Ostermore by a safe hand to bid him look for the coming of a messenger bearing his own family name. No more than that; nothing that can betray us; yet enough to whet21 his lordship's appetite. You shall be the ambassador to bear him the tempting118 offers from the king. You will obtain his answers—accepting. Those you will deliver to me, and I shall do the trifle that may still be needed to set the rope about his neck.”
A little while there was silence. Outside, the rain, driven by gusts119, smote120 the window as with a scourge121. The thunder was grumbling122 in the distance now. Mr. Caryll resumed his chair. He sat very thoughtful, but with no emotion showing in his face. British stolidity123 was in the ascendant with him then. He felt that he had the need of it.
“It is... ugly,” he said at last slowly.
“It is God's own will,” was the hot answer, and Sir Richard smote the table.
“Has God taken you into His confidence?” wondered Mr. Caryll.
“I know that God is justice.”
“Yet is it not written that 'vengeance is His own'?”
“Aye, but He needs human instruments to execute it. Such instruments are we. Can you—Oh, can you hesitate?”
Mr. Caryll clenched124 his hands hard. “Do it,” he answered through set teeth. “Do it! I shall approve it when 'tis done. But find other hands for the work, Sir Richard. He is my father.”
Sir Richard remained cool. “That is the argument I employ for insisting upon the task being yours,” he replied. Then, in a blaze of passion, he—who had schooled his adoptive son so ably in self-control—marshalled once more his arguments. “It is your duty to your mother to forget that he is your father. Think of him only as the man who wronged your mother; the man to whom her ruined life, her early death are due—her murderer and worse. Consider that. Your father, you say!” He mocked almost. “Your father! In what is he your father? You have never seen him; he does not know that you exist, that you ever existed. Is that to be a father? Father, you say! A word, a name—no more than that; a name that gives rise to a sentiment, and a sentiment is to stand between you and your clear duty; a sentiment is to set a protecting shield over the man who killed your mother!
“I think I shall despise you, Justin, if you fail me in this. I have lived for it,” he ran on tempestuously125. “I have reared you for it, and you shall not fail me!”
Then his voice dropped again, and in quieter tones
“You hate the very name of John Caryll, Earl of Ostermore,” said he, “as must every decent man who knows the truth of what the life of that satyr holds. If I have suffered you to bear his name, it is to the end that it should remind you daily that you have no right to it, that you have no right to any name.”
When he said that he thrust his finger consciously into a raw wound. He saw Justin wince126, and with pitiless cunning he continued to prod127 that tender place until he had aggravated128 the smart of it into a very agony.
“That is what you owe your father; that is the full extent of what lies between you—that you are of those at whom the world is given to sneer129 and point scorn's ready finger.”
“None has ever dared,” said Mr. Caryll.
“Because none has ever known. We have kept the secret well. You display no coat of arms that no bar sinister130 may be displayed. But the time may come when the secret must out. You might, for instance, think of marrying a lady of quality, a lady of your own supposed station. What shall you tell her of yourself? That you have no name to offer her; that the name you bear is yours by assumption only? Ah! That brings home your own wrongs to you, Justin! Consider them; have them ever present in your mind, together with your mother's blighted131 life, that you may not shrink when the hour strikes to punish the evildoer.”
He flung himself back in his chair again, and watched the younger man with brooding eye. Mr. Caryll was plainly moved. He had paled a little, and he sat now with brows contracted and set teeth.
Sir Richard pushed back his chair and rose, recapitulating132. “He is your mother's destroyer,” he said, with a sad sternness. “Is the ruin of that fair life to go unpunished? Is it, Justin?”
Mr. Caryll's Gallic spirit burst abruptly through its British glaze133. He crushed fist into palm, and swore: “No, by God! It shall not, Sir Richard!”
Sir Richard held out his hands, and there was a fierce joy in his gloomy eyes at last. “You'll cross to England with me, Justin?”
But Mr. Caryll's soul fell once more into travail134. “Wait!” he cried. “Ah, wait!” His level glance met Sir Richard's in earnestness and entreaty135. “Answer me the truth upon your soul and conscience: Do you in your heart believe that it is what my mother would have had me do?”
There was an instant's pause. Then Everard, the fanatic43 of vengeance, the man whose mind upon that one subject was become unsound with excess of brooding, answered with conviction: “As I have a soul to be saved, Justin, I do believe it. More—I know it. Here!” Trembling hands took up the old letter from the table and proffered136 it to Justin. “Here is her own message to you. Read it again.”
And what time the young man's eyes rested upon that fine, pointed137 writing, Sir Richard recited aloud the words he knew by heart, the words that had been ringing in his ears since that day when he had seen her lowered to rest: “'Never let him learn that Justin exists unless it be to punish him by the knowledge for his cruel desertion of me.' It is your mother's voice speaking to you from the grave,” the fanatic pursued, and so infected Justin at last with something of his fanaticism138.
The green eyes flashed uncannily, the white young face grew cruelly sardonic. “You believe it?” he asked, and the eagerness that now invested his voice showed how it really was with him.
“As I have a soul to be saved,” Sir Richard repeated.
“Then gladly will I set my hand to it.” Fire stirred through Justin now, a fire of righteous passion. “An idea—no more than an idea—daunted me. You have shown me that. I cross to England with you, Sir Richard, and let my Lord Ostermore look to himself, for my name—I who have no right to any name—my name is judgment139!”
The exaltation fell from him as suddenly as it had mounted. He dropped into a chair, thoughtful again and slightly ashamed of his sudden outburst.
Sir Richard Everard watched with an eye of gloomy joy the man whom he had been at such pains to school in self-control.
Overhead there was a sudden crackle of thunder, sharp and staccato as a peal60 of demoniac laughter.
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quays
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| 码头( quay的名词复数 ) | |
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dame
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| n.女士 | |
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artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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shroud
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pall
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chamber
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reign
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melancholy
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modulated
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spoke
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mere
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verge
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pedantry
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countenance
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remarkable
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abruptly
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complexion
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pallid
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impend
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whet
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imbued
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penetration
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hue
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wig
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frail
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supremely
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elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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30
linings
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| n.衬里( lining的名词复数 )；里子；衬料；组织 | |
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buckles
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| 搭扣，扣环( buckle的名词复数 ) | |
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32
chagrin
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| n.懊恼；气愤；委屈 | |
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33
marvelling
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| v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的现在分词 ) | |
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34
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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35
relished
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| v.欣赏( relish的过去式和过去分词 )；从…获得乐趣；渴望 | |
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36
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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37
brew
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| v.酿造，调制 | |
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38
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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39
rigors
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| 严格( rigor的名词复数 )； 严酷； 严密； （由惊吓或中毒等导致的身体）僵直 | |
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40
plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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41
lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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42
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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43
fanatic
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| n.狂热者，入迷者；adj.狂热入迷的 | |
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44
pensively
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| adv.沉思地，焦虑地 | |
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45
futility
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| n.无用 | |
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46
rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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47
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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48
wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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49
wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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50
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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51
impoverished
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| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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52
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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53
perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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54
assertiveness
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| n.过分自信 | |
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55
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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56
foully
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| ad.卑鄙地 | |
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57
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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58
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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59
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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60
peal
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| n.钟声；v.鸣响 | |
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61
craved
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| 渴望，热望( crave的过去式 )； 恳求，请求 | |
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62
stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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63
exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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64
cloyed
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| v.发腻，倒胃口( cloy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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65
adorn
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| vt.使美化，装饰 | |
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66
wilt
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| v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎；(指人)疲倦，衰弱 | |
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67
rumor
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| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
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68
stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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69
avenger
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| n. 复仇者 | |
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70
attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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71
sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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72
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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73
chateau
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| n.城堡，别墅 | |
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74
creditors
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| n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 ) | |
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75
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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76
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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77
effaced
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| v.擦掉( efface的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；超越；使黯然失色 | |
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78
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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79
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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80
scythe
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| n. 长柄的大镰刀，战车镰； v. 以大镰刀割 | |
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81
anguished
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| adj.极其痛苦的v.使极度痛苦(anguish的过去式) | |
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82
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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83
blurred
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| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
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84
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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85
villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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86
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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87
execration
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| n.诅咒，念咒，憎恶 | |
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88
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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89
lavished
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| v.过分给予，滥施( lavish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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90
Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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91
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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92
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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93
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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94
inborn
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| adj.天生的，生来的，先天的 | |
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95
vivacity
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| n.快活，活泼，精神充沛 | |
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96
sardonic
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| adj.嘲笑的，冷笑的，讥讽的 | |
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97
ironical
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| adj.讽刺的，冷嘲的 | |
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98
profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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99
misanthropical
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100
knaves
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| n.恶棍，无赖( knave的名词复数 )；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
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101
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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102
snarl
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| v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮 | |
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103
sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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104
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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105
speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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106
wreckage
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| n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏 | |
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107
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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108
advantageous
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| adj.有利的；有帮助的 | |
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109
tampered
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| v.窜改( tamper的过去式 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄 | |
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110
undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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111
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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112
gallows
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| n.绞刑架，绞台 | |
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113
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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114
diabolical
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| adj.恶魔似的，凶暴的 | |
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115
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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116
repugnance
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| n.嫌恶 | |
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117
accredited
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| adj.可接受的；可信任的；公认的；质量合格的v.相信( accredit的过去式和过去分词 )；委托；委任；把…归结于 | |
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118
tempting
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| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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119
gusts
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| 一阵强风( gust的名词复数 )； （怒、笑等的）爆发； （感情的）迸发； 发作 | |
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120
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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121
scourge
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| n.灾难，祸害；v.蹂躏 | |
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122
grumbling
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| adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的 | |
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123
stolidity
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| n.迟钝，感觉麻木 | |
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124
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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125
tempestuously
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| adv.剧烈地，暴风雨似地 | |
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126
wince
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| n.畏缩，退避，（因痛苦，苦恼等)面部肌肉抽动；v.畏缩，退缩，退避 | |
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127
prod
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| vt.戳，刺；刺激，激励 | |
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128
aggravated
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| 使恶化( aggravate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使更严重； 激怒； 使恼火 | |
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129
sneer
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| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
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130
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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131
blighted
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| adj.枯萎的，摧毁的 | |
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132
recapitulating
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| v.总结，扼要重述( recapitulate的现在分词 ) | |
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133
glaze
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| v.因疲倦、疲劳等指眼睛变得呆滞，毫无表情 | |
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134
travail
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| n.阵痛；努力 | |
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135
entreaty
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| n.恳求，哀求 | |
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136
proffered
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| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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137
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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138
fanaticism
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| n.狂热，盲信 | |
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139
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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