George came down on Tuesday evening, and slept at Harris’s place. We thought this a better arrangement than his own suggestion, which was that we should call for him on our way and “pick him up.” Picking George up in the morning means picking him out of bed to begin with, and shaking him awake—in itself an exhausting effort with which to commence the day; helping3 him find his things and finish his packing; and then waiting for him while he eats his breakfast, a tedious entertainment from the spectator’s point of view, full of wearisome repetition.
I knew that if he slept at “Beggarbush” he would be up in time; I have slept there myself, and I know what happens. About the middle of the night, as you judge, though in reality it may be somewhat later, you are startled out of your first sleep by what sounds like a rush of cavalry4 along the passage, just outside your door. Your half-awakened intelligence fluctuates between burglars, the Day of Judgment5, and a gas explosion. You sit up in bed and listen intently. You are not kept waiting long; the next moment a door is violently slammed, and somebody, or something, is evidently coming downstairs on a tea-tray.
“I told you so,” says a voice outside, and immediately some hard substance, a head one would say from the ring of it, rebounds7 against the panel of your door.
By this time you are charging madly round the room for your clothes. Nothing is where you put it overnight, the articles most essential have disappeared entirely8; and meanwhile the murder, or revolution, or whatever it is, continues unchecked. You pause for a moment, with your head under the wardrobe, where you think you can see your slippers9, to listen to a steady, monotonous10 thumping11 upon a distant door. The victim, you presume, has taken refuge there; they mean to have him out and finish him. Will you be in time? The knocking ceases, and a voice, sweetly reassuring12 in its gentle plaintiveness13, asks meekly14:
“Pa, may I get up?”
You do not hear the other voice, but the responses are:
“No, it was only the bath—no, she ain’t really hurt,—only wet, you know. Yes, ma, I’ll tell ’em what you say. No, it was a pure accident. Yes; good-night, papa.”
Then the same voice, exerting itself so as to be heard in a distant part of the house, remarks:
“You’ve got to come upstairs again. Pa says it isn’t time yet to get up.”
You return to bed, and lie listening to somebody being dragged upstairs, evidently against their will. By a thoughtful arrangement the spare rooms at “Beggarbush” are exactly underneath15 the nurseries. The same somebody, you conclude, still offering the most creditable opposition16, is being put back into bed. You can follow the contest with much exactitude, because every time the body is flung down upon the spring mattress17, the bedstead, just above your head, makes a sort of jump; while every time the body succeeds in struggling out again, you are aware by the thud upon the floor. After a time the struggle wanes18, or maybe the bed collapses19; and you drift back into sleep. But the next moment, or what seems to be the next moment, you again open your eyes under the consciousness of a presence. The door is being held ajar, and four solemn faces, piled one on top of the other, are peering at you, as though you were some natural curiosity kept in this particular room. Seeing you awake, the top face, walking calmly over the other three, comes in and sits on the bed in a friendly attitude.
“Oh!” it says, “we didn’t know you were awake. I’ve been awake some time.”
“So I gather,” you reply, shortly.
“Pa doesn’t like us to get up too early,” it continues. “He says everybody else in the house is liable to be disturbed if we get up. So, of course, we mustn’t.”
The tone is that of gentle resignation. It is instinct with the spirit of virtuous pride, arising from the consciousness of self-sacrifice.
“Don’t you call this being up?” you suggest.
“Oh, no; we’re not really up, you know, because we’re not properly dressed.” The fact is self-evident. “Pa’s always very tired in the morning,” the voice continues; “of course, that’s because he works hard all day. Are you ever tired in the morning?”
At this point he turns and notices, for the first time, that the three other children have also entered, and are sitting in a semi-circle on the floor. From their attitude it is clear they have mistaken the whole thing for one of the slower forms of entertainment, some comic lecture or conjuring20 exhibition, and are waiting patiently for you to get out of bed and do something. It shocks him, the idea of their being in the guest’s bedchamber. He peremptorily21 orders them out. They do not answer him, they do not argue; in dead silence, and with one accord they fall upon him. All you can see from the bed is a confused tangle22 of waving arms and legs, suggestive of an intoxicated23 octopus24 trying to find bottom. Not a word is spoken; that seems to be the etiquette26 of the thing. If you are sleeping in your pyjamas27, you spring from the bed, and only add to the confusion; if you are wearing a less showy garment, you stop where you are and shout commands, which are utterly28 unheeded. The simplest plan is to leave it to the eldest29 boy. He does get them out after a while, and closes the door upon them. It re-opens immediately, and one, generally Muriel, is shot back into the room. She enters as from a catapult. She is handicapped by having long hair, which can be used as a convenient handle. Evidently aware of this natural disadvantage, she clutches it herself tightly in one hand, and punches with the other. He opens the door again, and cleverly uses her as a battering-ram against the wall of those without. You can hear the dull crash as her head enters among them, and scatters31 them. When the victory is complete, he comes back and resumes his seat on the bed. There is no bitterness about him; he has forgotten the whole incident.
“I like the morning,” he says, “don’t you?”
“Some mornings,” you agree, “are all right; others are not so peaceful.”
He takes no notice of your exception; a far-away look steals over his somewhat ethereal face.
“I should like to die in the morning,” he says; “everything is so beautiful then.”
“Well,” you answer, “perhaps you will, if your father ever invites an irritable32 man to come and sleep here, and doesn’t warn him beforehand.”
“It’s jolly in the garden,” he suggests; “you wouldn’t like to get up and have a game of cricket, would you?”
It was not the idea with which you went to bed, but now, as things have turned out, it seems as good a plan as lying there hopelessly awake; and you agree.
You learn, later in the day, that the explanation of the proceeding34 is that you, unable to sleep, woke up early in the morning, and thought you would like a game of cricket. The children, taught to be ever courteous35 to guests, felt it their duty to humour you. Mrs. Harris remarks at breakfast that at least you might have seen to it that the children were properly dressed before you took them out; while Harris points out to you, pathetically, how, by your one morning’s example and encouragement, you have undone36 his labour of months.
On this Wednesday morning, George, it seems, clamoured to get up at a quarter-past five, and persuaded them to let him teach them cycling tricks round the cucumber frames on Harris’s new wheel. Even Mrs. Harris, however, did not blame George on this occasion; she felt intuitively the idea could not have been entirely his.
It is not that the Harris children have the faintest notion of avoiding blame at the expense of a friend and comrade. One and all they are honesty itself in accepting responsibility for their own misdeeds. It simply is, that is how the thing presents itself to their understanding. When you explain to them that you had no original intention of getting up at five o’clock in the morning to play cricket on the croquet lawn, or to mimic38 the history of the early Church by shooting with a cross-bow at dolls tied to a tree; that as a matter of fact, left to your own initiative, you would have slept peacefully till roused in Christian39 fashion with a cup of tea at eight, they are firstly astonished, secondly40 apologetic, and thirdly sincerely contrite41. In the present instance, waiving42 the purely43 academic question whether the awakening44 of George at a little before five was due to natural instinct on his part, or to the accidental passing of a home-made boomerang through his bedroom window, the dear children frankly45 admitted that the blame for his uprising was their own. As the eldest boy said:
“We ought to have remembered that Uncle George had a long day, before him, and we ought to have dissuaded46 him from getting up. I blame myself entirely.”
But an occasional change of habit does nobody any harm; and besides, as Harris and I agreed, it was good training for George. In the Black Forest we should be up at five every morning; that we had determined47 on. Indeed, George himself had suggested half-past four, but Harris and I had argued that five would be early enough as an average; that would enable us to be on our machines by six, and to break the back of our journey before the heat of the day set in. Occasionally we might start a little earlier, but not as a habit.
I myself was up that morning at five. This was earlier than I had intended. I had said to myself on going to sleep, “Six o’clock, sharp!”
There are men I know who can wake themselves at any time to the minute. They say to themselves literally48, as they lay their heads upon the pillow, “Four-thirty,” “Four-forty-five,” or “Five-fifteen,” as the case may be; and as the clock strikes they open their eyes. It is very wonderful this; the more one dwells upon it, the greater the mystery grows. Some Ego49 within us, acting50 quite independently of our conscious self, must be capable of counting the hours while we sleep. Unaided by clock or sun, or any other medium known to our five senses, it keeps watch through the darkness. At the exact moment it whispers “Time!” and we awake. The work of an old riverside fellow I once talked with called him to be out of bed each morning half an hour before high tide. He told me that never once had he overslept himself by a minute. Latterly, he never even troubled to work out the tide for himself. He would lie down tired, and sleep a dreamless sleep, and each morning at a different hour this ghostly watchman, true as the tide itself, would silently call him. Did the man’s spirit haunt through the darkness the muddy river stairs; or had it knowledge of the ways of Nature? Whatever the process, the man himself was unconscious of it.
In my own case my inward watchman is, perhaps, somewhat out of practice. He does his best; but he is over-anxious; he worries himself, and loses count. I say to him, maybe, “Five-thirty, please;” and he wakes me with a start at half-past two. I look at my watch. He suggests that, perhaps, I forgot to wind it up. I put it to my ear; it is still going. He thinks, maybe, something has happened to it; he is confident himself it is half-past five, if not a little later. To satisfy him, I put on a pair of slippers and go downstairs to inspect the dining-room clock. What happens to a man when he wanders about the house in the middle of the night, clad in a dressing-gown and a pair of slippers, there is no need to recount; most men know by experience. Everything—especially everything with a sharp corner—takes a cowardly delight in hitting him. When you are wearing a pair of stout51 boots, things get out of your way; when you venture among furniture in woolwork slippers and no socks, it comes at you and kicks you. I return to bed bad tempered, and refusing to listen to his further absurd suggestion that all the clocks in the house have entered into a conspiracy52 against me, take half an hour to get to sleep again. From four to five he wakes me every ten minutes. I wish I had never said a word to him about the thing. At five o’clock he goes to sleep himself, worn out, and leaves it to the girl, who does it half an hour later than usual.
On this particular Wednesday he worried me to such an extent, that I got up at five simply to be rid of him. I did not know what to do with myself. Our train did not leave till eight; all our luggage had been packed and sent on the night before, together with the bicycles, to Fenchurch Street Station. I went into my study; I thought I would put in an hour’s writing. The early morning, before one has breakfasted, is not, I take it, a good season for literary effort. I wrote three paragraphs of a story, and then read them over to myself. Some unkind things have been said about my work; but nothing has yet been written which would have done justice to those three paragraphs. I threw them into the waste-paper basket, and sat trying to remember what, if any, charitable institutions provided pensions for decayed authors.
To escape from this train of reflection, I put a golf-ball in my pocket, and selecting a driver, strolled out into the paddock. A couple of sheep were browsing53 there, and they followed and took a keen interest in my practice. The one was a kindly54, sympathetic old party. I do not think she understood the game; I think it was my doing this innocent thing so early in the morning that appealed to her. At every stroke I made she bleated55:
“Go-o-o-d, go-o-o-d ind-e-e-d!”
She seemed as pleased as if she had done it herself.
As for the other one, she was a cantankerous56, disagreeable old thing, as discouraging to me as her friend was helpful.
“Ba-a-ad, da-a-a-m ba-a-a-d!” was her comment on almost every stroke. As a matter of fact, some were really excellent strokes; but she did it just to be contradictory57, and for the sake of irritating. I could see that.
By a most regrettable accident, one of my swiftest balls struck the good sheep on the nose. And at that the bad sheep laughed—laughed distinctly and undoubtedly58, a husky, vulgar laugh; and, while her friend stood glued to the ground, too astonished to move, she changed her note for the first time and bleated:
“Go-o-o-d, ve-e-ry go-o-o-d! Be-e-e-est sho-o-o-ot he-e-e’s ma-a-a-de!”
I would have given half-a-crown if it had been she I had hit instead of the other one. It is ever the good and amiable59 who suffer in this world.
I had wasted more time than I had intended in the paddock, and when Ethelbertha came to tell me it was half-past seven, and the breakfast was on the table, I remembered that I had not shaved. It vexes60 Ethelbertha my shaving quickly. She fears that to outsiders it may suggest a poor-spirited attempt at suicide, and that in consequence it may get about the neighbourhood that we are not happy together. As a further argument, she has also hinted that my appearance is not of the kind that can be trifled with.
On the whole, I was just as glad not to be able to take a long farewell of Ethelbertha; I did not want to risk her breaking down. But I should have liked more opportunity to say a few farewell words of advice to the children, especially as regards my fishing rod, which they will persist in using for cricket stumps61; and I hate having to run for a train. Quarter of a mile from the station I overtook George and Harris; they were also running. In their case—so Harris informed me, jerkily, while we trotted62 side by side—it was the new kitchen stove that was to blame. This was the first morning they had tried it, and from some cause or other it had blown up the kidneys and scalded the cook. He said he hoped that by the time we returned they would have got more used to it.
We caught the train by the skin of our teeth, as the saying is, and reflecting upon the events of the morning, as we sat gasping63 in the carriage, there passed vividly64 before my mind the panorama65 of my Uncle Podger, as on two hundred and fifty days in the year he would start from Ealing Common by the nine-thirteen train to Moorgate Street.
From my Uncle Podger’s house to the railway station was eight minutes’ walk. What my uncle always said was:
“Allow yourself a quarter of an hour, and take it easily.”
What he always did was to start five minutes before the time and run. I do not know why, but this was the custom of the suburb. Many stout City gentlemen lived at Ealing in those days—I believe some live there still—and caught early trains to Town. They all started late; they all carried a black bag and a newspaper in one hand, and an umbrella in the other; and for the last quarter of a mile to the station, wet or fine, they all ran.
Folks with nothing else to do, nursemaids chiefly and errand boys, with now and then a perambulating costermonger added, would gather on the common of a fine morning to watch them pass, and cheer the most deserving. It was not a showy spectacle. They did not run well, they did not even run fast; but they were earnest, and they did their best. The exhibition appealed less to one’s sense of art than to one’s natural admiration66 for conscientious67 effort.
Occasionally a little harmless betting would take place among the crowd.
“Two to one agin the old gent in the white weskit!”
“Ten to one on old Blowpipes, bar he don’t roll over hisself ’fore ’e gets there!”
“Heven money on the Purple Hemperor!”—a nickname bestowed68 by a youth of entomological tastes upon a certain retired69 military neighbour of my uncle’s,—a gentleman of imposing70 appearance when stationary71, but apt to colour highly under exercise.
My uncle and the others would write to the Ealing Press complaining bitterly concerning the supineness of the local police; and the editor would add spirited leaders upon the Decay of Courtesy among the Lower Orders, especially throughout the Western Suburbs. But no good ever resulted.
It was not that my uncle did not rise early enough; it was that troubles came to him at the last moment. The first thing he would do after breakfast would be to lose his newspaper. We always knew when Uncle Podger had lost anything, by the expression of astonished indignation with which, on such occasions, he would regard the world in general. It never occurred to my Uncle Podger to say to himself:
“I am a careless old man. I lose everything: I never know where I have put anything. I am quite incapable72 of finding it again for myself. In this respect I must be a perfect nuisance to everybody about me. I must set to work and reform myself.”
On the contrary, by some peculiar73 course of reasoning, he had convinced himself that whenever he lost a thing it was everybody else’s fault in the house but his own.
“I had it in my hand here not a minute ago!” he would exclaim.
From his tone you would have thought he was living surrounded by conjurers, who spirited away things from him merely to irritate him.
“Could you have left it in the garden?” my aunt would suggest.
“What should I want to leave it in the garden for? I don’t want a paper in the garden; I want the paper in the train with me.”
“You haven’t put it in your pocket?”
“God bless the woman! Do you think I should be standing37 here at five minutes to nine looking for it if I had it in my pocket all the while? Do you think I’m a fool?”
He would open his bag to put it in, and then glancing at it, he would pause, speechless with sense of injury.
“What’s the matter?” aunt would ask.
“The day before yesterday’s!” he would answer, too hurt even to shout, throwing the paper down upon the table.
If only sometimes it had been yesterday’s it would have been a change. But it was always the day before yesterday’s; except on Tuesday; then it would be Saturday’s.
We would find it for him eventually; as often as not he was sitting on it. And then he would smile, not genially77, but with the weariness that comes to a man who feels that fate has cast his lot among a band of hopeless idiots.
“All the time, right in front of your noses—!” He would not finish the sentence; he prided himself on his self-control.
This settled, he would start for the hall, where it was the custom of my Aunt Maria to have the children gathered, ready to say good-bye to him.
My aunt never left the house herself, if only to make a call next door, without taking a tender farewell of every inmate79. One never knew, she would say, what might happen.
One of them, of course, was sure to be missing, and the moment this was noticed all the other six, without an instant’s hesitation80, would scatter30 with a whoop81 to find it. Immediately they were gone it would turn up by itself from somewhere quite near, always with the most reasonable explanation for its absence; and would at once start off after the others to explain to them that it was found. In this way, five minutes at least would be taken up in everybody’s looking for everybody else, which was just sufficient time to allow my uncle to find his umbrella and lose his hat. Then, at last, the group reassembled in the hall, the drawing-room clock would commence to strike nine. It possessed82 a cold, penetrating83 chime that always had the effect of confusing my uncle. In his excitement he would kiss some of the children twice over, pass by others, forget whom he had kissed and whom he hadn’t, and have to begin all over again. He used to say he believed they mixed themselves up on purpose, and I am not prepared to maintain that the charge was altogether false. To add to his troubles, one child always had a sticky face; and that child would always be the most affectionate.
If things were going too smoothly84, the eldest boy would come out with some tale about all the clocks in the house being five minutes slow, and of his having been late for school the previous day in consequence. This would send my uncle rushing impetuously down to the gate, where he would recollect85 that he had with him neither his bag nor his umbrella. All the children that my aunt could not stop would charge after him, two of them struggling for the umbrella, the others surging round the bag. And when they returned we would discover on the hall table the most important thing of all that he had forgotten, and wondered what he would say about it when he came home.
We arrived at Waterloo a little after nine, and at once proceeded to put George’s experiment into operation. Opening the book at the chapter entitled “At the Cab Rank,” we walked up to a hansom, raised our hats, and wished the driver “Good-morning.”
This man was not to be outdone in politeness by any foreigner, real or imitation. Calling to a friend named “Charles” to “hold the steed,” he sprang from his box, and returned to us a bow, that would have done credit to Mr. Turveydrop himself. Speaking apparently86 in the name of the nation, he welcomed us to England, adding a regret that Her Majesty87 was not at the moment in London.
We could not reply to him in kind. Nothing of this sort had been anticipated by the book. We called him “coachman,” at which he again bowed to the pavement, and asked him if he would have the goodness to drive us to the Westminster Bridge road.
He laid his hand upon his heart, and said the pleasure would be his.
Taking the third sentence in the chapter, George asked him what his fare would be.
The question, as introducing a sordid88 element into the conversation, seemed to hurt his feelings. He said he never took money from distinguished89 strangers; he suggested a souvenir—a diamond scarf pin, a gold snuffbox, some little trifle of that sort by which he could remember us.
As a small crowd had collected, and as the joke was drifting rather too far in the cabman’s direction, we climbed in without further parley90, and were driven away amid cheers. We stopped the cab at a boot shop a little past Astley’s Theatre that looked the sort of place we wanted. It was one of those overfed shops that the moment their shutters91 are taken down in the morning disgorge their goods all round them. Boxes of boots stood piled on the pavement or in the gutter92 opposite. Boots hung in festoons about its doors and windows. Its sun-blind was as some grimy vine, bearing bunches of black and brown boots. Inside, the shop was a bower93 of boots. The man, when we entered, was busy with a chisel94 and hammer opening a new crate95 full of boots.
George raised his hat, and said “Good-morning.”
The man did not even turn round. He struck me from the first as a disagreeable man. He grunted96 something which might have been “Good-morning,” or might not, and went on with his work.
George said: “I have been recommended to your shop by my friend, Mr. X.”
In response, the man should have said: “Mr. X. is a most worthy97 gentleman; it will give me the greatest pleasure to serve any friend of his.”
What he did say was: “Don’t know him; never heard of him.”
This was disconcerting. The book gave three or four methods of buying boots; George had carefully selected the one centred round “Mr. X,” as being of all the most courtly. You talked a good deal with the shopkeeper about this “Mr. X,” and then, when by this means friendship and understanding had been established, you slid naturally and gracefully98 into the immediate6 object of your coming, namely, your desire for boots, “cheap and good.” This gross, material man cared, apparently, nothing for the niceties of retail99 dealing100. It was necessary with such an one to come to business with brutal101 directness. George abandoned “Mr. X,” and turning back to a previous page, took a sentence at random102. It was not a happy selection; it was a speech that would have been superfluous103 made to any bootmaker. Under the present circumstances, threatened and stifled104 as we were on every side by boots, it possessed the dignity of positive imbecility. It ran:—“One has told me that you have here boots for sale.”
For the first time the man put down his hammer and chisel, and looked at us. He spoke25 slowly, in a thick and husky voice. He said:
“What d’ye think I keep boots for—to smell ’em?”
He was one of those men that begin quietly and grow more angry as they proceed, their wrongs apparently working within them like yeast105.
“What d’ye think I am,” he continued, “a boot collector? What d’ye think I’m running this shop for—my health? D’ye think I love the boots, and can’t bear to part with a pair? D’ye think I hang ’em about here to look at ’em? Ain’t there enough of ’em? Where d’ye think you are—in an international exhibition of boots? What d’ye think these boots are—a historical collection? Did you ever hear of a man keeping a boot shop and not selling boots? D’ye think I decorate the shop with ’em to make it look pretty? What d’ye take me for—a prize idiot?”
I have always maintained that these conversation books are never of any real use. What we wanted was some English equivalent for the well-known German idiom: “Behalten Sie Ihr Haar auf.”
Nothing of the sort was to be found in the book from beginning to end. However, I will do George the credit to admit he chose the very best sentence that was to be found therein and applied106 it. He said:.
“I will come again, when, perhaps, you will have some more boots to show me. Till then, adieu!”
With that we returned to our cab and drove away, leaving the man standing in the centre of his boot-bedecked doorway107 addressing remarks to us. What he said, I did not hear, but the passers-by appeared to find it interesting.
George was for stopping at another boot shop and trying the experiment afresh; he said he really did want a pair of bedroom slippers. But we persuaded him to postpone108 their purchase until our arrival in some foreign city, where the tradespeople are no doubt more inured109 to this sort of talk, or else more naturally amiable. On the subject of the hat, however, he was adamant110. He maintained that without that he could not travel, and, accordingly, we pulled up at a small shop in the Blackfriars Road.
The proprietor111 of this shop was a cheery, bright-eyed little man, and he helped us rather than hindered us.
When George asked him in the words of the book, “Have you any hats?” he did not get angry; he just stopped and thoughtfully scratched his chin.
“Hats,” said he. “Let me think. Yes”—here a smile of positive pleasure broke over his genial78 countenance112—“yes, now I come to think of it, I believe I have a hat. But, tell me, why do you ask me?”
George explained to him that he wished to purchase a cap, a travelling cap, but the essence of the transaction was that it was to be a “good cap.”
The man’s face fell.
“Ah,” he remarked, “there, I am afraid, you have me. Now, if you had wanted a bad cap, not worth the price asked for it; a cap good for nothing but to clean windows with, I could have found you the very thing. But a good cap—no; we don’t keep them. But wait a minute,” he continued,—on seeing the disappointment that spread over George’s expressive113 countenance, “don’t be in a hurry. I have a cap here”—he went to a drawer and opened it—“it is not a good cap, but it is not so bad as most of the caps I sell.”
He brought it forward, extended on his palm.
“What do you think of that?” he asked. “Could you put up with that?”
George fitted it on before the glass, and, choosing another remark from the book, said:
“This hat fits me sufficiently114 well, but, tell me, do you consider that it becomes me?”
The man stepped back and took a bird’s-eye view.
“Candidly,” he replied, “I can’t say that it does.”
He turned from George, and addressed himself to Harris and myself.
“Your friend’s beauty,” said he, “I should describe as elusive115. It is there, but you can easily miss it. Now, in that cap, to my mind, you do miss it.”
At that point it occurred to George that he had had sufficient fun with this particular man. He said:
“That is all right. We don’t want to lose the train. How much?”
Answered the man: “The price of that cap, sir, which, in my opinion, is twice as much as it is worth, is four-and-six. Would you like it wrapped up in brown paper, sir, or in white?”
George said he would take it as it was, paid the man four-and-six in-silver, and went out. Harris and I followed.
At Fenchurch Street we compromised with our cabman for five shillings. He made us another courtly bow, and begged us to remember him to the Emperor of Austria.
Comparing views in the train, we agreed that we had lost the game by two points to one; and George, who was evidently disappointed, threw the book out of window.
We found our luggage and the bicycles safe on the boat, and with the tide at twelve dropped down the river.
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sleepless
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| adj.不睡眠的，睡不著的，不休息的 | |
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virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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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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rebounds
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| 反弹球( rebound的名词复数 )； 回弹球； 抢断篮板球； 复兴 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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slippers
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| n. 拖鞋 | |
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monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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thumping
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| adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持 | |
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12
reassuring
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| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
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13
plaintiveness
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14
meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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15
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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16
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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17
mattress
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| n.床垫，床褥 | |
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18
wanes
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| v.衰落( wane的第三人称单数 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
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19
collapses
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| 折叠( collapse的第三人称单数 )； 倒塌； 崩溃； （尤指工作劳累后）坐下 | |
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20
conjuring
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| n.魔术 | |
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21
peremptorily
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| adv.紧急地，不容分说地，专横地 | |
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22
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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23
intoxicated
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| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
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24
octopus
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| n.章鱼 | |
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25
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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26
etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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27
pyjamas
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| n.（宽大的）睡衣裤 | |
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28
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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29
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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30
scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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31
scatters
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| v.（使）散开， （使）分散，驱散( scatter的第三人称单数 )；撒 | |
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32
irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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33
descends
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| v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜 | |
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34
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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35
courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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36
undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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37
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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38
mimic
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| v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人 | |
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39
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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40
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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41
contrite
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| adj.悔悟了的，后悔的，痛悔的 | |
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42
waiving
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| v.宣布放弃( waive的现在分词 )；搁置；推迟；放弃（权利、要求等） | |
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43
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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44
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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45
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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46
dissuaded
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| 劝（某人）勿做某事，劝阻( dissuade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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48
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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49
ego
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| n.自我，自己，自尊 | |
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50
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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52
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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53
browsing
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| v.吃草( browse的现在分词 )；随意翻阅；（在商店里）随便看看；（在计算机上）浏览信息 | |
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54
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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55
bleated
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| v.（羊，小牛）叫( bleat的过去式和过去分词 )；哭诉；发出羊叫似的声音；轻声诉说 | |
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56
cantankerous
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| adj.爱争吵的，脾气不好的 | |
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57
contradictory
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| adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立 | |
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58
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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59
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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60
vexes
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| v.使烦恼( vex的第三人称单数 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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61
stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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62
trotted
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| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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63
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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64
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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65
panorama
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| n.全景，全景画，全景摄影，全景照片[装置] | |
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66
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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67
conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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68
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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69
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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70
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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71
stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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72
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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73
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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74
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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75
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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76
savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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77
genially
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| adv.亲切地，和蔼地；快活地 | |
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78
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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79
inmate
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| n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人 | |
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80
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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81
whoop
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| n.大叫，呐喊，喘息声；v.叫喊，喘息 | |
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82
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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83
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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84
smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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85
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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86
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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87
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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88
sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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89
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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90
parley
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| n.谈判 | |
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91
shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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92
gutter
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| n.沟，街沟，水槽，檐槽，贫民窟 | |
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93
bower
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| n.凉亭，树荫下凉快之处；闺房；v.荫蔽 | |
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94
chisel
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| n.凿子；v.用凿子刻，雕，凿 | |
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95
crate
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| vt.(up)把…装入箱中；n.板条箱，装货箱 | |
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96
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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97
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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98
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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99
retail
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| v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格 | |
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100
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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101
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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102
random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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103
superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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104
stifled
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| （使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 )； 镇压，遏制； 堵 | |
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105
yeast
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| n.酵母；酵母片；泡沫；v.发酵；起泡沫 | |
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106
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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107
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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108
postpone
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| v.延期，推迟 | |
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109
inured
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| adj.坚强的，习惯的 | |
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110
adamant
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| adj.坚硬的，固执的 | |
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111
proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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112
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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113
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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114
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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115
elusive
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| adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的 | |
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