I
But now that I resume the main line of my story it may be well to describe the personal appearance of my uncle as I remember him during those magnificent years that followed his passage from trade to finance. The little man plumped up very considerably2 during the creation of the Tono-Bungay property, but with the increasing excitements that followed that first flotation came dyspepsia and a certain flabbiness and falling away. His abdomen—if the reader will pardon my taking his features in the order of their value—had at first a nice full roundness, but afterwards it lost tone without, however, losing size. He always went as though he was proud of it and would make as much of it as possible. To the last his movements remained quick and sudden, his short firm legs, as he walked, seemed to twinkle rather than display the scissors-stride of common humanity, and he never seemed to have knees, but instead, a dispersed3 flexibility4 of limb.
There was, I seem to remember, a secular5 intensification6 of his features; his nose developed character, became aggressive, stuck out at the world more and more; the obliquity7 of his mouth, I think, increased. From the face that returns to my memory projects a long cigar that is sometimes cocked jauntily8 up from the higher corner, that sometimes droops9 from the lower;—it was as eloquent10 as a dog’s tail, and he removed it only for the more emphatic11 modes of speech. He assumed a broad black ribbon for his glasses, and wore them more and more askew12 as time went on. His hair seemed to stiffen13 with success, but towards the climax14 it thinned greatly over the crown, and he brushed it hard back over his ears where, however, it stuck out fiercely. It always stuck out fiercely over his forehead, up and forward.
He adopted an urban style of dressing15 with the onset16 of Tono-Bungay and rarely abandoned it. He preferred silk hats with ample rich brims, often a trifle large for him by modern ideas, and he wore them at various angles to his axis17; his taste in trouserings was towards fairly emphatic stripes and his trouser cut was neat; he liked his frock-coat long and full, although that seemed to shorten him. He displayed a number of valuable rings, and I remember one upon his left little finger with a large red stone bearing Gnostic symbols. “Clever chaps, those Gnostics, George,” he told me. “Means a lot. Lucky!” He never had any but a black mohair watch-chair. In the country he affected18 grey and a large grey cloth top-hat, except when motoring; then he would have a brown deer-stalker cap and a fur suit of esquimaux cut with a sort of boot-end to the trousers. Of an evening he would wear white waistcoats and plain gold studs. He hated diamonds. “Flashy,” he said they were. “Might as well wear—an income tax-receipt. All very well for Park Lane. Unsold stock. Not my style. Sober financier, George.”
So much for his visible presence. For a time it was very familiar to the world, for at the crest19 of the boom he allowed quite a number of photographs and at least one pencil sketch20 to be published in the sixpenny papers.
His voice declined during those years from his early tenor21 to a flat rich quality of sound that my knowledge of music is inadequate22 to describe. His Zzz-ing inrush of air became less frequent as he ripened23, but returned in moments of excitement. Throughout his career, in spite of his increasing and at last astounding24 opulence25, his more intimate habits remained as simple as they had been at Wimblehurst. He would never avail himself of the services of a valet; at the very climax of his greatness his trousers were folded by a housemaid and his shoulders brushed as he left his house or hotel. He became wary26 about breakfast as life advanced, and at one time talked much of Dr. Haig and uric acid. But for other meals he remained reasonably omnivorous27. He was something of a gastronome, and would eat anything he particularly liked in an audible manner, and perspire28 upon his forehead. He was a studiously moderate drinker—except when the spirit of some public banquet or some great occasion caught him and bore him beyond his wariness—there he would, as it were, drink inadvertently and become flushed and talkative—about everything but his business projects.
To make the portrait complete one wants to convey an effect of sudden, quick bursts of movement like the jumps of a Chinese-cracker to indicate that his pose whatever it is, has been preceded and will be followed by a rush. If I were painting him, I should certainly give him for a background that distressed29, uneasy sky that was popular in the eighteenth century, and at a convenient distance a throbbing30 motor-car, very big and contemporary, a secretary hurrying with papers, and an alert chauffeur31.
Such was the figure that created and directed the great property of Tono-Bungay, and from the successful reconstruction32 of that company passed on to a slow crescendo33 of magnificent creations and promotions35 until the whole world of investors36 marveled. I have already I think, mentioned how, long before we offered Tono Bungay to the public, we took over the English agency of certain American specialties38. To this was presently added our exploitation of Moggs’ Domestic Soap, and so he took up the Domestic Convenience Campaign that, coupled with his equatorial rotundity and a certain resolute39 convexity in his bearings won my uncle his Napoleonic title.
II
It illustrates40 the romantic element in modern commerce that my uncle met young Moggs at a city dinner—I think it was the Bottle-makers’ Company—when both were some way advanced beyond the initial sobriety of the occasion. This was the grandson of the original Moggs, and a very typical instance of an educated, cultivated, degenerate41 plutocrat. His people had taken him about in his youth as the Ruskins took their John and fostered a passion for history in him, and the actual management of the Moggs’ industry had devolved upon a cousin and a junior partner.
Mr. Moggs, being of a studious and refined disposition42, had just decided43—after a careful search for a congenial subject in which he would not be constantly reminded of soap—to devote himself to the History of the Thebaid, when this cousin died suddenly and precipitated44 responsibilities upon him. In the frankness of conviviality45, Moggs bewailed the uncongenial task thus thrust into his hands, and my uncle offered to lighten his burden by a partnership46 then and there. They even got to terms—extremely muzzy terms, but terms nevertheless.
Each gentleman wrote the name and address of the other on his cuff47, and they separated in a mood of brotherly carelessness, and next morning neither seems to have thought to rescue his shirt from the wash until it was too late. My uncle made a painful struggle—it was one of my business mornings—to recall name and particulars.
“He was an aquarium-faced, long, blond sort of chap, George, with glasses and a genteel accent,” he said.
I was puzzled. “Aquarium-faced?”
“You know how they look at you. His stuff was soap, I’m pretty nearly certain. And he had a name—And the thing was the straightest Bit-of-All-right you ever. I was clear enough to spot that...”
We went out at last with knitted brows, and wandered up into Finsbury seeking a good, well-stocked looking grocer. We called first on a chemist for a pick-me-up for my uncle, and then we found the shop we needed.
“I want,” said my uncle, “half a pound of every sort of soap you got. Yes, I want to take them now. Wait a moment, George.... Now what sort of soap d’you call that?”
At the third repetition of that question the young man said, “Moggs’ Domestic.”
“Right,” said my uncle. “You needn’t guess again. Come along, George, let’s go to a telephone and get on to Moggs. Oh—the order? Certainly. I confirm it. Send it all—send it all to the Bishop48 of London; he’ll have some good use for it—(First-rate man, George, he is—charities and all that)—and put it down to me, here’s a card—Ponderevo—Tono-Bungay.”
Then we went on to Moggs and found him in a camel-hair dressing-jacket in a luxurious49 bed, drinking China tea, and got the shape of everything but the figures fixed50 by lunch time.
Young Moggs enlarged my mind considerably; he was a sort of thing I hadn’t met before; he seemed quite clean and well-informed and he assured me to never read newspapers nor used soap in any form at all, “Delicate skin,” he said.
“No objection to our advertising51 you wide and free?” said my uncle.
“I draw the line at railway stations,” said Moggs, “south-coast cliffs, theatre programmes, books by me and poetry generally—scenery—oh!—and the Mercure de France.”
“We’ll get along,” said my uncle.
“So long as you don’t annoy me,” said Moggs, lighting52 a cigarette, “you can make me as rich as you like.”
We certainly made him no poorer. His was the first firm that was advertised by a circumstantial history; we even got to illustrated53 magazine articles telling of the quaint54 past of Moggs. We concocted55 Moggsiana. Trusting to our partner’s preoccupation with the uncommercial aspects of life, we gave graceful56 history—of Moggs the First, Moggs the Second, Moggs the Third, and Moggs the Fourth. You must, unless you are very young, remember some of them and our admirable block of a Georgian shop window. My uncle brought early nineteenth-century memoirs57, soaked himself in the style, and devised stories about old Moggs the First and the Duke of Wellington, George the Third and the soap dealer58 (“almost certainly old Moggs”). Very soon we had added to the original Moggs’ Primrose59 several varieties of scented60 and superfatted, a “special nurseries used in the household of the Duke of Kent and for the old Queen in Infancy,” a plate powder, “the Paragon,” and a knife powder. We roped in a good little second-rate black-lead firm, and carried their origins back into the mists of antiquity61. It was my uncle’s own unaided idea that we should associate that commodity with the Black Prince. He became industriously62 curious about the past of black-lead. I remember his button-holing the president of the Pepys Society.
“I say, is there any black-lead in Pepys? You know—black-lead—for grates! Or does he pass it over as a matter of course?”
He became in those days the terror of eminent63 historians. “Don’t want your drum and trumpet64 history—no fear,” he used to say. “Don’t want to know who was who’s mistress, and why so-and-so devastated65 such a province; that’s bound to be all lies and upsy-down anyhow. Not my affair. Nobody’s affair now. Chaps who did it didn’t clearly know.... What I want to know is, in the Middle Ages, did they do anything for Housemaid’s Knee? What did they put in their hot baths after jousting66, and was the Black Prince—you know the Black Prince—was he enameled67 or painted, or what? I think myself, black-leaded—very likely—like pipe-clay—but did they use blacking so early?”
So it came about that in designing and writing those Moggs’ Soap Advertisements, that wrought69 a revolution in that department of literature, my uncle was brought to realise not only the lost history, but also the enormous field for invention and enterprise that lurked70 among the little articles, the dustpans and mincers, the mousetraps and carpet-sweepers that fringe the shops of the oilman and domestic ironmonger. He was recalled to one of the dreams of his youth, to his conception of the Ponderevo Patent Flat that had been in his mind so early as the days before I went to serve him at Wimblehurst. “The Home, George,” he said, “wants straightening up. Silly muddle72! Things that get in the way. Got to organise73 it.”
For a time he displayed something like the zeal74 of a genuine social reformer in relation to these matters.
“We’ve got to bring the Home Up to Date? That’s my idee, George. We got to make a civilised domestic machine out of these relics75 of barbarism. I’m going to hunt up inventors, make a corner in d’mestic ideas. Everything. Balls of string that won’t dissolve into a tangle76, and gum that won’t dry into horn. See? Then after conveniences—beauty. Beauty, George! All these few things ought to be made fit to look at; it’s your aunt’s idea, that. Beautiful jam-pots! Get one of those new art chaps to design all the things they make ugly now. Patent carpet-sweepers by these greenwood chaps, housemaid’s boxes it’ll be a pleasure to fall over—rich coloured house-flannels. Zzzz. Pails, f’rinstance. Hang ’em up on the walls like warming-pans. All the polishes and things in such tins—you’ll want to cuddle ’em, George! See the notion? ‘Sted of all the silly ugly things we got.”...
We had some magnificent visions; they so affected me that when I passed ironmongers and oil-shops they seemed to me as full of promise as trees in late winter, flushed with the effort to burst into leaf and flower.... And really we did do much towards that very brightness these shops display. They were dingy78 things in the eighties compared to what our efforts have made them now, grey quiet displays.
Well, I don’t intend to write down here the tortuous79 financial history of Moggs’ Limited, which was our first development of Moggs and Sons; nor will I tell very much of how from that we spread ourselves with a larger and larger conception throughout the chandlery and minor80 ironmongery, how we became agents for this little commodity, partners in that, got a tentacle81 round the neck of a specialised manufacturer or so, secured a pull upon this or that supply of raw material, and so prepared the way for our second flotation, Domestic Utilities; “Do it,” they reordered it in the city. And then came the reconstruction of Tono-Bungay, and then “Household services” and the Boom!
That sort of development is not to be told in detail in a novel. I have, indeed, told much of it elsewhere. It is to be found set out at length, painfully at length, in my uncle’s examination and mine in the bankruptcy83 proceedings84, and in my own various statements after his death. Some people know everything in that story, some know it all too well, most do not want the details, it is the story of a man of imagination among figures, and unless you are prepared to collate85 columns of pounds, shillings and pence, compare dates and check additions, you will find it very unmeaning and perplexing. And after all, you wouldn’t find the early figures so much wrong as strained. In the matter of Moggs and Do Ut, as in the first Tono-Bungay promotion34 and in its reconstruction, we left the court by city standards without a stain on our characters. The great amalgamation86 of Household Services was my uncle’s first really big-scale enterprise and his first display of bolder methods: for this we bought back Do Ut, Moggs (going strong with a seven per cent. dividend87) and acquired Skinnerton’s polishes, the Riffleshaw properties and the Runcorn’s mincer71 and coffee-mill business. To that Amalgamation I was really not a party; I left it to my uncle because I was then beginning to get keen upon the soaring experiments I had taken on from the results then to hand of Lilienthal, Pilcher and the Wright brothers. I was developing a glider88 into a flyer. I meant to apply power to this glider as soon as I could work out one or two residual89 problems affecting the longitudinal stability. I knew that I had a sufficiently90 light motor in my own modification91 of Bridger’s light turbine, but I knew too that until I had cured my aeroplane of a tendency demanding constant alertness from me, a tendency to jerk up its nose at unexpected moments and slide back upon me, the application of an engine would be little short of suicide.
But that I will tell about later. The point I was coming to was that I did not realise until after the crash how recklessly my uncle had kept his promise of paying a dividend of over eight per cent. on the ordinary shares of that hugely over-capitalised enterprise, Household Services.
I drifted out of business affairs into my research much more than either I or my uncle had contemplated92. Finance was much less to my taste than the organisation93 of the Tono-Bungay factory. In the new field of enterprise there was a great deal of bluffing94 and gambling95, of taking chances and concealing96 material facts—and these are hateful things to the scientific type of mind. It wasn’t fear I felt so much as an uneasy inaccuracy. I didn’t realise dangers, I simply disliked the sloppy97, relaxing quality of this new sort of work. I was at last constantly making excuses not to come up to him in London. The latter part of his business career recedes98 therefore beyond the circle of any particular life. I lived more or less with him; I talked, I advised, I helped him at times to fight his Sunday crowd at Crest Hill, but I did not follow nor guide him. From the Do Ut time onward99 he rushed up the financial world like a bubble in water and left me like some busy water-thing down below in the deeps.
Anyhow, he was an immense success. The public was, I think, particularly attracted by the homely100 familiarity of his field of work—you never lost sight of your investment they felt, with the name on the house-flannel77 and shaving-strop—and its allegiance was secured by the Egyptian solidity of his apparent results. Tono-Bungay, after its reconstruction, paid thirteen, Moggs seven, Domestic Utilities had been a safe-looking nine; here was Household Services with eight; on such a showing he had merely to buy and sell Roeburn’s Antiseptic fluid, Razor soaks and Bath crystals in three weeks to clear twenty thousand pounds.
I do think that as a matter of fact Roeburn’s was good value at the price at which he gave it to the public, at least until it was strained by ill-conserved advertisement. It was a period of expansion and confidence; much money was seeking investment and “Industrials” were the fashion. Prices were rising all round. There remained little more for my uncle to do therefore, in his climb to the high unstable101 crest of Financial Greatness but, as he said, to “grasp the cosmic oyster102, George, while it gaped,” which, being translated, meant for him to buy respectable businesses confidently and courageously104 at the vendor’s estimate, add thirty or forty thousand to the price and sell them again. His sole difficulty indeed was the tactful management of the load of shares that each of these transactions left upon his hands. But I thought so little of these later things that I never fully82 appreciated the peculiar105 inconveniences of that until it was too late to help him.
III
When I think of my uncle near the days of his Great Boom and in connection with the actualities of his enterprises, I think of him as I used to see him in the suite106 of rooms he occupied in the Hardingham Hotel, seated at a great old oak writing-table, smoking, drinking, and incoherently busy; that was his typical financial aspect—our evenings, our mornings, our holidays, our motor-car expeditions, Lady Grove107 and Crest Hill belong to an altogether different set of memories.
These rooms in the Hardingham were a string of apartments along one handsome thick-carpeted corridor. All the doors upon the corridor were locked except the first; and my uncle’s bedroom, breakfast-room and private sanctum were the least accessible and served by an entrance from the adjacent passage, which he also used at times as a means of escape from importunate108 callers. The most eternal room was a general waiting-room and very business-like in quality; it had one or two uneasy sofas, a number of chairs, a green baize table, and a collection of the very best Moggs and Tone posters: and the plush carpets normal to the Hardingham had been replaced by a grey-green cork109 linoleum110; Here I would always find a remarkable111 miscellany of people presided over by a peculiarly faithful and ferocious112 looking commissioner113, Ropper, who guarded the door that led a step nearer my uncle. Usually there would be a parson or so, and one or two widows; hairy, eyeglassy, middle-aged114 gentlemen, some of them looking singularly like Edward Ponderevos who hadn’t come off, a variety of young and youngish men more or less attractively dressed, some with papers protruding115 from their pockets, others with their papers decently concealed116. And wonderful, incidental, frowsy people.
All these persons maintained a practically hopeless siege—sometimes for weeks together; they had better have stayed at home. Next came a room full of people who had some sort of appointment, and here one would find smart-looking people, brilliantly dressed, nervous women hiding behind magazines, nonconformist divines, clergy117 in gaiters, real business men, these latter for the most part gentlemen in admirable morning dress who stood up and scrutinised my uncle’s taste in water colours manfully and sometimes by the hour together. Young men again were here of various social origins, young Americans, treasonable clerks from other concerns, university young men, keen-looking, most of them, resolute, reserved, but on a sort of hair trigger, ready at any moment to be most voluble, most persuasive118.
This room had a window, too, looking out into the hotel courtyard with its fern-set fountains and mosaic119 pavement, and the young men would stand against this and sometimes even mutter. One day I heard one repeating in all urgent whisper as I passed “But you don’t quite see, Mr. Ponderevo, the full advantages, the full advantages—” I met his eye and he was embarrassed.
Then came a room with a couple of secretaries—no typewriters, because my uncle hated the clatter—and a casual person or two sitting about, projectors120 whose projects were being entertained. Here and in a further room nearer the private apartments, my uncle’s correspondence underwent an exhaustive process of pruning121 and digestion122 before it reached him. Then the two little rooms in which my uncle talked; my magic uncle who had got the investing public—to whom all things were possible. As one came in we would find him squatting123 with his cigar up and an expression of dubious124 beatitude upon his face, while some one urged him to grow still richer by this or that.
“That’ju, George?” he used to say. “Come in. Here’s a thing. Tell him—Mister—over again. Have a drink, George? No! Wise man! Liss’n.”
I was always ready to listen. All sorts of financial marvels125 came out of the Hardingham, more particularly during my uncle’s last great flurry, but they were nothing to the projects that passed in. It was the little brown and gold room he sat in usually. He had had it redecorated by Bordingly and half a dozen Sussex pictures by Webster hung about it. Latterly he wore a velveteen jacket of a golden-brown colour in this apartment that I think over-emphasised its esthetic126 intention, and he also added some gross Chinese bronzes.
He was, on the whole, a very happy man throughout all that wildly enterprising time. He made and, as I shall tell in its place, spent great sums of money. He was constantly in violent motion, constantly stimulated127 mentally and physically128 and rarely tired. About him was an atmosphere of immense deference129 much of his waking life was triumphal and all his dreams. I doubt if he had any dissatisfaction with himself at all until the crash bore him down. Things must have gone very rapidly with him.... I think he must have been very happy.
As I sit here writing about all these things, jerking down notes and throwing them aside in my attempt to give some literary form to the tale of our promotions, the marvel37 of it all comes to me as if it came for the first time the supreme130 unreason of it. At the climax of his Boom, my uncle at the most sparing estimate must have possessed131 in substance and credit about two million pounds’-worth of property to set off against his vague colossal132 liabilities, and from first to last he must have had a controlling influence in the direction of nearly thirty millions.
This irrational133 muddle of a community in which we live gave him that, paid him at that rate for sitting in a room and scheming and telling it lies. For he created nothing, he invented nothing, he economised nothing. I cannot claim that a single one of the great businesses we organised added any real value to human life at all. Several like Tono-Bungay were unmitigated frauds by any honest standard, the giving of nothing coated in advertisements for money. And the things the Hardingham gave out, I repeat, were nothing to the things that came in. I think of the long procession of people who sat down before us and propounded134 this and that. Now it was a device for selling bread under a fancy name and so escaping the laws as to weight—this was afterwards floated as the Decorticated Health-Bread Company and bumped against the law—now it was a new scheme for still more strident advertisement, now it was a story of unsuspected deposits of minerals, now a cheap and nasty substitute for this or that common necessity, now the treachery of a too well-informed employee, anxious to become our partner. It was all put to us tentatively, persuasively135. Sometimes one had a large pink blusterous person trying to carry us off our feet by his pseudo-boyish frankness, now some dyspeptically yellow whisperer, now some earnest, specially136 dressed youth with an eye-glass and a buttonhole, now some homely-speaking, shrewd Manchester man or some Scotchman eager to be very clear and full.
Many came in couples or trios, often in tow of an explanatory solicitor137. Some were white and earnest, some flustered138 beyond measure at their opportunity. Some of them begged and prayed to be taken up. My uncle chose what he wanted and left the rest. He became very autocratic to these applicants139.
He felt he could make them, and they felt so too. He had but to say “No!” and they faded out of existence.... He had become a sort of vortex to which wealth flowed of its own accord. His possessions increased by heaps; his shares, his leaseholds140 and mortgages and debentures141.
Behind his first-line things he found it necessary at last, and sanctioned by all the precincts, to set up three general trading companies, the London and African Investment Company, the British Traders’ Loan Company, and Business Organisations Limited. This was in the culminating time when I had least to do with affairs. I don’t say that with any desire to exculpate142 myself; I admit I was a director of all three, and I will confess I was willfully incurious in that capacity. Each of these companies ended its financial year solvent143 by selling great holdings of shares to one or other of its sisters, and paying a dividend out of the proceeds. I sat at the table and agreed. That was our method of equilibrium144 at the iridescent145 climax of the bubble.
You perceive now, however, the nature of the services for which this fantastic community have him unmanageable wealth and power and real respect. It was all a monstrous146 payment for courageous103 fiction, a gratuity147 in return for the one reality of human life—illusion. We gave them a feeling of hope and profit; we sent a tidal wave of water and confidence into their stranded148 affairs. “We mint Faith, George,” said my uncle one day. “That’s what we do. And by Jove we got to keep minting! We been making human confidence ever since I drove the first cork of Tono-Bungay.”
“Coining” would have been a better word than minting! And yet, you know, in a sense he was right. Civilisation149 is possible only through confidence, so that we can bank our money and go unarmed about the streets. The bank reserve or a policeman keeping order in a jostling multitude of people, are only slightly less impudent150 bluffs151 than my uncle’s prospectuses152. They couldn’t for a moment “make good” if the quarter of what they guarantee was demanded of them. The whole of this modern mercantile investing civilisation is indeed such stuff as dreams are made of. A mass of people swelters and toils153, great railway systems grow, cities arise to the skies and spread wide and far, mines are opened, factories hum, foundries roar, ships plough the seas, countries are settled; about this busy striving world the rich owners go, controlling all, enjoying all, confident and creating the confidence that draws us all together into a reluctant, nearly unconscious brotherhood155. I wonder and plan my engines. The flags flutter, the crowds cheer, the legislatures meet. Yet it seems to me indeed at times that all this present commercial civilisation is no more than my poor uncle’s career writ68 large, a swelling156, thinning bubble of assurances; that its arithmetic is just as unsound, its dividends157 as ill-advised, its ultimate aim as vague and forgotten; that it all drifts on perhaps to some tremendous parallel to his individual disaster...
Well, so it was we Boomed, and for four years and a half we lived a life of mingled158 substance and moonshine. Until our particular unsoundness overtook us we went about in the most magnificent of motor-cars upon tangible159 high roads, made ourselves conspicuous160 and stately in splendid houses, ate sumptuously161 and had a perpetual stream of notes and money trickling162 into our pockets; hundreds of thousands of men and women respected us, saluted163 us and gave us toil154 and honour; I asked, and my worksheets rose, my aeroplanes swooped164 out of nothingness to scare the downland pe-wits; my uncle waved his hand and Lady Grove and all its associations of chivalry165 and ancient peace were his; waved again, and architects were busy planning the great palace he never finished at Crest Hill and an army of folkmen gathered to do his bidding, blue marble came from Canada, and timber from New Zealand; and beneath it all, you know, there was nothing but fictitious166 values as evanescent as rainbow gold.
IV
I pass the Hardingham ever and again and glance aside through the great archway at the fountain and the ferns, and think of those receding167 days when I was so near the centre of our eddy168 of greed and enterprise. I see again my uncle’s face, white and intent, and hear him discourse169, hear him make consciously Napoleonic decisions, “grip” his nettles170, put his “finger on the spot,” “bluff,” say “snap.” He became particularly addicted171 to the last idiom. Towards the end every conceivable act took the form of saying “snap!”
The odd fish that came to us! And among others came Gordon-Nasmyth, that queer blend of romance and illegality who was destined172 to drag me into the most irrelevant173 adventure in my life the Mordet Island affair; and leave me, as they say, with blood upon my hands. It is remarkable how little it troubles my conscience and how much it stirs my imagination, that particular memory of the life I took. The story of Mordet Island has been told in a government report and told all wrong; there are still excellent reasons for leaving it wrong in places, but the liveliest appeals of discretion174 forbid my leaving it out altogether.
I’ve still the vividest memory of Gordon-Nasmyth’s appearance in the inner sanctum, a lank175, sunburnt person in tweeds with a yellow-brown hatchet176 face and one faded blue eye—the other was a closed and sunken lid—and how he told us with a stiff affectation of ease his incredible story of this great heap of quap that lay abandoned or undiscovered on the beach behind Mordet’s Island among white dead mangroves and the black ooze177 of brackish178 water.
“What’s quap?” said my uncle on the fourth repetition of the word.
“They call it quap, or quab, or quabb,” said Gordon-Nasmyth; “but our relations weren’t friendly enough to get the accent right....
“But there the stuff is for the taking. They don’t know about it. Nobody knows about it. I got down to the damned place in a canoe alone. The boys wouldn’t come. I pretended to be botanising.” ...
To begin with, Gordon-Nasmyth was inclined to be dramatic.
“Look here,” he said when he first came in, shutting the door rather carefully behind him as he spoke179, “do you two men—yes or no—want to put up six thousand—for—a clear good chance of fifteen hundred per cent. on your money in a year?”
“We’re always getting chances like that,” said my uncle, cocking his cigar offensively, wiping his glasses and tilting180 his chair back. “We stick to a safe twenty.”
Gordon-Nasmyth’s quick temper showed in a slight stiffening181 of his attitude.
“Don’t you believe him,” said I, getting up before he could reply. “You’re different, and I know your books. We’re very glad you’ve come to us. Confound it, uncle! Its Gordon-Nasmyth! Sit down. What is it? Minerals?”
“Quap,” said Gordon-Nasmyth, fixing his eye on me, “in heaps.”
“You’re only fit for the grocery,” said Gordon-Nasmyth scornfully, sitting down and helping183 himself to one of my uncle’s cigars. “I’m sorry I came. But, still, now I’m here.... And first as to quap; quap, sir, is the most radio-active stuff in the world. That’s quap! It’s a festering mass of earths and heavy metals, polonium, radium, ythorium, thorium, carium, and new things, too. There’s a stuff called Xk—provisionally. There they are, mucked up together in a sort of rotting sand. What it is, how it got made, I don’t know. It’s like as if some young creator had been playing about there. There it lies in two heaps, one small, one great, and the world for miles about it is blasted and scorched184 and dead. You can have it for the getting. You’ve got to take it—that’s all!”
“That sounds all right,” said I. “Have you samples?”
“Well—should I? You can have anything—up to two ounces.”
“Where is it?”...
His blue eye smiled at me and scrutinised me. He smoked and was fragmentary for a time, fending185 off my questions; then his story began to piece itself together. He conjured186 up a vision of this strange forgotten kink in the world’s littoral187, of the long meandering188 channels that spread and divaricate and spend their burden of mud and silt189 within the thunderbelt of Atlantic surf, of the dense190 tangled191 vegetation that creeps into the shimmering192 water with root and sucker. He gave a sense of heat and a perpetual reek193 of vegetable decay, and told how at last comes a break among these things, an arena194 fringed with bone-white dead trees, a sight of the hard-blue sea line beyond the dazzling surf and a wide desolation of dirty shingle195 and mud, bleached196 and scarred.... A little way off among charred197 dead weeds stands the abandoned station,—abandoned because every man who stayed two months at that station stayed to die, eaten up mysteriously like a leper with its dismantled198 sheds and its decaying pier199 of wormrotten and oblique piles and planks200, still insecurely possible.
And in the midst, two clumsy heaps shaped like the backs of hogs201, one small, one great, sticking out under a rib1 of rock that cuts the space across,—quap!
“There it is,” said Gordon-Nasmyth, “worth three pounds an ounce, if it’s worth a penny; two great heaps of it, rotten stuff and soft, ready to shovel202 and wheel, and you may get it by the ton!”
“How did it get there?”
“God knows! ... There it is—for the taking! In a country where you mustn’t trade. In a country where the company waits for good kind men to find it riches and then take ’em away from ’em. There you have it—derelict.”
“Can’t you do any sort of deal?”
“They’re too damned stupid. You’ve got to go and take it. That’s all.”
“They might catch you.”
We went into the particulars of that difficulty. “They wouldn’t catch me, because I’d sink first. Give me a yacht,” said Gordon-Nasmyth; “that’s all I need.”
“But if you get caught,” said my uncle.
I am inclined to think Gordon-Nasmyth imagined we would give him a cheque for six thousand pounds on the strength of his talk. It was very good talk, but we didn’t do that. I stipulated204 for samples of his stuff for analysis, and he consented—reluctantly.
I think, on the whole, he would rather I didn’t examine samples. He made a motion pocketwards, that gave us an invincible205 persuasion206 that he had a sample upon him, and that at the last instant he decided not to produce it prematurely207.
There was evidently a curious strain of secretiveness in him. He didn’t like to give us samples, and he wouldn’t indicate within three hundred miles the position of this Mordet Island of his. He had it clear in his mind that he had a secret of immense value, and he had no idea at all of just how far he ought to go with business people. And so presently, to gain time for these hesitations208 of his, he began to talk of other things. He talked very well. He talked of the Dutch East Indies and of the Congo, of Portuguese209 East Africa and Paraguay, of Malays and rich Chinese merchants, Dyaks and negroes and the spread of the Mahometan world in Africa to-day. And all this time he was trying to judge if we were good enough to trust with his adventure. Our cosy210 inner office became a little place, and all our business cold and lifeless exploits beside his glimpses of strange minglings of men, of slayings unavenged and curious customs, of trade where no writs211 run, and the dark treacheries of eastern ports and uncharted channels.
We had neither of us gone abroad except for a few vulgar raids on Paris; our world was England, are the places of origin of half the raw material of the goods we sold had seemed to us as remote as fairyland or the forest of Arden. But Gordon-Nasmyth made it so real and intimate for us that afternoon—for me, at any rate—that it seemed like something seen and forgotten and now again remembered.
And in the end he produced his sample, a little lump of muddy clay speckled with brownish grains, in a glass bottle wrapped about with lead and flannel—red flannel it was, I remember—a hue212 which is, I know, popularly supposed to double all the mystical efficacies of flannel.
“Don’t carry it about on you,” said Gordon-Nasmyth. “It makes a sore.”
I took the stuff to Thorold, and Thorold had the exquisite213 agony of discovering two new elements in what was then a confidential214 analysis. He has christened them and published since, but at the time Gordon-Nasmyth wouldn’t hear for a moment of our publication of any facts at all; indeed, he flew into a violent passion and abused me mercilessly even for showing the stuff to Thorold. “I thought you were going to analyse it yourself,” he said with the touching215 persuasion of the layman216 that a scientific man knows and practises at the sciences.
I made some commercial inquiries217, and there seemed even then much truth in Gordon-Nasmyth’s estimate of the value of the stuff. It was before the days of Capern’s discovery of the value of canadium and his use of it in the Capern filament218, but the cerium and thorium alone were worth the money he extracted for the gas-mantles then in vogue219. There were, however, doubts. Indeed, there were numerous doubts. What were the limits of the gas-mantle trade? How much thorium, not to speak of cerium, could they take at a maximum. Suppose that quantity was high enough to justify220 our shipload, came doubts in another quarter. Were the heaps up to sample? Were they as big as he said? Was Gordon-Nasmyth—imaginative? And if these values held, could we after all get the stuff? It wasn’t ours. It was on forbidden ground. You see, there were doubts of every grade and class in the way of this adventure.
We went some way, nevertheless, in the discussion of his project, though I think we tried his patience. Then suddenly he vanished from London, and I saw no more of him for a year and a half.
My uncle said that was what he had expected, and when at last Gordon-Nasmyth reappeared and mentioned in an incidental way that he had been to Paraguay on private (and we guessed passionate) affairs, the business of the “quap” expedition had to be begun again at the beginning. My uncle was disposed to be altogether sceptical, but I wasn’t so decided. I think I was drawn221 by its picturesque222 aspects. But we neither of us dreamt of touching it seriously until Capern’s discovery.
Nasmyth’s story had laid hold of my imagination like one small, intense picture of tropical sunshine hung on a wall of grey business affairs. I kept it going during Gordon-Nasmyth’s intermittent223 appearances in England. Every now and then he and I would meet and reinforce its effect. We would lunch in London, or he would cone224 to see my gliders225 at Crest Hill, and make new projects for getting at those heaps again now with me, now alone.
At times they became a sort of fairy-story with us, an imaginative exercise. And there came Capern’s discovery of what he called the ideal filament and with it an altogether less problematical quality about the business side of quap. For the ideal filament needed five per cent. of canadium, and canadium was known to the world only as a newly separated constituent226 of a variety of the rare mineral rutile. But to Thorold it was better known as an element in a mysterious sample brought to him by me, and to me it was known as one of the elements in quap. I told my uncle, and we jumped on to the process at once. We found that Gordon-Nasmyth, still unaware227 of the altered value of the stuff, and still thinking of the experimental prices of radium and the rarity value of cerium, had got hold of a cousin named Pollack, made some extraordinary transaction about his life insurance policy, and was buying a brig. We put in, put down three thousand pounds, and forthwith the life insurance transaction and the Pollack side of this finance vanished into thin air, leaving Pollack, I regret to say, in the brig and in the secret—except so far as canadium and the filament went—as residuum. We discussed earnestly whether we should charter a steamer or go on with the brig, but we decided on the brig as a less conspicuous instrument for an enterprise that was after all, to put it plainly, stealing.
But that was one of our last enterprises before our great crisis, and I will tell of it in its place.
So it was quap came into our affairs, came in as a fairy-tale and became real. More and more real it grew until at last it was real, until at last I saw with my eyes the heaps my imagination had seen for so long, and felt between my fingers again that half-gritty, half soft texture228 of quap, like sanded moist-sugar mixed with clay in which there stirs something—
One must feel it to understand.
V
All sorts of things came to the Hardingham and offered themselves to my uncle. Gordon-Nasmyth stands but only because he played a part at last in the crisis of our fortunes. So much came to us that it seemed to me at times as though the whole world of human affairs was ready to prostitute itself to our real and imaginary millions. As I look back, I am still dazzled and incredulous to think of the quality of our opportunities.
We did the most extraordinary things; things that it seems absurd to me to leave to any casual man of wealth and enterprise who cares to do them. I had some amazing perceptions of just how modern thought and the supply of fact to the general mind may be controlled by money. Among other things that my uncle offered for, he tried very hard to buy the British Medical Journal and the Lancet, and run them on what he called modern lines, and when they resisted him he talked very vigorously for a time of organising a rival enterprise. That was a very magnificent idea indeed in its way; it would have given a tremendous advantage in the handling of innumerable specialties and indeed I scarcely know how far it would not have put the medical profession in our grip. It still amazes me—I shall die amazed—that such a thing can be possible in the modern state. If my uncle failed to bring the thing off, some one else may succeed. But I doubt, even if he had got both these weeklies, whether his peculiar style would have suited them. The change of purpose would have shown. He would have found it difficult to keep up their dignity.
He certainly did not keep up the dignity of the Sacred Grove, an important critical organ which he acquired one day—by saying “snap”—for eight hundred pounds. He got it “lock, stock and barrel”—under one or other of which three aspects the editor was included. Even at that price it didn’t pay. If you are a literary person you will remember the bright new cover he gave that representative organ of British intellectual culture, and how his sound business instincts jarred with the exalted229 pretensions230 of a vanishing age. One old wrapper I discovered the other day runs:—
“THE SACRED GROVE.”
HAVE YOU A NASTY TASTE IN YOUR MOUTH?
IT IS LIVER.
YOU NEED ONE TWENTY-THREE PILL.
(JUST ONE.)
NOT A DRUG BUT A LIVE AMERICAN REMEDY.
CONTENTS.
A Hitherto Unpublished Letter from Walter Pater.
A New Catholic History of England.
The Genius of Shakespeare.
Correspondence:—The Mendelian Hypothesis; The Split Infinitive233; “Commence,” or “Begin;” Claverhouse; Socialism and the Individual; The Dignity of Letters.
Folk-lore Gossip.
Travel Biography, Verse, Fiction, etc.
THE BEST PILL IN THE WORLD FOR AN IRREGULAR LIVER
I suppose it is some lingering traces of the Bladesover tradition to me that makes this combination of letters and pills seem so incongruous, just as I suppose it is a lingering trace of Plutarch and my ineradicable boyish imagination that at bottom our State should be wise, sane236 and dignified237, that makes me think a country which leaves its medical and literary criticism, or indeed any such vitally important criticism, entirely238 to private enterprise and open to the advances of any purchaser must be in a frankly239 hopeless condition. These are ideal conceptions of mine.
As a matter of fact, nothing would be more entirely natural and representative of the relations of learning, thought and the economic situation in the world at the present time than this cover of the Sacred Grove—the quiet conservatism of the one element embedded240 in the aggressive brilliance241 of the other; the contrasted notes of bold physiological242 experiment and extreme mental immobility.
VI
There comes back, too, among these Hardingham memories, an impression of a drizzling243 November day, and how we looked out of the windows upon a procession of the London unemployed244.
It was like looking down a well into some momentarily revealed nether245 world. Some thousands of needy246 ineffectual men had been raked together to trail their spiritless misery247 through the West Eire with an appeal that was also in its way a weak and insubstantial threat: “It is Work we need, not Charity.”
There they were, half-phantom through the fog, a silent, foot-dragging, interminable, grey procession. They carried wet, dirty banners, they rattled248 boxes for pence; these men who had not said “snap” in the right place, the men who had “snapped” too eagerly, the men who had never said “snap,” the men who had never had a chance of saying “snap.” A shambling, shameful249 stream they made, oozing250 along the street, the gutter251 waste of competitive civilisation. And we stood high out of it all, as high as if we looked godlike from another world, standing252 in a room beautifully lit and furnished, skillfully warmed, filled with costly253 things.
“There,” thought I, “but for the grace of God, go George and Edward Ponderevo.”
But my uncle’s thoughts ran in a different channel, and he made that vision the test of a spirited but inconclusive harangue254 upon Tariff255 Reform.
《时间机器 The Time Machine》
《隐身人 The Invisible Man》
《The Sleeper Awakes》
《时间机器 The Time Machine》
《隐身人 The Invisible Man》
《The Sleeper Awakes》
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rib
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| n.肋骨，肋状物 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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flexibility
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| n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性 | |
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secular
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| n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的 | |
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intensification
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| n.激烈化，增强明暗度；加厚 | |
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obliquity
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| n.倾斜度 | |
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jauntily
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| adv.心满意足地；洋洋得意地；高兴地；活泼地 | |
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droops
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的名词复数 ) | |
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eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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askew
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| adv.斜地；adj.歪斜的 | |
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stiffen
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| v.(使)硬，(使)变挺，(使)变僵硬 | |
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climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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onset
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| n.进攻，袭击，开始，突然开始 | |
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axis
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| n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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ripened
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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opulence
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| n.财富，富裕 | |
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wary
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| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
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omnivorous
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| adj.杂食的 | |
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perspire
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| vi.出汗，流汗 | |
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distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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reconstruction
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| n.重建，再现，复原 | |
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crescendo
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| n.(音乐)渐强，高潮 | |
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promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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promotions
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| 促进( promotion的名词复数 )； 提升； 推广； 宣传 | |
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investors
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| n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 ) | |
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marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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specialties
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| n.专门，特性，特别；专业( specialty的名词复数 )；特性；特制品；盖印的契约 | |
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resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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illustrates
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| 给…加插图( illustrate的第三人称单数 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明 | |
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degenerate
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| v.退步，堕落；adj.退步的，堕落的；n.堕落者 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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precipitated
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| v.（突如其来地）使发生( precipitate的过去式和过去分词 )；促成；猛然摔下；使沉淀 | |
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conviviality
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| n.欢宴，高兴，欢乐 | |
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partnership
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| n.合作关系，伙伴关系 | |
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cuff
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| n.袖口；手铐；护腕；vt.用手铐铐；上袖口 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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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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advertising
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| n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的 | |
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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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illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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concocted
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| v.将（尤指通常不相配合的）成分混合成某物( concoct的过去式和过去分词 )；调制；编造；捏造 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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memoirs
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| n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数) | |
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dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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primrose
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| n.樱草，最佳部分， | |
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scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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industriously
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eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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trumpet
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| n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘 | |
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devastated
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| v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的 | |
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jousting
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| （骑士）骑马用长矛比武( joust的现在分词 ) | |
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enameled
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| 涂瓷釉于，给…上瓷漆，给…上彩饰( enamel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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writ
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| n.命令状，书面命令 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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lurked
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| vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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mincer
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| n.粉碎机 | |
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muddle
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| n.困惑，混浊状态；vt.使混乱，使糊涂，使惊呆；vi.胡乱应付，混乱 | |
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73
organise
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| vt.组织，安排，筹办 | |
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zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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75
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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76
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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77
flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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78
dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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79
tortuous
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| adj.弯弯曲曲的，蜿蜒的 | |
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80
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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81
tentacle
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| n.触角，触须，触手 | |
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82
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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83
bankruptcy
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| n.破产；无偿付能力 | |
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84
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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85
collate
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| vt.(仔细)核对，对照；(书籍装订前)整理 | |
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86
amalgamation
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| n.合并，重组；；汞齐化 | |
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87
dividend
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| n.红利，股息；回报，效益 | |
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88
glider
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| n.滑翔机；滑翔导弹 | |
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89
residual
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| adj.复播复映追加时间；存留下来的，剩余的 | |
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90
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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91
modification
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| n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻 | |
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92
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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93
organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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94
bluffing
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| n. 威吓，唬人 动词bluff的现在分词形式 | |
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95
gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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96
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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97
sloppy
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| adj.邋遢的，不整洁的 | |
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98
recedes
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的第三人称单数 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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99
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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100
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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101
unstable
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| adj.不稳定的，易变的 | |
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102
oyster
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| n.牡蛎；沉默寡言的人 | |
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103
courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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104
courageously
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| ad.勇敢地，无畏地 | |
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105
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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106
suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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107
grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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108
importunate
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| adj.强求的；纠缠不休的 | |
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109
cork
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| n.软木，软木塞 | |
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110
linoleum
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| n.油布，油毯 | |
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111
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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112
ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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113
commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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114
middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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115
protruding
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的现在分词 )；凸 | |
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116
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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117
clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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118
persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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119
mosaic
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| n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的 | |
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120
projectors
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| 电影放映机，幻灯机( projector的名词复数 ) | |
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121
pruning
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| n.修枝，剪枝，修剪v.修剪（树木等）( prune的现在分词 )；精简某事物，除去某事物多余的部分 | |
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122
digestion
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| n.消化，吸收 | |
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123
squatting
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的现在分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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124
dubious
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| adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的 | |
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125
marvels
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| n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 )；令人惊奇的事物（或事例）；不平凡的成果；成就v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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126
esthetic
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| adj.美学的，审美的；悦目的，雅致的 | |
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127
stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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128
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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129
deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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130
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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131
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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132
colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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133
irrational
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| adj.无理性的，失去理性的 | |
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134
propounded
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| v.提出（问题、计划等）供考虑[讨论]，提议( propound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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135
persuasively
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| adv.口才好地；令人信服地 | |
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136
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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137
solicitor
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| n.初级律师，事务律师 | |
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138
flustered
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| adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词) | |
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139
applicants
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| 申请人，求职人( applicant的名词复数 ) | |
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140
leaseholds
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| n.租赁权，租赁期，租赁物( leasehold的名词复数 ) | |
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141
debentures
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| n.公司债券( debenture的名词复数 ) | |
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142
exculpate
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| v.开脱，使无罪 | |
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143
solvent
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| n.溶剂；adj.有偿付能力的 | |
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144
equilibrium
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| n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静 | |
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145
iridescent
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| adj.彩虹色的，闪色的 | |
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146
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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147
gratuity
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| n.赏钱，小费 | |
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148
stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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149
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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150
impudent
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| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
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151
bluffs
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| 恐吓( bluff的名词复数 )； 悬崖； 峭壁 | |
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152
prospectuses
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| n.章程，简章，简介( prospectus的名词复数 ) | |
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153
toils
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| 网 | |
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154
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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155
brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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156
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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157
dividends
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| 红利( dividend的名词复数 )； 股息； 被除数； （足球彩票的）彩金 | |
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158
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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159
tangible
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| adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的 | |
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160
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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161
sumptuously
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| 奢侈地，豪华地 | |
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162
trickling
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| n.油画底色含油太多而成泡沫状突起v.滴( trickle的现在分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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163
saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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164
swooped
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| 俯冲，猛冲( swoop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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165
chivalry
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| n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤 | |
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166
fictitious
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| adj.虚构的，假设的；空头的 | |
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167
receding
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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168
eddy
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| n.漩涡，涡流 | |
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169
discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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170
nettles
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| n.荨麻( nettle的名词复数 ) | |
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171
addicted
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| adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的 | |
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172
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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173
irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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174
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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175
lank
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| adj.瘦削的；稀疏的 | |
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176
hatchet
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| n.短柄小斧；v.扼杀 | |
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177
ooze
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| n.软泥，渗出物；vi.渗出，泄漏；vt.慢慢渗出，流露 | |
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178
brackish
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| adj.混有盐的；咸的 | |
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179
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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180
tilting
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| 倾斜，倾卸 | |
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181
stiffening
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| n. (使衣服等)变硬的材料, 硬化 动词stiffen的现在分词形式 | |
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182
oblique
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| adj.斜的，倾斜的，无诚意的，不坦率的 | |
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183
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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184
scorched
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| 烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦 | |
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185
fending
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| v.独立生活，照料自己( fend的现在分词 )；挡开，避开 | |
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186
conjured
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| 用魔术变出( conjure的过去式和过去分词 )； 祈求，恳求； 变戏法； （变魔术般地） 使…出现 | |
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187
littoral
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| adj.海岸的；湖岸的；n.沿（海）岸地区 | |
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188
meandering
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| 蜿蜒的河流，漫步，聊天 | |
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189
silt
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| n.淤泥，淤沙，粉砂层，泥沙层；vt.使淤塞；vi.被淤塞 | |
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190
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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191
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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192
shimmering
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| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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193
reek
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| v.发出臭气；n.恶臭 | |
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194
arena
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| n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台 | |
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195
shingle
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| n.木瓦板；小招牌(尤指医生或律师挂的营业招牌)；v.用木瓦板盖（屋顶）；把（女子头发）剪短 | |
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196
bleached
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| 漂白的，晒白的，颜色变浅的 | |
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197
charred
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| v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦 | |
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198
dismantled
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|
| 拆开( dismantle的过去式和过去分词 )； 拆卸； 废除； 取消 | |
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199
pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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200
planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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201
hogs
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| n.（尤指喂肥供食用的）猪( hog的名词复数 )；（供食用的）阉公猪；彻底地做某事；自私的或贪婪的人 | |
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202
shovel
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| n.铁锨，铲子，一铲之量；v.铲，铲出 | |
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203
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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204
stipulated
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| vt.& vi.规定；约定adj.[法]合同规定的 | |
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205
invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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206
persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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207
prematurely
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| adv.过早地，贸然地 | |
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208
hesitations
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| n.犹豫( hesitation的名词复数 )；踌躇；犹豫（之事或行为）；口吃 | |
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209
Portuguese
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| n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语 | |
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210
cosy
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| adj.温暖而舒适的，安逸的 | |
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211
writs
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| n.书面命令，令状( writ的名词复数 ) | |
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212
hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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213
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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214
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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215
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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216
layman
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| n.俗人，门外汉，凡人 | |
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217
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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218
filament
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| n.细丝；长丝；灯丝 | |
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219
Vogue
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| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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220
justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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221
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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222
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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223
intermittent
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| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
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224
cone
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| n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果 | |
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225
gliders
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| n.滑翔机( glider的名词复数 ) | |
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226
constituent
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| n.选民；成分，组分；adj.组成的，构成的 | |
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227
unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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228
texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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229
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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230
pretensions
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| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
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231
belles
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| n.美女( belle的名词复数 )；最美的美女 | |
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232
maternal
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| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
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233
infinitive
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| n.不定词；adj.不定词的 | |
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234
paradox
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| n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物) | |
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235
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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236
sane
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| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
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237
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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238
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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239
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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240
embedded
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| a.扎牢的 | |
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241
brilliance
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| n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智 | |
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242
physiological
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| adj.生理学的，生理学上的 | |
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243
drizzling
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| 下蒙蒙细雨，下毛毛雨( drizzle的现在分词 ) | |
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244
unemployed
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| adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的 | |
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245
nether
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| adj.下部的，下面的；n.阴间；下层社会 | |
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246
needy
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| adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的 | |
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247
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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248
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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249
shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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250
oozing
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| v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的现在分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出 | |
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251
gutter
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| n.沟，街沟，水槽，檐槽，贫民窟 | |
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252
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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253
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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254
harangue
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| n.慷慨冗长的训话，言辞激烈的讲话 | |
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255
tariff
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| n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表 | |
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