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CHAPTER THE SEVENTH
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 THE CRISIS
I
The crisis came about a week from that time—I say about because of Melville’s conscientious1 inexactness in these matters. And so far as the crisis goes, I seem to get Melville at his best. He was keenly interested, keenly observant, and his more than average memory took some excellent impressions. To my mind, at any rate, two at least of these people come out, fuller and more convincingly than anywhere else in this painfully disinterred story. He has given me here an Adeline I seem to believe in, and something much more like Chatteris than any of the broken fragments I have had to go upon, and[205] amplify3 and fudge together so far. And for all such transient lucidities in this mysterious story, the reader no doubt will echo my Heaven be thanked!
 
Melville was called down to participate in the crisis at Sandgate by a telegram from Mrs. Bunting, and his first exponent4 of the situation was Fred Bunting.
 
“Come down. Urgent. Please,” was the irresistible5 message from Mrs. Bunting. My cousin took the early train and arrived at Sandgate in the forenoon.
 
He was told that Mrs. Bunting was upstairs with Miss Glendower and that she implored6 him to wait until she could leave her charge. “Miss Glendower not well, then?” said Melville. “No, sir, not at all well,” said the housemaid, evidently awaiting a further question. “Where are the others?” he asked casually7. The three younger young ladies had gone to Hythe,[206] said the housemaid, with a marked omission8 of the Sea Lady. Melville has an intense dislike of questioning servants on points at issue, so he asked nothing at all concerning Miss Waters. This general absence of people from the room of familiar occupation conveyed the same suggested warning of crisis as the telegram. The housemaid waited an instant longer and withdrew.
 
He stood for a moment in the drawing-room and then walked out upon the veranda9. He perceived a richly caparisoned figure advancing towards him. It was Fred Bunting. He had been taking advantage of the general desertion of home to bathe from the house. He was wearing an umbrageous10 white cotton hat and a striped blanket, and a more aggressively manly11 pipe than any fully2 adult male would ever dream of smoking, hung from the corner of his mouth.[207]
 
“Hello!” he said. “The mater sent for you?”
 
Melville admitted the truth of this theory.
 
“There’s ructions,” said Fred, and removed the pipe. The act offered conversation.
 
“Where’s Miss Waters?”
 
“Gone.”
 
“Back?”
 
“Lord, no! Catch her! She’s gone to Lummidge’s Hotel. With her maid. Took a suite12.”
 
“Why——”
 
“The mater made a row with her.”
 
“Whatever for?”
 
Harry13.”
 
My cousin stared at the situation.
 
“It broke out,” said Fred.
 
“What broke out?”
 
“The row. Harry’s gone daft on her, Addy says.”[208]
 
“On Miss Waters?”
 
“Rather. Mooney. Didn’t care for his electioneering—didn’t care for his ordinary nourishment14. Loose ends. Didn’t mention it to Adeline, but she began to see it. Asked questions. Next day, went off. London. She asked what was up. Three days’ silence. Then—wrote to her.”
 
Fred intensified15 all this by raising his eyebrows16, pulling down the corners of his mouth and nodding portentously17. “Eh?” he said, and then to make things clearer: “Wrote a letter.”
 
“He didn’t write to her about Miss Waters?”
 
“Don’t know what he wrote about. Don’t suppose he mentioned her name, but I dare say he made it clear enough. All I know is that everything in the house felt like elastic18 pulled tighter than it ought to be for two whole days—everybody in a[209] sort of complicated twist—and then there was a snap. All that time Addy was writing letters to him and tearing ’em up, and no one could quite make it out. Everyone looked blue except the Sea Lady. She kept her own lovely pink. And at the end of that time the mater began asking things, Adeline chucked writing, gave the mater half a hint, mater took it all in in an instant and the thing burst.”
 
“Miss Glendower didn’t——?”
 
“No, the mater did. Put it pretty straight too—as the mater can.… She didn’t deny it. Said she couldn’t help herself, and that he was as much hers as Adeline’s. I heard that,” said Fred shamelessly. “Pretty thick, eh?—considering he’s engaged. And the mater gave it her pretty straight. Said, ‘I’ve been very much deceived in you, Miss Waters—very much indeed.’ I heard her.…”
 
“And then?”[210]
 
“Asked her to go. Said she’d requited19 us ill for taking her up when nobody but a fisherman would have looked at her.”
 
“She said that?”
 
“Well, words to that effect.”
 
“And Miss Waters went?”
 
“In a first-class cab, maid and boxes in another, all complete. Perfect lady.… Couldn’t have believed if I hadn’t seen it—the tail, I mean.”
 
“And Miss Glendower?”
 
“Addy? Oh, she’s been going it. Comes downstairs and does the pale-faced heroine and goes upstairs and does the broken-hearted part. I know. It’s all very well. You never had sisters. You know——”
 
Fred held his pipe elaborately out of the way and protruded21 his face to a confidential22 nearness.
 
“I believe they half like it,” said Fred,[211] in a confidential half whisper. “Such a go, you know. Mabel pretty near as bad. And the girls. All making the very most they can of it. Me! I think Chatteris was the only man alive to hear ’em. I couldn’t get up emotion as they do, if my feet were being flayed23. Cheerful home, eh? For holidays.”
 
“Where’s—the principal gentleman?” asked Melville a little grimly. “In London?”
 
“Unprincipled gentleman, I call him,” said Fred. “He’s stopping down here at the Métropole. Stuck.”
 
“Down here? Stuck?”
 
“Rather. Stuck and set about.”
 
My cousin tried for sidelights. “What’s his attitude?” he asked.
 
“Slump,” said Fred with intensity24.
 
“This little blow-off has rather astonished him,” he explained. “When he wrote to say that the election didn’t interest[212] him for a bit, but he hoped to pull around——”
 
“You said you didn’t know what he wrote.”
 
“I do that much,” said Fred. “He no more thought they’d have spotted25 that it meant Miss Waters than a baby. But women are so thundering sharp, you know. They’re born spotters. How it’ll all end——”
 
“But why has he come to the Métropole?”
 
“Middle of the stage, I suppose,” said Fred.
 
“What’s his attitude?”
 
“Says he’s going to see Adeline and explain everything—and doesn’t do it.… Puts it off. And Adeline, as far as I can gather, says that if he doesn’t come down soon, she’s hanged if she’ll see him, much as her heart may be broken, and all that, if she doesn’t. You know.”[213]
 
“Naturally,” said Melville, rather inconsecutively. “And he doesn’t?”
 
“Doesn’t stir.”
 
“Does he see—the other lady?”
 
“We don’t know. We can’t watch him. But if he does he’s clever——”
 
“Why?”
 
“There’s about a hundred blessed relatives of his in the place—came like crows for a corpse26. I never saw such a lot. Talk about a man of good old family—it’s decaying! I never saw such a high old family in my life. Aunts they are chiefly.”
 
“Aunts?”
 
“Aunts. Say, they’ve rallied round him. How they got hold of it I don’t know. Like vultures. Unless the mater— But they’re here. They’re all at him—using their influence with him, threatening to cut off legacies27 and all that. There’s one old girl at Bate’s, Lady Poynting Mallow—least bit horsey, but about as all right as[214] any of ’em—who’s been down here twice. Seems a trifle disappointed in Adeline. And there’s two aunts at Wampach’s—you know the sort that stop at Wampach’s—regular hothouse flowers—a watering-potful of real icy cold water would kill both of ’em. And there’s one come over from the Continent, short hair, short skirts—regular terror—she’s at the Pavilion. They’re all chasing round saying, ‘Where is this woman-fish sort of thing? Let me peek28!’”
 
“Does that constitute the hundred relatives?”
 
“Practically. The Wampachers are sending for a Bishop29 who used to be his schoolmaster——”
 
“No stone unturned, eh?”
 
“None.”
 
“And has he found out yet——”
 
“That she’s a mermaid30? I don’t believe he has. The pater went up to tell[215] him. Of course, he was a bit out of breath and embarrassed. And Chatteris cut him down. ‘At least let me hear nothing against her,’ he said. And the pater took that and came away. Good old pater. Eh?”
 
“And the aunts?”
 
“They’re taking it in. Mainly they grasp the fact that he’s going to jilt Adeline, just as he jilted the American girl. The mermaid side they seem to boggle at. Old people like that don’t take to a new idea all at once. The Wampach ones are shocked—but curious. They don’t believe for a moment she really is a mermaid, but they want to know all about it. And the one down at the Pavilion simply said, ‘Bosh! How can she breathe under water? Tell me that, Mrs. Bunting. She’s some sort of person you have picked up, I don’t know how, but mermaid she cannot be.’ They’d be all tremendously[216] down on the mater, I think, for picking her up, if it wasn’t that they can’t do without her help to bring Addy round again. Pretty mess all round, eh?”
 
“I suppose the aunts will tell him?”
 
“What?”
 
“About the tail.”
 
“I suppose they will.”
 
“And what then?”
 
“Heaven knows! Just as likely they won’t.”
 
My cousin meditated32 on the veranda tiles for a space.
 
“It amuses me,” said Fred Bunting.
 
“Look here,” said my cousin Melville, “what am I supposed to do? Why have I been asked to come?”
 
“I don’t know. Stir it up a bit, I expect. Everybody do a bit—like the Christmas pudding.”
 
“But—” said Melville.
 
“I’ve been bathing,” said Fred. “Nobody[217] asked me to take a hand and I didn’t. It won’t be a good pudding without me, but there you are! There’s only one thing I can see to do——”
 
“It might be the right thing. What is it?”
 
“Punch Chatteris’s head.”
 
“I don’t see how that would help matters.”
 
“Oh, it wouldn’t help matters,” said Fred, adding with an air of conclusiveness33, “There it is!” Then adjusting the folds of his blanket to a greater dignity, and replacing his long extinct large pipe between his teeth, he went on his way. The tail of his blanket followed him reluctantly through the door. His bare feet padded across the hall and became inaudible on the carpet of the stairs.
 
Adjusting the folds of his blanket to a greater dignity. Adjusting the folds of his blanket to a greater dignity.
“Fred!” said Melville, going doorward with a sudden afterthought for fuller particulars.[218]
 
But Fred had gone.
 
Instead, Mrs. Bunting appeared.
 
II
She appeared with traces of recent emotion. “I telegraphed,” she said. “We are in dreadful trouble.”
 
“Miss Waters, I gather——”
 
“She’s gone.”
 
She went towards the bell and stopped. “They’ll get luncheon34 as usual,” she said. “You will be wanting your luncheon.”
 
She came towards him with rising hands. “You can not imagine,” she said. “That poor child!”
 
“You must tell me,” said Melville.
 
“I simply do not know what to do. I don’t know where to turn.” She came nearer to him. She protested. “All that I did, Mr. Melville, I did for the best. I saw there was trouble. I could see that I[219] had been deceived, and I stood it as long as I could. I had to speak at last.”
 
My cousin by leading questions and interrogative silences developed her story a little.
 
“And every one,” she said, “blames me. Every one.”
 
“Everybody blames everybody who does anything, in affairs of this sort,” said Melville. “You mustn’t mind that.”
 
“I’ll try not to,” she said bravely. “You know, Mr. Melville——”
 
He laid his hand on her shoulder for a moment. “Yes,” he said very impressively, and I think Mrs. Bunting felt better.
 
“We all look to you,” she said. “I don’t know what I should do without you.”
 
“That’s it,” said Melville. “How do things stand? What am I to do?”
 
“Go to him,” said Mrs. Bunting, “and put it all right.”[220]
 
“But suppose—” began Melville doubtfully.
 
“Go to her. Make her see what it would mean for him and all of us.”
 
He tried to get more definite instructions. “Don’t make difficulties,” implored Mrs. Bunting. “Think of that poor girl upstairs. Think of us all.”
 
“Exactly,” said Melville, thinking of Chatteris and staring despondently35 out of the window.
 
“Bunting, I gather——”
 
“It is you or no one,” said Mrs. Bunting, sailing over his unspoken words. “Fred is too young, and Randolph—! He’s not diplomatic. He—he hectors.”
 
“Does he?” exclaimed Melville.
 
“You should see him abroad. Often—many times I have had to interfere37.… No, it is you. You know Harry so well. He trusts you. You can say things to him—no one else could say.”[221]
 
“That reminds me. Does he know——”
 
“We don’t know. How can we know? We know he is infatuated, that is all. He is up there in Folkestone, and she is in Folkestone, and they may be meeting——”
 
My cousin sought counsel with himself.
 
“Say you will go?” said Mrs. Bunting, with a hand upon his arm.
 
“I’ll go,” said Melville, “but I don’t see what I can do!”
 
And Mrs. Bunting clasped his hand in both of her own plump shapely hands and said she knew all along that he would, and that for coming down so promptly38 to her telegram she would be grateful to him so long as she had a breath to draw, and then she added, as if it were part of the same remark, that he must want his luncheon.
 
He accepted the luncheon proposition in an incidental manner and reverted39 to the question in hand.[222]
 
“Do you know what his attitude——”
 
“He has written only to Addy.”
 
“It isn’t as if he had brought about this crisis?”
 
“It was Addy. He went away and something in his manner made her write and ask him the reason why. So soon as she had his letter saying he wanted to rest from politics for a little, that somehow he didn’t seem to find the interest in life he thought it deserved, she divined everything——”
 
“Everything? Yes, but just what is everything?”
 
“That she had led him on.”
 
“Miss Waters?”
 
“Yes.”
 
My cousin reflected. So that was what they considered to be everything! “I wish I knew just where he stood,” he said at last, and followed Mrs. Bunting luncheonward. In the course of that meal,[223] which was tête-à-tête, it became almost unsatisfactorily evident what a great relief Melville’s consent to interview Chatteris was to Mrs. Bunting. Indeed, she seemed to consider herself relieved from the greater portion of her responsibility in the matter, since Melville was bearing her burden. She sketched40 out her defence against the accusations41 that had no doubt been levelled at her, explicitly42 and implicitly43.
 
“How was I to know?” she asked, and she told over again the story of that memorable44 landing, but with new, extenuating45 details. It was Adeline herself who had cried first, “She must be saved!” Mrs. Bunting made a special point of that. “And what else was there for me to do?” she asked.
 
And as she talked, the problem before my cousin assumed graver and yet graver proportions. He perceived more and[224] more clearly the complexity46 of the situation with which he was entrusted47. In the first place it was not at all clear that Miss Glendower was willing to receive back her lover except upon terms, and the Sea Lady, he was quite sure, did not mean to release him from any grip she had upon him. They were preparing to treat an elemental struggle as if it were an individual case. It grew more and more evident to him how entirely48 Mrs. Bunting overlooked the essentially49 abnormal nature of the Sea Lady, how absolutely she regarded the business as a mere50 every-day vacillation51, a commonplace outbreak of that jilting spirit which dwells, covered deep, perhaps, but never entirely eradicated52, in the heart of man; and how confidently she expected him, with a little tactful remonstrance53 and pressure, to restore the status quo ante.
 
As for Chatteris!—Melville shook his[225] head at the cheese, and answered Mrs. Bunting abstractedly.
 
III
“She wants to speak to you,” said Mrs. Bunting, and Melville with a certain trepidation54 went upstairs. He went up to the big landing with the seats, to save Adeline the trouble of coming down. She appeared dressed in a black and violet tea gown with much lace, and her dark hair was done with a simple carefulness that suited it. She was pale, and her eyes showed traces of tears, but she had a certain dignity that differed from her usual bearing in being quite unconscious.
 
She gave him a limp hand and spoke36 in an exhausted55 voice.
 
“You know—all?” she asked.
 
“All the outline, anyhow.”[226]
 
“Why has he done this to me?”
 
Melville looked profoundly sympathetic through a pause.
 
“I feel,” she said, “that it isn’t coarseness.”
 
“Certainly not,” said Melville.
 
“It is some mystery of the imagination that I cannot understand. I should have thought—his career at any rate—would have appealed.…” She shook her head and regarded a pot of ferns fixedly56 for a space.
 
“He has written to you?” asked Melville.
 
“Three times,” she said, looking up.
 
Melville hesitated to ask the extent of that correspondence, but she left no need for that.
 
“I had to ask him,” she said. “He kept it all from me, and I had to force it from him before he would tell.”
 
“Tell!” said Melville, “what?”[227]
 
“What he felt for her and what he felt for me.”
 
“But did he——?”
 
“He has made it clearer. But still even now. No, I don’t understand.”
 
She turned slowly and watched Melville’s face as she spoke: “You know, Mr. Melville, that this has been an enormous shock to me. I suppose I never really knew him. I suppose I—idealised him. I thought he cared for—our work at any rate.… He did care for our work. He believed in it. Surely he believed in it.”
 
“He does,” said Melville.
 
“And then— But how can he?”
 
“He is—he is a man with rather a strong imagination.”
 
“Or a weak will?”
 
“Relatively—yes.”
 
“It is so strange,” she sighed. “It is so inconsistent. It is like a child catching[228] at a new toy. Do you know, Mr. Melville”—she hesitated—“all this has made me feel old. I feel very much older, very much wiser than he is. I cannot help it. I am afraid it is for all women … to feel that sometimes.”
 
She reflected profoundly. “For all women— The child, man! I see now just what Sarah Grand meant by that.”
 
She smiled a wan31 smile. “I feel just as if he had been a naughty child. And I—I worshipped him, Mr. Melville,” she said, and her voice quivered.
 
My cousin coughed and turned about to stare hard out of the window. He was, he perceived, much more shockingly inadequate57 even than he had expected to be.
 
“If I thought she could make him happy!” she said presently, leaving a hiatus of generous self-sacrifice.
 
“The case is—complicated,” said Melville.[229]
 
Her voice went on, clear and a little high, resigned, impenetrably assured.
 
“But she would not. All his better side, all his serious side— She would miss it and ruin it all.”
 
“Does he—” began Melville and repented58 of the temerity59 of his question.
 
“Yes?” she said.
 
“Does he—ask to be released?”
 
“No.… He wants to come back to me.”
 
“And you——”
 
“He doesn’t come.”
 
“But do you—do you want him back?”
 
“How can I say, Mr. Melville? He does not say certainly even that he wants to come back.”
 
My cousin Melville looked perplexed60. He lived on the superficies of emotion, and these complexities61 in matters he had[230] always assumed were simple, put him out.
 
“There are times,” she said, “when it seems to me that my love for him is altogether dead.… Think of the disillusionment—the shock—the discovery of such weakness.”
 
My cousin lifted his eyebrows and shook his head in agreement.
 
“His feet—to find his feet were of clay!”
 
There came a pause.
 
“It seems as if I have never loved him. And then—and then I think of all the things that still might be.”
 
Her voice made him look up, and he saw that her mouth was set hard and tears were running down her cheeks.
 
It occurred to my cousin, he says, that he would touch her hand in a sympathetic manner, and then it occurred to him that he wouldn’t. Her words rang[231] in his thoughts for a space, and then he said somewhat tardily62, “He may still be all those things.”
 
“I suppose he may,” she said slowly and without colour. The weeping moment had passed.
 
“What is she?” she changed abruptly63. “What is this being, who has come between him and all the realities of life? What is there about her—? And why should I have to compete with her, because he—because he doesn’t know his own mind?”
 
“For a man,” said Melville, “to know his own mind is—to have exhausted one of the chief interests in life. After that—! A cultivated extinct volcano—if ever it was a volcano.”
 
He reflected egotistically for a space. Then with a secret start he came back to consider her.
 
“What is there,” she said, with that[232] deliberate attempt at clearness which was one of her antipathetic qualities for Melville—“what is there that she has, that she offers, that I——?”
 
Melville winced64 at this deliberate proposal of appalling65 comparisons. All the catlike quality in his soul came to his aid. He began to edge away, and walk obliquely66 and generally to shirk the issue. “My dear Miss Glendower,” he said, and tried to make that seem an adequate reply.
 
“What is the difference?” she insisted.
 
“There are impalpable things,” waived67 Melville. “They are above reason and beyond describing.”
 
“But you,” she urged, “you take an attitude, you must have an impression. Why don’t you— Don’t you see, Mr. Melville, this is very”—her voice caught for a moment—“very vital for me. It isn’t kind of you, if you have impressions— I’m sorry, Mr. Melville, if I[233] seem to be trying to get too much from you. I—I want to know.”
 
It came into Melville’s head for a moment that this girl had something in her, perhaps, that was just a little beyond his former judgments69.
 
“I must admit, I have a sort of impression,” he said.
 
“You are a man; you know him; you know all sorts of things—all sorts of ways of looking at things, I don’t know. If you could go so far—as to be frank.”
 
“Well,” said Melville and stopped.
 
She hung over him as it were, as a tense silence.
 
“There is a difference,” he admitted, and still went unhelped.
 
“How can I put it? I think in certain ways you contrast with her, in a way that makes things easier for her. He has—I know the thing sounds like cant70, only you know, he doesn’t plead it in defence—he[234] has a temperament71, to which she sometimes appeals more than you do.”
 
“Yes, I know, but how?”
 
“Well——”
 
“Tell me.”
 
“You are austere72. You are restrained. Life—for a man like Chatteris—is schooling73. He has something—something perhaps more worth having than most of us have—but I think at times—it makes life harder for him than it is for a lot of us. Life comes at him, with limitations and regulations. He knows his duty well enough. And you— You mustn’t mind what I say too much, Miss Glendower—I may be wrong.”
 
“Go on,” she said, “go on.”
 
“You are too much—the agent general of his duty.”
 
“But surely!—what else——?”
 
“I talked to him in London and then I thought he was quite in the wrong.[235] Since that I’ve thought all sorts of things—even that you might be in the wrong. In certain minor74 things.”
 
“Don’t mind my vanity now,” she cried. “Tell me.”
 
“You see you have defined things—very clearly. You have made it clear to him what you expect him to be, and what you expect him to do. It is like having built a house in which he is to live. For him, to go to her is like going out of a house, a very fine and dignified75 house, I admit, into something larger, something adventurous76 and incalculable. She is—she has an air of being—natural. She is as lax and lawless as the sunset, she is as free and familiar as the wind. She doesn’t—if I may put it in this way—she doesn’t love and respect him when he is this, and disapprove77 of him highly when he is that; she takes him altogether. She has the quality of the open sky, of the flight of[236] birds, of deep tangled78 places, she has the quality of the high sea. That I think is what she is for him, she is the Great Outside. You—you have the quality——”
 
He hesitated.
 
“Go on,” she insisted. “Let us get the meaning.”
 
“Of an edifice79.… I don’t sympathise with him,” said Melville. “I am a tame cat and I should scratch and mew at the door directly I got outside of things. I don’t want to go out. The thought scares me. But he is different.”
 
“Yes,” she said, “he is different.”
 
For a time it seemed that Melville’s interpretation80 had hold of her. She stood thoughtful. Slowly other aspects of the thing came into his mind.
 
“Of course,” she said, thinking as she looked at him. “Yes. Yes. That is the impression. That is the quality. But in reality— There are other things in[237] the world beside effects and impressions. After all, that is—an analogy. It is pleasant to go out of houses and dwellings81 into the open air, but most of us, nearly all of us must live in houses.”
 
“Decidedly,” said Melville.
 
“He cannot— What can he do with her? How can he live with her? What life could they have in common?”
 
“It’s a case of attraction,” said Melville, “and not of plans.”
 
“After all,” she said, “he must come back—if I let him come back. He may spoil everything now; he may lose his election and be forced to start again, lower and less hopefully; he may tear his heart to pieces——”
 
She stopped at a sob83.
 
“Miss Glendower,” said Melville abruptly.
 
“I don’t think you quite understand.”
 
“Understand what?”[238]
 
“You think he cannot marry this—this being who has come among us?”
 
“How could he?”
 
“No—he couldn’t. You think his imagination has wandered away from you—to something impossible. That generally, in an aimless way, he has cut himself up for nothing, and made an inordinate84 fool of himself, and that it’s simply a business of putting everything back into place again.”
 
He paused and she said nothing. But her face was attentive85. “What you do not understand,” he went on, “what no one seems to understand, is that she comes——”
 
“Out of the sea.”
 
“Out of some other world. She comes, whispering that this life is a phantom86 life, unreal, flimsy, limited, casting upon everything a spell of disillusionment——”[239]
 
“So that he——”
 
“Yes, and then she whispers, ‘There are better dreams!’”
 
The girl regarded him in frank perplexity.
 
“She hints of these vague better dreams, she whispers of a way——”
 
“What way?”
 
“I do not know what way. But it is something—something that tears at the very fabric87 of this daily life.”
 
“You mean——?”
 
“She is a mermaid, she is a thing of dreams and desires, a siren, a whisper and a seduction. She will lure88 him with her——”
 
He stopped.
 
“Where?” she whispered.
 
“Into the deeps.”
 
“The deeps?”
 
They hung upon a long pause. Melville sought vagueness with infinite solicitude,[240] and could not find it. He blurted89 out at last: “There can be but one way out of this dream we are all dreaming, you know.”
 
“And that way?”
 
“That way—” began Melville and dared not say it.
 
“You mean,” she said, with a pale face, half awakened90 to a new thought, “the way is——?”
 
Melville shirked the word. He met her eyes and nodded weakly.
 
“But how—?” she asked.
 
“At any rate”—he said hastily, seeking some palliative phrase—“at any rate, if she gets him, this little world of yours— There will be no coming back for him, you know.”
 
“No coming back?” she said.
 
“No coming back,” said Melville.
 
“But are you sure?” she doubted.
 
“Sure?”[241]
 
“That it is so?”
 
“That desire is desire, and the deep the deep—yes.”
 
“I never thought—” she began and stopped.
 
“Mr. Melville,” she said, “you know I don’t understand. I thought—I scarcely know what I thought. I thought he was trivial and foolish to let his thoughts go wandering. I agreed—I see your point—as to the difference in our effect upon him. But this—this suggestion that for him she may be something determining and final— After all, she——”
 
“She is nothing,” he said. “She is the hand that takes hold of him, the shape that stands for things unseen.”
 
“What things unseen?”
 
My cousin shrugged91 his shoulders. “Something we never find in life,” he said. “Something we are always seeking.”
 
“But what?” she asked.[242]
 
Melville made no reply. She scrutinised his face for a time, and then looked out at the sunlight again.
 
“Do you want him back?” he said.
 
“I don’t know.”
 
“Do you want him back?”
 
“I feel as if I had never wanted him before.”
 
“And now?”
 
“Yes.… But—if he will not come back?”
 
“He will not come back,” said Melville, “for the work.”
 
“I know.”
 
“He will not come back for his self-respect—or any of those things.”
 
“No.”
 
“Those things, you know, are only fainter dreams. All the palace you have made for him is a dream. But——”
 
“Yes?”
 
“He might come back—” he said, and[243] looked at her and stopped. He tells me he had some vague intention of startling her, rousing her, wounding her to some display of romantic force, some insurgence92 of passion, that might yet win Chatteris back, and then in that moment, and like a blow, it came to him how foolish such a fancy had been. There she stood impenetrably herself, limitedly intelligent, well-meaning, imitative, and powerless. Her pose, her face, suggested nothing but a clear and reasonable objection to all that had come to her, a critical antagonism93, a steady opposition94. And then, amazingly, she changed. She looked up, and suddenly held out both her hands, and there was something in her eyes that he had never seen before.
 
Melville took her hands mechanically, and for a second or so they stood looking with a sort of discovery into each other’s eyes.[244]
 
“Tell him,” she said, with an astounding95 perfection of simplicity96, “to come back to me. There can be no other thing than what I am. Tell him to come back to me!”
 
“And——?”
 
“Tell him that.”
 
“Forgiveness?”
 
“No! Tell him I want him. If he will not come for that he will not come at all. If he will not come back for that”—she halted for a moment—“I do not want him. No! I do not want him. He is not mine and he may go.”
 
His passive hold of her hands became a pressure. Then they dropped apart again.
 
“You are very good to help us,” she said as he turned to go.
 
He looked at her. “You are very good to help me,” she said, and then: “Tell him whatever you like if only he[245] will come back to me!… No! Tell him what I have said.” He saw she had something more to say, and stopped. “You know, Mr. Melville, all this is like a book newly opened to me. Are you sure——?”
 
“Sure?”
 
“Sure of what you say—sure of what she is to him—sure that if he goes on he will—” She stopped.
 
He nodded.
 
“It means—” she said and stopped again.
 
“No adventure, no incident, but a going out from all that this life has to offer.”
 
“You mean,” she insisted, “you mean——?”
 
“Death,” said Melville starkly97, and for a space both stood without a word.
 
She winced, and remained looking into his eyes. Then she spoke again.[246]
 
“Mr. Melville, tell him to come back to me.”
 
“And——?”
 
“Tell him to come back to me, or”—a sudden note of passion rang in her voice—“if I have no hold upon him, let him go his way.”
 
“But—” said Melville.
 
“I know,” she cried, with her face set, “I know. But if he is mine he will come to me, and if he is not— Let him dream his dream.”
 
Her clenched98 hand tightened99 as she spoke. He saw in her face she would say no more, that she wanted urgently to leave it there. He turned again towards the staircase. He glanced at her and went down.
 
As he looked up from the bend of the stairs she was still standing100 in the light.
 
He was moved to proclaim himself in[247] some manner her adherent101, but he could think of nothing better than: “Whatever I can do I will.” And so, after a curious pause, he departed, rather stumblingly, from her sight.
 
IV
After this interview it was right and proper that Melville should have gone at once to Chatteris, but the course of events in the world does occasionally display a lamentable102 disregard for what is right and proper. Points of view were destined103 to crowd upon him that day—for the most part entirely unsympathetic points of view. He found Mrs. Bunting in the company of a boldly trimmed bonnet104 in the hall, waiting, it became clear, to intercept105 him.
 
As he descended106, in a state of extreme preoccupation, the boldly trimmed bonnet[248] revealed beneath it a white-faced, resolute107 person in a duster and sensible boots. This stranger, Mrs. Bunting made apparent, was Lady Poynting Mallow, one of the more representative of the Chatteris aunts. Her ladyship made a few enquiries about Adeline with an eye that took Melville’s measure, and then, after agreeing to a number of the suggestions Mrs. Bunting had to advance, proposed that he should escort her back to her hotel. He was much too exercised with Adeline to discuss the proposal. “I walk,” she said. “And we go along the lower road.”
 
He found himself walking.
 
She remarked, as the Bunting door closed behind them, that it was always a comfort to have to do with a man; and there was a silence for a space.
 
I don’t think at that time Melville completely grasped the fact that he had a companion. But presently his meditations[249] were disturbed by her voice. He started.
 
“I beg your pardon,” he said.
 
“That Bunting woman is a fool,” repeated Lady Poynting Mallow.
 
There was a slight interval108 for consideration.
 
“She’s an old friend of mine,” said Melville.
 
“Quite possibly,” said Lady Poynting Mallow.
 
The position seemed a little awkward to Melville for a moment. He flicked109 a fragment of orange peel into the road. “I want to get to the bottom of all this,” said Lady Poynting Mallow. “Who is this other woman?”
 
“What other woman?”
 
“Tertium quid,” said Lady Poynting Mallow, with a luminous110 incorrectness.
 
“Mermaid, I gather,” said Melville.
 
“What’s the objection to her?”[250]
 
“Tail.”
 
“Fin and all?”
 
“Complete.”
 
“You’re sure of it?”
 
“Certain.”
 
“How do you know?”
 
“I’m certain,” repeated Melville with a quite unusual testiness111.
 
The lady reflected.
 
“Well, there are worse things in the world than a fishy112 tail,” she said at last.
 
Melville saw no necessity for a reply. “H’m,” said Lady Poynting Mallow, apparently113 by way of comment on his silence, and for a space they went on.
 
“That Glendower girl is a fool too,” she added after a pause.
 
My cousin opened his mouth and shut it again. How can one answer when ladies talk in this way? But if he did not answer, at any rate his preoccupation[251] was gone. He was now acutely aware of the determined114 person at his side.
 
“She has means?” she asked abruptly.
 
“Miss Glendower?”
 
“No. I know all about her. The other?”
 
“The mermaid?”
 
“Yes, the mermaid. Why not?”
 
“Oh, she—Very considerable means. Galleons115. Phœnician treasure ships, wrecked116 frigates117, submarine reefs——”
 
“Well, that’s all right. And now will you tell me, Mr. Melville, why shouldn’t Harry have her? What if she is a mermaid? It’s no worse than an American silver mine, and not nearly so raw and ill-bred.”
 
“In the first place there’s his engagement——”
 
“Oh, that!”
 
“And in the next there’s the Sea Lady.”[252]
 
“But I thought she——”
 
“She’s a mermaid.”
 
“It’s no objection. So far as I can see, she’d make an excellent wife for him. And, as a matter of fact, down here she’d be able to help him in just the right way. The member here—he’ll be fighting—this Sassoon man—makes a lot of capital out of deep-sea cables. Couldn’t be better. Harry could dish him easily. That’s all right. Why shouldn’t he have her?”
 
She stuck her hands deeply into the pockets of her dust-coat, and a china-blue eye regarded Melville from under the brim of the boldly trimmed bonnet.
 
“You understand clearly she is a properly constituted mermaid with a real physical tail?”
 
“Well?” said Lady Poynting Mallow.
 
“Apart from any question of Miss Glendower——”
 
“That’s understood.”[253]
 
“I think that such a marriage would be impossible.”
 
“Why?”
 
My cousin played round the question. “She’s an immortal118, for example, with a past.”
 
“Simply makes her more interesting.”
 
Melville tried to enter into her point of view. “You think,” he said, “she would go to London for him, and marry at St. George’s, Hanover Square, and pay for a mansion119 in Park Lane and visit just anywhere he liked?”
 
“That’s precisely120 what she would do. Just now, with a Court that is waking up——”
 
“It’s precisely what she won’t do,” said Melville.
 
“But any woman would do it who had the chance.”
 
“She’s a mermaid.”[254]
 
“She’s a fool,” said Lady Poynting Mallow.
 
“She doesn’t even mean to marry him; it doesn’t enter into her code.”
 
“The hussy! What does she mean?”
 
My cousin made a gesture seaward. “That!” he said. “She’s a mermaid.”
 
“What?”
 
“Out there.”
 
“Where?”
 
“There!”
 
Lady Poynting Mallow scanned the sea as if it were some curious new object. “It’s an amphibious outlook for the family,” she said after reflection. “But even then—if she doesn’t care for society and it makes Harry happy—and perhaps after they are tired of—rusticating——”
 
“I don’t think you fully realise that she is a mermaid,” said Melville; “and Chatteris, you know, breathes air.”[255]
 
“That is a difficulty,” admitted Lady Poynting Mallow, and studied the sunlit offing for a space.
 
“I don’t see why it shouldn’t be managed for all that,” she considered after a pause.
 
“It can’t be,” said Melville with arid121 emphasis.
 
“She cares for him?”
 
“She’s come to fetch him.”
 
“If she wants him badly he might make terms. In these affairs it’s always one or other has to do the buying. She’d have to marry—anyhow.”
 
My cousin regarded her impenetrably satisfied face.
 
“He could have a yacht and a diving bell,” she suggested; “if she wanted him to visit her people.”
 
“They are pagan demigods, I believe, and live in some mythological122 way in the Mediterranean123.”[256]
 
“Dear Harry’s a pagan himself—so that doesn’t matter, and as for being mythological—all good families are. He could even wear a diving dress if one could be found to suit him.”
 
“I don’t think that anything of the sort is possible for a moment.”
 
“Simply because you’ve never been a woman in love,” said Lady Poynting Mallow with an air of vast experience.
 
She continued the conversation. “If it’s sea water she wants it would be quite easy to fit up a tank wherever they lived, and she could easily have a bath chair like a sitz bath on wheels.… Really, Mr. Milvain——”
 
“Melville.”
 
“Mr. Melville, I don’t see where your ‘impossible’ comes in.”
 
“Have you seen the lady?”
 
“Do you think I’ve been in Folkestone two days doing nothing?”[257]
 
“You don’t mean you’ve called on her?”
 
“Dear, no! It’s Harry’s place to settle that. But I’ve seen her in her bath chair on the Leas, and I’m certain I’ve never seen any one who looked so worthy124 of dear Harry. Never!”
 
“Well, well,” said Melville. “Apart from any other considerations, you know, there’s Miss Glendower.”
 
“I’ve never regarded her as a suitable wife for Harry.”
 
“Possibly not. Still—she exists.”
 
“So many people do,” said Lady Poynting Mallow.
 
She evidently regarded that branch of the subject as dismissed.
 
They pursued their way in silence.
 
“What I wanted to ask you, Mr. Milvain——”
 
“Melville.”
 
“Mr. Melville, is just precisely where you come into this business?”[258]
 
“I’m a friend of Miss Glendower.”
 
“Who wants him back.”
 
“Frankly—yes.”
 
“Isn’t she devoted125 to him?”
 
“I presume as she’s engaged——”
 
“She ought to be devoted to him—yes. Well, why can’t she see that she ought to release him for his own good?”
 
“She doesn’t see it’s for his good. Nor do I.”
 
“Simply an old-fashioned prejudice because the woman’s got a tail. Those old frumps at Wampach’s are quite of your opinion.”
 
Melville shrugged his shoulders.
 
“And so I suppose you’re going to bully126 and threaten on account of Miss Glendower.… You’ll do no good.”
 
“May I ask what you are going to do?”
 
“What a good aunt always does.”
 
“And that?”[259]
 
“Let him do what he likes.”
 
“Suppose he wants to drown himself?”
 
“My dear Mr. Milvain, Harry isn’t a fool.”
 
“I’ve told you she’s a mermaid.”
 
“Ten times.”
 
A constrained127 silence fell between them.
 
It became apparent they were near the Folkestone Lift.
 
“You’ll do no good,” said Lady Poynting Mallow.
 
Melville’s escort concluded at the lift station. There the lady turned upon him.
 
“I’m greatly obliged to you for coming, Mr. Milvain,” she said; “and very glad to hear your views of this matter. It’s a peculiar128 business, but I hope we’re sensible people. You think over what I have said. As a friend of Harry’s. You are a friend of Harry’s?”[260]
 
“We’ve known each other some years.”
 
“I feel sure you will come round to my point of view sooner or later. It is so obviously the best thing for him.”
 
“There’s Miss Glendower.”
 
“If Miss Glendower is a womanly woman, she will be ready to make any sacrifice for his good.”
 
And with that they parted.
 
In the course of another minute Melville found himself on the side of the road opposite the lift station, regarding the ascending129 car. The boldly trimmed bonnet, vivid, erect130, assertive131, went gliding132 upward, a perfect embodiment of sound common sense. His mind was lapsing133 once again into disorder134; he was stunned135, as it were, by the vigour136 of her ladyship’s view. Could any one not absolutely right be quite so clear and emphatic137? And if so, what became of all that oppression of[261] foreboding, that sinister138 promise of an escape, that whisper of “other dreams,” that had dominated his mind only a short half-hour before?
 
He turned his face back to Sandgate, his mind a theatre of warring doubts. Quite vividly139 he could see the Sea Lady as Lady Poynting Mallow saw her, as something pink and solid and smart and wealthy, and, indeed, quite abominably140 vulgar, and yet quite as vividly he recalled her as she had talked to him in the garden, her face full of shadows, her eyes of deep mystery, and the whisper that made all the world about him no more than a flimsy, thin curtain before vague and wonderful, and hitherto, quite unsuspected things.
 
V
Chatteris was leaning against the railings. He started violently at Melville’s[262] hand upon his shoulder. They made awkward greetings.
 
“The fact is,” said Melville, “I—I have been asked to talk to you.”
 
“Don’t apologise,” said Chatteris. “I’m glad to have it out with some one.”
 
There was a brief silence.
 
They stood side by side—looking down upon the harbour. Behind, the evening band played remotely and the black little promenaders went to and fro under the tall electric lights. I think Chatteris decided82 to be very self-possessed at first—a man of the world.
 
“It’s a gorgeous night,” he said.
 
“Glorious,” said Melville, playing up to the key set.
 
He clicked his cutter on a cigar. “There was something you wanted me to tell you——”
 
“I know all that,” said Chatteris with[263] the shoulder towards Melville becoming obtrusive141. “I know everything.”
 
“You have seen and talked to her?”
 
“Several times.”
 
There was perhaps a minute’s pause.
 
“What are you going to do?” asked Melville.
 
Chatteris made no answer and Melville did not repeat his question.
 
Presently Chatteris turned about. “Let’s walk,” he said, and they paced westward142, side by side.
 
He made a little speech. “I’m sorry to give everybody all this trouble,” he said with an air of having prepared his sentences; “I suppose there is no question that I have behaved like an ass20. I am profoundly sorry. Largely it is my own fault. But you know—so far as the overt143 kick-up goes—there is a certain amount of blame attaches to our outspoken144 friend Mrs. Bunting.”[264]
 
“I’m afraid there is,” Melville admitted.
 
“You know there are times when one is under the necessity of having moods. It doesn’t help them to drag them into general discussion.”
 
“The mischief’s done.”
 
“You know Adeline seems to have objected to the presence of—this sea lady at a very early stage. Mrs. Bunting overruled her. Afterwards when there was trouble she seems to have tried to make up for it.”
 
“I didn’t know Miss Glendower had objected.”
 
“She did. She seems to have seen—ahead.”
 
Chatteris reflected. “Of course all that doesn’t excuse me in the least. But it’s a sort of excuse for your being dragged into this bother.”
 
He said something less distinctly[265] about a “stupid bother” and “private affairs.”
 
They found themselves drawing near the band and already on the outskirts145 of its territory of votaries146. Its cheerful rhythms became insistent147. The canopy148 of the stand was a focus of bright light, music-stands and instruments sent out beams of reflected brilliance149, and a luminous red conductor in the midst of the lantern guided the ratatoo-tat, ratatoo-tat of a popular air. Voices, detached fragments of conversation, came to our talkers and mingled150 impertinently with their thoughts.
 
“I wouldn’t ’ave no truck with ’im, not after that,” said a young person to her friend.
 
“Let’s get out of this,” said Chatteris abruptly.
 
They turned aside from the high path of the Leas to the head of some steps[266] that led down the declivity151. In a few moments it was as if those imposing152 fronts of stucco, those many-windowed hotels, the electric lights on the tall masts, the band-stand and miscellaneous holiday British public, had never existed. It is one of Folkestone’s best effects, that black quietness under the very feet of a crowd. They no longer heard the band even, only a remote suggestion of music filtered to them over the brow. The black-treed slopes fell from them to the surf below, and out at sea were the lights of many ships. Away to the westward like a swarm153 of fire-flies hung the lights of Hythe. The two men sat down on a vacant seat in the dimness. For a time neither spoke. Chatteris impressed Melville with an air of being on the defensive154. He murmured in a meditative155 undertone, “I wouldn’t ’ave no truck with ’im not after that.”[267]
 
“I will admit by every standard,” he said aloud, “that I have been flappy and feeble and wrong. Very. In these things there is a prescribed and definite course. To hesitate, to have two points of view, is condemned156 by all right-thinking people.… Still—one has the two points of view.… You have come up from Sandgate?”
 
“Yes.”
 
“Did you see Miss Glendower?”
 
“Yes.”
 
“Talked to her?… I suppose— What do you think of her?”
 
His cigar glowed into an expectant brightness while Melville hesitated at his answer, and showed his eyes thoughtful upon Melville’s face.
 
“I’ve never thought her—” Melville sought more diplomatic phrasing. “I’ve never found her exceptionally attractive before. Handsome, you know, but not—winning.[268] But this time, she seemed … rather splendid.”
 
“She is,” said Chatteris, “she is.”
 
He sat forward and began flicking157 imaginary ash from the end of his cigar.
 
“She is splendid,” he admitted. “You—only begin to imagine. You don’t, my dear man, know that girl. She is not—quite—in your line. She is, I assure you, the straightest and cleanest and clearest human being I have ever met. She believes so firmly, she does right so simply, there is a sort of queenly benevolence158, a sort of integrity of benevolence——”
 
He left the sentence unfinished, as if unfinished it completely expressed his thought.
 
“She wants you to go back to her,” said Melville bluntly.
 
“I know,” said Chatteris and flicked again at that ghostly ash. “She has written that.… That’s just where her complete[269] magnificence comes in. She doesn’t fence and fool about, as the she-women do. She doesn’t squawk and say, ‘You’ve insulted me and everything’s at an end;’ and she doesn’t squawk and say, ‘For God’s sake come back to me!’ She doesn’t say, she ‘won’t ’ave no truck with me not after this.’ She writes—straight. I don’t believe, Melville, I half knew her until all this business came up. She comes out.… Before that it was, as you said, and I quite perceive—I perceived all along—a little too—statistical.”
 
He became meditative, and his cigar glow waned159 and presently vanished altogether.
 
“You are going back?”
 
“By Jove! Yes.”
 
Melville stirred slightly and then they both sat rigidly160 quiet for a space. Then abruptly Chatteris flung away his extinct cigar. He seemed to fling many other[270] things away with that dim gesture. “Of course,” he said, “I shall go back.
 
“It is not my fault,” he insisted, “that this trouble, this separation, has ever arisen. I was moody161, I was preoccupied162, I know—things had got into my head. But if I’d been left alone.…
 
“I have been forced into this position,” he summarised.
 
“You understand,” said Melville, “that—though I think matters are indefined and distressing163 just now—I don’t attach blame—anywhere.”
 
“You’re open-minded,” said Chatteris. “That’s just your way. And I can imagine how all this upset and discomfort164 distresses165 you. You’re awfully166 good to keep so open-minded and not to consider me an utter outcast, an ill-regulated disturber of the order of the world.”
 
“It’s a distressing state of affairs,” said Melville. “But perhaps I understand[271] the forces pulling at you—better than you imagine.”
 
“They’re very simple, I suppose.”
 
“Very.”
 
“And yet——?”
 
“Well?”
 
He seemed to hesitate at a dangerous topic. “The other,” he said.
 
Melville’s silence bade him go on.
 
He plunged167 from his prepared attitude. “What is it? Why should—this being—come into my life, as she has done, if it is so simple? What is there about her, or me, that has pulled me so astray? She has, you know. Here we are at sixes and sevens! It’s not the situation, it’s the mental conflict. Why am I pulled about? She has got into my imagination. How? I haven’t the remotest idea.”
 
“She’s beautiful,” meditated Melville.
 
“She’s beautiful certainly. But so is Miss Glendower.”[272]
 
“She’s very beautiful. I’m not blind, Chatteris. She’s beautiful in a different way.”
 
“Yes, but that’s only the name for the effect. Why is she very beautiful?”
 
Melville shrugged his shoulders.
 
“She’s not beautiful to every one.”
 
“You mean?”
 
“Bunting keeps calm.”
 
“Oh—he——!”
 
“And other people don’t seem to see it—as I do.”
 
“Some people seem to see no beauty at all, as we do. With emotion, that is.”
 
“Why do we?”
 
“We see—finer.”
 
“Do we? Is it finer? Why should it be finer to see beauty where it is fatal to us to see it? Why? Unless we are to believe there is no reason in things, why should this—impossibility, be beautiful to any one anyhow? Put it as a matter of[273] reason, Melville. Why should her smile be so sweet to me, why should her voice move me! Why her’s and not Adeline’s? Adeline has straight eyes and clear eyes and fine eyes, and all the difference there can be, what is it? An infinitesimal curving of the lid, an infinitesimal difference in the lashes—and it shatters everything—in this way. Who could measure the difference, who could tell the quality that makes me swim in the sound of her voice.… The difference? After all, it’s a visible thing, it’s a material thing! It’s in my eyes. By Jove!” he laughed abruptly. “Imagine old Helmholtz trying to gauge168 it with a battery of resonators, or Spencer in the light of Evolution and the Environment explaining it away!”
 
“These things are beyond measurement,” said Melville.
 
“Not if you measure them by their effect,” said Chatteris. “And anyhow,[274] why do they take us? That is the question I can’t get away from just now.”
 
My cousin meditated, no doubt with his hands deep in his trousers’ pockets. “It is illusion,” he said. “It is a sort of glamour169. After all, look at it squarely. What is she? What can she give you? She promises you vague somethings.… She is a snare170, she is deception171. She is the beautiful mask of death.”
 
“Yes,” said Chatteris. “I know.”
 
And then again, “I know.
 
“There is nothing for me to learn about that,” he said. “But why—why should the mask of death be beautiful? After all— We get our duty by good hard reasoning. Why should reason and justice carry everything? Perhaps after all there are things beyond our reason, perhaps after all desire has a claim on us?”
 
He stopped interrogatively and Melville[275] was profound. “I think,” said my cousin at last, “Desire has a claim on us. Beauty, at any rate——
 
“I mean,” he explained, “we are human beings. We are matter with minds growing out of ourselves. We reach downward into the beautiful wonderland of matter, and upward to something—” He stopped, from sheer dissatisfaction with the image. “In another direction, anyhow,” he tried feebly. He jumped at something that was not quite his meaning. “Man is a sort of half-way house—he must compromise.”
 
“As you do?”
 
“Well. Yes. I try to strike a balance.”
 
“A few old engravings—good, I suppose—a little luxury in furniture and flowers, a few things that come within your means. Art—in moderation, and a few kindly172 acts of the pleasanter sort, a[276] certain respect for truth; duty—also in moderation. Eh? It’s just that even balance that I cannot contrive173. I cannot sit down to the oatmeal of this daily life and wash it down with a temperate174 draught175 of beauty and water. Art!… I suppose I’m voracious176, I’m one of the unfit—for the civilised stage. I’ve sat down once, I’ve sat down twice, to perfectly177 sane178, secure, and reasonable things.… It’s not my way.”
 
He repeated, “It’s not my way.”
 
Melville, I think, said nothing to that. He was distracted from the immediate179 topic by the discussion of his own way of living. He was lost in egotistical comparisons. No doubt he was on the verge180 of saying, as most of us would have been under the circumstances: “I don’t think you quite understand my position.”
 
“But, after all, what is the good of[277] talking in this way?” exclaimed Chatteris abruptly. “I am simply trying to elevate the whole business by dragging in these wider questions. It’s justification181, when I didn’t mean to justify182. I have to choose between life with Adeline and this woman out of the sea.”
 
“Who is Death.”
 
“How do I know she is Death?”
 
“But you said you had made your choice!”
 
“I have.”
 
He seemed to recollect183.
 
“I have,” he corroborated184. “I told you. I am going back to see Miss Glendower to-morrow.
 
“Yes.” He recalled further portions of what I believe was some prepared and ready-phrased decision—some decision from which the conversation had drifted. “The need of my life is discipline, the habit of persistence185, of ignoring side[278] issues and wandering thoughts. Discipline!”
 
“And work.”
 
“Work, if you like to put it so; it’s the same thing. The trouble so far has been I haven’t worked hard enough. I’ve stopped to speak to the woman by the wayside. I’ve paltered with compromise, and the other thing has caught me.… I’ve got to renounce186 it, that is all.”
 
“It isn’t that your work is contemptible187.”
 
“By Jove! No. It’s—arduous. It has its dusty moments. There are places to climb that are not only steep but muddy——”
 
“The world wants leaders. It gives a man of your class a great deal. Leisure. Honour. Training and high traditions——”
 
“And it expects something back. I know. I am wrong—have been wrong[279] anyhow. This dream has taken me wonderfully. And I must renounce it. After all it is not so much—to renounce a dream. It’s no more than deciding to live. There are big things in the world for men to do.”
 
Melville produced an elaborate conceit188. “If there is no Venus Anadyomene,” he said, “there is Michael and his Sword.”
 
“The stern angel in armour189! But then he had a good palpable dragon to slash190 and not his own desires. And our way nowadays is to do a deal with the dragons somehow, raise the minimum wage and get a better housing for the working classes by hook or by crook191.”
 
Melville does not think that was a fair treatment of his suggestion.
 
“No,” said Chatteris, “I’ve no doubt about the choice. I’m going to fall in—with the species; I’m going to take my[280] place in the ranks in that great battle for the future which is the meaning of life. I want a moral cold bath and I mean to take one. This lax dalliance with dreams and desires must end. I will make a time table for my hours and a rule for my life, I will entangle192 my honour in controversies193, I will give myself to service, as a man should do. Clean-handed work, struggle, and performance.”
 
“And there is Miss Glendower, you know.”
 
“Rather!” said Chatteris, with a faint touch of insincerity. “Tall and straight-eyed and capable. By Jove! if there’s to be no Venus Anadyomene, at any rate there will be a Pallas Athene. It is she who plays the reconciler.”
 
And then he said these words: “It won’t be so bad, you know.”
 
Melville restrained a movement of impatience194, he tells me, at that.[281]
 
Then Chatteris, he says, broke into a sort of speech. “The case is tried,” he said, “the judgment68 has been given. I am that I am. I’ve been through it all and worked it out. I am a man and I must go a man’s way. There is Desire, the light and guide of the world, a beacon195 on a headland blazing out. Let it burn! Let it burn! The road runs near it and by it—and past.… I’ve made my choice. I’ve got to be a man, I’ve got to live a man and die a man and carry the burden of my class and time. There it is! I’ve had the dream, but you see I keep hold of reason. Here, with the flame burning, I renounce it. I make my choice.… Renunciation! Always—renunciation! That is life for all of us. We have desires, only to deny them, senses that we all must starve. We can live only as a part of ourselves. Why should I be exempt196. For me, she is evil. For me she[282] is death.… Only why have I seen her face? Why have I heard her voice?…”
 
VI
They walked out of the shadows and up a long sloping path until Sandgate, as a little line of lights, came into view below. Presently they came out upon the brow and walked together (the band playing with a remote and sweetening indistinctness far away behind them) towards the cliff at the end. They stood for a little while in silence looking down. Melville made a guess at his companion’s thoughts.
 
“Why not come down to-night?” he asked.
 
“On a night like this!” Chatteris turned about suddenly and regarded the moonlight and the sea. He stood quite still for a space, and that cold white radiance[283] gave an illusory strength and decision to his face. “No,” he said at last, and the word was almost a sigh.
 
“Go down to the girl below there. End the thing. She will be there, thinking of you——”
 
“No,” said Chatteris, “no.”
 
“It’s not ten yet,” Melville tried again.
 
Chatteris thought. “No,” he answered, “not to-night. To-morrow, in the light of everyday.
 
“I want a good, gray, honest day,” he said, “with a south-west wind.… These still, soft nights! How can you expect me to do anything of that sort to-night?”
 
And then he murmured as if he found the word a satisfying word to repeat, “Renunciation.”
 
“By Jove!” he said with the most astonishing transition, “but this is a night[284] out of fairyland! Look at the lights of those windows below there and then up—up into this enormous blue of sky. And there, as if it were fainting with moonlight—shines one star.”
 

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 conscientious mYmzr     
adj.审慎正直的,认真的,本着良心的
参考例句:
  • He is a conscientious man and knows his job.他很认真负责,也很懂行。
  • He is very conscientious in the performance of his duties.他非常认真地履行职责。
2 fully Gfuzd     
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地
参考例句:
  • The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气,然后全部呼出。
  • They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。
3 amplify iwGzw     
vt.放大,增强;详述,详加解说
参考例句:
  • The new manager wants to amplify the company.新经理想要扩大公司。
  • Please amplify your remarks by giving us some examples.请举例详述你的话。
4 exponent km8xH     
n.倡导者,拥护者;代表人物;指数,幂
参考例句:
  • She is an exponent of vegetarianism.她是一个素食主义的倡导者。
  • He had been the principal exponent of the Gallipoli campaign.他曾为加里波利战役的主要代表人物。
5 irresistible n4CxX     
adj.非常诱人的,无法拒绝的,无法抗拒的
参考例句:
  • The wheel of history rolls forward with an irresistible force.历史车轮滚滚向前,势不可挡。
  • She saw an irresistible skirt in the store window.她看见商店的橱窗里有一条叫人着迷的裙子。
6 implored 0b089ebf3591e554caa381773b194ff1     
恳求或乞求(某人)( implore的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She implored him to stay. 她恳求他留下。
  • She implored him with tears in her eyes to forgive her. 她含泪哀求他原谅她。
7 casually UwBzvw     
adv.漠不关心地,无动于衷地,不负责任地
参考例句:
  • She remarked casually that she was changing her job.她当时漫不经心地说要换工作。
  • I casually mentioned that I might be interested in working abroad.我不经意地提到我可能会对出国工作感兴趣。
8 omission mjcyS     
n.省略,删节;遗漏或省略的事物,冗长
参考例句:
  • The omission of the girls was unfair.把女孩排除在外是不公平的。
  • The omission of this chapter from the third edition was a gross oversight.第三版漏印这一章是个大疏忽。
9 veranda XfczWG     
n.走廊;阳台
参考例句:
  • She sat in the shade on the veranda.她坐在阳台上的遮荫处。
  • They were strolling up and down the veranda.他们在走廊上来回徜徉。
10 umbrageous e3ff45e5af10dd7ee148bd2696ee7bda     
adj.多荫的
参考例句:
  • They have not been as umbrageous in demanding their territory back. 他们从未以如此好战的态度要求归还领土。 来自互联网
11 manly fBexr     
adj.有男子气概的;adv.男子般地,果断地
参考例句:
  • The boy walked with a confident manly stride.这男孩以自信的男人步伐行走。
  • He set himself manly tasks and expected others to follow his example.他给自己定下了男子汉的任务,并希望别人效之。
12 suite MsMwB     
n.一套(家具);套房;随从人员
参考例句:
  • She has a suite of rooms in the hotel.她在那家旅馆有一套房间。
  • That is a nice suite of furniture.那套家具很不错。
13 harry heBxS     
vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼
参考例句:
  • Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天,人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
  • Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。
14 nourishment Ovvyi     
n.食物,营养品;营养情况
参考例句:
  • Lack of proper nourishment reduces their power to resist disease.营养不良降低了他们抵抗疾病的能力。
  • He ventured that plants draw part of their nourishment from the air.他大胆提出植物从空气中吸收部分养分的观点。
15 intensified 4b3b31dab91d010ec3f02bff8b189d1a     
v.(使)增强, (使)加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • Violence intensified during the night. 在夜间暴力活动加剧了。
  • The drought has intensified. 旱情加剧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
16 eyebrows a0e6fb1330e9cfecfd1c7a4d00030ed5     
眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
  • His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。
17 portentously 938b6fcdf6853428f0cea1077600781f     
参考例句:
  • The lamps had a portentously elastic swing with them. 那儿路面的街灯正带着一种不祥的弹性摇晃着呢! 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
  • Louis surveyed me with his shrewd gray eyes and shook his head portentously. 鲁易用他狡猾的灰色眼睛打量着我,预示凶兆般地摇着头。 来自辞典例句
18 elastic Tjbzq     
n.橡皮圈,松紧带;adj.有弹性的;灵活的
参考例句:
  • Rubber is an elastic material.橡胶是一种弹性材料。
  • These regulations are elastic.这些规定是有弹性的。
19 requited 7e241adc245cecc72f302a4bab687327     
v.报答( requite的过去式和过去分词 );酬谢;回报;报复
参考例句:
  • I requited him for his help with a present. 我送他一份礼以答谢他的帮助。 来自辞典例句
  • His kindness was requited with cold contempt. 他的好意被报以 [遭致] 冷淡的轻蔑。 来自辞典例句
20 ass qvyzK     
n.驴;傻瓜,蠢笨的人
参考例句:
  • He is not an ass as they make him.他不象大家猜想的那样笨。
  • An ass endures his burden but not more than his burden.驴能负重但不能超过它能力所负担的。
21 protruded ebe69790c4eedce2f4fb12105fc9e9ac     
v.(使某物)伸出,(使某物)突出( protrude的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The child protruded his tongue. 那小孩伸出舌头。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The creature's face seemed to be protruded, because of its bent carriage. 那人的脑袋似乎向前突出,那是因为身子佝偻的缘故。 来自英汉文学
22 confidential MOKzA     
adj.秘(机)密的,表示信任的,担任机密工作的
参考例句:
  • He refused to allow his secretary to handle confidential letters.他不让秘书处理机密文件。
  • We have a confidential exchange of views.我们推心置腹地交换意见。
23 flayed 477fd38febec6da69d637f7ec30ab03a     
v.痛打( flay的过去式和过去分词 );把…打得皮开肉绽;剥(通常指动物)的皮;严厉批评
参考例句:
  • He was so angry he nearly flayed his horse alive. 他气得几乎把马活活抽死。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The teacher flayed the idle students. 老师严责那些懒惰的学生。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
24 intensity 45Ixd     
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度
参考例句:
  • I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
  • The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。
25 spotted 7FEyj     
adj.有斑点的,斑纹的,弄污了的
参考例句:
  • The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
  • Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。
26 corpse JYiz4     
n.尸体,死尸
参考例句:
  • What she saw was just an unfeeling corpse.她见到的只是一具全无感觉的尸体。
  • The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming.尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。
27 legacies 68e66995cc32392cf8c573d17a3233aa     
n.遗产( legacy的名词复数 );遗留之物;遗留问题;后遗症
参考例句:
  • Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind. 书是伟大的天才留给人类的精神财富。 来自辞典例句
  • General legacies are subject to the same principles as demonstrative legacies. 一般的遗赠要与指定数目的遗赠遵循同样的原则。 来自辞典例句
28 peek ULZxW     
vi.偷看,窥视;n.偷偷的一看,一瞥
参考例句:
  • Larry takes a peek out of the window.赖瑞往窗外偷看了一下。
  • Cover your eyes and don't peek.捂上眼睛,别偷看。
29 bishop AtNzd     
n.主教,(国际象棋)象
参考例句:
  • He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
  • Two years after his death the bishop was canonised.主教逝世两年后被正式封为圣者。
30 mermaid pCbxH     
n.美人鱼
参考例句:
  • How popular would that girl be with the only mermaid mom!和人鱼妈妈在一起,那个女孩会有多受欢迎!
  • The little mermaid wasn't happy because she didn't want to wait.小美人鱼不太高兴,因为她等不及了。
31 wan np5yT     
(wide area network)广域网
参考例句:
  • The shared connection can be an Ethernet,wireless LAN,or wireless WAN connection.提供共享的网络连接可以是以太网、无线局域网或无线广域网。
32 meditated b9ec4fbda181d662ff4d16ad25198422     
深思,沉思,冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 ); 内心策划,考虑
参考例句:
  • He meditated for two days before giving his answer. 他在作出答复之前考虑了两天。
  • She meditated for 2 days before giving her answer. 她考虑了两天才答复。
33 conclusiveness 6b7377f978227ddffb30166b92f0307f     
n.最后; 释疑; 确定性; 结论性
参考例句:
34 luncheon V8az4     
n.午宴,午餐,便宴
参考例句:
  • We have luncheon at twelve o'clock.我们十二点钟用午餐。
  • I have a luncheon engagement.我午饭有约。
35 despondently 9be17148dd640dc40b605258bbc2e187     
adv.沮丧地,意志消沉地
参考例句:
  • It had come to that, he reflected despondently. 事情已经到了这个地步了,他沉思着,感到心灰意懒。 来自辞典例句
  • He shook his head despondently. 他沮丧地摇摇头。 来自辞典例句
36 spoke XryyC     
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
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
37 interfere b5lx0     
v.(in)干涉,干预;(with)妨碍,打扰
参考例句:
  • If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话,可能弊多利少。
  • When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件,棘手的事情就来了。
38 promptly LRMxm     
adv.及时地,敏捷地
参考例句:
  • He paid the money back promptly.他立即还了钱。
  • She promptly seized the opportunity his absence gave her.她立即抓住了因他不在场给她创造的机会。
39 reverted 5ac73b57fcce627aea1bfd3f5d01d36c     
恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 ); 重提; 回到…上; 归还
参考例句:
  • After the settlers left, the area reverted to desert. 早期移民离开之后,这个地区又变成了一片沙漠。
  • After his death the house reverted to its original owner. 他死后房子归还给了原先的主人。
40 sketched 7209bf19355618c1eb5ca3c0fdf27631     
v.草拟(sketch的过去式与过去分词形式)
参考例句:
  • The historical article sketched the major events of the decade. 这篇有关历史的文章概述了这十年中的重大事件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He sketched the situation in a few vivid words. 他用几句生动的语言简述了局势。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
41 accusations 3e7158a2ffc2cb3d02e77822c38c959b     
n.指责( accusation的名词复数 );指控;控告;(被告发、控告的)罪名
参考例句:
  • There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
  • He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。
42 explicitly JtZz2H     
ad.明确地,显然地
参考例句:
  • The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
  • SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条,清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
43 implicitly 7146d52069563dd0fc9ea894b05c6fef     
adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地
参考例句:
  • Many verbs and many words of other kinds are implicitly causal. 许多动词和许多其他类词都蕴涵着因果关系。
  • I can trust Mr. Somerville implicitly, I suppose? 我想,我可以毫无保留地信任萨莫维尔先生吧?
44 memorable K2XyQ     
adj.值得回忆的,难忘的,特别的,显著的
参考例句:
  • This was indeed the most memorable day of my life.这的确是我一生中最值得怀念的日子。
  • The veteran soldier has fought many memorable battles.这个老兵参加过许多难忘的战斗。
45 extenuating extenuating     
adj.使减轻的,情有可原的v.(用偏袒的辩解或借口)减轻( extenuate的现在分词 );低估,藐视
参考例句:
  • There were extenuating circumstances and the defendant did not receive a prison sentence. 因有可减轻罪行的情节被告未被判刑。
  • I do not plead any extenuating act. 我不求宽大,也不要求减刑。 来自演讲部分
46 complexity KO9z3     
n.复杂(性),复杂的事物
参考例句:
  • Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
  • The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。
47 entrusted be9f0db83b06252a0a462773113f94fa     
v.委托,托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • He entrusted the task to his nephew. 他把这任务托付给了他的侄儿。
  • She was entrusted with the direction of the project. 她受委托负责这项计划。 来自《简明英汉词典》
48 entirely entirely     
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
  • His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。
49 essentially nntxw     
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上
参考例句:
  • Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
  • She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。
50 mere rC1xE     
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过
参考例句:
  • That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
  • It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。
51 vacillation Oi2wu     
n.动摇;忧柔寡断
参考例句:
  • Vacillation is the cause of his failure.优柔寡断是他失败的原因。
  • His constant vacillation made him an unfit administrator.他经常优柔寡断,这使他不适合当行政官员。
52 eradicated 527fe74fc13c68501cfd202231063f4a     
画着根的
参考例句:
  • Polio has been virtually eradicated in Brazil. 在巴西脊髓灰质炎实际上已经根除。
  • The disease has been eradicated from the world. 这种疾病已在全世界得到根除。
53 remonstrance bVex0     
n抗议,抱怨
参考例句:
  • She had abandoned all attempts at remonstrance with Thomas.她已经放弃了一切劝戒托马斯的尝试。
  • Mrs. Peniston was at the moment inaccessible to remonstrance.目前彭尼斯顿太太没功夫听她告状。
54 trepidation igDy3     
n.惊恐,惶恐
参考例句:
  • The men set off in fear and trepidation.这群人惊慌失措地出发了。
  • The threat of an epidemic caused great alarm and trepidation.流行病猖獗因而人心惶惶。
55 exhausted 7taz4r     
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的
参考例句:
  • It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长,到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
  • Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。
56 fixedly 71be829f2724164d2521d0b5bee4e2cc     
adv.固定地;不屈地,坚定不移地
参考例句:
  • He stared fixedly at the woman in white. 他一直凝视着那穿白衣裳的女人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The great majority were silent and still, looking fixedly at the ground. 绝大部分的人都不闹不动,呆呆地望着地面。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
57 inadequate 2kzyk     
adj.(for,to)不充足的,不适当的
参考例句:
  • The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
  • She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。
58 repented c24481167c6695923be1511247ed3c08     
对(自己的所为)感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • He repented his thoughtlessness. 他后悔自己的轻率。
  • Darren repented having shot the bird. 达伦后悔射杀了那只鸟。
59 temerity PGmyk     
n.鲁莽,冒失
参考例句:
  • He had the temerity to ask for higher wages after only a day's work.只工作了一天,他就蛮不讲理地要求增加工资。
  • Tins took some temerity,but it was fruitless.这件事做得有点莽撞,但结果还是无用。
60 perplexed A3Rz0     
adj.不知所措的
参考例句:
  • The farmer felt the cow,went away,returned,sorely perplexed,always afraid of being cheated.那农民摸摸那头牛,走了又回来,犹豫不决,总怕上当受骗。
  • The child was perplexed by the intricate plot of the story.这孩子被那头绪纷繁的故事弄得迷惑不解。
61 complexities b217e6f6e3d61b3dd560522457376e61     
复杂性(complexity的名词复数); 复杂的事物
参考例句:
  • The complexities of life bothered him. 生活的复杂使他困惑。
  • The complexities of life bothered me. 生活的杂乱事儿使我心烦。
62 tardily b2d1a1f9ad2c51f0a420cc474b3bcff1     
adv.缓慢
参考例句:
  • Notice came so tardily that we almost missed the deadline. 通知下达的太慢了,我几乎都错过了最后期限。 来自互联网
  • He always replied rather tardily to my letters. 他对我的信总是迟迟不作答复。 来自互联网
63 abruptly iINyJ     
adv.突然地,出其不意地
参考例句:
  • He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
  • I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。
64 winced 7be9a27cb0995f7f6019956af354c6e4     
赶紧避开,畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • He winced as the dog nipped his ankle. 狗咬了他的脚腕子,疼得他龇牙咧嘴。
  • He winced as a sharp pain shot through his left leg. 他左腿一阵剧痛疼得他直龇牙咧嘴。
65 appalling iNwz9     
adj.骇人听闻的,令人震惊的,可怕的
参考例句:
  • The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions.恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
  • Nothing can extenuate such appalling behaviour.这种骇人听闻的行径罪无可恕。
66 obliquely ad073d5d92dfca025ebd4a198e291bdc     
adv.斜; 倾斜; 间接; 不光明正大
参考例句:
  • From the gateway two paths led obliquely across the court. 从门口那儿,有两条小路斜越过院子。 来自辞典例句
  • He was receding obliquely with a curious hurrying gait. 他歪着身子,古怪而急促地迈着步子,往后退去。 来自辞典例句
67 waived 5fb1561b535ff0e477b379c4a7edcd74     
v.宣布放弃( waive的过去式和过去分词 );搁置;推迟;放弃(权利、要求等)
参考例句:
  • He has waived all claim to the money. 他放弃了索取这笔钱的权利。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • I waived the discourse, and began to talk of my business. 我撇开了这个话题,开始讲我的事情。 来自辞典例句
68 judgment e3xxC     
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见
参考例句:
  • The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
  • He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。
69 judgments 2a483d435ecb48acb69a6f4c4dd1a836     
判断( judgment的名词复数 ); 鉴定; 评价; 审判
参考例句:
  • A peculiar austerity marked his judgments of modern life. 他对现代生活的批评带着一种特殊的苛刻。
  • He is swift with his judgments. 他判断迅速。
70 cant KWAzZ     
n.斜穿,黑话,猛扔
参考例句:
  • The ship took on a dangerous cant to port.船只出现向左舷危险倾斜。
  • He knows thieves'cant.他懂盗贼的黑话。
71 temperament 7INzf     
n.气质,性格,性情
参考例句:
  • The analysis of what kind of temperament you possess is vital.分析一下你有什么样的气质是十分重要的。
  • Success often depends on temperament.成功常常取决于一个人的性格。
72 austere GeIyW     
adj.艰苦的;朴素的,朴实无华的;严峻的
参考例句:
  • His way of life is rather austere.他的生活方式相当简朴。
  • The room was furnished in austere style.这间屋子的陈设都很简单朴素。
73 schooling AjAzM6     
n.教育;正规学校教育
参考例句:
  • A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
  • Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。
74 minor e7fzR     
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修
参考例句:
  • The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
  • I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。
75 dignified NuZzfb     
a.可敬的,高贵的
参考例句:
  • Throughout his trial he maintained a dignified silence. 在整个审讯过程中,他始终沉默以保持尊严。
  • He always strikes such a dignified pose before his girlfriend. 他总是在女友面前摆出这种庄严的姿态。
76 adventurous LKryn     
adj.爱冒险的;惊心动魄的,惊险的,刺激的 
参考例句:
  • I was filled with envy at their adventurous lifestyle.我很羨慕他们敢于冒险的生活方式。
  • He was predestined to lead an adventurous life.他注定要过冒险的生活。
77 disapprove 9udx3     
v.不赞成,不同意,不批准
参考例句:
  • I quite disapprove of his behaviour.我很不赞同他的行为。
  • She wants to train for the theatre but her parents disapprove.她想训练自己做戏剧演员,但她的父母不赞成。
78 tangled e487ee1bc1477d6c2828d91e94c01c6e     
adj. 纠缠的,紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词
参考例句:
  • Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了,我梳不动。
  • A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。
79 edifice kqgxv     
n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿,教室)
参考例句:
  • The American consulate was a magnificent edifice in the centre of Bordeaux.美国领事馆是位于波尔多市中心的一座宏伟的大厦。
  • There is a huge Victorian edifice in the area.该地区有一幢维多利亚式的庞大建筑物。
80 interpretation P5jxQ     
n.解释,说明,描述;艺术处理
参考例句:
  • His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
  • Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。
81 dwellings aa496e58d8528ad0edee827cf0b9b095     
n.住处,处所( dwelling的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The development will consist of 66 dwellings and a number of offices. 新建楼区将由66栋住房和一些办公用房组成。
  • The hovels which passed for dwellings are being pulled down. 过去用作住室的陋屋正在被拆除。 来自《简明英汉词典》
82 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
83 sob HwMwx     
n.空间轨道的轰炸机;呜咽,哭泣
参考例句:
  • The child started to sob when he couldn't find his mother.孩子因找不到他妈妈哭了起来。
  • The girl didn't answer,but continued to sob with her head on the table.那个女孩不回答,也不抬起头来。她只顾低声哭着。
84 inordinate c6txn     
adj.无节制的;过度的
参考例句:
  • The idea of this gave me inordinate pleasure.我想到这一点感到非常高兴。
  • James hints that his heroine's demands on life are inordinate.詹姆斯暗示他的女主人公对于人生过于苛求。
85 attentive pOKyB     
adj.注意的,专心的;关心(别人)的,殷勤的
参考例句:
  • She was very attentive to her guests.她对客人招待得十分周到。
  • The speaker likes to have an attentive audience.演讲者喜欢注意力集中的听众。
86 phantom T36zQ     
n.幻影,虚位,幽灵;adj.错觉的,幻影的,幽灵的
参考例句:
  • I found myself staring at her as if she were a phantom.我发现自己瞪大眼睛看着她,好像她是一个幽灵。
  • He is only a phantom of a king.他只是有名无实的国王。
87 fabric 3hezG     
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织
参考例句:
  • The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
  • I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。
88 lure l8Gz2     
n.吸引人的东西,诱惑物;vt.引诱,吸引
参考例句:
  • Life in big cities is a lure for many country boys.大城市的生活吸引着许多乡下小伙子。
  • He couldn't resist the lure of money.他不能抵制金钱的诱惑。
89 blurted fa8352b3313c0b88e537aab1fcd30988     
v.突然说出,脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She blurted it out before I could stop her. 我还没来得及制止,她已脱口而出。
  • He blurted out the truth, that he committed the crime. 他不慎说出了真相,说是他犯了那个罪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
90 awakened de71059d0b3cd8a1de21151c9166f9f0     
v.(使)醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 );(使)觉醒;弄醒;(使)意识到
参考例句:
  • She awakened to the sound of birds singing. 她醒来听到鸟的叫声。
  • The public has been awakened to the full horror of the situation. 公众完全意识到了这一状况的可怕程度。 来自《简明英汉词典》
91 shrugged 497904474a48f991a3d1961b0476ebce     
vt.耸肩(shrug的过去式与过去分词形式)
参考例句:
  • Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀,什么也没说。
  • She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩,装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
92 insurgence aa9a9b81d8786fa8880650d65e0a630f     
n.起义;造反;暴动;叛乱
参考例句:
  • US troops moved into the Afghan mountains in an offensive to stop Taliban insurgence. 美军日前进军阿富汗山区阻止塔利班组织的一次暴动。 来自互联网
93 antagonism bwHzL     
n.对抗,敌对,对立
参考例句:
  • People did not feel a strong antagonism for established policy.人们没有对既定方针产生强烈反应。
  • There is still much antagonism between trades unions and the oil companies.工会和石油公司之间仍然存在着相当大的敌意。
94 opposition eIUxU     
n.反对,敌对
参考例句:
  • The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
  • The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。
95 astounding QyKzns     
adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊,使大吃一惊astound的现在分词)
参考例句:
  • There was an astounding 20% increase in sales. 销售量惊人地增加了20%。
  • The Chairman's remarks were so astounding that the audience listened to him with bated breath. 主席说的话令人吃惊,所以听众都屏息听他说。 来自《简明英汉词典》
96 simplicity Vryyv     
n.简单,简易;朴素;直率,单纯
参考例句:
  • She dressed with elegant simplicity.她穿着朴素高雅。
  • The beauty of this plan is its simplicity.简明扼要是这个计划的一大特点。
97 starkly 4e0b2db3ce8605be1f8d536fac698e3f     
adj. 变硬了的,完全的 adv. 完全,实在,简直
参考例句:
  • The city of Befast remains starkly divided between Catholics and Protestants. 贝尔法斯特市完全被处在天主教徒和新教徒的纷争之中。
  • The black rocks stood out starkly against the sky. 那些黑色的岩石在天空衬托下十分显眼。
98 clenched clenched     
v.紧握,抓紧,咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • He clenched his fists in anger. 他愤怒地攥紧了拳头。
  • She clenched her hands in her lap to hide their trembling. 她攥紧双手放在腿上,以掩饰其颤抖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
99 tightened bd3d8363419d9ff838bae0ba51722ee9     
收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 ); (使)变紧; (使)绷紧; 加紧
参考例句:
  • The rope holding the boat suddenly tightened and broke. 系船的绳子突然绷断了。
  • His index finger tightened on the trigger but then relaxed again. 他的食指扣住扳机,然后又松开了。
100 standing 2hCzgo     
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
参考例句:
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
101 adherent cyqzU     
n.信徒,追随者,拥护者
参考例句:
  • He was most liberal where money would bring him a powerful or necessary political adherent.在金钱能够收买一个干练的或者必需的政治拥护者的地方,他是最不惜花钱的。
  • He's a pious adherent of Buddhism.他是一位虔诚的佛教徒。
102 lamentable A9yzi     
adj.令人惋惜的,悔恨的
参考例句:
  • This lamentable state of affairs lasted until 1947.这一令人遗憾的事态一直持续至1947年。
  • His practice of inebriation was lamentable.他的酗酒常闹得别人束手无策。
103 destined Dunznz     
adj.命中注定的;(for)以…为目的地的
参考例句:
  • It was destined that they would marry.他们结婚是缘分。
  • The shipment is destined for America.这批货物将运往美国。
104 bonnet AtSzQ     
n.无边女帽;童帽
参考例句:
  • The baby's bonnet keeps the sun out of her eyes.婴孩的帽子遮住阳光,使之不刺眼。
  • She wore a faded black bonnet garnished with faded artificial flowers.她戴着一顶褪了色的黑色无边帽,帽上缀着褪了色的假花。
105 intercept G5rx7     
vt.拦截,截住,截击
参考例句:
  • His letter was intercepted by the Secret Service.他的信被特工处截获了。
  • Gunmen intercepted him on his way to the airport.持枪歹徒在他去机场的路上截击了他。
106 descended guQzoy     
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的
参考例句:
  • A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
  • The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。
107 resolute 2sCyu     
adj.坚决的,果敢的
参考例句:
  • He was resolute in carrying out his plan.他坚决地实行他的计划。
  • The Egyptians offered resolute resistance to the aggressors.埃及人对侵略者作出坚决的反抗。
108 interval 85kxY     
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息
参考例句:
  • The interval between the two trees measures 40 feet.这两棵树的间隔是40英尺。
  • There was a long interval before he anwsered the telephone.隔了好久他才回了电话。
109 flicked 7c535fef6da8b8c191b1d1548e9e790a     
(尤指用手指或手快速地)轻击( flick的过去式和过去分词 ); (用…)轻挥; (快速地)按开关; 向…笑了一下(或瞥了一眼等)
参考例句:
  • She flicked the dust off her collar. 她轻轻弹掉了衣领上的灰尘。
  • I idly picked up a magazine and flicked through it. 我漫不经心地拿起一本杂志翻看着。
110 luminous 98ez5     
adj.发光的,发亮的;光明的;明白易懂的;有启发的
参考例句:
  • There are luminous knobs on all the doors in my house.我家所有门上都安有夜光把手。
  • Most clocks and watches in this shop are in luminous paint.这家商店出售的大多数钟表都涂了发光漆。
111 testiness b4606c66e698fba94cc973ec6e5d1160     
n.易怒,暴躁
参考例句:
  • Testiness crept into my voice. 我的话音渐渐带上了怒气。 来自辞典例句
112 fishy ysgzzF     
adj. 值得怀疑的
参考例句:
  • It all sounds very fishy to me.所有这些在我听起来都很可疑。
  • There was definitely something fishy going on.肯定当时有可疑的事情在进行中。
113 apparently tMmyQ     
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎
参考例句:
  • An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽,豁然开朗。
  • He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。
114 determined duszmP     
adj.坚定的;有决心的
参考例句:
  • I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
  • He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。
115 galleons 68206947d43ce6c17938c27fbdf2b733     
n.大型帆船( galleon的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The larger galleons made in at once for Corunna. 那些较大的西班牙帆船立即进入科普尼亚。 来自互联网
  • A hundred thousand disguises, all for ten Galleons! 千万张面孔,变化无穷,只卖十个加隆! 来自互联网
116 wrecked ze0zKI     
adj.失事的,遇难的
参考例句:
  • the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
  • the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞
117 frigates 360fb8ac927408e6307fa16c9d808638     
n.快速军舰( frigate的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Frigates are a vital part of any balanced sea-going fleet. 护卫舰是任何一个配置均衡的远洋舰队所必需的。 来自互联网
  • These ships are based on the Chinese Jiangwei II class frigates. 这些战舰是基于中国的江卫II型护卫舰。 来自互联网
118 immortal 7kOyr     
adj.不朽的;永生的,不死的;神的
参考例句:
  • The wild cocoa tree is effectively immortal.野生可可树实际上是不会死的。
  • The heroes of the people are immortal!人民英雄永垂不朽!
119 mansion 8BYxn     
n.大厦,大楼;宅第
参考例句:
  • The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
  • The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。
120 precisely zlWzUb     
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地
参考例句:
  • It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
  • The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。
121 arid JejyB     
adj.干旱的;(土地)贫瘠的
参考例句:
  • These trees will shield off arid winds and protect the fields.这些树能挡住旱风,保护农田。
  • There are serious problems of land degradation in some arid zones.在一些干旱地带存在严重的土地退化问题。
122 mythological BFaxL     
adj.神话的
参考例句:
  • He is remembered for his historical and mythological works. 他以其带有历史感和神话色彩的作品而著称。
  • But even so, the cumulative process had for most Americans a deep, almost mythological significance. 不过即使如此,移民渐增的过程,对于大部分美国人,还是意味深长的,几乎有不可思议的影响。
123 Mediterranean ezuzT     
adj.地中海的;地中海沿岸的
参考例句:
  • The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
  • Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。
124 worthy vftwB     
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的
参考例句:
  • I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
  • There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。
125 devoted xu9zka     
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的
参考例句:
  • He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
  • We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
126 bully bully     
n.恃强欺弱者,小流氓;vt.威胁,欺侮
参考例句:
  • A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
  • The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。
127 constrained YvbzqU     
adj.束缚的,节制的
参考例句:
  • The evidence was so compelling that he felt constrained to accept it. 证据是那样的令人折服,他觉得不得不接受。
  • I feel constrained to write and ask for your forgiveness. 我不得不写信请你原谅。
128 peculiar cinyo     
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的
参考例句:
  • He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
  • He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。
129 ascending CyCzrc     
adj.上升的,向上的
参考例句:
  • Now draw or trace ten dinosaurs in ascending order of size.现在按照体型由小到大的顺序画出或是临摹出10只恐龙。
130 erect 4iLzm     
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的
参考例句:
  • She held her head erect and her back straight.她昂着头,把背挺得笔直。
  • Soldiers are trained to stand erect.士兵们训练站得笔直。
131 assertive De7yL     
adj.果断的,自信的,有冲劲的
参考例句:
  • She always speaks an assertive tone.她总是以果断的语气说话。
  • China appears to have become more assertive in the waters off its coastline over recent years.在近些年,中国显示出对远方海洋的自信。
132 gliding gliding     
v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的
参考例句:
  • Swans went gliding past. 天鹅滑行而过。
  • The weather forecast has put a question mark against the chance of doing any gliding tomorrow. 天气预报对明天是否能举行滑翔表示怀疑。
133 lapsing 65e81da1f4c567746d2fd7c1679977c2     
v.退步( lapse的现在分词 );陷入;倒退;丧失
参考例句:
  • He tried to say, but his voice kept lapsing. 他是想说这句话,可已经抖得语不成声了。 来自辞典例句
  • I saw the pavement lapsing beneath my feet. 我看到道路在我脚下滑过。 来自辞典例句
134 disorder Et1x4     
n.紊乱,混乱;骚动,骚乱;疾病,失调
参考例句:
  • When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后,他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
  • It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。
135 stunned 735ec6d53723be15b1737edd89183ec2     
adj. 震惊的,惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词
参考例句:
  • The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
  • The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。
136 vigour lhtwr     
(=vigor)n.智力,体力,精力
参考例句:
  • She is full of vigour and enthusiasm.她有热情,有朝气。
  • At 40,he was in his prime and full of vigour.他40岁时正年富力强。
137 emphatic 0P1zA     
adj.强调的,着重的;无可置疑的,明显的
参考例句:
  • Their reply was too emphatic for anyone to doubt them.他们的回答很坚决,不容有任何人怀疑。
  • He was emphatic about the importance of being punctual.他强调严守时间的重要性。
138 sinister 6ETz6     
adj.不吉利的,凶恶的,左边的
参考例句:
  • There is something sinister at the back of that series of crimes.在这一系列罪行背后有险恶的阴谋。
  • Their proposals are all worthless and designed out of sinister motives.他们的建议不仅一钱不值,而且包藏祸心。
139 vividly tebzrE     
adv.清楚地,鲜明地,生动地
参考例句:
  • The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
  • The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。
140 abominably 71996a6a63478f424db0cdd3fd078878     
adv. 可恶地,可恨地,恶劣地
参考例句:
  • From her own point of view Barbara had behaved abominably. 在她看来,芭芭拉的表现是恶劣的。
  • He wanted to know how abominably they could behave towards him. 他希望能知道他们能用什么样的卑鄙手段来对付他。
141 obtrusive b0uy5     
adj.显眼的;冒失的
参考例句:
  • These heaters are less obtrusive and are easy to store away in the summer.这些加热器没那么碍眼,夏天收起来也很方便。
  • The factory is an obtrusive eyesore.这工厂很刺眼。
142 westward XIvyz     
n.西方,西部;adj.西方的,向西的;adv.向西
参考例句:
  • We live on the westward slope of the hill.我们住在这座山的西山坡。
  • Explore westward or wherever.向西或到什么别的地方去勘探。
143 overt iKoxp     
adj.公开的,明显的,公然的
参考例句:
  • His opponent's intention is quite overt.他的对手的意图很明显。
  • We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。
144 outspoken 3mIz7v     
adj.直言无讳的,坦率的,坦白无隐的
参考例句:
  • He was outspoken in his criticism.他在批评中直言不讳。
  • She is an outspoken critic of the school system in this city.她是这座城市里学校制度的坦率的批评者。
145 outskirts gmDz7W     
n.郊外,郊区
参考例句:
  • Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
  • They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。
146 votaries 55bd4be7a70c73e3a135b27bb2852719     
n.信徒( votary的名词复数 );追随者;(天主教)修士;修女
参考例句:
147 insistent s6ZxC     
adj.迫切的,坚持的
参考例句:
  • There was an insistent knock on my door.我听到一阵急促的敲门声。
  • He is most insistent on this point.他在这点上很坚持。
148 canopy Rczya     
n.天篷,遮篷
参考例句:
  • The trees formed a leafy canopy above their heads.树木在他们头顶上空形成了一个枝叶茂盛的遮篷。
  • They lay down under a canopy of stars.他们躺在繁星点点的天幕下。
149 brilliance 1svzs     
n.光辉,辉煌,壮丽,(卓越的)才华,才智
参考例句:
  • I was totally amazed by the brilliance of her paintings.她的绘画才能令我惊歎不已。
  • The gorgeous costume added to the brilliance of the dance.华丽的服装使舞蹈更加光彩夺目。
150 mingled fdf34efd22095ed7e00f43ccc823abdf     
混合,混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 ); 混进,与…交往[联系]
参考例句:
  • The sounds of laughter and singing mingled in the evening air. 笑声和歌声交织在夜空中。
  • The man and the woman mingled as everyone started to relax. 当大家开始放松的时候,这一男一女就开始交往了。
151 declivity 4xSxg     
n.下坡,倾斜面
参考例句:
  • I looked frontage straightly,going declivity one by one.我两眼直视前方,一路下坡又下坡。
  • He had rolled down a declivity of twelve or fifteen feet.他是从十二尺或十五尺高的地方滚下来的。
152 imposing 8q9zcB     
adj.使人难忘的,壮丽的,堂皇的,雄伟的
参考例句:
  • The fortress is an imposing building.这座城堡是一座宏伟的建筑。
  • He has lost his imposing appearance.他已失去堂堂仪表。
153 swarm dqlyj     
n.(昆虫)等一大群;vi.成群飞舞;蜂拥而入
参考例句:
  • There is a swarm of bees in the tree.这树上有一窝蜜蜂。
  • A swarm of ants are moving busily.一群蚂蚁正在忙碌地搬家。
154 defensive buszxy     
adj.防御的;防卫的;防守的
参考例句:
  • Their questions about the money put her on the defensive.他们问到钱的问题,使她警觉起来。
  • The Government hastily organized defensive measures against the raids.政府急忙布置了防卫措施抵御空袭。
155 meditative Djpyr     
adj.沉思的,冥想的
参考例句:
  • A stupid fellow is talkative;a wise man is meditative.蠢人饶舌,智者思虑。
  • Music can induce a meditative state in the listener.音乐能够引导倾听者沉思。
156 condemned condemned     
adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词
参考例句:
  • He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
  • The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。
157 flicking 856751237583a36a24c558b09c2a932a     
(尤指用手指或手快速地)轻击( flick的现在分词 ); (用…)轻挥; (快速地)按开关; 向…笑了一下(或瞥了一眼等)
参考例句:
  • He helped her up before flicking the reins. 他帮她上马,之后挥动了缰绳。
  • There's something flicking around my toes. 有什么东西老在叮我的脚指头。
158 benevolence gt8zx     
n.慈悲,捐助
参考例句:
  • We definitely do not apply a policy of benevolence to the reactionaries.我们对反动派决不施仁政。
  • He did it out of pure benevolence. 他做那件事完全出于善意。
159 waned 8caaa77f3543242d84956fa53609f27c     
v.衰落( wane的过去式和过去分词 );(月)亏;变小;变暗淡
参考例句:
  • However,my enthusiasm waned.The time I spent at exercises gradually diminished. 然而,我的热情减退了。我在做操上花的时间逐渐减少了。 来自《用法词典》
  • The bicycle craze has waned. 自行车热已冷下去了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
160 rigidly hjezpo     
adv.刻板地,僵化地
参考例句:
  • Life today is rigidly compartmentalized into work and leisure. 当今的生活被严格划分为工作和休闲两部分。
  • The curriculum is rigidly prescribed from an early age. 自儿童时起即已开始有严格的课程设置。
161 moody XEXxG     
adj.心情不稳的,易怒的,喜怒无常的
参考例句:
  • He relapsed into a moody silence.他又重新陷于忧郁的沉默中。
  • I'd never marry that girl.She's so moody.我决不会和那女孩结婚的。她太易怒了。
162 preoccupied TPBxZ     
adj.全神贯注的,入神的;被抢先占有的;心事重重的v.占据(某人)思想,使对…全神贯注,使专心于( preoccupy的过去式)
参考例句:
  • He was too preoccupied with his own thoughts to notice anything wrong. 他只顾想着心事,没注意到有什么不对。
  • The question of going to the Mount Tai preoccupied his mind. 去游泰山的问题盘踞在他心头。 来自《简明英汉词典》
163 distressing cuTz30     
a.使人痛苦的
参考例句:
  • All who saw the distressing scene revolted against it. 所有看到这种悲惨景象的人都对此感到难过。
  • It is distressing to see food being wasted like this. 这样浪费粮食令人痛心。
164 discomfort cuvxN     
n.不舒服,不安,难过,困难,不方便
参考例句:
  • One has to bear a little discomfort while travelling.旅行中总要忍受一点不便。
  • She turned red with discomfort when the teacher spoke.老师讲话时她不好意思地红着脸。
165 distresses d55b1003849676d6eb49b5302f6714e5     
n.悲痛( distress的名词复数 );痛苦;贫困;危险
参考例句:
  • It was from these distresses that the peasant wars of the fourteenth century sprang. 正是由于这些灾难才爆发了十四世纪的农民战争。 来自辞典例句
  • In all dangers and distresses, I will remember that. 在一切危险和苦难中,我要记住这一件事。 来自互联网
166 awfully MPkym     
adv.可怕地,非常地,极端地
参考例句:
  • Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
  • I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。
167 plunged 06a599a54b33c9d941718dccc7739582     
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降
参考例句:
  • The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
  • She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳,从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。
168 gauge 2gMxz     
v.精确计量;估计;n.标准度量;计量器
参考例句:
  • Can you gauge what her reaction is likely to be?你能揣测她的反应可能是什么吗?
  • It's difficult to gauge one's character.要判断一个人的品格是很困难的。
169 glamour Keizv     
n.魔力,魅力;vt.迷住
参考例句:
  • Foreign travel has lost its glamour for her.到国外旅行对她已失去吸引力了。
  • The moonlight cast a glamour over the scene.月光给景色增添了魅力。
170 snare XFszw     
n.陷阱,诱惑,圈套;(去除息肉或者肿瘤的)勒除器;响弦,小军鼓;vt.以陷阱捕获,诱惑
参考例句:
  • I used to snare small birds such as sparrows.我曾常用罗网捕捉麻雀等小鸟。
  • Most of the people realized that their scheme was simply a snare and a delusion.大多数人都认识到他们的诡计不过是一个骗人的圈套。
171 deception vnWzO     
n.欺骗,欺诈;骗局,诡计
参考例句:
  • He admitted conspiring to obtain property by deception.他承认曾与人合谋骗取财产。
  • He was jailed for two years for fraud and deception.他因为诈骗和欺诈入狱服刑两年。
172 kindly tpUzhQ     
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地
参考例句:
  • Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
  • A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。
173 contrive GpqzY     
vt.谋划,策划;设法做到;设计,想出
参考例句:
  • Can you contrive to be here a little earlier?你能不能早一点来?
  • How could you contrive to make such a mess of things?你怎么把事情弄得一团糟呢?
174 temperate tIhzd     
adj.温和的,温带的,自我克制的,不过分的
参考例句:
  • Asia extends across the frigid,temperate and tropical zones.亚洲地跨寒、温、热三带。
  • Great Britain has a temperate climate.英国气候温和。
175 draught 7uyzIH     
n.拉,牵引,拖;一网(饮,吸,阵);顿服药量,通风;v.起草,设计
参考例句:
  • He emptied his glass at one draught.他将杯中物一饮而尽。
  • It's a pity the room has no north window and you don't get a draught.可惜这房间没北窗,没有过堂风。
176 voracious vLLzY     
adj.狼吞虎咽的,贪婪的
参考例句:
  • She's a voracious reader of all kinds of love stories.什么样的爱情故事她都百看不厌。
  • Joseph Smith was a voracious book collector.约瑟夫·史密斯是个如饥似渴的藏书家。
177 perfectly 8Mzxb     
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
  • Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。
178 sane 9YZxB     
adj.心智健全的,神志清醒的,明智的,稳健的
参考例句:
  • He was sane at the time of the murder.在凶杀案发生时他的神志是清醒的。
  • He is a very sane person.他是一个很有头脑的人。
179 immediate aapxh     
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的
参考例句:
  • His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
  • We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。
180 verge gUtzQ     
n.边,边缘;v.接近,濒临
参考例句:
  • The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
  • She was on the verge of bursting into tears.她快要哭出来了。
181 justification x32xQ     
n.正当的理由;辩解的理由
参考例句:
  • There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
  • In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。
182 justify j3DxR     
vt.证明…正当(或有理),为…辩护
参考例句:
  • He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
  • Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗?
183 recollect eUOxl     
v.回忆,想起,记起,忆起,记得
参考例句:
  • He tried to recollect things and drown himself in them.他极力回想过去的事情而沉浸于回忆之中。
  • She could not recollect being there.她回想不起曾经到过那儿。
184 corroborated ab27fc1c50e7a59aad0d93cd9f135917     
v.证实,支持(某种说法、信仰、理论等)( corroborate的过去式 )
参考例句:
  • The evidence was corroborated by two independent witnesses. 此证据由两名独立证人提供。
  • Experiments have corroborated her predictions. 实验证实了她的预言。 来自《简明英汉词典》
185 persistence hSLzh     
n.坚持,持续,存留
参考例句:
  • The persistence of a cough in his daughter puzzled him.他女儿持续的咳嗽把他难住了。
  • He achieved success through dogged persistence.他靠着坚持不懈取得了成功。
186 renounce 8BNzi     
v.放弃;拒绝承认,宣布与…断绝关系
参考例句:
  • She decided to renounce the world and enter a convent.她决定弃绝尘世去当修女。
  • It was painful for him to renounce his son.宣布与儿子脱离关系对他来说是很痛苦的。
187 contemptible DpRzO     
adj.可鄙的,可轻视的,卑劣的
参考例句:
  • His personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.他气貌不扬,言语粗俗。
  • That was a contemptible trick to play on a friend.那是对朋友玩弄的一出可鄙的把戏。
188 conceit raVyy     
n.自负,自高自大
参考例句:
  • As conceit makes one lag behind,so modesty helps one make progress.骄傲使人落后,谦虚使人进步。
  • She seems to be eaten up with her own conceit.她仿佛已经被骄傲冲昏了头脑。
189 armour gySzuh     
(=armor)n.盔甲;装甲部队
参考例句:
  • His body was encased in shining armour.他全身披着明晃晃的甲胄。
  • Bulletproof cars sheathed in armour.防弹车护有装甲。
190 slash Hrsyq     
vi.大幅度削减;vt.猛砍,尖锐抨击,大幅减少;n.猛砍,斜线,长切口,衣衩
参考例句:
  • The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
  • Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。
191 crook NnuyV     
v.使弯曲;n.小偷,骗子,贼;弯曲(处)
参考例句:
  • He demanded an apology from me for calling him a crook.我骂他骗子,他要我向他认错。
  • She was cradling a small parcel in the crook of her elbow.她用手臂挎着一个小包裹。
192 entangle DjnzO     
vt.缠住,套住;卷入,连累
参考例句:
  • How did Alice manage to entangle her hair so badly in the brambles?爱丽丝是怎么把头发死死地缠在荆棘上的?
  • Don't entangle the fishing lines.不要让钓鱼线缠在一起。
193 controversies 31fd3392f2183396a23567b5207d930c     
争论
参考例句:
  • We offer no comment on these controversies here. 对于这些争议,我们在这里不作任何评论。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史
  • The controversies surrounding population growth are unlikely to subside soon. 围绕着人口增长问题的争论看来不会很快平息。 来自辞典例句
194 impatience OaOxC     
n.不耐烦,急躁
参考例句:
  • He expressed impatience at the slow rate of progress.进展缓慢,他显得不耐烦。
  • He gave a stamp of impatience.他不耐烦地跺脚。
195 beacon KQays     
n.烽火,(警告用的)闪火灯,灯塔
参考例句:
  • The blink of beacon could be seen for miles.灯塔的光亮在数英里之外都能看见。
  • The only light over the deep black sea was the blink shone from the beacon.黑黢黢的海面上唯一的光明就只有灯塔上闪现的亮光了。
196 exempt wmgxo     
adj.免除的;v.使免除;n.免税者,被免除义务者
参考例句:
  • These goods are exempt from customs duties.这些货物免征关税。
  • He is exempt from punishment about this thing.关于此事对他已免于处分。


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