He looked down unseeing, thinking of the last three years.
When he had first met Bernice Iverson, she had been a typewriter and stenographer9 in the office of the Merchants and Mechanics Trust Company. He was twenty-four at the time, the only son of Cornelius Ryan, one of the financial magnates of the far West. The career of Con10 Ryan, as he was familiarly called, had been as varied11 as the heart of a public, who loves to dwell on the sensational12 fortunes of its great men, could have wished. In the early days of Virginia City, Con Ryan had been a miner there, had a claim of his own and lost all he had in it before the first Crown Point excitement, had run a grocery store in Shasta, moved to Sacramento, speculated successfully in mining stock and real estate, and in the bonanza14 days had had money to play the great game which made millionaires of the few and beggars of the many. He had played it daringly and with profit. When he died he left his widow complete control of a fortune of ten millions.
She had been a sturdy helpmeet—it was generally said that she was the best man of the two—and would keep the fortune safe for the two children, Dominick and Cornelia. Neither she nor Con believed in young men having control of large fortunes. They had seen what came of it in the sons of their bonanza friends. Dominick was sent to the East to college, and on his return, being then twenty-three years of age, was placed in the Oregon and California Bank, of which his father had been one of the founders15. He was soon promoted to a position where he earned a salary of three thousand a year. This was all he had when he met Bernice Iverson.
She was seven years older than he, but told him they were the same age. It was not a wasted lie, as she undoubtedly16 looked much younger than she was, being a slight, trimly-made woman who had retained a girlish elasticity17 of figure and sprightliness18 of manner. She came of respectable, hard-working people, her father, Danny Iverson, having been a contractor19 in a small way of business, and her two sisters being, one a teacher in the primary school department, the other a saleswoman in a fashionable millinery. She herself was an expert in her work, in office hours quiet, capable and businesslike, afterward20 lively, easy-going and companionable. The entrapping21 of young Ryan was a simple matter. He had never loved and knew little of women. He did not love her, but she made him think he did, threw herself at him, led him quickly to the point she wished to reach, and secretly, without a suspicion on the part of her family, became his mistress. Six months later, having driven him to the step by her upbraidings and her apparent sufferings of conscience under the sense of wrong-doing, she persuaded him to marry her.
The marriage was a bombshell to the world in which young Ryan was a planet of magnitude. His previous connection with her—though afterward discovered by his mother—was at the time unknown. Bernice had induced him to keep the marriage secret till its hour of accomplishment22, for she knew Mrs. Ryan would try to break it off and feared that she might succeed. Once Dominick’s wife she thought that the objections and resentment23 of the elder woman could be overcome. But she underrated the force and obstinacy24 of her adversary25 and the depth of the wound that had been given her. Old Mrs. Ryan had been stricken in her tenderest spot. Her son was her idol26, born in her middle-age, the last of four boys, three of whom had died in childhood. In his babyhood she had hoarded27 money and worked late and early that he might be rich. Now she held the great estate of her husband in trust for him, and dreamed of the time when he should marry some sweet and virtuous28 girl and she would have grandchildren to love and spoil and plan for. When the news of his marriage reached her and she saw the woman he had made his wife, she understood everything. She knew her boy through and through and she knew just how he had been duped and entangled29.
She was of that race of pioneer Californians who had entered an uninhabited country, swept aside Indian and Spaniard, and made it their own. They were isolated30 figures in a huge landscape, their characters, uncramped and bold, developing unrestricted in an atmosphere of physical and moral liberty. They grew as their instincts dictated31; the bough32 was not bent into convenient forms by expediency33 or pressure from without. Public opinion had little or no weight with them, for there was none. It was the pleasure of this remote group in this rich and exuberant34 land to do away with tradition and be a law and precept35 unto themselves. What other people thought and did did not influence them. They had one fixed36, dominating idea in a fluctuating code of morals—they knew what they wanted and they were determined37 to get it. They were powerful individualities whether for good or evil, and they resented with a passion any thwarting38 of their plans or desires, whether by the interposition of man or the hand of God.
Delia Ryan’s life had been a long, ascending39 series of hardly-won triumphs. She had surmounted41 what would have seemed to a less bold spirit unsurmountable obstacles; gone over them, not around them. She had acquired the habit of success, of getting what she wanted. Failure or defiance42 of her plans amazed her as they might have amazed the confident, all-conquering, pagan gods. The center of her life was her family; for them she had labored43, for them she would have died. Right and wrong in her mind were clearly defined till it came to her husband or children, and then they were transmuted44 into what benefited the Ryans and what did not. Rigidly45 fair and honorable in her dealings with the outside world, let a member of that world menace the happiness of one of her own, and she would sacrifice it, grind the ax without qualms46, like a priestess grimly doing her duty.
The marriage of her son was the bitterest blow of her life. It came when she was old, stiffened47 into habits of dominance and dictatorship, when her ambitions for her boy were gaining daily in scope and splendor48. A blind rage and determination to crush the woman were her first feelings, and remained with her but slightly mitigated49 by the softening50 passage of time. She was a partizan, a fighter, and she instituted a war against her daughter-in-law which she conducted with all the malignant51 bitterness that marks the quarrels of women.
Dominick had not been married a month when she discovered the previous connection between him and his wife, and published it to the winds. A social power, feared and obeyed, she let it be known that to any one who received Mrs. Dominick Ryan her doors would be for ever closed. Without withdrawing her friendship from her son she refused ever to meet or to receive his wife. In this attitude she was absolutely implacable. She imposed her will upon the less strong spirits about her, and young Mrs. Ryan was as completely shut off from her husband’s world as though her skirts carried contamination. With masculine largeness of view in other matters, in this one the elder woman exhibited a singular, unworthy smallness. The carelessly large checks she had previously52 given Dominick on his birthday and anniversaries ceased to appear, and masculine gifts, such as pipes, walking-sticks, and cigar-cases, in which his wife could have no participating enjoyment53, took their place. She had established a policy of exclusion54, and maintained it rigidly.
Young Mrs. Ryan had at first believed that this rancor55 would melt away with the flight of time. But she did not know the elder woman. She was as unmeltable as a granite56 rock. The separation from her son, now with age growing on her, ate like an acid into the mother’s heart. She saw him at intervals57, and the change in him, the growth of discouragement, the dejection of spirit that he hid from all the world, but that her eye, clairvoyant58 from love, detected, tore her with helpless wrath59 and grief. She punished herself and punished him, sacrificed them both, in permitting herself the indulgence of her implacable indignation.
Bernice, who had expected to gain all from her connection with the all-powerful Ryans, at the end of two years found that she was an ostracized60 outsider from the world she had hoped to enter, and that the riches she had expected to enjoy were represented by the three thousand a year her husband earned in the bank. Her attempts to force her way into the life and surroundings where she had hoped her marriage would place her had invariably failed. If her feelings were not of the same nature as those of the elder Mrs. Ryan, they were fully13 as poignant61 and bitter.
The effort to get an invitation to the ball had been the most daring the young woman had yet made. Neither she nor Dominick had thought it possible that Mrs. Ryan would leave her out. So confident was she that she would be asked that she had ordered a dress for the occasion. But when Dominick’s invitation came without her name on the envelope, then fear that she was to be excluded rose clamorous62 in her. For days she talked and complained to her husband as to the injustice63 of this course and his power to secure the invitation for her if he would. By the evening of the ball she had brought him to the point where he had agreed to go forth64 and demand it.
It was a hateful mission. He had never in his life done anything so humiliating. In his shame and distress65 he had hoped that his mother would give it to him without urging, and Bernice, placated66, would be restored to good humor and leave him at peace. She could not have gained such power over him, or so bent him to her bidding, had she not had in him a fulcrum67 of guilty obligation to work on. She continually reminded him of “the wrong” he had done her, and how, through him, she had lost the respect of herfellows and her place among them. All these slights, snubs and insults were his fault, and he felt that this was true. To-night he had gone forth in dogged desperation. Now in fear, frank fear of her, he went home, slowly, with reluctant feet, his heart getting heavier, his dread68 colder as he neared the house.
It was one of those wooden structures on Sacramento Street not far from Van Ness Avenue where the well-to-do and socially-aspiring crowd themselves into a floor of seven rooms, and derive69 satisfaction from the proximity70 of their distinguished71 neighbors who refuse to know them. It contained four flats, each with a parlor72 bay-window and a front door, all four doors in neighborly juxtaposition73 at the top of a flight of six marble steps.
Dominick’s was the top flat; he had to ascend40 a long, carpeted stairway with a turn half-way up to get to it. Now, looking at the bay-window, he saw lights gleaming from below the drawn74 blinds. Berny was still up. A lingering hope that she might have gone to bed died, and his sense of reluctance75 gained in force and made him feel slightly sick. He was there, however, and he had to go up. Fitting his key into the lock he opened the hall door.
It was very quiet as he mounted the long stairs, but, as he drew near the top, he became aware of a windy, whistling noise and looking into the room near the stair-head saw that all the gas-jets were lit and turned on full cock, and that the gas, rushing out from the burner in a ragged76 banner of flame, made the sound. He was about to enter and lower it when he heard his wife’s voice coming from the open door of her room.
“Is that you, Dominick?” she called.
Her voice was steady and high. Though it was hard, with a sort of precise clearness of utterance77, it was not conspicuously78 wrathful.
“Yes,” he answered, “it’s I,” and he forgot the gas-jets and walked up the hall. He did not notice that in the other rooms he passed the gas was turned on in the same manner. The whistling rush of its escape made a noise like an excited, unresting wind in the confined limits of the little flat.
The door of Berny’s room was open, and under a blaze of light from the chandelier and the side lights by the bureau she was sitting in a rocking-chair facing the foot of the bed. She held in her hand a walking-stick of Dominick’s and with this she had been making long scratches across the foot-board, which was of walnut79 and was seamed back and forth, like a rock scraped by the passage of a glacier80. As Dominick entered, she desisted, ceased rocking, and turned to look at him. She had an air of taut81, sprightly82 impudence83, and was smiling a little.
“Yes, I believe I am,” he answered. “I did not come straight back. I walked about for a while.”
He slowly crossed the room to the fireplace and stood there looking down. There were some silk draperies on the mantel matched by those which were festooned over the room’s single window. He fastened his eyes on the pattern stamped on the looped-up folds, and was silent. He thought Berny would realize from the fact that he had not come directly home that the invitation had been denied. This was his bungling85, masculine way of breaking the news.
“Took a walk,” she said, turning to the bed and beginning to rock. “It’s a queer sort of hour to choose for walking,” and lifting the cane86 she recommenced her occupation of scratching the foot-board with it, tracing long, parabolic curves across the entire expanse, watching the cane’s tip with her head tilted87 to one side. Dominick, who was not looking at her, did not notice the noise.
“I thought,” she said, tracing a great arc from one side to the other, “that you were with your loving family—opening the ball, probably.”
He did not move, but said quietly,
“It was impossible to get the invitation, Berny. I tried to do it and was refused. I want you to understand that as long as I live I’ll never do a thing like that again.”
“Oh, yes, you will,” she said, laughing and shaking her head like an amused child. “Oh, yes, you will.” She threw her head back and, looking at the ceiling, laughed still louder with a note of fierceness in the sound. “You’ll do it and lots more things like it. You’ll do it if I want you to, Dominick Ryan.”
He did not answer. She hitched88 her chair closer to the bed as if to return to an engrossing89 pastime, and, leaning back luxuriously90, resumed her play with the cane. This time Dominick noticed the noise and turned. She was conscious that he was looking at her, and began to scratch with an appearance of charmed absorption, such as an artist might display in his work. He watched her for a moment in silent astonishment91 and then broke out sharply,
“What are you doing?”
“Scratching the bed,” she responded calmly.
“You must be mad,” he said, striding angrily toward her and stretching a hand for the cane. “You’re ruining it.”
She whipped the cane to the other side, out of his reach.
“Am I?” she said, turning an eye of fiery92 menace on him. “Maybe I am, and what’s that matter?” Then, turning back to the bed, “Too bad, isn’t it, and the set not paid for yet.”
“Not paid for!” he exclaimed, so amazed by the statement that he forgot everything else. “Why, I’ve given you the money for it twice!”
“Three times,” she amended93 coolly, “and I spent it on things I liked better. I bought clothes, and jewelry94 with it, and little fixings I wanted. Yes, the bedroom set isn’t all paid for yet and we’ve had it nearly two years. Who would have thought that the son of Con Ryan didn’t pay his bills!”
She rose, threw the cane into the corner, and, turning toward him, leaned back, half-sitting on the foot-board, her hands, palm downward, pressed on its rounded top. The chandelier was directly over her head and cast a powerful light on her face. This was small, pointed95, and of that sallow hue96 which is often noticeable in the skins of brunette women who are no longer in their first youth. She had a nose that drooped97 a little at the tip and an upper lip which was long and closed firmly and secretively on the lower one. Her dark eyes, large and brilliant, had the slightest tendency toward a slanting98 setting, the outer corners being higher than the inner ones. Under the shower of light from above, her thick hair, bleached99 to a reddish auburn and worn in a loose knot on top of her head, cast a shadow over her forehead, and below this her eyes blazed on her husband. Many men would have thought her an unusually pretty woman, but no man, save one of her own sort, could have faced her at this moment without quailing100.
Dominick and she had had many quarrels, ignominious101 and repulsive102, but he had never before seen her in so savage103 a mood. Even yet he had not lost the feeling of responsibility and remorse104 he felt toward her. As he moved from the mantelpiece his eye had fallen on the ball-dress that lay, a sweep of lace and silver, across the bed, and on the bureau he had seen jewels and hair ornaments105 laid out among the powder boxes and scent3 bottles. The pathos106 of these futile107 preparations appealed to him and he made an effort to be patient and just.
“It’s been a disappointment,” he said, “and I’m sorry about it. But I’ve done all I could and there’s no use doing any more. You’ve got to give it up. There’s no use trying to make my mother give in. She won’t.”
“Won’t she?” she cried, her voice suddenly loud and shaken with rage. “We’ll see! We’ll see! We’ll see if I’ve married into the Ryan family for nothing.”
Her wrath at last loosened, her control was instantly swept away. In a moment she was that appalling108 sight, a violent and vulgar woman in a raging passion. She ran round the bed and, seizing the dress, threw it on the floor and stamped on it, grinding the delicate fabric109 into the carpet with her heels.
“There!” she cried. “That’s what I feel about it! That’s the way I’ll treat the things and the people I don’t like! That dress—it isn’t paid for, but I don’t want it. I’ll get another when I do. Have I married Con Ryan’s son to need money and bother about bills? Not on your life! Did you notice the gas? Every burner turned on. Well, I did it just to have a nice bright house for you when you came home without the invitation. We haven’t paid the bill for two months—but what does that matter? We’re related to the Ryans. We don’t have to trouble about bills.”
He saw that she was beyond arguing with and turned to leave the room. She sprang after him and caught him by the arm, pouring out only too coherent streams of rage and abuse. It was the old story of the “wrongs” she had suffered at his hands, and his “ruin” of her. To-night it had no power to move him and he shook her off and left the room. She ran to the door behind him and leaning out, cried it after him.
He literally110 fled from her, down the hallway, with the open doorways111 sending their lurid112 light and hissing113 noise across his passage. As he reached the dining-room he heard her bang the door and with aggressive noise turn the key in the lock and shoot the bolt. Even at that moment the lack of necessity for such a precaution caused a bitter smile to move his lips.
He entered the dining-room and sat down by the table, his head on his hands. It was very quiet; no noise came from the street outside, sinking into the deep restfulness of midnight, and from within there was only the tearing sound of the flaring114 gases and an occasional cool dropping from the filter in the pantry. He sat thus for some hours, trying to think what he should do. He found it impossible to come to any definite conclusion for the future; all he could decide upon now was the necessity of leaving his wife, getting a respite115 from her, withdrawing himself from the sight of her. He had never loved her, but to-night the pity and responsibility he had felt seemed to be torn from his life as a morning wind tears a cobweb from the grass.
The dawn was whitening the window-panes when he finally got pen and paper and wrote a few lines. These, without prefix116 or signature, stated that he would leave the city for a short time and not to make any effort to find where he had gone or communicate with him. He wrote her name on the folded paper and placed it in front of the clock. Then he stole into his bedroom—they had occupied separate rooms for over six months—and packed a valise with his oldest and roughest clothes. After this he waited in the dining-room till the light was bright and the traffic of the day loud on the pavement, before he crept down the long stairway and went out into the crystal freshness of the morning.
点击收听单词发音
1 exhaled | |
v.呼出,发散出( exhale的过去式和过去分词 );吐出(肺中的空气、烟等),呼气 | |
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2 scents | |
n.香水( scent的名词复数 );气味;(动物的)臭迹;(尤指狗的)嗅觉 | |
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3 scent | |
n.气味,香味,香水,线索,嗅觉;v.嗅,发觉 | |
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4 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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5 winking | |
n.瞬眼,目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 );递眼色(表示友好或高兴等);(指光)闪烁;闪亮 | |
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6 receding | |
v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 );向后倾斜;自原处后退或避开别人的注视;尤指问题 | |
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7 seething | |
沸腾的,火热的 | |
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8 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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9 stenographer | |
n.速记员 | |
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10 con | |
n.反对的观点,反对者,反对票,肺病;vt.精读,学习,默记;adv.反对地,从反面;adj.欺诈的 | |
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11 varied | |
adj.多样的,多变化的 | |
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12 sensational | |
adj.使人感动的,非常好的,轰动的,耸人听闻的 | |
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13 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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14 bonanza | |
n.富矿带,幸运,带来好运的事 | |
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15 founders | |
n.创始人( founder的名词复数 ) | |
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16 undoubtedly | |
adv.确实地,无疑地 | |
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17 elasticity | |
n.弹性,伸缩力 | |
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18 sprightliness | |
n.愉快,快活 | |
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19 contractor | |
n.订约人,承包人,收缩肌 | |
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20 afterward | |
adv.后来;以后 | |
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21 entrapping | |
v.使陷入圈套,使入陷阱( entrap的现在分词 ) | |
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22 accomplishment | |
n.完成,成就,(pl.)造诣,技能 | |
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23 resentment | |
n.怨愤,忿恨 | |
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24 obstinacy | |
n.顽固;(病痛等)难治 | |
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25 adversary | |
adj.敌手,对手 | |
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26 idol | |
n.偶像,红人,宠儿 | |
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27 hoarded | |
v.积蓄并储藏(某物)( hoard的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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28 virtuous | |
adj.有品德的,善良的,贞洁的,有效力的 | |
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29 entangled | |
adj.卷入的;陷入的;被缠住的;缠在一起的v.使某人(某物/自己)缠绕,纠缠于(某物中),使某人(自己)陷入(困难或复杂的环境中)( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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30 isolated | |
adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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31 dictated | |
v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 );口授;支配;摆布 | |
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32 bough | |
n.大树枝,主枝 | |
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33 expediency | |
n.适宜;方便;合算;利己 | |
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34 exuberant | |
adj.充满活力的;(植物)繁茂的 | |
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35 precept | |
n.戒律;格言 | |
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36 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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37 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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38 thwarting | |
阻挠( thwart的现在分词 ); 使受挫折; 挫败; 横过 | |
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39 ascending | |
adj.上升的,向上的 | |
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40 ascend | |
vi.渐渐上升,升高;vt.攀登,登上 | |
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41 surmounted | |
战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 ); 克服(困难); 居于…之上; 在…顶上 | |
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42 defiance | |
n.挑战,挑衅,蔑视,违抗 | |
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43 labored | |
adj.吃力的,谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 );苦干;详细分析;(指引擎)缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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44 transmuted | |
v.使变形,使变质,把…变成…( transmute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45 rigidly | |
adv.刻板地,僵化地 | |
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46 qualms | |
n.不安;内疚 | |
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47 stiffened | |
加强的 | |
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48 splendor | |
n.光彩;壮丽,华丽;显赫,辉煌 | |
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49 mitigated | |
v.减轻,缓和( mitigate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50 softening | |
变软,软化 | |
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51 malignant | |
adj.恶性的,致命的;恶意的,恶毒的 | |
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52 previously | |
adv.以前,先前(地) | |
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53 enjoyment | |
n.乐趣;享有;享用 | |
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54 exclusion | |
n.拒绝,排除,排斥,远足,远途旅行 | |
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55 rancor | |
n.深仇,积怨 | |
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56 granite | |
adj.花岗岩,花岗石 | |
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57 intervals | |
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
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58 clairvoyant | |
adj.有预见的;n.有预见的人 | |
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59 wrath | |
n.愤怒,愤慨,暴怒 | |
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60 ostracized | |
v.放逐( ostracize的过去式和过去分词 );流放;摈弃;排斥 | |
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61 poignant | |
adj.令人痛苦的,辛酸的,惨痛的 | |
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62 clamorous | |
adj.吵闹的,喧哗的 | |
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63 injustice | |
n.非正义,不公正,不公平,侵犯(别人的)权利 | |
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64 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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65 distress | |
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛 | |
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66 placated | |
v.安抚,抚慰,使平静( placate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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67 fulcrum | |
n.杠杆支点 | |
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68 dread | |
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧 | |
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69 derive | |
v.取得;导出;引申;来自;源自;出自 | |
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70 proximity | |
n.接近,邻近 | |
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71 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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72 parlor | |
n.店铺,营业室;会客室,客厅 | |
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73 juxtaposition | |
n.毗邻,并置,并列 | |
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74 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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75 reluctance | |
n.厌恶,讨厌,勉强,不情愿 | |
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76 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
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77 utterance | |
n.用言语表达,话语,言语 | |
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78 conspicuously | |
ad.明显地,惹人注目地 | |
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79 walnut | |
n.胡桃,胡桃木,胡桃色,茶色 | |
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80 glacier | |
n.冰川,冰河 | |
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81 taut | |
adj.拉紧的,绷紧的,紧张的 | |
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82 sprightly | |
adj.愉快的,活泼的 | |
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83 impudence | |
n.厚颜无耻;冒失;无礼 | |
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84 jauntily | |
adv.心满意足地;洋洋得意地;高兴地;活泼地 | |
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85 bungling | |
adj.笨拙的,粗劣的v.搞糟,完不成( bungle的现在分词 );笨手笨脚地做;失败;完不成 | |
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86 cane | |
n.手杖,细长的茎,藤条;v.以杖击,以藤编制的 | |
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87 tilted | |
v. 倾斜的 | |
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88 hitched | |
(免费)搭乘他人之车( hitch的过去式和过去分词 ); 搭便车; 攀上; 跃上 | |
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89 engrossing | |
adj.使人全神贯注的,引人入胜的v.使全神贯注( engross的现在分词 ) | |
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90 luxuriously | |
adv.奢侈地,豪华地 | |
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91 astonishment | |
n.惊奇,惊异 | |
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92 fiery | |
adj.燃烧着的,火红的;暴躁的;激烈的 | |
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93 Amended | |
adj. 修正的 动词amend的过去式和过去分词 | |
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94 jewelry | |
n.(jewllery)(总称)珠宝 | |
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95 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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96 hue | |
n.色度;色调;样子 | |
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97 drooped | |
弯曲或下垂,发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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98 slanting | |
倾斜的,歪斜的 | |
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99 bleached | |
漂白的,晒白的,颜色变浅的 | |
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100 quailing | |
害怕,发抖,畏缩( quail的现在分词 ) | |
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101 ignominious | |
adj.可鄙的,不光彩的,耻辱的 | |
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102 repulsive | |
adj.排斥的,使人反感的 | |
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103 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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104 remorse | |
n.痛恨,悔恨,自责 | |
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105 ornaments | |
n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 );点缀;装饰品;首饰v.装饰,点缀,美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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106 pathos | |
n.哀婉,悲怆 | |
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107 futile | |
adj.无效的,无用的,无希望的 | |
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108 appalling | |
adj.骇人听闻的,令人震惊的,可怕的 | |
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109 fabric | |
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织 | |
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110 literally | |
adv.照字面意义,逐字地;确实 | |
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111 doorways | |
n.门口,门道( doorway的名词复数 ) | |
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112 lurid | |
adj.可怕的;血红的;苍白的 | |
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113 hissing | |
n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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114 flaring | |
a.火焰摇曳的,过份艳丽的 | |
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115 respite | |
n.休息,中止,暂缓 | |
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116 prefix | |
n.前缀;vt.加…作为前缀;置于前面 | |
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