Framed and glazed6 in the great window, this was not a picture calculated to inspire a very young man; and yet there was little to distract a brooding eye from its raw grass-plots and crude red bricks and tiles; for one's chief duties were making out orders to view the still empty houses, hearing the complaints of established tenants10, and keeping such an eye on painters and paperhangers as was compatible with "being on the spot if anybody called." An elderly or a delicate man would have found it nice light work; but for a hulking youth fresh from the breeziest school in Great Britain, where they live in flannels11 and only work when it is wet or dark, the post seemed death in life. My one consolation12 was to watch the tenants hurrying to the same train every morning, in the same silk hat and blacks, and crawling home with the same evening paper every night. I at any rate enjoyed comparatively pure air all day. I had not married and settled down in a pretentious13 jerry-building where nothing interesting could possibly happen, and nothing worth doing be ever done. For that was one's first feeling about the Witching Hill Estate; it was a place for crabbed14 age and drab respectability, and a black coat every day of the week. Then young Uvo Delavoye dropped into the office from another hemisphere, in the white ducks and helmet of the tropics. And life began again.
"Are you the new clerk to the Estate?" he asked if he might ask, and I prepared myself for the usual grievance15. I said I was, and he gave me his name in exchange for mine, with his number in Mulcaster Park, which was all but a continuation of Witching Hill Road. "There's an absolute hole in our lawn," he complained—"and I'd just marked out a court. I do wish you could come and have a look at it."
There was room for a full-size lawn-tennis court behind every house on the Estate. That was one of our advertised attractions. But it was not our business to keep the courts in order, and I rather itched16 to say so.
"It's early days," I ventured to suggest; "there's sure to be holes at first, and I'm afraid there'll be nothing for it but just to fill them in."
"Fill them in!" cried the other young man, getting quite excited. "You don't know what a hole this is; it would take a ton of earth to fill it in."
"You're not serious, Mr. Delavoye."
"Well, it would take a couple of barrow-loads. It's a regular depression in the ground, and the funny thing is that it's come almost while my back was turned. I finished marking out the court last night, and this morning there's this huge hole bang in the middle of one of my side-lines! If you filled it full of water it would take you over the ankles."
"Is the grass not broken at the edges?"
"Not a bit of it; the whole thing might have been done for years."
"And what like is this hole in shape?"
Delavoye met me eye to eye. "Well, I can only say I've seen the same sort of thing in a village churchyard, and nowhere else," he said. "It's like a churchyard starting to yawn!" he suddenly added, and looked in better humour for the phrase.
I pulled out my watch. "I'll come at one, when I knock off in any case, if you can wait till then."
"Rather!" he cried quite heartily17; "and I'll wait here if you don't mind, Mr. Gillon. I've just seen my mother and sister off to town, so it fits in rather well. I don't want them to know if it's anything beastly. May we smoke in here? Then have one of mine."
And he perched himself on my counter, lighting18 the whole place up with his white suit and animated19 air; for he was a very pleasant fellow from the moment he appeared to find me one. Not much my senior, he had none of my rude health and strength, but was drawn20 and yellowed by some tropical trouble (as I rightly guessed) which had left but little of his outer youth beyond a vivid eye and tongue. Yet I would fain have added these to my own animal advantages. It is difficult to recapture a first impression; but I think I felt, from the beginning, that those twinkling, sunken eyes looked on me and all things in a light of their own.
"Not an interesting place?" cried young Delavoye, in astonishment21 at a chance remark of mine. "Why, it's one of the most interesting in England! None of these fine old crusted country houses are half so fascinating to me as the ones quite near London. Think of the varied22 life they've seen, the bucks23 and bloods galore, the powder and patches, the orgies begun in town and finished out here, the highwaymen waiting for 'em on Turnham Green! Of course you know about the heinous24 Lord Mulcaster who owned this place in the high old days? He committed every crime in the Newgate Calendar, and now I'm just wondering whether you and I aren't by way of bringing a fresh one home to him."
I remember feeling sorry he should talk like that, though it argued a type of mind that rather reconciled me to my own. I was never one to jump to gimcrack conclusions, and I said as much with perhaps more candour than the occasion required. The statement was taken in such good part, however, that I could not but own I had never even heard the name of Mulcaster until the last few days, whereas Delavoye seemed to know all about the family. Thereupon he told me he was really connected with them, though not at all closely with the present peer. It had nothing to do with his living on an Estate which had changed hands before it was broken up. But I modified my remark about the ancestral acres—and made a worse.
"I wasn't thinking of the place," I explained, "as it used to be before half of it was built over. I was only thinking of that half and its inhabitants—I mean—that is—the people who go up and down in top-hats and frock-coats!"
"But that's my very point," he laughed and said. "These City fellows are the absolute salt of historic earth like this; they throw one back into the good old days by sheer force of contrast. I never see them in their office kit27 without thinking of that old rascal28 in his wig29 and ruffles30, carrying a rapier instead of an umbrella; he'd have fallen on it like Brutus if he could have seen his grounds plastered with cheap red bricks and mortar31, and crawling with Stock Exchange ants!"
"You've got an imagination," said I, chuckling32. I nearly told him he had the gift of the gab33 as well.
"You must have something," he returned a little grimly, "when you're stuck on the shelf at my age. Besides, it isn't all imagination, and you needn't go back a hundred years for your romance. There's any amount kicking about this Estate at the present moment; it's in the soil. These business blokes are not all the dull dogs they look. There's a man up our road—but he can wait. The first mystery to solve is the one that's crying from our back garden."
I liked his way of putting things. It made one forget his yellow face, and the broken career that his looks and hints suggested, or it made one remember them and think the more of him. But the things themselves were interesting, and Witching Hill had more possibilities when we sallied forth34 together at one o'clock.
It was the height of such a June as the old century could produce up to the last. The bald red houses, too young to show a shoot of creeper, or a mellow35 tone from doorstep to chimney-pot, glowed like clowns' pokers36 in the ruthless sun. The shade of some stately elms, on a bit of old road between the two new ones of the Estate, appealed sharply to my awakened38 sense of contrast. It was all familiar ground to me, of course, but I had been over it hitherto with my eyes on nothing else and my heart in the Lowlands. Now I found myself wondering what the elms had seen in their day, and what might not be going on in the red houses even now.
"I hope you know the proper name of our road," said Delavoye as we turned into it. "It's Mulcaster Park, as you see, and not Mulcaster Park Road, as it was when we came here in the spring. Our neighbours have risen in a body against the superfluous39 monosyllable, and it's been painted out for ever."
In spite of that precaution Mulcaster Park was still suspiciously like a road. It was very long and straight, and the desired illusion had not been promoted by the great names emblazoned on some of the little wooden gates. Thus there was Longleat, which had just been let for £70 on a three-year tenancy, and Chatsworth with a C. P. card in the drawing-room window. Plain No. 7, the Delavoyes' house, was near the far end on the left-hand side, which had the advantage of a strip of unspoilt woodland close behind the back gardens; and just through the wood was Witching Hill House, scene of immemorial excesses, according to this descendant of the soil.
"But now it's in very different hands," he remarked as we reached our destination. "Sir Christopher Stainsby is apparently41 all that my ignoble42 kinsman43 was not. They say he's no end of a saint. In winter we see his holy fane from our back windows."
It was not visible through the giant hedge of horse-chestnuts now heavily overhanging the split fence at the bottom of the garden. I had come out through the dining-room with a fresh sense of interest in these Delavoyes. Their furniture was at once too massive and too good for the house. It stood for some old home of very different type. Large oil-paintings and marble statuettes had not been acquired to receive the light of day through windows whose upper sashes were filled with cheap stained glass. A tigerskin with a man-eating head, over which I tripped, had not always been in the way before a cast-iron mantelpiece. I felt sorry, for the moment, that Mrs. and Miss Delavoye were not at home; but I was not so sorry when I beheld44 the hole in the lawn behind the house.
It had the ugly shape and appearance which had reminded young Delavoye himself of a churchyard. I was bound to admit its likeness45 to some sunken grave, and the white line bisecting it was not the only evidence that the subsidence was of recent occurrence; the grass was newly mown and as short inside the hole as it was all over. No machine could have made such a job of such a surface, said the son of the house, with a light in his eyes, but a drop in his voice, which made me wonder whether he desired or feared the worst.
"What do you want us to do, Mr. Delavoye?" I inquired in my official capacity.
"I want it dug up, if I can have it done now, while my mother's out of the way."
That was all very well, but I had only limited powers. My instructions were to attend promptly46 to the petty wants of tenants, but to refer any matter of importance to our Mr. Muskett, who lived on the Estate but spent his days at the London office. This appeared to me that kind of matter, and little as I might like my place I could ill afford to risk it by doing the wrong thing. I put all this as well as I could to my new friend, but not without chafing48 his impetuous spirit.
"Then I'll do the thing myself!" said he, and fetched from the yard some garden implements49 which struck me as further relics50 of more spacious51 days. In his absence I had come to the same conclusion about a couple of high-backed Dutch garden chairs and an umbrella tent; and the final bond of fallen fortunes made me all the sorrier to have put him out. He was not strong; no wonder he was irritable53. He threw himself into his task with a kind of feeble fury; it was more than I could stand by and watch. He had not turned many sods when he paused to wipe his forehead, and I seized the spade.
"If one of us is going to do this job," I cried, "it shan't be the one who's unfit for it. You can take the responsibility, if you like, but that's all you do between now and two o'clock!"
I should date our actual friendship from that moment. There was some boyish bluster54 on his part, and on mine a dour25 display which he eventually countenanced55 on my promising57 to stay to lunch. Already the sweat was teeming58 off my face, but my ankles were buried in rich brown mould. A few days before there had been a thunderstorm accompanied by tropical rain, which had left the earth so moist underneath59 that one's muscles were not taxed as much as one's skin. And I was really very glad of the exercise, after the physical stagnation60 of office life.
Not that Delavoye left everything to me; he shifted the Dutch chairs and the umbrella tent so as to screen my operations alike from the backyard behind us and from the windows of the occupied house next door. Then he hovered61 over me, with protests and apologies, until the noble inspiration took him to inquire if I liked beer. I stood upright in my pit, and my mouth must have watered as visibly as the rest of my countenance56. It appeared he was not allowed to touch it himself, but he would fetch some in a jug62 from the Mulcaster Arms, and blow the wives of the gentlemen who went to town!
I could no more dissuade63 him from this share of the proceedings64 than he had been able to restrain me from mine; perhaps I did not try very hard; but I did redouble my exertions65 when he was gone, burying my spade with the enthusiasm of a golddigger working a rich claim, and yet depositing each spadeful with some care under cover of the chairs. And I had hardly been a minute by myself when I struck indubitable wood at the depth of three or four feet. Decayed wood it was, too, which the first thrust of the spade crushed in; and at that I must say the perspiration66 cooled upon my skin. But I stood up and was a little comforted by the gay blue sky and the bottle-green horse-chestnuts, if I looked rather longer at the French window through which Delavoye had disappeared.
His wild idea had seemed to me the unwholesome fruit of a morbid67 imagination, but now I prepared to find it hateful fact. Down I went on my haunches, and groped with my hands in the mould, to learn the worst with least delay. The spade I had left sticking in the rotten wood, and now I ran reluctant fingers down its cold iron into the earth-warm splinters. They were at the extreme edge of the shaft68 that I was sinking, but I discovered more splinters at the same level on the opposite side. These were not of my making; neither were they part of any coffin69, but rather of some buried floor or staging. My heart danced as I seized the spade again. I dug another foot quickly; that brought me to detached pieces of rotten wood of the same thickness as the jagged edges above; evidently a flooring of some kind had fallen in—but fallen upon what? Once more the spade struck wood, but sound wood this time. The last foot of earth was soon taken out, and an oblong trap-door disclosed, with a rusty70 ring-bolt at one end.
I tugged71 at the ring-bolt without stopping to think; but the trap-door would not budge72. Then I got out of the hole for a pickaxe that Delavoye had produced with the spade, and with one point of the pick through the ring I was able to get a little leverage73. It was more difficult to insert the spade where the old timbers had started, while still keeping them apart, but this once done I could ply37 both implements together. There was no key-hole to the trap, only the time-eaten ring and a pair of hinges like prison bars; it could but be bolted underneath; and yet how those old bolts and that wood of ages clung together! It was only by getting the pick into the gap made by the spade, and prizing with each in turn and both at once, that I eventually achieved my purpose. I heard the bolt tinkle74 on hard ground beneath, and next moment saw it lying at the bottom of a round bricked hole.
All this must have occupied far fewer minutes than it has taken to describe; for Delavoye had not returned to peer with me into a well which could never have been meant for water. It had neither the width nor the depth of ordinary wells; an old ladder stood against one side, and on the other the high sun shone clean down into the mouth of a palpable tunnel. It opened in the direction of the horse-chestnuts, and I was in it next moment. The air was intolerably stale without being actually foul75; a match burnt well enough to reveal a horseshoe passage down which a man of medium stature76 might have walked upright. It was bricked like the well, and spattered with some repulsive77 growth that gave me a clammy daub before I realised the dimensions. I had struck a second match on my trousers, and it had gone out as if by magic, when Delavoye hailed me in high excitement from the lawn above.
He was less excited than I expected on hearing my experience; and he only joined me for a minute before luncheon78, which he insisted on our still taking, to keep the servants in the dark. But it was a very brilliant eye that he kept upon the Dutch chairs through the open window, and he was full enough of plans and explanations. Of course we must explore the passage, but we would give the bad air a chance of getting out first. He spoke79 of some Turkish summer-house, or pavilion, mentioned in certain annals of Witching Hill, that he had skimmed for his amusement in the local Free Library. There was no such structure to be seen from any point of vantage that he had discovered; possibly this was its site; and the floor which had fallen in might have been a false basement, purposely intended to conceal80 the trap-door, or else built over it by some unworthy successor of the great gay lord.
"He was just the sort of old sportsman to have a way of his own out of the house, Gillon! He might have wanted it at any moment; he must have been ready for the worst most nights of his life; for I may tell you they would have hanged him in the end if he hadn't been too quick for them with his own horse-pistol. You didn't know he was as bad as that? It's not a thing the family boasts about, and I don't suppose your Estate people would hold it out as an attraction. But I've read a thing or two about the bright old boy, and I do believe we've struck the site of some of his brightest moments!"
"I should like to have explored that tunnel."
"So you shall."
"But when?"
We had gobbled our luncheon, and I had drained the jug that my unconventional host had carried all the way from the Mulcaster Arms; but already I was late for a most unlucky appointment with prospective81 tenants, and it was only a last look that I could take at my not ignoble handiwork. It was really rather a good hole for a beginner, and a grave-digger could not have heaped his earth much more compactly. It came hard to leave the next stage of the adventure even to as nice a fellow as young Delavoye.
"When?" he repeated with an air of surprise. "Why to-night, of course; you don't suppose I'm going to explore it without you, do you?"
I had already promised not to mention the matter to my Mr. Muskett when he looked in at the office on his way from the station; but that was the only undertaking82 which had passed between us.
"I thought you said you didn't want Mrs. Delavoye to see the pit's mouth?"
It was his own expression, yet it made him smile, though it had not made me.
"I certainly don't mean either my mother or sister to see one end till we've seen the other," said he. "They might have a word too many to say about it. I must cover the place up somehow before they get back; but I'll tell them you're coming in this evening, and when they go aloft we shall very naturally come out here for a final pipe."
"Armed with a lantern?"
"No, a pocketful of candles. And don't you dress, Gillon, because I don't, even when I'm not bound for the bowels83 of the globe."
I ran to my appointment after that; but the prospective tenants broke theirs, and kept me waiting for nothing all that fiery84 afternoon. I can shut my eyes and go through it all again, and see every inch of my sticky little prison near the station. In the heat its copious85 varnish developed an adhesive87 quality as fatal to flies as bird-lime, and there they stuck in death to pay me out. It was not necessary to pin any notice to the walls; one merely laid them on the varnish; and that morning, when young Delavoye had leant against it in his whites, he had to peel himself off like a plaster. That morning! It seemed days ago, not because I had met with any great adventure yet, but the whole atmosphere of the place was changed by the discovery of a kindred spirit. Not that we were naturally akin8 in temperament88, tastes, or anything else but our common youth and the want in each of a companion approaching his own type. We saw things at a different angle, and when he smiled I often wondered why. We might have met in town or at college and never sought each other again; but separate adversities had driven us both into the same dull haven—one from the Egyptian Civil, which had nearly been the death of him; the other on a sanguine89 voyage (before the mast) from the best school in Scotland to Land Agency. We were bound to make the most of each other, and I for one looked forward to renewing our acquaintance even more than to the sequel of our interrupted adventure.
But I was by no means anxious to meet my new friend's womankind; never anything of a lady's man, I was inclined rather to resent the existence of these good ladies, partly from something he had said about them with reference to our impending90 enterprise. Consequently it was rather late in the evening when I turned out of one of the nominally91 empty houses, where I had gone to lodge92 with a still humbler servant of the Estate, and went down to No. 7 with some hope that its mistress at all events might already have retired93. Almost to my horror I learned that they were all three in the back garden, whither I was again conducted through the little dining-room with the massive furniture.
Mrs. Delavoye was a fragile woman with a kind but nervous manner; the daughter put me more at my ease, but I could scarcely see either of them by the dim light from the French window outside which they sat. I was more eager, however, to see "the pit's mouth," and in the soft starlight of a velvet94 night I made out the two Dutch chairs lying face downward over the shaft.
"It's so tiresome95 of my brother," said Miss Delavoye, following my glance with disconcerting celerity: "just when we want our garden chairs he's varnished96 them, and there they lie unfit to use!"
I never had any difficulty in looking stolid97, but for the moment I avoided the impostor's eyes. It was trying enough to hear his impudent98 defence.
"You've been at me about them all the summer, Amy, and I felt we were in for a spell of real hot weather at last."
"I can't think why you've put them out there, Uvo," remarked his mother. "They won't dry any better in the dew, my dear boy."
"They won't make a hopeless mess of the grass, at all events!" he retorted. "But why varnish our dirty chairs in public? Mr. Gillon won't be edified99; he'd much rather listen to the nightingale, I'm sure."
Had they a nightingale? I had never heard one in my life. I was obliged to say something, and this happened to be the truth; it led to a little interchange about Scotland, in which the man Uvo assumed a Johnsonian pose, as though he had known me as long as I felt I had known him, and then prayed silence for the nightingale as if the suburban100 garden were a banqueting hall. It was a concert hall, at any rate, and never was sweeter solo than the invisible singer poured forth from the black and jagged wood between glimmering101 lawn and starry102 sky. I see the picture now, with the seated ladies dimly silhouetted104 against the French windows, and our two cigarettes waxing and waning105 like revolving106 lights seen leagues away. I hear the deep magic of those heavenly notes, as I was to hear them more summers than one from that wild wood within a few yards of our raw red bricks and mortar. It may be as the prelude107 of what was to follow that I recall it all so clearly, down to the couplet that Uvo could not quite remember and his sister did:
"The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown."
"That's what I meant!" he cried. "By emperor, clown, and old man Mulcaster in his cups! Think of him carrying on in there to such a tune52, and think of pious86 Christopher holding family prayers to it now!"
And the bare thought dashed from my lips a magic potion compounded of milky108 lawn and ebony horse-chestnuts, of an amethyst109 sky twinkling with precious stars, and the low voice of a girl trying not to drown the one in the wood; the spell was broken, and I was glad when at last we had the garden to ourselves.
"There are two things I must tell you for your comfort," said the incorrigible110 Uvo as we lifted one Dutch chair from the hole it covered like a hatchway, but left the other pressed down over the heap of earth. "In the first place, both my mother and sister have front rooms, so they won't hear or bother about us again. The other thing's only that I've been back to the Free Library in what the simple inhabitants still insist on calling the Village, and had another look into those annals of old Witching Hill. I can find no mention whatever of any subterranean111 passage. I shouldn't wonder if good Sir Chris had never heard of it in his life. In that case we shall rush in where neither man nor beast has trodden for a hundred and fifty years."
We lit our candles down the shaft, and then I drew the Dutch chair over the hole again on Delavoye's suggestion; he was certainly full of resource, and I was only too glad to play the practical man with my reach and strength. If he had been less impetuous and headstrong, we should have made a strong pair of adventurers. In the tunnel he would go first, for instance, much against my wish; but, as he put it, if the foul air knocked him down I could carry him out under one arm, whereas he would have to leave me to die in my tracks. So he chattered112 as we crept on and on, flinging monstrous113 shadows into the arch behind us, and lighting up every patch of filth114 ahead; for the long-drawn vault115 was bearded with stalactites of crusted slime; but no living creature fled before us; we alone breathed the impure116 air, encouraged by our candles, which lit us far beyond the place where my match had been extinguished and deeper and deeper yet without a flicker118.
Then in the same second they both went out, at a point where the overhead excrescences made it difficult to stand upright. And there we were, like motes119 in a tube of lamp-black; for it was a darkness as palpable as fog. But my leader had a reassuring120 explanation on the tip of his sanguine tongue.
"It's because we stooped down," said he. "Strike a match on the roof if it's dry enough. There! What did I tell you? The dregs of the air settle down like other dregs. Hold on a bit! I believe we're under the house, and that's why the arch is dry."
We continued our advance with instinctive121 stealth, now blackening the roof with our candles as we went, and soon and sure enough the old tube ended in a wad of brick and timber.
In the brickwork was a recessed122 square, shrouded123 in cobwebs which perished at a sweep of Delavoye's candle; a wooden shutter124 closed the aperture125, and I had just a glimpse of an oval knob, green with verdigris126, when my companion gave it a twist and the shutter sprang open at the base. I held it up while he crept through with his candle, and then I followed him with mine into the queerest chamber127 I had ever seen.
It was some fifteen feet square, with a rough parquet128 floor and panelled walls and ceiling. All the woodwork seemed to me old oak, and reflected our naked lights on every side in a way that bespoke129 attention; and there was a tell-tale set of folding steps under an ominous130 square in the ceiling, but no visible break in the four walls, nor yet another piece of movable furniture. In one corner, however, stood a great stack of cigar boxes whose agreeable aroma131 was musk47 and frankincense after the penetrating132 humours of the tunnel. This much we had noted133 when we made our first startling discovery. The panel by which we had entered had shut again behind us; the noise it must have made had escaped us in our excitement; there was nothing to show which panel it had been—no semblance134 of a knob on this side—and soon we were not even agreed as to the wall.
Uvo Delavoye had enough to say at most moments, but now he was a man of action only, and I copied his proceedings without a word. Panel after panel he rapped and sounded like any doctor, even through his fingers to make less noise! I took the next wall, and it was I who first detected a hollow note. I whispered my suspicion; he joined me, and was convinced; so there we stood cheek by jowl, each with a guttering135 candle in one hand, while the other felt the panel and pressed the knots. And a knot it was that yielded under my companion's thumb. But the panel that opened inwards was not our panel at all; instead of our earthy tunnel, we looked into a shallow cupboard, with a little old dirty bundle lying alone in the dust of ages. Delavoye picked it up gingerly, but at once I saw him weighing his handful in surprise, and with one accord we sat down to examine it, sticking our candles on the floor between us in their own grease.
"Lace," muttered Uvo, "and something in it."
The outer folds came to shreds136 in his fingers; a little deeper the lace grew firmer, and presently he was paying it out to me in fragile hanks. I believe it was a single flounce, though yards in length. Delavoye afterwards looked up the subject, characteristically, and declared it Point de Venise; from what I can remember of its exquisite137 workmanship, in monogram138, coronet, and imperial emblems139, I can believe with him that the diamond buckle140 to which he came at last was less precious than its wrapping. But by that time we were not thinking of their value; we were screwing up our faces over a dark coagulation141 which caused the last yard or so to break off in bits.
"Lace and blood and diamonds!" said Delavoye, bending over the relics in grim absorption. "Could the priceless old sinner have left us a more delightful142 legacy143?"
"What are you going to do with them?" I asked rather nervously144 at that. They had not been left to us. They ought surely to be delivered to their rightful owner.
"But who does own them?" asked Delavoye. "Is it the worthy plutocrat who's bought the show and all that in it is, or is it my own venerable kith and kin9? They wouldn't thank us for taking these rather dirty coals to Newcastle. They might refuse delivery, or this old boy might claim his mining rights, and where should we come in then? No, Gillon, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but as a twig145 of the old tree I mean to take the law into my own hands"—I held my breath—"and put these things back exactly where we found them. Then we'll leave everything in plumb146 order, and finish up by filling in that hole in our lawn—if ever we get out of this one."
But small doubt on the point was implied in his buoyant tone; the way through the panel just broached147 argued a similar catch in the one we sought; meanwhile we closed up the other with much relief on my side and an honest groan148 from Delavoye. It was sufficiently149 obvious that Sir Christopher Stainsby had discovered neither the secret subway nor the secret repository which we had penetrated150 by pure chance; on the other hand, he made use of the chamber leading to both as a cigar cellar, and had it kept in better order than such a purpose required. Sooner or later somebody would touch a spring, and one discovery would lead to another. So we consoled each other as we resumed our search, almost forgetting that we ourselves might be discovered first.
It was in a providential pause, broken only to my ear by our quiet movements, that Delavoye dabbed151 a quick hand on my candle and doused152 his own against the wall. Without a whisper he drew me downward, and there we cowered153 in throbbing154 darkness, but still not a sound that I could hear outside my skin. Then the floor above opened a lighted mouth with a gilded155 roof; black legs swung before our noses, found the step-ladder and came running down. The cigars were on the opposite side. The man knew all about them, found the right box without a light, and turned to go running up.
Now he must see us, as we saw him and his smooth, smug, flunkey's face to the whites of its upturned eyes! My fists were clenched—and often I wonder what I meant to do. What I did was to fall forward upon oozing156 palms as the trap-door was let down with a bang.
"Didn't he see us, Delavoye? Are you sure he didn't?" I chattered as he struck a match.
"Quite. I was watching his eyes—weren't you?"
"Well, pull yourself together; now's our time! It's an empty room overhead; it wasn't half lit up. But we haven't done anything, remember, if they do catch us."
He was on the steps already, but I had no desire to argue with him. I was as ripe for a risk as Delavoye, as anxious to escape after the one we had already run. The trap-door went up slowly, pushing something over it into a kind of tent.
"It's only the rug," purred Delavoye. "I heard him take it up—thank God—as well as put it down again. Now hold the candle; now the trap-door, till I hold it up for you."
And we squirmed up into a vast apartment, not only empty as predicted, but left in darkness made visible by the solitary158 light we carried now. The little stray flame was mirrored in a floor like black ice, then caught the sheen of the tumbled rug that Delavoye would stay to smooth, then twinkled in the diamond panes159 of bookcases like church windows, flickered160 over a high altar of a mantelpiece, and finally displayed our stealthy selves in the window by which we left the house.
"Thank God!" said Delavoye as he shut it down again. "That's something like a breath of air!"
"What is it?"
"I thought I heard shouts of laughter."
"You're right. There they go again! I believe we've struck a heavy entertainment."
In a dell behind the house, a spreading cedar162 caught the light of windows that we could not see. Delavoye crept to the intermediate angle, turned round, and beckoned163 in silhouette103 against the tree.
"High jinks and junketings!" he chuckled164 when I joined him. "The old bloke must be away. Shall we risk a peep?"
My answer was to lead the way for once, and it was long before we exchanged another syllable40. But in a few seconds, and for more minutes, we crouched165 together at an open window, seeing life with all our innocent eyes.
It was a billiard-room into which we gazed, but it was not being used for billiards166. One end of the table was turned into a champagne167 bar; it bristled168 with bottles in all stages of depletion169, with still an unopened magnum towering over pails of ice, silver dishes of bonbons170, cut decanters of wine and spirits. At the other end a cluster of flushed faces hung over a spinning roulette wheel; nearly all young women and men, smoking fiercely in a silver haze171, for the moment terribly intent; and as the ball ticked and rattled172, the one pale face present, that of the melancholy173 croupier, showed a dry zest174 as he intoned the customary admonitions. They were new to me then; now I seem to recognise through the years the Anglo-French of his "rien ne va plus" and all the rest. There were notes and gold among the stakes. The old rogue175 raked in his share without emotion; one of the ladies embraced him for hers; and one had stuck a sprig of maidenhair in his venerable locks; but there he sat, with the deferential176 dignity of a bygone school, the only very sober member of the party it was his shame to serve.
The din7 they made before the next spin! It was worse when it died down into plainer speech; playful buffets177 were exchanged as freely; but one young blood left the table with a deadly dose of raw spirit, and sat glowering178 over it on a raised settee while the wheel went round again. I did not watch the play; the wild, attentive179 faces were enough for me; and so it was that I saw a bedizened beauty go mad before my eyes. It was the madness of utter ecstasy—wails of laughter and happy maledictions—and then for that unopened magnum! By the neck she caught it, whirled it about her like an Indian club, then down on the table with all her might and the effect of a veritable shell. A ribbon of blood ran down her dress as she recoiled180, and the champagne flooded the green board like bubbling ink; but the old croupier hardly looked up from the pile of notes and gold that he was counting out with his sly, wintry smile.
"You saw she had a fiver on the number? You may watch roulette many a long night without seeing that again!"
It was Delavoye whispering as he dragged me away. He was the cool one now. Too excitable for me in the early stages of our adventure, he was not only the very man for all the rest, but a living lesson in just that thing or two I felt at first I could have taught him. For I fear I should have felled that butler if he had seen us in the cigar cellar, and I know I shouted when the magnum burst; but fortunately so did everybody else except Delavoye and the aged117 croupier.
"I suppose he was the butler?" I said when we had skirted the shallow drive, avoiding a couple of hansoms that stood there with the cabmen snug181 inside.
"What! The old fogey? Not he!" cried Delavoye as we reached the road. "I say, don't those hansoms tell us all about his pals182!"
"But who was he?"
"The man himself."
"Not Sir Christopher Stainsby?"
"I'm afraid so—the old sinner!"
"But you said he was an old saint?"
"Then how do you account for it?"
"I can't. I haven't thought about it. Wait a bit!"
He stood still in the road. It was his own road. There was that hole to fill in before morning; meanwhile the sweet night air was sweeter far than we had left it hours ago; and the little new suburban houses surpassed all pleasures and palaces, behind their kindly184 lamps, with the clean stars watching over them and us.
"I don't want you think the worse of me," said Delavoye, slipping his arm through mine as he led me on: "but at this particular moment I should somehow think less of myself if I didn't tell you, after all we've been through together, that I was really quite severely185 tempted186 to take that lace and those diamonds!"
I knew it.
"Well," I said, with the due deliberation of my normal Northern self, "you'd have had a sort of right to them. But that's nothing! Why, man, I was as near as a toucher to laying yon butler dead at our feet!"
"Then we're all three in the same boat, Gillon."
"Which three?"
It was my turn to stand still, outside his house. And now there was excitement enough in his dark face to console me for all mine.
"You, and I, and poor old Sir Christopher."
"Poor old hypocrite! Didn't I hear that his wife died a while ago?"
"Only last year. That makes it sound worse. But in reality it's an excuse, because of course he would fall a victim all the more easily."
"A victim to what?"
"My good Gillon, don't you see that he's up to the very same games on the very same spot as my ignoble kinsman a hundred and fifty years ago? Blood, liquor, and ladies as before! We admit that between us even you and I had the makings of a thief and a murderer while we were under that haunted roof. Don't you believe in influences?"
"Not of that kind," said I heartily. "I never did, and I doubt I never shall."
Delavoye laughed in the starlight, but his lips were quivering, and his eyes were like stars themselves. But I held up my hand: the nightingale was singing in the wood exactly as when we plunged187 below the earth. Somehow it brought us together again, and there we stood listening till a clock struck twelve in the distant Village.
"''Tis now the very witching time of night,'" said Uvo Delavoye, "'when church-yards yawn'—like our back garden!" I might have guessed his favourite play, but his face lit up before my memory. "And shall I tell you, Gillon, the real name of this whole infernal Hill and Estate? It's Witching Hill, my man, it's Witching Hill from this night forth!"
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
worthy
|
|
| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
veneer
|
|
| n.(墙上的)饰面，虚饰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
corrugated
|
|
| adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
varnish
|
|
| n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
prospect
|
|
| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
glazed
|
|
| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
din
|
|
| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
akin
|
|
| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
kin
|
|
| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
tenants
|
|
| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
flannels
|
|
| 法兰绒男裤； 法兰绒( flannel的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
consolation
|
|
| n.安慰，慰问 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
pretentious
|
|
| adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
crabbed
|
|
| adj.脾气坏的；易怒的；（指字迹）难辨认的；（字迹等）难辨认的v.捕蟹( crab的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
grievance
|
|
| n.怨愤，气恼，委屈 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
itched
|
|
| v.发痒( itch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
heartily
|
|
| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
lighting
|
|
| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
animated
|
|
| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
astonishment
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
varied
|
|
| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
bucks
|
|
| n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
heinous
|
|
| adj.可憎的，十恶不赦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
dour
|
|
| adj.冷酷的，严厉的；（岩石）嶙峋的；顽强不屈 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
attire
|
|
| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
kit
|
|
| n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
rascal
|
|
| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
wig
|
|
| n.假发 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
ruffles
|
|
| 褶裥花边( ruffle的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
mortar
|
|
| n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
chuckling
|
|
| 轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
gab
|
|
| v.空谈，唠叨，瞎扯；n.饶舌，多嘴，爱说话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
mellow
|
|
| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
pokers
|
|
| n.拨火铁棒( poker的名词复数 )；纸牌；扑克；（通常指人）（坐或站得）直挺挺的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
ply
|
|
| v.(搬运工等)等候顾客，弯曲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
awakened
|
|
| 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： |
|
|
|
|
39
superfluous
|
|
| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
syllable
|
|
| n.音节；vt.分音节 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
ignoble
|
|
| adj.不光彩的，卑鄙的；可耻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
kinsman
|
|
| n.男亲属 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
beheld
|
|
| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
likeness
|
|
| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
promptly
|
|
| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
musk
|
|
| n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
chafing
|
|
| n.皮肤发炎v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的现在分词 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
implements
|
|
| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
relics
|
|
| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
spacious
|
|
| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
tune
|
|
| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
irritable
|
|
| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
bluster
|
|
| v.猛刮；怒冲冲的说；n.吓唬，怒号；狂风声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
countenanced
|
|
| v.支持，赞同，批准( countenance的过去式 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
56
countenance
|
|
| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
promising
|
|
| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
teeming
|
|
| adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
underneath
|
|
| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
stagnation
|
|
| n. 停滞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
hovered
|
|
| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
jug
|
|
| n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
dissuade
|
|
| v.劝阻，阻止 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
proceedings
|
|
| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
exertions
|
|
| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
perspiration
|
|
| n.汗水；出汗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
morbid
|
|
| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
shaft
|
|
| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
coffin
|
|
| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
rusty
|
|
| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
tugged
|
|
| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
budge
|
|
| v.移动一点儿；改变立场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
leverage
|
|
| n.力量，影响；杠杆作用，杠杆的力量 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
tinkle
|
|
| vi.叮当作响；n.叮当声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
foul
|
|
| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
stature
|
|
| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
repulsive
|
|
| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
luncheon
|
|
| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
spoke
|
|
| 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： |
|
|
|
|
80
conceal
|
|
| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
prospective
|
|
| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
undertaking
|
|
| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
bowels
|
|
| n.肠，内脏，内部；肠( bowel的名词复数 )；内部，最深处 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
fiery
|
|
| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
copious
|
|
| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
pious
|
|
| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
adhesive
|
|
| n.粘合剂；adj.可粘着的，粘性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
temperament
|
|
| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
sanguine
|
|
| adj.充满希望的，乐观的，血红色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
impending
|
|
| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
nominally
|
|
| 在名义上，表面地； 应名儿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
lodge
|
|
| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
retired
|
|
| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
velvet
|
|
| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
tiresome
|
|
| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
varnished
|
|
| 浸渍过的，涂漆的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
stolid
|
|
| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
98
impudent
|
|
| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
99
edified
|
|
| v.开导，启发( edify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
100
suburban
|
|
| adj.城郊的，在郊区的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
101
glimmering
|
|
| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
102
starry
|
|
| adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
103
silhouette
|
|
| n.黑色半身侧面影，影子，轮廓；v.描绘成侧面影，照出影子来，仅仅显出轮廓 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
104
silhouetted
|
|
| 显出轮廓的，显示影像的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
105
waning
|
|
| adj.（月亮）渐亏的，逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
106
revolving
|
|
| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
107
prelude
|
|
| n.序言，前兆，序曲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
108
milky
|
|
| adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
109
amethyst
|
|
| n.紫水晶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
110
incorrigible
|
|
| adj.难以纠正的，屡教不改的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
111
subterranean
|
|
| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
112
chattered
|
|
| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
113
monstrous
|
|
| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
114
filth
|
|
| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
115
vault
|
|
| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
116
impure
|
|
| adj.不纯净的，不洁的；不道德的，下流的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
117
aged
|
|
| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
118
flicker
|
|
| vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
119
motes
|
|
| n.尘埃( mote的名词复数 )；斑点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
120
reassuring
|
|
| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
121
instinctive
|
|
| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
122
recessed
|
|
| v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的过去式和过去分词 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
123
shrouded
|
|
| v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 )；保密 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
124
shutter
|
|
| n.百叶窗；(照相机)快门；关闭装置 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
125
aperture
|
|
| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
126
verdigris
|
|
| n.铜锈；铜绿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
127
chamber
|
|
| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
128
parquet
|
|
| n.镶木地板 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
129
bespoke
|
|
| adj.（产品）订做的；专做订货的v.预定( bespeak的过去式 )；订（货）；证明；预先请求 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
130
ominous
|
|
| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
131
aroma
|
|
| n.香气，芬芳，芳香 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
132
penetrating
|
|
| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
133
noted
|
|
| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
134
semblance
|
|
| n.外貌，外表 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
135
guttering
|
|
| n.用于建排水系统的材料；沟状切除术；开沟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
136
shreds
|
|
| v.撕碎，切碎( shred的第三人称单数 )；用撕毁机撕毁（文件） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
137
exquisite
|
|
| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
138
monogram
|
|
| n.字母组合 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
139
emblems
|
|
| n.象征，标记( emblem的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
140
buckle
|
|
| n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
141
coagulation
|
|
| n.凝固；凝结物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
142
delightful
|
|
| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
143
legacy
|
|
| n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
144
nervously
|
|
| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
145
twig
|
|
| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
146
plumb
|
|
| adv.精确地，完全地；v.了解意义，测水深 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
147
broached
|
|
| v.谈起( broach的过去式和过去分词 )；打开并开始用；用凿子扩大（或修光）；（在桶上）钻孔取液体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
148
groan
|
|
| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
149
sufficiently
|
|
| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
150
penetrated
|
|
| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
151
dabbed
|
|
| （用某物）轻触( dab的过去式和过去分词 )； 轻而快地擦掉（或抹掉）； 快速擦拭； （用某物）轻而快地涂上（或点上）… | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
152
doused
|
|
| v.浇水在…上( douse的过去式和过去分词 )；熄灯[火] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
153
cowered
|
|
| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的过去式 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
154
throbbing
|
|
| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
155
gilded
|
|
| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
156
oozing
|
|
| v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的现在分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
157
blurred
|
|
| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
158
solitary
|
|
| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
159
panes
|
|
| 窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
160
flickered
|
|
| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
161
hush
|
|
| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
162
cedar
|
|
| n.雪松，香柏(木) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
163
beckoned
|
|
| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
164
chuckled
|
|
| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
165
crouched
|
|
| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
166
billiards
|
|
| n.台球 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
167
champagne
|
|
| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
168
bristled
|
|
| adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
169
depletion
|
|
| n.耗尽，枯竭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
170
bonbons
|
|
| n.小糖果( bonbon的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
171
haze
|
|
| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
172
rattled
|
|
| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
173
melancholy
|
|
| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
174
zest
|
|
| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
175
rogue
|
|
| n.流氓；v.游手好闲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
176
deferential
|
|
| adj. 敬意的，恭敬的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
177
buffets
|
|
| （火车站的）饮食柜台( buffet的名词复数 )； （火车的）餐车； 自助餐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
178
glowering
|
|
| v.怒视( glower的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
179
attentive
|
|
| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
180
recoiled
|
|
| v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
181
snug
|
|
| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
182
pals
|
|
| n.朋友( pal的名词复数 )；老兄；小子；（对男子的不友好的称呼）家伙 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
183
warden
|
|
| n.监察员，监狱长，看守人，监护人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
184
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
185
severely
|
|
| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
186
tempted
|
|
| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
187
plunged
|
|
| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
188
remains
|
|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |