"Mrs. Hastings, you and Miss Holland would better sit here, perhaps," suggested St. George, alighting hurriedly, "until I see if this man is to be found."
"Please," said Miss Holland, "I've always been longing7 to go into one of these houses, and now I'm going. Aren't we, Aunt Dora?"
"If you think—" ventured Mr. Frothingham in perplexity; but Mr. Frothingham's perplexity always impressed one as duty-born rather than judicious8, and Miss Holland had already risen.
"Olivia!" protested Mrs. Hastings faintly, accepting St. George's hand, "do look at those children's aprons9. I'm afraid we'll all contract fever after fever, just coming this far."
Unkempt women were occupying the doorstep of No. 19. St. George accosted10 them and asked the way to the rooms of a Mr. Tabnit. They smiled, displaying their wonderful teeth, consulted together, and finally with many labials and uncouth11 pointings of shapely hands they indicated the door of the "first floor front," whose wooden shutters12 were closely barred. St. George led the way and entered the bare, unclean passage where discordant13 voices and the odours of cooking wrought14 together to poison the air. He tapped smartly at the door.
Immediately it was opened by a graceful15 boy, dressed in a long, belted coat of dun-colour. He had straight black hair, and eyes which one saw before one saw his face, and he gravely bowed to each of the party in turn before answering St. George's question.
"Assuredly," said the youth in perfect English, "enter."
They found themselves in an ample room extending the full depth of the house; and partly because the light was dim and partly in sheer amazement16 they involuntarily paused as the door clicked behind them. The room's contrast to the squalid neighbourhood was complete. The apartment was carpeted in soft rugs laid one upon another so that footfalls were silenced. The walls and ceiling were smoothly17 covered with a neutral-tinted silk, patterned in dim figures; and from a fluted18 pillar of exceeding lightness an enormous candelabrum shed clear radiance upon the objects in the room. The couches and divans19 were woven of some light reed, made with high fantastic backs, in perfect purity of line however, and laid with white mattresses21. A little reed table showed slender pipes above its surface and these, at a touch from the boy, sent to a great height tiny columns of water that tinkled22 back to the square of metal upon which the table was set. A huge fan of blanched23 grasses automatically swayed from above. On a side-table were decanters and cups and platters of a material frail24 and transparent25. Before the shuttered window stood an observable plant with coloured leaves. On a great table in the room's centre were scattered26 objects which confused the eye. A light curtain stirring in the fan's faint breeze hung at the far end of the room.
In a career which had held many surprises, some of which St. George would never be at liberty to reveal to the paper in whose service he had come upon them, this was one of the most alluring27. The mere28 existence of this strange and luxurious29 habitation in the heart of such a neighbourhood would, past expression, delight Mr. Crass30, the feature man, and no doubt move even Chillingworth to approval. Chillingworth and Crass! Already they seemed strangers. St. George glanced at Miss Holland; she was looking from side to side, like a bird alighted among strange flowers; she met his eyes and dimpled in frank delight. Mrs. Hastings sat erectly31 beside her, her tortoise-rimmed glasses expressing bland33 approval. The improbability of her surroundings had quite escaped her in her satisfied discovery that the place was habitable. The lawyer, his thin lips parted, his head thrown back so that his hair rested upon his coat collar, remained standing34, one long hand upon a coat lapel.
"Ah," said Miss Holland softly, "it is an adventure, Aunt Dora."
St. George liked that. It irritated him, he had once admitted, to see a woman live as if living were a matter of life and death. He wished her to be alive to everything, but without suspiciously scrutinizing35 details, like a census-taker. To appreciate did not seem to him properly to mean to assess. Miss Holland, he would have said, seemed to live by the beats of her heart and not by the waves of her hair—but another proof, perhaps, of "if thou likest her opinions thou wilt36 praise her virtues37."
It was but a moment before the curtain was lifted, and there approached a youth, apparently38 in the twenties, slender and delicately formed as a woman, his dark face surmounted39 by a great deal of snow-white hair. He was wearing garments of grey, cut in unusual and graceful lines, and his throat was closely wound in folds of soft white, fastened by a rectangular green jewel of notable size and brilliance40. His eyes, large and of exceeding beauty and gentleness, were fixed41 upon St. George.
"Sir," said St. George, "we have been given this address as one where we may be assisted in some inquiries42 of the utmost importance. The name which we have is simply 'Tabnit.' Have I the honour—"
Their host bowed.
"I am Prince Tabnit," he said quietly.
St. George, filled with fresh amazement, gravely named himself and, making presentation of the others, purposely omitted the name of Miss Holland. However, hardly had he finished before their host bowed before Miss Holland herself.
"And you," he said, "you to whom I owe an expiation43 which I can never make,—do you know it is my servant who would have taken your life?"
In the brief interval45 following this naïve assertion, his guests were not unnaturally46 speechless. Miss Holland, bending slightly forward, looked at the prince breathlessly.
"I have suffered," he went on, "I have suffered indescribably since that terrible morning when I missed her and understood her mission. I followed quickly—I was without when you entered, but I came too late. Since then I have waited, unwilling47 to go to you, certain that the gods would permit the possible. And now—what shall I say?"
He hesitated, his eyes meeting Miss Holland's. And in that moment Mrs. Hastings found her voice. She curved the chain of her eye-glasses over her ear, threw back her head until the tortoise-rims included her host, and spoke48 her mind.
"Well, Prince Tabnit," she said sharply—quite as if, St. George thought, she had been nursery governess to princes all her life—"I must say that I think your regret comes somewhat late in the day. It's all very well to suffer as you say over what your servant has tried to do. But what kind of man must you be to have such a servant, in the first place? Didn't you know that she was dangerous and blood-thirsty, and very likely a maniac-born?"
Her voice, never modulated49 in her excitements, was so full that no one heard at that instant a quick, indrawn breath from St. George, having something of triumph and something of terror. Even as he listened he had been running swiftly over the objects in the room to fasten every one in his memory, and his eyes had rested upon the table at his side. A disc of bronze, supported upon a carven tripod, caught the light and challenged attention to its delicate traceries; and within its border of asps and goat's horns he saw cut in the dull metal a sphinx crucified upon an upright cross—an exact facsimile of the device upon that strange opalized glass from some far-away island which he had lately noted50 in the window in Mrs. Hastings' drawing-room. Instantly his mind was besieged51 by a volley of suppositions and imaginings, but even in his intense excitement as to what this simple discovery might bode52, he heard the prince's soft reply to Mrs. Hastings:
"Madame," said the prince, "she is a loyal creature. Whatever she does, she believes herself to be doing in my service. I trusted her. I believed that such error was impossible to her."
"Error!" shrilled53 Mrs. Hastings, looking about her for support and finding little in the aspect of Mr. Augustus Frothingham, who appeared to be regarding the whole proceeding54 as one from which he was to extract data to be thought out at some future infinitely55 removed.
As for St. George, he had never had great traffic with a future infinitely removed; he had a youthful and somewhat imaginative fashion of striking before the iron was well in the fire.
"Your servant believed, then, your Highness," he said clearly, "that in taking Miss Holland's life she was serving you?"
"I must regretfully conclude so."
St. George rose, holding the little brazen56 disc which he had taken from the table, and confronted his host, compelling his eyes.
"Perhaps you will tell us, Prince Tabnit," he said coolly, "what it is that the people who use this device find against Miss Holland's father?"
St. George heard Olivia's little broken cry.
"It is the same!" she exclaimed. "Aunt Dora—Mr. Frothingham—it is the crucified sphinx that was on so many of the things that father sent. Oh," she cried to the prince, "can it be possible that you know him—that you know anything of my father?"
To St. George's amazement the face of the prince softened57 and glowed as if with peculiar58 delight, and he looked at St. George with admiration59.
"Is it possible," he murmured, half to himself, "that your race has already developed intuition? Are you indeed so near to the Unknown?"
He took quick steps away and back, and turned again to St. George, a strange joy dawning in his face.
"If there be some who are ready to know!" he said. "Ah," he recalled himself penitently60 to Miss Holland, "your father—Otho Holland, I have seen him many times."
"Seen Otho!" shrilled Mrs. Hastings, as pink and trembling and expressionless as a disturbed mold of jelly. "Oh, poor, dear Otho! Did he live where there are people like your frightful61 servant? Olivia, think! Maybe he is lying at the bottom of a gorge62, all wounded and bloody63, with a dagger64 in his back! Oh, my poor, dear Otho, who used to wheel me about!"
Mrs. Hastings collapsed65 softly on the divan20, her glasses fallen in her lap, her side-combs slipping silently to the rug. Olivia had risen and was standing before Prince Tabnit.
"Tell me," she said trembling, "when have you seen him? Is he well?"
Prince Tabnit swept the faces of the others and his eyes returned to Miss Holland and dropped to the floor.
"The last time that I saw him, Miss Holland," he answered, "was three months ago. He was then alive and well."
Something in his tone chilled St. George and sent a sudden thrill of fear to his heart.
"He was then alive and well?" St. George repeated slowly. "Will you tell us more, your Highness? Will you tell us why the death of his daughter should be considered a service to the prince of a country which he had visited?"
"You are very wonderful," observed the prince, smiling meditatively66 at St. George, "and your penetration67 gives me good news—news that I had not hoped for, yet. I can not tell you all that you ask, but I can tell you much. Will you sit down?"
He turned and glanced at the curtain at the far end of the room. Instantly the boy servant appeared, bearing a tray on which were placed, in dishes of delicate-coloured filigree68, strange dainties not to be classified even by a cosmopolitan69, with his Flemish and Finnish and all but Icelandic cafés in every block.
"Pray do me the honour," the prince besought70, taking the dishes from the hands of the boy. "It gives me pleasure, Miss Holland, to tell you that your father has no doubt had these very plates set before him."
Upon a little table he deftly71 arranged the dishes with all the smiling ease of one to whom afternoon tea is the only business toward, and to whom an attempted murder is wholly alien. He impressed St. George vaguely72 as one who seemed to have risen from the dead of the crudities of mere events and to be living in a rarer atmosphere. The lawyer's face was a study. Mr. Augustus Frothingham never went to the theatre because he did not believe that a man of affairs should unduly73 stimulate74 the imagination.
There was set before them honey made by bees fed only upon a tropical flower of rare fragrance75; cakes flavoured with wine that had been long buried; a paste of cream, thick with rich nuts and with the preserved buds of certain flowers; and little white berries, such as the Japanese call "pinedews"; there was a tea distilled76 from the roots of rare exotics, and other things savoury and fantastic. So potent77 was the spell of the prince's hospitality, and so gracious the insistence78 with which he set before them the strange and odourous dishes, that even Olivia, eager almost to tears for news of her father, and Mrs. Hastings, as critical and suspicious as some beetle79 with long antennæ, might not refuse them. As for Mr. Augustus Frothingham, although this might be Cagliostro's spagiric food, or "extract of Saturn," for aught that his previous experience equipped him to deny, yet he nibbled81, and gazed, and was constrained82 to nibble80 again.
When they had been served, Prince Tabnit abruptly83 began speaking, the while turning the fine stem of his glass in his delicate fingers.
"You do not know," he said simply, "where the island of Yaque lies?"
"Yaque!" she exclaimed. "That was the name of the place where your father was, Olivia. I know I remembered it because it wasn't like the man What's-his-name in As You Like It, and because it didn't begin with a J."
"The island is my home," Prince Tabnit continued, "and now, for the first time, I find myself absent from it. I have come a long journey. It is many miles to that little land in the eastern seas, that exquisite84 bit of the world, as yet unknown to any save the island-men. We have guarded its existence, but I have no fear to tell you, for no mariner85, unaided by an islander, could steer86 a course to its coasts. And I can tell you little about the island for reasons which, if you will forgive me, you would hardly understand. I must tell you something of it, however, that you may know the remarkable87 conditions which led to the introduction of Mr. Holland to Yaque.
"The island of Yaque," continued the prince, "or Arqua, as the name was written by the ancient Phœnicians, has been ruled by hereditary88 monarchs89 since 1050 B.C., when it was settled."
"What date did I understand you to say, sir?" demanded Mr. Augustus Frothingham.
The prince smiled faintly.
"I am well aware," he said, "that to the western mind—indeed, to any modern mind save our own—I shall seem to be speaking in mockery. None the less, what I am saying is exact. It is believed that the enterprises of the Phœnicians in the early ages took them but a short distance, if at all, beyond the confines of the Mediterranean90. It is merely known that, in the period of which I speak, a more adventurous91 spirit began to be manifested, and the Straits of Gibraltar were passed and settlements were made in Iberia. But how far these adventurers actually penetrated92 has been recorded only in those documents that are in the hands of my people—descendants of the boldest of these mariners93 who pushed their galleys94 out into the Atlantic. At this time the king of Tyre was Abibaal, soon to be succeeded by his son Hiram, the friend, you will remember, of King David,—"
Mr. Frothingham, who did not go to the theatre for fear of exciting his imagination, uttered the soft non-explosion which should have been speech.
"King Abibaal," continued the prince, "who maintained his court in great pomp, had a younger and favourite son who bore his own name. He was a wild youth of great daring, and upon the accession of Hiram to the throne he left Tyre and took command of a galley95 of adventuresome spirits, who were among the first to pass the straits and gain the open sea. The story of their wild voyage I need not detail; it is enough to say that their trireme was wrecked96 upon the coast of Yaque; and Abibaal and those who joined him—among them many members of the court circle and even of the royal family—settled and developed the island. And there the race has remained without taint98 of admixture, down to the present day. Of what was wrought on the island I can tell you little, though the time will come when the eyes of the whole world will be turned upon Yaque as the forerunner99 of mighty100 things. Ruled over by the descendants of Abibaal, the islanders have dwelt in peace and plenty for nearly three thousand years—until, in fact, less than a year ago. Then the line thus traceable to King Hiram himself abruptly terminated with the death of King Chelbes, without issue."
Again Mr. Frothingham attempted to speak, and again he collapsed softly, without expression, according to his custom. As for St. George, he was remembering how, when he first went to the paper, he had invariably been sent to the anteroom to listen to the daily tales of invention, oppression and projects for which a continual procession of the more or less mentally deficient101 wished the Sentinel to stand sponsor. St. George remembered in particular one young student who soberly claimed to have invented wireless102 telegraphy and who molested103 the staff for months. Was this olive prince, he wondered, going to prove himself worth only a half-column on a back page, after all?
"I understand you to say," said St. George, with the weary self-restraint of one who deals with lunatics, "that the line of King Hiram, the friend of King David of Israel, became extinct less than a year ago?"
The prince smiled.
"Do not conceal104 your incredulity," he said liberally, "for I forgive it. You see, then," he went on serenely105, "how in Yaque the question of the succession became engrossing106. The matter was not merely one of ascendancy107, for the Yaquians are singularly free from ambition. But their pride in their island is boundless108. They see in her the advance guard of civilization, the peculiar people to whom have come to be intrusted many of the secrets of being. For I should tell you that my people live a life that is utterly109 beyond the ken44 of all, save a few rare minds in each generation. My people live what others dream about, what scientists struggle to fathom110, what the keenest philosophers and economists111 among you can not formulate112. We are," said Prince Tabnit serenely, "what the world will be a thousand years from now."
"Well, I'm sure," Mrs. Hastings broke in plaintively113, "that I hope your servant, for instance, is not a sample of what the world is coming to!"
The prince smiled indulgently, as if a child had laid a little, detaining hand upon his sleeve.
"Be that as it may," he said evenly, "the throne of Yaque was still empty. Many stood near to the crown, but there seemed no reason for choosing one more than another. One party wished to name the head of the House of the Litany, in Med, the King's city, who was the chief administrator114 of justice. Another, more democratic than these, wished to elevate to the throne a man from whose family we had won knowledge of both perpetual motion and the Fourth Dimension—"
St. George smiled angelically, as one who resignedly sees the last fragments of a shining hope float away. This quite settled it. The olive prince was crazy. Did not St. George remember the old man in the frayed115 neckerchief and bagging pockets who had brought to the office of the Sentinel chart after chart about perpetual motion, until St. George and Amory had one day told him gravely that they had a machine inside the office then that could make more things go for ever than he had ever dreamed of, though they had not said that the machine was named Chillingworth.
"You have knowledge of both these things?" asked St. George indulgently.
"Yaque understood both those laws," said the prince quietly, "when William the Conqueror116 came to England."
He hesitated for a moment and then, regardless of another soft explosion from Mr. Frothingham's lips, he added:
"Do you not see? Will you not understand? It is our knowledge of the Fourth Dimension which has enabled us to keep our island a secret."
St. George suddenly thrilled from head to foot. What if he were speaking the truth? What if this man were speaking the truth?
"Moreover," resumed the prince, "there were those among us who had long believed that new strength would come to my people by the introduction of an inhabitant of one of the continents. His coming would, however, necessitate117 his sovereignty among us, in fulfilment of an ancient Phœnician law, providing that the state, and every satrapy therein, shall receive no service, either of blood or of bond, nor enter into the marriage contract with an alien; from which law only the royal house is exempt118. Thus were the two needs of our land to be served by the means to which we had recourse. For there being no way to settle the difficulty, we vowed119 to leave the matter to Chance, that great patient arbiter120 of destinies of which your civilization takes no account, save to reduce it to slavery. Accordingly each inhabitant of the island took a solemn oath to await, with an open mind free from choice or prejudice, the settlement of the event, certain that the gods would permit the possible. Five days after this decision our watchers upon the hills sighted a South African transport bound for the Azores to coal. A hundred miles from our coast she was wrecked, and it was thought that all on board had been lost. A submarine was ordered to the spot—"
"Certainly," said the prince. "Pray forgive me," he added winningly, "if I seem to boast. It is difficult for me to believe that your appliances are so immature121. We were using steamship122 navigation and limiting our vision at the time of Pericles, but the futility123 of these was among our first discoveries."
Involuntarily St. George turned to Miss Holland. What would she think, he found himself wondering. Her eyes were luminous124 and her breath was coming quickly; he was relieved to find that she had not the infectious vulgarity to doubt the possibility of what seemed impossible. This was one of the qualities of Mr. Augustus Frothingham, who had assumed an air of polite interest and an accurately125 cynical126 smile, and the manner of generously lending his professional attention to any of the vagaries127 of the client. Mrs. Hastings stirred uneasily.
"I'm sure," she said fretfully, "that I must be very stupid, but I simply can not follow you. Why, you talk about things that don't exist! My husband, who was a very practical and advanced man, would have shown you at once that what you say is impossible."
Here was the attitude of the Commonplace the world over, thought St. George: to believe in wireless telegraphy simply because it has been found out, and to disbelieve in the Fourth Dimension because it has not been.
"I can not explain these things," admitted the prince gravely, "and I dare say that you could prove that they do not exist, just as a man from another planet could show us to his own satisfaction that there are no such things as music or colour."
"Go on, please," said Olivia eagerly.
"Olivia, I'm sure," protested Mrs. Hastings, "I think it's very unwomanly of you to show such an interest in these things."
"Will you bear with me for one moment, Mrs. Hastings?" begged the prince, "and perhaps I shall be able to interest you. The submarine returned, bringing the sole survivor128 of the wreck of the African transport."
"Ah, now," Mrs. Hastings assured him blandly129, "you are dealing130 with things that can happen. My brother Otho, my niece's father, was just this last year the sole survivor of the wreck of a very important vessel131."
"I have the honour, Mrs. Hastings, to be narrating132 to you the circumstances attending the discovery of your brother and Miss Holland's father, after the wreck of that vessel."
"My father?" cried Olivia.
The prince bowed.
"After this manner, Chance had rewarded us. We crowned your father King of Yaque."
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curb
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| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
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peremptory
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| adj.紧急的，专横的，断然的 | |
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dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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denizens
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| n.居民，住户( denizen的名词复数 ) | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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judicious
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| adj.明智的，明断的，能作出明智决定的 | |
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aprons
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| 围裙( apron的名词复数 )； 停机坪，台口（舞台幕前的部份） | |
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accosted
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| v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的过去式和过去分词 )；跟…搭讪；（乞丐等）上前向…乞讨；（妓女等）勾搭 | |
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uncouth
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| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
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shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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discordant
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| adj.不调和的 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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fluted
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| a.有凹槽的 | |
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divans
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| n.（可作床用的）矮沙发( divan的名词复数 )；（波斯或其他东方诗人的）诗集 | |
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divan
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| n.长沙发；（波斯或其他东方诗人的）诗集 | |
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mattresses
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| 褥垫，床垫( mattress的名词复数 ) | |
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tinkled
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| （使）发出丁当声，（使）发铃铃声( tinkle的过去式和过去分词 )； 叮当响着发出，铃铃响着报出 | |
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blanched
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| v.使变白( blanch的过去式 )；使（植物）不见阳光而变白；酸洗（金属）使有光泽；用沸水烫（杏仁等）以便去皮 | |
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frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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alluring
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| adj.吸引人的，迷人的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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crass
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| adj.愚钝的，粗糙的；彻底的 | |
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erectly
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| adv.直立地，垂直地 | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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bland
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| adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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scrutinizing
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| v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的现在分词 ) | |
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wilt
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| v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎；(指人)疲倦，衰弱 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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39
surmounted
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| 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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40
brilliance
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| n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智 | |
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41
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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42
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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43
expiation
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| n.赎罪，补偿 | |
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44
ken
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| n.视野，知识领域 | |
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45
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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46
unnaturally
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| adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地 | |
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47
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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48
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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49
modulated
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| 已调整[制]的，被调的 | |
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50
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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51
besieged
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52
bode
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| v.预示 | |
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53
shrilled
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| （声音）尖锐的，刺耳的，高频率的( shrill的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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55
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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56
brazen
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| adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的 | |
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57
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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58
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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59
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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60
penitently
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61
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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62
gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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63
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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64
dagger
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| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
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65
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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66
meditatively
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| adv.冥想地 | |
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67
penetration
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| n.穿透，穿人，渗透 | |
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68
filigree
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| n.金银丝做的工艺品；v.用金银细丝饰品装饰；用华而不实的饰品装饰；adj.金银细丝工艺的 | |
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69
cosmopolitan
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| adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的 | |
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besought
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| v.恳求，乞求（某事物）( beseech的过去式和过去分词 )；(beseech的过去式与过去分词) | |
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71
deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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72
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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73
unduly
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| adv.过度地，不适当地 | |
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74
stimulate
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| vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋 | |
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75
fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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76
distilled
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| adj.由蒸馏得来的v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 )；从…提取精华 | |
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77
potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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78
insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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79
beetle
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| n.甲虫，近视眼的人 | |
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80
nibble
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| n.轻咬，啃；v.一点点地咬，慢慢啃，吹毛求疵 | |
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81
nibbled
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| v.啃，一点一点地咬（吃）( nibble的过去式和过去分词 )；啃出（洞），一点一点咬出（洞）；慢慢减少；小口咬 | |
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82
constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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83
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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84
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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85
mariner
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| n.水手号不载人航天探测器，海员，航海者 | |
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86
steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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87
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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88
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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89
monarchs
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| 君主，帝王( monarch的名词复数 ) | |
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90
Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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91
adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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92
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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93
mariners
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| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
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94
galleys
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| n.平底大船，战舰( galley的名词复数 )；（船上或航空器上的）厨房 | |
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95
galley
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| n.（飞机或船上的）厨房单层甲板大帆船；军舰舰长用的大划艇； | |
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96
wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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97
wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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98
taint
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| n.污点；感染；腐坏；v.使感染；污染 | |
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99
forerunner
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| n.前身，先驱（者），预兆，祖先 | |
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100
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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101
deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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102
wireless
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| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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103
molested
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| v.骚扰( molest的过去式和过去分词 )；干扰；调戏；猥亵 | |
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104
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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105
serenely
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| adv.安详地，宁静地，平静地 | |
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106
engrossing
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| 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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107
ascendancy
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| n.统治权，支配力量 | |
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108
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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109
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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110
fathom
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| v.领悟，彻底了解 | |
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111
economists
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| n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 ) | |
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112
formulate
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| v.用公式表示；规划；设计；系统地阐述 | |
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113
plaintively
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| adv.悲哀地，哀怨地 | |
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114
administrator
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| n.经营管理者，行政官员 | |
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115
frayed
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| adj.磨损的v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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116
conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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117
necessitate
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| v.使成为必要，需要 | |
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118
exempt
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| adj.免除的；v.使免除；n.免税者，被免除义务者 | |
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119
vowed
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| 起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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120
arbiter
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| n.仲裁人，公断人 | |
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121
immature
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| adj.未成熟的，发育未全的，未充分发展的 | |
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122
steamship
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| n.汽船，轮船 | |
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123
futility
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| n.无用 | |
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124
luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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125
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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126
cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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127
vagaries
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| n.奇想( vagary的名词复数 )；异想天开；异常行为；难以预测的情况 | |
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128
survivor
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| n.生存者，残存者，幸存者 | |
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129
blandly
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| adv.温和地，殷勤地 | |
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130
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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131
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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132
narrating
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| v.故事( narrate的现在分词 ) | |
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