The whole day before the party was secretly exciting to Robin1. She knew how much more important it seemed to her than it really was. If she had been six years old she might have felt the same kind of uncertain thrills and tremulous wonders. She hid herself behind the window curtains in her room that she might see the men putting up the crimson2 and white awning3 from the door to the carriage step. The roll of red carpet they took from their van had a magic air. The ringing of the door bell which meant that things were being delivered, the extra moving about of servants, the florists’ men who went into the drawing-rooms and brought flowers and big tropical plants to re-arrange the conservatory4 and fill corners which were not always decorated—each and every one of them quickened the beating of her pulses. If she had belonged in her past to the ordinary cheerful world of children, she would have felt by this time no such elation5. But she had only known of the existence of such festivities as children’s parties because once a juvenile6 ball had been given in a house opposite her mother’s and she had crouched7 in an almost delirious8 little heap by the nursery window watching carriages drive up and deposit fluffy9 pink and white and blue children upon the strip of red carpet, and had seen them led or running into the house. She had caught sounds of strains of music and had shivered with rapture—but Oh! what worlds away from her the party had been.
She found her way into the drawing-rooms which were not usually thrown open. They were lofty and stately and seemed to her immense. There were splendid crystal-dropping chandeliers and side lights which she thought looked as if they would hold a thousand wax candles. There was a delightfully10 embowered corner for the musicians. It was all spacious13 and wonderful in its beautiful completeness—its preparedness for pleasure. She realized that all of it had always been waiting to be used for the happiness of people who knew each other and were young and ready for delight. When the young Lothwells had been children they had had dances and frolicking games with other children in the huge rooms and had kicked up their young heels on the polished floors at Christmas parties and on birthdays. How wonderful it must have been. But they had not known it was wonderful.
As Dowie dressed her the reflection she saw in the mirror gave back to her an intensified14 Robin whose curved lips almost quivered as they smiled. The soft silk of her hair looked like the night and the small rings on the back of her very slim white neck were things to ensnare the eye and hold it helpless.
“You look your best, my dear,” Dowie said as she clasped her little necklace. “And it is a good best.” Dowie was feeling tremulous herself though she could not have explained why. She thought that perhaps it was because she wished that Mademoiselle could have been with her.
Robin kissed her when the last touch had been given.
“I’m going to run down the staircase,” she said. “If I let myself walk slowly I shall have time to feel queer and shy and I might seem to creep into the drawing-room. I mustn’t creep in. I must walk in as if I had been to parties all my life.”
She ran down and as she did so she looked like a white bird flying, but she was obliged to stop upon the landing before the drawing-room door to quiet a moment of excited breathing. Still when she entered the room she moved as she should and held her head poised15 with a delicately fearless air. The Duchess—who herself looked her best in her fine old ivory profiled way—gave her a pleased smile of welcome which was almost affectionate.
“What a perfect little frock!” she said. “You are delightfully pretty in it.”
“Is it quite right?” said Robin. “Mademoiselle chose it for me.”
“It is quite right. ‘Frightfully right,’ George would say. George will sit near you at dinner. He is my grandson—Lord Halwyn you know, and you will no doubt frequently hear him say things are ‘frightfully’ something or other during the evening. Kathryn will say things are ‘deevy’ or ‘exquig‘. I mention it because you may not know that she means ‘exquisite16’ and ‘divine.’ Don’t let it frighten you if you don’t quite understand their language. They are dear handsome things sweeping17 along in the rush of their bit of century. I don’t let it frighten me that their world seems to me an entirely18 new planet.”
Robin drew a little nearer her. She felt something as she had felt years ago when she had said to Dowie. “I want to kiss you, Dowie.” Her eyes were pools of childish tenderness because she so well understood the infinitude of the friendly tact19 which drew her within its own circle with the light humour of its “I don’t let them frighten me.”
“You are kind—kind to me,” she said. “And I am grateful—grateful.”
The extremely good-looking young people who began very soon to drift into the brilliant big room—singly or in pairs of brother and sister—filled her with innocent delight. They were so well built and gaily20 at ease with each other and their surroundings, so perfectly21 dressed and finished. The filmy narrowness of delicate frocks, the shortness of skirts accentuated22 the youth and girlhood and added to it a sort of child fairy-likeness. Kathryn in exquisite wisps of silver-embroidered gauze looked fourteen instead of nearly twenty—aided by a dimple in her cheek and a small tilted23 nose. A girl in scarlet24 tulle was like a child out of a nursery ready to dance about a Christmas tree. Everyone seemed so young and so suggested supple25 dancing, perhaps because dancing was going on everywhere and all the world whether fashionable or unfashionable was driven by a passion for whirling, swooping27 and inventing new postures28 and fantastic steps. The young men had slim straight bodies and light movements. Their clothes fitted their suppleness29 to perfection. Robin thought they all looked as if they had had a great deal of delightful11 exercise and plenty of pleasure all their lives.
They were of that stream which had always seemed to be rushing past her in bright pursuit of alluring30 things which belonged to them as part of their existence, but which had had nothing to do with her own youth. Now the stream had paused as if she had for the moment some connection with it. The swift light she was used to seeing illuminate31 glancing eyes as she passed people in the street, she saw again and again as new arrivals appeared. Kathryn was quite excited by her eyes and eyelashes and George hovered33 about. There was a great deal of hovering34. At the dinner table sleek35 young heads held themselves at an angle which allowed of their owners seeing through or around, or under floral decorations and alert young eyes showed an eager gleam. After dinner was over and dancing began the Duchess smiled shrewdly as she saw the gravitating masculine movement towards a certain point. It was the point where Robin stood with a small growing circle about her.
It was George who danced with her first. He was tall and slender and flexible and his good shoulders had a military squareness of build. He had also a nice square face, and a warmly blue eye and knew all the latest steps and curves and unexpected swirls36. Robin was an ozier wand and there was no swoop26 or dart37 or sudden sway and change she was not alert at. The swing and lure38 of the music, the swift movement, the fluttering of airy draperies as slim sister nymphs flew past her, set her pulses beating with sweet young joy. A brief, uncontrollable ripple39 of laughter broke from her before she had circled the room twice.
“How heavenly it is!” she exclaimed and lifted her eyes to Halwyn’s. “How heavenly!”
They were not safe eyes to lift in such a way to those of a very young man. They gave George a sudden enjoyable shock. He had heard of the girl who was a sort of sublimated40 companion to his grandmother. The Duchess herself had talked to him a little about her and he had come to the party intending to behave very amiably41 and help the little thing enjoy herself. He had also encountered before in houses where there were no daughters the smart well-born, young companion who was allowed all sorts of privileges because she knew how to assume tiresome42 little responsibilities and how to be entertaining enough to add cheer and spice to the life of the elderly and lonely. Sometimes she was a subtly appealing sort of girl and given to being sympathetic and to liking43 sympathy and quiet corners in conservatories44 or libraries, and sometimes she was capable of scientific flirtation45 and required scientific management. A man had to have his wits about him. This one as she flew like a blown leaf across the floor and laughed up into his face with wide eyes, produced a new effect and was a new kind.
“It’s you who are heavenly,” he answered with a boy’s laugh. “You are like a feather—and a willow46 wand.”
“You are light too,” she laughed back, “and you are like steel as well.”
Mrs. Alan Stacy, the lady with the magnificent henna hair, had recently given less time to him, being engaged in the preliminary instruction of a new member of the Infant Class. Such things will, of course, happen and though George had quite ingenuously47 raged in secret, the circumstances left him free to “hover” and hovering was a pastime he enjoyed.
“Let us go on like this forever and ever,” he said sweeping half the length of the room with her and whirling her as if she were indeed a leaf in the wind, “Forever and ever.”
“I wish we could. But the music will stop,” she gave back.
“Music ought never to stop—never,” he answered.
But the music did stop and when it began again almost immediately another tall, flexible young man made a lightning claim on her and carried her away only to hand her to another and he in his turn to another. She was not allowed more than a moment’s rest and borne on the crest48 of the wave of young delight, she did not need more. Young eyes were always laughing into hers and elating her by a special look of pleasure in everything she did or said or inspired in themselves. How was she informed without phrases that for this exciting evening she was a creature without a flaw, that the loveliness of her eyes startled those who looked into them, that it was a thrilling experience to dance with her, that somehow she was new and apart and wonderful? No sleek-haired, slim and straight-backed youth said exactly any of these things to her, but somehow they were conveyed and filled her with a wondering realization49 of the fact that if they were true, they were no longer dreadful and maddening, since they only made people like and want to dance with one. To dance, to like people and be liked seemed so heavenly natural and right—to be only like air and sky and free, happy breathing. There was, it was true, a blissful little uplifted look about her which she herself was not aware of, but which was singularly stimulating50 to the masculine beholder51. It only meant indeed that as she whirled and swayed and swooped52 laughing she was saying to herself at intervals53,
“This is what other girls feel like. They are happy like this. I am laughing and talking to people just as other girls do. I am Robin Gareth-Lawless, but I am enjoying a party like this—a young party.”
Lady Lothwell sitting near her mother watched the trend of affairs with an occasional queer interested smile.
“Well, mamma darling,” she said at last as youth and beauty whirled by in a maelstrom54 of modern Terpsichorean55 liveliness, “she is a great success. I don’t know whether it is quite what you intended or not.”
The Duchess did not explain what she had intended. She was watching the trend also and thinking a good deal. On the whole Lady Lothwell had scarcely expected that she would explain. She rarely did. She seldom made mistakes, however.
Kathryn in her scant56 gauzy strips of white and silver having drifted towards them at the moment stood looking on with a funny little disturbed expression on her small, tip-tilted face.
“There’s something about her, grandmamma,” she said.
“All the girls see it and no one knows what it is. She’s sitting out for a few minutes and just look at George—and Hal Brunton—and Captain Willys. They are all laughing, of course, and pretending to joke, but they would like to eat each other up. Perhaps it’s her eyelashes. She looks out from under them as if they were a curtain.”
Lady Lothwell’s queer little smile became a queer little laugh.
“Yes. It gives her a look of being ecstatically happy and yet almost shy and appealing at the same time. Men can’t stand it of course.”
“None of them are trying to stand it,” answered little Lady Kathryn somewhat in the tone of a retort.
“I don’t believe she knows she does it,” Lady Lothwell said quite reflectively.
“She does not know at all. That is the worst of it,” commented the Duchess.
“Then you see that there is a worst,” said her daughter.
The Duchess glanced towards Kathryn, but fortunately the puzzled fret57 of the girl’s forehead was even at the moment melting into a smile as a young man of much attraction descended58 upon her with smiles of his own and carried her into the Tango or Fox Trot59 or Antelope60 Galop, whichsoever it chanced to be.
“If she were really aware of it that would be ‘the worst’ for other people—for us probably. She could look out from under her lashes32 to sufficient purpose to call what she wanted and take and keep it. As she is not aware, it will make things less easy for herself—under the circumstances.”
“The circumstance of being Mrs. Gareth-Lawless’ daughter is not an agreeable one,” said Lady Lothwell.
“It might give some adventurous61 boys ideas when they had time to realize all it means. Do you know I am rather sorry for her myself. I shouldn’t be surprised if she were rather a dear little thing. She looks tender and cuddle-some. Perhaps she is like the heroine of a sentimental62 novel I read the other day. Her chief slave said of her ‘She walks into a man’s heart through his eyes and sits down there and makes a warm place which will never get cold again.‘ Rather nice, I thought.”
The Duchess thought it rather nice also.
“‘Never get cold again,‘” she repeated. “What a heavenly thing to happen to a pair of creatures—if—” she paused and regarded Robin, who at the other side of the room was trying to decide some parlous63 question of dances to which there was more than one claimant. She was sweetly puckering64 her brow over her card and round her were youthful male faces looking eager and even a trifle tense with repressed anxiety for the victory of the moment.
“Oh!” Lady Lothwell laughed. “As Kitty says ‘There’s something about her’ and it’s not mere65 eyelashes. You have let loose a germ among us, mamma my sweet, and you can’t do anything with a germ when you have let it loose. To quote Kitty again, ‘Look at George!’”
The music which came from the bower12 behind which the musicians were hidden seemed to gain thrill and wildness as the hours went on. As the rooms grew warmer the flowers breathed out more reaching scent66. Now and again Robin paused for a moment to listen to strange delightful chords and to inhale67 passing waves of something like mignonette and lilies, and apple blossoms in the sun. She thought there must be some flower which was like all three in one. The rushing stream was carrying her with it as it went—one of the happy petals68 on its surface. Could it ever cast her aside and leave her on the shore again? While the violins went singing on and the thousand wax candles shone on the faint or vivid colours which mingled69 into a sort of lovely haze70, it did not seem possible that a thing so enchanting71 and so real could have an end at all. All the other things in her life seemed less real tonight.
In the conservatory there was a marble fountain which had long years ago been brought from a palace garden in Rome. It was not as large as it was beautiful and it had been placed among palms and tropic ferns whose leaves and fronds72 it splashed merrily among and kept deliciously cool and wet-looking. There was a quite intoxicating73 hot-house perfume of warm damp moss74 and massed flowers and it was the kind of corner any young man would feel it necessary to gravitate towards with a partner.
George led Robin to it and she naturally sat upon the edge of the marble basin and as naturally drew off a glove and dipped her hand into the water, splashing it a little because it felt deliciously cool. George stood near at first and looked down at her bent75 head. It was impossible not also to take in her small fine ear and the warm velvet76 white of the lovely little nape of her slim neck. He took them in with elated appreciation77. He was not subtle minded enough to be aware that her reply to a casual remark he had made to her at dinner had had a remote effect upon him.
“One of the loveliest creatures I ever saw was a Mrs. Gareth-Lawless,” he had said. “Are you related to her?”
“I am her daughter,” Robin had answered and with a slightly startled sensation he had managed to slip into amiably deft78 generalities while he had secretly wondered how much his grandmother knew or did not know.
An involuntary thought of Feather had crossed his mind once or twice during the evening. This was the girl who, it was said, had actually been saved up for old Coombe. Ugly morbid79 sort of idea if it was true. How had the Duchess got hold of her and why and what was Coombe really up to? Could he have some elderly idea of wanting a youngster for a wife? Occasionally an old chap did. Serve him right if some young chap took the wind out of his sails. He was not a desperate character, but he had been very intimate with Mrs. Alan Stacy and her friends and it had made him careless. Also Robin had drawn80 him—drawn him more than he knew.
“Is it still heavenly?” he asked. (How pointed81 her fingers were and how soft and crushable her hand looked as it splashed like a child’s.)
“The heavenly thing is the way you are enjoying it yourself. I never saw a girl light up a whole room before. You throw out stars as you dance.”
“That’s like a skyrocket,” Robin laughed back. “And it’s because in all my life I never went to a dance before.”
“Never! You mean except to children’s parties?”
“There were no children’s parties. This is the first—first—first.”
“Well, I don’t see how that happened, but I am glad it did because it’s been a great thing for me to see you at your first—first—first.”
He sat down on the fountain’s edge near her.
“I shall not forget it,” he said.
“I shall remember it as long as I live,” said Robin and she lifted her unsafe eyes again and smiled into his which made them still more unsafe.
Perhaps it was because he was extremely young, perhaps it was because he was immoral83, perhaps because he had never held a tight rein84 on his fleeting85 emotions, even the next moment he felt that it was because he was an idiot—but suddenly he found he had let himself go and was kissing the warm velvet of the slim little nape—had kissed it twice.
He had not given himself time to think what would happen as a result, but what did happen was humiliating and ridiculous. One furious splash of the curled hand flung water into his face and eyes and mouth while Robin tore herself free from him and stood blazing with fury and woe—for it was not only fury he saw.
“You—You—!” she cried and actually would have swooped to the fountain again if he had not caught her arm.
He was furious himself—at himself and at her.
“You—little fool!” he gasped86. “What did you do that for even if I was a jackass? There was nothing in it. You’re so pretty——”
“You’ve spoiled everything!” she flamed, “everything—everything!”
“I’ve spoiled nothing. I’ve only been a fool—and it’s your own fault for being so pretty.”
“You’ve spoiled everything in the world! Now—” with a desolate87 horrible little sob88, “now I can only go back—back!”
He had a queer idea that she spoke89 as if she were Cinderella and he had made the clock strike twelve. Her voice had such absolute grief in it that he involuntarily drew near her.
“I say,” he was really breathless, “don’t speak like that. I beg pardon. I’ll grovel90! Don’t—Oh! Kathryn—come here.”
This last because at this difficult moment from between the banks of hot-house bloom and round the big palms his sister Kathryn suddenly appeared. She immediately stopped short and stared at them both—looking from one to the other.
“What is the matter?” she asked in a low voice.
“Oh! come and talk to her,” George broke forth91. “I feel as if she might scream in a minute and call everybody in. I’ve been a lunatic and she has apparently92 never been kissed before. Tell her—tell her you’ve been kissed yourself.”
A queer little look revealed itself in Kathryn’s face. A delicate vein93 of her grandmother’s wisdom made part of her outlook upon a rapidly moving and exciting world. She had never been hide-bound or dull and for a slight gauzy white and silver thing she was astute94.
“Don’t be impudent,” she said to George as she walked up to Robin and put a cool hand on her arm. “He’s only been silly. You’d better let him off,” she said. She turned a glance on George who was wiping his sleeve with a handkerchief and she broke into a small laugh, “Did she push you into the fountain?” she asked cheerfully.
“I would,” replied Kathryn still cheerful. “You can apologize better when you’re dry.”
He slid through the palms like a snake and the two girls stood and gazed at each other. Robin’s flame had died down and her face had settled itself into a sort of hardness. Kathryn did not know that she herself looked at her as the Duchess might have looked at another girl in the quite different days of her youth.
“I’ll tell you something now he’s gone,” she said. “I have been kissed myself and so have other girls I know. Boys like George don’t really matter, though of course it’s bad manners. But who has got good manners? Things rush so that there’s scarcely time for manners at all. When an older man makes a snatch at you it’s sometimes detestable. But to push him into the fountain was a good idea,” and she laughed again.
“I didn’t push him in.”
“I wish you had,” with a gleeful mischief96. The next moment, however, the hint of a worried frown showed itself on her forehead. “You see,” she said protestingly, “you are so frightfully pretty.”
“I’d rather be a leper,” Robin shot forth.
But Kathryn did not of course understand.
“What nonsense!” she answered. “What utter rubbish! You know you wouldn’t. Come back to the ball room. I came here because my mother was asking for George.”
She turned to lead the way through the banked flowers and as she did so added something.
“By the way, somebody important has been assassinated97 in one of the Balkan countries. They are always assassinating98 people. They like it. Lord Coombe has just come in and is talking it over with grandmamma. I can see they are quite excited in their quiet way.”
As they neared the entrance to the ball room she paused a moment with a new kind of impish smile.
“Every girl in the room is absolutely shaky with thrills at this particular moment,” she said. “And every man feels himself bristling99 a little. The very best looking boy in all England is dancing with Sara Studleigh. He dropped in by chance to call and the Duchess made him stay. He is a kind of miracle of good looks and takingness.”
Robin said nothing. She had plainly not been interested in the Balkan tragedy and she as obviously did not care for the miracle.
“You don’t ask who he is?” said Kathryn.
“I don’t want to know.”
“Oh! Come! You mustn’t feel as sulky as that. You’ll want to ask questions the moment you see him. I did. Everyone does. His name is Donal Muir. He’s Lord Coombe’s heir. He’ll be the Head of the House of Coombe some day. Here he comes,” quite excitedly, “Look!”
It was one of the tricks of Chance—or Fate—or whatever you will. The dance brought him within a few feet of them at that very moment and the slow walking steps he was taking held him—they were some of the queer stealthy almost stationary100 steps of the Argentine Tango. He was finely and smoothly101 fitted as the other youngsters were, his blond glossed102 head was set high on a heroic column of neck, he was broad of shoulder, but not too broad, slim of waist, but not too slim, long and strong of leg, but light and supple and firm. He had a fair open brow and a curved mouth laughing to show white teeth. Robin felt he ought to wear a kilt and plaid and that an eagle’s feather ought to be standing103 up from a chieftain’s bonnet104 on the fair hair which would have waved if it had been allowed length enough. He was scarcely two yards from her now and suddenly—almost as if he had been called—he turned his eyes away from Sara Studleigh who was the little thing in Christmas tree scarlet. They were blue like the clear water in a tarn105 when the sun shines on it and they were still laughing as his mouth was. Straight into hers they laughed—straight into hers.
点击收听单词发音
1 robin | |
n.知更鸟,红襟鸟 | |
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2 crimson | |
n./adj.深(绯)红色(的);vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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3 awning | |
n.遮阳篷;雨篷 | |
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4 conservatory | |
n.温室,音乐学院;adj.保存性的,有保存力的 | |
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5 elation | |
n.兴高采烈,洋洋得意 | |
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6 juvenile | |
n.青少年,少年读物;adj.青少年的,幼稚的 | |
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7 crouched | |
v.屈膝,蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8 delirious | |
adj.不省人事的,神智昏迷的 | |
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9 fluffy | |
adj.有绒毛的,空洞的 | |
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10 delightfully | |
大喜,欣然 | |
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11 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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12 bower | |
n.凉亭,树荫下凉快之处;闺房;v.荫蔽 | |
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13 spacious | |
adj.广阔的,宽敞的 | |
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14 intensified | |
v.(使)增强, (使)加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15 poised | |
a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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16 exquisite | |
adj.精美的;敏锐的;剧烈的,感觉强烈的 | |
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17 sweeping | |
adj.范围广大的,一扫无遗的 | |
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18 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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19 tact | |
n.机敏,圆滑,得体 | |
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20 gaily | |
adv.欢乐地,高兴地 | |
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21 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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22 accentuated | |
v.重读( accentuate的过去式和过去分词 );使突出;使恶化;加重音符号于 | |
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23 tilted | |
v. 倾斜的 | |
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24 scarlet | |
n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的 | |
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25 supple | |
adj.柔软的,易弯的,逢迎的,顺从的,灵活的;vt.使柔软,使柔顺,使顺从;vi.变柔软,变柔顺 | |
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26 swoop | |
n.俯冲,攫取;v.抓取,突然袭击 | |
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27 swooping | |
俯冲,猛冲( swoop的现在分词 ) | |
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28 postures | |
姿势( posture的名词复数 ); 看法; 态度; 立场 | |
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29 suppleness | |
柔软; 灵活; 易弯曲; 顺从 | |
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30 alluring | |
adj.吸引人的,迷人的 | |
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31 illuminate | |
vt.照亮,照明;用灯光装饰;说明,阐释 | |
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32 lashes | |
n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 );鞭子;突然猛烈的一击;急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 );煽动;紧系;怒斥 | |
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33 hovered | |
鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 ); 靠近(某事物); (人)徘徊; 犹豫 | |
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34 hovering | |
鸟( hover的现在分词 ); 靠近(某事物); (人)徘徊; 犹豫 | |
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35 sleek | |
adj.光滑的,井然有序的;v.使光滑,梳拢 | |
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36 swirls | |
n.旋转( swirl的名词复数 );卷状物;漩涡;尘旋v.旋转,打旋( swirl的第三人称单数 ) | |
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37 dart | |
v.猛冲,投掷;n.飞镖,猛冲 | |
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38 lure | |
n.吸引人的东西,诱惑物;vt.引诱,吸引 | |
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39 ripple | |
n.涟波,涟漪,波纹,粗钢梳;vt.使...起涟漪,使起波纹; vi.呈波浪状,起伏前进 | |
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40 sublimated | |
v.(使某物质)升华( sublimate的过去式和过去分词 );使净化;纯化 | |
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41 amiably | |
adv.和蔼可亲地,亲切地 | |
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42 tiresome | |
adj.令人疲劳的,令人厌倦的 | |
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43 liking | |
n.爱好;嗜好;喜欢 | |
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44 conservatories | |
n.(培植植物的)温室,暖房( conservatory的名词复数 ) | |
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45 flirtation | |
n.调情,调戏,挑逗 | |
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46 willow | |
n.柳树 | |
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47 ingenuously | |
adv.率直地,正直地 | |
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48 crest | |
n.顶点;饰章;羽冠;vt.达到顶点;vi.形成浪尖 | |
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49 realization | |
n.实现;认识到,深刻了解 | |
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50 stimulating | |
adj.有启发性的,能激发人思考的 | |
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51 beholder | |
n.观看者,旁观者 | |
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52 swooped | |
俯冲,猛冲( swoop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53 intervals | |
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
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54 maelstrom | |
n.大乱动;大漩涡 | |
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55 terpsichorean | |
adj.舞蹈的;n.舞蹈家 | |
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56 scant | |
adj.不充分的,不足的;v.减缩,限制,忽略 | |
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57 fret | |
v.(使)烦恼;(使)焦急;(使)腐蚀,(使)磨损 | |
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58 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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59 trot | |
n.疾走,慢跑;n.老太婆;现成译本;(复数)trots:腹泻(与the 连用);v.小跑,快步走,赶紧 | |
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60 antelope | |
n.羚羊;羚羊皮 | |
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61 adventurous | |
adj.爱冒险的;惊心动魄的,惊险的,刺激的 | |
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62 sentimental | |
adj.多愁善感的,感伤的 | |
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63 parlous | |
adj.危险的,不确定的,难对付的 | |
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64 puckering | |
v.(使某物)起褶子或皱纹( pucker的现在分词 );小褶纹;小褶皱 | |
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65 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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66 scent | |
n.气味,香味,香水,线索,嗅觉;v.嗅,发觉 | |
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67 inhale | |
v.吸入(气体等),吸(烟) | |
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68 petals | |
n.花瓣( petal的名词复数 ) | |
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69 mingled | |
混合,混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 ); 混进,与…交往[联系] | |
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70 haze | |
n.霾,烟雾;懵懂,迷糊;vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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71 enchanting | |
a.讨人喜欢的 | |
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72 fronds | |
n.蕨类或棕榈类植物的叶子( frond的名词复数 ) | |
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73 intoxicating | |
a. 醉人的,使人兴奋的 | |
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74 moss | |
n.苔,藓,地衣 | |
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75 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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76 velvet | |
n.丝绒,天鹅绒;adj.丝绒制的,柔软的 | |
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77 appreciation | |
n.评价;欣赏;感谢;领会,理解;价格上涨 | |
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78 deft | |
adj.灵巧的,熟练的(a deft hand 能手) | |
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79 morbid | |
adj.病的;致病的;病态的;可怕的 | |
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80 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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81 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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82 outright | |
adv.坦率地;彻底地;立即;adj.无疑的;彻底的 | |
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83 immoral | |
adj.不道德的,淫荡的,荒淫的,有伤风化的 | |
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84 rein | |
n.疆绳,统治,支配;vt.以僵绳控制,统治 | |
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85 fleeting | |
adj.短暂的,飞逝的 | |
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86 gasped | |
v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要 | |
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87 desolate | |
adj.荒凉的,荒芜的;孤独的,凄凉的;v.使荒芜,使孤寂 | |
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88 sob | |
n.空间轨道的轰炸机;呜咽,哭泣 | |
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89 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 | |
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90 grovel | |
vi.卑躬屈膝,奴颜婢膝 | |
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91 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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92 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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93 vein | |
n.血管,静脉;叶脉,纹理;情绪;vt.使成脉络 | |
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94 astute | |
adj.机敏的,精明的 | |
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95 grumbled | |
抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 ); 发牢骚; 咕哝; 发哼声 | |
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96 mischief | |
n.损害,伤害,危害;恶作剧,捣蛋,胡闹 | |
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97 assassinated | |
v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 );中伤;诋毁;破坏 | |
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98 assassinating | |
v.暗杀( assassinate的现在分词 );中伤;诋毁;破坏 | |
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99 bristling | |
a.竖立的 | |
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100 stationary | |
adj.固定的,静止不动的 | |
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101 smoothly | |
adv.平滑地,顺利地,流利地,流畅地 | |
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102 glossed | |
v.注解( gloss的过去式和过去分词 );掩饰(错误);粉饰;把…搪塞过去 | |
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103 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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104 bonnet | |
n.无边女帽;童帽 | |
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105 tarn | |
n.山中的小湖或小潭 | |
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