The giddy months frolicked away like youths and maidens1 dancing on a golden ground on one of Povis de Chavanne’s friezes2. Flirting3, laughing, gaming, waltzing, shooting, hunting, driving, dressing—above all dressing—the seasons succeeded each other with breathless rapidity for Mouse Kenilworth, and hundreds of fair women like her.
Money grew scarcer, credit grew rarer, Billy became less easy to bleed, Harry4 seemed to grow duller and less good-looking, cabmen became shyer still of Cocky, and the old duke more unwilling5 to sign and sell; but she still all the same enjoyed herself, still carried high her golden head, and still crammed6 forty-eight hours into every twenty-four. Occasionally she did a little philanthropy; inaugurated a railway line, visited some silk mills, or laid the stone of a church. The silver barrow she received made a pretty flower-stand, the pieces of silk offered to her were also useful in their way, and when she had opened a church she felt she had a dispensation for months from attending church services. Only Egypt she could not manage this year. Egypt is a pastime which requires a good deal of ready money, and she had to console herself with hunting in the Midlands and shooting rocketers in the damp English woods; she did not really care about shooting, but she found zest7 in it because Ronald and the old duke hated the idea of women killing8 things, and even Brancepeth disapproved9 it.
She went down again more than once to Vale Royal and went out with the hounds to whose maintenance her host had subscribed10 so liberally. But in February a long black frost sent hunters to their straw and riders up to town, and she opened her house in Stanhope Street as the session opened at Westminster. She had the children up also; partly because she was really fond of them, partly because children poser you, and touch the heart and the purse-strings of your relatives.
[228]She disliked the town in winter; she wanted to be in Cairo or at Monte Carlo or Rome; but, being in London, she made the best of it and took her graceful11 person to any place where she thought she could be amused. There are many dinners in London when the frost binds12 the country in its iron bonds and the horses champ and fret13 in their stalls, and the herons starve by the frozen streams, and the dead kingfishers lie like crumpled14 heaps of broken iris-flowers on the cruel ice of their native ponds.
“Has Billy run dry?” asked her lord one day when their financial difficulties were pressing more hardly than usual, and an unpaid15 cabman had threatened Bow Street.
“He won’t even look at her.”
“How exactly like him!” said Cocky. “If there’s a thing he might do to oblige one he always kicks at it.”
Hurstmanceaux always seemed to them odiously18 unfeeling and huffy; nevertheless, as they always did in their troubles, they sent to him to come and speak to them one day when their creditors20 had been more offensive than usual. He was so rarely in town that they agreed it was only prudent21 to take advantage of his being there for a week or two on account of evidence he had to give before a House of Lords Committee on an Irish land question.
What Daddy Gwyllian had said once in the smoking-room at Otterbourne House, and had more than once since then repeated, dwelt in Hurstmanceaux’s memory, and made him doubt whether it was indeed worth while to go on impoverishing22 himself for people who had neither gratitude23 nor scruple24.
After all, if the Duke of Otterbourne’s eldest25 son went into the Bankruptcy26 Court, it was the Duke of Otterbourne’s affair.
It would be cruelly hard on Otterbourne, who was himself one of the most upright, honorable and conscientious27 of gentlemen. But it would be still harder on himself, Hurstmanceaux, after his long self-denial and self-sacrifice to find himself in Queer Street for sake of his brother-in-law, a brother-in-law whom he considered, in his own[229] forcible language, not fit to be touched with a pair of tongs28.
If they would only retire awhile and retrench29 they could pull themselves together. Cocky had an estate in the west of Ireland, entirely30 unsaleable for the best of reasons that nobody would buy it, but which Hurstmanceaux considered a very heaven upon earth, for its views of land and sea were sublime31, and its myrtle and bay thickets32, its pine and cork33 woods, had almost the beauty of Cintra with the vast billows of the Atlantic rolling on the rocky shores at their feet. If they would go to this place, called Black Hazel, and live there for a few years, their affairs would come round, and Mouse would be taken out of that vicious circle of unending expenditure34 and compromising expedient35 in which women of the world turn like squirrels in a cage.
To the innocence36 of this simple masculine mind it seemed quite possible that if such a course were suggested to her she would follow it. She was fond of the children; Black Hazel would be a paradise for them; she liked sport—Black Hazel offered quail37, woodcock, blackcock, teal in abundance, and both fresh water and deep sea fishing to any extent.
He enumerated38 its attractions enthusiastically to himself as if he were an auctioneer endeavoring to sell the estate, and, with the naïveté of an honest man, imagined that after all his sister could only need to have her duty clearly shown her to do it.
“The finest thoroughbred mare39 will chew dry reeds when she finds she can’t get hay or oats,” he thought, his mind reverting40 to his memories of the Egyptian campaign, which he had shared in as an amateur. The brother of Lady Kenilworth should have known that women of the world are more “kittle cattle” than even blood-mares; but he did not realize this.
He knew that she was unreasonable41, wildly extravagant42, very selfish, and so accustomed to have her own way that she thought the stars would pause in their courses to please her; but still, even she would stop short of absolute social suicide, he thought.
So when next he received a note from his sister asking[230] him to come to her on a matter of importance, which always with her meant money, he took his way to the conference determined43 to tell her frankly44 that the retreat to the west of Ireland was the only possible refuge for her, and to keep well in his memory the sensible warning and counsel of Daddy Gwyllian.
When he got to the house in Stanhope Street he found Cocky waiting to see him before he went out. This fact alone was ominous45 and extremely disagreeable to him, the presence of Cocky, in his wife’s morning-room, invariably indicating not only that money was wanted, which was chronic46, but that some more than usually unpleasant dilemma47 had to be met.
Cocky’s paper was all over the place, as he would have expressed it; and very often in hands so disreputable that its rescue was a matter as compromising as it was costly48.
When he was walking about amongst the china and the trinkets, and the flowers and the lacquer work, with his thin pale aquiline49 profile against the light, and the Blenheims barking furiously at him as they invariably did, his presence was the certain sign of something impending50 which might get with most odious19 prominence51 into the newspapers.
“If he’s forged anybody’s name, I only hope to heavens that it’s only mine,” thought Hurstmanceaux: he always expected Cocky to come to forgery52 sooner or later. In point of fact, Cocky had come to it very early in his career, as early as his Eton days, when he had been ducked in the river by the comrade with whose name he had taken such liberties.
With his hands in his trowser pockets and his little frail53 person flitting amongst the chinoiseries and the heaths and orchids54, he peered up at this moment at Hurstmanceaux where he stood on the hearth55, very tall, very stern, very unsympathetic, and absolutely silent.
“What a glum56 brute57 he is,” Cocky thought of the man to whom he had owed his own social salvation58 a score of times. “What an uncommon59 nasty thing human nature must be that it must always look so deuced unpleasant whenever it finds anybody in trouble.”
Cocky was of opinion that it was the first duty of other[231] men to pick himself out of the mud whenever he got into it, and that it should not only be the duty of his neighbors but their pleasure.
“Such a hard-hearted brute is Ronnie,” he thought. “Only lives for himself and don’t spend sixpence a day. I do hate selfishness and stinginess.”
The Blenheims at this instant scampered60 into the room, and flew at his ankles with that strong disapproval61 of him which they never failed to show.
Hurstmanceaux looked on in grim approval of the dogs’ discrimination, whilst his brother-in-law wasted kicks in all directions, the Blenheims avoiding them with the happiest dexterity63 and returning undaunted to the charge.
The entrance of their mistress effected a diversion in the warfare64 and relaxed the contemptuous sternness of her brother’s face.
“So kind of you, dear Ronnie,” she said sweetly as she came up to him softly and brought a sense of fragrance65 and freshness, like a dewy rose, as she came straight from her bath and its opponax soap and eau de verveine.
“They’ve torn my trowsers,” said Cocky, looking down at the marks of their small sharp teeth upon frayed66 cloth.
“You know they dislike you,” said his wife coldly. “Why do you provoke them?”
“Hang it all, I’m their master,” murmured Cocky, eyeing his ankles ruefully.
“Oh, dear no, you are not,” said Mouse very uncivilly; “I never taught them to think so for a moment.”
“If you only sent for me to hear you quarrel over the ownership of the Blenheims——” said Hurstmanceaux. He was angry; he had to attend a Royal Commission at two o’clock, and he wanted to be instead on the river, watching the practice of the Eton eight of which his youngest brother was captain. And here he was, shut up at half-past twelve with two bickering67 people and two barking lap-dogs, with the prospect68 of hearing for an hour of debts and difficulties which he had neither the power nor the will to meet or dissipate. “Pray let me hear the worst at once,” he added. “Is it the Old Bailey, or only[232] the Bankruptcy Court, that Cocky is going to show himself in this time to an admiring society?”
His sister looked at him and saw that he was not in a pleasant mood; but she did not mind his moods, they always ended in giving her what she wanted. He was an intrinsically generous and compassionate69 man, and such tempers are always kindly70 to their own hurt.
“Damned ungrateful fellow he is!” reflected Cocky. “As if there wasn’t one Court that he ought to bless me for never going into.”
She plunged72 immediately into the narrative73 of their woes74 and needs, the Blenheims, reduced to silence through want of breath, sitting with their tongues out and their heads on one side, listening attentively75 as though they were two auditors76 in bankruptcy.
Hurstmanceaux listened also in an unsympathetic silence which to his companions seemed to bode77 no good to themselves. There was nothing new in the relation; debts have seven-leagued boots, as everyone knows, and people who spend a few thousands every year in railway journeys, but do not pay their tailor, shoemaker, and greengrocer, realize this with unpleasant frequency. Then there were debts of honor in all directions, these being the only form of honor which was left to the delinquents78 as Hurstmanceaux thought, but charitably forebode to say.
He looked at his sister whilst she spoke79, admiring her appearance whilst he scarcely attended to her words because he knew their import beforehand so painfully well. What a terribly expensive animal was a modern woman of the world! As costly as an ironclad and as complicated as a theatrophone. The loveliest product of an entirely artificial state, but the most ruinous, and the most irritating to those whom she ruined.
He told himself that Daddy Gwyllian had been entirely right. And he hardened his heart against this beautiful apparition80 which with dewy lips, perfumed hair, and a delicious suggestion of a nymph fresh from a waterbrook, stood before him in that charming attitude of contrition[233] and candor81 with which from her nursery days he had always known her tell her very largest lies.
“So all the dirt you’ve eaten hasn’t done you any good,” he said curtly, after some minutes of silence.
“What can you possibly mean?” said Mouse.
“We can’t bleed Billy every day,” he murmured in an explanatory tone.
“You seem to think you can bleed your father and myself whenever you please,” said Hurstmanceaux in his most incisive84 tones.
His wife looked with impatience86 at the clock, for she had appointments which were agreeable.
“Really, I think we’ve told you everything,” she said to her brother. “It is not nice of you to insult us in our troubles, but I am sure you mean to help us in the end, don’t you, Ronnie?”
“I am extremely sorry,” said Hurstmanceaux. “But it is wholly out of my power to help you this time. Your debts are enormous. The only possible chance for you is to give up London life, and life in the world altogether, and go and retrench in the country. Why not at Black Hazel? It would be admirable for the children; and your creditors, if they knew you were really economizing87, could probably be induced to wait. I see no other prospect possible.”
“Don’t be a fool, Ronald,” said his sister curtly, throwing her handkerchief rolled in a ball to the dogs.
Her husband stared through his eye-glass. “Ah—er—I thought you would make some practical suggestion; something feasible, you know!”
Hurstmanceaux frowned.
“So I do. When people are in your position they always withdraw to their Black Hazel or whatever their retreat is called. They don’t go on living in the world. Black Hazel is a delightful88 place. It will be much better than a second floor in Florence, or a boarding house in[234] Dresden, which many people come to who are in your plight89.”
His sister looked at her watch.
“My dear Ronald, I have no more time to spare you,” she said rather insolently90. “And if you can suggest nothing more sensible than a second floor in Florence, or a bog91 in Ireland, I shall lose little by not hearing anything more that you may have to say.”
“I have given you my opinion and my advice,” said Hurstmanceaux stiffly. “You can live at Black Hazel tolerably well, and in a way becoming your position; the air is very fine and the children will thrive admirably. But if you persist in continuing your present rate of expenditure——”
His sister opened the door and disappeared, calling the Blenheims with her.
“Lord, excuse me, Ronnie, but why do you talk that rot?” said her husband, peering up through his glasses at his brother-in-law. “What on earth is the use of going on in that way to her? Out o’ London? Down in the west of Ireland? Your sister and me? Oh, Lord!”
“Black Hazel! Mouse and I and her chicks at Black Hazel! Oh, good Lord, Ronnie! You won’t beat that if you try for a week o’ Sundays!”
He chuckled feebly but merrily.
“What is there to laugh at?” said Hurstmanceaux. “Is the Bankruptcy Court more agreeable than a country place which is your own and where you will be your own master?”
But Cocky continued to laugh convulsively, holding his side and coughing.
From his great height Hurstmanceaux looked down in scorn on the speaker.
“Pray,” he said coldly, “do you ever ask how your wife gets the ready money she has to carry on with?”
Kenilworth shook his head.
“Not I. Mutual93 what do-ye-call it and non-interference is the only sound basis for domestic peace.”
He spoke with an expression of implicit94 seriousness and[235] good faith; only his left eye winked95 knowingly, as if he had said something very amusing indeed. Hurstmanceaux wondered if it would be within decent manners to kick one’s brother-in-law on his own hearth.
“You are an unutterable scoundrel, Cocky,” he said, with an effort mastering his impulse to use acts instead of words.
Kenilworth remained unmoved.
“That’s libel. A beak96 would fine you a fiver for it,” he said placidly97. “Do you happen to have got a fiver about you?”
“Go and ask Brancepeth for one,” said Hurstmanceaux, white with rage.
“Oh, Lord!” said the other innocently. “I’ve had his last ages ago. He is a very poor devil is Harry, a very poor devil, else we shouldn’t be in this strait.”
Hurstmanceaux approached him so closely that Cocky, whose nerves were shaken by much absinthe and angostura, trembled.
“I would sooner my sister were on the pavement of the Haymarket than that she were the wife of such a cur as you.”
Cocky breathed more freely.
“That is a very exaggerated remark,” he murmured. “You are so very stagy, my dear Ronald, so very stagy. You should have lived a century or two ago.”
“I am ashamed to be of the same generation as yourself,” said Hurstmanceaux sternly. “Great heavens, man! You come of a good stock; you will be chief of a great house; your father is a gentleman in every fibre of his being; how can you endure to live as you do with your very name a by-word for the cabmen in the street? There is not a servant in your house, not a match-seller on your area steps, not a stableboy in your mews, who does not know the dishonor which you alone affect to ignore! She is my sister, I am ashamed to say; but I can do nothing with her so long as you, her husband, condone98 and countenance99 what she does. You have every power; I have none. Take her to Black Hazel, sacrifice yourself for sake of your children, shut yourself up there, try and lead a cleanly life and make her lead an honest one.[236] Cease to be the miserable100 thing you are—a diseased maggot living on putrefaction101?”
Kenilworth listened imperturbably102. To be likened to a diseased maggot did not distress103 him; it slightly diverted him in its appositeness.
“The children?” he said softly and slowly. “You really think I ought to consider those children?”
His pale, expressionless grey eyes, becoming suddenly full of unutterable depth of expression, looked up into his brother-in-law’s and said volumes without words.
Hurstmanceaux grew red to the roots of his bright curly hair. After all, the woman spoken of, if this man’s wife, was his own sister, his favorite sister, the little one whom he had carried about in his arms when a boy, up and down the tapestried104 galleries and the oak staircases of the dear old house at Faldon.
Kenilworth saw that emotion and despised it, but thought he would profit by it and do a bit of dignity.
“My dear Ronnie,” he said almost seriously, “if I had married another sort of woman than your sister Clare, I might have become a different sort of man. It is not likely; still, it is possible. But, you may believe me, if she had married the best man under heaven, she would have been just exactly what she is. Sages105 and angels wouldn’t alter her. Don’t you fret yourself about us. We aren’t worth it—I grant that. We are of our time, and we shall get along somehow. Ta-ta, Ronnie; you are a good boy. Be grateful that I am what I am; if I were like you, vieux jeu, what a bother I should have made for our respective families long ago in the D. C.”
And with a low complacent106 chuckle82 at having got the best of the argument, he dived under his seat for his hat, glanced at the clock, and, with an apologetic gesture of two fingers, left Hurstmanceaux alone in the morning-room with the chinoiseries and nipponiséries.
“Now his conscience will work and make him miserable,” he thought, as he went across the hall with satisfaction. “After all, I said the truth, and he knows it is the truth. She is his sister, and she’s a bad a lot as there is in London, and he’ll feel he owes me something, and he’ll come down handsomely, stingy old bloke though he is. What[237] duffers those sentiment men always are to be sure. How neat I handled him. Gad107, if he didn’t blush like a girl!”
And Cocky stepped lightly down Park Lane to Hamilton Place and entered the Bachelors Club “fancying himself very much,” as he would have expressed it; and quite aware that his strategy would end sooner or later in an interview more or less agreeable to his interests between his own lawyers and those of his brother-in-law.
点击收听单词发音
1 maidens | |
处女( maiden的名词复数 ); 少女; 未婚女子; (板球运动)未得分的一轮投球 | |
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2 friezes | |
n.(柱顶过梁和挑檐间的)雕带,(墙顶的)饰带( frieze的名词复数 ) | |
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3 flirting | |
v.调情,打情骂俏( flirt的现在分词 ) | |
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4 harry | |
vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼 | |
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5 unwilling | |
adj.不情愿的 | |
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6 crammed | |
adj.塞满的,挤满的;大口地吃;快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满;填入;临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
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7 zest | |
n.乐趣;滋味,风味;兴趣 | |
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8 killing | |
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财 | |
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9 disapproved | |
v.不赞成( disapprove的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10 subscribed | |
v.捐助( subscribe的过去式和过去分词 );签署,题词;订阅;同意 | |
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11 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
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12 binds | |
v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 );装订;捆绑;(用长布条)缠绕 | |
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13 fret | |
v.(使)烦恼;(使)焦急;(使)腐蚀,(使)磨损 | |
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14 crumpled | |
adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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15 unpaid | |
adj.未付款的,无报酬的 | |
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16 curtly | |
adv.简短地 | |
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17 splice | |
v.接合,衔接;n.胶接处,粘接处 | |
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18 odiously | |
Odiously | |
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19 odious | |
adj.可憎的,讨厌的 | |
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20 creditors | |
n.债权人,债主( creditor的名词复数 ) | |
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21 prudent | |
adj.谨慎的,有远见的,精打细算的 | |
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22 impoverishing | |
v.使(某人)贫穷( impoverish的现在分词 );使(某物)贫瘠或恶化 | |
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23 gratitude | |
adj.感激,感谢 | |
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24 scruple | |
n./v.顾忌,迟疑 | |
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25 eldest | |
adj.最年长的,最年老的 | |
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26 bankruptcy | |
n.破产;无偿付能力 | |
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27 conscientious | |
adj.审慎正直的,认真的,本着良心的 | |
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28 tongs | |
n.钳;夹子 | |
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29 retrench | |
v.节省,削减 | |
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30 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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31 sublime | |
adj.崇高的,伟大的;极度的,不顾后果的 | |
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32 thickets | |
n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 );丛状物 | |
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33 cork | |
n.软木,软木塞 | |
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34 expenditure | |
n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出;使用,消耗 | |
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35 expedient | |
adj.有用的,有利的;n.紧急的办法,权宜之计 | |
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36 innocence | |
n.无罪;天真;无害 | |
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37 quail | |
n.鹌鹑;vi.畏惧,颤抖 | |
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38 enumerated | |
v.列举,枚举,数( enumerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39 mare | |
n.母马,母驴 | |
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40 reverting | |
恢复( revert的现在分词 ); 重提; 回到…上; 归还 | |
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41 unreasonable | |
adj.不讲道理的,不合情理的,过度的 | |
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42 extravagant | |
adj.奢侈的;过分的;(言行等)放肆的 | |
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43 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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44 frankly | |
adv.坦白地,直率地;坦率地说 | |
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45 ominous | |
adj.不祥的,不吉的,预兆的,预示的 | |
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46 chronic | |
adj.(疾病)长期未愈的,慢性的;极坏的 | |
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47 dilemma | |
n.困境,进退两难的局面 | |
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48 costly | |
adj.昂贵的,价值高的,豪华的 | |
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49 aquiline | |
adj.钩状的,鹰的 | |
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50 impending | |
a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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51 prominence | |
n.突出;显著;杰出;重要 | |
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52 forgery | |
n.伪造的文件等,赝品,伪造(行为) | |
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53 frail | |
adj.身体虚弱的;易损坏的 | |
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54 orchids | |
n.兰花( orchid的名词复数 ) | |
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55 hearth | |
n.壁炉炉床,壁炉地面 | |
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56 glum | |
adj.闷闷不乐的,阴郁的 | |
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57 brute | |
n.野兽,兽性 | |
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58 salvation | |
n.(尤指基督)救世,超度,拯救,解困 | |
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59 uncommon | |
adj.罕见的,非凡的,不平常的 | |
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60 scampered | |
v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑,惊惶奔跑( scamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61 disapproval | |
n.反对,不赞成 | |
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62 shrill | |
adj.尖声的;刺耳的;v尖叫 | |
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63 dexterity | |
n.(手的)灵巧,灵活 | |
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64 warfare | |
n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突 | |
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65 fragrance | |
n.芬芳,香味,香气 | |
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66 frayed | |
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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67 bickering | |
v.争吵( bicker的现在分词 );口角;(水等)作潺潺声;闪烁 | |
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68 prospect | |
n.前景,前途;景色,视野 | |
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69 compassionate | |
adj.有同情心的,表示同情的 | |
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70 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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71 recital | |
n.朗诵,独奏会,独唱会 | |
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72 plunged | |
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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73 narrative | |
n.叙述,故事;adj.叙事的,故事体的 | |
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74 woes | |
困境( woe的名词复数 ); 悲伤; 我好苦哇; 某人就要倒霉 | |
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75 attentively | |
adv.聚精会神地;周到地;谛;凝神 | |
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76 auditors | |
n.审计员,稽核员( auditor的名词复数 );(大学课程的)旁听生 | |
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77 bode | |
v.预示 | |
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78 delinquents | |
n.(尤指青少年)有过失的人,违法的人( delinquent的名词复数 ) | |
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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 | |
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80 apparition | |
n.幽灵,神奇的现象 | |
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81 candor | |
n.坦白,率真 | |
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82 chuckle | |
vi./n.轻声笑,咯咯笑 | |
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83 chuckled | |
轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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84 incisive | |
adj.敏锐的,机敏的,锋利的,切入的 | |
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85 candidly | |
adv.坦率地,直率而诚恳地 | |
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86 impatience | |
n.不耐烦,急躁 | |
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87 economizing | |
v.节省,减少开支( economize的现在分词 ) | |
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88 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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89 plight | |
n.困境,境况,誓约,艰难;vt.宣誓,保证,约定 | |
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90 insolently | |
adv.自豪地,自傲地 | |
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91 bog | |
n.沼泽;室...陷入泥淖 | |
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92 tickled | |
(使)发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 ); (使)愉快,逗乐 | |
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93 mutual | |
adj.相互的,彼此的;共同的,共有的 | |
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94 implicit | |
a.暗示的,含蓄的,不明晰的,绝对的 | |
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95 winked | |
v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 );递眼色(表示友好或高兴等);(指光)闪烁;闪亮 | |
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96 beak | |
n.鸟嘴,茶壶嘴,钩形鼻 | |
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97 placidly | |
adv.平稳地,平静地 | |
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98 condone | |
v.宽恕;原谅 | |
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99 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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100 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
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101 putrefaction | |
n.腐坏,腐败 | |
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102 imperturbably | |
adv.泰然地,镇静地,平静地 | |
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103 distress | |
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛 | |
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104 tapestried | |
adj.饰挂绣帷的,织在绣帷上的v.用挂毯(或绣帷)装饰( tapestry的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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105 sages | |
n.圣人( sage的名词复数 );智者;哲人;鼠尾草(可用作调料) | |
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106 complacent | |
adj.自满的;自鸣得意的 | |
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107 gad | |
n.闲逛;v.闲逛 | |
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