The July sun enclosed in a ring of fire the ilex grove1 of a villa2 in the hills near Siena.
Below, by the roadside, the long yellow house seemed to waver and palpitate in the glare; but steep by steep, behind it, the cool ilex-dusk mounted to the ledge3 where Ralph Marvell, stretched on his back in the grass, lay gazing up at a black reticulation of branches between which bits of sky gleamed with the hardness and brilliancy of blue enamel4.
Up there too the air was thick with heat; but compared with the white fire below it was a dim and tempered warmth, like that of the churches in which he and Undine sometimes took refuge at the height of the torrid days.
Ralph loved the heavy Italian summer, as he had loved the light spring days leading up to it: the long line of dancing days that had drawn5 them on and on ever since they had left their ship at Naples four months earlier. Four months of beauty, changeful, inexhaustible, weaving itself about him in shapes of softness and strength; and beside him, hand in hand with him, embodying6 that spirit of shifting magic, the radiant creature through whose eyes he saw it. This was what their hastened marriage had blessed them with, giving them leisure, before summer came, to penetrate7 to remote folds of the southern mountains, to linger in the shade of Sicilian orange-groves, and finally, travelling by slow stages to the Adriatic, to reach the central hill-country where even in July they might hope for a breathable air.
To Ralph the Sienese air was not only breathable but intoxicating8. The sun, treading the earth like a vintager, drew from it heady fragrances9, crushed out of it new colours. All the values of the temperate10 landscape were reversed: the noon high-lights were whiter but the shadows had unimagined colour. On the blackness of cork11 and ilex and cypress12 lay the green and purple lustres, the coppery iridescences, of old bronze; and night after night the skies were wine-blue and bubbling with stars. Ralph said to himself that no one who had not seen Italy thus prostrate13 beneath the sun knew what secret treasures she could yield.
As he lay there, fragments of past states of emotion, fugitive14 felicities of thought and sensation, rose and floated on the surface of his thoughts. It was one of those moments when the accumulated impressions of life converge15 on heart and brain, elucidating16, enlacing each other, in a mysterious confusion of beauty. He had had glimpses of such a state before, of such mergings of the personal with the general life that one felt one's self a mere17 wave on the wild stream of being, yet thrilled with a sharper sense of individuality than can be known within the mere bounds of the actual. But now he knew the sensation in its fulness, and with it came the releasing power of language. Words were flashing like brilliant birds through the boughs18 overhead; he had but to wave his magic wand to have them flutter down to him. Only they were so beautiful up there, weaving their fantastic flights against the blue, that it was pleasanter, for the moment, to watch them and let the wand lie.
He stared up at the pattern they made till his eyes ached with excess of light; then he changed his position and looked at his wife.
Undine, near by, leaned against a gnarled tree with the slightly constrained19 air of a person unused to sylvan20 abandonments. Her beautiful back could not adapt itself to the irregularities of the tree-trunk, and she moved a little now and then in the effort to find an easier position. But her expression was serene21, and Ralph, looking up at her through drowsy22 lids, thought her face had never been more exquisite23.
"You look as cool as a wave," he said, reaching out for the hand on her knee. She let him have it, and he drew it closer, scrutinizing24 it as if it had been a bit of precious porcelain25 or ivory. It was small and soft, a mere featherweight, a puff-ball of a hand--not quick and thrilling, not a speaking hand, but one to be fondled and dressed in rings, and to leave a rosy26 blur27 in the brain. The fingers were short and tapering28, dimpled at the base, with nails as smooth as rose-leaves. Ralph lifted them one by one, like a child playing with piano-keys, but they were inelastic and did not spring back far--only far enough to show the dimples.
He turned the hand over and traced the course of its blue veins29 from the wrist to the rounding of the palm below the fingers; then he put a kiss in the warm hollow between. The upper world had vanished: his universe had shrunk to the palm of a hand. But there was no sense of diminution30. In the mystic depths whence his passion sprang, earthly dimensions were ignored and the curve of beauty was boundless31 enough to hold whatever the imagination could pour into it. Ralph had never felt more convinced of his power to write a great poem; but now it was Undine's hand which held the magic wand of expression.
She stirred again uneasily, answering his last words with a faint accent of reproach.
"I don't FEEL cool. You said there'd be a breeze up here.".
He laughed.
"You poor darling! Wasn't it ever as hot as this in Apex32?"
She withdrew her hand with a slight grimace33.
"Yes--but I didn't marry you to go back to Apex!"
Ralph laughed again; then he lifted himself on his elbow and regained34 the hand. "I wonder what you DID marry me for?"
"Mercy! It's too hot for conundrums35." She spoke36 without impatience37, but with a lassitude less joyous38 than his.
He roused himself. "Do you really mind the heat so much? We'll go, if you do."
She sat up eagerly. "Go to Switzerland, you mean?"
"Well, I hadn't taken quite as long a leap. I only meant we might drive back to Siena."
She relapsed listlessly against her tree-trunk. "Oh, Siena's hotter than this."
"We could go and sit in the cathedral--it's always cool there at sunset."
"We've sat in the cathedral at sunset every day for a week."
"Well, what do you say to stopping at Lecceto on the way? I haven't shown you Lecceto yet; and the drive back by moonlight would be glorious."
This woke her to a slight show of interest. "It might be nice--but where could we get anything to eat?"
Ralph laughed again. "I don't believe we could. You're too practical."
"Well, somebody's got to be. And the food in the hotel is too disgusting if we're not on time."
"I admit that the best of it has usually been appropriated by the extremely good-looking cavalry-officer who's so keen to know you."
Undine's face brightened. "You know he's not a Count; he's a Marquis. His name's Roviano; his palace in Rome is in the guide-books, and he speaks English beautifully. Celeste found out about him from the headwaiter," she said, with the security of one who treats of recognized values.
Marvell, sitting upright, reached lazily across the grass for his hat. "Then there's all the more reason for rushing back to defend our share." He spoke in the bantering39 tone which had become the habitual40 expression of his tenderness; but his eyes softened41 as they absorbed in a last glance the glimmering42 submarine light of the ancient grove, through which Undine's figure wavered nereid-like above him.
"You never looked your name more than you do now," he said, kneeling at her side and putting his arm about her. She smiled back a little vaguely43, as if not seizing his allusion44, and being content to let it drop into the store of unexplained references which had once stimulated45 her curiosity but now merely gave her leisure to think of other things. But her smile was no less lovely for its vagueness, and indeed, to Ralph, the loveliness was enhanced by the latent doubt. He remembered afterward46 that at that moment the cup of life seemed to brim over.
"Come, dear--here or there--it's all divine!"
In the carriage, however, she remained insensible to the soft spell of the evening, noticing only the heat and dust, and saying, as they passed under the wooded cliff of Lecceto, that they might as well have stopped there after all, since with such a headache as she felt coming on she didn't care if she dined or not. Ralph looked up yearningly47 at the long walls overhead; but Undine's mood was hardly favourable48 to communion with such scenes, and he made no attempt to stop the carriage. Instead he presently said: "If you're tired of Italy, we've got the world to choose from."
She did not speak for a moment; then she said: "It's the heat I'm tired of. Don't people generally come here earlier?"
"Yes. That's why I chose the summer: so that we could have it all to ourselves."
She tried to put a note of reasonableness into her voice. "If you'd told me we were going everywhere at the wrong time, of course I could have arranged about my clothes."
"You poor darling! Let us, by all means, go to the place where the clothes will be right: they're too beautiful to be left out of our scheme of life."
Her lips hardened. "I know you don't care how I look. But you didn't give me time to order anything before we were married, and I've got nothing but my last winter's things to wear."
Ralph smiled. Even his subjugated49 mind perceived the inconsistency of Undine's taxing him with having hastened their marriage; but her variations on the eternal feminine still enchanted50 him.
"We'll go wherever you please--you make every place the one place," he said, as if he were humouring an irresistible51 child.
"To Switzerland, then? Celeste says St. Moritz is too heavenly," exclaimed Undine, who gathered her ideas of Europe chiefly from the conversation of her experienced attendant.
"One can be cool short of the Engadine. Why not go south again--say to Capri?"
"Capri? Is that the island we saw from Naples, where the artists go?" She drew her brows together. "It would be simply awful getting there in this heat."
"Well, then, I know a little place in Switzerland where one can still get away from the crowd, and we can sit and look at a green water-fall while I lie in wait for adjectives."
Mr. Spragg's astonishment52 on learning that his son-in-law contemplated53 maintaining a household on the earnings54 of his Muse55 was still matter for pleasantry between the pair; and one of the humours of their first weeks together had consisted in picturing themselves as a primeval couple setting forth56 across a virgin57 continent and subsisting58 on the adjectives which Ralph was to trap for his epic59. On this occasion, however, his wife did not take up the joke, and he remained silent while their carriage climbed the long dusty hill to the Fontebranda gate. He had seen her face droop60 as he suggested the possibility of an escape from the crowds in Switzerland, and it came to him, with the sharpness of a knife-thrust, that a crowd was what she wanted--that she was sick to death of being alone with him.
He sat motionless, staring ahead at the red-brown walls and towers on the steep above them. After all there was nothing sudden in his discovery. For weeks it had hung on the edge of consciousness, but he had turned from it with the heart's instinctive61 clinging to the unrealities by which it lives. Even now a hundred qualifying reasons rushed to his aid. They told him it was not of himself that Undine had wearied, but only of their present way of life. He had said a moment before, without conscious exaggeration, that her presence made any place the one place; yet how willingly would he have consented to share in such a life as she was leading before their marriage? And he had to acknowledge their months of desultory62 wandering from one remote Italian hill-top to another must have seemed as purposeless to her as balls and dinners would have been to him. An imagination like his, peopled with such varied63 images and associations, fed by so many currents from the long stream of human experience, could hardly picture the bareness of the small half-lit place in which his wife's spirit fluttered. Her mind was as destitute64 of beauty and mystery as the prairie school-house in which she had been educated; and her ideals seemed to Ralph as pathetic as the ornaments65 made of corks66 and cigar-bands with which her infant hands had been taught to adorn67 it. He was beginning to understand this, and learning to adapt himself to the narrow compass of her experience. The task of opening new windows in her mind was inspiring enough to give him infinite patience; and he would not yet own to himself that her pliancy68 and variety were imitative rather than spontaneous.
Meanwhile he had no desire to sacrifice her wishes to his, and it distressed69 him that he dared not confess his real reason for avoiding the Engadine. The truth was that their funds were shrinking faster than he had expected. Mr. Spragg, after bluntly opposing their hastened marriage on the ground that he was not prepared, at such short notice, to make the necessary provision for his daughter, had shortly afterward (probably, as Undine observed to Ralph, in consequence of a lucky "turn" in the Street) met their wishes with all possible liberality, bestowing70 on them a wedding in conformity71 with Mrs. Spragg's ideals and up to the highest standard of Mrs. Heeny's clippings, and pledging himself to provide Undine with an income adequate to so brilliant a beginning. It was understood that Ralph, on their return, should renounce72 the law for some more paying business; but this seemed the smallest of sacrifices to make for the privilege of calling Undine his wife; and besides, he still secretly hoped that, in the interval73, his real vocation74 might declare itself in some work which would justify75 his adopting the life of letters.
He had assumed that Undine's allowance, with the addition of his own small income, would be enough to satisfy their needs. His own were few, and had always been within his means; but his wife's daily requirements, combined with her intermittent76 outbreaks of extravagance, had thrown out all his calculations, and they were already seriously exceeding their income.
If any one had prophesied77 before his marriage that he would find it difficult to tell this to Undine he would have smiled at the suggestion; and during their first days together it had seemed as though pecuniary78 questions were the last likely to be raised between them. But his marital79 education had since made strides, and he now knew that a disregard for money may imply not the willingness to get on without it but merely a blind confidence that it will somehow be provided. If Undine, like the lilies of the field, took no care, it was not because her wants were as few but because she assumed that care would be taken for her by those whose privilege it was to enable her to unite floral insouciance80 with Sheban elegance81.
She had met Ralph's first note of warning with the assurance that she "didn't mean to worry"; and her tone implied that it was his business to do so for her. He certainly wanted to guard her from this as from all other cares; he wanted also, and still more passionately82 after the topic had once or twice recurred83 between them, to guard himself from the risk of judging where he still adored. These restraints to frankness kept him silent during the remainder of the drive, and when, after dinner, Undine again complained of her headache, he let her go up to her room and wandered out into the dimly lit streets to renewed communion with his problems.
They hung on him insistently84 as darkness fell, and Siena grew vocal85 with that shrill86 diversity of sounds that breaks, on summer nights, from every cleft87 of the masonry88 in old Italian towns. Then the moon rose, unfolding depth by depth the lines of the antique land; and Ralph, leaning against an old brick parapet, and watching each silver-blue remoteness disclose itself between the dark masses of the middle distance, felt his spirit enlarged and pacified89. For the first time, as his senses thrilled to the deep touch of beauty, he asked himself if out of these floating and fugitive vibrations90 he might not build something concrete and stable, if even such dull common cares as now oppressed him might not become the motive91 power of creation. If he could only, on the spot, do something with all the accumulated spoils of the last months--something that should both put money into his pocket and harmony into the rich confusion of his spirit! "I'll write--I'll write: that must be what the whole thing means," he said to himself, with a vague clutch at some solution which should keep him a little longer hanging half-way down the steep of disenchantment.
He would have stayed on, heedless of time, to trace the ramifications92 of his idea in the complex beauty of the scene, but for the longing93 to share his mood with Undine. For the last few months every thought and sensation had been instantly transmuted94 into such emotional impulses and, though the currents of communication between himself and Undine were neither deep nor numerous, each fresh rush of feeling seemed strong enough to clear a way to her heart. He hurried back, almost breathlessly, to the inn; but even as he knocked at her door the subtle emanation of other influences seemed to arrest and chill him.
She had put out the lamp, and sat by the window in the moonlight, her head propped95 on a listless hand. As Marvell entered she turned; then, without speaking, she looked away again.
He was used to this mute reception, and had learned that it had no personal motive, but was the result of an extremely simplified social code. Mr. and Mrs. Spragg seldom spoke to each other when they met, and words of greeting seemed almost unknown to their domestic vocabulary. Marvell, at first, had fancied that his own warmth would call forth a response from his wife, who had been so quick to learn the forms of worldly intercourse96; but he soon saw that she regarded intimacy97 as a pretext98 for escaping from such forms into a total absence of expression.
To-night, however, he felt another meaning in her silence, and perceived that she intended him to feel it. He met it by silence, but of a different kind; letting his nearness speak for him as he knelt beside her and laid his cheek against hers. She seemed hardly aware of the gesture; but to that he was also used. She had never shown any repugnance99 to his tenderness, but such response as it evoked100 was remote and Ariel-like, suggesting, from the first, not so much of the recoil101 of ignorance as the coolness of the element from which she took her name.
As he pressed her to him she seemed to grow less impassive and he felt her resign herself like a tired child. He held his breath, not daring to break the spell.
At length he whispered: "I've just seen such a wonderful thing--I wish you'd been with me!"
"What sort of a thing?" She turned her head with a faint show of interest.
"A--I don't know--a vision.... It came to me out there just now with the moonrise."
"A vision?" Her interest flagged. "I never cared much about spirits. Mother used to try to drag me to seances--but they always made me sleepy."
Ralph laughed. "I don't mean a dead spirit but a living one! I saw the vision of a book I mean to do. It came to me suddenly, magnificently, swooped102 down on me as that big white moon swooped down on the black landscape, tore at me like a great white eagle-like the bird of Jove! After all, imagination WAS the eagle that devoured103 Prometheus!"
She drew away abruptly104, and the bright moonlight showed him the apprehension105 in her face. "You're not going to write a book HERE?"
He stood up and wandered away a step or two; then he turned and came back. "Of course not here. Wherever you want. The main point is that it's come to me--no, that it's come BACK to me! For it's all these months together, it's all our happiness--it's the meaning of life that I've found, and it's you, dearest, you who've given it to me!"
He dropped down beside her again; but she disengaged herself and he heard a little sob106 in her throat.
"Undine--what's the matter?"
"Nothing...I don't know...I suppose I'm homesick..."
"Homesick? You poor darling! You're tired of travelling? What is it?"
"I don't know...I don't like Europe...it's not what I expected, and I think it's all too dreadfully dreary107!" The words broke from her in a long wail108 of rebellion.
Marvell gazed at her perplexedly. It seemed strange that such unguessed thoughts should have been stirring in the heart pressed to his. "It's less interesting than you expected--or less amusing? Is that it?"
"It's dirty and ugly--all the towns we've been to are disgustingly dirty. I loathe109 the smells and the beggars. I'm sick and tired of the stuffy110 rooms in the hotels. I thought it would all be so splendid--but New York's ever so much nicer!"
"Not New York in July?"
"I don't care--there are the roof-gardens, anyway; and there are always people round. All these places seem as if they were dead. It's all like some awful cemetery111."
A sense of compunction checked Marvell's laughter. "Don't cry, dear--don't! I see, I understand. You're lonely and the heat has tired you out. It IS dull here; awfully112 dull; I've been stupid not to feel it. But we'll start at once--we'll get out of it."
She brightened instantly. "We'll go up to Switzerland?"
"We'll go up to Switzerland." He had a fleeting113 glimpse of the quiet place with the green water-fall, where he might have made tryst114 with his vision; then he turned his mind from it and said: "We'll go just where you want. How soon can you be ready to start?"
"Oh, to-morrow--the first thing to-morrow! I'll make Celeste get out of bed now and pack. Can we go right through to St. Moritz? I'd rather sleep in the train than in another of these awful places."
She was on her feet in a flash, her face alight, her hair waving and floating about her as though it rose on her happy heart-beats.
"Oh, Ralph, it's SWEET of you, and I love you!" she cried out, letting him take her to his breast.
1 grove | |
n.林子,小树林,园林 | |
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2 villa | |
n.别墅,城郊小屋 | |
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3 ledge | |
n.壁架,架状突出物;岩架,岩礁 | |
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4 enamel | |
n.珐琅,搪瓷,瓷釉;(牙齿的)珐琅质 | |
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5 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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6 embodying | |
v.表现( embody的现在分词 );象征;包括;包含 | |
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7 penetrate | |
v.透(渗)入;刺入,刺穿;洞察,了解 | |
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8 intoxicating | |
a. 醉人的,使人兴奋的 | |
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9 fragrances | |
n.芳香,香味( fragrance的名词复数 );香水 | |
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10 temperate | |
adj.温和的,温带的,自我克制的,不过分的 | |
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11 cork | |
n.软木,软木塞 | |
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12 cypress | |
n.柏树 | |
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13 prostrate | |
v.拜倒,平卧,衰竭;adj.拜倒的,平卧的,衰竭的 | |
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14 fugitive | |
adj.逃亡的,易逝的;n.逃犯,逃亡者 | |
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15 converge | |
vi.会合;聚集,集中;(思想、观点等)趋近 | |
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16 elucidating | |
v.阐明,解释( elucidate的现在分词 ) | |
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17 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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18 boughs | |
大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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19 constrained | |
adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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20 sylvan | |
adj.森林的 | |
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21 serene | |
adj. 安详的,宁静的,平静的 | |
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22 drowsy | |
adj.昏昏欲睡的,令人发困的 | |
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23 exquisite | |
adj.精美的;敏锐的;剧烈的,感觉强烈的 | |
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24 scrutinizing | |
v.仔细检查,详审( scrutinize的现在分词 ) | |
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25 porcelain | |
n.瓷;adj.瓷的,瓷制的 | |
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26 rosy | |
adj.美好的,乐观的,玫瑰色的 | |
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27 blur | |
n.模糊不清的事物;vt.使模糊,使看不清楚 | |
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28 tapering | |
adj.尖端细的 | |
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29 veins | |
n.纹理;矿脉( vein的名词复数 );静脉;叶脉;纹理 | |
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30 diminution | |
n.减少;变小 | |
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31 boundless | |
adj.无限的;无边无际的;巨大的 | |
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32 apex | |
n.顶点,最高点 | |
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33 grimace | |
v.做鬼脸,面部歪扭 | |
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34 regained | |
复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 ); 赢回; 重回; 复至某地 | |
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35 conundrums | |
n.谜,猜不透的难题,难答的问题( conundrum的名词复数 ) | |
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36 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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37 impatience | |
n.不耐烦,急躁 | |
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38 joyous | |
adj.充满快乐的;令人高兴的 | |
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39 bantering | |
adj.嘲弄的v.开玩笑,说笑,逗乐( banter的现在分词 );(善意地)取笑,逗弄 | |
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40 habitual | |
adj.习惯性的;通常的,惯常的 | |
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41 softened | |
(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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42 glimmering | |
n.微光,隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光,发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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43 vaguely | |
adv.含糊地,暖昧地 | |
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44 allusion | |
n.暗示,间接提示 | |
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45 stimulated | |
a.刺激的 | |
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46 afterward | |
adv.后来;以后 | |
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47 yearningly | |
怀念地,思慕地,同情地; 渴 | |
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48 favourable | |
adj.赞成的,称赞的,有利的,良好的,顺利的 | |
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49 subjugated | |
v.征服,降伏( subjugate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50 enchanted | |
adj. 被施魔法的,陶醉的,入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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51 irresistible | |
adj.非常诱人的,无法拒绝的,无法抗拒的 | |
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52 astonishment | |
n.惊奇,惊异 | |
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53 contemplated | |
adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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54 earnings | |
n.工资收人;利润,利益,所得 | |
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55 muse | |
n.缪斯(希腊神话中的女神),创作灵感 | |
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56 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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57 virgin | |
n.处女,未婚女子;adj.未经使用的;未经开发的 | |
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58 subsisting | |
v.(靠很少的钱或食物)维持生活,生存下去( subsist的现在分词 ) | |
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59 epic | |
n.史诗,叙事诗;adj.史诗般的,壮丽的 | |
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60 droop | |
v.低垂,下垂;凋萎,萎靡 | |
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61 instinctive | |
adj.(出于)本能的;直觉的;(出于)天性的 | |
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62 desultory | |
adj.散漫的,无方法的 | |
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63 varied | |
adj.多样的,多变化的 | |
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64 destitute | |
adj.缺乏的;穷困的 | |
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65 ornaments | |
n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 );点缀;装饰品;首饰v.装饰,点缀,美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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66 corks | |
n.脐梅衣;软木( cork的名词复数 );软木塞 | |
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67 adorn | |
vt.使美化,装饰 | |
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68 pliancy | |
n.柔软,柔顺 | |
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69 distressed | |
痛苦的 | |
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70 bestowing | |
砖窑中砖堆上层已烧透的砖 | |
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71 conformity | |
n.一致,遵从,顺从 | |
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72 renounce | |
v.放弃;拒绝承认,宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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73 interval | |
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
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74 vocation | |
n.职业,行业 | |
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75 justify | |
vt.证明…正当(或有理),为…辩护 | |
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76 intermittent | |
adj.间歇的,断断续续的 | |
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77 prophesied | |
v.预告,预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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78 pecuniary | |
adj.金钱的;金钱上的 | |
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79 marital | |
adj.婚姻的,夫妻的 | |
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80 insouciance | |
n.漠不关心 | |
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81 elegance | |
n.优雅;优美,雅致;精致,巧妙 | |
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82 passionately | |
ad.热烈地,激烈地 | |
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83 recurred | |
再发生,复发( recur的过去式和过去分词 ); 治愈 | |
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84 insistently | |
ad.坚持地 | |
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85 vocal | |
adj.直言不讳的;嗓音的;n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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86 shrill | |
adj.尖声的;刺耳的;v尖叫 | |
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87 cleft | |
n.裂缝;adj.裂开的 | |
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88 masonry | |
n.砖土建筑;砖石 | |
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89 pacified | |
使(某人)安静( pacify的过去式和过去分词 ); 息怒; 抚慰; 在(有战争的地区、国家等)实现和平 | |
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90 vibrations | |
n.摆动( vibration的名词复数 );震动;感受;(偏离平衡位置的)一次性往复振动 | |
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91 motive | |
n.动机,目的;adv.发动的,运动的 | |
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92 ramifications | |
n.结果,后果( ramification的名词复数 ) | |
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93 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
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94 transmuted | |
v.使变形,使变质,把…变成…( transmute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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95 propped | |
支撑,支持,维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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96 intercourse | |
n.性交;交流,交往,交际 | |
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97 intimacy | |
n.熟悉,亲密,密切关系,亲昵的言行 | |
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98 pretext | |
n.借口,托词 | |
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99 repugnance | |
n.嫌恶 | |
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100 evoked | |
[医]诱发的 | |
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101 recoil | |
vi.退却,退缩,畏缩 | |
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102 swooped | |
俯冲,猛冲( swoop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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103 devoured | |
吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 ); 耗尽; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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104 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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105 apprehension | |
n.理解,领悟;逮捕,拘捕;忧虑 | |
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106 sob | |
n.空间轨道的轰炸机;呜咽,哭泣 | |
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107 dreary | |
adj.令人沮丧的,沉闷的,单调乏味的 | |
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108 wail | |
vt./vi.大声哀号,恸哭;呼啸,尖啸 | |
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109 loathe | |
v.厌恶,嫌恶 | |
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110 stuffy | |
adj.不透气的,闷热的 | |
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111 cemetery | |
n.坟墓,墓地,坟场 | |
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112 awfully | |
adv.可怕地,非常地,极端地 | |
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113 fleeting | |
adj.短暂的,飞逝的 | |
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114 tryst | |
n.约会;v.与…幽会 | |
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