In which a Disappointed Lover Receives a Multitude of Lessons
Dacier welted at the station, a good figure of a sentinel over his luggage and a spy for one among the inpouring passengers. Tickets had been confidently taken, the private division of the carriages happily secured. On board the boat she would be veiled. Landed on French soil, they threw off disguises, breasted the facts. And those? They lightened. He smarted with his eagerness.
He had come well in advance of the appointed time, for he would not have had her hang about there one minute alone.
Strange as this adventure was to a man of prominent station before the world, and electrical as the turning-point of a destiny that he was given to weigh deliberately1 and far-sightedly, Diana’s image strung him to the pitch of it. He looked nowhere but ahead, like an archer2 putting hand for his arrow.
Presently he compared his watch and the terminus clock. She should now be arriving. He went out to meet her and do service. Many cabs and carriages were peered into, couples inspected, ladies and their maids, wives and their husbands—an August exodus3 to the Continent. Nowhere the starry4 she. But he had a fund of patience. She was now in some block of the streets. He was sure of her, sure of her courage. Tony and recreancy5 could not go together. Now that he called her Tony, she was his close comrade, known; the name was a caress6 and a promise, breathing of her, as the rose of sweetest earth. He counted it to be a month ere his family would have wind of the altered position of his affairs, possibly a year to the day of his making the dear woman his own in the eyes of the world. She was dear past computation, womanly, yet quite unlike the womanish woman, unlike the semi-males courteously7 called dashing, unlike the sentimental8. His present passion for her lineaments, declared her surpassingly beautiful, though his critical taste was rather for the white statue that gave no warmth. She had brains and ardour, she had grace and sweetness, a playful petulancy enlivening our atmosphere, and withal a refinement9, a distinction, not to be classed; and justly might she dislike the being classed. Her humour was a perennial10 refreshment11, a running well, that caught all the colours of light; her wit studded the heavens of the recollection of her. In his heart he felt that it was a stepping down for the brilliant woman to give him her hand; a condescension13 and an act of valour. She who always led or prompted when they conversed14, had now in her generosity15 abandoned the lead and herself to him, and she deserved his utmost honouring.
But where was she? He looked at his watch, looked at the clock. They said the same: ten minutes to the moment of the train’s departure.
A man may still afford to dwell on the charms and merits of his heart’s mistress while he has ten minutes to spare. The dropping minutes, however, detract one by one from her individuality and threaten to sink her in her sex entirely16. It is the inexorable clock that says she is as other women. Dacier began to chafe17. He was unaccustomed to the part he was performing:—and if she failed him? She would not. She would be late, though. No, she was in time! His long legs crossed the platform to overtake a tall lady veiled and dressed in black. He lifted his hat; he heard an alarmed little cry and retired18. The clock said, Five minutes: a secret chiromancy19 in addition indicating on its face the word Fool. An odd word to be cast at him! It rocked the icy pillar of pride in the background of his nature. Certainly standing20 solos at the hour of eight P.M., he would stand for a fool. Hitherto he had never allowed a woman to chance to posture21 him in that character. He strode out, returned, scanned every lady’s shape, and for a distraction22 watched the veiled lady whom he had accosted23. Her figure suggested pleasant features. Either she was disappointed or she was an adept24. At the shutting of the gates she glided25 through, not without a fearful look around and at him. She disappeared. Dacier shrugged26. His novel assimilation to the rat-rabble of amatory intriguers tapped him on the shoulder unpleasantly. A luckless member of the fraternity too! The bell, the clock and the train gave him his title. ‘And I was ready to fling down everything for the woman!’ The trial of a superb London gentleman’s resources in the love-passion could not have been much keener. No sign of her.
He who stands ready to defy the world, and is baffled by the absence of his fair assistant, is the fool doubled, so completely the fool that he heads the universal shout; he does not spare himself. The sole consolation27 he has is to revile28 the sex. Women! women! Whom have they not made a fool of! His uncle as much as any—and professing29 to know them. Him also! the man proud of escaping their wiles30. ‘For this woman...!’ he went on saying after he had lost sight of her in her sex’s trickeries. The nearest he could get to her was to conceive that the arrant31 coquette was now laughing at her utter subjugation32 and befooling of the man popularly supposed invincible33. If it were known of him! The idea of his being a puppet fixed34 for derision was madly distempering. He had only to ask the affirmative of Constance Asper tomorrow! A vision of his determination to do it, somewhat comforted him.
Dacier walked up and down the platform, passing his pile of luggage, solitary35 and eloquent36 on the barrow. Never in his life having been made to look a fool, he felt the red heat of the thing, as a man who has not blessedly become acquainted with the swish in boyhood finds his untempered blood turn to poison at a blow; he cannot healthily take a licking. But then it had been so splendid an insanity37 when he urged Diana to fly with him. Any one but a woman would have appreciated the sacrifice.
His luggage had to be removed. He dropped his porter a lordly fee and drove home. From that astonished solitude38 he strolled to his Club. Curiosity mastering the wrath39 it was mixed with, he left his Club and crossed the park southward in the direction of Diana’s house, abusing her for her inveterate40 attachment41 to the regions of Westminster. There she used to receive Lord Dannisburgh; innocently, no doubt-assuredly quite innocently; and her husband had quitted the district. Still it was rather childish for a woman to-be always haunting the seats of Parliament. Her disposition42 to imagine that she was able to inspire statesmen came in for a share of ridicule43; for when we know ourselves to be ridiculous, a retort in kind, unjust upon consideration, is balm. The woman dragged him down to the level of common men; that was the peculiar44 injury, and it swept her undistinguished into the stream of women. In appearance, as he had proved to the fellows at his Club, he was perfectly45 self-possessed, mentally distracted and bitter, hating himself for it, snapping at the cause of it. She had not merely disappointed, she had slashed47 his high conceit48 of himself, curbed49 him at the first animal dash forward, and he champed the bit with the fury of a thwarted50 racer.
Twice he passed her house. Of course no light was shown at her windows. They were scanned malignly51.
He held it due to her to call and inquire whether there was any truth in the report of Mrs. Warwick’s illness. Mrs. Warwick! She meant to keep the name.
A maid-servant came to the door with a candle in her hand revealing red eyelids52. She was not aware that her mistress was unwell. Her mistress had left home some time after six o’clock with a gentleman. She was unable to tell him the gentleman’s name. William, the footman, had opened the door to him. Her mistress’s maid Mrs. Danvers had gone to the Play—with William. She thought that Mrs. Danvers might know who the gentleman was. The girl’s eyelids blinked, and she turned aside. Dacier consoled her with a piece of gold, saying he would come and see Mrs. Danvers in the morning.
His wrath was partially53 quieted by the new speculations54 offered up to it. He could not conjure55 a suspicion of treachery in Diana Warwick; and a treachery so foully56 cynical57! She had gone with a gentleman. He guessed on all sides; he struck at walls, as in complete obscurity.
The mystery of her conduct troubling his wits for the many hours was explained by Danvers. With a sympathy that she was at pains to show, she informed him that her mistress was not at all unwell, and related of how Mr. Redworth had arrived just when her mistress was on the point of starting for Paris and the Continent; because poor Lady Dunstane was this very day to undergo an operation under the surgeons at Copsley, and she did not wish her mistress to be present, but Mr. Redworth thought her mistress ought to be there, and he had gone down thinking she was there, and then came back in hot haste to fetch her, and was just in time, as it happened, by two or three minutes.
Dacier rewarded the sympathetic woman for her intelligence, which appeared to him to have shot so far as to require a bribe58. Gratitude59 to the person soothing60 his unwontedly ruffled61 temper was the cause of the indiscretion in the amount he gave.
It appeared to him that he ought to proceed to Copsley for tidings of Lady Dunstane. Thither62 he sped by the handy railway and a timely train. He reached the parkgates at three in the afternoon, telling his flyman to wait. As he advanced by short cuts over the grass, he studied the look of the rows of windows. She was within, and strangely to his clouded senses she was no longer Tony, no longer the deceptive63 woman he could in justice abuse. He and she, so close to union, were divided. A hand resembling the palpable interposition of Fate had swept them asunder64. Having the poorest right—not any—to reproach her, he was disarmed65, he felt himself a miserable66 intruder; he summoned his passion to excuse him, and gained some unsatisfied repose67 of mind by contemplating68 its devoted69 sincerity70; which roused an effort to feel for the sufferer—Diana Warwick’s friend. With the pair of surgeons named, the most eminent71 of their day, in attendance, the case must be serious. To vindicate72 the breaker of her pledge, his present plight73 likewise assured him of that, and nearing the house he adopted instinctively74 the funeral step and mood, just sensible of a novel smallness. For the fortifying75 testimony76 of his passion had to be put aside, he was obliged to disavow it for a simpler motive78 if he applied79 at the door. He stressed the motive, produced the sentiment, and passed thus naturally into hypocrisy80, as lovers precipitated81 by their blood among the crises of human conditions are often forced to do. He had come to inquire after Lady Dunstane. He remembered that it had struck him as a duty, on hearing of her dangerous illness.
The door opened before he touched the bell. Sir Lukin knocked against him and stared.
‘Ah!—who—?—you?’ he said, and took him by the arm and pressed him on along the gravel82. ‘Dacier, are you? Redworth’s in there. Come on a step, come! It’s the time for us to pray. Good God! There’s mercy for sinners. If ever there was a man!... But, oh, good God! she’s in their hands this minute. My saint is under the knife.’
Dacier was hurried forward by a powerful hand. ‘They say it lasts about five minutes, four and a half—or more! My God! When they turned me out of her room, she smiled to keep me calm. She said: “Dear husband”: the veriest wretch83 and brutallest husband ever poor woman... and a saint! a saint on earth! Emmy!’ Tears burst from him.
He pulled forth84 his watch and asked Dacier for the time.
‘A minute’s gone in a minute. It’s three minutes and a half. Come faster. They’re at their work! It’s life or death. I’ve had death about me. But for a woman! and your wife! and that brave soul! She bears it so. Women are the bravest creatures afloat. If they make her shriek85, it’ll be only if she thinks I ‘m out of hearing. No: I see her. She bears it!—They mayn’t have begun yet. It may all be over! Come into the wood. I must pray. I must go on my knees.’
Two or three steps in the wood, at the mossed roots of a beech86, he fell kneeling, muttering, exclaiming.
The tempest of penitence87 closed with a blind look at his watch, which he left dangling88. He had to talk to drug his thoughts.
‘And mind you,’ said he, when he had rejoined Dacier and was pushing his arm again, rounding beneath the trees to a view of the house, ‘for a man steeped in damnable iniquity89! She bears it all for me, because I begged her, for the chance of her living. It’s my doing—this knife! Macpherson swears there is a chance. Thomson backs him. But they’re at her, cutting! ... The pain must be awful—the mere46 pain! The gentlest creature ever drew breath! And women fear blood—and her own! And a head! She ought to have married the best man alive, not a—! I can’t remember her once complaining of me—not once. A common donkey compared to her! All I can do is to pray. And she knows the beast I am, and has forgiven me. There isn’t a blessed text of Scripture90 that doesn’t cry out in praise of her. And they cut and hack91...!’ He dropped his head. The vehement92 big man heaved, shuddering93. His lips worked fast.
‘She is not alone with them, unsupported?’ said Dacier.
Sir Lukin moaned for relief. He caught his watch swinging and stared at it. ‘What a good fellow you were to come! Now ‘s the time to know your friends. There’s Diana Warwick, true as steel. Redworth came on her tiptoe for the Continent; he had only to mention... Emmy wanted to spare her. She would not have sent—wanted to spare her the sight. I offered to stand by... Chased me out. Diana Warwick’s there:—worth fifty of me! Dacier, I’ve had my sword-blade tried by Indian horsemen, and I know what true as steel means. She’s there. And I know she shrinks from the sight of blood. My oath on it, she won’t quiver a muscle! Next to my wife, you may take my word for it, Dacier, Diana Warwick is the pick of living women. I could prove it. They go together. I could prove it over and over. She ‘s the loyallest woman anywhere. Her one error was that marriage of hers, and how she ever pitched herself into it, none of us can guess.’ After a while, he said: ‘Look at your watch.’
‘Nearly twenty minutes gone.’
‘Are they afraid to send out word? It’s that window!’ He covered his eyes, and muttered, sighed. He became abruptly94 composed in appearance. ‘The worst of a black sheep like me is, I’m such an infernal sinner, that Providence95!... But both surgeons gave me their word of honour that there was a chance. A chance! But it’s the end of me if Emmy.... Good God! no! the knife’s enough; don’t let her be killed! It would be murder. Here am I talking! I ought to be praying. I should have sent for the parson to help me; I can’t get the proper words—bellow like a rascal96 trooper strung up for the cat. It must be twenty-five minutes now. Who’s alive now!’
Dacier thought of the Persian Queen crying for news of the slaughtered97, with her mind on her lord and husband: ‘Who is not dead?’ Diana exalted98 poets, and here was an example of the truth of one to nature, and of the poor husband’s depth of feeling. They said not the same thing, but it was the same cry de profundis.
He saw Redworth coming at a quick pace.
Redworth raised his hand. Sir Lukin stopped. ‘He’s waving!’
‘It’s good,’ said Dacier.
‘Speak! are you sure?’
‘I judge by the look.’
Redworth stepped unfalteringly.
‘It’s over, all well,’ he said. He brushed his forehead and looked sharply cheerful.
‘My dear fellow! my dear fellow!’ Sir Lukin grasped his hand. ‘It’s more than I deserve. Over? She has borne it! She would have gone to heaven and left me!
Is she safe?’
‘Doing well.’
‘Have you seen the surgeons?’
‘Mrs. Warwick.’
‘What did she say?’
‘A nod of the head.’
‘You saw her?’
‘She came to the stairs.’
‘Diana Warwick never lies. She wouldn’t lie, not with a nod! They’ve saved Emmy—do you think?’
‘It looks well.’
My girl has passed the worst of it?’
‘That’s over.’
Sir Lukin gazed glassily. The necessity of his agony was to lean to the belief, at a beckoning99, that Providence pardoned him, in tenderness for what would have been his loss. He realized it, and experienced a sudden calm: testifying to the positive pardon.
‘Now, look here, you two fellows, listen half a moment,’ he addressed Redworth and Dacier; ‘I’ve been the biggest scoundrel of a husband unhung, and married to a saint; and if she’s only saved to me; I’ll swear to serve her faithfully, or may a thunderbolt knock me to perdition! and thank God for his justice! Prayers are answered, mind you, though a fellow may be as black as a sweep. Take a warning from me. I’ve had my lesson.’
Dacier soon after talked of going. The hope of seeing Diana had abandoned him, the desire was almost extinct.
Sir Lukin could not let him go. He yearned100 to preach to him or any one from his personal text of the sinner honourably101 remorseful102 on account of and notwithstanding the forgiveness of Providence, and he implored103 Dacier and Redworth by turns to be careful when they married of how they behaved to—the sainted women their wives; never to lend ear to the devil, nor to believe, as he had done, that there is no such thing as a devil, for he had been the victim of him, and he knew. The devil, he loudly proclaimed, has a multiplicity of lures104, and none more deadly than when he baits with a petticoat. He had been hooked, and had found the devil in person. He begged them urgently to keep his example in memory. By following this and that wildfire he had stuck himself in a bog—a common result with those who would not see the devil at work upon them; and it required his dear suffering saint to be at death’s doors, cut to pieces and gasping105, to open his eyes. But, thank heaven, they were opened at last! Now he saw the beast he was: a filthy106 beast! unworthy of tying his wife’s shoestring107. No confessions108 could expose to them the beast he was. But let them not fancy there was no such thing as an active DEVIL about the world.
Redworth divined that the simply sensational109 man abased110 himself before Providence and heaped his gratitude on the awful Power in order to render it difficult for the promise of the safety of his wife to be withdrawn111.
He said: ‘There is good hope’; and drew an admonition upon himself.
‘Ah! my dear good Redworth,’ Sir Lukin sighed from his elevation112 of outspoken113 penitence: ‘you will see as I do some day. It is the devil, think as you like of it. When you have pulled down all the Institutions of the Country, what do you expect but ruins? That Radicalism115 of yours has its day. You have to go through a wrestle116 like mine to understand it. You say, the day is fine, let’s have our game. Old England pays for it! Then you’ll find how you love the old land of your birth—the noblest ever called a nation!—with your Corn Law Repeals117!—eh, Dacier?—You’ll own it was the devil tempted118 you. I hear you apologizing. Pray God, it mayn’t be too late!’
He looked up at the windows. ‘She may be sinking!’
‘Have no fears,’ Redworth said; ‘Mrs. Warwick would send for you.’
‘She would. Diana Warwick would be sure to send. Next to my wife, Diana Warwick’s... she’d send, never fear. I dread119 that room. I’d rather go through a regiment120 of sabres—though it ‘s over now. And Diana Warwick stood it. The worst is over, you told me. By heaven! women are wonderful creatures. But she hasn’t a peer for courage. I could trust her—most extraordinary thing; that marriage of hers!—not a soul has ever been able to explain it:—trust her to the death.’
Redworth left them, and Sir Lukin ejaculated on the merits of Diana Warwick to Dacier. He laughed scornfully: ‘And that’s the woman the world attacks for want of virtue121! Why, a fellow hasn’t a chance with her, not a chance. She comes out in blazing armour122 if you unmask a battery. I don’t know how it might be if she were in love with a fellow. I doubt her thinking men worth the trouble. I never met the man. But if she were to take fire, Troy ‘d be nothing to it. I wonder whether we might go in: I dread the house.’
‘No, no, wait,’ Sir Lukin begged him. ‘I was talking about women. They are the devil—or he makes most use of them: and you must learn to see the cloven foot under their petticoats, if you’re to escape them. There’s no protection in being in love with your wife; I married for love; I am, I always have been, in love with her; and I went to the deuce. The music struck up and away I waltzed. A woman like Diana Warwick might keep a fellow straight, because she,‘s all round you; she’s man and woman in brains; and legged like a deer, and breasted like a swan, and a regular sheaf of arrows—in her eyes. Dark women—ah! But she has a contempt for us, you know. That’s the secret of her.—Redworth ‘s at the door. Bad? Is it bad? I never was particularly fond of that house—hated it. I love it now for Emmy’s sake. I couldn’t live in another—though I should be haunted. Rather her ghost than nothing—though I’m an infernal coward about the next world. But if you’re right with religion you needn’t fear. What I can’t comprehend in Redworth is his Radicalism, and getting richer and richer.’
‘It’s not a vow77 of poverty,’ said Dacier.
‘He’ll find they don’t coalesce123, or his children will. Once the masses are uppermost! It’s a bad day, Dacier, when we’ve no more gentlemen in the land. Emmy backs him, so I hold my tongue. To-morrow’s a Sunday. I wish you were staying here; I ‘d take you to church with me-we shirk it when we haven’t a care. It couldn’t do you harm. I’ve heard capital sermons. I’ve always had the good habit of going to church, Dacier. Now ‘s the time for remembering them. Ah, my dear fellow, I ‘m not a parson. It would have been better for me if I had been.’
And for you too! his look added plainly. He longed to preach; he was impelled124 to chatter125.
Redworth reported the patient perfectly quiet, breathing calmly.
‘Laudanum?’ asked Sir Lukin. ‘Now there’s a poison we’ve got to bless! And we set up in our wisdom for knowing what is good for us!’
He had talked his hearers into a stupefied assent126 to anything he uttered.
‘Mrs. Warwick would like to see you in two or three minutes; she will come down,’ Redworth said to Dacier.
‘That looks well, eh? That looks bravely,’ Sir Lukin cried. ‘Diana, Warwick wouldn’t leave the room without a certainty. I dread the look of those men; I shall have to shake their hands! And so I do, with all my heart: only—But God bless them! But we must go in, if she’s coming down.’
They entered the house, and sat in the drawing-room, where Sir Lukin took up from the table one of his wife’s Latin books, a Persius, bearing her marginal notes. He dropped his head on it, with sobs127.
The voice of Diana recalled him to the present. She counselled him to control himself; in that case he might for one moment go to the chamber-door and assure himself by the silence that his wife was resting. She brought permission from the surgeons and doctor, on his promise to be still.
Redworth supported Sir Lukin tottering128 out.
Dacier had risen. He was petrified129 by Diana’s face, and thought of her as whirled from him in a storm, bearing the marks of it. Her underlip hung for short breaths; the big drops of her recent anguish130 still gathered on her brows; her eyes were tearless, lustreless131; she looked ancient in youth, and distant by a century, like a tall woman of the vaults132, issuing white-ringed, not of our light.
She shut her mouth for strength to speak to him.
He said: ‘You are not ill? You are strong?’
‘I? Oh, strong. I will sit. I cannot be absent longer than two minutes. The trial of her strength is to come. If it were courage, we might be sure. The day is fine?’
‘A perfect August day.’
‘I held her through it. I am thankful to heaven it was no other hand than mine. She wished to spare me. She was glad of her Tony when the time came. I thought I was a coward—I could have changed with her to save her; I am a strong woman, fit to submit to that work. I should not have borne it as she did. She expected to sink under it. All her dispositions133 were made for death-bequests to servants and to... to friends: every secret liking134 they had, thought of!’
‘I hope!’ Dacier said.
‘You shall hear regularly. Call at Sir William’s house tomorrow. He sleeps here to-night. The suspense136 must last for days. It is a question of vital power to bear the shock. She has a mind so like a flying spirit that, just before the moment, she made Mr. Lanyan Thomson smile by quoting some saying of her Tony’s.’
‘Try by-and-by to recollect12 it,’ said Dacier.
‘And you were with that poor man! How did he pass the terrible time? I pitied him.’
‘He suffered; he prayed.’
‘It was the best he could do. Mr. Redworth was as he always is at the trial, a pillar. Happy the friend who knows him for one! He never thinks of himself in a crisis. He is sheer strength to comfort and aid. They will drive you to the station with Mr. Thomson. He returns to relieve Sir William tomorrow. I have learnt to admire the men of the knife! No profession equals theirs in self-command and beneficence. Dr. Bridgenorth is permanent here.’
‘I have a fly, and go back immediately,’ said Dacier.
‘She shall hear of your coming. Adieu.’
Diana gave him her hand. It was gently pressed.
A wonderment at the utter change of circumstances took Dacier passingly at the sight of her vanishing figure.
He left the house, feeling he dared have no personal wishes. It had ceased to be the lover’s hypocrisy with him.
The crisis of mortal peril137 in that house enveloped138 its inmates139, and so wrought140 in him as to enshroud the stripped outcrying husband, of whom he had no clear recollection, save of the man’s agony. The two women, striving against death, devoted in friendship, were the sole living images he brought away; they were a new vision of the world and our life.
He hoped with Diana, bled with her. She rose above him high, beyond his transient human claims. He envied Redworth the common friendly right to be near her. In reflection, long after, her simplicity141 of speech, washed pure of the blood-emotions, for token of her great nature, during those two minutes of their sitting together, was, dearer, sweeter to the lover than if she had shown by touch or word that a faint allusion142 to their severance143 was in her mind; and this despite a certain vacancy144 it created.
He received formal information of Lady Dunstane’s progress to convalescence145. By degrees the simply official tone of Diana’s letters combined with the ceasing of them and the absence of her personal charm to make a gentleman not remarkable146 for violence in the passion so calmly reasonable as to think the dangerous presence best avoided for a time. Subject to fits of the passion, he certainly was, but his position in the world was a counselling spouse147, jealous of his good name. He did not regret his proposal to take the leap; he would not have regretted it if taken. On the safe side of the abyss, however, it wore a gruesome look to his cool blood.
收听单词发音 |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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archer
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| n.射手，弓箭手 | |
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exodus
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| v.大批离去，成群外出 | |
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starry
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| adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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recreancy
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| n.胆小；怯懦；不忠；变节 | |
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caress
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| vt./n.爱抚，抚摸 | |
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courteously
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| adv.有礼貌地，亲切地 | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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perennial
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| adj.终年的；长久的 | |
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refreshment
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| n.恢复，精神爽快，提神之事物；（复数）refreshments:点心，茶点 | |
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recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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condescension
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| n.自以为高人一等，贬低(别人) | |
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conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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chafe
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| v.擦伤；冲洗；惹怒 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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chiromancy
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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22
distraction
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| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
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accosted
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| v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的过去式和过去分词 )；跟…搭讪；（乞丐等）上前向…乞讨；（妓女等）勾搭 | |
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24
adept
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| adj.老练的，精通的 | |
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25
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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26
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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27
consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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28
revile
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| v.辱骂，谩骂 | |
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29
professing
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| 声称( profess的现在分词 )； 宣称； 公开表明； 信奉 | |
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30
wiles
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| n.（旨在欺骗或吸引人的）诡计，花招；欺骗，欺诈( wile的名词复数 ) | |
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31
arrant
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| adj.极端的；最大的 | |
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32
subjugation
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| n.镇压，平息，征服 | |
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33
invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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34
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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35
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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36
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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37
insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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38
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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39
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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40
inveterate
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| adj.积习已深的，根深蒂固的 | |
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41
attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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42
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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43
ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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44
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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45
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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46
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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47
slashed
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| v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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48
conceit
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| n.自负，自高自大 | |
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49
curbed
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| v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
thwarted
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| 阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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51
malignly
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| 污蔑，诽谤； 中伤，说坏话 | |
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52
eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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53
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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54
speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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55
conjure
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| v.恳求，祈求；变魔术，变戏法 | |
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56
foully
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| ad.卑鄙地 | |
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57
cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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58
bribe
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| n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通 | |
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59
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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60
soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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61
ruffled
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| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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62
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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63
deceptive
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| adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的 | |
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64
asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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65
disarmed
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| v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒 | |
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66
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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67
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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68
contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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69
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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70
sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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71
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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72
vindicate
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| v.为…辩护或辩解，辩明；证明…正确 | |
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73
plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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74
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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75
fortifying
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| 筑防御工事于( fortify的现在分词 )； 筑堡于； 增强； 强化（食品） | |
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76
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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77
vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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78
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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79
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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80
hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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81
precipitated
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| v.（突如其来地）使发生( precipitate的过去式和过去分词 )；促成；猛然摔下；使沉淀 | |
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82
gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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83
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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84
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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85
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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86
beech
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| n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的 | |
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87
penitence
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| n.忏悔，赎罪；悔过 | |
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88
dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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89
iniquity
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| n.邪恶；不公正 | |
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90
scripture
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| n.经文，圣书，手稿；Scripture:(常用复数)《圣经》，《圣经》中的一段 | |
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91
hack
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| n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳 | |
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92
vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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93
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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94
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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95
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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96
rascal
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| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
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97
slaughtered
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| v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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98
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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99
beckoning
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| adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
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100
yearned
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| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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101
honourably
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| adv.可尊敬地，光荣地，体面地 | |
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102
remorseful
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| adj.悔恨的 | |
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103
implored
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| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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104
lures
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| 吸引力，魅力（lure的复数形式） | |
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105
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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106
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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107
shoestring
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| n.小额资本；adj.小本经营的 | |
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108
confessions
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| n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔 | |
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109
sensational
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| adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的 | |
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110
abased
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| 使谦卑( abase的过去式和过去分词 )； 使感到羞耻； 使降低（地位、身份等）； 降下 | |
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111
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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112
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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113
outspoken
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| adj.直言无讳的，坦率的，坦白无隐的 | |
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114
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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115
radicalism
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| n. 急进主义, 根本的改革主义 | |
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116
wrestle
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| vi.摔跤，角力；搏斗；全力对付 | |
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117
repeals
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| 撤销，废除( repeal的名词复数 ) | |
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118
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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119
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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120
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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121
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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122
armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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123
coalesce
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| v.联合，结合，合并 | |
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124
impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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125
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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126
assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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127
sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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128
tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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129
petrified
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| adj.惊呆的；目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆，使惊呆；变僵硬；使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词) | |
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130
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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131
lustreless
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| adj.无光泽的，无光彩的，平淡乏味的 | |
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132
vaults
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| n.拱顶( vault的名词复数 )；地下室；撑物跳高；墓穴 | |
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133
dispositions
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| 安排( disposition的名词复数 )； 倾向； （财产、金钱的）处置； 气质 | |
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134
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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135
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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136
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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137
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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138
enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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139
inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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140
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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141
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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142
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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143
severance
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| n.离职金；切断 | |
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144
vacancy
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| n.（旅馆的）空位，空房，（职务的）空缺 | |
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145
convalescence
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| n.病后康复期 | |
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146
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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147
spouse
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| n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
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