‘She’s beautiful; and therefore to be wooed:
She is a woman; therefore to be won.’ — Henry VI.
IF Denner had had a suspicion that Esther’s presence at Transome Court was not agreeable to her mistress, it was impossible to entertain such a suspicion with regard to the other members of the family. Between her and little Harry1 there was an extraordinary fascination2. This creature, with the soft broad brown cheeks, low forehead, great black eyes, tiny well-defined nose, fierce biting tricks towards every person and thing he disliked, and insistence3 on entirely4 occupying those he liked, was a human specimen5 such as Esther had never seen before, and she seemed to be equally original in Harry’s experience. At first sight her light complexion6 and her blue gown, probably also her sunny smile and her hands stretched out towards him, seemed to make a show for him as of a new sort of bird: he threw himself backward against his ‘Gappa’, as he called old Mr Transome, and stared at this new-comer with the gravity of a wild animal. But she had no sooner sat down on the sofa in the library than he climbed up to her, and began to treat her as an attractive object in natural history, snatched up her curls with his brown fist, and, discovering that there was a little ear under them, pinched it and blew into it, pulled at her coronet of plaits, and seemed to discover with satisfaction that it did not grow at the summit of her head, but could be dragged down and altogether undone7. Then finding that she laughed, tossed him back, kissed, and pretended to bite him — in fact, was an animal that understood fun — he rushed off and made Dominic bring a small menagerie of white-mice, squirrels, and birds, with Moro, the black spaniel, to make her acquaintance. Whomsoever Harry liked, it followed that Mr Transome must like: ‘Gappa’, along with Nimrod the retriever, was part of the menagerie, and perhaps endured more than all the other live creatures in the way of being tumbled about. Seeing that Esther bore having her hair pulled down quite merrily, and that she was willing to be harnessed and beaten, the old man began to confide8 in her, in his feeble, smiling, and rather jerking fashion, Harry’s remarkable9 feats10: how he had one day, when Gappa was asleep, unpinned a whole drawerful of beetles11, to see if they would fly away; then, disgusted with their stupidity, was about to throw them all on the ground and stamp on them, when Dominic came in and rescued these valuable specimens12; also, how he had subtly watched Mrs Transome at the cabinet where she kept her medicines, and, when she had left it for a little while without locking it, had gone to the drawers and scattered13 half the contents on the floor. But what old Mr Transome thought the most wonderful proof of an almost preter-natural cleverness was, that Harry would hardly ever talk, but preferred making inarticulate noises, or combining syllables14 after a method of his own.
‘He can talk well enough if he likes,’ said Gappa, evidently thinking that Harry, like the monkeys, had deep reasons for his reticence15.
‘You mind him,’ he added, nodding at Esther, and shaking with low-toned laughter. ‘You’ll hear: he knows the right names of things well enough, but he likes to make his own. He’ll give you one all to yourself before long.’
And when Harry seemed to have made up his mind distinctly that Esther’s name was ‘Boo’, Mr Transome nodded at her with triumphant16 satisfaction, and then told her in a low whisper, looking round cautiously beforehand, that Harry would never call Mrs Transome ‘Gamma,’ but always ‘Bite.’
‘It’s wonderful! ‘ said he, laughing slyly.
The old man seemed so happy now in the new world created for him by Dominic and Harry, that he would perhaps have made a holocaust17 of his flies and beetles if it had been necessary in order to keep this living, lively kindness about him. He no longer confined himself to the library, but shuffled18 along from room to room, staying and looking on at what was going forward wherever he did not find Mrs Transome alone.
To Esther the sight of this feeble-minded, timid, paralytic19 man, who had long abdicated20 all mastery over the things that were his, was something piteous. Certainly this had never been part of the furniture she had imagined for the delightful21 aristocratic dwelling22 in her Utopia; and the sad irony23 of such a lot impressed her the more because in her father she was accustomed to age accompanied with mental acumen24 and activity. Her thoughts went back in conjecture25 over the past life of Mr and Mrs Transome, a couple so strangely different from each other. She found it impossible to arrange their existence in the seclusion26 of this fine park and in this lofty large-roomed house, where it seemed quite ridiculous to be anything so small as a human being, without finding it rather dull. Mr Transome had always had his beetles, but Mrs Transome —? It was not easy to conceive that the husband and wife had ever been very fond of each other.
Esther felt at her ease with Mrs Transome: she was gratified by the consciousness — for on this point Esther was very quick — that Mrs Transome admired her, and looked at her with satisfied eyes. But when they were together in the early days of her stay, the conversation turned chiefly on what happened in Mrs Transome’s youth — what she wore when she was presented at Court — who were the most distinguished27 and beautiful women at that time — the terrible excitement of the French Revolution — the emigrants28 she had known, and the history of various titled members of the Lingon family. And Esther, from native delicacy29, did not lead to more recent topics of a personal kind. She was copiously30 instructed that the Lingon family was better than that even of the elder Transomes, and was privileged with an explanation of the various quarterings, which proved that the Lingon blood had been continually enriched. Poor Mrs Transome, with her secret bitterness and dread31, still found a flavour in this sort of pride; none the less because certain deeds of her own life had been in fatal inconsistency with it. Besides, genealogies32 entered into her stock of ideas, and her talk on such subjects was as necessary as the notes of the linnet or the blackbird. She had no ultimate analysis of things that went beyond blood and family — the Herons of Fenshore or the Badgers33 of Hillbury. She had never seen behind the canvas with which her life was hung. In the dim background there was the burning mount and the tables of the law; in the foreground there was Lady Debarry privately34 gossiping about her, and Lady Wyvern finally deciding not to send her invitations to dinner. Unlike that Semiramis who made laws to suit her practical licence, she lived, poor soul, in the midst of desecrated35 sanctities, and of honours that looked tarnished36 in the light of monotonous37 and weary suns. Glimpses of the Lingon heraldry in their freshness were interesting to Esther; but it occurred to her that when she had known about them a good while they would cease to be succulent themes of converse38 or meditation39, and Mrs Transome, having known them all along, might have felt a vacuum in spite of them.
Nevertheless it was entertaining at present to be seated on soft cushions with her netting before her, while Mrs Transome went on with her embroidery40, and told in that easy phrase, and with that refined high-bred tone and accent which she possessed41 in perfection, family stories that to Esther were like so many novelettes: what diamonds were in the earl’s family, own cousins to Mrs Transome; how poor Lady Sara’s husband went off into jealous madness only a month after their marriage, and dragged that sweet blue-eyed thing by the hair; and how the brilliant Fanny, having married a country parson, became so niggardly42 that she had gone about almost begging for fresh eggs from the farmers’ wives, though she had done very well with her six sons, as there was a bishop43 and no end of interest in the family, and two of them got appointments in India.
At present Mrs Transome did not touch at all on her own time of privation, or her troubles with her eldest44 son, or on anything that lay very close to her heart. She conversed45 with Esther, and acted the part of hostess as she performed her toilette and went on with her embroidery: these things were to be done whether one were happy or miserable46. Even the patriarch Job, if he had been a gentleman of the modern West, would have avoided picturesque47 disorder48 and poetical49 laments50; and the friends who called on him, though not less disposed than Bildad the Shuhite to hint that their unfortunate friend was in the wrong, would have sat on chairs and held their hats in their hands. The harder problems of our life have changed less than our manners; we wrestle51 with the old sorrows, but more decorously. Esther’s inexperience prevented her from divining much about this fine grey-haired woman, whom she could not help perceiving to stand apart from the family group, as if there were some cause of isolation52 for her both within and without. To her young heart there was a peculiar53 interest in Mrs Transome. An elderly woman, whose beauty, position, and graceful54 kindness towards herself, made deference55 to her spontaneous, was a new figure in Esther’s experience. Her quick light movement was always ready to anticipate what Mrs Transome wanted; her bright apprehension56 and silvery speech were always ready to cap Mrs Transome’s narratives57 or instructions even about doses and liniments, with some lively commentary. She must have behaved charmingly; for one day when she had tripped across the room to put the screen just in the right place, Mrs Transome said, taking her hand, ‘My dear, you make me wish I had a daughter!’
That was pleasant; and so it was to be decked by Mrs Transome’s own hands in a set of turquoise58 ornaments59, which became her wonderfully, worn with a white Cashmere dress, which was also insisted on. Esther never reflected that there was a double intention in these pretty ways towards her; with young generosity61, she was rather preoccupied62 by the desire to prove that she herself entertained no low triumph in the fact that she had rights prejudicial to this family whose life she was learning. And besides, through all Mrs Transome’s perfect manners there pierced some indefinable indications of a hidden anxiety much deeper than anything she could feel about this affair of the estate — to which she often alluded63 slightly as a reason for informing Esther of something. It was impossible to mistake her for a happy woman; and young speculation64 is always stirred by discontent for which there is no obvious cause. When we are older, we take the uneasy eyes and the bitter lips more as a matter of course.
But Harold Transome was more communicative about recent years than his mother was. He thought it well that Esther should know how the fortune of his family had been drained by law expenses, owing to suits mistakenly urged by her family; he spoke65 of his mother’s lonely life and pinched circumstances, of her lack of comfort in her elder son, and of the habit she had consequently acquired of looking at the gloomy side of things. He hinted that she had been accustomed to dictate66, and that, as he had left her when he was a boy, she had perhaps indulged the dream that he would come back a boy. She was still sore on the point of his politics. These things could not be helped, but, so far as he could, he wished to make the rest of her life as cheerful as possible.
Esther listened eagerly, and took these things to heart. The claim to an inheritance, the sudden discovery of a right to a fortune held by others, was acquiring a very distinct and unexpected meaning for her. Every day she was getting more clearly into her imagination what it would be to abandon her own past, and what she would enter into in exchange for it; what it would be to disturb a long possession, and how difficult it was to fix a point at which the disturbance67 might begin, so as to be contemplated68 without pain.
Harold Transome’s thoughts turned on the same subject, but accompanied by a different state of feeling and with more definite resolutions. He saw a mode of reconciling all difficulties which looked pleasanter to him the longer he looked at Esther. When she had been hardly a week in the house, he had made up his mind to marry her; and it had never entered into that mind that the decision did not rest entirely with his inclination69. It was not that he thought slightly of Esther’s demands; he saw that she would require considerable attractions to please her, and that there were difficulties to be overcome. She was clearly a girl who must be wooed; but Harold did not despair of presenting the requisite70 attractions, and the difficulties gave more interest to the wooing than he could have believed. When he had said that he would not marry an Englishwoman, he had always made a mental reservation in favour of peculiar circumstances; and now the peculiar circumstances were come. To be deeply in love was a catastrophe71 not likely to happen to him; but he was readily amorous72. No woman could make him miserable, but he was sensitive to the presence of women, and was kind to them; not with grimaces73, like a man of mere60 gallantry, but beamingly, easily, like a man of genuine good-nature. And each day that he was near Esther, the solution of all difficulties by marriage became a more pleasing prospect74; though he had to confess to himself that the difficulties did not diminish on a nearer view, in spite of the flattering sense that she brightened at his approach.
Harold was not one to fail in a purpose for want of assiduity. After an hour or two devoted75 to business in the morning, he went to look for Esther, and if he did not find her at play with Harry and old Mr Transome, or chatting with his mother, he went into the drawing-room, where she was usually either seated with a book on her knee and ‘making a bed for her cheek’ with one little hand, while she looked out of the window, or else standing76 in front of one of the full-length family portraits with an air of rumination77. Esther found it impossible to read in these days; her life was a book which she seemed herself to be constructing — trying to make character clear before her, and looking into the ways of destiny.
The active Harold had almost always something definite to propose by way of filling the time: if it were fine, she must walk out with him and see the grounds; and when the snow melted and it was no longer slippery, she must get on horseback and learn to ride. If they stayed indoors, she must learn to play at billiards78, or she must go over the house and see the pictures he had hung anew, or the costumes he had brought from the East, or come into his study and look at the map of the estate, and hear what — if it had remained in his family — he had intended to do in every corner of it in order to make the most of its capabilities79.
About a certain time in the morning Esther had learned to expect him. Let every woocr make himself strongly expected; he may succeed by dint80 of being absent, but hardly in the first instance. One morning Harold found her in the drawing-room, leaning against a consol table, and looking at the full-length portrait of a certain Lady Betty Transome, who had lived a century and a half before, and had the usual charm of ladies in Sir Peter Lely’s style.
‘Don’t move, pray,’ he said on entering; ‘you look as if you were standing for your own portrait.’
‘I take that as an insinuation,’ said Esther, laughing, and moving towards her seat on an ottoman near the fire, ‘for I notice almost all the portraits are in a conscious, affected81 attitude. That fair Lady Betty looks as if she had been drilled into that posture82, and had not will enough of her own ever to move again unless she had a little push given to her.’
‘She brightens up that panel well with her long satin skirt,’ said Harold, as he followed Esther, ‘but alive I daresay she would have been less cheerful company.’
‘One would certainly think that she had just been unpacked83 from silver paper. Ah, how chivalrous84 you are!’ said Esther, as Harold, kneeling on one knee, held her silken netting-stirrup for hcr to put her foot through. She had often fancied pleasant scenes in which such homage85 was rendered to her, and the homage was not disagreeable now it was really come; but, strangely enough, a little darting86 sensation at that moment was accompanied by the vivid remembrance of some one who had never paid the least attention to her foot. There had been a slight blush, such as often came and went rapidly, and she was silent a moment. Harold naturally believed that it was he himself who was filling the field of vision He would have liked to place himself on the ottoman near Esther, and behave very much more like a lover; but he took a chair opposite to her at a circumspect87 distance. He dared not do otherwise. Along with Esther’s playful charm she conveyed an impression of personal pride and high spirit which warned Harold’s acuteness that in the delicacy of their present position he might easily make a false move and offend her. A woman was likely to be credulous88 about adoration89, and to find no difficulty in referring it to her intrinsic attractions; but Esther was too dangerously quick and critical not to discern the least awkwardness that looked like offering her marriage as a convenient compromise for himself. Beforehand, he might have said that such characteristics as hers were not lovable in a woman; but, as it was, he found that the hope of pleasing her had a piquancy90 quite new to him.
‘I wonder,’ said Esther, breaking her silence in her usual light silvery tones — ‘I wonder whether the woman who looked in that way ever felt any troubles. I see there are two old ones upstairs in the billiard-room who have only got fat; the expression of their faces is just of the same sort.’
‘A woman ought never to have any trouble. There should always be a man to guard her from it.’ (Harold Transome was masculine and fallible; he had incautiously sat down this morning to pay his addresses by talk about nothing in particular; and, clever experienced man as he was, he fell into nonsense.)
‘But suppose the man himself got into trouble — you would wish her to mind about that. Or suppose,’ added Esther, suddenly looking up merrily at Harold, ‘the man himself was troublesome?’
‘O you must not strain probabilities in that way. The generality of men are perfect. Take me, for example.’
‘You are a perfect judge of sauces,’ said Esther, who had her triumphs in letting Harold know that she was capable of taking notes.
‘That is perfection number one. Pray go on.’
‘O, the catalogue is too long — I should be tired before I got to your magnificent ruby91 ring and your gloves always of the right colour.’
‘If you would let me tell you your perfections, I should not be tired.’
‘That is not complimentary92; it means that the list is short.’
‘No; it means that the list is pleasant to dwell upon.’
‘Pray don’t begin,’ said Esther, with her pretty toss of the head; ‘it would be dangerous to our good understanding. The person I liked best in the world was one who did nothing but scold me and tell me of my faults.’
When Esther began to speak, she meant to do no more than make a remote unintelligible93 allusion94, feeling, it must be owned, a naughty will to flirt95 and be saucy96, and thwart97 Harold’s attempts to be felicitous98 in compliment. But she had no sooner uttered the words than they seemed to her like a confession99. A deep flush spread itself over her face and neck, and the sense that she was blushing went on deepening her colour. Harold felt himself unpleasantly illuminated100 as to a possibility that had never yet occurred to him. His surprise made an uncomfortable pause, in which Esther had time to feel much vexation.
‘You speak in the past tense,’ said Harold, at last; ‘yet I am rather envious101 of that person. I shall never be able to win your regard in the same way. Is it any one at Treby? Because in that case I can inquire about your faults.’
‘O you know I have always lived among grave people,’ said Esther, more able to recover herself now she was spoken to. ‘Before I came home to be with my father I was nothing but a school-girl first, and then a teacher in different stages of growth. People in those circumstances are not usually flattered. But there are varieties in fault-finding. At our Paris school the master I liked best was an old man who stormed at me terribly when I read Racine, but yet showed that he was proud of me.’
Esther was getting quite cool again. But Harold was not entirely satisfied; if there was any obstacle in his way, he wished to know exactly what it was.
‘That must have been a wretched life for you at Treby,’ he said, — ‘a person of your accomplishments102.’
‘I used to be dreadfully discontented,’ said Esther, much occupied with mistakes she had made in her netting. ‘But I was becoming less so. I have had time to get rather wise, you know; I am two-and-twenty.’
‘Yes,’ said Harold, rising and walking a few paces backwards103 and forwards, ‘you are past your majority; you are empress of your own fortunes — and more besides.’
‘Dear me,’ said Esther, letting her work fall, and leaning back against the cushions; ‘I don’t think I know very well what to do with my empire.’
‘Well,’ said Harold, pausing in front of her, leaning one arm on the mantelpiece, and speaking very gravely, ‘I hope that in any case, since you appear to have no near relative who understands affairs, you will confide in me, and trust me with all your intentions as if I had no other personal concern in the matter than a regard for you. I hope you believe me capable of acting104 as the guardian105 of your interest, even where it turns out to be inevitably106 opposed to my own.’
‘I am sure you have given me reason to believe it,’ said Esther, with seriousness, putting out her hand to Harold. She had not been left in ignorance that he had had opportunities twice offered of stifling107 her claims.
Harold raised the hand to his lips, but dared not retain it more than an instant. Still the sweet reliance in Esther’s manner made an irresistible108 temptation to him. After standing still a moment or two, while she bent109 over her work, he glided110 to the ottoman and seated himself close by her, looking at her busy hands.
‘I see you have made mistakes in your work,’ he said, bending still nearer, for he saw that she was conscious yet not angry.
‘Nonsense I you know nothing about it,’ said Esther, laughing, and crushing up the soft silk under her palms. ‘Those blunders have a design in them.’
She looked round, and saw a handsome face very near her. Harold was looking, as he felt, thoroughly111 enamoured of this bright woman, who was not at all to his preconceived taste. Perhaps a touch of hypothetic jealousy112 now helped to heighten the effect. But he mastered all indiscretion, and only looked at her as he said —
‘I am wondering whether you have any deep wishes and secrets that I can’t guess.’
‘Pray don’t speak of my wishes,’ said Esther, quite overmastered by this new and apparently113 involuntary manifestation114 in Harold; ‘I could not possibly tell you one at this moment — I think I shall never find them out again. O yes she said, abruptly115, struggling to relieve herself from the oppression of unintelligible feelings — ‘I do know one wish distinctly. I want to go and see my father. He writes me word that all is well with him, but still I want to see him.’ ‘You shall be driven there when you like.’
‘May I go now — I mean as soon as it is convenient?’ said Esther, rising.
‘I will give the order immediately, if you wish it,’ said Harold, understanding that the audience was broken up.
1 harry | |
vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼 | |
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2 fascination | |
n.令人着迷的事物,魅力,迷恋 | |
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3 insistence | |
n.坚持;强调;坚决主张 | |
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4 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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5 specimen | |
n.样本,标本 | |
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6 complexion | |
n.肤色;情况,局面;气质,性格 | |
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7 undone | |
a.未做完的,未完成的 | |
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8 confide | |
v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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9 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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10 feats | |
功绩,伟业,技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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11 beetles | |
n.甲虫( beetle的名词复数 ) | |
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12 specimens | |
n.样品( specimen的名词复数 );范例;(化验的)抽样;某种类型的人 | |
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13 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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14 syllables | |
n.音节( syllable的名词复数 ) | |
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15 reticence | |
n.沉默,含蓄 | |
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16 triumphant | |
adj.胜利的,成功的;狂欢的,喜悦的 | |
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17 holocaust | |
n.大破坏;大屠杀 | |
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18 shuffled | |
v.洗(纸牌)( shuffle的过去式和过去分词 );拖着脚步走;粗心地做;摆脱尘世的烦恼 | |
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19 paralytic | |
adj. 瘫痪的 n. 瘫痪病人 | |
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20 abdicated | |
放弃(职责、权力等)( abdicate的过去式和过去分词 ); 退位,逊位 | |
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21 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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22 dwelling | |
n.住宅,住所,寓所 | |
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23 irony | |
n.反语,冷嘲;具有讽刺意味的事,嘲弄 | |
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24 acumen | |
n.敏锐,聪明 | |
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25 conjecture | |
n./v.推测,猜测 | |
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26 seclusion | |
n.隐遁,隔离 | |
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27 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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28 emigrants | |
n.(从本国移往他国的)移民( emigrant的名词复数 ) | |
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29 delicacy | |
n.精致,细微,微妙,精良;美味,佳肴 | |
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30 copiously | |
adv.丰富地,充裕地 | |
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31 dread | |
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧 | |
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32 genealogies | |
n.系谱,家系,宗谱( genealogy的名词复数 ) | |
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33 badgers | |
n.獾( badger的名词复数 );獾皮;(大写)獾州人(美国威斯康星州人的别称);毛鼻袋熊 | |
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34 privately | |
adv.以私人的身份,悄悄地,私下地 | |
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35 desecrated | |
毁坏或亵渎( desecrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36 tarnished | |
(通常指金属)(使)失去光泽,(使)变灰暗( tarnish的过去式和过去分词 ); 玷污,败坏 | |
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37 monotonous | |
adj.单调的,一成不变的,使人厌倦的 | |
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38 converse | |
vi.谈话,谈天,闲聊;adv.相反的,相反 | |
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39 meditation | |
n.熟虑,(尤指宗教的)默想,沉思,(pl.)冥想录 | |
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40 embroidery | |
n.绣花,刺绣;绣制品 | |
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41 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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42 niggardly | |
adj.吝啬的,很少的 | |
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43 bishop | |
n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
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44 eldest | |
adj.最年长的,最年老的 | |
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45 conversed | |
v.交谈,谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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46 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
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47 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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48 disorder | |
n.紊乱,混乱;骚动,骚乱;疾病,失调 | |
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49 poetical | |
adj.似诗人的;诗一般的;韵文的;富有诗意的 | |
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50 laments | |
n.悲恸,哀歌,挽歌( lament的名词复数 )v.(为…)哀悼,痛哭,悲伤( lament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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51 wrestle | |
vi.摔跤,角力;搏斗;全力对付 | |
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52 isolation | |
n.隔离,孤立,分解,分离 | |
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53 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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54 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
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55 deference | |
n.尊重,顺从;敬意 | |
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56 apprehension | |
n.理解,领悟;逮捕,拘捕;忧虑 | |
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57 narratives | |
记叙文( narrative的名词复数 ); 故事; 叙述; 叙述部分 | |
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58 turquoise | |
n.绿宝石;adj.蓝绿色的 | |
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59 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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60 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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61 generosity | |
n.大度,慷慨,慷慨的行为 | |
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62 preoccupied | |
adj.全神贯注的,入神的;被抢先占有的;心事重重的v.占据(某人)思想,使对…全神贯注,使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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63 alluded | |
提及,暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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64 speculation | |
n.思索,沉思;猜测;投机 | |
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65 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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66 dictate | |
v.口授;(使)听写;指令,指示,命令 | |
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67 disturbance | |
n.动乱,骚动;打扰,干扰;(身心)失调 | |
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68 contemplated | |
adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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69 inclination | |
n.倾斜;点头;弯腰;斜坡;倾度;倾向;爱好 | |
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70 requisite | |
adj.需要的,必不可少的;n.必需品 | |
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71 catastrophe | |
n.大灾难,大祸 | |
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72 amorous | |
adj.多情的;有关爱情的 | |
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73 grimaces | |
n.(表蔑视、厌恶等)面部扭曲,鬼脸( grimace的名词复数 )v.扮鬼相,做鬼脸( grimace的第三人称单数 ) | |
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74 prospect | |
n.前景,前途;景色,视野 | |
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75 devoted | |
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
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76 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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77 rumination | |
n.反刍,沉思 | |
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78 billiards | |
n.台球 | |
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79 capabilities | |
n.能力( capability的名词复数 );可能;容量;[复数]潜在能力 | |
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80 dint | |
n.由于,靠;凹坑 | |
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81 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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82 posture | |
n.姿势,姿态,心态,态度;v.作出某种姿势 | |
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83 unpacked | |
v.从(包裹等)中取出(所装的东西),打开行李取出( unpack的过去式和过去分词 );拆包;解除…的负担;吐露(心事等) | |
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84 chivalrous | |
adj.武士精神的;对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
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85 homage | |
n.尊敬,敬意,崇敬 | |
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86 darting | |
v.投掷,投射( dart的现在分词 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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87 circumspect | |
adj.慎重的,谨慎的 | |
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88 credulous | |
adj.轻信的,易信的 | |
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89 adoration | |
n.爱慕,崇拜 | |
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90 piquancy | |
n.辛辣,辣味,痛快 | |
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91 ruby | |
n.红宝石,红宝石色 | |
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92 complimentary | |
adj.赠送的,免费的,赞美的,恭维的 | |
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93 unintelligible | |
adj.无法了解的,难解的,莫明其妙的 | |
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94 allusion | |
n.暗示,间接提示 | |
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95 flirt | |
v.调情,挑逗,调戏;n.调情者,卖俏者 | |
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96 saucy | |
adj.无礼的;俊俏的;活泼的 | |
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97 thwart | |
v.阻挠,妨碍,反对;adj.横(断的) | |
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98 felicitous | |
adj.恰当的,巧妙的;n.恰当,贴切 | |
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99 confession | |
n.自白,供认,承认 | |
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100 illuminated | |
adj.被照明的;受启迪的 | |
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101 envious | |
adj.嫉妒的,羡慕的 | |
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102 accomplishments | |
n.造诣;完成( accomplishment的名词复数 );技能;成绩;成就 | |
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103 backwards | |
adv.往回地,向原处,倒,相反,前后倒置地 | |
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104 acting | |
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的 | |
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105 guardian | |
n.监护人;守卫者,保护者 | |
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106 inevitably | |
adv.不可避免地;必然发生地 | |
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107 stifling | |
a.令人窒息的 | |
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108 irresistible | |
adj.非常诱人的,无法拒绝的,无法抗拒的 | |
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109 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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110 glided | |
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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111 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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112 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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113 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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114 manifestation | |
n.表现形式;表明;现象 | |
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115 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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