Charlotte, half way up the “monumental” staircase, had begun by waiting alone — waiting to be rejoined by her companion, who had gone down all the way, as in common kindness bound, and who, his duty performed, would know where to find her. She was meanwhile, though extremely apparent, not perhaps absolutely advertised; but she would not have cared if she had been — so little was it, by this time, her first occasion of facing society with a consciousness materially, with a confidence quite splendidly, enriched. For a couple of years now she had known as never before what it was to look “well”— to look, that is, as well as she had always felt, from far back, that, in certain conditions, she might. On such an evening as this, that of a great official party in the full flush of the London spring-time, the conditions affected1 her, her nerves, her senses, her imagination, as all profusely2 present; so that perhaps at no moment yet had she been so justified3 of her faith as at the particular instant of our being again concerned with her, that of her chancing to glance higher up from where she stood and meeting in consequence the quiet eyes of Colonel Assingham, who had his elbows on the broad balustrade of the great gallery overhanging the staircase and who immediately exchanged with her one of his most artlessly familiar signals. This simplicity5 of his visual attention struck her, even with the other things she had to think about, as the quietest note in the whole high pitch — much, in fact, as if she had pressed a finger on a chord or a key and created, for the number of seconds, an arrest of vibration6, a more muffled7 thump8. The sight of him suggested indeed that Fanny would be there, though so far as opportunity went she had not seen her. This was about the limit of what it could suggest.
The air, however, had suggestions enough — it abounded9 in them, many of them precisely10 helping11 to constitute those conditions with which, for our young woman, the hour was brilliantly crowned. She was herself in truth crowned, and it all hung together, melted together, in light and colour and sound: the unsurpassed diamonds that her head so happily carried, the other jewels, the other perfections of aspect and arrangement that made her personal scheme a success, the PROVED private theory that materials to work with had been all she required and that there were none too precious for her to understand and use — to which might be added lastly, as the strong-scented flower of the total sweetness, an easy command, a high enjoyment12, of her crisis. For a crisis she was ready to take it, and this ease it was, doubtless, that helped her, while she waited, to the right assurance, to the right indifference13, to the right expression, and above all, as she felt, to the right view of her opportunity for happiness — unless indeed the opportunity itself, rather, were, in its mere14 strange amplitude15, the producing, the precipitating16 cause. The ordered revellers, rustling17 and shining, with sweep of train and glitter of star and clink of sword, and yet, for all this, but so imperfectly articulate, so vaguely19 vocal20 — the double stream of the coming and the going, flowing together where she stood, passed her, brushed her, treated her to much crude contemplation and now and then to a spasm21 of speech, an offered hand, even in some cases to an unencouraged pause; but she missed no countenance22 and invited no protection: she fairly liked to be, so long as she might, just as she was — exposed a little to the public, no doubt, in her unaccompanied state, but, even if it were a bit brazen23, careless of queer reflections on the dull polish of London faces, and exposed, since it was a question of exposure, to much more competent recognitions of her own. She hoped no one would stop — she was positively25 keeping herself; it was her idea to mark in a particular manner the importance of something that had just happened. She knew how she should mark it, and what she was doing there made already a beginning.
When presently, therefore, from her standpoint, she saw the Prince come back she had an impression of all the place as higher and wider and more appointed for great moments; with its dome26 of lustres lifted, its ascents29 and descents more majestic30, its marble tiers more vividly31 overhung, its numerosity of royalties32, foreign and domestic, more unprecedented33, its symbolism of “State” hospitality both emphasised and refined. This was doubtless a large consequence of a fairly familiar cause, a considerable inward stir to spring from the mere vision, striking as that might be, of Amerigo in a crowd; but she had her reasons, she held them there, she carried them in fact, responsibly and overtly34, as she carried her head, her high tiara, her folded fan, her indifferent, unattended eminence35; and it was when he reached her and she could, taking his arm, show herself as placed in her relation, that she felt supremely36 justified. It was her notion of course that she gave a glimpse of but few of her grounds for this discrimination — indeed of the most evident alone; yet she would have been half willing it should be guessed how she drew inspiration, drew support, in quantity sufficient for almost anything, from the individual value that, through all the picture, her husband’s son-inlaw kept for the eye, deriving37 it from his fine unconscious way, in the swarming38 social sum, of outshining, overlooking and overtopping. It was as if in separation, even the shortest, she half forgot or disbelieved how he affected her sight, so that reappearance had, in him, each time, a virtue39 of its own — a kind of disproportionate intensity40 suggesting his connection with occult sources of renewal41. What did he do when he was away from her that made him always come back only looking, as she would have called it, “more so?” Superior to any shade of cabotinage, he yet almost resembled an actor who, between his moments on the stage, revisits his dressing-room and, before the glass, pressed by his need of effect, retouches his make-up. The Prince was at present, for instance, though he had quitted her but ten minutes before, still more than then the person it pleased her to be left with — a truth that had all its force for her while he made her his care for their conspicuous42 return together to the upper rooms. Conspicuous beyond any wish they could entertain was what, poor wonderful man, he couldn’t help making it; and when she raised her eyes again, on the ascent28, to Bob Assingham, still aloft in his gallery and still looking down at her, she was aware that, in spite of hovering43 and warning inward voices, she even enjoyed the testimony44 rendered by his lonely vigil to the lustre27 she reflected.
He was always lonely at great parties, the dear Colonel — it wasn’t in such places that the seed he sowed at home was ever reaped by him; but nobody could have seemed to mind it less, to brave it with more bronzed indifference; so markedly that he moved about less like one of the guests than like some quite presentable person in charge of the police arrangements or the electric light. To Mrs. Verver, as will be seen, he represented, with the perfect good faith of his apparent blankness, something definite enough; though her bravery was not thereby45 too blighted46 for her to feel herself calling him to witness that the only witchcraft47 her companion had used, within the few minutes, was that of attending Maggie, who had withdrawn48 from the scene, to her carriage. Notified, at all events, of Fanny’s probable presence, Charlotte was, for a while after this, divided between the sense of it as a fact somehow to reckon with and deal with, which was a perception that made, in its degree, for the prudence49, the pusillanimity50 of postponement51, of avoidance — and a quite other feeling, an impatience52 that presently ended by prevailing53, an eagerness, really, to BE suspected, sounded, veritably arraigned54, if only that she might have the bad moment over, if only that she might prove to herself, let alone to Mrs. Assingham also, that she could convert it to good; if only, in short, to be “square,” as they said, with her question. For herself indeed, particularly, it wasn’t a question; but something in her bones told her that Fanny would treat it as one, and there was truly nothing that, from this friend, she was not bound in decency55 to take. She might hand things back with every tender precaution, with acknowledgments and assurances, but she owed it to them, in any case, and it to all Mrs. Assingham had done for her, not to get rid of them without having well unwrapped and turned them over.
To-night, as happened — and she recognised it more and more, with the ebbing56 minutes, as an influence of everything about her — to-night exactly, she would, no doubt, since she knew why, be as firm as she might at any near moment again hope to be for going through that process with the right temper and tone. She said, after a little, to the Prince, “Stay with me; let no one take you; for I want her, yes, I do want her to see us together, and the sooner the better”— said it to keep her hand on him through constant diversions, and made him, in fact, by saying it, profess57 a momentary58 vagueness. She had to explain to him that it was Fanny Assingham, she wanted to see — who clearly would be there, since the Colonel never either stirred without her or, once arrived, concerned himself for her fate; and she had, further, after Amerigo had met her with “See us together? why in the world? hasn’t she often seen us together?” to inform him that what had elsewhere and otherwise happened didn’t now matter and that she at any rate well knew, for the occasion, what she was about. “You’re strange, cara mia,” he consentingly enough dropped; but, for whatever strangeness, he kept her, as they circulated, from being waylaid59, even remarking to her afresh as he had often done before, on the help rendered, in such situations, by the intrinsic oddity of the London “squash,” a thing of vague, slow, senseless eddies60, revolving61 as in fear of some menace of conversation suspended over it, the drop of which, with some consequent refreshing62 splash or spatter, yet never took place. Of course she was strange; this, as they went, Charlotte knew for herself: how could she be anything else when the situation holding her, and holding him, for that matter, just as much, had so the stamp of it? She had already accepted her consciousness, as we have already noted63, that a crisis, for them all, was in the air; and when such hours were not depressing, which was the form indeed in which she had mainly known them, they were apparently64 in a high degree exhilarating.
Later on, in a corner to which, at sight of an empty sofa, Mrs. Assingham had, after a single attentive65 arrest, led her with a certain earnestness, this vision of the critical was much more sharpened than blurred66. Fanny had taken it from her: yes, she was there with Amerigo alone, Maggie having come with them and then, within ten minutes, changed her mind, repented67 and departed. “So you’re staying on together without her?” the elder woman had asked; and it was Charlotte’s answer to this that had determined68 for them, quite indeed according to the latter’s expectation, the need of some seclusion69 and her companion’s pounce70 at the sofa. They were staying on together alone, and — oh distinctly!— it was alone that Maggie had driven away, her father, as usual, not having managed to come. “‘As usual’—?” Mrs. Assingham had seemed to wonder; Mr. Verver’s reluctances not having, she in fact quite intimated, hitherto struck her. Charlotte responded, at any rate, that his indisposition to go out had lately much increased — even though to-night, as she admitted, he had pleaded his not feeling well. Maggie had wished to stay with him — for the Prince and she, dining out, had afterwards called in Portland Place, whence, in the event, they had brought her, Charlotte, on. Maggie had come but to oblige her father — she had urged the two others to go without her; then she had yielded, for the time, to Mr. Verver’s persuasion71. But here, when they had, after the long wait in the carriage, fairly got in; here, once up the stairs, with the rooms before them, remorse72 had ended by seizing her: she had listened to no other remonstrance73, and at present therefore, as Charlotte put it, the two were doubtless making together a little party at home. But it was all right — so Charlotte also put it: there was nothing in the world they liked better than these snatched felicities, little parties, long talks, with “I’ll come to you tomorrow,” and “No, I’ll come to you,” make-believe renewals74 of their old life. They were fairly, at times, the dear things, like children playing at paying visits, playing at “Mr. Thompson” and “Mrs. Fane,” each hoping that the other would really stay to tea. Charlotte was sure she should find Maggie there on getting home — a remark in which Mrs. Verver’s immediate4 response to her friend’s inquiry75 had culminated76. She had thus, on the spot, the sense of having given her plenty to think about, and that moreover of liking77 to see it even better than she had expected. She had plenty to think about herself, and there was already something in Fanny that made it seem still more.
“You say your husband’s ill? He felt too ill to come?”
“No, my dear — I think not. If he had been too ill I wouldn’t have left him.”
“And yet Maggie was worried?” Mrs. Assingham asked.
“She worries, you know, easily. She’s afraid of influenza78 — of which he has had, at different times, though never with the least gravity, several attacks.”
“But you’re not afraid of it?”
Charlotte had for a moment a pause; it had continued to come to her that really to have her case “out,” as they said, with the person in the world to whom her most intimate difficulties had oftenest referred themselves, would help her, on the whole, more than hinder; and under that feeling all her opportunity, with nothing kept back; with a thing or two perhaps even thrust forward, seemed temptingly to open. Besides, didn’t Fanny at bottom half expect, absolutely at the bottom half WANT, things?— so that she would be disappointed if, after what must just have occurred for her, she didn’t get something to put between the teeth of her so restless rumination79, that cultivation80 of the fear, of which our young woman had already had glimpses, that she might have “gone too far” in her irrepressible interest in other lives. What had just happened — it pieced itself together for Charlotte — was that the Assingham pair, drifting like everyone else, had had somewhere in the gallery, in the rooms, an accidental concussion81; had it after the Colonel, over his balustrade, had observed, in the favouring high light, her public junction82 with the Prince. His very dryness, in this encounter, had, as always, struck a spark from his wife’s curiosity, and, familiar, on his side, with all that she saw in things, he had thrown her, as a fine little bone to pick, some report of the way one of her young friends was “going on” with another. He knew perfectly18 — such at least was Charlotte’s liberal assumption — that she wasn’t going on with anyone, but she also knew that, given the circumstances, she was inevitably83 to be sacrificed, in some form or another, to the humorous intercourse84 of the inimitable couple. The Prince meanwhile had also, under coercion85, sacrificed her; the Ambassador had come up to him with a message from Royalty86, to whom he was led away; after which she had talked for five minutes with Sir John Brinder, who had been of the Ambassador’s company and who had rather artlessly remained with her. Fanny had then arrived in sight of them at the same moment as someone else she didn’t know, someone who knew Mrs. Assingham and also knew Sir John. Charlotte had left it to her friend’s competence87 to throw the two others immediately together and to find a way for entertaining her in closer quarters. This was the little history of the vision, in her, that was now rapidly helping her to recognise a precious chance, the chance that mightn’t again soon be so good for the vivid making of a point. Her point was before her; it was sharp, bright, true; above all it was her own. She had reached it quite by herself; no one, not even Amerigo — Amerigo least of all, who would have nothing to do with it — had given her aid. To make it now with force for Fanny Assingham’s benefit would see her further, in the direction in which the light had dawned, than any other spring she should, yet awhile, doubtless, be able to press. The direction was that of her greater freedom — which was all in the world she had in mind. Her opportunity had accordingly, after a few minutes of Mrs. Assingham’s almost imprudently interested expression of face, positively acquired such a price for her that she may, for ourselves, while the intensity lasted, rather resemble a person holding out a small mirror at arm’s length and consulting it with a special turn of the head. It was, in a word, with this value of her chance that she was intelligently playing when she said in answer to Fanny’s last question: “Don’t you remember what you told me, on the occasion of something or other, the other day? That you believe there’s nothing I’m afraid of? So, my dear, don’t ask me!”
“Mayn’t I ask you,” Mrs. Assingham returned, “how the case stands with your poor husband?”
“Certainly, dear. Only, when you ask me as if I mightn’t perhaps know what to think, it seems to me best to let you see that I know perfectly what to think.”
Mrs. Assingham hesitated; then, blinking a little, she took her risk. “You didn’t think that if it was a question of anyone’s returning to him, in his trouble, it would be better you yourself should have gone?”
Well, Charlotte’s answer to this inquiry visibly shaped itself in the interest of the highest considerations. The highest considerations were good humour, candour, clearness and, obviously, the REAL truth. “If we couldn’t be perfectly frank and dear with each other, it would be ever so much better, wouldn’t it? that we shouldn’t talk about anything at all; which, however, would be dreadful — and we certainly, at any rate, haven’t yet come to it. You can ask me anything under the sun you like, because, don’t you see? you can’t upset me.”
“I’m sure, my dear Charlotte,” Fanny Assingham laughed, “I don’t want to upset you.”
“Indeed, love, you simply COULDN’T even if you thought it necessary — that’s all I mean. Nobody could, for it belongs to my situation that I’m, by no merit of my own, just fixed88 — fixed as fast as a pin stuck, up to its head, in a cushion. I’m placed — I can’t imagine anyone MORE placed. There I AM!”
Fanny had indeed never listened to emphasis more firmly applied89, and it brought into her own eyes, though she had reasons for striving to keep them from betrayals, a sort of anxiety of intelligence. “I dare say — but your statement of your position, however you see it, isn’t an answer to my inquiry. It seems to me, at the same time, I confess,” Mrs. Assingham added, “to give but the more reason for it. You speak of our being ‘frank.’ How can we possibly be anything else? If Maggie has gone off through finding herself too distressed91 to stay, and if she’s willing to leave you and her husband to show here without her, aren’t the grounds of her preoccupation more or less discussable?”
“If they’re not,” Charlotte replied, “it’s only from their being, in a way, too evident. They’re not grounds for me — they weren’t when I accepted Adam’s preference that I should come to-night without him: just as I accept, absolutely, as a fixed rule, ALL his preferences. But that doesn’t alter the fact, of course, that my husband’s daughter, rather than his wife, should have felt SHE could, after all, be the one to stay with him, the one to make the sacrifice of this hour — seeing, especially, that the daughter has a husband of her own in the field.” With which she produced, as it were, her explanation. “I’ve simply to see the truth of the matter — see that Maggie thinks more, on the whole, of fathers than of husbands. And my situation is such,” she went on, “that this becomes immediately, don’t you understand? a thing I have to count with.”
Mrs. Assingham, vaguely heaving, panting a little but trying not to show it, turned about, from some inward spring, in her seat. “If you mean such a thing as that she doesn’t adore the Prince —!”
“I don’t say she doesn’t adore him. What I say is that she doesn’t think of him. One of those conditions doesn’t always, at all stages, involve the other. This is just HOW she adores him,” Charlotte said. “And what reason is there, in the world, after all, why he and I shouldn’t, as you say, show together? We’ve shown together, my dear,” she smiled, “before.”
Her friend, for a little, only looked at her — speaking then with abruptness92. “You ought to be absolutely happy. You live with such GOOD people.”
The effect of it, as well, was an arrest for Charlotte; whose face, however, all of whose fine and slightly hard radiance, it had caused, the next instant, further to brighten. “Does one ever put into words anything so fatuously93 rash? It’s a thing that must be said, in prudence, FOR one — by somebody who’s so good as to take the responsibility: the more that it gives one always a chance to show one’s best manners by not contradicting it. Certainly, you’ll never have the distress90, or whatever, of hearing me complain.”
“Truly, my dear, I hope in all conscience not!” and the elder woman’s spirit found relief in a laugh more resonant94 than was quite advised by their pursuit of privacy.
To this demonstration95 her friend gave no heed96. “With all our absence after marriage, and with the separation from her produced in particular by our so many months in America, Maggie has still arrears97, still losses to make up — still the need of showing how, for so long, she simply kept missing him. She missed his company — a large allowance of which is, in spite of everything else, of the first necessity to her. So she puts it in when she can — a little here, a little there, and it ends by making up a considerable amount. The fact of our distinct establishments — which has, all the same, everything in its favour,” Charlotte hastened to declare, “makes her really see more of him than when they had the same house. To make sure she doesn’t fail of it she’s always arranging for it — which she didn’t have to do while they lived together. But she likes to arrange,” Charlotte steadily98 proceeded; “it peculiarly suits her; and the result of our separate households is really, for them, more contact and more intimacy99. To-night, for instance, has been practically an arrangement. She likes him best alone. And it’s the way,” said our young woman, “in which he best likes HER. It’s what I mean therefore by being ‘placed.’ And the great thing is, as they say, to ‘know’ one’s place. Doesn’t it all strike you,” she wound up, “as rather placing the Prince too?”
Fanny Assingham had at this moment the sense as of a large heaped dish presented to her intelligence and inviting100 it to a feast — so thick were the notes of intention in this remarkable101 speech. But she also felt that to plunge102 at random103, to help herself too freely, would — apart from there not being at such a moment time for it — tend to jostle the ministering hand, confound the array and, more vulgarly speaking, make a mess. So she picked out, after consideration, a solitary104 plum. “So placed that YOU have to arrange?”
“Certainly I have to arrange.”
“And the Prince also — if the effect for him is the same?”
“Really, I think, not less.”
“And does he arrange,” Mrs. Assingham asked, “to make up HIS arrears?” The question had risen to her lips — it was as if another morsel105, on the dish, had tempted106 her. The sound of it struck her own ear, immediately, as giving out more of her thought than she had as yet intended; but she quickly saw that she must follow it up, at any risk, with simplicity, and that what was simplest was the ease of boldness. “Make them up, I mean, by coming to see YOU?”
Charlotte replied, however, without, as her friend would have phrased it, turning a hair. She shook her head, but it was beautifully gentle. “He never comes.”
“Oh!” said Fanny Assingham: with which she felt a little stupid. “There it is. He might so well, you know, otherwise.”
“‘Otherwise’?”— and Fanny was still vague.
It passed, this time, over her companion, whose eyes, wandering, to a distance, found themselves held. The Prince was at hand again; the Ambassador was still at his side; they were stopped a moment by a uniformed personage, a little old man, of apparently the highest military character, bristling107 with medals and orders. This gave Charlotte time to go on. “He has not been for three months.” And then as with her friend’s last word in her ear: “‘Otherwise’— yes. He arranges otherwise. And in my position,” she added, “I might too. It’s too absurd we shouldn’t meet.”
“You’ve met, I gather,” said Fanny Assingham, “to-night.”
“Yes — as far as that goes. But what I mean is that I might — placed for it as we both are — go to see HIM.”
“And do you?” Fanny asked with almost mistaken solemnity.
The perception of this excess made Charlotte, whether for gravity or for irony108, hang fire a minute. “I HAVE been. But that’s nothing,” she said, “in itself, and I tell you of it only to show you how our situation works. It essentially109 becomes one, a situation, for both of us. The Prince’s, however, is his own affair — I meant but to speak of mine.”
“Your situation’s perfect,” Mrs. Assingham presently declared.
“I don’t say it isn’t. Taken, in fact, all round, I think it is. And I don’t, as I tell you, complain of it. The only thing is that I have to act as it demands of me.”
“To ‘act’?” said Mrs. Assingham with an irrepressible quaver.
“Isn’t it acting110, my dear, to accept it? I do accept it. What do you want me to do less?”
“I want you to believe that you’re a very fortunate person.”
“Do you call that LESS?” Charlotte asked with a smile. “From the point of view of my freedom I call it more. Let it take, my position, any name you like.”
“Don’t let it, at any rate”— and Mrs. Assingham’s impatience prevailed at last over her presence of mind —“don’t let it make you think too much of your freedom.”
“I don’t know what you call too much — for how can I not see it as it is? You’d see your own quickly enough if the Colonel gave you the same liberty — and I haven’t to tell you, with your so much greater knowledge of everything, what it is that gives such liberty most. For yourself personally of course,” Charlotte went on, “you only know the state of neither needing it nor missing it. Your husband doesn’t treat you as of less importance to him than some other woman.”
“Ah, don’t talk to me of other women!” Fanny now overtly panted. “Do you call Mr. Verver’s perfectly natural interest in his daughter —?”
“The greatest affection of which he is capable?” Charlotte took it up in all readiness. “I do distinctly — and in spite of my having done all I could think of — to make him capable of a greater. I’ve done, earnestly, everything I could — I’ve made it, month after month, my study. But I haven’t succeeded — it has been vividly brought home to me to-night. However,” she pursued, “I’ve hoped against hope, for I recognise that, as I told you at the time, I was duly warned.” And then as she met in her friend’s face the absence of any such remembrance: “He did tell me that he wanted me just BECAUSE I could be useful about her.” With which Charlotte broke into a wonderful smile. “So you see I AM!”
It was on Fanny Assingham’s lips for the moment to reply that this was, on the contrary, exactly what she didn’t see; she came in fact within an ace24 of saying: “You strike me as having quite failed to help his idea to work — since, by your account, Maggie has him not less, but so much more, on her mind. How in the world, with so much of a remedy, comes there to remain so much of what was to be obviated111?” But she saved herself in time, conscious above all that she was in presence of still deeper things than she had yet dared to fear, that there was “more in it” than any admission she had made represented — and she had held herself familiar with admissions: so that, not to seem to understand where she couldn’t accept, and not to seem to accept where she couldn’t approve, and could still less, with precipitation, advise, she invoked112 the mere appearance of casting no weight whatever into the scales of her young friend’s consistency113. The only thing was that, as she was quickly enough to feel, she invoked it rather to excess. It brought her, her invocation, too abruptly114 to her feet. She brushed away everything. “I can’t conceive, my dear, what you’re talking about!”
Charlotte promptly115 rose then, as might be, to meet it, and her colour, for the first time, perceptibly heightened. She looked, for the minute, as her companion had looked — as if twenty protests, blocking each other’s way, had surged up within her. But when Charlotte had to make a selection, her selection was always the most effective possible. It was happy now, above all, for being made not in anger but in sorrow. “You give me up then?”
“Give you up —?”
“You forsake116 me at the hour of my life when it seems to me I most deserve a friend’s loyalty117? If you do you’re not just, Fanny; you’re even, I think,” she went on, “rather cruel; and it’s least of all worthy118 of you to seem to wish to quarrel with me in order to cover your desertion.” She spoke119, at the same time, with the noblest moderation of tone, and the image of high, pale, lighted disappointment she meanwhile presented, as of a creature patient and lonely in her splendour, was an impression so firmly imposed that she could fill her measure to the brim and yet enjoy the last word, as it is called in such cases, with a perfection void of any vulgarity of triumph. She merely completed, for truth’s sake, her demonstration. “What is a quarrel with me but a quarrel with my right to recognise the conditions of my bargain? But I can carry them out alone,” she said as she turned away. She turned to meet the Ambassador and the Prince, who, their colloquy120 with their Field–Marshal ended, were now at hand and had already, between them, she was aware, addressed her a remark that failed to penetrate121 the golden glow in which her intelligence was temporarily bathed. She had made her point, the point she had foreseen she must make; she had made it thoroughly122 and once for all, so that no more making was required; and her success was reflected in the faces of the two men of distinction before her, unmistakably moved to admiration123 by her exceptional radiance. She at first but watched this reflection, taking no note of any less adequate form of it possibly presented by poor Fanny — poor Fanny left to stare at her incurred124 “score,” chalked up in so few strokes on the wall; then she took in what the Ambassador was saying, in French, what he was apparently repeating to her.
“A desire for your presence, Madame, has been expressed en tres-haut lieu, and I’ve let myself in for the responsibility, to say nothing of the honour, of seeing, as the most respectful of your friends, that so august an impatience is not kept waiting.” The greatest possible Personage had, in short, according to the odd formula of societies subject to the greatest personages possible, “sent for” her, and she asked, in her surprise, “What in the world does he want to do to me?” only to know, without looking, that Fanny’s bewilderment was called to a still larger application, and to hear the Prince say with authority, indeed with a certain prompt dryness: “You must go immediately — it’s a summons.” The Ambassador, using authority as well, had already somehow possessed125 himself of her hand, which he drew into his arm, and she was further conscious as she went off with him that, though still speaking for her benefit, Amerigo had turned to Fanny Assingham. He would explain afterwards — besides which she would understand for herself. To Fanny, however, he had laughed — as a mark, apparently, that for this infallible friend no explanation at all would be necessary.
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affected
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profusely
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justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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vibration
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| n.颤动，振动；摆动 | |
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muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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8
thump
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| v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声 | |
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abounded
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| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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11
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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12
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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13
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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14
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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amplitude
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| n.广大；充足；振幅 | |
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precipitating
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| adj.急落的，猛冲的v.（突如其来地）使发生( precipitate的现在分词 )；促成；猛然摔下；使沉淀 | |
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17
rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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18
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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19
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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20
vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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21
spasm
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| n.痉挛，抽搐；一阵发作 | |
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22
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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23
brazen
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| adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的 | |
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24
ace
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| n.A牌；发球得分；佼佼者；adj.杰出的 | |
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25
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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26
dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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27
lustre
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| n.光亮，光泽；荣誉 | |
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28
ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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29
ascents
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| n.上升( ascent的名词复数 )；（身份、地位等的）提高；上坡路；攀登 | |
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30
majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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31
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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32
royalties
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| 特许权使用费 | |
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33
unprecedented
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| adj.无前例的，新奇的 | |
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34
overtly
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| ad.公开地 | |
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35
eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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36
supremely
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| adv.无上地，崇高地 | |
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37
deriving
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| v.得到( derive的现在分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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38
swarming
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| 密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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39
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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40
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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41
renewal
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| adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来 | |
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42
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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43
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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44
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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45
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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46
blighted
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| adj.枯萎的，摧毁的 | |
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47
witchcraft
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| n.魔法，巫术 | |
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48
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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49
prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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50
pusillanimity
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| n.无气力，胆怯 | |
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51
postponement
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| n.推迟 | |
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52
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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53
prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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54
arraigned
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| v.告发( arraign的过去式和过去分词 )；控告；传讯；指责 | |
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55
decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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56
ebbing
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的现在分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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57
profess
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| v.声称，冒称，以...为业，正式接受入教，表明信仰 | |
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58
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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59
waylaid
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| v.拦截，拦路( waylay的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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60
eddies
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| （水、烟等的）漩涡，涡流( eddy的名词复数 ) | |
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61
revolving
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| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
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62
refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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63
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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64
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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65
attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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66
blurred
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| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
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67
repented
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| 对（自己的所为）感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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68
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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69
seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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70
pounce
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| n.猛扑；v.猛扑，突然袭击，欣然同意 | |
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71
persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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72
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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73
remonstrance
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| n抗议，抱怨 | |
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74
renewals
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| 重建( renewal的名词复数 )； 更新； 重生； 合同的续订 | |
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75
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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76
culminated
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| v.达到极点( culminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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77
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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78
influenza
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| n.流行性感冒，流感 | |
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79
rumination
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| n.反刍，沉思 | |
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80
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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81
concussion
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| n.脑震荡；震动 | |
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82
junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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83
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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84
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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85
coercion
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| n.强制，高压统治 | |
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86
royalty
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| n.皇家，皇族 | |
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87
competence
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| n.能力，胜任，称职 | |
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88
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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89
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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90
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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91
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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92
abruptness
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| n. 突然，唐突 | |
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93
fatuously
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| adv.愚昧地，昏庸地，蠢地 | |
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94
resonant
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| adj.(声音)洪亮的，共鸣的 | |
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95
demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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96
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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97
arrears
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| n.到期未付之债，拖欠的款项；待做的工作 | |
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98
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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99
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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100
inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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101
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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102
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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103
random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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104
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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105
morsel
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| n.一口，一点点 | |
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106
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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107
bristling
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| a.竖立的 | |
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108
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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109
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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110
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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111
obviated
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| v.避免，消除（贫困、不方便等）( obviate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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112
invoked
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| v.援引( invoke的过去式和过去分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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113
consistency
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| n.一贯性，前后一致，稳定性；(液体的)浓度 | |
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114
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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115
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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116
forsake
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| vt.遗弃，抛弃；舍弃，放弃 | |
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117
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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118
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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119
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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120
colloquy
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| n.谈话，自由讨论 | |
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121
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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122
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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123
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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124
incurred
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| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
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125
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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