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Chapter 23
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Fanny, on her arrival in town, carried out her second idea, despatching the Colonel to his club for luncheon1 and packing her maid into a cab, for Cadogan Place, with the variety of their effects. The result of this for each of the pair was a state of occupation so unbroken that the day practically passed without fresh contact between them. They dined out together, but it was both in going to their dinner and in coming back that they appeared, on either side, to have least to communicate. Fanny was wrapped in her thoughts still more closely than in the lemon-coloured mantle2 that protected her bare shoulders, and her husband, with her silence to deal with, showed himself not less disposed than usual, when so challenged, to hold up, as he would have said, his end of it. They had, in general, in these days, longer pauses and more abrupt3 transitions; in one of which latter they found themselves, for a climax4, launched at midnight. Mrs. Assingham, rather wearily housed again, ascended5 to the first floor, there to sink, overburdened, on the landing outside the drawing-room, into a great gilded6 Venetian chair — of which at first, however, she but made, with her brooding face, a sort of throne of meditation7. She would thus have recalled a little, with her so free orientalism of type, the immemorially speechless Sphinx about at last to become articulate. The Colonel, not unlike, on his side, some old pilgrim of the desert camping at the foot of that monument, went, by way of reconnoissance, into the drawing-room. He visited, according to his wont8, the windows and their fastenings; he cast round the place the eye, all at once, of the master and the manager, the commandant and the rate-payer; then he came back to his wife, before whom, for a moment, he stood waiting. But she herself, for a time, continued to wait, only looking up at him inscrutably. There was in these minor9 manoeuvres and conscious patiences something of a suspension of their old custom of divergent discussion, that intercourse10 by misunderstanding which had grown so clumsy now. This familiar pleasantry seemed to desire to show it could yield, on occasion, to any clear trouble; though it was also sensibly, and just incoherently, in the air that no trouble was at present to be vulgarly recognised as clear.

There might, for that matter, even have been in Mr. Assingham’s face a mild perception of some finer sense — a sense for his wife’s situation, and the very situation she was, oddly enough, about to repudiate11 — that she had fairly caused to grow in him. But it was a flower to breathe upon gently, and this was very much what she finally did. She knew he needed no telling that she had given herself, all the afternoon, to her friends in Eaton Square, and that her doing so would have been but the prompt result of impressions gathered, in quantities, in brimming baskets, like the purple grapes of the vintage, at Matcham; a process surrounded by him, while it so unmistakably went on, with abstentions and discretions that might almost have counted as solemnities. The solemnities, at the same time, had committed him to nothing — to nothing beyond this confession12 itself of a consciousness of deep waters. She had been out on these waters, for him, visibly; and his tribute to the fact had been his keeping her, even if without a word, well in sight. He had not quitted for an hour, during her adventure, the shore of the mystic lake; he had on the contrary stationed himself where she could signal to him at need. Her need would have arisen if the planks13 of her bark had parted — THEN some sort of plunge14 would have become his immediate15 duty. His present position, clearly, was that of seeing her in the centre of her sheet of dark water, and of wondering if her actual mute gaze at him didn’t perhaps mean that her planks WERE now parting. He held himself so ready that it was quite as if the inward man had pulled off coat and waistcoat. Before he had plunged16, however — that is before he had uttered a question — he perceived, not without relief, that she was making for land. He watched her steadily17 paddle, always a little nearer, and at last he felt her boat bump. The bump was distinct, and in fact she stepped ashore18. “We were all wrong. There’s nothing.”

“Nothing —?” It was like giving her his hand up the bank.

“Between Charlotte Verver and the Prince. I was uneasy — but I’m satisfied now. I was in fact quite mistaken. There’s nothing.”

“But I thought,” said Bob Assingham, “that that was just what you did persistently19 asseverate20. You’ve guaranteed their straightness from the first.”

“No — I’ve never till now guaranteed anything but my own disposition21 to worry. I’ve never till now,” Fanny went on gravely from her chair, “had such a chance to see and to judge. I had it at that place — if I had, in my infatuation and my folly,” she added with expression, “nothing else. So I did see — I HAVE seen. And now I know.” Her emphasis, as she repeated the word, made her head, in her seat of infallibility, rise higher. “I know.”

The Colonel took it — but took it at first in silence. “Do you mean they’ve TOLD you —?”

“No — I mean nothing so absurd. For in the first place I haven’t asked them, and in the second their word in such a matter wouldn’t count.”

“Oh,” said the Colonel with all his oddity, “they’d tell US.”

It made her face him an instant as with her old impatience22 of his short cuts, always across her finest flower-beds; but she felt, none the less, that she kept her irony23 down. “Then when they’ve told you, you’ll be perhaps so good as to let me know.”

He jerked up his chin, testing the growth of his beard with the back of his hand while he fixed24 her with a single eye. “Ah, I don’t say that they’d necessarily tell me that they ARE over the traces.”

“They’ll necessarily, whatever happens, hold their tongues, I hope, and I’m talking of them now as I take them for myself only. THAT’S enough for me — it’s all I have to regard.” With which, after an instant, “They’re wonderful,” said Fanny Assingham.

“Indeed,” her husband concurred25, “I really think they are.”

“You’d think it still more if you knew. But you don’t know — because you don’t see. Their situation”— this was what he didn’t see —“is too extraordinary.”

“‘Too’?” He was willing to try.

“Too extraordinary to be believed, I mean, if one didn’t see. But just that, in a way, is what saves them. They take it seriously.”

He followed at his own pace. “Their situation?”

“The incredible side of it. They make it credible26.”

“Credible then — you do say — to YOU?”

She looked at him again for an interval27. “They believe in it themselves. They take it for what it is. And that,” she said, “saves them.”

“But if what it ‘is’ is just their chance —?”

“It’s their chance for what I told you when Charlotte first turned up. It’s their chance for the idea that I was then sure she had.”

The Colonel showed his effort to recall. “Oh, your idea, at different moments, of any one of THEIR ideas!” This dim procession, visibly, mustered28 before him, and, with the best will in the world, he could but watch its immensity. “Are you speaking now of something to which you can comfortably settle down?”

Again, for a little, she only glowered29 at him. “I’ve come back to my belief, and that I have done so —”

“Well?” he asked as she paused.

“Well, shows that I’m right — for I assure you I had wandered far. Now I’m at home again, and I mean,” said Fanny Assingham, “to stay here. They’re beautiful,” she declared.

“The Prince and Charlotte?”

“The Prince and Charlotte. THAT’S how they’re so remarkable30. And the beauty,” she explained, “is that they’re afraid for them. Afraid, I mean, for the others.”

“For Mr. Verver and Maggie?” It did take some following. “Afraid of what?”

“Afraid of themselves.”

The Colonel wondered. “Of THEMSELVES? Of Mr. Verver’s and Maggie’s selves?”

Mrs. Assingham remained patient as well as lucid31. “Yes — of SUCH blindness too. But most of all of their own danger.”

He turned it over. “That danger BEING the blindness —?”

“That danger being their position. What their position contains — of all the elements — I needn’t at this time of day attempt to tell you. It contains, luckily — for that’s the mercy — everything BUT blindness: I mean on their part. The blindness,” said Fanny, “is primarily her husband’s.”

He stood for a moment; he WOULD have it straight. “Whose husband’s?”

“Mr. Verver’s,” she went on. “The blindness is most of all his. That they feel — that they see. But it’s also his wife’s.”

“Whose wife’s?” he asked as she continued to gloom at him in a manner at variance32 with the comparative cheer of her contention33. And then as she only gloomed: “The Prince’s?”

“Maggie’s own — Maggie’s very own,” she pursued as for herself.

He had a pause. “Do you think Maggie so blind?”

“The question isn’t of what I think. The question’s of the conviction that guides the Prince and Charlotte — who have better opportunities than I for judging.”

The Colonel again wondered. “Are you so very sure their opportunities are better?”

“Well,” his wife asked, “what is their whole so extraordinary situation, their extraordinary relation, but an opportunity?”

“Ah, my dear, you have that opportunity — of their extraordinary situation and relation — as much as they.”

“With the difference, darling,” she returned with some spirit, “that neither of those matters are, if you please, mine. I see the boat they’re in, but I’m not, thank God, in it myself. To-day, however,” Mrs. Assingham added, “today in Eaton Square I did see.”

“Well then, what?”

But she mused34 over it still. “Oh, many things. More, somehow, than ever before. It was as if, God help me, I was seeing FOR them — I mean for the others. It was as if something had happened — I don’t know what, except some effect of these days with them at that place — that had either made things come out or had cleared my own eyes.” These eyes indeed of the poor lady’s rested on her companion’s, meanwhile, with the lustre35 not so much of intenser insight as of a particular portent36 that he had at various other times had occasion to recognise. She desired, obviously, to reassure37 him, but it apparently38 took a couple of large, candid39, gathering40, glittering tears to emphasise41 the fact. They had immediately, for him, their usual direct action: she must reassure him, he was made to feel, absolutely in her own way. He would adopt it and conform to it as soon as he should be able to make it out. The only thing was that it took such incalculable twists and turns. The twist seemed remarkable for instance as she developed her indication of what had come out in the afternoon. “It was as if I knew better than ever what makes them —”

“What makes them?”— he pressed her as she fitfully dropped.

“Well, makes the Prince and Charlotte take it all as they do. It might well have been difficult to know HOW to take it; and they may even say for themselves that they were a long time trying to see. As I say, today,” she went on, “it was as if I were suddenly, with a kind of horrible push, seeing through their eyes.” On which, as to shake off her perversity42, Fanny Assingham sprang up. But she remained there, under the dim illumination, and while the Colonel, with his high, dry, spare look of “type,” to which a certain conformity43 to the whiteness of inaccessible44 snows in his necktie, shirt-front and waistcoat gave a rigour of accent, waited, watching her, they might, at the late hour and in the still house, have been a pair of specious45 worldly adventurers, driven for relief, under sudden stress, to some grim midnight reckoning in an odd corner. Her attention moved mechanically over the objects of ornament46 disposed too freely on the walls of staircase and landing, as to which recognition, for the time, had lost both fondness and compunction. “I can imagine the way it works,” she said; “it’s so easy to understand. Yet I don’t want to be wrong,” she the next moment broke out “I don’t, I don’t want to be wrong!”

“To make a mistake, you mean?”

Oh no, she meant nothing of the sort; she knew but too well what she meant. “I don’t make mistakes. But I perpetrate — in thought — crimes.” And she spoke47 with all intensity48. “I’m a most dreadful person. There are times when I seem not to mind a bit what I’ve done, or what I think or imagine or fear or accept; when I feel that I’d do it again — feel that I’d do things myself.”

“Ah, my dear!” the Colonel remarked in the coolness of debate.

“Yes, if you had driven me back on my ‘nature.’ Luckily for you you never have. You’ve done every thing else, but you’ve never done that. But what I really don’t a bit want,” she declared, “is to abet49 them or to protect them.”

Her companion turned this over. “What is there to protect them from?— if, by your now so settled faith, they’ve done nothing that justly exposes them.”

And it in fact half pulled her up. “Well, from a sudden scare. From the alarm, I mean, of what Maggie MAY think.”

“Yet if your whole idea is that Maggie thinks nothing —?”

She waited again. “It isn’t my ‘whole’ idea. Nothing is my ‘whole’ idea — for I felt today, as I tell you, that there’s so much in the air.”

“Oh, in the air —!” the Colonel dryly breathed.

“Well, what’s in the air always HAS— hasn’t it?— to come down to the earth. And Maggie,” Mrs. Assingham continued, “is a very curious little person. Since I was ‘in,’ this afternoon, for seeing more than I had ever done — well, I felt THAT too, for some reason, as I hadn’t yet felt it.”

“For ‘some’ reason? For what reason?” And then, as his wife at first said nothing: “Did she give any sign? Was she in any way different?”

“She’s always so different from anyone else in the world that it’s hard to say when she’s different from herself. But she has made me,” said Fanny after an instant, “think of her differently. She drove me home.”

“Home here?”

“First to Portland Place — on her leaving her father: since she does, once in a while, leave him. That was to keep me with her a little longer. But she kept the carriage and, after tea there, came with me herself back here. This was also for the same purpose. Then she went home, though I had brought her a message from the Prince that arranged their movements otherwise. He and Charlotte must have arrived — if they have arrived — expecting to drive together to Eaton Square and keep Maggie on to dinner there. She has everything there, you know — she has clothes.”

The Colonel didn’t in fact know, but he gave it his apprehension50. “Oh, you mean a change?”

“Twenty changes, if you like — all sorts of things. She dresses, really, Maggie does, as much for her father — and she always did — as for her husband or for herself. She has her room in his house very much as she had it before she was married — and just as the boy has quite a second nursery there, in which Mrs. Noble, when she comes with him, makes herself, I assure you, at home. Si bien that if Charlotte, in her own house, so to speak, should wish a friend or two to stay with her, she really would be scarce able to put them up.”

It was a picture into which, as a thrifty51 entertainer himself, Bob Assingham could more or less enter. “Maggie and the child spread so?”

“Maggie and the child spread so.”

Well, he considered. “It IS rather rum,”

“That’s all I claim”— she seemed thankful for the word. “I don’t say it’s anything more — but it IS, distinctly, rum.”

Which, after an instant, the Colonel took up. “‘More’? What more COULD it be?”

“It could be that she’s unhappy, and that she takes her funny little way of consoling herself. For if she were unhappy”— Mrs. Assingham had figured it out —“that’s just the way, I’m convinced, she would take. But how can she be unhappy, since — as I’m also convinced — she, in the midst of everything, adores her husband as much as ever?”

The Colonel at this brooded for a little at large. “Then if she’s so happy, please what’s the matter?”

It made his wife almost spring at him. “You think then she’s secretly wretched?”

But he threw up his arms in deprecation. “Ah, my dear, I give them up to YOU. I’ve nothing more to suggest.”

“Then it’s not sweet of you.” She spoke at present as if he were frequently sweet. “You admit that it is ‘rum.’”

And this indeed fixed again, for a moment, his intention. “Has Charlotte complained of the want of rooms for her friends?”

“Never, that I know of, a word. It isn’t the sort of thing she does. And whom has she, after all,” Mrs. Assingham added, “to complain to?”

“Hasn’t she always you?”

“Oh, ‘me’! Charlotte and I, nowadays —!” She spoke as of a chapter closed. “Yet see the justice I still do her. She strikes me, more and more, as extraordinary.”

A deeper shade, at the renewal52 of the word, had come into the Colonel’s face. “If they’re each and all so extraordinary then, isn’t that why one must just resign one’s self to wash one’s hands of them — to be lost?” Her face, however, so met the question as if it were but a flicker53 of the old tone that their trouble had now become too real for — her charged eyes so betrayed the condition of her nerves that he stepped back, alertly enough, to firmer ground. He had spoken before in this light of a plain man’s vision, but he must be something more than a plain man now. “Hasn’t she then, Charlotte, always her husband —?”

“To complain to? She’d rather die.”

“Oh!”— and Bob Assingham’s face, at the vision of such extremities54, lengthened55 for very docility56. “Hasn’t she the Prince then?”

“For such matters? Oh, he doesn’t count.”

“I thought that was just what — as the basis of our agitation57 — he does do!”

Mrs. Assingham, however, had her distinction ready. “Not a bit as a person to bore with complaints. The ground of MY agitation is, exactly, that she never on any pretext58 bores him. Not Charlotte!” And in the imagination of Mrs. Verver’s superiority to any such mistake she gave, characteristically, something like a toss of her head — as marked a tribute to that lady’s general grace, in all the conditions, as the personage referred to doubtless had ever received.

“Ah, only Maggie!” With which the Colonel gave a short low gurgle. But it found his wife again prepared.

“No — not only Maggie. A great many people in London — and small wonder!— bore him.”

“Maggie only worst then?” But it was a question that he had promptly59 dropped at the returning brush of another, of which she had shortly before sown the seed. “You said just now that he would by this time be back with Charlotte ‘if they HAVE arrived.’ You think it then possible that they really won’t have returned?”

His companion exhibited to view, for the idea, a sense of her responsibility; but this was insufficient60, clearly, to keep her from entertaining it. “I think there’s nothing they’re not now capable of — in their so intense good faith.”

“Good faith?”— he echoed the words, which had in fact something of an odd ring, critically.

“Their false position. It comes to the same thing.” And she bore down, with her decision, the superficial lack of sequence. “They may very possibly, for a demonstration61 — as I see them — not have come back.”

He wondered, visibly, at this, how she did see them. “May have bolted somewhere together?”

“May have stayed over at Matcham itself till tomorrow. May have wired home, each of them, since Maggie left me. May have done,” Fanny Assingham continued, “God knows what!” She went on, suddenly, with more emotion — which, at the pressure of some spring of her inner vision, broke out in a wail62 of distress63, imperfectly smothered64. “Whatever they’ve done I shall never know. Never, never — because I don’t want to, and because nothing will induce me. So they may do as they like. But I’ve worked for them ALL” She uttered this last with another irrepressible quaver, and the next moment her tears had come, though she had, with the explosion, quitted her husband as if to hide it from him. She passed into the dusky drawing-room, where, during his own prowl, shortly previous, he had drawn65 up a blind, so that the light of the street-lamps came in a little at the window. She made for this window, against which she leaned her head, while the Colonel, with his lengthened face, looked after her for a minute and hesitated. He might have been wondering what she had really done, to what extent, beyond his knowledge or his conception, in the affairs of these people, she COULD have committed herself. But to hear her cry, and yet try not to, was, quickly enough, too much for him; he had known her at other times quite not try not to, and that had not been so bad. He went to her and put his arm round her; he drew her head to his breast, where, while she gasped66, she let it stay a little — all with a patience that presently stilled her. Yet the effect of this small crisis, oddly enough, was not to close their colloquy67, with the natural result of sending them to bed: what was between them had opened out further, had somehow, through the sharp show of her feeling, taken a positive stride, had entered, as it were, without more words, the region of the understood, shutting the door after it and bringing them so still more nearly face to face. They remained for some minutes looking at it through the dim window which opened upon the world of human trouble in general and which let the vague light play here and there upon gilt68 and crystal and colour, the florid features, looming69 dimly, of Fanny’s drawing-room. And the beauty of what thus passed between them, passed with her cry of pain, with her burst of tears, with his wonderment and his kindness and his comfort, with the moments of their silence, above all, which might have represented their sinking together, hand in hand, for a time, into the mystic lake where he had begun, as we have hinted, by seeing her paddle alone — the beauty of it was that they now could really talk better than before, because the basis had at last, once for all, defined itself. What was the basis, which Fanny absolutely exacted, but that Charlotte and the Prince must be saved — so far as consistently speaking of them as still safe might save them? It did save them, somehow, for Fanny’s troubled mind — for that was the nature of the mind of women. He conveyed to her now, at all events, by refusing her no gentleness, that he had sufficiently70 got the tip, and that the tip was all he had wanted. This remained quite clear even when he presently reverted71 to what she had told him of her recent passage with Maggie. “I don’t altogether see, you know, what you infer from it, or why you infer anything.” When he so expressed himself it was quite as if in possession of what they had brought up from the depths.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 luncheon V8az4     
n.午宴,午餐,便宴
参考例句:
  • We have luncheon at twelve o'clock.我们十二点钟用午餐。
  • I have a luncheon engagement.我午饭有约。
2 mantle Y7tzs     
n.斗篷,覆罩之物,罩子;v.罩住,覆盖,脸红
参考例句:
  • The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green.大地披上了苍翠欲滴的绿色斗篷。
  • The mountain was covered with a mantle of snow.山上覆盖着一层雪。
3 abrupt 2fdyh     
adj.突然的,意外的;唐突的,鲁莽的
参考例句:
  • The river takes an abrupt bend to the west.这河突然向西转弯。
  • His abrupt reply hurt our feelings.他粗鲁的回答伤了我们的感情。
4 climax yqyzc     
n.顶点;高潮;v.(使)达到顶点
参考例句:
  • The fifth scene was the climax of the play.第五场是全剧的高潮。
  • His quarrel with his father brought matters to a climax.他与他父亲的争吵使得事态发展到了顶点。
5 ascended ea3eb8c332a31fe6393293199b82c425     
v.上升,攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • He has ascended into heaven. 他已经升入了天堂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The climbers slowly ascended the mountain. 爬山运动员慢慢地登上了这座山。 来自《简明英汉词典》
6 gilded UgxxG     
a.镀金的,富有的
参考例句:
  • The golden light gilded the sea. 金色的阳光使大海如金子般闪闪发光。
  • "Friends, they are only gilded disks of lead!" "朋友们,这只不过是些镀金的铅饼! 来自英汉文学 - 败坏赫德莱堡
7 meditation yjXyr     
n.熟虑,(尤指宗教的)默想,沉思,(pl.)冥想录
参考例句:
  • This peaceful garden lends itself to meditation.这个恬静的花园适于冥想。
  • I'm sorry to interrupt your meditation.很抱歉,我打断了你的沉思。
8 wont peXzFP     
adj.习惯于;v.习惯;n.习惯
参考例句:
  • He was wont to say that children are lazy.他常常说小孩子们懒惰。
  • It is his wont to get up early.早起是他的习惯。
9 minor e7fzR     
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修
参考例句:
  • The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
  • I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。
10 intercourse NbMzU     
n.性交;交流,交往,交际
参考例句:
  • The magazine becomes a cultural medium of intercourse between the two peoples.该杂志成为两民族间文化交流的媒介。
  • There was close intercourse between them.他们过往很密。
11 repudiate 6Bcz7     
v.拒绝,拒付,拒绝履行
参考例句:
  • He will indignantly repudiate the suggestion.他会气愤地拒绝接受这一意见。
  • He repudiate all debts incurred by his son.他拒绝偿还他儿子的一切债务。
12 confession 8Ygye     
n.自白,供认,承认
参考例句:
  • Her confession was simply tantamount to a casual explanation.她的自白简直等于一篇即席说明。
  • The police used torture to extort a confession from him.警察对他用刑逼供。
13 planks 534a8a63823ed0880db6e2c2bc03ee4a     
(厚)木板( plank的名词复数 ); 政纲条目,政策要点
参考例句:
  • The house was built solidly of rough wooden planks. 这房子是用粗木板牢固地建造的。
  • We sawed the log into planks. 我们把木头锯成了木板。
14 plunge 228zO     
v.跳入,(使)投入,(使)陷入;猛冲
参考例句:
  • Test pool's water temperature before you plunge in.在你跳入之前你应该测试水温。
  • That would plunge them in the broil of the two countries.那将会使他们陷入这两国的争斗之中。
15 immediate aapxh     
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的
参考例句:
  • His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
  • We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。
16 plunged 06a599a54b33c9d941718dccc7739582     
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降
参考例句:
  • The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
  • She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳,从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。
17 steadily Qukw6     
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地
参考例句:
  • The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
  • Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。
18 ashore tNQyT     
adv.在(向)岸上,上岸
参考例句:
  • The children got ashore before the tide came in.涨潮前,孩子们就上岸了。
  • He laid hold of the rope and pulled the boat ashore.他抓住绳子拉船靠岸。
19 persistently MlzztP     
ad.坚持地;固执地
参考例句:
  • He persistently asserted his right to a share in the heritage. 他始终声称他有分享那笔遗产的权利。
  • She persistently asserted her opinions. 她果断地说出了自己的意见。
20 asseverate 2Olyu     
v.断言
参考例句:
  • I will asseverate my conviction that she is guilty.我坚持有罪判决,因为她是有罪的。
  • They are explainable as a species of mental atavism. 这些都可以解释为一种精神的返祖现象。
21 disposition GljzO     
n.性情,性格;意向,倾向;排列,部署
参考例句:
  • He has made a good disposition of his property.他已对财产作了妥善处理。
  • He has a cheerful disposition.他性情开朗。
22 impatience OaOxC     
n.不耐烦,急躁
参考例句:
  • He expressed impatience at the slow rate of progress.进展缓慢,他显得不耐烦。
  • He gave a stamp of impatience.他不耐烦地跺脚。
23 irony P4WyZ     
n.反语,冷嘲;具有讽刺意味的事,嘲弄
参考例句:
  • She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
  • In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。
24 fixed JsKzzj     
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的
参考例句:
  • Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗?
  • Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定,我们就不应该随意改变。
25 concurred 1830b9fe9fc3a55d928418c131a295bd     
同意(concur的过去式与过去分词形式)
参考例句:
  • Historians have concurred with each other in this view. 历史学家在这个观点上已取得一致意见。
  • So many things concurred to give rise to the problem. 许多事情同时发生而导致了这一问题。
26 credible JOAzG     
adj.可信任的,可靠的
参考例句:
  • The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
  • Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法?
27 interval 85kxY     
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息
参考例句:
  • The interval between the two trees measures 40 feet.这两棵树的间隔是40英尺。
  • There was a long interval before he anwsered the telephone.隔了好久他才回了电话。
28 mustered 3659918c9e43f26cfb450ce83b0cbb0b     
v.集合,召集,集结(尤指部队)( muster的过去式和过去分词 );(自他人处)搜集某事物;聚集;激发
参考例句:
  • We mustered what support we could for the plan. 我们极尽所能为这项计划寻求支持。
  • The troops mustered on the square. 部队已在广场上集合。 来自《简明英汉词典》
29 glowered a6eb2c77ae3214b63cde004e1d79bc7f     
v.怒视( glower的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • He just glowered without speaking. 他一言不发地皱眉怒视我。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He glowered at me but said nothing. 他怒视着我,却一言不发。 来自辞典例句
30 remarkable 8Vbx6     
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的
参考例句:
  • She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
  • These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。
31 lucid B8Zz8     
adj.明白易懂的,清晰的,头脑清楚的
参考例句:
  • His explanation was lucid and to the point.他的解释扼要易懂。
  • He wasn't very lucid,he didn't quite know where he was.他神志不是很清醒,不太知道自己在哪里。
32 variance MiXwb     
n.矛盾,不同
参考例句:
  • The question of woman suffrage sets them at variance. 妇女参政的问题使他们发生争执。
  • It is unnatural for brothers to be at variance. 兄弟之间不睦是不近人情的。
33 contention oZ5yd     
n.争论,争辩,论战;论点,主张
参考例句:
  • The pay increase is the key point of contention. 加薪是争论的焦点。
  • The real bone of contention,as you know,is money.你知道,争论的真正焦点是钱的问题。
34 mused 0affe9d5c3a243690cca6d4248d41a85     
v.沉思,冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 );沉思自语说(某事)
参考例句:
  • \"I wonder if I shall ever see them again, \"he mused. “我不知道是否还可以再见到他们,”他沉思自问。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • \"Where are we going from here?\" mused one of Rutherford's guests. 卢瑟福的一位客人忍不住说道:‘我们这是在干什么?” 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
35 lustre hAhxg     
n.光亮,光泽;荣誉
参考例句:
  • The sun was shining with uncommon lustre.太阳放射出异常的光彩。
  • A good name keeps its lustre in the dark.一个好的名誉在黑暗中也保持它的光辉。
36 portent 5ioy4     
n.预兆;恶兆;怪事
参考例句:
  • I see it as a portent of things to come.我把它看作是将要到来的事物的前兆。
  • As for her engagement with Adam,I would say the portents are gloomy.至于她和亚当的婚约,我看兆头不妙。
37 reassure 9TgxW     
v.使放心,使消除疑虑
参考例句:
  • This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点,于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
  • The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。
38 apparently tMmyQ     
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎
参考例句:
  • An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽,豁然开朗。
  • He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。
39 candid SsRzS     
adj.公正的,正直的;坦率的
参考例句:
  • I cannot but hope the candid reader will give some allowance for it.我只有希望公正的读者多少包涵一些。
  • He is quite candid with his friends.他对朋友相当坦诚。
40 gathering ChmxZ     
n.集会,聚会,聚集
参考例句:
  • He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
  • He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。
41 emphasise emphasise     
vt.加强...的语气,强调,着重
参考例句:
  • What special feature do you think I should emphasise? 你认为我该强调什么呢?
  • The exercises heavily emphasise the required readings.练习非常强调必须的阅读。
42 perversity D3kzJ     
n.任性;刚愎自用
参考例句:
  • She's marrying him out of sheer perversity.她嫁给他纯粹是任性。
  • The best of us have a spice of perversity in us.在我们最出色的人身上都有任性的一面。
43 conformity Hpuz9     
n.一致,遵从,顺从
参考例句:
  • Was his action in conformity with the law?他的行动是否合法?
  • The plan was made in conformity with his views.计划仍按他的意见制定。
44 inaccessible 49Nx8     
adj.达不到的,难接近的
参考例句:
  • This novel seems to me among the most inaccessible.这本书对我来说是最难懂的小说之一。
  • The top of Mount Everest is the most inaccessible place in the world.珠穆朗玛峰是世界上最难到达的地方。
45 specious qv3wk     
adj.似是而非的;adv.似是而非地
参考例句:
  • Such talk is actually specious and groundless.这些话实际上毫无根据,似是而非的。
  • It is unlikely that the Duke was convinced by such specious arguments.公爵不太可能相信这种似是而非的论点。
46 ornament u4czn     
v.装饰,美化;n.装饰,装饰物
参考例句:
  • The flowers were put on the table for ornament.花放在桌子上做装饰用。
  • She wears a crystal ornament on her chest.她的前胸戴了一个水晶饰品。
47 spoke XryyC     
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
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
48 intensity 45Ixd     
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度
参考例句:
  • I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
  • The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。
49 abet cfuyk     
v.教唆,鼓励帮助
参考例句:
  • Do not abet your friend to pry into other people's privacy.不要唆使朋友去窥探别人隐私。
  • Be do grateful to those who rebuke you,because they abet your wisdom!一定要感激那些斥责你的人,因为他们助长了你的智慧!
50 apprehension bNayw     
n.理解,领悟;逮捕,拘捕;忧虑
参考例句:
  • There were still areas of doubt and her apprehension grew.有些地方仍然存疑,于是她越来越担心。
  • She is a girl of weak apprehension.她是一个理解力很差的女孩。
51 thrifty NIgzT     
adj.节俭的;兴旺的;健壮的
参考例句:
  • Except for smoking and drinking,he is a thrifty man.除了抽烟、喝酒,他是个生活节俭的人。
  • She was a thrifty woman and managed to put aside some money every month.她是个很会持家的妇女,每月都设法存些钱。
52 renewal UtZyW     
adj.(契约)延期,续订,更新,复活,重来
参考例句:
  • Her contract is coming up for renewal in the autumn.她的合同秋天就应该续签了。
  • Easter eggs symbolize the renewal of life.复活蛋象征新生。
53 flicker Gjxxb     
vi./n.闪烁,摇曳,闪现
参考例句:
  • There was a flicker of lights coming from the abandoned house.这所废弃的房屋中有灯光闪烁。
  • At first,the flame may be a small flicker,barely shining.开始时,光辉可能是微弱地忽隐忽现,几乎并不灿烂。
54 extremities AtOzAr     
n.端点( extremity的名词复数 );尽头;手和足;极窘迫的境地
参考例句:
  • She was most noticeable, I thought, in respect of her extremities. 我觉得她那副穷极可怜的样子实在太惹人注目。 来自辞典例句
  • Winters may be quite cool at the northwestern extremities. 西北边区的冬天也可能会相当凉。 来自辞典例句
55 lengthened 4c0dbc9eb35481502947898d5e9f0a54     
(时间或空间)延长,伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The afternoon shadows lengthened. 下午影子渐渐变长了。
  • He wanted to have his coat lengthened a bit. 他要把上衣放长一些。
56 docility fa2bc100be92db9a613af5832f9b75b9     
n.容易教,易驾驶,驯服
参考例句:
  • He was trying to plant the seed of revolt, arouse that placid peasant docility. 他想撒下反叛的种子,唤醒这个安分驯良的农民的觉悟。 来自辞典例句
  • With unusual docility, Nancy stood up and followed him as he left the newsroom. 南希以难得的顺从站起身来,尾随着他离开了新闻编辑室。 来自辞典例句
57 agitation TN0zi     
n.搅动;搅拌;鼓动,煽动
参考例句:
  • Small shopkeepers carried on a long agitation against the big department stores.小店主们长期以来一直在煽动人们反对大型百货商店。
  • These materials require constant agitation to keep them in suspension.这些药剂要经常搅动以保持悬浮状态。
58 pretext 1Qsxi     
n.借口,托词
参考例句:
  • He used his headache as a pretext for not going to school.他借口头疼而不去上学。
  • He didn't attend that meeting under the pretext of sickness.他以生病为借口,没参加那个会议。
59 promptly LRMxm     
adv.及时地,敏捷地
参考例句:
  • He paid the money back promptly.他立即还了钱。
  • She promptly seized the opportunity his absence gave her.她立即抓住了因他不在场给她创造的机会。
60 insufficient L5vxu     
adj.(for,of)不足的,不够的
参考例句:
  • There was insufficient evidence to convict him.没有足够证据给他定罪。
  • In their day scientific knowledge was insufficient to settle the matter.在他们的时代,科学知识还不能足以解决这些问题。
61 demonstration 9waxo     
n.表明,示范,论证,示威
参考例句:
  • His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
  • He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。
62 wail XMhzs     
vt./vi.大声哀号,恸哭;呼啸,尖啸
参考例句:
  • Somewhere in the audience an old woman's voice began plaintive wail.观众席里,一位老太太伤心地哭起来。
  • One of the small children began to wail with terror.小孩中的一个吓得大哭起来。
63 distress 3llzX     
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛
参考例句:
  • Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
  • Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。
64 smothered b9bebf478c8f7045d977e80734a8ed1d     
(使)窒息, (使)透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 ); 覆盖; 忍住; 抑制
参考例句:
  • He smothered the baby with a pillow. 他用枕头把婴儿闷死了。
  • The fire is smothered by ashes. 火被灰闷熄了。
65 drawn MuXzIi     
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的
参考例句:
  • All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
  • Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。
66 gasped e6af294d8a7477229d6749fa9e8f5b80     
v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要
参考例句:
  • She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
  • People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
67 colloquy 8bRyH     
n.谈话,自由讨论
参考例句:
  • The colloquy between them was brief.他们之间的对话很简洁。
  • They entered into eager colloquy with each other.他们展开热切的相互交谈。
68 gilt p6UyB     
adj.镀金的;n.金边证券
参考例句:
  • The plates have a gilt edge.这些盘子的边是镀金的。
  • The rest of the money is invested in gilt.其余的钱投资于金边证券。
69 looming 1060bc05c0969cf209c57545a22ee156     
n.上现蜃景(光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼)v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近
参考例句:
  • The foothills were looming ahead through the haze. 丘陵地带透过薄雾朦胧地出现在眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Then they looked up. Looming above them was Mount Proteome. 接着他们往上看,在其上隐约看到的是蛋白质组山。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望
70 sufficiently 0htzMB     
adv.足够地,充分地
参考例句:
  • It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
  • The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。
71 reverted 5ac73b57fcce627aea1bfd3f5d01d36c     
恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 ); 重提; 回到…上; 归还
参考例句:
  • After the settlers left, the area reverted to desert. 早期移民离开之后,这个地区又变成了一片沙漠。
  • After his death the house reverted to its original owner. 他死后房子归还给了原先的主人。


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