More than a quarter of a century has slipped by since then, and in the interval3 Milby has advanced at as rapid a pace as other market-towns in her Majesty’s dominions4. By this time it has a handsome railway station, where the drowsy5 London traveller may look out by the brilliant gas-light and see perfectly6 sober papas and husbands alighting with their leatherbags after transacting7 their day’s business at the county town. There is a resident rector, who appeals to the consciences of his hearers with all the immense advantages of a divine who keeps his own carriage; the church is enlarged by at least five hundred sittings; and the grammar school, conducted on reformed principles, has its upper forms crowded with the genteel youth of Milby. The gentlemen there fall into no other excess at dinner-parties than the perfectly well-bred and virtuous8 excess of stupidity; and though the ladies are still said sometimes to take too much upon themselves, they are never known to take too much in any other way. The conversation is sometimes quite literary, for there is a flourishing book-club, and many of the younger ladies have carried their studies so far as to have forgotten a little German. In short, Milby is now a refined, moral, and enlightened town; no more resembling the Milby of former days than the huge, long-skirted, drab greatcoat that embarrassed the ankles of our grandfathers resembled the light paletot in which we tread jauntily9 through the muddiest streets, or than the bottle-nosed Britons, rejoicing over a tankard, in the old sign of the Two Travellers at Milby, resembled the severe-looking gentleman in straps10 and high collars whom a modern artist has represented as sipping11 the imaginary port of that well-known commercial house.
But pray, reader, dismiss from your mind all the refined and fashionable ideas associated with this advanced state of things, and transport your imagination to a time when Milby had no gas-lights; when the mail drove up dusty or bespattered to the door of the Red Lion; when old Mr. Crewe, the curate, in a brown Brutus wig12, delivered inaudible sermons on a Sunday, and on a week-day imparted the education of a gentleman—that is to say, an arduous13 inacquaintance with Latin through the medium of the Eton Grammar—to three pupils in the upper grammar-school.
If you had passed through Milby on the coach at that time, you would have had no idea what important people lived there, and how very high a sense of rank was prevalent among them. It was a dingy15-looking town, with a strong smell of tanning up one street and a great shaking of hand-looms up another; and even in that focus of aristocracy, Friar’s Gate, the houses would not have seemed very imposing16 to the hasty and superficial glance of a passenger. You might still less have suspected that the figure in light fustian17 and large grey whiskers, leaning against the grocer’s door-post in High Street, was no less a person than Mr. Lowme, one of the most aristocratic men in Milby, said to have been ‘brought up a gentleman’, and to have had the gay habits accordant with that station, keeping his harriers and other expensive animals. He was now quite an elderly Lothario, reduced to the most economical sins; the prominent form of his gaiety being this of lounging at Mr. Gruby’s door, embarrassing the servant-maids who came for grocery, and talking scandal with the rare passers-by. Still, it was generally understood that Mr. Lowme belonged to the highest circle of Milby society; his sons and daughters held up their heads very high indeed; and in spite of his condescending18 way of chatting and drinking with inferior people, he would himself have scorned any closer identification with them. It must be admitted that he was of some service to the town in this station at Mr. Gruby’s door, for he and Mr. Landor’s Newfoundland dog, who stretched himself and gaped20 on the opposite causeway, took something from the lifeless air that belonged to the High Street on every day except Saturday.
Certainly, in spite of three assemblies and a charity ball in the winter, the occasional advent21 of a ventriloquist, or a company of itinerant22 players, some of whom were very highly thought of in London, and the annual three-days’ fair in June, Milby might be considered dull by people of a hypochondriacal temperament23; and perhaps this was one reason why many of the middle-aged24 inhabitants, male and female, often found it impossible to keep up their spirits without a very abundant supply of stimulants25. It is true there were several substantial men who had a reputation for exceptional sobriety, so that Milby habits were really not as bad as possible; and no one is warranted in saying that old Mr. Crewe’s flock could not have been worse without any clergyman at all.
The well-dressed parishioners generally were very regular church-goers, and to the younger ladies and gentlemen I am inclined to think that the Sunday morning service was the most exciting event of the week; for few places could present a more brilliant show of out-door toilettes than might be seen issuing from Milby church at one o’clock. There were the four tall Miss Pittmans, old lawyer Pittman’s daughters, with cannon26 curls surmounted27 by large hats, and long, drooping28 ostrich29 feathers of parrot green. There was Miss Phipps, with a crimson30 bonnet31, very much tilted32 up behind, and a cockade of stiff feathers on the summit. There was Miss Landor, the belle33 of Milby, clad regally in purple and ermine, with a plume34 of feathers neither drooping nor erect35, but maintaining a discreet36 medium. There were the three Miss Tomlinsons, who imitated Miss Landor, and also wore ermine and feathers; but their beauty was considered of a coarse order, and their square forms were quite unsuited to the round tippet which fell with such remarkable37 grace on Miss Landor’s sloping shoulders. Looking at this plumed38 procession of ladies, you would have formed rather a high idea of Milby wealth; yet there was only one close carriage in the place, and that was old Mr. Landor’s, the banker, who, I think, never drove more than one horse. These sumptuously-attired ladies flashed past the vulgar eye in one-horse chaises, by no means of a superior build.
The young gentlemen, too, were not without their little Sunday displays of costume, of a limited masculine kind. Mr. Eustace Landor, being nearly of age, had recently acquired a diamond ring, together with the habit of rubbing his hand through his hair. He was tall and dark, and thus had an advantage which Mr. Alfred Phipps, who, like his sister, was blond and stumpy, found it difficult to overtake, even by the severest attention to shirt-studs, and the particular shade of brown that was best relieved by gilt39 buttons.
The respect for the Sabbath, manifested in this attention to costume, was unhappily counterbalanced by considerable levity40 of behaviour during the prayers and sermon; for the young ladies and gentlemen of Milby were of a very satirical turn, Miss Landor especially being considered remarkably clever, and a terrible quiz; and the large congregation necessarily containing many persons inferior in dress and demeanour to the distinguished41 aristocratic minority, divine service offered irresistible42 temptations to joking, through the medium of telegraphic communications from the galleries to the aisles43 and back again. I remember blushing very much, and thinking Miss Landor was laughing at me, because I was appearing in coat-tails for the first time, when I saw her look down slyly towards where I sat, and then turn with a titter to handsome Mr. Bob Lowme, who had such beautiful whiskers meeting under his chin. But perhaps she was not thinking of me, after all; for our pew was near the pulpit, and there was almost always something funny about old Mr. Crewe. His brown wig was hardly ever put on quite right, and he had a way of raising his voice for three or four words, and lowering it again to a mumble44, so that we could scarcely make out a word he said; though, as my mother observed, that was of no consequence in the prayers, since every one had a prayer-book; and as for the sermon, she continued with some causticity45, we all of us heard more of it than we could remember when we got home.
This youthful generation was not particularly literary. The young ladies who frizzed their hair, and gathered it all into large barricades46 in front of their heads, leaving their occipital region exposed without ornament47, as if that, being a back view, was of no consequence, dreamed as little that their daughters would read a selection of German poetry, and be able to express an admiration48 for Schiller, as that they would turn all their hair the other way—that instead of threatening us with barricades in front, they would be most killing49 in retreat,
‘And, like the Parthian, wound us as they fly.’
Those charming well-frizzed ladies spoke50 French indeed with considerable facility, unshackled by any timid regard to idiom, and were in the habit of conducting conversations in that language in the presence of their less instructed elders; for according to the standard of those backward days, their education had been very lavish51, such young ladies as Miss Landor, Miss Phipps, and the Miss Pittmans, having been ‘finished’ at distant and expensive schools.
Old lawyer Pittman had once been a very important person indeed, having in his earlier days managed the affairs of several gentlemen in those parts, who had subsequently been obliged to sell everything and leave the country, in which crisis Mr. Pittman accommodatingly stepped in as a purchaser of their estates, taking on himself the risk and trouble of a more leisurely52 sale; which, however, happened to turn out very much to his advantage. Such opportunities occur quite unexpectedly in the way of business. But I think Mr. Pittman must have been unlucky in his later speculations53, for now, in his old age, he had not the reputation of being very rich; and though he rode slowly to his office in Milby every morning on an old white hackney, he had to resign the chief profits, as well as the active business of the firm, to his younger partner, Dempster. No one in Milby considered old Pittman a virtuous man, and the elder townspeople were not at all backward in narrating54 the least advantageous55 portions of his biography in a very round unvarnished manner. Yet I could never observe that they trusted him any the less, or liked him any the worse. Indeed, Pittman and Dempster were the popular lawyers of Milby and its neighbourhood, and Mr. Benjamin Landor, whom no one had anything particular to say against, had a very meagre business in comparison. Hardly a landholder, hardly a farmer, hardly a parish within ten miles of Milby, whose affairs were not under the legal guardianship56 of Pittman and Dempster; and I think the clients were proud of their lawyers’ unscrupulousness, as the patrons of the fancy’s are proud of their champion’s ‘condition’. It was not, to be sure, the thing for ordinary life, but it was the thing to be bet on in a lawyer. Dempster’s talent in ‘bringing through’ a client was a very common topic of conversation with the farmers, over an incidental glass of grog at the Red Lion. ‘He’s a long-headed feller, Dempster; why, it shows yer what a headpiece Dempster has, as he can drink a bottle o’ brandy at a sittin’, an’ yit see further through a stone wall when he’s done, than other folks ’ll see through a glass winder.’ Even Mr. Jerome, chief member of the congregation at Salem Chapel57, an elderly man of very strict life, was one of Dempster’s clients, and had quite an exceptional indulgence for his attorney’s foibles, perhaps attributing them to the inevitable58 incompatibility59 of law and gospel.
The standard of morality at Milby, you perceive, was not inconveniently60 high in those good old times, and an ingenuous61 vice19 or two was what every man expected of his neighbour. Old Mr. Crewe, the curate, for example, was allowed to enjoy his avarice62 in comfort, without fear of sarcastic63 parish demagogues; and his flock liked him all the better for having scraped together a large fortune out of his school and curacy, and the proceeds of the three thousand pounds he had with his little deaf wife. It was clear he must be a learned man, for he had once had a large private school in connection with the grammar school, and had even numbered a young nobleman or two among his pupils. The fact that he read nothing at all now, and that his mind seemed absorbed in the commonest matters, was doubtless due to his having exhausted64 the resources of erudition earlier in life. It is true he was not spoken of in terms of high respect, and old Crewe’s stingy housekeeping was a frequent subject of jesting; but this was a good old-fashioned characteristic in a parson who had been part of Milby life for half a century: it was like the dents65 and disfigurements in an old family tankard, which no one would like to part with for a smart new piece of plate fresh from Birmingham. The parishioners saw no reason at all why it should be desirable to venerate66 the parson or any one else; they were much more comfortable to look down a little on their fellow-creatures.
Even the Dissent67 in Milby was then of a lax and indifferent kind. The doctrine68 of adult baptism, struggling under a heavy load of debt, had let off half its chapel area as a ribbon-shop; and Methodism was only to be detected, as you detect curious larvae69, by diligent70 search in dirty corners. The Independents were the only Dissenters71 of whose existence Milby gentility was at all conscious, and it had a vague idea that the salient points of their creed72 were prayer without book, red brick, and hypocrisy73. The Independent chapel, known as Salem, stood red and conspicuous74 in a broad street; more than one pew-holder kept a brass-bound gig; and Mr. Jerome, a retired75 corn-factor, and the most eminent76 member of the congregation, was one of the richest men in the parish. But in spite of this apparent prosperity, together with the usual amount of extemporaneous77 preaching mitigated78 by furtive79 notes, Salem belied80 its name, and was not always the abode81 of peace. For some reason or other, it was unfortunate in the choice of its ministers. The Rev14. Mr. Horner, elected with brilliant hopes, was discovered to be given to tippling and quarrelling with his wife; the Rev. Mr. Rose’s doctrine was a little too ‘high’, verging82 on antinomianism; the Rev. Mr. Stickney’s gift as a preacher was found to be less striking on a more extended acquaintance; and the Rev. Mr. Smith, a distinguished minister much sought after in the iron districts, with a talent for poetry, became objectionable from an inclination83 to exchange verses with the young ladies of his congregation. It was reasonably argued that such verses as Mr. Smith’s must take a long time for their composition, and the habit alluded84 to might intrench seriously on his pastoral duties. These reverend gentlemen, one and all, gave it as their opinion that the Salem church members were among the least enlightened of the Lord’s people, and that Milby was a low place, where they would have found it a severe lot to have their lines fall for any long period; though to see the smart and crowded congregation assembled on occasion of the annual charity sermon, any one might have supposed that the minister of Salem had rather a brilliant position in the ranks of Dissent. Several Church families used to attend on that occasion, for Milby, in those uninstructed days, had not yet heard that the schismatic ministers of Salem were obviously typified by Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and many Church people there were of opinion that Dissent might be a weakness, but, after all, had no great harm in it. These lax Episcopalians were, I believe, chiefly tradespeople, who held that, inasmuch as Congregationalism consumed candles, it ought to be supported, and accordingly made a point of presenting themselves at Salem for the afternoon charity sermon, with the expectation of being asked to hold a plate. Mr. Pilgrim, too, was always there with his half-sovereign; for as there was no Dissenting85 doctor in Milby, Mr. Pilgrim looked with great tolerance86 on all shades of religious opinion that did not include a belief in cures by miracle.
On this point he had the concurrence87 of Mr. Pratt, the only other medical man of the same standing88 in Milby. Otherwise, it was remarkable how strongly these two clever men were contrasted. Pratt was middle-sized, insinuating89, and silvery-voiced; Pilgrim was tall, heavy, rough-mannered, and spluttering. Both were considered to have great powers of conversation, but Pratt’s anecdotes90 were of the fine old crusted quality to be procured91 only of Joe Miller92; Pilgrim’s had the full fruity flavour of the most recent scandal. Pratt elegantly referred all diseases to debility, and, with a proper contempt for symptomatic treatment, went to the root of the matter with port wine and bark; Pilgrim was persuaded that the evil principle in the human system was plethora93, and he made war against it with cupping, blistering95, and cathartics. They had both been long established in Milby, and as each had a sufficient practice, there was no very malignant96 rivalry97 between them; on the contrary, they had that sort of friendly contempt for each other which is always conducive98 to a good understanding between professional men; and when any new surgeon attempted, in an ill-advised hour, to settle himself in the town, it was strikingly demonstrated how slight and trivial are theoretic differences compared with the broad basis of common human feeling. There was the most perfect unanimity99 between Pratt and Pilgrim in the determination to drive away the obnoxious100 and too probably unqualified intruder as soon as possible. Whether the first wonderful cure he effected was on a patient of Pratt’s or of Pilgrim’s, one was as ready as the other to pull the interloper by the nose, and both alike directed their remarkable powers of conversation towards making the town too hot for him. But by their respective patients these two distinguished men were pitted against each other with great virulence101. Mrs. Lowme could not conceal102 her amazement103 that Mrs. Phipps should trust her life in the hands of Pratt, who let her feed herself up to that degree, it was really shocking to hear how short her breath was; and Mrs. Phipps had no patience with Mrs. Lowme, living, as she did, on tea and broth104, and looking as yellow as any crow-flower, and yet letting Pilgrim bleed and blister94 her and give her lowering medicine till her clothes hung on her like a scarecrow’s. On the whole, perhaps, Mr. Pilgrim’s reputation was at the higher pitch, and when any lady under Mr. Pratt’s care was doing ill, she was half disposed to think that a little more ‘active treatment’ might suit her better. But without very definite provocation105 no one would take so serious a step as to part with the family doctor, for in those remote days there were few varieties of human hatred106 more formidable than the medical. The doctor’s estimate, even of a confiding107 patient, was apt to rise and fall with the entries in the day-book; and I have known Mr. Pilgrim discover the most unexpected virtues108 in a patient seized with a promising109 illness. At such times you might have been glad to perceive that there were some of Mr. Pilgrim’s fellow-creatures of whom he entertained a high opinion, and that he was liable to the amiable110 weakness of a too admiring estimate. A good inflammation fired his enthusiasm, and a lingering dropsy dissolved him into charity. Doubtless this crescendo111 of benevolence112 was partly due to feelings not at all represented by the entries in the day-book; for in Mr. Pilgrim’s heart, too, there was a latent store of tenderness and pity which flowed forth113 at the sight of suffering. Gradually, however, as his patients became convalescent, his view of their characters became more dispassionate; when they could relish114 mutton-chops, he began to admit that they had foibles, and by the time they had swallowed their last dose of tonic115, he was alive to their most inexcusable faults. After this, the thermometer of his regard rested at the moderate point of friendly backbiting116, which sufficed to make him agreeable in his morning visits to the amiable and worthy117 persons who were yet far from convalescent.
Pratt’s patients were profoundly uninteresting to Pilgrim: their very diseases were despicable, and he would hardly have thought their bodies worth dissecting118. But of all Pratt’s patients, Mr. Jerome was the one on whom Mr. Pilgrim heaped the most unmitigated contempt. In spite of the surgeon’s wise tolerance, Dissent became odious119 to him in the person of Mr. Jerome. Perhaps it was because that old gentleman, being rich, and having very large yearly bills for medical attendance on himself and his wife, nevertheless employed Pratt—neglected all the advantages of ‘active treatment’, and paid away his money without getting his system lowered. On any other ground it is hard to explain a feeling of hostility120 to Mr. Jerome, who was an excellent old gentleman, expressing a great deal of goodwill121 towards his neighbours, not only in imperfect English, but in loans of money to the ostensibly rich, and in sacks of potatoes to the obviously poor.
Assuredly Milby had that salt of goodness which keeps the world together, in greater abundance than was visible on the surface: innocent babes were born there, sweetening their parents’ hearts with simple joys; men and women withering122 in disappointed worldliness, or bloated with sensual ease, had better moments in which they pressed the hand of suffering with sympathy, and were moved to deeds of neighbourly kindness. In church and in chapel there were honest-hearted worshippers who strove to keep a conscience void of offence; and even up the dimmest alleys123 you might have found here and there a Wesleyan to whom Methodism was the vehicle of peace on earth and goodwill to men. To a superficial glance, Milby was nothing but dreary124 prose: a dingy town, surrounded by flat fields, lopped elms, and sprawling125 manufacturing villages, which crept on and on with their weaving-shops, till they threatened to graft126 themselves on the town. But the sweet spring came to Milby notwithstanding: the elm-tops were red with buds; the churchyard was starred with daisies; the lark127 showered his love-music on the flat fields; the rainbows hung over the dingy town, clothing the very roofs and chimneys in a strange transfiguring beauty. And so it was with the human life there, which at first seemed a dismal128 mixture of griping worldliness, vanity, ostrich feathers, and the fumes129 of brandy: looking closer, you found some purity, gentleness, and unselfishness, as you may have observed a scented130 geranium giving forth its wholesome131 odours amidst blasphemy132 and gin in a noisy pot-house. Little deaf Mrs. Crewe would often carry half her own spare dinner to the sick and hungry; Miss Phipps, with her cockade of red feathers, had a filial heart, and lighted her father’s pipe with a pleasant smile; and there were grey-haired men in drab gaiters, not at all noticeable as you passed them in the street, whose integrity had been the basis of their rich neighbour’s wealth.
Such as the place was, the people there were entirely133 contented134 with it. They fancied life must be but a dull affair for that large portion of mankind who were necessarily shut out from an acquaintance with Milby families, and that it must be an advantage to London and Liverpool that Milby gentlemen occasionally visited those places on business. But the inhabitants became more intensely conscious of the value they set upon all their advantages, when innovation made its appearance in the person of the Rev. Mr. Tryan, the new curate, at the chapel-of-ease on Paddiford Common. It was soon notorious in Milby that Mr. Tryan held peculiar135 opinions; that he preached extempore; that he was founding a religious lending library in his remote corner of the parish; that he expounded136 the Scriptures137 in cottages; and that his preaching was attracting the Dissenters, and filling the very aisles of his church. The rumour138 sprang up that Evangelicalism had invaded Milby parish—a murrain or blight139 all the more terrible, because its nature was but dimly conjectured140. Perhaps Milby was one of the last spots to be reached by the wave of a new movement and it was only now, when the tide was just on the turn, that the limpets there got a sprinkling. Mr. Tryan was the first Evangelical clergyman who had risen above the Milby horizon: hitherto that obnoxious adjective had been unknown to the townspeople of any gentility; and there were even many Dissenters who considered ‘evangelical’ simply a sort of baptismal name to the magazine which circulated among the congregation of Salem Chapel. But now, at length, the disease had been imported, when the parishioners were expecting it as little as the innocent Red Indians expected smallpox141. As long as Mr. Tryan’s hearers were confined to Paddiford Common—which, by the by, was hardly recognizable as a common at all, but was a dismal district where you heard the rattle142 of the handloom, and breathed the smoke of coal-pits—the ‘canting parson’ could be treated as a joke. Not so when a number of single ladies in the town appeared to be infected, and even one or two men of substantial property, with old Mr. Landor, the banker, at their head, seemed to be ‘giving in’ to the new movement—when Mr. Tryan was known to be well received in several good houses, where he was in the habit of finishing the evening with exhortation144 and prayer. Evangelicalism was no longer a nuisance existing merely in by-corners, which any well-clad person could avoid; it was invading the very drawing-rooms, mingling145 itself with the comfortable fumes of port-wine and brandy, threatening to deaden with its murky146 breath all the splendour of the ostrich feathers, and to stifle147 Milby ingenuousness148, not pretending to be better than its neighbours, with a cloud of cant143 and lugubrious149 hypocrisy. The alarm reached its climax150 when it was reported that Mr. Tryan was endeavouring to obtain authority from Mr. Prendergast, the non-resident rector, to establish a Sunday evening lecture in the parish church, on the ground that old Mr. Crewe did not preach the Gospel.
It now first appeared how surprisingly high a value Milby in general set on the ministrations of Mr. Crewe; how convinced it was that Mr. Crewe was the model of a parish priest, and his sermons the soundest and most edifying151 that had ever remained unheard by a church-going population. All allusions152 to his brown wig were suppressed, and by a rhetorical figure his name was associated with venerable grey hairs; the attempted intrusion of Mr. Tryan was an insult to a man deep in years and learning; moreover, it was an insolent153 effort to thrust himself forward in a parish where he was clearly distasteful to the superior portion of its inhabitants. The town was divided into two zealous154 parties, the Tryanites and anti-Tryanites; and by the exertions155 of the eloquent156 Dempster, the anti-Tryanite virulence was soon developed into an organized opposition157. A protest against the meditated158 evening lecture was framed by that orthodox attorney, and, after being numerously signed, was to be carried to Mr. Prendergast by three delegates representing the intellect, morality, and wealth of Milby. The intellect, you perceive, was to be personified in Mr. Dempster, the morality in Mr. Budd, and the wealth in Mr. Tomlinson; and the distinguished triad was to set out on its great mission, as we have seen, on the third day from that warm Saturday evening when the conversation recorded in the previous chapter took place in the bar of the Red Lion.
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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witty
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| adj.机智的，风趣的 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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dominions
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| 统治权( dominion的名词复数 )； 领土； 疆土； 版图 | |
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drowsy
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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transacting
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| v.办理（业务等）( transact的现在分词 )；交易，谈判 | |
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virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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jauntily
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| adv.心满意足地；洋洋得意地；高兴地；活泼地 | |
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straps
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| n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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sipping
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wig
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arduous
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| adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的 | |
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rev
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dingy
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imposing
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fustian
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condescending
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vice
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gaped
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advent
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itinerant
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temperament
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middle-aged
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stimulants
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cannon
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surmounted
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| 战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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28
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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29
ostrich
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| n.鸵鸟 | |
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30
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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31
bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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32
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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33
belle
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| n.靓女 | |
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34
plume
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| n.羽毛；v.整理羽毛，骚首弄姿，用羽毛装饰 | |
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35
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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36
discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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37
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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38
plumed
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| 饰有羽毛的 | |
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39
gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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40
levity
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| n.轻率，轻浮，不稳定，多变 | |
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41
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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42
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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43
aisles
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| n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊 | |
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44
mumble
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| n./v.喃喃而语，咕哝 | |
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45
causticity
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| n.尖刻，苛性度，刻薄 | |
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46
barricades
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| 路障，障碍物( barricade的名词复数 ) | |
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47
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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48
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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49
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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50
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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51
lavish
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| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
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52
leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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53
speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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54
narrating
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| v.故事( narrate的现在分词 ) | |
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55
advantageous
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| adj.有利的；有帮助的 | |
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56
guardianship
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| n. 监护, 保护, 守护 | |
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57
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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58
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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59
incompatibility
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| n.不兼容 | |
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60
inconveniently
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| ad.不方便地 | |
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61
ingenuous
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| adj.纯朴的，单纯的；天真的；坦率的 | |
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62
avarice
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| n.贪婪；贪心 | |
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63
sarcastic
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|
| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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64
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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65
dents
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| n.花边边饰；凹痕( dent的名词复数 )；凹部；减少；削弱v.使产生凹痕( dent的第三人称单数 )；损害；伤害；挫伤（信心、名誉等） | |
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66
venerate
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| v.尊敬，崇敬，崇拜 | |
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67
dissent
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| n./v.不同意，持异议 | |
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68
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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69
larvae
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| n.幼虫 | |
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70
diligent
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| adj.勤勉的，勤奋的 | |
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71
dissenters
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| n.持异议者，持不同意见者( dissenter的名词复数 ) | |
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72
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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73
hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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74
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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75
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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76
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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77
extemporaneous
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| adj.即席的，一时的 | |
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78
mitigated
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| v.减轻，缓和( mitigate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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79
furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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80
belied
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|
| v.掩饰( belie的过去式和过去分词 )；证明（或显示）…为虚假；辜负；就…扯谎 | |
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81
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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82
verging
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| 接近，逼近（verge的现在分词形式） | |
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83
inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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84
alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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85
dissenting
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| adj.不同意的 | |
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86
tolerance
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| n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差 | |
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87
concurrence
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| n.同意；并发 | |
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88
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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89
insinuating
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|
| adj.曲意巴结的，暗示的v.暗示( insinuate的现在分词 )；巧妙或迂回地潜入；（使）缓慢进入；慢慢伸入 | |
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90
anecdotes
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|
| n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 ) | |
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91
procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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92
miller
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| n.磨坊主 | |
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93
plethora
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| n.过量，过剩 | |
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94
blister
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| n.水疱；(油漆等的)气泡；v.(使)起泡 | |
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95
blistering
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|
| adj.酷热的；猛烈的；使起疱的；可恶的v.起水疱；起气泡；使受暴晒n.[涂料] 起泡 | |
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96
malignant
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|
| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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97
rivalry
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| n.竞争，竞赛，对抗 | |
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98
conducive
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| adj.有益的，有助的 | |
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99
unanimity
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| n.全体一致，一致同意 | |
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100
obnoxious
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|
| adj.极恼人的，讨人厌的，可憎的 | |
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101
virulence
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| n.毒力，毒性；病毒性；致病力 | |
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102
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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103
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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104
broth
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| n.原(汁)汤(鱼汤、肉汤、菜汤等) | |
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105
provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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106
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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107
confiding
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|
| adj.相信人的，易于相信的v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的现在分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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108
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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109
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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110
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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111
crescendo
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| n.(音乐)渐强，高潮 | |
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112
benevolence
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| n.慈悲，捐助 | |
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113
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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114
relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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115
tonic
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| n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的 | |
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116
backbiting
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| 背后诽谤 | |
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117
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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118
dissecting
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| v.解剖（动物等）( dissect的现在分词 )；仔细分析或研究 | |
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119
odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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120
hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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121
goodwill
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| n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉 | |
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122
withering
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| 使人畏缩的，使人害羞的，使人难堪的 | |
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123
alleys
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| 胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径 | |
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124
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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125
sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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126
graft
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| n.移植，嫁接，艰苦工作，贪污；v.移植，嫁接 | |
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127
lark
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| n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏 | |
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128
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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129
fumes
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| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
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130
scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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131
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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132
blasphemy
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| n.亵渎，渎神 | |
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133
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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134
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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135
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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136
expounded
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| 论述，详细讲解( expound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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137
scriptures
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| 经文，圣典( scripture的名词复数 )； 经典 | |
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138
rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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139
blight
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| n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残 | |
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140
conjectured
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| 推测，猜测，猜想( conjecture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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141
smallpox
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| n.天花 | |
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142
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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143
cant
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| n.斜穿，黑话，猛扔 | |
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144
exhortation
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| n.劝告，规劝 | |
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145
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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146
murky
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|
| adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗 | |
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147
stifle
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| vt.使窒息；闷死；扼杀；抑止，阻止 | |
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148
ingenuousness
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| n.率直；正直；老实 | |
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149
lugubrious
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| adj.悲哀的，忧郁的 | |
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150
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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151
edifying
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|
| adj.有教训意味的，教训性的，有益的v.开导，启发( edify的现在分词 ) | |
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152
allusions
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| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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153
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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154
zealous
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| adj.狂热的，热心的 | |
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155
exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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156
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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157
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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158
meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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