The conference broke up upon this announcement, but Lord Barralonga and his party were not brought to the Conference Gardens until long after dark. No effort was made to restrain or control the movements of the Earthlings. Mr. Burleigh walked down to the lake with Lady Stella and the psychologist whose name was Lion, asking and answering questions. Mr. Burleigh’s chauffeur1 wandered rather disconsolately2, keeping within hail of his employer. Mr. Rupert Catskill took Mr. Mush off by the arm as if to give him instructions.
Mr. Barnstaple wanted to walk about alone to recall and digest the astounding3 realizations5 of the afternoon and to accustom6 himself to the wonder of this beautiful world, so beautiful and now in the twilight7 so mysterious also, with its trees and flowers becoming dim and shapeless notes of pallor and blackness and with the clear forms and gracious proportions of its buildings melting into a twilight indistinctness.
The earthliness of his companions intervened between him and this world into which he felt he might otherwise have been accepted and absorbed. He was in it, but in it only as a strange and discordant8 intruder. Yet he loved it already and desired it and was passionately9 anxious to become a part of it. He had a vague but very powerful feeling that if only he could get away from his companions, if only in some way he could cast off his earthly clothing and everything upon him that marked him as earthly and linked him to earth, he would by the very act of casting that off become himself native to Utopia, and then that this tormenting10 sense, this bleak11 distressing12 strangeness would vanish out of his mind. He would suddenly find himself a Utopian in nature and reality, and it was earth that would become the incredible dream, a dream that would fade at last completely out of his mind.
For a time, however, Father Amerton’s need of a hearer prevented any such detachment from earthly thoughts and things. He stuck close to Mr. Barnstaple and maintained a stream of questions and comments that threw over this Utopian scene the quality of some Earl’s Court exhibition that the two of them were visiting and criticizing together. It was evidently so provisional, so disputable and unreal to him, that at any moment Mr. Barnstaple felt he would express no astonishment13 if a rift14 in the scenery suddenly let in the clatter15 of the Earl’s Court railway station or gave a glimpse of the conventional Gothic spire16 of St. Barnabas in the West.
At first Father Amerton’s mind was busy chiefly with the fact that on the morrow he was to be “dealt with” on account of the scene in the conference. “How can they deal with me?” he said for the fourth time.
“I beg your pardon,” said Mr. Barnstaple. Every time Mr. Amerton began speaking Mr. Barnstaple said, “I beg your pardon,” in order to convey to him that he was interrupting a train of thought. But every time Mr. Barnstaple said, “I beg your pardon,” Mr. Amerton would merely remark, “You ought to consult someone about your hearing,” and then go on with what he had to say.
“How can I be dealt with?” he asked of Mr. Barnstaple and the circumambient dusk. “How can I be dealt with?”
“Oh! psycho-analysis or something of that sort,” said Mr. Barnstaple.
“It takes two to play at that game,” said Father Amerton, but it seemed to Mr. Barnstaple with a slight flavour of relief in his tone. “Whatever they ask me, whatever they suggest to me, I will not fail — I will bear my witness.”
“I have no doubt they will find it hard to suppress you,” said Mr. Barnstaple bitterly. . . .
For a time they walked among the tall sweet-smelling, white-flowered shrubs19 in silence. Now and then Mr. Barnstaple would quicken or slacken his pace with the idea of increasing his distance from Father Amerton but quite mechanically Father Amerton responded to these efforts. “Promiscuity,” he began again presently. “What other word could you use?”
“I really beg your pardon,” said Mr. Barnstaple.
“What other word could I have used but ‘promiscuity’? What else could one expect — with people running about in this amazing want of costume, but the morals of the monkeys’ cage? They admit that our institution of marriage is practically unknown to them!”
“It’s a different world,” said Mr. Barnstaple irritably20. “A different world.”
“The Laws of Morality hold good for every conceivable world.”
“But in a world in which people propagated by fission21 and there was no sex?”
“Morality would be simpler but it would be the same morality.” . . .
Presently Mr. Barnstaple was begging his pardon again.
“I was saying that this is a lost world.”
“It doesn’t look lost,” said Mr. Barnstaple.
“It has rejected and forgotten Salvation22.”
Mr. Barnstaple put his hands in his pockets and began to whistle the barcarolle from “The Tales of Hoffman,” very softly to himself. Would Father Amerton never leave him? Could nothing be done with Father Amerton? At the old shows at Earl’s Court there used to be wire baskets for waste paper and cigarette ends and bores generally. If one could only tip Father Amerton suddenly into some such receptacle!
“Salvation has been offered them, and they have rejected it and well nigh forgotten it. And that is why we have been sent to them. We have been sent to them to recall them to the One Thing that Matters, to the One Forgotten Thing. Once more we have to raise the healing symbol as Moses raised it in the Wilderness23. Ours is no light mission. We have been sent into this Hell of sensuous24 materialism25 —”
“Oh, Lord!” said Mr. Barnstaple, and relapsed into the barcarolle. . . .
“I beg your pardon,” he exclaimed again presently.
“Where is the Pole Star? What has happened to the Wain?”
Mr. Barnstaple looked up.
He had not thought of the stars before, and he looked up prepared in this fresh Universe to see the strangest constellations27. But just as the life and size of the planet they were on ran closely parallel to the earth’s, so he beheld28 above him a starry29 vault30 of familiar forms. And just as the Utopian world failed to be altogether parallel to its sister universe, so did these constellations seem to be a little out in their drawing. Orion, he thought, straddled wider and with a great unfamiliar31 nebula32 at one corner, and it was true — the Wain was flattened33 out and the pointers pointed34 to a great void in the heavens.
“Their Pole Star gone! The Pointers, the Wain askew35! It is symbolical36,” said Father Amerton.
It was only too obviously going to be symbolical. Mr. Barnstaple realized that a fresh storm of eloquence37 was imminent38 from Father Amerton. At any cost he felt this nuisance must be abated39.
Section 2
On earth Mr. Barnstaple had been a passive victim to bores of all sorts, delicately and painfully considerate of the mental limitations that made their insensitive pressure possible. But the free air of Utopia had already mounted to his head and released initiatives that his excessively deferential41 recognition of others had hitherto restrained. He had had enough of Father Amerton; it was necessary to turn off Father Amerton, and he now proceeded to do so with a simple directness that surprised himself.
“Father Amerton,” he said, “I have a confession42 to make to you.”
“Ah!” cried Father Amerton. “Please — anything?”
“You have been walking about with me and shouting at my ears until I am strongly impelled43 to murder you.”
“If what I have said has struck home —”
“It hasn’t struck home. It has been a tiresome44, silly, deafening45 jabbering46 in my ears. It wearies me indescribably. It prevents my attending to the marvellous things about us. I see exactly what you mean when you say that there is no Pole Star here and that that is symbolical. Before you begin I appreciate the symbol, and a very obvious, weak and ultimately inaccurate47 symbol it is. But you are one of those obstinate48 spirits who believes in spite of all evidence that the eternal hills are still eternal and the fixed49 stars fixed for ever. I want you to understand that I am entirely50 out of sympathy with all this stuff of yours. You seem to embody51 all that is wrong and ugly and impossible in Catholic teaching. I agree with these Utopians that there is something wrong with your mind about sex, in all probability a nasty twist given to it in early life, and that what you keep saying and hinting about sexual life here is horrible and outrageous53. And I am equally hostile to you and exasperated54 and repelled55 by you when you speak of religion proper. You make religion disgusting just as you make sex disgusting. You are a dirty priest. What you call Christianity is a black and ugly superstition57, a mere17 excuse for malignity58 and persecution59. It is an outrage52 upon Christ. If you are a Christian56, then most passionately I declare myself not a Christian. But there are other meanings for Christianity than those you put upon it, and in another sense this Utopia here is Christian beyond all dreaming. Utterly60 beyond your understanding. We have come into this glorious world, which, compared to our world, is like a bowl of crystal compared to an old tin can, and you have the insufferable impudence61 to say that we have been sent hither as missionaries62 to teach them — God knows what!”
“God does know what,” said Father Amerton a little taken aback, but coming up very pluckily63.
“Oh!” cried Mr. Barnstaple, and was for a moment speechless.
“Listen to me, my friend,” said Father Amerton, catching64 at his sleeve.
“Not for my life!” cried Mr. Barnstaple, recoiling65. “See! Down that vista66, away there on the shore of the lake, those black figures are Mr. Burleigh, Mr. Mush and Lady Stella. They brought you here. They belong to your party and you belong to them. If they had not wanted your company you would not have been in their car. Go to them. I will not have you with me any longer. I refuse you and reject you. That is your way. This, by this little building, is mine. Don’t follow me, or I will lay hands on you and bring in these Utopians to interfere67 between us. . . . Forgive my plainness, Mr. Amerton. But get away from me! Get away from me!”
Mr. Barnstaple turned, and seeing that Father Amerton stood hesitating at the parting of the ways, took to his heels and ran from him.
He fled along an alley68 behind tall hedges, turned sharply to the right and then to the left, passed over a high bridge that crossed in front of a cascade69 that flung a dash of spray in his face, blundered by two couples of lovers who whispered softly in the darkling, ran deviously70 across flower-studded turf, and at last threw himself down breathless upon the steps that led up to a terrace that looked towards lake and mountains, and was adorned71, it seemed in the dim light, with squat72 stone figures of seated vigilant73 animals and men.
“Ye merciful stars!” cried Mr. Barnstaple. “At last I am alone.”
He sat on these steps for a long time with his eyes upon the scene about him, drinking in the satisfying realization4 that for a brief interval74 at any rate, with no earthly presence to intervene, he and Utopia were face to face.
Section 3
He could not call this world the world of his dreams because he had never dared to dream of any world so closely shaped to the desires and imaginations of his heart. But surely this world it was, or a world the very fellow of it, that had lain deep beneath the thoughts and dreams of thousands of sane75 and troubled men and women in the world of disorder76 from which he had come. It was no world of empty peace, no such golden decadence77 of indulgence as Mr. Catskill tried to imagine it; it was a world, Mr. Barnstaple perceived, intensely militant78, conquering and to conquer, prevailing79 over the obduracy80 of force and matter, over the lifeless separations of empty space and all the antagonistic81 mysteries of being.
In Utopia in the past, obscured by the superficial exploits of statesmen like Burleigh and Catskill and the competition of traders and exploiters every whit18 as vile82 and vulgar as their earthly compeers, the work of quiet and patient thinkers and teachers had gone on and the foundations which sustained this serene83 intensity84 of activity had been laid. How few of these pioneers had ever felt more than a transitory gleam of the righteous loveliness of the world their lives made possible!
And yet even in the hate and turmoil85 and distresses86 of the Days of Confusion there must have been earnest enough of the exquisite87 and glorious possibilities of life. Over the foulest88 slums the sunset called to the imaginations of men, and from mountain ridges89, across great valleys, from cliffs and hillsides and by the uncertain and terrible splendours of the sea, men must have had glimpses of the conceivable and attainable90 magnificence of being. Every flower petal91, every sunlit leaf, the vitality92 of young things, the happy moments of the human mind transcending93 itself in art, all these things must have been material for hope, incentive94 to effort. And now at last — this world!
Mr. Barnstaple lifted up his hands like one who worships to the friendly multitude of the stars above him.
“I have seen,” he whispered. “I have seen.”
Little lights and soft glows of illumination were coming out here and there over this great park of flowerlike buildings and garden spaces that sloped down towards the lake. A circling aeroplane, itself a star, hummed softly overhead.
A slender girl came past him down the steps and paused at the sight of him.
“Are you one of the Earthlings?” came the question, and a beam of soft light shone momentarily upon Mr. Barnstaple from the bracelet95 on her arm.
“I came today,” said Mr. Barnstaple, peering up at her.
“You are the man who came alone in a little machine of tin, with rubber air-bags round the wheels, very rusty96 underneath97, and painted yellow. I have been looking at it.”
“It is not a bad little car,” said Mr. Barnstaple.
“At first we thought the priest came in it with you.”
“He is no friend of mine.”
“There were priests like that in Utopia many years ago. They caused much mischief98 among the people.”
“He was with the other lot,” said Mr. Barnstaple. “For their week-end party I should think him — rather a mistake.”
She sat down a step or so above him.
“It is wonderful that you should come here out of your world to us. Do you find this world of our very wonderful? I suppose many things that seen quite commonplace to me because I have been born among them seem wonderful to you.”
“You are not very old?”
“I am eleven. I am learning the history of the Ages Of Confusion, and they say your world is still in an Age of Confusion. It is just as though you came to us out of the past — out of history. I was in the Conference and I was watching your face. You love this present world of ours — at least you love it much more than your other people do.”
“I want to live all the rest of my life in it.”
“I wonder if that is possible?”
“Why should it not be possible? It will be easier than sending me back. I should not be very much in the way. I should only be here for twenty or thirty years at the most, and I would learn everything I could and do everything I was told.”
“But isn’t there work that you have to do in your own world?”
Mr. Barnstaple made no answer to that. He did not seem to hear it. It was the girl who presently broke the silence.
“They say that when we Utopians are young, before our minds and characters are fully40 formed and matured, we are very like the men and women of the Age of Confusion. We are more egotistical then, they tell us; life about us is still so unknown, that we are adventurous99 and romantic. I suppose I am egotistical yet — and adventurous. And it does still seem to me that in spite of many terrible and dreadful things there was much that must have been wildly exciting and desirable in that past — which is still so like your present. What can it have been like to have been a general entering a conquered city? Or a prince being crowned? Or to be rich and able to astonish people by acts of power and benevolence100? Or to be a martyr101 led out to die for some splendid misunderstood cause?”
“These things sound better in stories and histories than in reality,” said Mr. Barnstaple after due consideration. “Did you hear Mr. Rupert Catskill, the last of the Earthlings to make a speech?”
“He thought romantically — but he did not look romantic.”
“He has lived most romantically. He has fought bravely in wars. He has been a prisoner and escaped wonderfully from prison. His violent imaginations have caused the deaths of thousands of people. And presently we shall see another romantic adventurer in this Lord Barralonga they are bringing hither. He is enormously rich and he tries to astonish people with his wealth — just as you have dreamt of astonishing people.”
“Are they not astonished?”
“Romance is not reality,” said Mr. Barnstaple. “He is one of a number of floundering, corrupting102 rich men who are a weariness to themselves and an intolerable nuisance to the rest of our world. They want to do vulgar showy things. This man Barralonga was an assistant to a photographer and something of an actor when a certain invention called moving pictures came into our world. He became a great prospector103 in the business of showing these pictures, partly by accident, partly by the unscrupulous cheating of various inventors. Then he launched out into speculations104 in shipping105 and in a trade we carry on in our world in frozen meat brought from great distances. He made food costly106 for many people and impossible for some, and so he grew rich. For in our world men grow wealthy by intercepting107 rather than by serving. And having become ignobly108 rich, certain of our politicians, for whom he did some timely services, ennobled him by giving him the title of Lord. Do you understand the things I am saying? Was your Age of Confusion so like ours? You did not know it was so ugly. Forgive me if I disillusion109 you about the Age of Confusion and its romantic possibilities. But I have just stepped out of the dust and disorder and noise of its indiscipline, out of limitation, cruelties and distresses, out of a weariness in which hope dies. . . . Perhaps if my world attracts you you may yet have an opportunity of adventuring out of all this into its disorders110. . . . That will be an adventure indeed. . . . Who knows what may happen between our worlds? . . . But you will not like it, I am afraid. You cannot imagine how dirty our world is. . . . Dirt and disease, these are in the trailing skirts of all romance. . . . ”
A silence fell between them; he followed his own thoughts and the girl sat and wondered over him.
At length he spoke111 again.
“Shall I tell you what I was thinking of when you spoke to me?”
“Yes?”
“Your world is the consummation of a million ancient dreams. It is wonderful! It is wonder, high as heaven. But it is a great grief to me that two dear friends of mine cannot be here with me to see what I am seeing. It is queer how strong the thought of them is in my mind. One has passed now beyond all the universes, alas112! — but the other is still in my world. You are a student, my dear; everyone of your world, I suppose, is a student here, but in our world students are a class apart. We three were happy together because we were students and not yet caught into the mills of senseless toil113, and we were none the less happy perhaps because we were miserably114 poor and often hungry together. We used to talk and dispute together and in our students’ debating society, discussing the disorders of our world and how some day they might be bettered. Was there, in your Age of Confusion, that sort of eager, hopeful, poverty-struck student life?”
“Go on,” said the girl with her eyes intent on his dim profile. “In old novels I have read of just that hungry dreaming student world.”
“We three agreed that the supreme115 need of our time was education. We agreed that was the highest service we could join. We all set about it in our various ways, I the least useful of the three. My friends and I drifted a little apart. They edited a great monthly periodical that helped to keep the world of science together, and my friend, serving a careful and grudging116 firm of publishers, edited school books for them, conducted an educational paper, and also inspected schools for our university. He was too heedless of pay and profit ever to become even passably well off though these publishers profited greatly by his work; his whole life was a continual service of toil for teaching; he did not take as much as a month’s holiday in any year in his life. While he lived I thought little of the work he was doing, but since he died I have heard from teachers whose schools he inspected, and from book writers whom he advised, of the incessant117 high quality of his toil and the patience and sympathy of his work. On such lives as his this Utopia in which your sweet life is opening is founded; on such lives our world of earth will yet build its Utopia. But the life of this friend of mine ended abruptly118 in a way that tore my heart. He worked too hard and too long through a crisis in which it was inconvenient119 for him to take a holiday. His nervous system broke down with shocking suddenness, his mind gave way, he passed into a phase of acute melancholia and — died. For it is perfectly120 true, old Nature has neither righteousness nor pity. This happened a few weeks ago. That other old friend and I, with his wife, who had been his tireless helper, were chief among the mourners at his funeral. To-night the memory of that comes back to me with extraordinary vividness. I do not know how you dispose of your dead here, but on earth the dead are mostly buried in the earth.”
“We are burnt,” said the girl.
“Those who are liberal-minded in our world burn also. Our friend was burnt, and we stood and took our part in a service according to the rites121 of our ancient religion in which we no longer believed, and presently we saw his coffin122, covered with wreaths of flowers, slide from before us out of our sight through the gates that led to the furnaces of the crematorium, and as it went, taking with it so much of my youth, I saw that my other dear old friend was sobbing123, and I too was wrung124 to the pitch of tears to think that so valiant125 and devoted126 and industrious127 a life should end, as it seemed, so miserably and thanklessly. The priest had been reading a long contentious128 discourse129 by a theological writer named Paul, full of bad arguments by analogy and weak assertions. I wished that instead of the ideas of this ingenious ancient we could have had some discourse upon the real nobility of our friend, on the pride and intensity of his work and on his scorn for mercenary things. All his life he had worked with unlimited130 devotion for such a world as this, and yet I doubt if he had ever had any realization of the clearer, nobler life for man that his life of toil and the toil of such lives as his, were making sure and certain in the days to come. He lived by faith. He lived too much by faith. There was not enough sunlight in his life. If I could have him here now — and that other dear friend who grieved for him so bitterly; if I could have them both here; if I could give up my place here to them so that they could see, as I see, the real greatness of their lives reflected in these great consequences of such lives as theirs — then, then I could rejoice in Utopia indeed. . . . But I feel now as if I had taken my old friend’s savings131 and was spending them on myself. . . . ”
Mr. Barnstaple suddenly remembered the youth of his hearer. “Forgive me, my dear child, for running on in this fashion. But your voice was kind.”
The girl’s answer was to bend down and brush his extended hand with her soft lips.
Then suddenly she sprang to her feet. “Look at that light,” she said, “among the stars!”
Mr. Barnstaple stood up beside her.
“That is the aeroplane bringing Lord Barralonga and his party; Lord Barralonga who killed a man today! Is he a very big, strong man — ungovernable and wonderful?”
Mr. Barnstaple, struck by a sudden doubt, looked sharply at the sweet upturned face beside him.
“I have never seen him. But I believe he is a youngish, baldish, undersized man, who suffers very gravely from a disordered liver and kidneys. This has prevented the dissipation of his energies upon youthful sports and pleasures and enabled him to concentrate upon the acquisition of property. And so he was able to buy the noble title that touches your imagination. Come with me and look at him.”
The girl stood still and met his eyes. She was eleven years old and she was as tall as he was.
“But was there no romance in the past?”
“Only in the hearts of the young. And it died.”
“But is there no romance?”
“Endless romance — and it has all to come. It comes for you.”
Section 4
The bringing in of Lord Barralonga and his party was something of an anti-climax to Mr. Barnstaple’s wonderful day. He was tired and, quite unreasonably132, he resented the invasion of Utopia by these people.
The two parties of Earthlings were brought together in a brightly lit hall near the lawn upon which the Barralonga aeroplane had come down. The newcomers came in in a group together, blinking, travel-worn and weary-looking. But it was evident they were greatly relieved to encounter other Earthlings in what was to them a still intensely puzzling experience. For they had had nothing to compare with the calm and lucid133 discussion of the Conference Place. Their lapse26 into this strange world was still an incomprehensible riddle134 for them.
Lord Barralonga was the owner of the gnome-like face that had looked out at Mr. Barnstaple when the large grey car had passed him on the Maidenhead Road. His skull135 was very low and broad above his brows so that he reminded Mr. Barnstaple of the flat stopper of a glass bottle. He looked hot and tired, he was considerably136 dishevelled as if from a struggle, and one arm was in a sling137; his little brown eyes were as alert and wary138 as those of a wicked urchin139 in the hands of a policeman. Sticking close to him like a familiar spirit was a small, almost jockey-like chauffeur, whom he addressed as “Ridley.” Ridley’s face also was marked by the stern determination of a man in a difficult position not in any manner to give himself away. His left cheek and ear had been cut in the automobile140 smash and were liberally adorned with sticking-plaster. Miss Greeta Grey, the lady of the party, was a frankly141 blonde beauty in a white flannel142 tailor-made suit. She was extraordinarily143 unruffled by the circumstances in which she found herself; it was as if she had no sense whatever of their strangeness. She carried herself with the habitual144 hauteur145 of a beautiful girl almost professionally exposed to the risk of unworthy advances. Anywhere.
The other two people of the party were a grey-faced, grey-clad American, also very wary-eyed, who was, Mr. Barnstaple learnt from Mr. Mush, Hunker, the Cinema King, and a thoroughly146 ruffled-looking Frenchman, a dark, smartly dressed man, with an imperfect command of English, who seemed rather to have fallen into Lord Barralonga’s party than to have belonged to it properly. Mr. Barnstaple’s mind leapt to the conclusion, and nothing occurred afterwards to change his opinion, that some interest in the cinematograph had brought this gentleman within range of Lord Barralonga’s hospitality and that he had been caught, as a foreigner may so easily be caught, into the embrace of a thoroughly uncongenial week-end expedition.
As Lord Barralonga and Mr. Hunker came forward to greet Mr. Burleigh and Mr. Catskill, this Frenchman addressed himself to Mr. Barnstaple with the inquiry147 whether he spoke French.
“I cannot understand,” he said. “We were to have gone to Viltshire — Wiltshire, and then one ‘orrible thing has happen after another. What is it we have come to and what sort of people are all these people who speak most excellent French? Is it a joke of Lord Barralonga, or a dream, or what has happen to us?”
Mr. Barnstaple attempted some explanation.
“Another dimension,” said the Frenchman, “an other worl’. That is all very well. But I have my business to attend to in London. I have no need to be brought back in this way to France, some sort of France, some other France in some other worl’. It is too much of a joke altogether.”
Mr. Barnstaple attempted some further exposition. It was clear from his interlocutor’s puzzled face that the phrases he used were too difficult. He turned helplessly to Lady Stella and found her ready to undertake the task. “This lady,” he said, “will be able to make things plain to you. Lady Stella, this is Monsieur —”
“Emile Dupont,” the Frenchman bowed. “I am what you call a journalist and publicist. I am interested in the cinematograph from the point of view of education and propaganda. It is why I am here with his Lordship Barralonga.”
French conversation was Lady Stella’s chief accomplishment148. She sailed into it now very readily. She took over the elucidation149 of M. Dupont, and only interrupted it to tell Miss Greeta Grey how pleasant it was to have another woman with her in this strange world.
Relieved of M. Dupont, Mr. Barnstaple stood back and surveyed the little group of Earthlings in the centre of the hall and the circle of tall, watchful150 Utopians about them and rather aloof151 from them. Mr. Burleigh was being distantly cordial to Lord Barralonga, and Mr. Hunker was saying what a great pleasure it was to him to meet “Britain’s foremost statesman.” Mr. Catskill stood in the most friendly manner beside Barralonga; they knew each other well; and Father Amerton exchanged comments with Mr. Mush. Ridley and Penk, after some moments of austere152 regard, had gone apart to discuss the technicalities of the day’s experience in undertones. Nobody paid any attention to Mr. Barnstaple.
It was like a meeting at a railway station. It was like a reception. It was utterly incredible and altogether commonplace. He was weary. He was saturated153 and exhausted154 by wonder.
“Oh, I am going to my bed!” he yawned suddenly. “I am going to my little bed.”
He made his way through the friendly-eyed Utopians out into the calm starlight. He nodded to the strange nebula at the corner of Orion as a weary parent might nod to importunate155 offspring. He would consider it again in the morning. He staggered drowsily156 through the gardens to his own particular retreat.
He disrobed and went to sleep as immediately and profoundly as a tired child.
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chauffeur
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disconsolately
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| adv.悲伤地，愁闷地；哭丧着脸 | |
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astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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realization
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realizations
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| 认识，领会( realization的名词复数 )； 实现 | |
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accustom
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twilight
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discordant
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passionately
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tormenting
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bleak
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distressing
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astonishment
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rift
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| n.裂口，隙缝，切口；v.裂开，割开，渗入 | |
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15
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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16
spire
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| n.(教堂)尖顶，尖塔，高点 | |
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17
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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18
whit
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| n.一点，丝毫 | |
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19
shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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20
irritably
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| ad.易生气地 | |
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21
fission
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| n.裂开；分裂生殖 | |
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22
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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23
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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24
sensuous
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| adj.激发美感的；感官的，感觉上的 | |
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25
materialism
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| n.［哲］唯物主义，唯物论；物质至上 | |
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26
lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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27
constellations
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| n.星座( constellation的名词复数 )；一群杰出人物；一系列（相关的想法、事物）；一群（相关的人） | |
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28
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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29
starry
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| adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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30
vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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31
unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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32
nebula
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| n.星云，喷雾剂 | |
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33
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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34
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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35
askew
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| adv.斜地；adj.歪斜的 | |
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36
symbolical
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| a.象征性的 | |
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37
eloquence
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|
| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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38
imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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39
abated
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|
| 减少( abate的过去式和过去分词 )； 减去； 降价； 撤消（诉讼） | |
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40
fully
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|
| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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41
deferential
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| adj. 敬意的，恭敬的 | |
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42
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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43
impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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45
deafening
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|
| adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
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46
jabbering
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|
| v.急切而含混不清地说( jabber的现在分词 )；急促兴奋地说话；结结巴巴 | |
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47
inaccurate
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|
| adj.错误的，不正确的，不准确的 | |
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48
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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49
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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50
entirely
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|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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51
embody
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| vt.具体表达，使具体化；包含，收录 | |
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52
outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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53
outrageous
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|
| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
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54
exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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55
repelled
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|
| v.击退( repel的过去式和过去分词 )；使厌恶；排斥；推开 | |
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56
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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57
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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58
malignity
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| n.极度的恶意，恶毒；（病的）恶性 | |
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59
persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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60
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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61
impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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62
missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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63
pluckily
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| adv.有勇气地，大胆地 | |
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64
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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65
recoiling
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| v.畏缩( recoil的现在分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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66
vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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67
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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68
alley
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| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
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69
cascade
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| n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下 | |
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70
deviously
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| 弯曲地，绕道地 | |
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71
adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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72
squat
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|
| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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73
vigilant
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|
| adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的 | |
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74
interval
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|
| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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75
sane
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|
| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
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76
disorder
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|
| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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77
decadence
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|
| n.衰落，颓废 | |
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78
militant
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|
| adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士 | |
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79
prevailing
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|
| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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80
obduracy
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|
| n.冷酷无情，顽固，执拗 | |
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81
antagonistic
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| adj.敌对的 | |
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82
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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83
serene
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|
| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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84
intensity
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|
| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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85
turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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86
distresses
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| n.悲痛( distress的名词复数 )；痛苦；贫困；危险 | |
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87
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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88
foulest
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|
| adj.恶劣的( foul的最高级 )；邪恶的；难闻的；下流的 | |
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89
ridges
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|
| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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90
attainable
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|
| a.可达到的，可获得的 | |
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91
petal
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| n.花瓣 | |
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92
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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93
transcending
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|
| 超出或超越（经验、信念、描写能力等）的范围( transcend的现在分词 )； 优于或胜过… | |
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94
incentive
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| n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机 | |
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95
bracelet
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|
| n.手镯，臂镯 | |
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96
rusty
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|
| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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97
underneath
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|
| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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98
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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99
adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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100
benevolence
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| n.慈悲，捐助 | |
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101
martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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102
corrupting
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的现在分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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103
prospector
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| n.探矿者 | |
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104
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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105
shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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106
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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107
intercepting
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| 截取（技术），截接 | |
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108
ignobly
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| 卑贱地，下流地 | |
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109
disillusion
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| vt.使不再抱幻想，使理想破灭 | |
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110
disorders
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| n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调 | |
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111
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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112
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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113
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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114
miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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115
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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116
grudging
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| adj.勉强的，吝啬的 | |
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117
incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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118
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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119
inconvenient
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| adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的 | |
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120
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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121
rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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122
coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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123
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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124
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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125
valiant
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| adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人 | |
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126
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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127
industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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128
contentious
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| adj.好辩的，善争吵的 | |
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129
discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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130
unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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131
savings
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| n.存款，储蓄 | |
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132
unreasonably
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| adv. 不合理地 | |
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133
lucid
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| adj.明白易懂的，清晰的，头脑清楚的 | |
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134
riddle
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|
| n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜 | |
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135
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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136
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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137
sling
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| vt.扔；悬挂；n.挂带；吊索，吊兜；弹弓 | |
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138
wary
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| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
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139
urchin
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| n.顽童；海胆 | |
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140
automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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141
frankly
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|
| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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142
flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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143
extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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144
habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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145
hauteur
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| n.傲慢 | |
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146
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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147
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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148
accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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149
elucidation
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| n.说明，阐明 | |
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150
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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151
aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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152
austere
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| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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153
saturated
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| a.饱和的，充满的 | |
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154
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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155
importunate
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| adj.强求的；纠缠不休的 | |
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156
drowsily
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| adv.睡地，懒洋洋地，昏昏欲睡地 | |
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