William Maugham: The Painted Veil

"Why, my love, you talk as though you were fifty. You've got all your life before you. You mustn't be downhearted."

Kitty shook her head and slowly smiled.

"I'm not. I have hope and courage."

The past was finished; let the dead bury their dead. Was that dreadfully callous? She hoped with all her heart that she had learnt compassion and charity. She could not know what the future had in store for her, but she felt in herself the strength to accept whatever was to come with a light and buoyant spirit. Then, on a sudden, for no reason that she knew of, from the depths of her unconscious arose a reminiscence of the journey they had taken, she and poor Walter, to the plaque-ridden city where he had met his death: one morning they set out in their chairs while it was still dark, and as the day broke she divined rather than saw a scene of such breathtaking loveliness that for a brief period the anguish of her heart was assuaged. It reduced to insignificance all human tribulation. The sun rose, dispelling the mist, and she saw winding onwards as far as the eye could reach, among the rice-fields, across a little river and through undulating country the path they were to follow: perhaps her faults and follies, the unhappiness she had suffered, were not entirely vain if she could follow the path that now she dimly discerned before her, not the path that kind funny old Waddington had spoken of that led nowhither, but the path those dear nuns at the convent followed so humbly, the path that led to peace.

3. distraught - trouble in mind.

amah - home servant (in India, China).

tiffin - lunch (India, China).

5. topee - garment for upper part of lady's body.

10. curio - rare or unusual object.

disparagement - talk of discredit.

12. K.C. King's Council - Council to the Crown with precedence over other barristers.

16. wizened - shriveiled-looking.

dejection - low spirits.

touched up - improved with minor additions.

17. parsimonious - careful in use of money or resources.

obsequious - servile, fawning.

19. pusillanimous - lacking courage.

odds and ends - stray articles.

25. facetious - meant to be amusing.

40. red tape - excessive bureaucracy or formalities.

put on airs - pretend to be which one is not.

41. banter - playful teasing.

49. supercillious -contemptuous, haughty.

52. coon-can - card game.

54. bric-a-brac (Fr.) - trash, odds and ends.

56. come down to brass tacks - come into the heart of the matter.

61. be subpoenaed - be summoned to law-court.

pettifogging - quibbling or wrangling about petty points.

68. co-respondent - person committing adultery with respondent in divorce case.

80. make clean breast of smth to smb - tell smb the truth about smth.

81. soft (here) - attractive and interesting

have a leg to stand on - have every reason to.

83. entreaties - insisting requests.

84. make head or tail out of smth - clearly understand and realise smth.

85. C.M.G . - Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.

87. Hobson's choice - option of taking what is offered or nothing.

104. crenellation - bevelling of wall at sides with windows for guns.

107. Eurasian clerk - local clerk of mixed European and Asian parentage.

111. badinage - playful ridicule.

115. lollop - move in ungainly bounds.

122. sampan - small boat used in Far East.

124. subterfuge - evasion to escape censure or defeat, etc.

125. convert - person converted to some religion.

126. emaciation - feebleness.

130. plaster of Paris - soft mixture of lime, sand, and water, which hardens by drying.

134. pestilence - fatal epidemic disease.

150. sagacious - approving.

152. loquacious - talkative.

157. succour - timely help in need.

162. causeway - raised road across low or wet ground.

168. consternation - amazement or dismay causing mental confusion.

169. rattan - palm with long thin many-jointed pliable stems.

180. fornication - act of voluntary sexual intercourse.

183. magnanimous - generous in feelings or conduct.

condone offence - forgive or overlook one's offence.

192. mundane - of this world, material, dull and routine.

193. communicate (here) - receive Holy Communion.

197. obtuseness - dull wit, slowness in understanding.

203. guttural - produced in throat or by back of tongue and palate.

204. postern - back or side entrance.

220. peremptoriness - command admitting no refusal.

223. wraith - ghost.

227. lapis lazuli - intense light-blue colour.

230. arpeggios - playing of notes of chord in rapid succession.

iridescent - rainbow-like changing colours.

231. habiliments - clothing, attire.

239. cheroot - cigar with both ends open.

240. bereavement - desolation.

261. acrid - bitterly pungent.

264. perspicacity - mental penetration or discernment.

267. batten - prosper at another's expense.