| A | B |
|---|
| taciturn | silent, speechless, reticent, uncommunicative |
| taciturnity | reticence, uncommunicativeness |
| innocuous | harmless, inoffensive |
| poignant | having the power to excite deep and usually somber feelings, moving, touching |
| exanimate | dead, spiritless, inert |
| querulously | said or done with annoyance and irritation, peevishly, petulantly |
| fatuity | stupidity, foolishness, fatuousness |
| fatuous | asinine, insensate, witless |
| self-effacing | self-deprecating; dismissing or cancelling out the significance of oneself |
| efface | to blot out, to obliterate |
| effacing | erasing, blotting out, obliterating |
| suffused | introduced one thing into another so as to change it; infused, steeped, imbued |
| counterpane | bedspread, quilt |
| scintillating | pleasing because of cleverness, aptness, sparkle, wit |
| undulations | wavelike motions; pulsations |
| imprudent | unlikely to have a good outcome; inadvisable, inexpedient |
| convivial | conducive or characterized by pleasant companionship with friends; sociable; companionable |
| conviviality | friendship, companionship, sociability |
| voluble | characterized by fluent, superficial talk; glib; vocative |
| volubility | talkativeness; chattiness; glibness; garrulousness; loquaciousness |
| insatiable | incapable of being satisfied or eased; unappeasable; unquenchable |
| disconsolate | low in spirit; crestfallen; dejected; doleful, heartsick, woebegone |
| wainscot (or wainscotting) | a facing of wood paneling on the walls of a room, sometimes carved |
| derison | mockery, ridicule |
| perfunctory | characterized by duty and routine, automatic, mechanical |
| consecrated | made holy through words or rite; dedicated, blessed, sanctified |
| felicitous | adapted to a purpose by use; appropriate, applicable, suitable |
| mien | the appearance, the aspect, the bearing |
| recrimination | a counter accusation given in turn for an accusation |
| inexorable | rigidly firm in will or purpose; inflexible, adamant, obdurate, steadfast |
| compunction | regret for a sin or wrongdoing, penitence, contrition, remorsefulness |
| affable | having a pleasant, easygoing nature; amiable, genial |
| affability | pleasantness, friendliness |
| ebullient | joyously unrestrained and enthusiastic; exuberant, vivacious, effervescent |
| mottlings | spottings or streaks of different colors or shades |
| motley | having many different kinds, colors, or varieties; multicolored and varied |
| facetious | playfully disrespectful; flippant, witty |
| adjured | commanded or appealed to solemnly; as if to put under oath |
| audacity | flagrant boldness in speech, behavior, or action; teremity, brashness, nerve |
| abhorrent | deserving of or arousing hatred, detestable, odious, repungnant |
| vehement | extreme in degree, power, or effect; intense; vicious; fierce |
| vehemently | fiercely, furiously, violently |
| slatternly | habitually untidy or dirty in dress or appearance, dowdy, malodorous |
| sallow | of a sickly yellow color |
| feign | to pretend, to counterfeit, to sham; to present a false appearance for a deceptive reason |
| feint | a cunning or tricky means to an end; a gimmick, a maneuver, ploy, ruse, sham |
| discursive | rambling and digressive, as in speech |
| languid | lacking in vim or energy; lackasaisical; spiritless; langorous |
| implore | to beg, beseech, entreat, plead |
| imploring | having the qualities of begging, pleading, enticing, seducing |
| avowal | a confession; an open acknowledgement |
