Commentary

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.