Desiree’s Baby Vocabulary
accord
beneficent
providence
sincere
avalanche
practical
obstacle
obscure
shudder
steep
solemn
indulgent
portly
suffuse
imperious
conviction
avert
sumptuous
strive
unwonted
gleam
sluggish
bayou
enact
spectacle
pyre
remnant
1. concurrence of opinion
2. doing or producing good
3. the prudence and care exercised by someone in the management of resources
4. open and genuine; not deceitful
5. a slide of large masses of snow and ice and mud down a mountain
6. something immaterial that stands in the way and must be circumvented or surmounted
7. guided by practical experience and observation rather than theory
8. not clearly understood or expressed
9. tremble convulsively, as from fear or excitement
10. having a sharp inclination
11. dignified and somber in manner or character and committed to keeping promises
12. characterized by or given to yielding to the wishes of someone
13. euphemisms for `fat'
14. cause to spread or flush or flood through, over, or across
15. having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy
16. an unshakable belief in something without need for proof or evidence
17. turn away or aside
18. rich and superior in quality
19. attempt by employing effort
20. out of the ordinary
21. a flash of light (especially reflected light)
22. moving slowly
23. a swampy arm or slow-moving outlet of a lake (term used mainly in Mississippi and Louisiana)
24. order by virtue of superior authority; decree
25. something or someone seen (especially a notable or unusual sight)
26. wood heaped for burning a dead body as a funeral rite
27. a small part or portion that remains after the main part no longer exists
There was the ___________ of one back in the drawer from which he took them.
The passion that awoke in him that day, when he saw her at the gate, swept along like an avalanche, or like
a prairie fire, or like anything that drives headlong over all___________.
For the girl grew to be beautiful and gentle, affectionate and __________- the idol of Valmonde.
The passion that awoke in him that day, when he saw her at the gate, swept along like an__________, or
like a prairie fire, or like anything that drives headlong over all obstacles.
Armand Aubigny sat in the wide hallway that commanded a view of the___________; and it was he who
dealt out to a half dozen negroes the material which kept this fire ablaze.
Monsieur Valmonde grew practical and wanted things well considered: that is, the girl's
__________origin.
In time Madame Valmonde abandoned every speculation but the one that Desiree had been sent to her by a
beneficent __________to be the child of her affection, seeing that she was without child of the flesh.
Madame Valmonde bent her __________figure over Desiree and kissed her, holding her an instant tenderly
in her arms.
Young Aubigny's rule was a strict one, too, and under it his negroes had forgotten how to be gay, as they
had been during the old master's easy-going and __________lifetime.
In time Madame Valmonde abandoned every speculation but the one that Desiree had been sent to her by a
__________Providence to be the child of her affection, seeing that she was without child of the flesh.
The baby, half naked, lay asleep upon her own great mahogany bed, that was like a ___________throne,
with its satin-lined half-canopy.
Some weeks later there was a curious scene __________at L'Abri.
Desiree's eyes had been fixed absently and sadly upon the baby, while she was __________to penetrate the
threatening mist that she felt closing about her.
Her hair was uncovered and the sun's rays brought a golden __________from its brown meshes.
Monsieur Valmonde grew __________and wanted things well considered: that is, the girl's obscure
origin.
She disappeared among the reeds and willows that grew thick along the banks of the deep,
_________bayou; and she did not come back again.
Marriage, and later the birth of his son had softened Armand Aubigny's __________and exacting nature
greatly.
When she reached L'Abri she __________at the first sight of it, as she always did.
A graceful cradle of willow, with all its dainty furbishings, was laid upon the__________, which had
already been fed with the richness of a priceless layette.
She disappeared among the reeds and willows that grew thick along the banks of the deep,
sluggish__________; and she did not come back again.
Some people thought she might have strayed there of her own__________, for she was of the toddling
age.
The roof came down ___________and black like a cowl, reaching out beyond the wide galleries that
encircled the yellow stuccoed house.
Big, __________oaks grew close to it, and their thick-leaved, far-reaching branches shadowed it like a
pall.
Desiree's face became ____________with a glow that was happiness itself.
When the baby was about three months old, Desiree awoke one day to the ___________that there was something in the
air menacing her peace.
A quick conception of all that this accusation meant for her nerved her with __________courage to deny
it.