I do not know why at the moment I could think of no excuse. I followed them rather sulkily to the table at which Strickland always sat, and he called for the board and the chessmen. They both took the situation so much as a matter of course that I felt it absurd to do otherwise. Mrs. Stroeve watched the game with inscrutable face. She was silent, but she had always been silent. I looked at her mouth for an expression that could give me a clue to what she felt; I watched her eyes for some tell-tale flash, some hint of dismay or bitterness; I scanned her brow for any passing line that might indicate a settling emotion. Her face was a mask that told nothing. Her hands lay on her lap motionless, one in the other loosely clasped. I knew from what I had heard that she was a woman of violent passions; and that injurious blow that she had given Dirk, the man who had loved her so devotedly, betrayed a sudden temper and a horrid cruelty. She had abandoned the safe shelter of her husband's protection and the comfortable ease of a well-provided establishment for what she could not but see was an extreme hazard. It showed an eagerness for adventure, a readiness for the hand-to-mouth, which the care she took of her home and her love of good housewifery made not a little remarkable. She must be a woman of complicated character, and there was something dramatic in the contrast of that with her demure appearance.
请教老师:
for what she could not but see was an extreme hazard. 中怎么理解could not but see 这一结构含义和用法?
另外,with her demure appearance. 这里的with怎么理解?
还有,标注黑体的句子( I scanned her brow for any passing line that might indicate a settling emotion.)的意思看不懂?
谢谢老师!
(1)She had abandoned the safe shelter of her husband's protection and the comfortable ease of a well-provided establishment for what she could not but see was an extreme hazard.
could not but do = could not help doing sth. 表示情不自禁,不由自主。
因为那些她不由自主看到的东西实则是隐患,她放弃了丈夫的保护下的安乐窝和舒适安逸的生活
(2)and there was something dramatic in the contrast of that with her demure appearance.
with 在这里表示伴随,一个悬垂结构。 这句话可以理解为,With her demure appearance, there was something dramatic in the contrast of that.
(在她端庄的表情下,某些东西和她复杂的性格形成鲜明对比) 这里面, that 指代的是 complicated character.
(3) I scanned her brow for any passing line that might indicate a settling emotion.
这句话的意思是, 我打量她的额头,想找出是否有一条偶然出现的皱纹,显露出一点安定的情绪。