Inevitable:(Adjective)
Definition:unable to be avoided.
Dictionary.com
But I also felt the weird relief which comes from knowing that the inevitable destruction of precious things, though done in your house, was not done by your hand.
What is being said here is that they are happy that they didn’t ruin the picture because precious things are always going to be destroyed in your house.
Ā Coherent: (Adjective)
Definition: logically connected
Dictionary.com
They dreamed dreams that no one knew-not even themselves, in any coherent fashion-and saw visions no one could stand.
I think that this means that they would just see the same visitors all of the time.
Ā Pitiful: (Adjective)
Definition:evoking or deserving contempt by smallness, poor quality
Dictionary.com
Who were these Saints? These crazy, loony, pitiful women? Some of them, without a doubt, were our mothers and grandmothers.
This just meant that the women are like not seen as much.
Ā Mutilated: (Verb)
Definition: to injure, disfigure, or make imperfect by removing or irreparably damaging parts
Dictionary.com
They stumbled blindly through their lives: creatures so abused and mutilated in body, so dimmed and confused by pain, that they considered themselves unworthy even of hope.
This just means thatĀ these creatures were so abused and injured, and the body was confused with pain.
Temperament: (Noun)
Definition: the combination of mental, physical, and emotional traits of a person.
Dictionary.com
I described her own nature and temperament.
This just meant that she was describing her mental, physical, and emotional traits.
Ā
Congenial: (Adjective)
Definition: agreeable, suitable, or pleasing in natureĀ or character.
Dictionary.com
Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.
This just means that she wanted to read something that was pleasing and exciting.
Untenanted: (Noun)
Definition: an occupant or inhabitant of any place.
Dictionary.com
Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so longĀ untenanted?
I now understand that this word is telling us that the place had no one living in it for a while.
Seldom: (Adverb)
Definition: on only a few occasions; rarely; infrequently; not often.
Dictionary.com
It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer.
I now understand that the author was literally trying to say that it was rare for people likeĀ her and John to do this.
Eccentric-(Adjective)
Definition:deviating from the recognized or customary character, practice, etc.; irregular; erratic; peculiar; odd.
Dictionary.com
The working basis of the establishment was an eccentric woman named
Caswell, a sort of musical enthusiast, who had a summer school of music
and the “higher things.”Ā Malicious persons, not able to obtain
accommodations there, called the place “High C.”
The way the word is used in the passage is just suggesting that the women has a weird personality.
Cultivating-(Verb)
Definition: to develop or improve by education or training; train; refine.
Dictionary.com
The voice Helen Furr was cultivating was quite a pleasant one. The voice Georgine Skeene was cultivating was, some said, a better one. The voice Helen Furr was cultivating she cultivated and it was quite completely a pleasant enough one then, a cultivated enough one then. The voice Georgine Skeene was cultivating she did not cultivate too much. She cultivated it quite some. She cultivated and she would sometime go on cultivating it and it was not then an unpleasant one, it would not be then an unpleasant one, it would be a quite richly enough cultivated one, it would be quite richly enough to be a pleasant enough one.
The word in the texts means that they were, improving their voices.
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