Ophie's Ghosts: "Daffodil Manor"–Chapter 7

by Justina Ireland
Following the death of her father, twelve-year-old Ophelia discovers that she can talk to ghosts and that not all ghosts are as nice as they seem.

This list covers "Daffodil Manor"–Chapter 7.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
40 words 15 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. sparse
    not dense or plentiful
    And it wasn’t anything to do with the people who lived there; most of his rooms, after all, remained locked up tight, furniture draped with sheets, dust settling into thick layers as the sparse household staff struggled to keep up.
  2. wayward
    resistant to guidance or discipline
    The dining room contained Elvira Caruthers, a wayward daughter who cared more about gossip than chewing her food before swallowing and who had died before she could create her own branch of the family line.
  3. strident
    unpleasantly loud and harsh
    “Where is my tea?” came a shout from the top of the stairs, the strident voice silencing the singing and ending Ophie’s happy reverie.
  4. reverie
    an abstracted state of absorption
    “Where is my tea?” came a shout from the top of the stairs, the strident voice silencing the singing and ending Ophie’s happy reverie.
  5. rebuke
    an act or expression of criticism and censure
    As Mrs. Caruthers raised the cup, Ophie sank into a deep curtsy, eyes downcast as her heart pounded while she waited for the inevitable rebuke.
  6. welt
    a raised mark on the skin
    But not before Ophie saw the seeping, bloody welts crisscrossing his back.
  7. meager
    deficient in amount or quality or extent
    It was the middle of the week, and no one would have any money for food for a couple more days, when their meager wages were collected.
  8. prerogative
    a right reserved exclusively by a person or group
    It was her house, after all, and her prerogative, a phrase she used often when anyone wanted to sass her. Ophie couldn’t wait to grow up and have her own prerogative.
  9. lethargy
    inactivity; showing an unusual lack of energy
    She was starting to doze in front of the fire, the warmth and comfort conspiring to make her eyelids heavy, when the front door slammed. All her lethargy fled as the sound of giggles and running feet echoed down the hallway and into the parlor.
  10. fraught
    marked by distress
    When they’d first arrived at Aunt Rose’s house after the fraught train ride up from Atlanta, Ophie had been excited at the idea of more family to spend time with.
  11. indifferent
    showing no care or concern in attitude or action
    Uncle Alfred—who was actually Ophie’s cousin and Rose’s son, a bit of gnarled family tree that Ophie didn’t quite understand—was indifferent to Ophie and her mother, but Aunt Helen resented their sudden arrival.
  12. spite
    meanness or nastiness
    Muriel, Agnes, and Eloise absorbed all their mother’s spite and directed it back at Ophie magnified by a thousand.
  13. sullen
    showing a brooding ill humor
    She was sullen and mean and had trouble keeping her letters correct.
  14. mirth
    great merriment
    All the mirth had drained from Rose’s face, and Ophie shivered as a draft found its way around the windows and twirled through the kitchen.
  15. resilient
    recovering readily from adversity, depression, or the like
    Pittsburgh was a resilient, rough-and-tumble city.
  16. confluence
    a place where things merge or flow together
    Throughout the years, Pittsburgh had welcomed all—anyone who wanted to work hard could come to the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers.
  17. hardy
    having rugged physical strength
    And if the living of the city were hardy and tough, the dead were even more so.
  18. scullery
    a small room next to the kitchen for household jobs
    I started here as a scullery maid when I was about your age, just before Mr. Caruthers, God rest his soul, met Mrs. Caruthers.
  19. fodder
    an inferior but widely available resource used to supply heavy demand
    “Mind you, I’m not one to gossip. You remember that, Ophelia. The lives of your betters are not fodder for your amusement.”
  20. ornery
    having a difficult and contrary disposition
    She drank the glass of milk in a few gulps, wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve, and went to see what the ornery old woman wanted.
  21. ire
    anger; irritability
    She still won the ire of Mrs. Caruthers more often than not, usually for the most mundane reasons, but she learned how to be competent enough in her tending to the old woman not to be fired.
  22. mundane
    found in the ordinary course of events
    She still won the ire of Mrs. Caruthers more often than not, usually for the most mundane reasons, but she learned how to be competent enough in her tending to the old woman not to be fired.
  23. tenure
    the term during which some position is held
    The second week of March, nearly a month after Ophie began her tenure at Daffodil Manor, Deirdre, the Irish woman in charge of the household linens, was fired by Mrs. Caruthers.
  24. fecund
    capable of producing offspring or vegetation
    The trolley even smelled damp, like the woods after rain, fecund and rich.
  25. blatantly
    in a completely obvious manner
    His eyes were wide with surprise, and Ophie immediately knew that she had done something terribly wrong in blatantly ignoring Aunt Rose’s advice.
  26. morose
    showing a brooding ill humor
    But as she walked home, Mama quiet on the way, taken up with her own musings, Ophie wondered if maybe Mama wouldn’t be so morose if she knew what had happened that terrible night back in Georgia.
  27. contend
    come to terms with
    The next day, ghosts were the least of Ophie’s problems. She had Mrs. Caruthers and her linens to contend with, and it would be her first time doing it all by herself.
  28. caustic
    harsh or corrosive in tone
    The old woman’s voice was flat, nothing like her usually caustic tone.
  29. reverent
    feeling or showing profound respect or veneration
    They were books that discussed slavery and plantations and the time before emancipation in a reverent and honorable way, like it had all been a good thing.
  30. modest
    not large but sufficient in size or amount
    Ophie knew that colored folks had not always been free, and she understood that her work for the Carutherses resonated within the same patterns of history, even if she was paid a modest wage.
  31. tome
    a large and scholarly book
    But if she tried to read something else Mrs. Caruthers would snap at her, and so she read the irksome tomes until the old woman drifted off.
  32. blustery
    blowing in violent and abrupt bursts
    And so it was that a particularly blustery afternoon at the end of March found Ophie sprawled in front of the fire, a True Romances magazine spread before her.
  33. billow
    rise and move, as in waves
    The way her skirts and scarf billowed around her as she sank onto the threadbare carpet was utterly splendid, and Ophie had to swallow a sigh.
  34. drab
    lacking brightness or color; dull
    She had never met someone so pretty and graceful. Even the pastor’s wife from back in Georgia seemed like a drab mallard next to this swan.
  35. incandescent
    characterized by ardent emotion, intensity, or brilliance
    The woman fairly glowed with a kind of happiness, like she was sunshine. And in a gloomy place like Daffodil Manor, her brightness seemed even more incandescent.
  36. daft
    foolish or mentally irregular
    “You, girl, are you talking to yourself? Are you daft?”
  37. erratic
    liable to sudden unpredictable change
    Mrs. Caruthers released the blankets and dragged herself out of the bed, her movements jerky and erratic, like they’d been the day Ophie had looked in the closet.
  38. gnarled
    old and twisted and covered in lines
    She shouted gibberish and her hands were curled into gnarled claws.
  39. undulate
    move in a wavy pattern or with a rising and falling motion
    When Ophie looked closely, she could see that it was not a scarf at all but rather a trail of blood that undulated and flowed like an infinite river.
  40. profound
    of the greatest intensity; complete
    But beneath them all was a feeling she would not lose for a long while after—a deep and profound sadness that the best thing about Daffodil Manor was a dead woman.
Created on Sun Jan 09 10:15:56 EST 2022 (updated Thu Jan 13 11:58:49 EST 2022)

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