Sentence:  Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence. She devoured with more <WSD>avidity</WSD> than she had her food those pretentiously phrased chronicles of the snobocracy […] distilling therefrom an acid envy that robbed her napoleon of all its savour. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Eagerness; intenseness of desire.