The encounter in the bazaars1 that Thursday afternoon brought one more result to young Hill besides the bruise2 upon his chin and the privilege of bowing to Lady Claire and her vigilant3 chaperon, and the presence of Lady Claire's little handkerchief in his coat pocket.
It brought a young German, scrupulously4 sober, soberly apologetic, in formal state to Billy's hotel upon Friday morning, whose card announced him to be Frederick von Deigen and whose speech proclaimed him to be utterly5 aghast at his own untoward6 behavior.
"I was not myself," he owned, with a sigh and a melancholy7 twist of his upstanding mustaches. "I had been lunching alone—and it is bad to lunch alone when one has a sadness. One drinks—to forget.... But you are too young to understand." He waved his hand in compliment to Billy's youth, then continued, with increasing energy, "But when I find what dummheit I have done—how I have so rudely addressed the young Fr?ulein with you, and have used my fists upon you, even to the point of hurling8 you upon the street—I have no words for my shame."
"Oh, it wasn't exactly a hurl," Billy easily amended9. "There was a banana peel where my heel happened to be—and I wasn't half scrapping10. I could see you weren't yourself."
"Indeed no! Would I," he struck himself gloomily upon the breast, "would I intrude11 upon a young Fr?ulein, and attack her protector? It was that bottle—that last bottle.... I knew—at the time.... I offer you my apology. I can do no more—unless you would have satisfaction—no?"
"I guess I had all the satisfaction that was coming to me yesterday," said Billy. "You've got a fist like a professional. But there's no harm done.... Only you want to get over taking that last bottle and offering presents to young ladies," he concluded, with an accent of youthful severity.
The German nodded a depressed12 head. His melancholy, bloodshot eyes fixed13 themselves sadly upon Billy. "Ach, it is so," he assented14 meekly15, "but when one has a sadness—" He sighed.
"Yes, of course, that's tough," agreed Billy sympathetically. "I hate a sadness."
"Perhaps you have known—?" The other's eyes lifted toward him, then dropped dispiritedly. "But, no, you are too young. But I—Ach!" He added in his own tongue a line of which Billy caught geliebt and gelebt, and so nodded understandingly.
"That geliebing business is bad stuff," he returned, and again the other tugged16 at his mustaches with a nervous hand and shook his big blond head.
"She was to have met me here," he said abruptly17. "She wrote—I was to come quick—and then she comes not. That is woman, the ewige weibliche." He scowled18. "But, Gott, how enchantment19 was in her!"
Billy heard himself sigh in unison20. The phrase suggested Arlee. And the situation was not dissimilar. He felt a positive sympathy for the big blond fellow in his pronounced clothes and glossy21 boots and careful boutonnière.... He smiled in friendly fashion.
"She'll come along yet," he prophesied22, "and if she doesn't, just you go out after her. I wouldn't take too many chances in the waiting game."
The German shook his head. His blue eyes swam with sentimental23 moisture. "You do not understand," he said. "She went with another—I must wait for her to come away. I have no address—so?"
"Well, that—that's different," stammered24 the young American. His sympathy became cynical25. Fishy26 business—but even a fishy business has its human side. So presently he found himself gazing interestedly upon the photograph the German displayed in the back of his watch—the photograph of a decolleté young woman with provocative27 dark eyes and parted lips and pearl-like teeth, and he shook the caller's hand most heartily28 in parting, and prophesied, with fine assurance, the successful end of this fishy romance.
"You have a heart, my friend," said the German solemnly, and lifting hat and stick and lemon-colored gloves from the table, he bowed profoundly in farewell.
"And to the Fr?ulein—you will give my so deep apology?" he added earnestly, and Billy assured him that he would. And he found himself, for all his pre-occupation with the vision of Arlee's spring-like beauty, by no means displeased29 at the errand. A man must have something to do while he is waiting—if he is to avoid last bottles! He would seek her out that very afternoon.
But by afternoon he was tearing upstairs and downstairs through the hotel after a very different quarry30, which at last he ran to earth at a tiny table behind a palm on the veranda31. The quarry was further protected by an enveloping32 newspaper, but Billy did not stand on ceremony.
"I want to talk to you," said he.
Falconer looked up. He recognized Billy perfectly33, though his gaze gave no admission of that. This tall young fellow with the deep-set gray eyes and the rugged34 chin and the straight black hair he first remembered seeing dancing that Wednesday evening with Arlee—after their own disastrous35 tea and its estrangement36. Arlee had appeared on mystifyingly good terms with him, though he was positive from his own observations, and had corroboration37 from the Evershams, that she had never spoken to him until five minutes before. Then the fellow had fairly grilled38 the Evershams about the girl's whereabouts last night. And he had learned that the previous afternoon he had managed to take Claire's protection upon himself in the bazaars, actually convincing her that she ought to feel indebted to him, and had driven back with them.... An unabashed intruder, that fellow! He ought to have a lesson.
His air of unwelcome deepened, if possible, as Billy helped himself to a chair, drew it confidentially39 close to him and cast a careful glance about the veranda.
"I don't want anyone to hear this," he explained.
Falconer smiled cynically41. He had met confidential40 young Americans before. There was nothing they could sell him.
"It's about Miss Beecher." Billy looked uncomfortable. He hesitated, blushed boyishly through his tan, and blurted42, "There's something mighty43 queer about that departure of hers yesterday."
"Ah!"
"I don't feel right about it.... It's deuced queer. She isn't in Alexandria."
"Ah!"
"If you say 'Ah' again, I hope you choke," said Billy violently to himself. Aloud he continued, "I wired to the Khedivial and to all the other hotels—there are just a few—and she isn't registered there, and the Maynards are not, either."
"Possibly staying with friends," said Falconer indifferently. He regarded his paper.
"Very few Americans have friends in Alexandria. However, that might be so. But no ship has arrived from the Continent for three days, and it seems mighty odd, if they were there three days ago, for them to have wired at the last minute and had her tear off like that."
"I do not pretend to account for your compatriots," said the sandy-haired young man.
Billy looked at him a minute. "There's no use in your being disagreeable," he remarked. "I didn't thrust myself upon you because I was attracted to you, at all. But I thought you were a sensible, masculine human being who was interested in Miss Beecher's whereabouts."
"I beg your pardon," said the other young man. "I am—I mean I am interested—if you think there is anything really wrong. But I do not see your point."
"Well, now, see if you can see this. I wired the consul44 there and some other fellow at the port, and they wired back that no people of the name of Maynard have arrived on any of the boats for the past two weeks—that was as far back as they looked up. Now that's queer."
"He could be mistaken—or they could have bought some one else's accommodations—and that would account for the hastiness of their plans," Falconer argued.
"But what train did she go on?"
"What train? Why, the express for Alexandria."
"That left at eight-thirty. Now why in the world would she rush away in the middle of the afternoon, sending a telegram from the station and leaving her packing undone45, for an eight-thirty train?"
"Why I—I really can't say. She may have had errands——"
"Where did she have her dinner? Did she dine with friends at some of the hotels? What friends has she here?"
"I really can't say as to that, either. I wasn't aware that she had any."
"And where did she send that telegram from? There isn't a copy of any such telegram at the offices I've been to—at Cook's or the station. It might have been written on a telegraph blank and sent up by messenger with the money—but why not come herself, with all that time on her hands? And nobody remembers selling her any ticket to Alexandria—and you know anybody would remember selling anything to a girl like that."
Falconer was silent.
"And nobody at Cook's paid out any money on her letter of credit—or cashed any express checks for her. Where did that money come from that was sent back to the hotel?"
"But what is the point of all this?"
"That's what I just particularly don't know.... But it needs looking into."
Falconer favored him with a level scrutiny46. "How long have you known Miss Beecher?"
"I met her the night before last. That, however, doesn't enter into the case."
"It would seem to me that it might."
"Between three days and three weeks," said Billy, remembering something, "the difference is sometimes no greater than between Tweedledum and Tweedledee." He smiled humorously at the other young man, a frank, likeable smile that softened47 magically the bluntness of his young mouth. "That's why I came to you. You are the only soul I know to be interested in Miss Beecher's welfare. The Evershams are off up the Nile—and they'd probably be helpless, anyway. Besides, you know more about this blamed Egypt of yours than I do.... Have you any idea where she went yesterday afternoon?"
"Not at all."
"Neither have the Evershams. They were surprised when I asked them about it this morning. They didn't know she was going. Now she went somewhere in a limousine——"
"Probably to the station."
"American girls don't go to stations in floating white clothes and hats all pink roses. I particularly remember the pink rose," said Billy gloomily. "No, if she had been going to the station she would have had on a little blue or gray suit, very up and down, and a little minute of a hat with just one perky feather. And she'd have a bag of sorts with her—no girl would rush away to Alexandria without a bag."
"She could have sent it ahead of her or returned and dressed later for the station."
"Why the mischief48 did I tramp off to those bazaars?" said the young American. "But, see here—weren't you around the hotel after that yesterday—at tea time?"
"Er—yes—I——"
"And weren't you rather looking out for Miss Beecher? Wouldn't you have noticed if she had been coming or going?"
Falconer stroked his small mustache and shot a look at Billy out of the corners of his eyes which expressed his distinct annoyance49 at these intrusive50 demands.
"I don't remember to have met you," said he slowly.
"You haven't. I know your name, but you don't know mine. I am William B. Hill."
"Ah—Behill."
"No—B. Hill. The B is an initial."
"Of what?" said the other casually51, and Billy's cheeks grew suddenly warm.
"Of my middle name," said he, with steady composure. "If we are to do any team-work you will have to let it go at the William and the Hill."
"What team-work do you suggest?"
"Find out where she went yesterday. Find out where she is now. What worries me," he burst out, with ungovernable uneasiness, yet with a hint of humor at his own extravagant52 imaginings, "is her talking to that Turk fellow yesterday—that Captain Kerissen, I think she called him. She had told me the night before that he was going to get her some ball tickets or other, and I didn't think anything of it, but yesterday I thought he had his nerve to come and call upon her. You see, I passed through the hall and saw them talking. I went out to the veranda and after he had gone I came in again, but she was nowhere in sight. Then I went back to the veranda, and in a few moments she came out, in white with a rose on her hat, and went off in a car that was ready. Of course Kerissen wasn't in the car, and I haven't any proof of his connection with the thing, but he might easily have induced her to look at some mosque53 or other off the 'beaten track'——"
"But she returned, for later she sent that telegram from the station," Falconer argued.
Billy was silent. Then he burst out, "But all the same there is a mystery to this thing.... She—she's too confoundedly young and pretty to run around alone in this painted jade54 of a city."
"This city has law and order—much more of them than there are in your national hotbeds of robbery and murder."
"H'm—well, I don't hold any brief for Chicago—I suppose Chicago is the target—so I won't defend that. But I've heard stories."
"Queer ones, I should say."
"Devilish queer ones!... How about that young Monkton or Monkhouse who dropped out of things last winter?"
Falconer looked annoyed. "Oh, there are rumors56——"
"Yes, rumors that he flirted57 with a Turkish lady—that he was on horseback just outside her carriage during the jam at the Kasr-el-Nil bridge, and they looked and smiled and afterwards met in a shop. And rumors that she gave him a rendezvous58 at her home and that he told another man about it at the club, who warned him sharply, and he only laughed.... But it's no rumor55 that he disappeared. He's gone, all right, and nobody knows where he went, and nobody seems to want to know. Officially they said he was drowned out swimming—or lost in a sandstorm riding in the desert—or spiked59 on top of an obelisk60 or something equally reasonable—but, privately61, people say other things.... No international law intrudes62 into the Turkish woman question."
"What of it?" Falconer looked stubborn. "I daresay the fellow received his deserts.... But the case hardly applies—what?"
"Well—it makes one feel that anything can happen here—that the city is quicksand where a chance step would engulf63 one." Billy stared frowningly out on the vivid street ahead of him. A pretty English bride and her soldier husband were out exercising their dogs. Two ladies in a victoria were advertising64 their toilettes. A blond baby toddled65 past with his black nurse. It was all very peaceful and charming. It did not look like quicksand.... Into the picture came a one-eyed man with a stuffed crocodile on his head, stalking slowly along, scanning the veranda with his single, penetrating66 eye, calling his wares67 in harsh gutturals, and with him came suddenly the sense of that strange background before which all this bright tourist life was played, that dark watching, secret East, curious and incalculable.
Falconer folded his paper with a sharp crackle that recalled young Hill's wandering thought. "That's all very well, but it doesn't apply," he observed, with conviction.
"Then where is she?" Billy was bluntly belligerent68.
The other put his paper in his pocket. "In Alexandria, to be sure, and not at all pleased, either, to have you bring her name into such questioning." He looked squarely at Billy as he said that, and the eyes of the two young man met and exchanged a secret challenge of hostility69.
Billy rose. "Oh, all right," he returned. "I daresay I am as much a fool as you take me for.... She may be all right. But if not—I thought I'd give you a chance to take a hand in it."
"The sporting chance," said Falconer, with an appreciable70 smile. "I'm much obliged—but I don't at all share your misgivings71.... And what in the world do you propose to do about it?"
For a minute Billy's gaze blankly interrogated72 the sunlit distances. His eyes were fixed, but empty; his forehead knitted in an uncertain frown. Then quite suddenly he turned and flashed at Falconer a look of odd and unforeseen decision.
"I'm going to buy a crocodile," he imparted, with a wide, boyish grin. "I'm going to buy a crocodile of a one-eyed man."
Stolidly73 Falconer eyed his departing back. Stolidly, definitely, comprehensively, he pronounced judgment74. "Mad," said he. "Mad as the March Hare."
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1
bazaars
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| （东方国家的）市场( bazaar的名词复数 )； 义卖； 义卖市场； （出售花哨商品等的）小商品市场 | |
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bruise
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| n.青肿，挫伤；伤痕；vt.打青；挫伤 | |
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vigilant
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| adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的 | |
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scrupulously
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| adv.一丝不苟地；小心翼翼地，多顾虑地 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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untoward
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| adj.不利的，不幸的，困难重重的 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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hurling
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| n.爱尔兰式曲棍球v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的现在分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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9
Amended
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| adj. 修正的 动词amend的过去式和过去分词 | |
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10
scrapping
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| 刮，切除坯体余泥 | |
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intrude
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| vi.闯入；侵入；打扰，侵扰 | |
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depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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16
tugged
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| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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17
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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18
scowled
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
enchantment
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| n.迷惑，妖术，魅力 | |
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unison
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| n.步调一致，行动一致 | |
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glossy
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| adj.平滑的；有光泽的 | |
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prophesied
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| v.预告，预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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fishy
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| adj. 值得怀疑的 | |
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provocative
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| adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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30
quarry
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| n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找 | |
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veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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32
enveloping
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的现在分词 ) | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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estrangement
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| n.疏远，失和，不和 | |
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corroboration
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| n.进一步的证实，进一步的证据 | |
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38
grilled
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| adj. 烤的, 炙过的, 有格子的 动词grill的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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confidentially
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| ad.秘密地，悄悄地 | |
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confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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41
cynically
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| adv.爱嘲笑地，冷笑地 | |
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42
blurted
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| v.突然说出，脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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43
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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44
consul
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| n.领事；执政官 | |
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45
undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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46
scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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47
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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48
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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49
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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50
intrusive
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| adj.打搅的；侵扰的 | |
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51
casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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52
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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53
mosque
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| n.清真寺 | |
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54
jade
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| n.玉石；碧玉；翡翠 | |
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55
rumor
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| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
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56
rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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57
flirted
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| v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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58
rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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59
spiked
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| adj.有穗的；成锥形的；有尖顶的 | |
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60
obelisk
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| n.方尖塔 | |
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61
privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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62
intrudes
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| v.侵入，侵扰，打扰( intrude的第三人称单数 )；把…强加于 | |
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63
engulf
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| vt.吞没，吞食 | |
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64
advertising
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| n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的 | |
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65
toddled
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| v.（幼儿等）东倒西歪地走( toddle的过去式和过去分词 )；蹒跚行走；溜达；散步 | |
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66
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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67
wares
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| n. 货物, 商品 | |
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68
belligerent
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| adj.好战的，挑起战争的；n.交战国，交战者 | |
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69
hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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70
appreciable
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| adj.明显的，可见的，可估量的，可觉察的 | |
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71
misgivings
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧 | |
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72
interrogated
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| v.询问( interrogate的过去式和过去分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询 | |
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73
stolidly
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| adv.迟钝地，神经麻木地 | |
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74
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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