"This will set me all right with Miss Roscoe now," she thought. "She'll quite forgive me that business about Dick and the sweets on the strength of a 'Rodenhurst Cot'. I think I've scored considerably4."
When at eleven o'clock, therefore, Gwen received a summons from the Principal, she was not at all dismayed, and presented herself in the study with a smiling face. To her surprise, however, she was hardly welcomed with the enthusiasm she expected. Miss Roscoe looked grave and annoyed, and greeted her more as if she were a culprit than a praiseworthy collector of money.
"Sit down, Gwen," she said coldly, motioning her pupil to a chair near her desk. "You can unlock your satchel5 and go over your accounts with me; then there is another matter that I wish to talk to you about afterwards."
Feeling decidedly chilled, Gwen produced her key.
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Miss Roscoe emptied the contents of the bag on to a tray, and proceeded to count the various coins. She reckoned them twice over, frowned, consulted a paper, then turned to Gwen.
"See how much you make it!" she said abruptly7.
Gwen carefully went over the piles of half-crowns, florins, shillings, and sixpences, and added them together.
"I get thirteen pounds seven and six," was her conclusion.
"So do I, so we must both be correct," returned Miss Roscoe. "Now the checks that Moira Thompson received at the second gate register thirteen pounds seventeen shillings. How is it you are nine and sixpence short?"
"Am I that much short?" cried Gwen. "It can't possibly be!"
"Look for yourself," said Miss Roscoe. "The checks are all numbered. There are two hundred and fifty-one shilling admissions and fifty-two sixpenny ones. Examine the numbers on the rolls of checks left in your satchel; you will see they begin at Nos. 252 and 53. That means that you certainly issued 251 checks at a shilling and 52 at sixpence. The right amount ought to have been in your bag."
"Is there nothing left stuck in the corners?" asked Gwen, utterly9 dumbfounded at the defalcation10.
"Nothing whatever. Look and satisfy yourself."
Gwen seized the satchel, and almost turned it inside out in her eagerness, but there was no remaining coin to be found.
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"Did you give any people checks without receiving the money in return?" enquired11 Miss Roscoe.
"No, certainly not. I was most particular. I didn't let anybody in without paying. If they had no tickets I sold them checks. I don't see how I can be all that amount wrong."
"Unfortunately both our reckonings show the same deficit13. What I want to know, Gwen, is what has become of this missing nine and sixpence?"
"I can't imagine."
"But it is your duty to account for it. You alone are responsible; and it is my duty to enquire12 where it has gone."
"Miss Roscoe! You surely don't think I've pocketed it?" broke out Gwen, the drift of the Principal's remarks suddenly dawning upon her.
"I say nothing except that it is a very strange circumstance that you cannot produce it. Was the satchel in your own possession the whole of the afternoon?"
"Yes—at least—yes, it was!" stammered14 Gwen, looking very red and confused. The remembrance had just struck her that she had allowed Lesbia to take some change from her bag, and at the same instant Lesbia's extraordinary behaviour of the evening before flashed across her mind. Could there possibly be any connection between the two incidents? The idea was so horrible that she blushed at entertaining it even for a moment.
Miss Roscoe glanced at her keenly.
"Do you assume the full responsibility for this?" she asked in a strained voice.
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"Absolutely. Nobody except myself had anything to do with the gate money."
The Principal's face, which had been grave before, took a yet sterner expression.
"I am sorry, Gwen. Very sorry and most concerned. I thought I could have trusted you entirely16. It pains me beyond measure to find you have betrayed my confidence."
"But I didn't take that nine and six! I didn't, indeed! I don't know where it has gone; but I haven't got it! How can you accuse me of such a dreadful thing?" blurted17 out Gwen indignantly.
"You can't deny the deficit," returned Miss Roscoe icily. "There is the evidence of the checks and the cash to prove it. As you are not able to account for it, I can only draw my own conclusions. As it happens, I was this very morning made aware of the reason which must have prompted your most dishonourable act."
"What do you mean?" cried Gwen with a choke in her voice.
For answer Miss Roscoe handed her a folded piece of paper. She opened it nervously20. It was a bill from Messrs. Parker & Sons, Glass and China Merchants, to Miss Gwen Gascoyne, for ten shillings "to account rendered", and written at the bottom were the words: "Your immediate21 settlement will oblige". It seemed such a bolt from the blue that Gwen turned all colours, and her hand trembled till she nearly dropped the paper.
"Ah, you may well look conscious, Gwen! I have just learnt the full history of this most deceitful busi
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ness. I have had a letter from Mrs. Goodwin, telling me that her daughter had confessed her share of it, and as another bill for the broken china had arrived for you, directed under cover to Netta, she considered it best to forward it on to me, with an account of what had occurred, as it was only right that I should know about it. She is most pained that her daughter should have been even slightly implicated22 in such an affair, and Netta herself seems truly to regret countenancing23 the deception24 and screening you. I had a talk with her before school this morning. I cannot exonerate25 her, but she is at least sorry for her conduct. With this knowledge of your debt, Gwen, and your reasons for concealing26 it, of course I realize plainly enough why you have been foolish and wicked enough to take some of the gate money. No doubt you yielded to a desperate temptation; you had much better make a clean breast of it."
Gwen was trembling so greatly that she could hardly utter a reply. Several times her white lips framed the words before she gasped27 out:
"I did break the china, and I owe the ten shillings for it, but I never took a penny from the satchel. I may be naughty, but I'm no thief!"
Miss Roscoe shook her head sadly.
"What's the use of persisting in denying a fact that's absolutely palpable?"
"But I didn't! Oh, I didn't!"
"It's little use arguing the matter at present, Gwen, if you take up this stubborn attitude. If you think things over, you will see it is much better to confess. I have probably startled you by springing the news
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upon you that I was aware of your substitution of my china tea service. When you are calmer you will be more ready to acknowledge what you have done. Go to the little music room at the head of the stairs—it is not in use this morning—and stay there until I come or send for you. Reflect seriously upon what I have said, and make up your mind to be brave enough to tell me everything."
With feet like lead, and a head that throbbed28 and burned, Gwen walked upstairs. The little music room was unoccupied. It only contained a piano, a stool, and a chair, and on the last-named piece of furniture she sank down wearily. Her thoughts flew so rapidly through her brain that she could scarcely regulate them. She felt as if a net had been spread for her, and had entangled29 her unawares. First and foremost was the sense that Netta had betrayed her. Netta, who had promised at all costs to keep her secret, had basely revealed it. She saw how cleverly her old chum had managed to whitewash30 herself by making a confession31 and feigning32 penitence33, and how much darker this act caused Gwen's own share in the matter to appear by comparison. Naturally Miss Roscoe viewed Netta as the one with the tender conscience, and Gwen as the unrepentant sinner.
"Why didn't I tell her myself that day I meant to, and got as far as the study?" wailed34 the unfortunate culprit. "Then I should have been spared all this!"
Why, indeed? How many of us mourn over our past follies35 and cowardices, bitterly regretting the wasted moment or the lost opportunity? Gwen's fault was indeed being visited heavily upon her
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shoulders. She had sown the wind and reaped the whirlwind. She felt keen resentment36 against Netta. It was a dastardly trick to have played upon her. Netta might at least have warned her that the bill was to be sent on to Miss Roscoe—then she could have been prepared for the worst. It was surely mere15 spite on the part of her friend, who, having quarrelled with her, was anxious to find some means of annoying her. Netta had been jealous of her new-found appreciation37 in the Form, and had taken this opportunity of trying to humble38 her. The deficit in the gate fund filled Gwen with surprise. There seemed only one way of accounting39 for it, and that was so painful that she shrank from facing it. Lesbia had taken change out of the satchel, and that same evening Lesbia had acknowledged the possession of ten shillings, but had refused to reveal how she came by the money.
Gwen groaned40 as she remembered her sister's conscious looks and evasive replies. Could it actually be possible that Lesbia had abstracted this money? She was rather silly, flighty, and irresponsible, but she had always been truthful41 and honourable19. No, it was surely absolutely foreign to her character! Then where had she obtained half a guinea to buy a new tennis racket? And what was the reason of her extreme embarrassment42? Gwen abandoned the question in despair.
"If she really did take it, I must shield her at any cost," she decided6. "She'd get into such frightful43 trouble, and scolding Lesbia is like breaking a butterfly. I can bear things better than she can. But—oh,
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dear! What am I to say to Dad if he asks me? I can stand Miss Roscoe's wrath44, but I can't face making Dad look sorry."
The Principal left Gwen until one o'clock to reflect upon her sins, then summoned her again to the study, and urged her in strong terms to confess.
"I will forgive you if you only acknowledge it, but if you persist in denying it, I shall have to go more deeply into the matter," she said sternly. "I cannot allow such things to happen at Rodenhurst. It is a very grave fault, Gwen. Do you wish me to send for your father?"
"No, no!" cried Gwen hastily.
"Then will you confess?"
"I can't! I didn't do it! Oh, I don't understand!" responded Gwen, torn in two between the desire to defend herself and the fear of involving Lesbia. She did not dare to tell Miss Roscoe that her sister had taken change from the satchel, yet by that circumstance only could she account for the loss.
"Miss Douglas is as distressed45 as I am," continued the Principal. "I was obliged to tell her, in order to explain your absence from your classes. Here she comes now. Perhaps she will be able to persuade you better than I."
"Oh, Miss Roscoe," exclaimed Miss Douglas, entering the study with a hurried step and a heightened colour, "I have just made the most astounding46 discovery! I happened to look in my purse, and to my amazement47 and consternation48 I found half a sovereign which certainly ought not to be there. I am sure I know how I came by it. Yesterday, just before I
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went into the house to dress the girls who were to sing the Elizabethan madrigal49, I bought a box of sweets from Lesbia Gascoyne. I gave her a two-shilling piece, and as she had no sixpences, she ran to Gwen to ask change for my florin. She came hurrying back, and handed me, as we both imagined, three sixpences. I put them in my purse without looking at them. Now I am quite sure that one of these supposed sixpences must in reality have been half a sovereign, given by mistake. I undoubtedly50 had no ten-shilling piece in my purse. The difference of giving half a sovereign in lieu of sixpence would be exactly the nine-and-six that was missing from Gwen's satchel. Let us exchange the two coins, and the deficit will be made up."
It was such a natural, simple, and self-evident explanation of the situation that its truth could not be doubted. Miss Roscoe heaved a sigh of intense relief.
"I am grateful to you beyond words, Miss Douglas," she returned. "Gwen, I am most delighted that your honour is cleared, and regret I harboured so unjust a suspicion against you. I confess it was the affair of the broken china that prejudiced me in your disfavour. It supplied so strong a motive51. Why didn't you come and tell me about that right away when if happened instead of trying to settle it in such a crooked52 fashion? It wasn't straight and square, was it? Have I heard the whole story?"
Gwen, who had not shed a tear before, was crying bitterly now. Miss Roscoe's present kindly53 tone hurt more than her former severity. Almost in spite of
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herself the girl began to blurt18 put her version of how she had accidentally broken the tea service, had intended to pay for it at once, and how Emma had absconded54 with the money. The housemaid's part in the drama was news to Miss Roscoe, and she hastened to ask for particulars.
"This must be investigated immediately," she declared. "I shall send for Emma Dalton this afternoon. I happen to know that she has a place as parlour-maid at a house not far away. If I had heard of this I could not have given her a character. Indeed she deserves to be prosecuted56 for theft. I must write a note to her present mistress."
Miss Roscoe never let the grass grow under her feet. In this case she acted with her usual promptitude, and by two o'clock Emma, in much alarm, and weeping like a waterspout, was ushered57 into the study and confronted with Gwen and Netta, who were both summoned for the occasion.
"Now, Emma, this is a serious charge. Have you anything to say for yourself?" enquired Miss Roscoe, seating herself at her desk with the air of a magistrate58 about to try a case.
"I didn't pay the money at Parker's, and I don't deny it," sobbed59 Emma. "I meant to, but I saw a coat and skirt I wanted, so I thought I'd borrow it, and the bill might just wait for a bit. I've intended to go and settle every month when I got my wages, but it's never seemed the right time. I didn't know Parker's were pressing for it. Oh, dear, I've been a bad girl!"
"You have indeed," said Miss Roscoe. "It was
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wrong of Miss Gascoyne to ask you to help her to deceive me, but worse for you to defraud60 her."
"It wasn't Miss Gascoyne that suggested sending back the broken china to Parker's and saying nothing about it; it was Miss Goodwin," declared Emma, pointing at Netta. "She planned the whole thing! Yes, I can tell you she did. She's a deeper one than the other. It was half her fault, I'll be bound!"
Netta's face was a study, especially as Miss Roscoe looked at her keenly, though she made no remark.
"I've brought the money with me," continued Emma, still sobbing61, "if Miss Gascoyne will please take it and forgive me."
"You don't deserve any consideration, Emma," said Miss Roscoe.
"For the sake of my mother!" pleaded Emma. "Oh, don't prosecute55 me! It would brand me for life!"
"Don't send her to prison, please!" interposed Gwen.
"Well, we don't want to be too hard on you and ruin your life. Let it be a warning to you to be honest in future. I am sure Miss Gascoyne has no wish to prosecute you. I shall be obliged to let your mistress know about this, however. I gave you so good a character to her, that it is not fair she should remain in ignorance of so serious a slip. She must be the judge whether she keeps you in her service or not."
"I'll go home to my mother and work at dressmaking," snivelled Emma as she prepared to depart. "Here's the money, Miss Gascoyne; I'm sorry I took it, and thank you kindly for not prosecuting62."
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Netta fled from the study the moment Miss Roscoe gave her leave to go. She was anxious not to have to speak to Gwen, for she knew she had not behaved well towards her. Emma's unexpected accusation63 had given rather an awkward turn to the affair, and she had hardly come out of it with the credit she expected. Gwen lingered behind. She felt she could not leave without offering the apology which for seven long months she had wished to make.
"Please, Miss Roscoe, I'm most dreadfully sorry about all this. I know I ought to have come and told you at once when I knocked over the box of china," she blurted out abruptly. "I've been miserable64 the whole time about it."
"Well, Gwen, it's a lesson to keep square, isn't it? One little step from the straight road often sends us farther out of our way than we have any intention of going. I don't think you will descend65 to anything so underhand again, will you?"
"Never in all my life!" protested Gwen with energy.
"Then we'll say no more about it."
The news that Gwen had been suspected of appropriating some of the gate money had leaked out, as news always leaks out, and was received with great indignation by the rest of the Fifth.
"Gwen Gascoyne simply isn't capable of doing such an abominable66 thing!" declared Elspeth Frazer.
"No. Gwen's gauche67 and brusque, but she's unimpeachable," agreed Hilda Browne.
"I'd rather suspect myself!" said Charlotte Perry.
Much satisfaction was expressed in the Form when the report of the mistake in Miss Douglas's change
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was circulated, and Gwen's complete acquittal secured. Everybody congratulated her heartily68 when she returned to the classroom.
"You're the heroine of the hour," said Louise Mawson. "It was an uncommonly69 disagreeable thing to happen. But in a bag full of change it's very easy to confuse a half-sovereign and a sixpence. By the by, has Miss Roscoe added up all the accounts yet? How much have we made?"
"One hundred and fifty-three pounds altogether," replied Gwen. "We got a hundred and nine pounds by collecting, and the gymkhana has made forty-four."
"Hooray! Then the cot is an accomplished70 fact."
"We shall all have to pay a visit to the Convalescent Home and see it, as soon as the name is painted up over it," said Hilda Browne.
"Won't it look scrumptious to see 'Rodenhurst Cot' in black and white?" chuckled71 Charlotte Perry.
"We shall have to publish reports of our special convalescents in every number of the school magazine," suggested Iris72 Watson. "It will be so interesting to read about them."
At four o'clock, by Winnie's express permission, Gwen went to Parker & Sons and made a final settlement of their account. The relief of being free from her load of debt was very great, and she came out of the shop happier than she had been since the day she first entered it. As Emma had refunded73 the one pound two and sixpence in full, Gwen had twelve and sixpence in hand, and, in consequence, felt rich beyond the dreams of avarice74. The vision of a new tennis racket began to dawn on her horizon. That evening
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she managed to cajole Father for a short stroll on the moor75. It was seldom she could secure such a tête-à-tête walk, but she was longing76 so much to unburden her mind that she gave him no peace until she had got him all to herself. Once they were seated on the heather, with the wold behind and the sea in front, Gwen began to pour out the story in her usual abrupt8, jerky fashion, not omitting the matter of the prize essay which she had sold to Netta.
"Why didn't you tell me all this before, Gwen?" asked Mr. Gascoyne when she had finished.
"Because—oh, Dad, I thought it would worry you! Beatrice said you were so dreadfully hard up."
"It would have worried me far more to feel that you owed money. How much did Netta Goodwin lend you?"
"A sovereign."
"Then I will make up your twelve and six to twenty shillings, and you shall pay her back. I don't like that transaction about the essay at all."
"Netta doesn't deserve it!" exclaimed Gwen.
"I dare say not, but your conscience demands it. Honour forbids you to expose Netta, but the affair was so discreditable that I want your part at least to be set straight. That sovereign was ill-gotten gains, Gwen!"
"Oh, Dad! Are you very angry with me?"
"No, not angry, but I wish you'd trusted me. The whole business, childie, hasn't been on the square."
"I knew it wasn't, all the time," confessed Gwen, scrubbing her eyes. "But—oh, Dad, it was so hard! Why do such hard places come into one's life?"
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"To give one the opportunity to get strong. If everything were always pleasant and smooth and easy, we should be poor sort of creatures in the end, with no character worth having. I feel that every day myself, and give thanks for the hard things, and I've had my share of them."
Gwen looked at Father, and a sudden perception of his meaning swept over her. Young as she was, she knew something of the struggles and disappointments, the lack of appreciation, the mistrust, the misconstructions, the slights which had met him in his parish work, and the burden of poverty which he carried so bravely and uncomplainingly—somewhat, too, perhaps, she divined of the hopes he had left behind. Her own little struggles faded into nothingness in the shadow of his.
"Yes, you've had a hard life, Dad," she repeated slowly.
"Sentry77 duty. That's all! A hard life is the soldier's post of honour," said Father.
He looked far out over the sea as he spoke78, and it almost seemed to Gwen as if his face shone.
There was still one point which Gwen was anxious to elucidate79, and that was the reason of Lesbia's peculiar80 conduct in the orchard81 on the evening of the gymkhana, and where she had obtained the ten and sixpence of which she had spoken. Lesbia seemed very unwilling82 to discuss the subject, but when the two girls were in their bedroom that night, Gwen held her to the point.
"Oh, Gwen, you've got me in a corner!" protested Lesbia. "I didn't mean to tell a soul about it, except
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Kitty Macpherson! Well, if you must know, this is what happened. One day Kitty brought a copy of The Gentlewoman's World to school. It had a beauty competition in it, and she urged me to try my luck, so I sent up my photo—that one which Aunt Violet had taken of me when I was staying at Greylands. It actually won a prize, and the magazine sent me a postal83 order for ten and sixpence. I didn't dare to tell any of you at home, because I knew you'd all think me so terribly vain and conceited84. Beatrice is fearfully down on me for that kind of thing, and I knew the boys would tease, and call me 'Proudie' and 'Madam Conceit85'."
Gwen laughed long and heartily. She did not tell her little sister of the unjust suspicion she had for a short time harboured against her. The whole affair was so exactly like Lesbia, from the competing for a beauty prize to the careless taking of wrong change.
"How will you explain your new tennis racket?" she enquired. "Beatrice will ask where you got the money to buy it."
"I never thought of that. I suppose I shall have to confess, then, and be labelled 'Miss Vanity'," sighed Lesbia. "It's a ripping racket, Gwen. It's exactly the same that Kitty Macpherson has. I'll lend it to you whenever you want it. Are you cross with me for not telling you before?"
"No, dear; it wasn't such a fearful crime after all," returned Gwen, half sighing, for Lesbia's secret seemed so much more innocent a one than her own had been.
点击收听单词发音
1 jauntiest | |
adj.心满意足的样子,洋洋得意的( jaunty的最高级 ) | |
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2 helping | |
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的 | |
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3 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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4 considerably | |
adv.极大地;相当大地;在很大程度上 | |
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5 satchel | |
n.(皮或帆布的)书包 | |
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6 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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7 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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8 abrupt | |
adj.突然的,意外的;唐突的,鲁莽的 | |
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9 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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10 defalcation | |
n.盗用公款,挪用公款,贪污 | |
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11 enquired | |
打听( enquire的过去式和过去分词 ); 询问; 问问题; 查问 | |
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12 enquire | |
v.打听,询问;调查,查问 | |
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13 deficit | |
n.亏空,亏损;赤字,逆差 | |
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14 stammered | |
v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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16 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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17 blurted | |
v.突然说出,脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18 blurt | |
vt.突然说出,脱口说出 | |
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19 honourable | |
adj.可敬的;荣誉的,光荣的 | |
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20 nervously | |
adv.神情激动地,不安地 | |
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21 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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22 implicated | |
adj.密切关联的;牵涉其中的 | |
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23 countenancing | |
v.支持,赞同,批准( countenance的现在分词 ) | |
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24 deception | |
n.欺骗,欺诈;骗局,诡计 | |
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25 exonerate | |
v.免除责任,确定无罪 | |
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26 concealing | |
v.隐藏,隐瞒,遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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27 gasped | |
v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要 | |
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28 throbbed | |
抽痛( throb的过去式和过去分词 ); (心脏、脉搏等)跳动 | |
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29 entangled | |
adj.卷入的;陷入的;被缠住的;缠在一起的v.使某人(某物/自己)缠绕,纠缠于(某物中),使某人(自己)陷入(困难或复杂的环境中)( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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30 whitewash | |
v.粉刷,掩饰;n.石灰水,粉刷,掩饰 | |
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31 confession | |
n.自白,供认,承认 | |
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32 feigning | |
假装,伪装( feign的现在分词 ); 捏造(借口、理由等) | |
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33 penitence | |
n.忏悔,赎罪;悔过 | |
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34 wailed | |
v.哭叫,哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35 follies | |
罪恶,时事讽刺剧; 愚蠢,蠢笨,愚蠢的行为、思想或做法( folly的名词复数 ) | |
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36 resentment | |
n.怨愤,忿恨 | |
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37 appreciation | |
n.评价;欣赏;感谢;领会,理解;价格上涨 | |
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38 humble | |
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
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39 accounting | |
n.会计,会计学,借贷对照表 | |
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40 groaned | |
v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 );发牢骚;抱怨;受苦 | |
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41 truthful | |
adj.真实的,说实话的,诚实的 | |
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42 embarrassment | |
n.尴尬;使人为难的人(事物);障碍;窘迫 | |
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43 frightful | |
adj.可怕的;讨厌的 | |
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44 wrath | |
n.愤怒,愤慨,暴怒 | |
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45 distressed | |
痛苦的 | |
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46 astounding | |
adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊,使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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47 amazement | |
n.惊奇,惊讶 | |
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48 consternation | |
n.大为吃惊,惊骇 | |
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49 madrigal | |
n.牧歌;(流行于16和17世纪无乐器伴奏的)合唱歌曲 | |
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50 undoubtedly | |
adv.确实地,无疑地 | |
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51 motive | |
n.动机,目的;adv.发动的,运动的 | |
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52 crooked | |
adj.弯曲的;不诚实的,狡猾的,不正当的 | |
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53 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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54 absconded | |
v.(尤指逃避逮捕)潜逃,逃跑( abscond的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55 prosecute | |
vt.告发;进行;vi.告发,起诉,作检察官 | |
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56 prosecuted | |
a.被起诉的 | |
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57 ushered | |
v.引,领,陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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58 magistrate | |
n.地方行政官,地方法官,治安官 | |
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59 sobbed | |
哭泣,啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 ); 哭诉,呜咽地说 | |
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60 defraud | |
vt.欺骗,欺诈 | |
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61 sobbing | |
<主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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62 prosecuting | |
检举、告发某人( prosecute的现在分词 ); 对某人提起公诉; 继续从事(某事物); 担任控方律师 | |
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63 accusation | |
n.控告,指责,谴责 | |
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64 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
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65 descend | |
vt./vi.传下来,下来,下降 | |
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66 abominable | |
adj.可厌的,令人憎恶的 | |
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67 gauche | |
adj.笨拙的,粗鲁的 | |
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68 heartily | |
adv.衷心地,诚恳地,十分,很 | |
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69 uncommonly | |
adv. 稀罕(极,非常) | |
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70 accomplished | |
adj.有才艺的;有造诣的;达到了的 | |
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71 chuckled | |
轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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72 iris | |
n.虹膜,彩虹 | |
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73 refunded | |
v.归还,退还( refund的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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74 avarice | |
n.贪婪;贪心 | |
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75 moor | |
n.荒野,沼泽;vt.(使)停泊;vi.停泊 | |
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76 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
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77 sentry | |
n.哨兵,警卫 | |
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78 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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79 elucidate | |
v.阐明,说明 | |
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80 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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81 orchard | |
n.果园,果园里的全部果树,(美俚)棒球场 | |
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82 unwilling | |
adj.不情愿的 | |
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83 postal | |
adj.邮政的,邮局的 | |
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84 conceited | |
adj.自负的,骄傲自满的 | |
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85 conceit | |
n.自负,自高自大 | |
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