"Let us take our books, Daddy," she suggested, "and go and sit on the hillside as we did last Sunday. It was quiet on that ledge5 of the crag, and away from everybody. The rest did you good, and I'm sure you enjoyed it."
Lying on the cliff among the flowers, with blue sky above and blue sea beneath, poor Mr. Carson allowed himself a temporary relaxation6. He smoked his pipe and read his paper, and for a little while at least the hard lines round his mouth softened7, and his anxious eyes grew easy. He finished his Italian journal, lay idly watching the scenery, chatted, dozed8, and finally stretched out his hand for one of Lorna's books. It happened to be an Anthology of Poetry which Irene had lent her, and which contained one of the ballads9 that Mrs. Cameron had recited to the assembled Clan. It had struck Lorna's fancy, and she was trying to learn it by heart. Mr. Carson turned over the pages, read a few of the pieces, and was closing the little volume when his eye chanced to light upon the name written on the title page. Its effect upon him was like a charge of electricity.
"David Beverley," he gasped10. "David Beverley! Lorna! Great Heavens! By all that's sacred, where did you get this?"
"'BY ALL THAT'S SACRED, WHERE DID YOU GET THIS BOOK?'" "'BY ALL THAT'S SACRED, WHERE DID YOU GET THIS BOOK?'"
—Page 304
"Why, Dad! What's the matter? Irene lent me the book. It belongs to her father."
"Her father! You don't mean to tell me your friend's father is David Beverley?"[305]
"Why not, Dad," whispered Lorna, looking with apprehension11 into his haggard, excited face.
She guessed even before he spoke12 what the answer was going to be.
"David Beverley is the man who ruined my life!"
The blow which had fallen was utterly13 overwhelming. For a moment Lorna fought against the knowledge like a drowning man battling with the waters.
"Oh, Dad! Surely there's some mistake. It can't be! Isn't it some other Beverley perhaps?"
"I know his writing only too well. There's no possibility of a mistake. Besides, I saw him in Naples—at the end of February. I haven't forgotten the shock it gave me. Why," turning almost fiercely upon Lorna, "didn't you tell me your schoolfellow's name before? Have you all this time been making friends with your father's enemy?"
"I thought I'd often talked about Renie," faltered14 poor Lorna. "Perhaps I never mentioned her surname. Oh, Dad! Dad! Is it really true? It's too horrible to be believed."
Lying in the soft Capri grass, with the pink cistus flowers brushing her hot cheeks, Lorna raged impotently against the tragedy of a fate which was changing the dearest friendship of her life into a feud15. Irene!—the only one at school who had sympathized and understood her, who had behaved with a delicacy16 and kindness such as no other person had ever shown her, who had taken her into her home[306] circle and given her the happiest time she had ever had in her shadowed girlhood; Irene with her merry gray eyes and her bright sunny hair, the very incarnation of warm-hearted genuine affection—Irene, her roommate, her buddy17, her chosen confidante. How was it possible ever to regard her as an enemy? Yet had she not vowed18 a solemn oath to hate all belonging to the man who had so desperately19 injured them? Oh! The world seemed turning upside down. Loyalty20 to her father and love for her friend dragged different ways, and in the bitter conflict her heart was torn in two.
Mr. Carson, haunted to the verge21 of insanity22 by the terror of discovery, was now obsessed24 with the one idea of escape from Mr. Beverley. He no longer felt safe on the island. Any moment he dreaded25 to meet faces that would betray recognition of his past. The calm and content of his visit were utterly shattered, and a sudden violent impulse urged him to return to Naples.
"Capri is not large enough to hold myself and David Beverley," he declared. "We'll go back by the night boat, Lorna. Meantime we'll borrow Signor Verdi's skiff and paddle about among the rocks. I feel easier on water than on land. I like the sense of a space of ocean round me. You can't suddenly meet a man when you've plenty of sea-room, can you?"
"No, no, Dad!" said Lorna, trying to soothe26 him. "We can walk down the steps to the cove23 and get[307] the skiff, and be quite away from everybody once we are on the sea."
She was ready to humor his every whim27, for in the blackness of her trouble nothing seemed at present to really matter. The whirling eddies28 of her thoughts rushed through her brain in a perpetual series of questions and answers. Must hate strike the death knell29 of love? Surely the only thing to do with an injury is to forgive it. Would revenge wipe out the wrong or in any way solve anything? No, there would only be one more wrong done in the world, to go on in ever-widening circles of hatred30 and misery31. Curses, like chickens, come home to roost, and "getting even" may bring its own punishment.
"Our only chance is to go away and start afresh in a new country," she sobbed32. "At the other side of the Pacific we might forget—but no! Renie! Renie! If I go to the back of beyond I shan't forget you, and all you've been to me. The memory of you, darling, will last until the end of my life."
Mr. Carson found Signor Verdi working in his allotment, obtained leave from him to use the skiff, and climbing down the flight of steep steps cut in the rock, reached the cove where the boat was beached on the shingle33. He had been an expert oarsman from his college days, and understood Neapolitan waters, so in a short time he and Lorna were skimming gently over the surface of the blue sea, keeping well away from rocks and out of currents,[308] but within reasonable distance of the land. Sometimes they rowed and sometimes they drifted, hardly caring in what direction they steered35 so long as they circled round the island. Their only object was to stop out on the sea, and, as they had brought a picnic basket with them, there was nothing to urge their return until sunset. In the course of the afternoon they had coasted below Monte Solaro, and found themselves approaching the entrance that led to the Blue Grotto36. In the mornings, when the steamer brought its crowd of tourists, there was generally quite a little fleet of skiffs to be seen here, but now, with the exception of a solitary37 boat, the famous cavern38 was deserted39. To avoid passing too near to even this one craft Mr. Carson steered away from the shore, but turned his head in consternation40, for loud and unmistakable cries of "help" were ringing over the water, and the occupants, frantically41 waving handkerchiefs, were evidently doing their utmost to attract his attention. Common humanity demanded that he must at least go and see what was the matter, so he reluctantly altered his course.
In a boat close to the entrance of the grotto were several young people, and Lorna instantly recognized Angus, Stewart, Jess, Michael, and Peachy. They appeared in much anxiety, and directly they were within hailing distance they called out their news:
"Mr. Beverley and Vincent and Irene have gone[309] inside the grotto, and they don't seem able to get out again. We can hear them shouting for help."
The party, in their British imprudence, had not brought a boatman, and they were uncertain what to do. Their own barque was too large to go through the narrow opening into the cavern, and they looked hopefully at Mr. Carson's little skiff.
"We don't know what's happened," gulped42 Jess.
"They went in to explore the Roman passage."
"Just by themselves."
"They've been gone such a long time," volunteered the others.
"Listen," said Peachy.
For from out the low entrance of the grotto floated a faint far-off echoing ghost of a shout.
Lorna glanced imploringly43 at her father. He did not hesitate for a moment. The man who had injured him was inside the cavern, perhaps in deadly danger, and he was going to risk his own life and his daughter's to save him. And risk there undoubtedly44 was. A breeze had arisen and agitated45 the surface of the water, so that the ingress was smaller than ever and more difficult to compass. When waves lashed46 the tideless Mediterranean47 even the Capri fishermen shunned48 entering the grotto, for they knew its perils49 only too well. Telling Lorna to lie flat on her back Mr. Carson took the same position, and with infinite difficulty managed to maneuver50 the skiff into the rocky entrance. There was[310] barely room, for each wave bumped it against the roof, but by clinging to the chain he worked his way along and shot through into the lake within. On the right of the cavern three figures, holding a light, stood on a kind of landing-place, while a skiff drifting far off in the shadows told its own tale.
Mr. Carson rowed at once to retrieve51 the truant52 boat, and towed it back to its owners.
"We thought we had tied it securely," explained Mr. Beverley. "We were utterly aghast when we came back and found it had drifted. It would have been a horrible experience to stay here all night. If the sea rose we might even have been imprisoned53 for days. We were fools to come, but I didn't realize the danger."
"The sea is much rougher already," said Mr. Carson. "It'll be a ticklish54 matter to get out again, and the sooner we do it the better. Will you go first and I'll follow on after?"
"It's like you, Lorna, to come to rescue us. I always called you my good angel," choked Irene, as she entered the skiff. "I thought just now I was never going to see you again in this world. Let's get out of this horrible place as fast as we can. It's like Dante's Inferno55. I've never been so frightened in all my life."
One after the other the two skiffs started on their risky56 exit from the grotto, scraping and bumping against the roof with the water on a level with the[311] gunwale; one wave indeed overflowed57 and soused them, but the next moment they sighted the sky and grazing through the entrance they gained the open water.
It was only when, in the clear afternoon daylight he turned to thank his rescuer that a flash of recognition flooded Mr. Beverley's face.
"Cedric Houghten! You! You!" he stammered58, as if almost disbelieving the evidence of his own eyes.
"Yes, it is I; but having seen me, forget me," returned Mr. Carson, his dark face flushed and his hand on the oar34. "It's the one favor you can do me for saving you. Let me vanish as I came, and don't try to follow me. I only hope we may never cross each other's paths again."
"Cedric! Come back!" yelled Mr. Beverley, as the skiff shot away. "Man alive! We've been searching for you for years. Don't you know that we've proved your innocence59! Come back, I say, and let me tell you."
It was late that evening, after a very long talk with Mr. Beverley, that Lorna's father explained to her the circumstances that had cleared his name.
"David had no more embezzled60 the money than I, and, thank God, he has no idea I ever distrusted him. When a further sum went, Mr. Fenton set a trap,[312] and discovered to his infinite grief that it was his own son who had been robbing the firm. It practically broke him, and he has retired61 from all active share in the business now. They packed young Fenton off to New Zealand to try farming instead of finance, but he's not doing any good there. Mr. Fenton, it seems, was most anxious to find me and right the injustice62 done me, but I had hidden myself so well under an assumed name in Naples that it was impossible for them to trace me. They advertised in the Agony column of The Times, but I avoided English papers, so never saw the advertisements. My efforts to escape notice were only too successful, and, although I didn't know it, I was actually defeating my own ends by my caution. If, as I intended, I had started for a new continent, I might so completely have broken all links with my old life that I might have gone to my grave in ignorance that my innocence was proved. It was only the marvelous chance of this afternoon's meeting that cleared up the tangle63. I can look the world in the face again, now, and not fear the sight of an Englishman. Oh, the joy of having got one's honor back untarnished! Next best to that is to know it was not my friend who had wronged me. The belief in his treachery was half the bitterness of those dreadful years. Capri has been a fortunate island for us, Lorna. It's truly called the 'Mascot64 of Naples,' and I shall love it to the end of my days. I can take my old name again now and be proud of it. You're Lorna[313] Houghten in future, not Lorna Carson. What a triumph to write to our relations and tell them the glorious news. I feel like a man let loose from slavery."
To Lorna also this happy consummation of all their troubles seemed a relief almost too great for expression. That Irene, her own Renie, should be the daughter of her father's favorite friend, and therefore a hereditary65 as well as a chosen chum, was a special delight, for it welded the links that bound them together. The future shone rosy66, and she felt that wherever her life might be cast the Beverleys would always remain part and parcel of it. Perhaps the triumph she appreciated most of all was the introduction of her father to the Cameron Clan. No more hiding in out-of-the-way corners and avoiding the very sound of a British voice; henceforth they might hold up their heads with the rest and take again their true position. She was proud of her father: now that the black cloak of despair had dropped away from him, his old happier nature shone out and he seemed suddenly ten years younger. To present him into the intimate circle of her friends realized her dearest wish.
"It's been a wonderful week-end," said Peachy, standing67 with her girl friends on the quay68 to wave good-by to the Monday morning steamer that bore some of their relations back to Naples and business. "Here's Lorna with a new name, and Renie with a fresh cousin. Haven't you heard? Why, Captain[314] Preston popped the question last night, and he and Marjorie announced their engagement at the breakfast table. Not the most romantic place to glean69 up congratulations, but, of course, that's just as you think about it. When I get engaged it shall be announced by moonlight, so that I can hide my blushes. I don't ever want the holidays to end. Capri's the dandiest place in Italy, and if Dad doesn't buy a villa70 here I'll never forgive him. You want one too, Lorna? Hooray! We'll make a Colony of Camellia Buds on the little island and spend the summer here. We may be globe-trotters and all the rest of it, but I vote we get up a good old Anglo-Saxon League and stick together for better or for worse. I'll buy a union Jack71 to-day if the Cameron Clan will promise to wave the Stars and Stripes, and sing 'Yankee Doodle' with 'Auld72 Lang Syne73.'"
"We've welded America already into the clan, dear bairn," smiled Mrs. Cameron. "No other visitor keeps us alive like you do."
"Pronounce thy wishes, O Peach of the West," laughed Stewart. "We rechristen thee Queen of the South."
"Then I summon you all some day to come back to this, my kingdom by the sea. School is school and I've got to have another term there, but I want to feel this happy island is waiting for us to return to it. You promise? Thanks! Here's a new version then of the old song—composed by Miss Priscilla Proctor, please![315]
'Should auld adventures be forgot
And ne'er provoke a smile?
Should auld adventures be forgot
Upon this happy isle74?
For auld lang syne, my dears, for auld lang syne,
We'll all return to Capri's shore for auld lang syne.'
H'm—a poor thing, but mine own!"
"There are two of us at any rate who won't forget to come back," said Lorna, linking her arm fondly in Irene's as they walked away from the quay.
THE END.
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收听单词发音
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1
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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clan
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| n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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relaxation
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| n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐 | |
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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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dozed
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| v.打盹儿，打瞌睡( doze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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ballads
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| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
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gasped
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| 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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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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spoke
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| 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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13
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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feud
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| n.长期不和；世仇；v.长期争斗；世代结仇 | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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buddy
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| n.（美口）密友，伙伴 | |
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vowed
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| 起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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cove
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| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
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obsessed
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| adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的 | |
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dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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26
soothe
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| v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承 | |
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whim
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| n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想 | |
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eddies
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| （水、烟等的）漩涡，涡流( eddy的名词复数 ) | |
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knell
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| n.丧钟声；v.敲丧钟 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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shingle
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| n.木瓦板；小招牌(尤指医生或律师挂的营业招牌)；v.用木瓦板盖（屋顶）；把（女子头发）剪短 | |
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oar
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| n.桨，橹，划手；v.划行 | |
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steered
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| v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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grotto
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| n.洞穴 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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frantically
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| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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42
gulped
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| v.狼吞虎咽地吃，吞咽( gulp的过去式和过去分词 )；大口地吸（气）；哽住 | |
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43
imploringly
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| adv. 恳求地, 哀求地 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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45
agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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46
lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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48
shunned
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| v.避开，回避，避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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50
maneuver
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| n.策略[pl.]演习；v.(巧妙)控制；用策略 | |
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51
retrieve
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| vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索 | |
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52
truant
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| n.懒惰鬼，旷课者；adj.偷懒的，旷课的，游荡的；v.偷懒，旷课 | |
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53
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54
ticklish
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| adj.怕痒的；问题棘手的；adv.怕痒地；n.怕痒，小心处理 | |
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55
inferno
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| n.火海；地狱般的场所 | |
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56
risky
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| adj.有风险的，冒险的 | |
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57
overflowed
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| 溢出的 | |
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58
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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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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60
embezzled
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| v.贪污，盗用（公款）( embezzle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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62
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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63
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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64
mascot
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| n.福神，吉祥的东西 | |
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65
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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66
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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67
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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68
quay
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| n.码头，靠岸处 | |
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69
glean
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| v.收集(消息、资料、情报等) | |
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70
villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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71
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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72
auld
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| adj.老的，旧的 | |
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73
syne
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| adv.自彼时至此时，曾经 | |
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74
isle
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| n.小岛，岛 | |
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