"What did I tell you?" said Bob, sticking to his guns. "Nightmare."
"That's somethink yer must be in bed to 'ave, ain't it?" said Sophy.
"Yes," said Bob, "and asleep."
"I wasn't neither," said Sophy; "I was as wide-awake as you are."
"Oh, you didn't go to bed when I put you in your room?"
"No, I didn't. I waited a minute or two, and then I went out."
"What made you do that, Sophy?" I asked.
"I don't know, 'xcep' that I wanted to go to the mad'ouse--outside, yer know--to see if they'd found out about the desk."
"It was a dangerous thing to do," I said.
"Well, I didn't do it. I 'adn't got 'arf way there when a sperrit crep' past me. I told Aunty I didn't believe in sperrits, but I do now. I didn't think it was a sperrit at fust, I thought it was a man; and I sed to myself, If you can creep, so can I,' and I crep' after it."
"But why, Sophy?"
"I don't know why. I did it 'cause somethink made me. All at once it stopped and turned, and the moon lit up its face. It was the ghost of Mr. Felix."
She was speaking more quietly now, and there was a note of conviction in her voice that startled me.
"Is that what you call a nightmare?" she asked of Bob, whose eyes were fixed2 intently upon her.
"No," he replied, "but you were mistaken. It was only a fancied resemblance."
"It wasn't nothink of the sort, and I wasn't mistook. I'm ready to take my dying oath on it. There ain't two Mr. Felixes, there's only one, and it was 'is ghost I sor."
"What did you do, Sophy?" I inquired.
"I stood like a stone, and couldn't move. But when it looked at me, and when I 'eered its voice, and when I sor it moving up to me, I give a scream, and run away. But I fell down over the stump3 of a tree, and it caught 'old of me and lifted me up. Then it wrenched4 my face to the light, and poked5 it's 'ead for'ard, and I sor clearer than ever that it was Mr. Felix's ghost. I don't know 'ow I managed it, but I twisted myself away, and run as I'd never run in my life before till I got 'ere."
"Is that all, Sophy?"
"That's all I can tell yer. Ain't it enough?"
"If there is any truth in it, my girl, it is more than enough? You cannot say whether it followed you?"
"No, I never look behind. It was more than I dared do."
"You heard it speak, you say. What words did it utter?"
"It said, 'What the devil!'"
"Nothing more?"
"Nothink as I 'eerd."
She had told all she knew, and it was useless to question her farther upon the subject, so I put it aside for a moment, with the intention of talking it over with Bob when we were alone. But I had not yet done with Sophy; before I parted with her for the night I was desirous of obtaining fuller information of Dr. Peterssen's establishment than she had given Bob. She was perfectly6 willing to tell everything she knew, and seemed to be relieved to have her attention turned to other matters.
"You had the run of Dr. Peterssen's house, Sophy?"
"Yes, I 'ad."
"How many servants are there in it?"
"Only one--the keeper."
"What is his name?"
"Crawley."
"Did no woman come to do the cleaning or cooking?"
"Nobody come. Crawley did everythink."
"You were not ill-treated?"
"Oh, no."
"Did you have your meals alone?"
"No; the three of us 'ad 'em together."
"The three of you. Dr. Peterssen, Crawley, and you?"
"No; Dr. Peterssen never 'ad nothink with us. I mean the other patient."
"But there was more than one?"
"There wasn't while I was there. There was only one."
I turned to Bob. "You said there were children, Bob?"
"So I was informed, but I may have been misled."
"I 'eerd Crawley say the young 'uns were took away the day before I come," said Sophy.
"That explains it. So there was only one patient left?"
"Only one."
"A man?"
"A gentleman."
"How did you find out he was a gentleman?"
"Yer can't be mistook between a man and a gent. You're a gent; Mr. Tucker's another."
"Much obliged, Sophy," said Bob.
"What is the name of the gentleman patient, Sophy?"
"He didn't 'ave none that I know of. I 'eered the greengrocer's boy say to Crawley once, 'Ow's Number One, Mr. Crawley?' That's how I got to know 'ow he was called, and what the keeper's name was. I couldn't arks nothink, of course, 'cause I was deaf and dumb. 'Same as ever,' said Crawley to the boy, 'mem'ry quite gone.'"
"Poor fellow! There is no doubt, I suppose, about his being mad?"
"I don't know about that. He never did nothink, and 'ardly ever spoke7 a word. But he was very kind to me, and I was very sorry for 'im. He'd put 'is 'and on my 'ead, and smooth my 'air, and look at me pitiful like, with tears in 'is eyes which made 'em come into mine."
"A case of melancholia, Bob," I said. Bob nodded. "Was no effort made, Sophy, to bring his memory back to him?"
"Nobody did nothink; he was let alone, the same as I was. I did want 'ard to talk to 'im, but I didn't dare open my lips, or I should have been found out. I do wish somethink could be done for 'im, that I do. Look 'ere, you're rich, ain't you?"
"Not exactly rich, Sophy, but I am not poor."
"Well, then. Crawley's to be bought."
"How do you know that?"
"I 'eerd Crawley say to 'isself, 'If I 'ad a 'underd pound I'd cut the cussed concern, and go to Amerikey.'"
"Ah! We'll think over it. A hundred pounds is a large sum. It's late, Sophy. I've nothing more to ask you to-night. Get to bed, like a good girl."
But Sophy began to tremble again; her thoughts reverted8 to M. Felix.
"I daren't go to the room Mr. Tucker took me to; Mr. Felix's ghost'd come agin. Let me sleep 'ere, please."
"There's no bed, my girl. I tell you what you shall do. There are two beds in the next room--see, this door opens into it--which Mr. Tucker and I were to occupy. We'll bring a mattress9 and some bedclothes in here, and we'll manage for the night; I'll lie on the sofa. You shall sleep in there, where no ghost can get to you. It would have to come through this room first."
Sophy busied herself at once in bringing the mattress and bedclothes from the adjoining room, and after extemporizing10 a couple of beds for Bob and me wished us a grateful good-night.
Bob and I were alone. "Now, Bob," said I, "what do you think of her story?"
"There's more in it than meets the eye," said Bob. "Agnold, if any other person had related it I should set it down to an overwrought mind. But Sophy is an exceptional being; she is sharp, she is clever, she is brave, she is clear-witted. Naturally it is a puzzling affair, and I think it is worth arguing out."
"Let us do so, Bob," I said.
"It is always a mistake," said Bob, "in matters of conjecture11, to pin one's self to a fixed point. This mistake, in my opinion, has been committed in all inquiries12 relating to the mystery of M. Felix. Having accepted a certain conclusion every person privately13 or professionally interested in the mystery started from that fixed point and branched out in all directions, north, east, south, and west, utterly14 ignoring the possibility--in this case I should say the probability--of the conclusion they accepted being a false one, as misleading as a will-o'-the-wisp."
"Am I included in this sweeping15 condemnation16?" I asked.
"You are. The police I can excuse, but not a man of your discrimination and logical power."
"What fixed point, Bob, did I, in common with everyone else, start from in wild directions?"
"The fixed point," replied Bob, "that M. Felix is dead."
"But he was proved to be dead."
"Nothing of the sort. There was no post-mortem, there was not even an inquest. He is said to have died of heart disease. He lies inanimate on a bed for an inconsiderable number of hours, and then he disappears. My dear Agnold, have you ever heard of such a thing as suspended animation17?"
"Of course I have."
"Have you ever heard of a person falling into a trance, and remaining to all appearance dead for three or four times as many hours as M. Felix lay before he disappeared? People have been buried alive in such conditions; others have been happily rescued at the moment the lids of their coffins18 have been about to be nailed down. I can furnish you with scores of instances of this kind of thing."
"There is no need; I know that they have occurred. Your theory opens out a wide field of possibilities. Then you believe that Sophy was right; that she did see, not M. Felix's ghost as she supposed, but M. Felix himself in the flesh?"
"It is my belief. Sophy is no fool; she has the nerve of a strong and healthy man; she does not believe in the supernatural; she has a heart susceptible19 of such kindness as you have shown her, but she is at the same time practical and hard-headed. Agnold, M. Felix is alive."
"Do you argue that he simulated death in the first instance for the purpose of carrying out some plan?"
"No. His apparent death was not a trick devised by himself. He had a seizure20 undoubtedly21, to which he was compelled to succumb22. After a time he recovered, and for his own ends resolved to take advantage of the opportunity to disappear, whether permanently23 or not I cannot say. He had a perfect right to do as he pleased with his own body, and he had good reasons for the device. He was threatened on two sides. Choosing for certain motives24 to drop his proper name of Leonard Paget and to adopt that of M. Felix, he finds himself suddenly standing25 on a rock with a precipice26 yawning on each side of him. A bold movement on the part of his sister-in-law hurls27 him into one; a desperate movement on the part of Dr. Peterssen hurls him over the other--either way, destruction. Of the special power which Dr. Peterssen holds over him I am ignorant, but it must be very potent28. We are acquainted, however, with the power his sister-in-law holds over him. Her marriage proved, his life has been one long fraud, and he could be made to pay the penalty. Her unexpected presence in London confounds him, and he sees before him but one means of escape--flight. On the night of his supposed death he has had two agitating29 interviews, one with Dr. Peterssen, the other with his sister-in-law. She, waiting in the street to obtain an interview with M. Felix, overhears words which unmistakably prove that Peterssen has him at his mercy. Peterssen threatens to ruin M. Felix; he refers to a pleasant partnership30 in Switzerland nineteen years ago; he asks M. Felix if he has forgotten his brother Gerald. Then he goes into the house with this precious Felix, and when he issues from it he has in his possession the desk which is now on the table before us. After that, the lady in whose behalf we have been working obtains admission to the house and confronts the villain31 who has ruined her happiness. We know what passed between them; we know that M. Felix was worked up to desperation. The excitement was too much for the plausible32 scoundrel, who saw the sword about to fall upon him. He staggers into his bedroom with the undoubted intention of getting his revolver; he presses his hand to his heart; he sinks into a chair and becomes insensible. He is to all appearance dead, and is so pronounced. On the following night when he recovers his senses, he hails the mishap33 as a fortunate chance; he resolves to disappear, and so put his enemies off the scent34. Now, follow me. Sophy is below in bed. She hears a noise in the upper part of the house; the brave girl creeps up-stairs from the basement as M. Felix creeps down-stairs from his apartments. He dare not betray himself. He seizes her, disguises his voice, and works upon her fears. Exit M. Felix; for as long or as short a time as he pleases, he is dead to the world. It is a wonder he does not take his revolver with him, but that is an oversight35. In such a crisis one cannot think of everything. It may happen--for there is work for us to do, Agnold--that this oversight will work in our favor. I do not despair of tracing the revolver, and you did a good stroke when you wrote down such a description of the weapon as will enable you to identify it. There is no room for doubt that the man who presented himself to Mrs. Middlemore as a police official, and who sent her on a false errand to Bow Street Police Station, was Peterssen. Alone in M. Felix's room he appropriates the revolver; other things as well, perhaps; but of the revolver we are morally convinced. What is his object in going there? I will tell you. He has doubts of M. Felix's death; he believes it to be a trick, and he thinks he may find something in M. Felix's room which will put him on the track of the man who had slipped out of his power. Reasoning the mystery out in this open way is very satisfactory, Agnold. Mists disappear; we see the light. How does it strike you?"
"You have convinced me, Bob," I said. "We will pursue the matter a little further. M. Felix is a man who is fond of pleasures which can be purchased only with money. Do you think he would voluntarily deprive himself of the means of obtaining it--for this is what his disappearance36 would lead him to, so long as he chose to conceal37 himself.
"Not at all likely," replied Bob, with a knowing look. "I can enlighten you on the point. It happens that I am acquainted with the manager of the branch bank at which M. Felix kept an account. After you had enlisted38 me in the present cause I became interested in everything concerning M. Felix, and in a confidential39 conversation with the bank manager I asked him whether M. Felix had a large balance standing to his credit. I learnt that he never had a large balance at the bank, and that he had certain bonds and shares of which he himself was the custodian40. Ordinarily one entrusts41 such securities to the safe custody42 of the bank which transacts43 his business, but it was not so with M. Felix, and this fact leads to the presumption44 that it was his habit to keep himself personally possessed45 of negotiable property in preference to entrusting46 it to other keeping. From time to time checks from stock-brokers were paid in to the credit of M. Felix. In every instance the money was not allowed to lie in the bank for longer than a day or two. M. Felix invariably drew his own check for something near the amount of the last deposit, receiving payment in gold and bank notes. Two days before his supposed death a check for six thousand pounds odd was paid in to his credit, and on the following morning he went to the bank and drew out six thousand pounds in notes of various denominations47, the numbers of which of course are known. Thus, unless he paid this money away, which is not at all likely, he must have been in possession of it when he disappeared. I am of the opinion that he had much more than the amount I have named, and if so he was well provided for. The peculiar48 position in which he stood would predispose him to keep always by him a large available sum of money in case of some emergency arising; an emergency did arise, and he could snap his fingers at the world, so far as money was concerned."
"This is a piece of valuable information, Bob. Do you know if any of these last bank notes have been presented for payment?"
"I do not. There was nothing to call for special investigation49 into the matter."
"But the notes can be traced."
"Perhaps. The habit of a man to keep large sums by him is generally of long standing, and Peterssen was probably acquainted with M. Felix's peculiarity50 in this respect. The visit he paid to Mrs. Middlemore and the plan he carried into effect for being left alone in the house may have been inspired by the hope that he would discover one of M. Felix's hiding-places for his money. I conclude that he was disappointed; on the night of M. Felix's disappearance he left no money behind him. Too old a bird for that."
The earnestness with which Bob had set forth51 his views had caused him to forget his cultivated method of speaking in short sentences. Now he relapsed into it.
"Adopting your theory," I said, "that M. Felix is living, do you think that he and Dr. Peterssen have met?"
"Should say not. To-night--when Sophy saw his ghost--was probably on his way to Tylney House. For what purpose, to us unknown."
"Bob, you said there was work for us to do. I confess myself at a loss how to proceed. M. Bordier's visit to you and his appropriation52 of the document hidden in the secret drawer have snapped the threads of my plans. Have you anything to suggest?"
"I have. Early to-morrow morning endeavor to find M. Bordier. Then consult with him."
"You do not propose that we should leave this spot at once?"
"No. If M. Bordier not in the village do something else before leaving. Pay a bold visit to Tylney House."
"For what purpose?"
"Confront Peterssen. Ascertain53 if M. Felix has been there."
"Psha! We can get nothing of Peterssen."
"Not so sure. He is hard up. Offer of a good reward too tempting54 a bait not to nibble55 at."
"Why, Bob, those are very nearly the words M. Bordier used to Emilia, and your scheme is the same as that which he suggested."
"Proves it a good one. M. Bordier a wealthy man, I judge?"
"He is."
"Wouldn't mind expending56 money to bring matter to a satisfactory conclusion?"
"He has said as much."
"Word to be depended upon?"
"Thoroughly57."
"Depend upon him, then, for the needful. Peterssen will bite."
"And if he does not?"
"Crawley, the keeper. Remember what Sophy overheard him say. If he had a hundred pounds he would cut the cursed concern, and go to America. Emphatic--and doubtless true. Two birds to shoot at. Peterssen missed, Crawley remains58. Aim well, bring him down."
"To-morrow morning, early, we will resume work, Bob."
"The earlier the better. Good-night."
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1
reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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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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stump
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| n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走 | |
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wrenched
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| v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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poked
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| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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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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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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reverted
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| 恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
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mattress
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| n.床垫，床褥 | |
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extemporizing
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| v.即兴创作，即席演奏( extemporize的现在分词 ) | |
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conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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condemnation
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| n.谴责; 定罪 | |
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animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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coffins
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| n.棺材( coffin的名词复数 )；使某人早亡[死，完蛋，垮台等]之物 | |
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susceptible
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| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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seizure
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| n.没收；占有；抵押 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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succumb
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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motives
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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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precipice
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hurls
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的第三人称单数 )；大声叫骂 | |
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potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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agitating
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| 搅动( agitate的现在分词 )； 激怒； 使焦虑不安； （尤指为法律、社会状况的改变而）激烈争论 | |
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partnership
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| n.合作关系，伙伴关系 | |
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villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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mishap
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| n.不幸的事，不幸；灾祸 | |
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scent
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oversight
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disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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enlisted
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| adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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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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custodian
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| n.保管人，监护人；公共建筑看守 | |
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entrusts
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的第三人称单数 ) | |
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custody
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| n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留 | |
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transacts
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| v.办理（业务等）( transact的第三人称单数 )；交易，谈判 | |
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presumption
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| n.推测，可能性，冒昧，放肆，[法律]推定 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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entrusting
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的现在分词 ) | |
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denominations
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| n.宗派( denomination的名词复数 )；教派；面额；名称 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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51
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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52
appropriation
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| n.拨款，批准支出 | |
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53
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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54
tempting
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| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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nibble
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| n.轻咬，啃；v.一点点地咬，慢慢啃，吹毛求疵 | |
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56
expending
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| v.花费( expend的现在分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
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57
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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58
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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