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Twelve,ANNE MEREDITH,Mrs. Oliver extricated ¹ herself from the driving seat of her little two-seater with some difficulty. Tobegin with, the makers ² of modern motorcars assume that only a pair of sylphlike knees will everbe under the steering ³ wheel. It is also the fashion to sit low. That being so, for a middle-agedwoman of generous proportions it requires a good deal of superhuman wriggling ⁴ to get out fromunder the steering wheel. In the second place, the seat next to the driving seat was encumbered ⁵ byseveral maps, a handbag, three novels and a large bag of apples. Mrs. Oliver was partial to applesand had indeed been known to eat as many as five pounds straight off whilst composing thecomplicated plot of The Death in the Drain Pipe—coming to herself with a start and an incipientstomachache an hour and ten minutes after she was due at an important luncheon ⁶ party given inher honour.,With a final determined ⁷ heave and a sharp shove with a knee against a recalcitrant ⁸ door, Mrs.,Oliver arrived a little too suddenly on the sidewalk outside the gate of Wendon Cottage, showeringapple cores freely round her as she did so.,She gave a deep sigh, pushed back her country hat to an unfashionable angle, looked down withapproval at the tweeds she had remembered to put on, frowned a little when she saw that she hadabsentmindedly retained her London high-heeled patent leather shoes, and pushing open the gateof Wendon Cottage walked up the flagged path to the front door. She rang the bell and executed acheerful little rat-a-tat-tat on the knocker—a quaint ⁹ conceit ¹⁰ in the form of a toad’s head.,After a further pause of a minute and a half, Mrs. Oliver stepped briskly round the side of thehouse on a voyage of exploration.,There was a small old- fashioned garden with Michaelmas daisies and stragglingchrysanthemums behind the cottage, and beyond it a field. Beyond the field was the river. For anOctober day the sun was warm.,Two girls were just crossing the field in the direction of the cottage. As they came through thegate into the garden, the foremost of the two stopped dead.,Mrs. Oliver came forward.,“How do you do, Miss Meredith? You remember me, don’t you?”,She extricated herself from her mingled impulse to deny and guestion. 她约束了自己想否认并追问的不可明状的冲动。 来自辞典例句,The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量 。