word of the day: rebarbative
Trying to fulfill his rescuing duties as agent of the Mouse Prisoners’ Aid Society, Bernard confronts the largest house on the Grand Boulevard. It’s supposedly where a young heiress is being held captive to prevent her coming into her fortune.
The front door is impenetrable.
[Bernard’s] experience of prisons, however, had taught him that however rebarbative their frontage, there was often a weakness at the back; so … he … nosed cautiously round the building’s huge bulk, where his expectations were fulfilled by the sight of [a] back door … so jammed ajar by cartons and waste-paper, Bernard was easily able to slip in.
definition (dictionary.com): causing annoyance, irritation, or aversion; repellent.
source:
Bernard the Brave
by Margery Sharp
illustrated by Leslie Morrill
1977. Little, Brown & Co., Boston
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