WEBVTT

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Knock, knock, the
sound made her start,

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there on the other side
of the plate glass window

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stood a family of tourists
laughing, looking in

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at Franny as one member of their
group, a boy of six or seven,

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hair in duck feathers
from a swim of the beach,

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lowered his fist from the glass.

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The little boy scowled
at Franny "wake up,"

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he shouted the words
damped but still

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definite through
the heavy glass.

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Then, his laughing father
and mother set their hands

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on his skinny shoulders
and they moved him along

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toward the busy intersection.

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We don't do that Franny.

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The honking in the
street subsided,

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the man in the station wagon
had finally driven his trailer

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off the curb.

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Traffic began to move again and
from the Marina sales counter,

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Franny could hear the laughter
of her big sister, Rosamund.

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As Rosamund spoke
to the Marina clerk

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about buying life jackets
for the family speedboat.

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At the Wahl house
earlier that morning,

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there had been talk
of the life jackets.

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You kids and your guests
think you're indestructible,

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so Franny's mother
had said to Rosamund.

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And the sharpness
in Peg Wahl's voice

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had let Franny know that the
conversation involved more

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than life jackets.

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Though no one had
pointed out the change,

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that summer Franny saw that
the river of parties and guests

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that had formerly
carried her father

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and mother atop its
dashing blue, now

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had tossed the pair aside.

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And who did the lively
current carry these days?

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Franny's big sisters
Rosamund and Martie,

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home from their universities
until September.

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As she had talked to
Rosamund, Peg Wahl

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had been at work on
that evening's dinner.

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With her substantial
sun tanned arms,

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sunk to the elbows
in chicken parts,

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and barbecue sauce and her hair
not yet combed for the day,

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Peg looked very
much the farm wife

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she might have become had
she not met law student

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Brick some 20 years before.

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Franny knew however that her
mother could still bring up

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a shine on her once
much praised looks,

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even now Peg's high
cheekbones, chocolate eyes,

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and white tooth smile
attracted comparisons

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to blond and bubbly Doris Day.

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Peg kept her voice low as
she spoke to Rosamund, a few

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of her daughter's house guests
still lingered in the dining

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room helping themselves to
scrambled eggs and sausages

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from the break front.

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It's your dad and me that'll
get sued if one of the guests

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drowns, she said.

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Your dad and I, Franny thought.

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Then blushed inwardly a tingle
swept across to her scalp

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at her mother's error, her own
mental correction of the error.

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And the fact that
really she was doing

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little more than eavesdropping.

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The Wahl house
had begun its life

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as a lodge for hunters
more interested

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in pheasants than privacy.

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And fact, Franny sat
unobserved on a set

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of stairs that allowed
descent into either the living

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room or the big kitchen.

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Franny's rule since June -
whenever possible jump the four

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steps from the landing in order
to show that you at least are

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not growing old and stodgy.

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You at least are young and
alive and the moment she

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saw an opening in the
conversation between her mother

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and sister slam, Franny
jump from the landing

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into the kitchen.

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Franny how many times have
I told you not to do that?

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Peg said, but Rosamund
laughed and drew

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Franny close and linked
arms with the girl.

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It's odd to be bigger
than Rosamund now,

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curious for the youngest to
stand taller than the oldest

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by several inches to
be the same height

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as the 19-year-old Martie.

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Come to the Marina with
me Fran, Rosamund said,

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we'll take the boat.

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She made a show of
licking her lips

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and after, we can go across
the street to the Dairy Queen.

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An old green and
white dinghy had

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been in the family for as
long as Franny could remember

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and had fallen to Franny
the summer before.

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But when Rosamund
said, the boat Franny

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knew that Rosamund
meant the big boat.

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The big boat was a
grand gleaming thing,

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all burgundy leather
and mahogany,

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a full size automobile engine
growling in its middle.

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When Rosamund
drove the big boat,

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she looked even
smaller than usual.

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Roosting on the very rim of
the back the driver's seat,

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she leaned forward and
down to the steering wheel

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like a jockey to his reins.

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A gentleman's den
on the lam, that

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was what Franny shouted
that morning when

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she and Rosamund reached the
middle of the lake and Rosamund

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pushed the boat's throttle
as far as it would go.

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Rosamund had laughed
at what Franny

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said, which was nice to have
your big sister think that you

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were funny, even if
she only pretended

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to think you were funny
that was something,

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That was making an
effort to be your friend.

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But then, the sisters
had docked at the Marina

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and started up the twanging
boards to the sales area.

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The trouble spot,
Franny anticipated

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it was the gas pumps
where the nod of dock hand

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stood smoking their cigarettes.

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More than likely Franny
knew one of the hands

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would make a remark
as the girls passed.

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But there was another
possibility, a heart swelling

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breeze on your skin possibility
that from that menacing cluster

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of sunbrowned limbs, and white
t-shirts, and blue jeans,

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a miraculous boy might
step forward and look

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into Franny's eyes and say
something, so right that it

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would be precisely as if
Sir Walter Raleigh draped

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his cloak across the puddle
for the passage of the queen.

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Then Franny could let
down her golden tresses

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that the Prince might
climb to her arms

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and love would feel all the
nasty hollows in her head

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and she would be who she
had always meant to be,

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beloved in love.

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Passing by the dock hands OK,
passing no moment of romance,

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but no embarrassment either.

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Rosamund not Franny,
Franny was too nervous.

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Rosamund nodded coolly
when one of the hands

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said Hello, safe Franny thought.

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But then a sucking
noise started up

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behind the girls,
something so foul

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that she glanced back
just a frown that was all.

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But as soon as she
and Rosamund moved out

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of earshot of the
hands, Rosamund said,

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we don't do that Franny.

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Not that Rosamund had
sounded truly angry,

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not the way that Franny's
parents or even Martie

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sounded when they disapproved of
Franny, still she felt ashamed.

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Now Rosamund chatted gamely
with the arena sales clerk,

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is if whatever irritation
Franny had caused on the desk

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were forgotten?

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Rosamund laughed and
wooed to charming.

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Oh, no.

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The clerk, dark oily bangs
flopped down in his eyes,

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a little Band-Aid on his chin.

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The clerk was not much
older than Franny herself.

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Still, Rosamund stood
only 5 feet tall

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and the advantage of the clerk's
eyes clearly gave him a thrill.

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He blushed and towered,
he tossed his pencil high

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in the air and caught
it behind his back.

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Not a special boy
Franny thought,

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so maybe it was
greedy to want him

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to find her as attractive
as he found Rosamund.

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I didn't mean life
jackets, Rosamund

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closed her big brown
eyes, raised her chin,

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solemnly moved it
back and forth as

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if she viewed some vast future
visible only to herself.

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Soon, soon she would tell
the clerk his fortune.

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Then quick, she opened her
eyes once more and laughed.

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I meant belts, Rosamund said.

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What Rosamund wore over
his shorts that day:

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a sweater forgotten by
one of the summer's male

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houseguests very
big brown V-neck.

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It seemed to Franny particularly
wonderful on Rosamund

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and see how Rosamund adjusted
the black sunglasses that

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perched in her fair fluff of
hair that was wonderful too.

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And watch the way in
which without ever taking

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her eyes from a sales boy,
she fished a tube of lipstick

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from her shoulder bag, and using
just one hand removed its cap.

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And wound up the stick, which
was a color called Pure Pearl.

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Rosamund had let Franny
try the Pure Pearl once.

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On Franny, why?

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The fashionable
frosty white mutated

00:09:43.380 --> 00:09:47.340 align:middle line:84%
into something
therapeutic, a salve.

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But on Rosamund.

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It had the same effect
as the big sweater,

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the frazzled straw, bag,
slung over Rosamund shoulder.

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The none to clean, but
extravagantly purple brush

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that Rosamund used to tease her
hair to cotton candy heights.

00:10:05.520 --> 00:10:07.890 align:middle line:84%
The same effect as
the box of grapefruit

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sent home to the family from a
stand near Rosamund's dormitory

00:10:12.330 --> 00:10:14.970 align:middle line:90%
at the University of Miami.

00:10:14.970 --> 00:10:18.870 align:middle line:84%
The same effect as that bit
of Eastern accent Rosamund

00:10:18.870 --> 00:10:21.870 align:middle line:84%
had picked up from New
York friends at school,

00:10:21.870 --> 00:10:25.500 align:middle line:84%
and the effect was
perfectly right.

00:10:25.500 --> 00:10:26.000 align:middle line:90%