The parson described is said to the “often a disarming camaraderie”, meaning that his friendship was not genuine, but was a pretended one. The use of the word “revenge” indicates that the person in whom he was pretending friendship wasone who had harmed him earlier. So, the sentence must mean that the person described in the sentence was intent upon taking revenge for this earlier harm. He must therefore be looking for an opportunity to lake revenge, even whilepretending friendship. So, among the choices for the second missing word, only “preparing” and “awaiting” are appropriate. Such a clever person will obviously not be “harmless” in his vindictiveness. So, “harmless; preparing” is not a suitable choice for the firstmissing word. “Devious” (meaning cunning) is what describes such a person perfectly, and fits in well in the first blank. So, “devious; awaiting” is the answer.