Sentence:  I would prevaricate and <WSD>palter</WSD> in my usual plausible way, but, this being Cambridge, such stratagems would cut no ice with my remorseless and (in my imagination) gleefully malicious interrogator, who would stare at me with gimlet eyes and say in a harsh voice that crackled with mocking laughter: ‘Excuse me, but do you even know who Lermontov "is"?' 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To talk insincerely; to prevaricate or equivocate in speech or actions.