Chapter 64

Casilia Tisalver opened her eyes wide. "A heatsinker? Not in my apartment."
"Why not? Besides, hell be coming to my room," said Seldon. "At fourteen hundred."
"I wont¹ have it," said Mistress Tisalver. "This is what comes of going down to the heatsinks. Jirad was a fool."
"Not at all, Mistress Tisalver. We went at my request and I was fascinated. I must see this young man, since that is necessary to my scholarly work."
"Im sorry if it is, but I wont have it."
Dors Venabili raised her hand. "Hari, let me take care of this. Mistress Tisalver, if Dr. Seldon must see someone in his room this afternoon, the additional person naturally means additional rent. We understand that. For today, then, the rent on Dr. Seldons room will be doubled."
Mistress Tisalver thought about it. "Well, thats decent of you, but its not only the credits. Theres the neighbors to think of. A sweaty, smelly heatsinker--"
"I doubt that hell be sweaty and smelly at fourteen hundred, Mistress Tisalver, but let me go on. Since Dr. Seldon must see him, then if he cant² see him here, hell have to see him elsewhere, but we cant run here and there. That would be too inconvenient³. Therefore, what we will have to do is to get a room elsewhere. It wont be easy and we dont want to do it, but we will have to. So we will pay the rent through today and leave and of course we will have to explain to Master Hummin why we have had to change the arrangements that he so kindly⁴ made for us."
"Wait." Mistress Tisalvers face became a study of calculation. "We wouldnt like to disoblige Master Hummin ... or you two. How long would this creature have to stay?"
"Hes coming at fourteen hundred. He must be at work at sixteen hundred. He will be here for less than two hours, perhaps considerably⁵ less. We will meet him outside, the two of us, and bring him to Dr. Seldons room. Any neighbors who see us will think he is an Outworlder friend of ours."
Mistress Tisalver nodded her head. "Then let it be as you say. Double rent for Master Seldons room for today and the heatsinker will visit just this one time."
"Just this one time," said Dors.
But later, when Seldon and Dors were sitting in her room, Dors said, "Why do you have to see him, Hari? Is interviewing a heatsinker important to psychohistory too?"
Seldon thought he detected a small edge of sarcasm⁶ in her voice and he said tartly⁷, "I dont have to base everything on this huge project of mine, in which I have very little faith anyway. I am also a human being with human curiosities. We were down in the heatsinks for hours and you saw what the working people there were like. They were obviously uneducated. They were low-level individuals--no play on words intended--and yet here was one who recognized me. He must have seen me on holovision on the occasion of the Decennial Convention and he remembered the word psychohistory. He strikes me as unusual--as out of place somehow--and I would like to talk to him."
"Because it pleases your vanity to have become known even to heatsinkers in Dahl?"
"Well ... perhaps. But it also piques⁸ my curiosity."
"And how do you know he hasnt been briefed and intends to lead you into trouble as has happened before."
Seldon winced⁹. "I wont let him run his fingers through my hair. In any case, were more nearly prepared now, arent we? And Im sure youll be with me. I mean, you let me go Upperside alone, you let me go with Raindrop Forty-Three to the microfarms alone, and youre not going to do that again, are you?"
"You can be absolutely sure I wont," said Dors.
"Well then, Ill talk to the young man and you can watch out for traps. I have every faith in you."

1 wont   

adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯

参考例句：

• He was wont to say that children are lazy.他常常说小孩子们懒惰。
• It is his wont to get up early.早起是他的习惯。

2 cant   

n.斜穿，黑话，猛扔

参考例句：

• The ship took on a dangerous cant to port.船只出现向左舷危险倾斜。
• He knows thieves'cant.他懂盗贼的黑话。

3 inconvenient   

adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的

参考例句：

• You have come at a very inconvenient time.你来得最不适时。
• Will it be inconvenient for him to attend that meeting?他参加那次会议会不方便吗？

4 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。

5 considerably   

adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上

参考例句：

• The economic situation has changed considerably.经济形势已发生了相当大的变化。
• The gap has narrowed considerably.分歧大大缩小了。

6 sarcasm   

n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic）

参考例句：

• His sarcasm hurt her feelings.他的讽刺伤害了她的感情。
• She was given to using bitter sarcasm.她惯于用尖酸刻薄语言挖苦人。

7 tartly   

adv.辛辣地，刻薄地

参考例句：

• She finished by tartly pointing out that he owed her some money. 她最后刻薄地指出他欠她一些钱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Kay said tartly, "And you're more Yankee than Italian. 恺酸溜溜他说：“可你哪，与其说是意大利人，还不如说是新英格兰人。 来自教父部分

8 piques   

v.伤害…的自尊心( pique的第三人称单数 )；激起（好奇心）

参考例句：

• I understand practically everything, except one thing that piques my curiosity. 实际上，我什么都了解，只有一点除外，而且引起了我的好奇心。 来自飘（部分）
• He piques himself on having a good memory. 他常夸耀自己记性好。 来自辞典例句

9 winced   

赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He winced as the dog nipped his ankle. 狗咬了他的脚腕子，疼得他龇牙咧嘴。
• He winced as a sharp pain shot through his left leg. 他左腿一阵剧痛疼得他直龇牙咧嘴。