Four（4）

IV
I invaded the portals of Flower Studies Ltd. with some trepidation¹. Anoverpowering smell of gardenia² nearly knocked me backwards³. A numberof girls, dressed in pale green sheaths and all looking exactly like Poppy,confused me. Finally I identified her. She was writing down an addresswith some difficulty, pausing doubtfully over the spelling of FortescueCrescent. As soon as she was at liberty, after having further difficultiesconnected with producing the right change for a five- pound note, Iclaimed her attention.
“We met the other night—with David Ardingly,” I reminded her.
“Oh yes!” agreed Poppy warmly, her eyes passing vaguely⁴ over my head.
“I wanted to ask you something.” I felt sudden qualms⁵. “Perhaps I’d bet-ter buy some flowers?”
Like an automaton⁶ who has had the right button pressed, Poppy said:
“We’ve some lovely roses, fresh in today.”
“These yellow ones, perhaps?” There were roses everywhere. “Howmuch are they?”
“Vewy vewy cheap,” said Poppy in a honeyed persuasive⁷ voice. “Onlyfive shillings each.”
I swallowed and said I would have six of them.
“And some of these vewy special leaves with them?”
I looked dubiously⁸ at the special leaves which appeared to be in an ad-vanced state of decay. Instead I chose some bright green asparagus fern,which choice obviously lowered me in Poppy’s estimation.
“There was something I wanted to ask you,” I reiterated⁹ as Poppy wasrather clumsily draping the asparagus fern round the roses. “The otherevening you mentioned something called the Pale Horse.”
With a violent start, Poppy dropped the roses and the asparagus fern onthe floor.
“Can you tell me more about it?”
Poppy straightened herself after stooping.
“What did you say?” she asked.
“I was asking you about the Pale Horse.”
“A pale horse? What do you mean?”
“You mentioned it the other evening.”
“I’m sure I never did anything of the kind! I’ve never heard of any suchthing.”
“Somebody told you about it. Who was it?”
Poppy drew a deep breath and spoke¹⁰ very fast.
“I don’t in the least know what you mean! And we’re not supposed totalk to customers.”… She slapped paper round my choice. “That will bethirty-five shillings, please.”
I gave her two pound notes. She thrust six shillings into my hand andturned quickly to another customer.
Her hands, I noticed, were shaking slightly.
I went out slowly. When I had gone a little way, I realised she hadquoted the wrong price (asparagus fern was seven and six) and had alsogiven me too much change. Her mistakes in arithmetic had previouslybeen in the other direction.
I saw again the rather lovely vacant face and the wide blue eyes. Therehad been something showing in those eyes….
“Scared,” I said to myself. “Scared stiff… Now why? Why?”

1 trepidation   

n.惊恐，惶恐

参考例句：

• The men set off in fear and trepidation.这群人惊慌失措地出发了。
• The threat of an epidemic caused great alarm and trepidation.流行病猖獗因而人心惶惶。

2 gardenia   

n.栀子花

参考例句：

• On muggy summer night,Gardenia brought about memories in the South.闷热的夏夜，栀子花带来关于南方的回忆。
• A gardenia stands for pure,noble.栀子花是纯洁高尚的象征。

3 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

4 vaguely   

adv.含糊地，暖昧地

参考例句：

• He had talked vaguely of going to work abroad.他含糊其词地说了到国外工作的事。
• He looked vaguely before him with unseeing eyes.他迷迷糊糊的望着前面，对一切都视而不见。

5 qualms   

n.不安；内疚

参考例句：

• He felt no qualms about borrowing money from friends.他没有对于从朋友那里借钱感到不安。
• He has no qualms about lying.他撒谎毫不内疚。

6 automaton   

n.自动机器，机器人

参考例句：

• This is a fully functional automaton.这是一个有全自动功能的机器人。
• I get sick of being thought of as a political automaton.我讨厌被看作政治机器。

7 persuasive   

adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的

参考例句：

• His arguments in favour of a new school are very persuasive.他赞成办一座新学校的理由很有说服力。
• The evidence was not really persuasive enough.证据并不是太有说服力。

8 dubiously   

adv.可疑地，怀疑地

参考例句：

• "What does he have to do?" queried Chin dubiously. “他有什么心事？”琴向觉民问道，她的脸上现出疑惑不解的神情。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）
• He walked out fast, leaving the head waiter staring dubiously at the flimsy blue paper. 他很快地走出去，撇下侍者头儿半信半疑地瞪着这张薄薄的蓝纸。 来自辞典例句

9 reiterated   

反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• "Well, I want to know about it,'she reiterated. “嗯，我一定要知道你的休假日期，"她重复说。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Some twenty-two years later President Polk reiterated and elaborated upon these principles. 大约二十二年之后，波尔克总统重申这些原则并且刻意阐释一番。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。