翻译17、18页

Probably vented all of his spleen on me, she mused, only half aware that she was staring until Conan Garth suddenly looked up and she found his cool grey eyes meeting her own. He raised one eyebrow in a mocking gesture and she saw the pale eyes suddenly shimmer as they roved over her figure in blatant disrobing movements.

Caught short, she acted without thinking, raising an eyebrow of her own and following the gesture by quickly sticking out her tongue. His burst of laughter startled everybody in the room , and Dinah thrust her eyes down as she waited for him to explain his laughter to the others.

Instead , he deliberately stayed silent until curiosity forced her to look up once more, and she was forced to stifle a giggle at his quite outrageous wink. Then he returned to his labours, leaving Dianh ample opportunity to sneak covert glances at him as he moved about the room like some fierce, caged feline, waiting for the deadline.

When he left for the news conference, Mick was directed to take Dinah into the studio so she could watch as the news went to air."And if you've any questions, I'll answer them over dinner," said Conan Garth as he strode from the room.

Dinah was fascinated by the seemingly effortless and yet complicated procedures involved in getting the jumbles of news copy and film into a cohesive unit. The studio was, to her inexprienced eyes, a scene of chaos as the director flashed his hands across the comolicated console and barked incomprehensible orders to everyone in sight. Mick tried to explain everything as it happened , but Dinah's head was spinning in confusion before it ended.

She had found it difficult to concentrate, especially with Conan Garth's unexpected dinner invitation resounding in her ears. And worse yet was her indecision about whether or not to accept.

(18)"He might be handsome; he very definitely is handsome ,"she mused as Mick tried to explain the studio process."But that's about all. And why should he just automatically assume that I 've nothing better to do than dine with him? He's rude and overbearing and totally obnoxious, and he tries to treat me like dirt.It's not my fault he's got a secretary instead of a journalist..."

By the time they returned to the newsroom for the regular post-mortem, she had decided quite firmly to decline his invitation, and when Conan Garth walked in, she lost no time in saying so.

"Why?" His question was so abrupt that she faltered in answering, and then she realised that she couldn't just come out and say," I don't like you," and she had failed to come prepared with any other excuse at all.

Caught without time to prepare her speech, she couldn't seem to find any approriate words at all, and the sudden interest of the other two journalists didn't help at all.Nor did Conan Garth's rapier assault on her decision.

" What else have you got planned? You haven't been here long enough to have a boy-friend already. Surely even you would need at least a week for that, Miss Fisher. So why not admit it----you simply haven't got an excuse, have you? Except that I'm rude, crude and unattractive and far, far too old for you."

Her eyes flashed at that statement , then more so as she realised he was laughing at her." I've said nothing of the sort," she replies hotly.

"Ah, so you don't think I'm too old for you," he chuckled."Or is it that you don't think I'm  unattractive?"

"You're definitely rude," she blurted, immediately aware of the many ways such an answer could be interpreted. "Why can't you take no for an answer?"

她若有所思地说，大概把所有的坏脾气都发泄在我身上吧，只是恍惚意识到她一直在盯着柯南 咖什，直到他突然抬起头来，她发现了他那冰冷的灰色眼睛和她的眼神相撞。他扬了扬他的眉毛，带着些许嘲弄。她看到那苍白的眼睛突然闪着亮光，当他的眼睛在她的形体上扫过，好像剥光了她的外衣。

被现场发现偷窥，她没来得及思考，抬起了自己的眉毛，然后迅速伸了一下舌头。他突然大笑起来，笑声使房间里的每个人都感到震惊，戴娜把她的目光挪开，等着他向其他人解释他笑的原因。

相反，他却故意保持沉默，直到好奇心迫使她再次抬起头来，当她看到他那令人吃惊的眨眼时，不得不挤出了一丝傻笑。然后，他又回到了自己的工作中，留给戴娜充足的机会去偷偷地审视着他，看着他在房间里来回走动，就像某个凶猛的、笼子里的猫科动物等着最后期限到来一样。

当他前往新闻发布会的时候，指示米克把戴娜带进演播室，这样她就可以在新闻发布的时候看到了。“如果你有任何问题，我会在晚餐时回答，” 柯南 咖仕大步走出房间的时候说。

戴娜对看似毫不费力、然而却能把很多繁杂的新闻文本和胶卷制成一个连贯的整体的复杂过程感到着迷。以她没有经验的眼光来看，录播室就是一个混乱的现场，在这里导演用手在复杂的的控制台上挥舞双手，向所有人大声地叫喊着难以理解的命令。米克试图解释这一切，但戴娜的头在还没有结束，就开始混乱地眩晕里。

她发现她很难集中精力，尤其是柯南 咖什的意外邀约还在耳畔回响。更糟糕的是，她对是否接受邀请还犹豫不决。

“他可能很英俊;毫无疑问非常英俊，”当米克试图解释工作室的过程时她心猿意马。“但那就是关于一切了。为什么他会自动地认为我没有什么比和他一起吃饭更好的事情了呢?他很粗鲁，专横，而且很讨厌，他根本就不尊重我。他得到了一个秘书而不是一个记者，这又不是我的错..."

到他们回到新闻编辑室进行例行研讨时，她已经坚决地决定要拒绝他的邀请，当柯南 咖什走进来的时候，她毫不犹豫地说出了这些话。

“为什么?”他的问题如此突然，以致于她没法回答，然后她意识到，她不能只是蹦出来说，“我不喜欢你”，而且她也没有准备好任何其他的借口。

被发现自己没有时间去准备应对的话，她似乎也找不到任何合适的话，而另外两位记者的突然兴趣也没有帮上任何忙。柯南 咖什对她的决定也没有进行更大的还击。

“你还有什么计划?你到这里来的时间还不够长还不足以有男朋友吧。当然，即使你很愿意，至少也需要一周的时间，费雪小姐。所以，为什么不承认呢——你只是没有借口，不对吗?除了我粗鲁、无礼、没有魅力，而且对你来说太太太老了。”

听到这样的话，她的眼睛闪了一下，当她意识到他在嘲笑她时，她闪的更多了。“我可没说那样的话，”她激动地回答。

“啊，这么说你不觉得我太老吗?”他嬉笑道，“或者还是你不认为我没有魅力？”

“你简直是太粗鲁了，”她脱口而出，马上意识到这样的回答可能会有很多方式理解。“你为什么就不能直接接受一个拒绝的答复呢?”