Rosemary had been married two years. She had a duck of a boy. No, not Peter—Michael. And her husband absolutely adored her. They were rich, really rich, not just comfortably well off, which is odious and stuffy and sounds like one’s grandparents. But if Rosemary wanted to shop she would go to Paris as you and I would go to Bond Street. If she wanted to buy flowers, the car pulled up at that perfect shop in Regent Street, and Rosemary inside the shop just gazed in her dazzled, rather exotic way, and said: “I want those and those and those. Give me four bunches of those. And that jar of roses. Yes, I’ll have all the roses in the jar. No, no lilac. I hate lilac. It’s got no shape.” The attendant bowed and put the lilac out of sight, as though this was only too true; lilac was dreadfully shapeless. “Give me those stumpy little tulips. Those red and white ones.” And she was followed to the car by a thin shopgirl staggering under an immense white paper armful that looked like a baby in long clothes. . . .

Question

Use the excerpt from “A Cup of Tea” by Katherine Mansfield to answer the question. What does the imagined interaction between Rosemary and the shop attendant over the lilacs suggest about Rosemary?

A. Rosemary has a discerning eye that can find details that others miss.
B. Rosemary is dissatisfied with her current life and is seeking change.
C. People tend act as if Rosemary is always right because of her wealth.
D. People are frustrated by Rosemary because she is indecisive.

Answer 1

The imagined interaction between Rosemary and the shop attendant over the lilacs suggests that:

C. People tend to act as if Rosemary is always right because of her wealth.

This is indicated by the shop attendant's quick compliance to remove the lilac from sight based on Rosemary's statement about hating it, which reflects her privileged position and how others accommodate her desires and opinions.