What are meanings of the word "ever" and phrase "faint check"? Poirot said slowly: "An old woman of the name of Ascher who keeps a little tobacco and newspaper shop has been found murdered." I think I felt ever so slightly damped. My interest, quickened by the sound of Andover, suffered a faint check. I had expected something fantastic — out of the way! The murder of an old woman who kept a little tobacco shop seemed, somehow, sordid and uninteresting.