Page:The romance of Runnibede (IA romanceofrunnibe00rudd).pdf/74

us took a pin from the breast of our coat and jabbed it into the fleshy part of the unsuspecting ladys nearest us — Mrs. Combo getting the benefit of my pin, and Mrs. Captain the full measure of Ted’s. Great kangaroos! how they jumped, at the same time! They bumped against mother and Big Mary, and sent them kieking on the floor. Then how they yelled (Mrs Combo and Mrs. Captain I mean, not mother and Mary Rumble). And they glared about the room in search of the hidden dog, or whatever it was they suspected had bitten them, while mother and the governess looked as if they weren't sure that the bump wasn’t part of a planned attack on their lives. Their sudden alarm, however, was as suddenly dispersed, when, strange as it might seem, Mrs. Curricomb (she with the sandy hair and red eyes), displaying a gallant and sisterly spirit, helped mother to her feet again; then, by gesture and wild demonstrative language, upbraided the other two for their clumsiness and lack of good breeding—at least, that’s how Ted and I interpreted her. All the same, we deemed it discreet to appear composed and innocent looking through it all, a fraudulent frame of mind that was difficult to sustain.

Either Mrs. Curricomb possessed a sense of humour that was lacking in her black sisters, or else she had a deeper curiosity and a greater desire to find things out for himself. Whichever it was, she kept running her red, restless eyes over the white women's skirts which in those days trailed the floor and kept their ankles and legs a secret. And while Big Mary, with her back turned to the company, was restoring an ornament of some kind to its place