Page:Minnie's Bishop and Other Stories (1915).djvu/107

 first experiment in fundamental sociology. She assured herself that she recollected her Irish phrase, and approached them:

"Gu manny dear hitch," she said, slowly and distinctly.

The girls stopped singing and stared at her. One of them had boisterous red hair and a very freckled face. The other looked anæmic.

"Gu manny dear hitch," repeated Mrs. Crossley, still more distinctly. She addressed herself specially to the anæmic girl, for the other looked very wild.

"She has not the Beurla—the English; and I myself have very little."

It was the red-haired girl that answered her.

Mrs. Crossley realised that something must have gone wrong with her Irish pronunciation, and blamed, quite unjustly, the milk-woman's servant. She turned, intending to try one of the other groups, but the steamer, which had passed out of the shelter of Ardnamore Bay, pitched heavily. She found herself starting at a rapid trot across the deck, and then, with barely time to turn around, trotting still more rapidly back again. The red-haired girl started forward and caught her just in time to prevent a headlong charge against the bulwarks.

"It will be better with you sitting down," she said.

Mrs. Crossley admitted that it would be very much better, and allowed herself to be deposited on the deck. The two girls talked eagerly together;