I think I might have managed well
enough if the old women would have let me alone; but they were always
expecting me to do something wrong, and I was conscious that whatever
they were doing they had an eye upon me.
"It's trying, you know, when you hear exclamations like this: 'The
saints presarve us! if he hasn't nearly poked his elbow into Mrs.
Fitzgerald's eye!' or, 'See now, if he isn't standing on Miss Macrae's
train!' One day I let a cup of coffee fall on to old Mrs. O'Toole's
new crimson silk dress. It was the first she had had for nine years to
my knowledge, and would have lasted her for the rest of her natural
life. And if you could have heard the squall she made, and the
exclamations of my aunts, and the general excitement over that
wretched cup of coffee, you would never have forgotten it.
"It had one good result, I was never asked to hand things round again
and was indeed never expected to put in an appearance until the
tea-things were taken away. I suffered for months for that silk dress.
My aunts got two yards of material and presented them to Mrs. O'Toole;
and for weeks and weeks I got short allowance of butter to my bread
and no sugar in my tea, and had to hear remarks as to the necessity
for being economical. As for Mrs. O'Toole she never forgave me, and
was always saying spiteful things.
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