Miss Kezia gave some final directions; there was a subdued fury in eye and voice due as much to her inadequacy to the occasion as to her anger at the havoc wrought in her well-ordered house. The monkey coughed softly, and Sarah, still weeping in the background, screamed. Sheila Pat appeared, climbed on to a chair, and lifted the monkey down. The monkey put a thin arm round her neck in a horribly human way. Sheila Pat kissed his face, and Miss Kezia called out in irrepressible horror.
"I love him," the Atom said calmly. "He's just 'zact like my dearrest Patsy O'Driscoll."
The monkey's bright little eyes blinked knowingly.
"I believe he's a first cousin," Denis declared. "Ever been to Kilbrannan, old man? Played hand-ball on summer evenings on Patsy's wall, eh? Driven Kate in the jaunting-car? D'you know the road up-along by Dinny O'Sullivan's? Sure ye'll be meetin' the doctor's house to the west—ah, yes, thin, ye're knowin' that all right. Look at him smiling, Nell!"
Miss Kezia turned a stiff back upon them and walked into her bedroom.
"She doesn't appreciate you, Jim."
Jim coughed delicately. It was a funny little soft deprecating cough.
"He is just like Patsy," Nell said. "If we were to dress him up and put him on the box seat of the jaunting-car, he'd be acknowledged by his own mother!"
Miss Kezia's bedroom door was opened.
"You will please to send off all those creatures to-day—and at once!"