The women undressed in the shadow at the far end of the stalls, and from time to time Micky’s Jim peeped round the corner. When the women looked up he would shout out: “I see something,” and whistle lightly between the thumb and middle finger of his right hand. The Irishwomen undressed under the blankets, the two strange women, careless and indifferent to the jibes of Micky’s Jim, stripped off to their chemises in full view of the occupants of the byre. Annie and Gourock Ellen had quarrelled about something; they were not going to sleep together that night.
“Ye have to sleep with me, lass,” said Gourock Ellen to Norah.
“All right,” said the young girl quietly, seeing no reason why she should not sleep with a strange woman. As she spoke she went down on her knees to say her prayers.
“Say one prayer for me, just a short one,” said Ellen in a low tone.
“All right, decent woman,” answered the girl.
“I’ll put the light out now,” shouted Micky’s Jim after a short interval. “The women will not be ashamed to go on takin’ off their clothes now.”
The light went out, but Jim suddenly relit the candle, and the guttering blaze again flared weakly through the gloom. There was a hurried movement of naked flesh in the women’s quarters and a precipitate scampering under the blankets.
“That was a mortal sin, Micky’s Jim,” Norah Ryan said in a low voice, and in her tones there was a suspicion of tears.