Nugent smiled as
if she thought the showman's task impossible, and Winifred stretched
out to gain a full view.
'A black spider monkey,' he said, slowly. 'Allow me to ask, madam,
if you are acquainted with the character of the beast?'
'It doesn't scratch, does it?' said she, quickly.
'That is for you to answer.'
'I never knew it do so. It does chatter a great deal, but it never
scratched that I knew of.'
'Nor I,' said the showman, 'since it was young. Do you think age
renders it graver and steadier?'
'Not a bit. It is always frisky and troublesome, and I never knew it
get a bit better as it grew older.'
Winifred laughed outright. Mr. Kendal's lips were parted by his
smile. 'I wonder what sort of a mother it would make?' said the
showman.
'All animals are good mothers, of course.'
'I meant, is it a good disciplinarian?'
'If you mean cuffing its young one for playing exactly the same
tricks as itself.'
'Exactly; and what would be the effect of letting it and its young
one loose in a great scholar's study?'
'There wouldn't be much study left.'
'And would it be for his good?'
'Really, Mr. Showman, you ask very odd questions. Shall we try?'
said Albinia, with a skip backward, so as to lay her hand on the
shoulder of her own great scholar, while the showman drew back the
curtain, observing--'I wish, ma'am, I could show "it and its young
one" together, but the young specimen is unfortunately asleep.
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