The rainy weather continued and business got worse and worse. There
was an air of downright gloom about the circus. Men, women and
children were in the "dumps," a most unnatural condition to exist
among these whilom, light-hearted adventurers. When they lifted up
their heads, it was to deliver continuous anathemas to the leaden
skies; when they allowed them to droop, it was to curse the soggy
earth.
The new clown saw but little of Mrs. Braddock and Christine.
Braddock's failure to extract money from him made that worthy so
disagreeable that his wife and daughter were in mortal terror of his
threats to turn the boy adrift if he caught them "coddling" him.
David's close associates were the Noakeses, the contortionist and two
or three rather engaging acrobats. As for the women of the company, he
had but little to do with them, except in the most perfunctory way. He
was always polite, gallant and agreeable, and they made much over him
when the opportunity presented itself. They were warm-hearted and
demonstrative, sometimes to such an exaggerated degree that he was
embarrassed. He was some time in getting accustomed to their effusive
friendliness; it dawned on him at last that they were not graceless,
flippant creatures, but big-hearted, honest women, in whom tradition
had planted the value of virtue.
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