"I say! Girl! Goodness, where are your clothes?" gasped Agnes O'Brien as she rounded the strangely sinister statue in Sir Lawrence Swann's garden in the Meon Valley. The poor girl was practically naked except for a few barbaric trinkets and a very immodest loin cloth. The girl looked back at her evenly, seemingly unashamed by her state of nakedness. "Do you speak English? Where is Sir Lawrence?" The girl must be some sort of primitive savage who Swann had brought back from Egypt. "Are you one of Sir Lawrence's dusky acolytes from Darkest Africa? Are you, perhaps, a Hottentot?" It was bad enough having to address a woman with no clothes on but one who just stood there and stared at you, as if you were the one prancing about in your natural state, was even worse.
"Nah, love. I'm from Rovver'ive. You ain't got a ciggie ave ya?" said the girl.
"What impertinence!" said Agnes, swatting the girl's rear with her parasol.
"Ooh! Do vat again!" grinned the girl.
Agnes retreated towards the house in some haste, wondering what else she was going to discover in Sir Lawrence's house.
*****
Mark Copplestone sculpted Foundry Darkest Africa lady and Egyptian Slave girl from new firm Dark Fable Miniatures completed last weekend. The slave girl will serve double duty back in the Bronze Age. The Sphinx was an unexpected present from the Old Bat who saw it in the aquarium section of the local garden centre.
