ROO and OLIVE are seated at the table, ROO with an open newspaper before him.

BUBBA, dressed in her school uniform, but without the coat, carries the large pouffe to set it in position. She is the focus of attention.

BUBBA: Now you keep your eye on me—

OLIVE: [encouragingly] What do we have to do?

BUBBA: Watch me hemline—here. [She touches the front edge of her tunic.] I’m goin’ to take a deep breath and spread my arms out—you got to see if my tunic comes up anythin’ like an inch and a half.

ROO: Inch and a half?

BUBBA: Inch and a half, or more. Right?

BARNEY: Right.

BUBBA: Stand on this, so you can see me better.

She mounts the pouffe.

Okay—here goes—now.

Arms stretched out in front of her, palms facing out, she takes a deep breath, opening her arms wide as she does so. She holds the pose for an agonising moment, then drops it to inquire:

Well?

OLIVE: No.

ROO: Moved a bit.

BARNEY: [indicating a minute fraction with his forefinger and thumb] ’Bout this much. Sixteenth of an inch.

BUBBA: That’s terrible. More than that a week ago.

ROO: What’s the strength of it? Some sorta game?

BUBBA: No, not a game. More a club. The girls at school, well, Moira Doherty— [stepping down from the pouffe] —she’s the organiser—

OLIVE: Oh, Moira, is it?

BUBBA: What we do, we stand in two lines, see, facing each other. The girls in the front line, that’s the one I’m in, we bring our arms in and out, and we say: [demonstrating a rhythmic version of the exercise] ‘Guardian angel, if you’re able, Make me look like Betty Grable’. [A physical pause.] And then the girls in the other line—that’s Moira and the older girls—they go: [demonstrating again] ‘Hubba-hubba, jigger-jigger, Get a load of that figure’. Then once a week the girls on my line are tested, and if we can raise the front of our tunic an inch and a half by a deep breath, we get shifted over to the other side.

BARNEY: Sounds like the army.

OLIVE: ’S silly.

ROO: What do the nuns reckon about it all?

BUBBA: Oh, they don’t know.

Restoring the pouffe to its original position:

They think we’re exercisin’ to beat the Loreto girls at hockey.

OLIVE: Bet you anything you like that Moira’s over-developed for her age, and she’s tryin’ to get the rest of you the same way.

BUBBA: It’s not the littlies. Got to be over fourteen to be even in the first line.

OLIVE: Fourteen’s nothing.

BARNEY: Can go too far, y’know. That sort of thing. [Demonstrating] See the fellers stop and frown—I’m the biggest girl in town.