word of the day: stuggy

word of the day: stuggy

Miss Bianca and Bernard of the Mouse Prisoners’ Aid Society are searching for a little girl who has gone missing. Every lead they have followed up has proved worthless, and time is running out. Fruitlessly running about will just wear you down, argues Bernard, worrying particularly after the refined Miss Bianca’s health. 

‘Though the situation I admit appears hopeless,’ said she, ‘I still intend to see it through. Do you, my dear Bernard, turn in as soon as you like, and I for one shan’t blame you —‘

‘If you mean you’d rather have me out of the way,’ interrupted Bernard, ‘I shan’t blame you, Miss Bianca!’

‘No, no!’ cried Miss Bianca — now looking up and observing [Bernard’s] whiskers. By comparison with her elegant, almost antenna-like own, Bernard’s were so short and stuggy, usually only a flat-iron attached could make them droop. But so desperate now was his apologeticalness, they positively flopped. How could Miss Bianca fail to soften towards him — her old, faithful companion in so many other (more successful) adventures? She couldn’t.

‘If I spoke curtly,’ she apologized in turn, ‘pray forgive me! And indeed your advice is extremely sensible, except that we both of us need a rest.’

definition (Collins dictionary): British dialect stout

source: 

Miss Bianca and the Bridesmaid

by Margery Sharp

illustrated by Erik Blegveld

1972. Little, Brown & Co., Boston MA