Attempts to resolve the Quandary:
3
And now another tumbril groaned past the awaiting tricoteuses, amongst whom an arthritic, wall-eyed beldam, surreptitiously fiddling with a dropped stitch, cackled "This'll take years off you!", as if endorsing the latest ergogenic restorative. (by Bud Myte)
2
Initially both Holmes and I believed in the ergogenic effect of his cocaine use until that time when, in the midst of three days of incessant fiddling, he surreptitiously peered form behind the curtains to the street below and rushed from our apartments shouting, “Moriarty, you fiend, I have you at last”, and assaulted a tragically hideous beldam selling fish heads on the street below and stripped her quite naked to the shock and disgust of us all. (by gumo420)
1
By the buffet table, people were directing not-so-surreptitious glances at a skeevy beldam (just now fiddling disdainfully with a slice of cucumber), so botoxicated she couldn't even frown at us and liposuctioned to within an ergogenic nanomenter of having to lean against the table to keep from blowing over in the draft from the ACU. (by cusheamus)
4
They all try to be surreptitious, but you can sometimes spot a bloodied street fighter approaching that wretched old house at dusk, carrying his last gold coins, hoping, just like his enemies, to buy an ergogenic potion from the wrinkled beldam who inhabits the place, fiddling with cursed substances to prepare her fabled and expensive recipe for invincibility. (by Rudi)