inish what I was going to say."

"I'd hold my tongue if I was you," her brother advised. "You're as bad
as Edie."

"Don't you talk to me. You!" said Jenny, stamping with rage. Then, with
head thrown back and defiant underlip, she continued:

"That's quite right about my driving off with a gentleman." In the tail
of the "g" was whipcord for Alfie's self-esteem.

"Gentleman," he sneered.

"_Which_ is more than _you_ could ever be, any old way."

"Or want to," Alfie growled. "Thanks, I'm quite content with what I am."

"You can't have many looking-glasses down at your workshop then. Look at
Mr. Quite Content. How much do they pay you a week to be all the time
spying after your sister?"

"Well, anyway, I caught you out, my girl."

"No, you didn't. I say I _did_ drive off with a gentleman, but there was
a crowd of us. We went to have breakfast at Greenwich."

"Now that's a place I've often meant to go to and never did," said
Charlie. "What's it like?"

"You keep quiet, you silly old man," his wife commanded. "As if she went
near Greenwich. What a tale!"

"It isn't a tale," Jenny declared. "I did. Ask Maudie Chapman and Madge
Wilson and Ireen. They was all there."

"Oh, I don't doubt they're just as quick with their tongues as what you
are," said Mrs. Raeburn. "A nice lot you meet at that theater."

"Jest leave the theater alone," her daughter answered. "It's better than
this dog's island where no one can't let you alone for a minute because
they're so ignorant that they don't know nothing. I say I did go to
Greenwich."

"I don't see why the girl shouldn't have gone to Greenwich," Charlie
interposed. "I keep telling you I've often thought of going there
myself."

"Jenny never speaks only what's the truth," May asserted.

"Yes, and a lot of good it does me," said Jenny indignantly. "I'd better
by half tell a pack of lies, the same as other girls do."

"What she wants," said Alfie sententiously, "is a jolly good hiding.
Look at her. There's a fine sister for a chap to have--nothing but paint
and powder and hair-dye."

Jenny stood silent under this; but the upper lip was no longer visible.
Her cheeks were pale, her eyes mere points of light. May was the first
to speak in defense of the silent one.

"Brothers!" she scoffed. "Some girls would be a sight better without
brothers. Hateful things!"

Jenny's feelings had been so overwrought by the fatigue of the dance
followed by this domestic scene that May'