ng to marry Edie at once, as it
happened, but Jenny enjoyed seeing one of his dark eyes closed up by her
brother. Alfie, having done his duty, never spoke to Bert or Edie again.

"However could she have been so mad," said Mrs. Raeburn. "Soft! Soft!
That's you," she went on, turning on her husband.

"Oh, of course it's me. Everything's me," said Charlie.

"Yes, it is you. You can't say no to a glass of beer and Edie can't say
no to a man."

"What would you have done, mother," asked Jenny, "if Edie's Bert had
gone away and left her?"

"She'd never have come inside my house again--not ever again."

"You're funny."

"Funny?" said Mrs. Raeburn. "You try and be funny, and see what
happens."

"Who cares?" said Jenny. "It wouldn't trouble me. I'm sick of this dog's
island. But men. Whatever next? Don't you imagine I'll let any man----
Not much."

"Don't you be too sure, Mrs. Clever," said the mother.

"But I am. I'm positive. Love! There's nothing in it."

"Hark at her," jeered Charlie.

Jenny lay awake in a fury that night. One after another, man in his
various types passed across the screen of her mind. She saw them all.
The crimson-jointed, fishy-eyed Glasgow youths winked at her once more.
The complacent subalterns of Dublin dangled their presents and waited to
be given her thanks and kisses. Old men, from the recess of childish
memories, rose up again and leered at her. Her own father, small and
weak and contemptible, pottered across the line of her mental vision.
Bert Harding was there, his black boot-button eyes glittering. And to
that her sister had surrendered herself, to be pawed and mauled about
and boasted of. Ugh! Suddenly in the middle of her disgust Jenny thought
she heard a sound under the bed.

"Oo--er, May!" she called out. "May!"

"Whatever is it, you noisy thing?"

"Oo--er, there's a man under the bed! Oh, May, wake up, else we shall
all be murdered!"

"Who cares?" said May. "Go to sleep."

And just then the Raeburns' big cat, tired of his mouse-hole, came out
from underneath the bed and walked slowly across the room.

Chapter X: _Drury Lane and Covent Garden_

To compensate Jenny for her disappointment over Covent Garden, Madame
Aldavini secured a place for her in the Drury Lane pantomime. She was no
longer to be the most attractive member of an attractive quartette, but
one of innumerable girls who changed several times during the evening
into amazingly complicated dresses,