d at the
comparison of Emmy with a scone. Jenny did not like scones. She thought
them stodgy. She had also that astounding feminine love of cream buns
which no true man could ever acknowledge or understand. So Emmy became a
scone, with not too many currents in it. Jenny's fluent fancy was
inclined to dwell upon this notion. She a little lost sight of Alf's
grievance in her pleasure at the figures she had drawn. Her mind was
recalled with a jerk. Now: what was it? Alf had wanted to take
her--Jenny. Right! He had taken Emmy. Because he had taken Emmy, he had
a grievance. Right! But against whom? Against Emmy? Certainly not.
Against himself? By no means. Against Jenny? A horribly exulting and yet
nervously penitent little giggle shook Jenny at her inability to answer
this point as she had answered the others. For Alf _had_ a grievance
against Jenny, and she knew it. No amount of ingenious thought could
hoodwink her sense of honesty for more than a debater's five minutes. No
Alf had a grievance. Jenny could not, in strict privacy, deny the fact.
She took refuge in a shameless piece of bluster.

"Well, after all!" she cried, "he had the tickets given to him. It's not
as though they _cost_ him anything! So what's all the row about?"

ii

Thereafter she began to think of Alf. He had taken her out several
times--not as many times as Emmy imagined, because Emmy had thought
about these excursions a great deal and not only magnified but
multiplied them. Nevertheless, Alf had taken Jenny out several times. To
a music hall once or twice; to the pictures, where they had sat and
thrilled in cushioned darkness while acrobatic humans and grey-faced
tragic creatures jerked and darted at top speed in and out of the most
amazingly telescoped accidents and difficulties. And Alf had paid more
than once, for all Pa said. It is true that Jenny had paid on her
birthday for both of them; and that she had occasionally paid for
herself upon an impulse of sheer independence. But there had been other
times when Alf had really paid for both of them. He had been very decent
about it. He had not tried any nonsense, because he was not a
flirtatious fellow. Well, it had been very nice; and now it was all
spoilt. It was spoilt because of Emmy. Emmy had spoilt it by wanting Alf
for herself. Ugh! thought Jenny. Em had always been a jealous cat: if
she had just seen Alf somewhere she wouldn't have wanted him. That was
it! Em saw that Alf preferred Jenny