§ 4
Somebody (it looked like her father) was saying: “—if you want friends, let them be girl friends.... Surely you can find plenty of your own sex without——”
“—I can’t think what you want playing about with boys.... Girls should stick to girls....”
And he pulled off his boots and flung them loudly under the sofa.... Hr-rooch—flop ... Hr-rooch—flop ... and then his collar—plock, plock....
“A girl of your age,” he went on, “ought not to bother her head with fellers ... this sort of free-and-easy-carrying-on won’t do, Catherine....”
And—“I can’t see what you need ever to be out later than nine for ... you’ve got all the daytime. I can’t think what you want the night as well for ... it’s not as if you weren’t allowed to do what you like on Saturday afternoons....”
And her mother, shrill and cacophonous:
“When I was young——”
Chorus of father and mother: “When I was young——”