"Go on in, you little devil," he shouted. He ground his teeth.
"Go on in!"
Ruby was by this time in pursuit of the rebel. Mrs. Raeburn had been warned and was already at the gate. Alfie, haunted by a thousand mocking eyes, fled to his room and wept tears of shame. Edie broke away from her friends, and stood, breathing very fast, in petrified anticipation. Jenny was led indoors and up to bed.
"Why can't I be a boy?" she moaned.
"Well, there's a sauce!" said Ruby. "However on earth can you be a boy when you've been made a girl?"
"But I don't want to be a girl."
"Well, you've got to be, and that's all about it. You'll be fidgeting for the moon next. Besides, if you go trapesing round half-dressed, the policeman'll have you."
Jenny had heard of the powers of the policeman for a long time. Those guardians of order stood for her as sinister, inhuman figures, always ready to spring on little girls and carry them off to unknown places. She was never taught to regard them as kindly defenders on whom one could rely in emergencies, but looked upon them with all the suspicion of a dog for a uniform. Their large quiescence and their habit of looming unexpectedly round corners shed a cloud upon the sunniest moment. They were images of vengeance at whose approach even boys huddled together, shamefaced.
Mrs. Raeburn came upstairs to interview her discontented daughter.
"Don't you ever do any such thing again. Behaving like a tomboy!"