"Come an' 'ave y' teas."
Lennie was like the head of the house. They ate their meal in silence.
II
Tom and Jack and Lennie still slept in the cubby, but Og and Magog had moved indoors. The three of them lay in the dark, without sleeping.
"Say, young Len," said Tom at length, "what was you after, letting Monica get mixed up with that Pink-eye Percy?"
"Me? What was I after? How could I be after 'er every minute. She snapped my 'ead off if I looked at 'er. What for did you an' Jack stop away all that time, an' never write a word to nobody? Blame me, all right! But you go 'avin' 'igh jinks in the Never-Never, and nobody says a word to you. You never did nothing wrong, did you? An' you kep' an eye on the fam'ly, didn't you? An' it's only me to blame. 'F course! 'Twould be! But what about yourselves?"
This outburst was received in silence. Then a queer, sullen snake reared its head haughtily in Jack's soul.
"I shouldn't have thought she'd have cared for Percy," said he.
"No more would nobody," replied Len. "You never know what women's up to. Give me a steady woman, Lord, I pray. Because for the last year Monica wasn't right in 'er mind, that's what I say. It wasn't Percy's fault. It was she made 'im. She made 'im as soft as grease about 'er. Percy's not bad, he's not. But women can make him as soft as grease. An' I knows what that means myself. Either there shouldn't be no men an' women, or they should be kept apart till they're pitched into the same pen, to breed."
Tom, with Honeysuckle Lucy on his conscience, said never a word.