"Snakes—ugh!" said Cathy.
"Say, what's got into you? I've seen you let a little green garter snake wind around your wrist like a bracelet."
"I did, didn't I?" Cathy was suddenly on Jerry's level again. Then she looked up at her reflection in a mirror over the television set and smoothed her hair at the sides. "I used to do a lot of silly things when I was young," she said.
She seemed to be insinuating that she was more grownup than Jerry, even though they were twins. Jerry was furious with her. He was angry because they were no longer the companions they used to be, though he did not realize it. He missed the old Cathy, who reappeared only now and then. They were so seldom really together nowadays and it had not been long ago that they had been two against anything or anybody which threatened one of them.
"I wouldn't be a girl for a million dollars," he said. "Little pats of powder, Little daubs of paint, Make a little girly Look like what she ain't," he quoted.
"Why Jerry Martin, I wouldn't think of using rouge. Mummy wouldn't let me if I wanted to."
"Cathy," called her mother from upstairs. "Come set the table for dinner."
Cathy, with one of her movie-queen looks, sailed past Jerry and went upstairs.
"Girls are nuts," Jerry said.
"Ha, ha!" laughed Pedro.