‘I can go to Jennifer whenever I like. I can always go to Jennifer. I don’t ask you whether I am to or not.’
At last this was anger, anger! At last she was able to want to wound, to cry: ‘I! I! I!’ brutally, aggressively, triumphantly in the face of her enemy. Pure anger for the first time in life.
‘Please! Listen,’ Geraldine took a few steps towards her. ‘Please, don’t go now. She’s very much upset. I left her crying.’
Crying—crying? Oh, that was a good thing. It was splendid that Jennifer should have been made to cry.... And yet ... if this woman had made her cry—poor Jennifer, darling Jennifer—you would——
The situation seemed suddenly to have become reversed. Judith felt herself momentarily strong in self-assurance; and Geraldine was hesitating, as if doubtful what to say.
‘What’s she crying about? It takes a good deal to make Jennifer cry.’
Geraldine shot her a glance and said venomously:
‘Yes. As far as I can make out, one of your charming friends must have taken a good deal of trouble to make her cry this morning. Anyway she seemed to have got it into her head that she’s treated somebody, or one of you, very badly—and that somebody was hurt—you were hurt—because she’d been neglecting you for me.’
‘How do you know she meant me?’
She was silent, and then said: