Jumping Jenny by Anthony Berkeley Read Free Book Online Page A

amusing, so off you go. I can’t stand the sight of bored guests about the place. Good night.”
    Ena plumped herself down in a vacant chair, laughing triumphantly.
    “Now she’s got our attention, she’s happy again,” Roger confided to Mrs. Lefroy.
    Ronald was happy, too, at the prospect of getting rid of Ena.
    “Good night, Ena,” he repeated.
    “No, no, I’m not going. I’ve changed my mind. It’s a woman’s privilege to change her mind, you know.”
    “I don’t care about that. You said you were going, and you are.” Ronald spat ostentatiously on his hands. “Come on, David. You take her head, and I’ll take her heels.”
    “Ronald doing the he-man stuff,” said Roger to Mrs. Lefroy. “Take warning.”
    “They’re only joking.”
    “Not altogether. Ronald’s pretending to joke, but he’s extremely annoyed; and I’m not surprised. What’s the betting on him getting rid of her?”
    “About a hundred to one against, I should think,” said Mrs. Lefroy, not very hopefully.
    With merry laughter the trio set about their tussle. Ronald caught his sister-in-law by the heels, David took her shoulders. On the surface it was just meaningless horse-play. At any rate, Ena herself seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it as such, while she pretended to struggle and resist.
    The two men carried her, kicking and shrieking with laughter, across the floor.
    Then, all of a sudden, by the door, Ena precipitated a change. She aimed a really vicious kick at Ronald, she struck up with her fists at her husband’s face, and she screamed out:
    “Let me go, you swine! Damn you, let me go.”
    They let her go, with a thud on the parquet floor.
    Ena scrambled to her feet, rushed out of the room, and banged the door behind her with a crash that shook the house.
    “Well, well, well,” said Roger to Mrs. Lefroy.
III
    David Stratton stood looking uncertainly at the closed door.
    “Oh, let her be,” said Ronald.
    David shrugged his shoulders. Then he walked back to the group where he had been sitting.
    “Sorry, everyone,” he said briefly, a flush on his usually rather pale face.
    Everyone began to be as nice to him as they could, with the result that a perfectly unnatural atmosphere was created, and it was all rather embarrassing. Roger made what was probably a popular movement when he rose to his feet with the remark that a drink he must and would have, and carried David Stratton off with him to the bar, where he gave him a stiff whisky-and-soda and talked firmly to him about the exploits of the M.C.C. cricket team in Australia the previous winter—a topic in which, somewhat to his surprise, he discovered Stratton to be passionately interested.
    In the meantime the party, relieved of Ena Stratton’s blighting presence, went on with renewed vigour; dancing was resumed, those who wanted to do so stood in little groups and discussed, with the academic ferocity appropriate to 2 A.M ., such questions as interested them, and everything in the ballroom was harmony.
    At a quarter-past two David Stratton joined his brother and Roger, who happened to be together at the bar, and announced that he thought he must be pushing off.
    “Don’t go yet, David. Everyone will think they ought to go too, if they see you slinking away.”
    “I think I’d better.”
    “If you’re thinking of Ena, much better leave her alone for a bit longer. She’ll take it out on you as usual if you get back before she’s safely asleep.”
    “Still,” said David, with a rueful smile, “I think I’d better, if you don’t mind.”
    “All right, if you really mean it. Anyhow, good luck.”
    “Thanks. I’ll probably need it. Good night, Sheringham.”
    When he had gone, Ronald sighed.
    “I’m afraid the poor lad’s in for a nasty quarter of an hour.”
    “But he didn’t do anything.”
    “Oh, that doesn’t matter. He’s always the scapegoat, when that maniac of a woman doesn’t think she’s had enough admiration. David’s such a good