to be thwarted in even so trifling a matter. She intended them all to walk with her in the park.

‘Because I don’t like trooping off in a gang,’ he said.

Her voice rumbled in her throat for a moment. Then she said, with a curious stray calm:

‘Then we’ll leave a little boy behind, if he’s sulky.’

And she looked really gay, while she insulted him. But it merely made him stiff.

She trailed off to the rest of the company, only turning to wave her handkerchief to him, and to chuckle with laughter, singing out:

‘Good-bye, good-bye, little boy.’

‘Good-bye, impudent hag,’