Lobbie’s voice sounded now as if he very soon might burst into tears.

“I shan’t have no shilling! I shan’t have no shilling without I gets the threepence you betted wi’ I!”

Wolf began fumbling in his pocket; but the girl stopped him with a quick movement.

“Lob,” she said sternly, “you’ve never lied to me before, in all the rat-hunts, and nuttings, and blackberryings, and mushroomings we’ve ever had together. What’s come over you, Lob? Oh, I am ! ’Tisn’t as if I were Mother or Dad. ’Tisn’t as if we hadn’t always done everything together. You’re not nice company, any more, Lob, for people to go about with! I shall always have to say to anyone in the future, ‘Take care, now, you can never depend upon what Lob Torp says!’ ”