"I expect so."
"Well, I'll tell you what I'll do: I'll lend you another ten shillings. That will make a sovereign altogether, and you can pay me back when you've had your Christmas presents."
"Oh, Netta, how good of you!"
"Not so particularly. It's only a loan, and I expect you to give it back."
"Of course."
"You'd better go to Parker's this afternoon at four."
"I daren't!" said Gwen, who felt that she was floundering deeper and deeper into a morass of trouble. "You don't know what a scrape I got into at home for stopping behind that other time. Beatrice made me promise absolutely always to come home with Winnie and Lesbia. I should have to give all kinds of explanations."
"I'm supposed to go straight home too, on these dark afternoons. My mother's rather particular about it."
"Then what's to be done?"
"You'll have to make a bolt in the dinner hour. There's nothing else for it."