The games from which he used to be excluded, or in which he used to be allowed to join on sufferance, no longer appealed to him.

He preferred to let Joey Meakin lead the gang, vice Billy Goodge deposed, while he himself remained aloof.

Now and then he condescended to arbitrate between disputants or to kick a little brute of a bully, but he felt that, in doing so, he was derogating from his high dignity.

It was his joy to feel himself a dark, majestic power overshadowing the street, a kind of Grand Llama hidden in mystery.

Often he would walk through the midst of the children, seemingly unconscious of their existence, acting strenuously to himself his part of a high-born prince.
This lasted till a dark and awful day when Mr.Button pitched him into the factory.