William Again Read Online Free

watching.

    ‘THOU BEASTLY OLE ROBBER,’ DOUGLAS WAS SHOUTING. ‘I WILL KILL THEE DEAD AND CUT OUT THY FOUL, BLACK HEART.’
    ‘Thou beastly ole robber,’ Douglas was shouting, ‘I will kill thee dead and cut out thy foul, black heart.’
    ‘Nay!’ yelled his son. ‘I will hang thee from my mountain ere dawn dawns and thy body shall dangle from the gallows—’
    A wistful-looking old man on a packing-case was an absorbed spectator of the proceedings. When he saw William’s father he took out his watch with a guilty start.
    ‘Surely—’ he said. ‘I’d no idea – Heavens! ’
    He picked up his hat and almost ran.
    The Great Man rose to address his audience.
    ‘Ladies and gentlemen – I must begin by apologising for my late arrival,’ he said with dignity. ‘I have been unavoidably delayed.’
    He tried not to meet William’s father’s eye as he made the statement.

 
    CHAPTER 2
    THE CURE
    B reakfast was not William’s favourite meal. With his father shut off from the world by his paper, and his mother by her letters, one would
have thought that he would have enjoyed the clear field thus left for his activities. But William liked an audience – even a hostile one consisting of his own family. True, Robert and Ethel, his
elder brother and sister, were there; but Robert’s great rule in life was to ignore William’s existence. Robert would have preferred not to have had a small freckled, snub-nosed
brother. But as Fate had given him such a brother, the next best thing was to pretend that he did not exist. On the whole, William preferred to leave Robert alone. And Ethel was awful at breakfast
– quite capable of summoning the Head of the Family from behind his Daily Telegraph when William essayed a little gentle teasing. This morning William, surveying his family in silence in the
intervals of making a very hearty meal, came to the conclusion, not for the first time, that they were hardly worthy of him: Ethel, thinking she was so pretty in that stuck-up-looking dress, and
grinning over that letter from that soft girl. Robert talking about football and nobody listening to him, and glaring at him (William) whenever he tried to tell him what nonsense he was talking
about it. No, it wasn’t rounders he was thinking of – he knew ’bout football, thank you, he just did. His mother – suddenly his mother put down her letter.
    ‘Great-Aunt Jane’s very ill,’ she said.
    There was a sudden silence. Mr Brown’s face appeared above the Daily Telegraph.
    ‘Um?’ he said.
    ‘Great-Aunt Jane’s very ill,’ said Mrs Brown. ‘They don’t seem to think there’s much chance of her getting better. They say—’ She looked again at
the letter as if to make quite sure: ‘They say she wants to see William. She’s never seen him, you know.’
    There was a gasp of surprise.
    Robert voiced the general sentiment.
    ‘Good Lord!’ he said. ‘Fancy anyone wanting to see William !’
    ‘When they’re dying, too,’ said Ethel in equal horror. ‘One would think they’d like to die in peace, anyway.’
    ‘It hardly seems fair,’ went on Robert, ‘to show William to anyone who’s not strong.’
    William glared balefully from one to the other.
    ‘Children! Children!’ murmured Mrs Brown.
    ‘How,’ said Mr Brown, ‘are you going to get William over to Ireland?’
    ‘I suppose,’ said Mrs Brown, ‘that someone must take him.’
    ‘Good Lord! Who?’
    ‘Yes, who?’ echoed the rest of the family.
    ‘I can’t possibly leave the office for the next few weeks,’ said Mr Brown hastily.
    ‘I simply couldn’t face the crossing alone – much less with William,’ said Ethel.
    ‘I’ve got my finals coming up next year,’ said Robert. ‘I don’t want to waste any time. I’m working rather hard these vacs.’
    ‘No one,’ said his father politely, ‘would have noticed it.’
    ‘I can go alone, thank you,’ said William with icy dignity.
    In the end William and Mrs Brown crossed to