CHAPTER IX
WILLIAM AND WHITE SATIN
"I"d simply love to have a page," murmured Miss Grant wistfully. "A wedding seems so--second-rate without a page."
Mrs. Brown, her aunt and hostess, looked across the tea-table at her younger son, who was devouring iced cake with that disregard for consequences which is the mark of youth.
"There"s William," she said doubtfully. Then, "You"ve had quite enough cake, William."
Miss Grant studied William"s countenance, which at that moment expressed intense virtue persecuted beyond all bearing.
"_Enough!_" he repeated. "I"ve had hardly any yet. I was only jus"
beginning to have some when you looked at me. It"s a plain cake. It won"t do me any harm. I wu"nt eat it if it"d do me any harm. Sugar"s _good_ for you. Animals eat it to keep healthy. _Horses_ eat it an" it don"t do "em any _harm_, an" poll parrots an" things eat it an" it don"t do "em any----"
"Oh, don"t argue, William," said his mother wearily.
William"s gift of eloquence was known and feared in his family circle.
Then Miss Grant brought out the result of her study of his countenance.
"He"s got such a--_modern_ face!" she said. "There"s something essentially mediaeval and romantic about the idea of a page."
Mrs. Brown (from whose house the wedding was to take place) looked worried.
"There"s nothing mediaeval or romantic about William," she said.
"Well,"--Miss Grant"s intellectual face lit up--"what about his cousin Dorita. They"re about the same age, aren"t they? Both eleven. Well, the _two_ of them in white satin with bunches of holly. Don"t you think?
Would you mind having her to stay for the ceremony?" (Miss Grant always referred to her wedding as "the ceremony.") "If you don"t have his hair cut for a bit, he mightn"t look so bad?"
William had retired to the garden with his three bosom friends--Ginger, Henry, and Douglas--where he was playing his latest game of mountaineering. A plank had been placed against the garden wall, and up this scrambled the three, roped together and wearing feathers in their caps. William was wearing an old golf cap of his mother"s, and mentally pictured himself as an impressive and heroic figure. Before they reached the top they invariably lost their foothold, rolled down the plank and fell in a confused and bruised heap at the bottom. The bruises in no way detracted from the charm of the game. To William the fascination of any game consisted mainly in the danger to life and limb involved. The game had been suggested by an old alpenstock which had been thoughtlessly presented to William by a friend of Mr. Brown"s. The paint of the staircase and upstairs corridor had been completely ruined before the family knew of the gift, and the alpenstock had been confiscated for a week, then restored on the condition that it was not to be brought into the house. The result was the game of mountaineering up the plank. They carried the alpenstock in turns, but William had two turns running to mark the fact that he was its proud possessor.
Mrs. Brown approached William on the subject of his prospective _role_ of page with a certain apprehension. The normal att.i.tude of William"s family towards William was one of apprehension.
"Would you like to go to Cousin Sybil"s wedding?" she said.
"No, I wu"nt," said William without hesitation.
"Wouldn"t you like to go dressed up?" she said.
"Red Injun?" said William with a gleam of hope.
"Er--no, not exactly."
"Pirate?"
"Not quite."
"I"d go as a Red Injun, or I"d go as a Pirate," he said firmly, "but I wu"nt go as anything else."
"A page," said Miss Grant"s clear, melodious voice, "is a mediaeval and romantic idea, William. There"s the glamour of chivalry about it that should appeal strongly to a boy of your age."
William turned his inscrutable countenance upon her and gave her a cold glare.
They discussed his costume in private.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "WOULD YOU LIKE TO GO TO COUSIN SYBIL"S WEDDING?" SHE ASKED. "NO, I WU"NT," SAID WILLIAM WITHOUT HESITATION.]
"I"ve got a pair of lovely white silk stockings," said his mother.
"They"d do for tights, and Ethel has got a satin petticoat that"s just beginning to go in one place. I should think we could make some sort of costume from that, don"t you? We"ll buy some more white satin and get some patterns."
"No, I won"t wear Ethel"s ole clothes," said William smouldering. "You all jus" want to make me look ridiclus. You don"t care how ridiclus I look. I shall be ridiclus all the rest of my life goin" about in Ethel"s ole clothes. I jus" won"t do it. I jus" won"t go to any ole weddin". No, I _don"t_ want to see Cousin Sybil married, an" I jus" _won"t_ be made look ridiclus in Ethel"s ole clothes."
They reasoned and coaxed and threatened, but in vain. Finally William yielded to parental authority and went about his world with an air of a martyr doomed to the stake. Even the game of mountaineering had lost its charm and the alpenstock lay neglected against the garden wall. The att.i.tude of his select circle of friends was not encouraging.
"Yah! _Page!_ Who"s goin" to be a _page_? Oh, crumbs. A page all dressed up in white. _Dear_ little Willie. Won"t he look swe-e-e-et?"
Life became very full. It was pa.s.sed chiefly in the avenging of insults.
William cherished a secret hope that the result of this would be to leave him disfigured for life and so unable to attend the wedding.
However, except for a large lump on his forehead, he was none the worse.
He eyed the lump thoughtfully in his looking-gla.s.s and decided that with a little encouragement it might render his public appearance in an affair of romance an impossibility. But the pain which resulted from one heroic effort at banging it against the wall caused him to abandon the plan.
Dorita arrived the next week, and with her her small brother, Michael, aged three. Dorita was slim and graceful, with a pale little oval face and dark curling hair.
Miss Grant received her on the doorstep.
"Well, my little maid of honour?" she said in her flute-like tones.
"Welcome! We"re going to be such friends--you and me and William--the bride" (she blushed and bridled becomingly) "and her little page and her little maid of honour. William"s a boy, and he"s just a _leetle_ bit thoughtless and doesn"t realise the romance of it all. I"m sure you will. I see it in your dear little face. We"ll have some lovely talks together." Her eyes fell upon Michael and narrowed suddenly. "He"d look sweet, too, in white satin, wouldn"t he?" turning to Mrs. Brown. "He could walk between them.... We could buy some more white satin...."
When they had gone the maid of honour turned dark, long-lashed, demure eyes upon William.
"Soft mug, that," she said in clear refined tones, nodding in the direction of the door through which the tall figure of Miss Grant had just disappeared.
William was vaguely cheered by her att.i.tude.
"Are you keen on this piffling wedding affair?" she went on carelessly, ""cause I jolly well tell you I"m not."
William felt that he had found a kindred spirit. He unbent so far as to take her to the stable and show her a field-mouse he had caught and was keeping in a cardboard box.
"I"m teachin" it to dance," he confided, "an" it oughter fetch a jolly lot of money when it can dance proper. Dancin" mice do, you know. They show "em on the stage, and people on the stage get pounds an" pounds every night, so I bet mice do, too--at least the folks the mice belong to what dance on the stage. I"m teachin" it to dance by holdin" a biscuit over its head and movin" it about. It bit me twice yesterday."
He proudly displayed his mutilated finger. "I only caught it yesterday.
It oughter learn all right to-day," he added hopefully.
Her intense disappointment, when the only trace of the field-mouse that could be found was the cardboard box with a hole gnawed at one corner, drew William"s heart to her still more.