Mrs. de Vere Carter was inarticulate.
"That boy ... that _boy_ ... _that boy_!" was all she could say.
William was hurried away by his family before she could regain speech.
"You"ve disgraced us publicly," said Mrs. Brown plaintively. "I thought you must have gone _mad_. People will never forget it. I might have known...."
When pressed for an explanation William would only say:
"Well, I felt hot. I felt awful hot, an" I di"n"t like Cuthbert."
He appeared to think this sufficient explanation, though he was fully prepared for the want of sympathy displayed by his family.
"Well," he said firmly, "I"d just like to see you do it, I"d just like to see you be in the head and that ole rug an" have to say stupid things an"--an" see folks you don"t like, an" I bet you"d _do_ something."
But he felt that public feeling was against him, and relapsed sadly into silence. From the darkness in front of them came the sound of Cuthbert"s wailing as Mrs. Clive led her two charges home.
"_Poor_ little Cuthbert!" said Mrs. Brown. "If I were Joan, I don"t think I"d ever speak to you again."
"Huh!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed William scornfully.
But at William"s gate a small figure slipped out from the darkness and two little arms crept round William"s neck.
"Oh, _William_," she whispered, "he"s going to-morrow, and I am glad.
Isn"t he a softie? Oh, William, I do _love_ you, you do such _"citing_ things!"
CHAPTER VII
THE GHOST
William lay on the floor of the barn, engrossed in a book. This was a rare thing with William. His bottle of lemonade lay untouched by his side, and he even forgot the half-eaten apple which reposed in his hand. His jaws were arrested midway in the act of munching.
"Our hero," he read, "was awakened about midnight by the sound of the rattling of chains. Raising himself on his arm he gazed into the darkness. About a foot from his bed he could discern a tall, white, faintly-gleaming figure and a ghostly arm which beckoned him."
William"s hair stood on end.
"Crumbs!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed.
"Nothing perturbed," he continued to read, "our hero rose and followed the spectre through the long winding pa.s.sages of the old castle.
Whenever he hesitated, a white, luminous arm, hung around with ghostly chains, beckoned him on."
"Gosh!" murmured the enthralled William. "I"d have bin scared!"
"At the panel in the wall the ghost stopped, and silently the panel slid aside, revealing a flight of stone steps. Down this went the apparition followed by our intrepid hero. There was a small stone chamber at the bottom, and into this the rays of moonlight poured, revealing a skeleton in a sitting att.i.tude beside a chest of golden sovereigns. The gold gleamed in the moonlight."
"Golly!" gasped William, red with excitement.
"William!"
The cry came from somewhere in the sunny garden outside. William frowned sternly, took another bite of apple, and continued to read.
"Our hero gave a cry of astonishment."
"Yea, I"d have done that all right," agreed William.
"_William!_"
"Oh, shut _up_!" called William, irritably, thereby revealing his hiding-place.
His grown-up sister, Ethel, appeared in the doorway.
"Mother wants you," she announced.
"Well, I can"t come. I"m busy," said William, coldly, taking a draught of lemonade and returning to his book.
"Cousin Mildred"s come," continued his sister.
William raised his freckled face from his book.
"Well, I can"t help that, can I?" he said, with the air of one arguing patiently with a lunatic.
Ethel shrugged her shoulders and departed.
"He"s reading some old book in the barn," he heard her announce, "and he says----"
[Ill.u.s.tration: ETHEL APPEARED IN THE DOORWAY. "MOTHER WANTS YOU," SHE ANNOUNCED.]
Here he foresaw complications and hastily followed her.
"Well, I"m _comin"_, aren"t I?" he said, "as fast as I can."
Cousin Mildred was sitting on the lawn. She was elderly and very thin and very tall, and she wore a curious, long, shapeless garment of green silk with a golden girdle.
"Dear child!" she murmured, taking the grimy hand that William held out to her in dignified silence.
He was cheered by the sight of tea and hot cakes.
Cousin Mildred ate little but talked much.
"I"m living in _hopes_ of a psychic revelation, dear," she said to William"s mother. "_In hopes!_ I"ve heard of wonderful experiences, but so far none--alas!--have befallen me. Automatic writing I have tried, but any communication the spirits may have sent me that way remained illegible--quite illegible."
She sighed.
William eyed her with scorn while he consumed reckless quant.i.ties of hot cakes.