Just William Read Online Free PDF Page A

‘I don’t mind you having it! Honest, I don’t! I’ll get some more soon.’
    Bravely she raised the tin to her lips and took a sip.
    ‘Gorgeous!’ she said, shutting her eyes. Then she drained the tin.
    William’s face shone with pride and happiness. But it clouded over as the sound of a bell rang out from the house.
    ‘Crumbs! That’s tea!’
    Hastily Miss Cannon took the feathers from her hair and put on her hat.
    ‘You don’t keep a looking-glass in your wigwam, I suppose?’ she said.
    ‘N-no,’ admitted William. ‘But I’ll get one for next time you come. I’ll get one from Ethel’s room.’
    ‘Won’t she mind?’
    ‘She won’t know,’ said William simply.
    Miss Cannon smoothed down her dress.
    ‘I’m horribly late. What will they think of me? It was awful of me to come with you. I’m always doing awful things. That’s a secret between you and me.’ She gave
William a smile that dazzled him. ‘Now come in and we’ll confess.’
    ‘I can’t,’ said William. ‘I’ve got to wash an’ come down tidy. I promised I would. It’s a special day. Because of Robert, you know. Well you know. Because of – Robert!’
    He looked up at her mystified face with a significant nod.
    Robert was frantic. He had run his hands through his hair so often that it stood around his head like a spiked halo.
    ‘We can’t begin without her,’ he said. ‘She’ll think we’re awful. It will – put her off me for ever. She’s not used to being treated like
that. She’s the sort of girl people don’t begin without. She’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met in all my life and you — my own mother — treat her like
this. You may be ruining my life. You’ve no idea what this means to me. If you’d seen her you’d feel more sympathy. I simply can’t describe her – I—’
    ‘I said four o’clock, Robert,’ said Mrs Brown firmly, ‘and it’s after half past. Ethel, tell Emma she can ring the bell and bring in tea.’
    The perspiration stood out on Robert’s brow.
    ‘It’s – the downfall of all my hopes,’ he said hoarsely.
    Then, a few minutes after the echoes of the tea-bell died away, the front doorbell rang sharply. Robert stroked his hair down with wild, unrestrained movements of his hands, and summoned a
tortured smile to his lips.
    Miss Cannon appeared upon the threshold, bewitching and demure.
    ‘Aren’t I perfectly disgraceful?’ she said with her low laugh. ‘To tell the truth, I met your little boy in the drive and I’ve been with him some time. He’s a
perfect little dear, isn’t he?’
    Her brown eyes rested on Robert. Robert moistened his lips and smiled the tortured smile, but was beyond speech.
    ‘Yes, I know Ethel and I met your son – yesterday, wasn’t it?’
    Robert murmured unintelligibly, raising one hand to the too tight collar, and then bowed vaguely in her direction.
    Then they went in to tea.
    William, his hair well brushed, the cork partially washed from his face, and the feathers removed, arrived a few minutes later. Conversation was carried on chiefly by Miss Cannon and Ethel.
Robert racked his brain for some striking remark, something that would raise him in her esteem far above the ranks of the ordinary young man, but nothing came. Whenever her brown eyes rested on
him, however, he summoned the mirthless smile to his lips and raised a hand to relieve the strain of the imprisoning collar. Desperately he felt the precious moments passing and his passion yet
unrevealed, except by his eyes, whose message he was afraid she had not read.
    As they rose from tea, William turned to his mother, with an anxious sibilant whisper,
    ‘Ought I to have put on my best suit too?’
    The demure lights danced in Miss Cannon’s eyes and the look the perspiring Robert sent him would have crushed a less bold spirit.
    William had quite forgotten the orders he had received to retire from the scene directly after tea. He was impervious to all hints. He followed in