William the Fourth Read Online Free PDF Page A

Liveliness and hilarity dropped slain on the doorstep. The
guests came sadly into the drawing-room, and Mrs Adolphus Crane dispensed gloom from the hearthrug. Her voice was low and deep.
    ‘How do you do . . . thank you so much . . . I doubt whether I shall live to see another . . . yes, my nerves! By the way – my little godson—’ They turned to look at
William who was sitting in silent misery in a corner, his hands on his knees. He returned their interested stares with his best company frown. On the chair by him was the album. ‘Have you
seen the family album?’ went on Mrs Adolphus Crane. ‘It’s most interesting. Do look at it.’ A group of visitors sadly gathered round it and one of them opened it. Mrs
Adolphus Crane did not join them. She knew her album by heart. She took her knitting, sat down by the fire, and poured forth her knowledge.
    ‘The first one is great uncle Joshua,’ she said, ‘a splendid old man. Never touched tobacco or alcoholic drinks in his life.’
    They looked at great uncle Joshua. He sat, grim and earnest and respectable, with his hand on the table. But a lately added pipe, in pencil, adorned his mouth, and his hand seemed to encircle a
tankard. Quite suddenly animation returned to the group by the album. They began to believe that they were going to enjoy it, after all.
    ‘Then comes my poor, dear mother.’ Poor, dear mother wore a large eye-glass with a black ribbon and a wild Indian head-dress. The group by the album grew large. There seemed to be
some magnetic attraction about it.
    ‘Then comes my paternal uncle James, a very handsome man.’
    Paternal uncle James might have been a very handsome man before his nose had been elongated for several inches, and his lips curved into an enormous smile, showing gigantic teeth. He smoked a
large, vulgar-looking pipe.
    ‘A beautiful character, too,’ said Mrs Adolphus Crane. She continued the family catalogue, and the visitors followed the photographs in the album. They were all embellished. Some had
pipes, some had blue noses, some black eyes, some giant spectacles, some comic headdresses. Some had received more attention than others. Aunt Julia, ‘a most saintly woman’, positively
leered from her ‘cabinet’, with a huge nose, and a black eye, and a cigar in her mouth. The album was handed from one to another. An unwonted hilarity and vivacity reigned supreme
– and always there were crowds round the album.
    Mrs Adolphus Crane was surprised, but vaguely flattered. Her party seemed more successful than usual. People seemed to be taking quite a lot of notice of William, too. One young curate, who had
wept tears over the album, pressed half a crown into William’s hand. By some unerring instinct they guessed the author of the outrage. As a matter of fact, Mrs Adolphus Crane did not happen
to look at her album till several months later, and then it did not occur to her to connect it with William. But this afternoon she somehow connected the strange spirit of cheerfulness that
pervaded her drawing-room with him, and was most gracious to him.
    ‘He’s been so good,’ she said to Mrs Brown when she arrived to take William home; ‘quite helped to make my little party a success.’
    Mrs Brown concealed her amazement as best she could.
    ‘But what did you do, William?’ she said on the way home as William plodded along beside her, his hands in his pockets lovingly fingering his half-crown.
    ‘Me?’ said William innocently. ‘Nothin’.’

 
    CHAPTER 3
    THE FÊTE – AND FORTUNE
    W illiam took a fancy to Miss Tabitha Croft as soon as he saw her. She was small and inoffensive-looking. She didn’t look the sort of person
to write irate letters to William’s parents. William was a great judge of character. He could tell at a glance who was likely to object to him, who was likely to ignore him, and who was
likely definitely to encourage him. The last was a very rare class indeed. Most people belonged to the first