William the Good Read Free Page A

was inclined to be superior and wasn’t quite sure whether or no she were compromising herself in any way by allowing
herself to be drawn into Mrs Hawkins’ circle. So she sat as far aloof from it as she could. Of course, she wanted Dolly to be chosen as Rosalind. On the other hand, it was never wise to be
too friendly with people till you knew exactly where they stood.
    William sat down on the window-seat next to her, watching Ethel morosely. Everyone must know that she’d been drinking. Her nose was as red as anything now.
    Suddenly, Mrs Morton said to him, ‘Your sister doesn’t look very well.’
    ‘Oh, she’s all right,’ said William absently. ‘I mean, she’s all right in one way. She’s not ill or anything.’ Then he added casually: ‘It’s
only that she drinks.’
    ‘ W-what? ’ said Mrs Morton, putting her cup down hastily upon an occasional table, because she felt too unnerved to hold it any longer.
    ‘She drinks,’ said William more clearly and with a certain irritation at having to repeat himself. ‘Din’t you hear what I said? I said she drinks. She keeps a bottle of
it in her room and locks the door an’ drinks it. It’s that what makes her look like that.’
    ‘B-but,’ gasped Mrs Morton, ‘how terrible.’
    ‘Yes,’ asserted William carelessly, ‘it’s terrible all right. She takes it up to her bedroom, in a bottle an’ locks the door and drinks it there, an’ then
comes out lookin’ like that.’
    Mrs Morton’s worst fears were justified. Whatever sort of people had she let herself be drawn among? She rose, summoned her daughter with a regal gesture, and turning to Mrs Hawkins said
with magnificent hauteur:
    ‘I’m sorry, Mrs Hawkins, but I’ve just remembered a most important engagement, and I’m afraid I must go at once.’
    And she swept out, followed by the meek Dolly.
    Gradually Mrs Hawkins recovered from her paralysis.
    ‘Well,’ she gasped, ‘what simply extraordinary behaviour! I never heard – Well, I wouldn’t have her daughter now for Rosalind not for a thousand
pounds.’
    William, left high and dry on his window seat, continued thoughtfully to consume cakes. Perhaps he oughtn’t to have told her that. It had seemed to upset her. Well, he wouldn’t tell
anyone else, though he did rather want people to know about the noble work he was doing in reforming Ethel. What was the use of reforming anyone if people didn’t know you were doing it?
    ‘William, dear,’ said Mrs Hawkins sweetly, ‘would you like to go into the dining-room and see if you can find anything you’d like to read on the shelves there?’

    ‘OH, ETHEL’S NOT ILL OR ANYTHING!’ SAID WILLIAM. ‘IT’S ONLY THAT SHE DRINKS.’
‘W-WHAT?’ SAID MRS MORTON.
    William went, and conversation became general.
    ‘Oh, I nearly forgot,’ said Ethel to Betty Hawkins. ‘Mother asked me to ask you to lend us a bonbon dish for the whist drive. We find we won’t have quite enough after all.’
    ‘Oh, rather. I’ll get one for you.’
    ‘Don’t bother. Tell me where to get it.’
    ‘Well, there’s one on the silver table in the drawing-room. I’ll get it and wrap it up for you.’
    ‘No, don’t bother. I can slip it into my bag. I can get out much more easily than you can.’
    Thus it was that William, returning from the dining-room to inform the company that he hadn’t been able to find anything interesting to read, was met by the sight of his sister creeping
out of the morning-room where everyone was assembled and going alone into the empty drawing-room.
    William glued his eye to the crack in the door and watched her.
    She took a piece of silver from a table and slipped it into her handbag and then returned to the drawing-room, without noticing him. He stood for a minute motionless, amazed. Crumbs! Crumbs! She was like the girl in the book. She stole as well as being a secret drinker. He must do something at once. He must get the thing she’d stolen and put it back in its