"Oh, William, I never thought you really would! Oh, you are wonderful!
And I _had_ it!"
"What?"
"Rice-mould for supper, but I didn't mind, because I thought--I hoped,
you'd come with it. Oh, William, you _are a nice_ boy!"
William glowed with pride.
"William!" bellowed an irate voice from William's front door.
William knew that voice. It was the voice of the male parent who has
stood all he's jolly well going to stand from that kid, and is out for
vengeance. They'd got to the pears! Oh, crumbs! They'd got to the
pears! And even the thought of Nemesis to come could not dull for
William the bliss of that vision.
[Illustration: WILLIAM LEANT BACK IN A SUPERIOR, BENEVOLENT MANNER AND
WATCHED THE SMILE FREEZE UPON HER FACE AND HER LOOK OF ECSTASY CHANGE
TO ONE OF FURY.]
"Oh, William," said the little girl next door sadly, "they're calling
you. Will you have to go?"
"Not me," said William earnestly. "I'm not going--not till they fetch
me. Here! you begin. I don't want any. I've had lots of things. You
eat it all."
Her face radiant with anticipation, the little girl took up her spoon.
William leant back in a superior, benevolent manner and watched the
smile freeze upon her face and her look of ecstasy change to one of
fury. With a horrible suspicion at his heart he seized the spoon she
had dropped and took a mouthful himself.
_He had brought the rice-mould by mistake!_
CHAPTER III
WILLIAM'S BURGLAR
When William first saw him he was leaning against the wall of the
White Lion, gazing at the passers-by with a moody smile upon his
villainous-looking countenance.
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