“Do they?” returned Harriet. Her interest was good-humoured rather than ardent.
“I’d like to go, too,” said her niece.
“Oh,” from Harriet, understanding at last; “but isn’t school about over?”
“There’s two weeks more.”
“If it will make you happy, why not, if the teacher does not object?”
So Alexina went with Emily to school. King William was there, but he hardly noticed her, seeming gloomy and given to taking his slate off into corners.
“He don’t want to come,” explained Emily; “he’s the only boy.”
“Then what does he come for?” queried the practical Alexina.
“His mother won’t let him go to a public school.”
There was more to be learned about William. He fought the boys who went to the public school, because they jeered him in his ignominy. Alexina saw it happening up the alley but, strangely enough, when William appeared at school, he seemed cheered up, though something of a wreck.