“Lawks!” said the cook, “someone’s atorchurin’ of the poor cat to death. It’ll be that blessed boy.”
The butler advanced manfully and opened the pantry door. William stood holding in one hand an inflated balloon with the cardboard head and legs of a duck.
The butler approached him.
“If you let off that there thing once more, you little varmint,” he said, “I’ll——”
Threateningly he had advanced his large expanse of countenance very close to William’s. Acting upon a sudden uncontrollable impulse William took up the brush thickly smeared with blacking and pushed back Mr. Biggs’s face with it.
There was a moment’s silence of sheer horror, then Mr. Biggs hurled himself furiously upon William....
In the dining-room sat the master and mistress of the house and their guest.
“Did the new Boots arrive?” said the master to his wife.
