“I put my braces down the well.”
“I chopped up my tie into little bits.”
“Was it nice at your aunt’s?”
William’s grievances burst out.
“I went to church an’ took what that man said an’ I’ve been speaking the truth one with another an’ leadin’ a higher life an’ well, it jolly well din’t make it the happiest Christmas of my life what he said it would.... It made it the worst. Every one mad at me all the time. I think I was the only person in the world speakin’ the truth one with another an’ they’ve took off my pocket money for it. An’ you’d think ’f you was speakin’ the truth yourself you might take what any one else said for truth an’ I keep tellin ’em that he said mos’ distinct, ‘Please use this house as if it were your own,’ but they won’ listen to me! Well, I’ve done with it. I’m goin’ back to deceit an’—an’—what’s a word beginnin’ with hyp——?”
“Hypnotism?” suggested Ginger after deep thought.
“Yes, that’s it,” said William. “Well, I’m goin’ back to it first thing to-morrow mornin’.”
CHAPTER X
AN AFTERNOON WITH WILLIAM
William’s family was staying at the seaside for its summer holidays. This time was generally cordially detested by William. He hated being dragged from his well-known haunts, his woods and fields and friends and dog (for Jumble was not the kind of dog one takes away on a holiday). He hated the uncongenial atmosphere of hotels and boarding houses. He hated the dull promenades and the town gardens where walking over the grass and playing at Red Indians was discouraged. He failed utterly to understand the attraction that such places seemed to possess for his family. He took a pride and pleasure in the expression of gloom and boredom that he generally managed to maintain during the whole length of the holiday. But this time it was different. Ginger was staying with his family in the same hotel as William.