******
William had assembled his caste and assigned them their parts. Little Molly Carter was to be the heroine, Ginger the hero, Henry the hero's friend, Douglas a crowd of outlaws, William himself was to be the villain, stage-manager and prompter. He handed them their parts with a lofty frown. The parts were in a grimy exercise book.
"It's all wrote out," he said. "You jus' learn it where it says your names. Molly's Lady Elsabina——"
"Elsabina isn't a name I've ever heard," said that lady pertly.
"I didn't say it was, did I?" said William coldly. "I shu'n't be surprised if there was lots of names you'd never heard of. An' Ginger is Sir Rufus Archibald Green an' Henry is the Hon. Lord Leopold, an' I'm Carlo Rupino, a villain. All you've gotter do is to learn your parts an' Wednesday morning we'll go through it jus' to practise it, an' Wednesday afternoon we'll do it."
"We can't three learn out of one book," said the leading lady, who was inclined to make objections.
"Yes, you can," said William. "You can take turns sitting in the middle."
Lady Elsabina sniffed.
"And such writing!" she said scornfully.
"Well, I don't count on my fingers," said William, returning scorn for scorn, "not so's everyone can see me, at any rate."