Mrs. Brown found her voice.
“Do you mean——?” she gasped feebly, “do you mean that it was William all the time?”
Mr. Brown rose wearily.
“Of course,” he said. “Isn’t everything always William all the time?”
CHAPTER V
AUNT JANE’S TREAT
WILLIAM was blest with many relations, though “blest” is not quite the word he would have used himself. They seemed to appear and disappear and reappear in spasmodic succession throughout the year. He never could keep count of them. Most of them he despised, some he actually disliked. The latter class reciprocated his feelings fervently. Great-Aunt Jane was one he had never seen, and so he suspended judgment on her. But he rather liked the sound of her name. He received the news that she was coming to stay over Christmas with indifference.
“All right,” he said, “I don’t care. She can come if she wants to.”
She came.
She was tall and angular and precise. She received William’s scowling greeting with a smile.