This description was not encouraging, and whatever enthusiasm William may previously have felt for the new-comer waned.
“Can I have some of the others to tea as well, mother?” he asked with an air of engaging innocence. But unfortunately William’s mother remembered the last occasion when “the others” had been asked to help William entertain a little stranger. William and “the others,” after a short test of the little stranger’s capacities which the little stranger had failed to pass with credit, had gone off for the afternoon on their own devices, leaving the little stranger to his. After wandering round the garden once and finding in it few possibilities of amusement the little stranger had returned home—just half an hour after he had left it. Mrs. Brown wasn’t going to have any more contretemps like that. So she said very firmly, “No, William.”
“All right,” acquiesced William with an air of weary patience, “I was only thinkin’ of him. I was only thinkin’ that p’raps he’d sort of enjoy it better if there was more of us to play with.”
But Mrs. Brown again said, “No, William,” meaningly, and William, who had a suspicion that she remembered their entertaining of the last little stranger, forebore to press the point. So William was the solitary host when George arrived. The prospect of being the solitary host had depressed him all morning, and the sight of Georgie’s trim little figure in its spotless white sailor suit threw him into a state of despair that was almost homicidal in its intensity. He’d had a horrible suspicion all along that Georgie would be like that. And a whole afternoon with him ... a whole afternoon!
Mrs. Brown, however, gave Georgie a kindly smile of welcome as she received him.
“How nice to see you, dear,” she said, “I’m so glad you could come. This is my little boy, William. He’s been so much looking forward to your visit. I hope you’re going to be great friends. How nice you look, dear. I wish William could only keep as clean and tidy as that. He gets so untidy.”
Georgie moved so as to get a better view of William. He looked him up and down and finally said:
“Yes, he does look untidy, doesn’t he?” To which momentous announcement he added complacently, “I hardly ever seem to get untidy.”
“Well,” said Mrs. Brown, temporarily taken aback “will you play with William till tea time, dear?... nothing rough, mind, William.”
“No,” agreed Georgie, “I don’t like rough games.”