day to yer, young gent."

William looked at him wistfully.

"I'd like to see you again, Mr. Blank, I would, honest. Will you be
here this afternoon?"

"Wot d'yer want to see me agine fer?" said Mr. Blank suspiciously.

"I _like_ you," said William fervently. "I like the way you talk, and
I like the things you say, and I want to know about what you do!"

Mr. Blank was obviously flattered.

"I may be round 'ere agine this arter, though I mike no promise. See?
I've gotter be careful, I 'ave. I've gotter be careful 'oo sees me an'
'oo 'ears me, and where I go. That's the worst of 'aving no ears.
See?"

William did not see, but he was thrilled to the soul by the mystery.

"An' you don't tell no one you seen me nor nothing abart me," went on
Mr. Blank.

Pulling his cap still farther over his head, Mr. Blank set off
unsteadily down the road, leaving William to pay for his lemonade
with his last penny.

He walked home, his heart set firmly on a lawless career of crime.
Opposition he expected from his father and mother and Robert and
Ethel, but his determination was fixed. He wondered if it would be
very painful to have his ears cut off.

He entered the dining-room with an air of intense mystery, pulling his
cap over his eyes, and looking round in a threatening manner.

"William, what _do_ you mean by coming into the house in your cap?
Take it off at once."

William sighed. He wondered if Mr. Blank had a mother.

When he returned he sat down and began quietly to remodel his life. He
would not be an explorer, after all, nor an engine-driver nor
chimney-sweep. He would be a man of mystery, a murderer, fighter,
forger. He fingered his ears tentatively. They seemed fixed on jolly
fast. He glanced with utter contempt at his father who had just come
in. His father's life of blameless respectability seemed to him at
that minute utterly despicable.

"The Wilkinsons over at Todfoot have had their house broken into now,"
Mrs. Brown was saying. "_All_ her jewellery gone. They think it's a
gang. It's just the villages round here. There seems to be one every
day!"

William expressed his surprise.

"Oh, 'ell!" he ejaculated, with a slightly self-conscious air.

Mr. Brown turned round and looked at his son.

"May I ask," he said politely, "where you picked up that expression?"

"I got it off one of my fren's," said William with quiet pride.

"Then I'd take it as a personal favour," went on Mr. Brown, "if you'd
kind