On the morning of the much-dreaded day, his mother sent him up to the Rectory to fetch some little delicacy that had been promised for Bessy’s dinner.  He generally found it rather amusing to go there.  He liked to peep at the pretty garden, to look out for Master Arthur, and to sit in the kitchen and watch the cook, and wonder what she did with all the dishes and bright things that decorated the walls.  To-day all was quite different.  He avoided the gardens, he was afraid of being seen by his teacher, and though cook had an unusual display of pots and pans in operation, he sat in the corner of the kitchen indifferent to everything but the thought of the Yew-lane Ghost.  The dinner for Bessy was put between two saucers, and as cook gave it into his hands she asked kindly after his sister, and added—­

“You don’t look over-well yourself, lad!  What’s amiss?”

Bill answered that he was quite well, and hurried out of the house to avoid further inquiries.  He was becoming afraid of everyone!  As he passed the garden he thought of the gardener, and wondered if he would help him.  He was very young and very good-natured; he had taken of late to coming to see Bessy, and Bill had his own ideas upon that point; finally, he had a small class at the night-school.  Bill wondered whether if he screwed up his courage to-night to go, John Gardener would walk back with him for the pleasure of hearing the latest accounts of Bessy.  But all hopes of this sort were cut off by Master Arthur’s voice shouting to him from the garden—­

“Hi, there!  I want you, Willie!  Come here, I say.”

Bill ran through the evergreens, and there among the flower-beds in the sunshine he saw—­first, John Gardener driving a mowing-machine over the velvety grass under Master Arthur’s very nose, so there was no getting a private interview with him.  Secondly, Master Arthur himself, sitting on the ground with his terrier in his lap, directing the proceedings by means of a donkey-headed stick with elaborately carved ears; and thirdly, Master Arthur’s friend.

Now little bits of gossip will fly; and it had been heard in the dining-room, and conveyed by the parlour-maid to the kitchen, and passed from the kitchen into the village, that Master Arthur’s friend was a very clever young gentleman; consequently Beauty Bill had been very anxious to see him.  As, however, the clever young gentleman was lying on his back on the grass, with his hat flattened over his face to keep out the sun, and an open book lying on its face upon his waistcoat to keep the place, and otherwise quite immovable, and very like other young gentlemen, Bill did not feel much the wiser for looking at him.  He had a better view of him soon, however, for Master Arthur began to poke his friend’s legs with the donkey-headed stick, and to exhort him to get up.