"It was spelt," said Mr. Theophilus Mugg with increasing dignity. "Needless to say, it was not pronounced. I have no wish to make myself ridiculous in the boy's eyes."
"The mystery of these dark-skinned races," said the Vicar's wife. "The beautiful inscrutable faces of them. The _knowledge_, the _wisdom_ they seem to hold."
"Certainly it is not an English cast of countenance," said Mr. Theophilus Mugg.
"Bunkum allis lippis," said William, feeling that something further was expected of him.
"Most _certainly_ Hindustani," said the Vicar's wife.
It was here that a small voice piped from the back row, "It's William Brown!"
William, who was enjoying himself intensely, glared fiercely in the direction of the voice.
"Hush, hush, dear!" said the shocked voice of a parent. "Of course it isn't William Brown. It's a poor little boy from a distant land over the sea--or India's coral strand," she murmured vaguely.
"It _is_ William Brown," persisted the shrill voice.
"He may bear a resemblance to William Brown," said the parent, "but William Brown is white, I suppose, and this little boy is black."
"Yes," said a small, half-convinced voice, "I s'pose so."
"My little girl," said the parent pleasantly, "sees a resemblance in the child to one of her schoolfellows."
"Would you like to talk to the little boy?"
The little boy put out his tongue at her.
"A native form of greeting, doubtless," said the Vicar's wife.
"Oo, it _is_ William Brown," persisted the little girl shrilly.
"If you say that again, dear," said the parent, "I shall have to take you home. It isn't kind. It may hurt the little boy's feelings. He's come a long, long way from a place where every prospect pleases and only man is vile, and you ought to be kind to him. How would you like to go to a strange far-away country and then have people say you were William Brown?"
This seemed unanswerable. The small child subsided.
Mr. Theophilus Mugg looked anxiously towards the gate.
"He doesn't seem to be coming," he said. "Shall we--er--adjourn to the drawing-room for tea and--er--hear Mr Habbakuk Jones's--er--address afterwards?"
There was an animated murmur of acquiescence.
"The--er--child of the sun," went on Mr. Mugg, "can stay out and we will--er--send his tea to him."