William.

Episode 3 : William in the basement

"I'm a gold digger," he said. "I have loads and boats of gold. At least I have it soon. I will not give it to them, pointing to the door, "or to any of those who are there."

"And me?" said the servant, winking at the cat, who was the only third person who knew about the joke.

“You,” said William gently, “will have a lot of scraps. Look at this. » With a princely gesture, he took a knife, cut three buttons from the middle of his coat and gave them to him. "You keep them and they'll be some sort of talk. See? When you come home rich, you'll show me the buttons and I'll remember them and give you the scraps. See? "Maybe I'll marry you," he promised, "if I haven't married anyone yet." » The policewoman poked her head through the pantry door.

"It's crazy," he said. "It's good to hear him talk."

The conversation was interrupted by the bell ringing and the arrival of the "company".

Mr. Biggs and the maid left to pay their respects. The maid ran to help with the service and William sat at the pantry table, tracing patterns with knife dust with his finger.

Guglielmo was sitting at the table, talking to the waitress. "I'm a gold digger," says WILLIAM. "I have loads and loads of gold. AT LEAST WE WOULD HAVE BORROWED IT."

"What were you doing?" » the cook asked the servant.

- Nothing but talk, said the servant. "It's a cure, it is what it is," he added. "If you've run out of knives," cried the cook, "there are boots and shoes to do on the floor. Brushes and shoe shines on the shelf."

William got up impatiently. He thought boots would be more interesting than knives. He carefully hid the pile of dirty knives behind the knife case and began to deal with the shoes.

The buyer returned. - Is the soup ready? he said. "The company has just entered the dining-room—a friend of the gentleman's. A good enough man," he added in a condescending tone.

William, in his pantry, had covered a brush with a thick coat of shoe polish and applied thick coats to boots and shoes. Most of the wax stuck to his hands. The butler looked at him.

"What's wrong?" he asked sternly. "Go outside," said William.- Get out, corrected the butler. I told you as soon as I saw you. I said eat the buttons in a week. Well, you ate it in ten minutes. »

"Eat and ruin your clothes," he said gruffly as he returned to the kitchen. That's all the boys do: eat and destroy their clothes. »

He came out with the soup and Guglielmo stayed with the boots. He was starting to get tired of his boots. He had covered them all with a thick layer of shoe polish and didn't know what to do. Then suddenly he remembered his ball in the pocket above. Maybe this can help break the monotony of life. He went upstairs in silence to get it, and then returned to his boots. Soon Mr. Biggs and the waitress returned with the empty soup plates. Then, in the kitchen, he heard a loud scream, which died away slowly and harshly.

The maid screamed.

- The law! said the cook, "someone is stalking the poor cat to death. It will be this blessed boy."

The butler boldly approached and opened the pantry door. William stood, holding in one hand a balloon inflated with the cardboard head and feet of a duck.

The butler approached.

"If you drop that thing again, vermin," he said, "I'll—"

He had placed his wide face menacingly close to William's. Acting on a sudden and uncontrollable impulse, William took the coarsely worn brush and washed Mr. Biggs's face with it.

There was a moment of pure terror silence, then Mr. Biggs lunged furiously at William... In the dining room sat the master and mistress of the house and their guest.

"Have the new boots arrived?" asked the teacher to his wife.

William hit Mr. Biggs in the face with the brush. WILLIAM TAKES THE BRUSH, PAINTS BLACK, AND BREAKS MR BIGGS'S FACE WITH IT. "Yes," he said.

"Is everything okay?" "They don't seem to have made a good impression on Biggs," he said, "but they never did."

"The human son," said the guest, "is given to us as discipline. I own one. Although he is my son, it is difficult for me to describe the atmosphere of peace and relief that reigns in the house when it's not here.

"I want to meet your son," said the host. »

"Probably, sooner or later," said the host gloomily. Everyone in the neighborhood meets him sooner or later. Don't hide your light under a bushel. Personally, I prefer people I've never met. They can't judge me for that. »

At this time, the butler entered with a word.

"No answer," he said, and left with his slow dignity.

“Excuse me,” said the lady, opening the message, “it's from my sister. "I hope," he read, "that you are not too embarrassed by the non-arrival of the boots I hired for you. He has the flu. But it has arrived," he said in surprise.

We heard an angry scream, a distant scream and the sound of heavy footsteps approaching…

"A revolution, I suppose," said the tired guest. "The reds are against us."

At that moment the door suddenly opened and a boy walked in, a shoe shine brush in one hand and an inflated balloon in the other. He was very untidy, with three buttons undone on the front of his uniform and his face smeared with knife dust and shoe polish. Behind him ran a large butcher, his face purple with anger beneath a large smear of shoe polish. The servant rushed around the table, slid to the smooth floor, grabbed his neck desperately, causing the guest and the chair to fall to the floor next to him. In a sudden silence of total paralysis, the guest and the boy sat on the floor and looked at each other. Then the boy's weak hand released its grip on the ball, which had somehow survived the vicissitudes of flight, and a loud c***k echoed through the silence of the room.

The master and mistress of the house were looking around in amazement.

When the guest looked at the boy, his face was marked by surprise, then disbelief, and finally frozen horror. When the boy looked at the guest, his face was marked by surprise, then disbelief, and finally complete discouragement.

"My God," said the guest, "it's William!" »

"Oh crumbs!" said Boots, "it's dad!"