Page:Sheila and Others (1920).djvu/53

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WILLIAMS
41

pendable in the mornings and doesn't suffer from the same necessity for something to warm him up before going out into the cold, that rendered his numerous predecessors so precarious an undertaking. It may be difficult to regard him as a citizen and a father and an exemplary Church goer, not a mere cog in the commercial machinery, but Democracy is many sided, and has a way of bringing one up with a jolt now and then, at least in Canada where it is important to make your social ideas tally with facts.

There is a standing feud between Williams and Janet. Janet maintains that he never returned the carpet-beater after borrowing it in the interests of the lady next door but two. Williams somewhat indelicately avers that it is all in her eye. (This is a week-day interlude. Williams doesn't use language like that on Sundays.) Janet says the carpet-beater isn't on the premises. Williams says it is. Janet invites him to inspection, and Williams says what does she take him for?

At this point Janet turns the affair over to me and says he is no gentleman, or words to that effect. Meanwhile the privilege of procuring a new carpet-beater is mine, and I re-