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diff --git a/26322-8.txt b/26322-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..656ce21 --- /dev/null +++ b/26322-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5314 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peterkin, by Mary Louisa Molesworth + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Peterkin + +Author: Mary Louisa Molesworth + +Illustrator: H. R. Millar + +Release Date: August 15, 2008 [EBook #26322] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETERKIN *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Lindy Walsh, Emmy, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + +PETERKIN + +[Illustration: MAMMA . . . HUGGED HIM AS IF HE'D BEEN LOST FOR A YEAR. + +[_Frontispiece._] + + + + +PETERKIN + + +BY + + +MRS. MOLESWORTH + + +AUTHOR OF 'CARROTS,' 'CUCKOO CLOCK,' 'TELL ME A STORY' + + +_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY H. R. MILLAR_ + + =London= + MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED + NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + 1902 + + + _All rights reserved_ + + + + + TO + + "ALEX" + + ALEXANDER DOBREE HERRIES + + I DEDICATE THIS LITTLE STORY + + + 155 SLOANE STREET, S.W. + _May Day_ 1902 + + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAP. PAGE + + I. WHAT _CAN_ HAVE BECOME OF HIM? 1 + + II. FOUND 19 + + III. AN INVITATION 34 + + IV. VERY MYSTERIOUS 50 + + V. 'STRATAGEMS' 69 + + VI. MARGARET 84 + + VII. THE GREAT PLAN 101 + + VIII. A TERRIBLE IDEA 118 + + IX. IN A FOG 135 + + X. BERYL 149 + + XI. DEAR MAMMA 165 + + XII. NO MYSTERY AFTER ALL 182 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + MAMMA . . . HUGGED HIM AS IF HE'D BEEN LOST FOR A YEAR _Frontispiece_ + + OUR MISSING PETERKIN _To face page_ 13 + + NO SOONER DID HE CATCH SIGHT OF US TWO WITH HIS UGLY + ROUND BEADY EYES . . . THAN HE SHUT UP " " 52 + + PETE HELD OUT HIS BROWN-PAPER PARCEL. 'THIS IS THE + POETRY-BOOK,' HE SAID " " 97 + + WE HAD NO DIFFICULTY IN FINDING HER BATH-CHAIR " " 108 + + HE LOOKED AT THE TICKETS . . . 'HOW'S THIS?' HE SAID " " 145 + + 'NOW,' SHE BEGAN . . . DRAWING MARGARET TO HER, 'TELL + ME ALL ABOUT IT' " " 159 + + THE FRILLS HAD WORKED UP ALL ROUND HIS FACE " " 173 + + + + +PETERKIN + + + + +CHAPTER I + +WHAT _CAN_ HAVE BECOME OF HIM? + + +WE were all at tea in the nursery. All except him. The door burst open +and James put his head in. + +'If you please, Mrs. Brough,' he began,--'Mrs. Brough' is the servants' +name for nurse. Mamma calls her 'Brough' sometimes, but we always call +her 'nurse,' of course,--'If you please, Mrs. Brough, is Master Peterkin +here?' + +Nurse looked up, rather vexed. She doesn't like burstings in. + +'Of course not, James,' she said. 'He is out driving with his mamma. You +must have seen them start.' + +'It's just that,' said James, in his silly way. 'It's his mamma that +wants to know.' + +And then we noticed that James's face was much redder than usual. It may +have been partly that he had run upstairs very fast, for he is really +very good-natured, but it looked as if he was rather in a fuss, too. + +Nurse sat very bolt up in her chair, and _her_ face began to get queer, +and her voice to get vexeder. Lots of people get cross when they are +startled or frightened. I have noticed it. + +'What do you mean, James? Please to explain,' she said. + +'I can't stop,' he said, 'and I don't rightly understand, myself. His +mamma sent Master Peterkin home before her, half-an-hour ago or more, +but he hasn't come in, not as I've seen, nor nobody else, I'm afraid. So +where he's got to, who can say?' + +And James turned to go. + +Nurse stopped him, getting up from her place as she spoke. + +'Was he in the carriage?' she asked. + +'Of course not. Beckett would have seen him in, all right, if he had +been,' said James, in a very superior tone. 'He was to run home by +himself a bit of a way, as I take it,' he added, as he hurried off at +last. + +'I must go downstairs to your mamma,' said nurse. 'Miss Blanchie, my +dear, will you look after Miss Elvira, and see that she doesn't spill +her tea?' + +'_Nursie_,' said Elvira, in a very offended tone, 'you know I never +spill my tea now.' + +'Not since the day before yesterday,' I was beginning to say, but I +didn't. For I thought to myself, if there was any real trouble about +Peterkin, it wouldn't be at all a good time to tease each other. I don't +think Elf--that's Elvira's pet name--had understood about him being +lost. Indeed, I don't think I had quite taken it in myself, till I saw +how grave the two eldest ones were looking. + +'Clem,' I said, 'do you think there can really be anything the matter?' + +Clement is the eldest of us all, and he is always the one we go to first +if we are in any trouble. But he is sometimes rather slow; he is not as +quick and clever as Blanche, and she often puts him down at first, +though she generally comes round to his way in the end. She answered for +him now, though I hadn't spoken to her. + +'How can there not be something the matter?' she said sharply. 'If +Peterkin has been half-an-hour or an hour, perhaps, wandering about the +streets, it shows he has at least lost his way, and who knows where he's +got to. I wish you wouldn't ask such silly questions, Giles.' + +Then, all of a sudden, Elf burst out crying. It may have been partly +Blanche's sharp tone, which had startled her, and made her take more +notice of it all. + +'Oh, Clem, Clem,' she wailed, 'could he have been stolened?' + +'No, no, darling,' said Clement, dabbing her face with his +pocket-handkerchief. 'There are kind policemen in the streets, you know. +They wouldn't let a little boy like Peterkin be stolen.' + +'But they does take little boys to pison,' said Elf. 'I've see'd them. +It's 'cos of that I'm frightened of them for Peterkin.' + +That was not quite true. She had never thought of policemen till, +unluckily, Clem spoke of them in his wish to comfort her. She did not +mean to say what was not true, of course, but there never was such a +child as Elf for arguing, even then when she was only four years old. +Indeed, she's not half as bad now that she is eight, twice as old, and I +often tell her so. Perhaps that evening it wasn't a bad thing, for the +talking about policemen stopped her crying, which was even worse than +her arguing, once she started a good roar. + +'It's just because of that, that I'm so frightened about dear sweet +little Peterkin,' she repeated. + +'Rubbish, Elf,' I began, but Clem looked at me and I stopped. + +'You needn't be frightened that Peterkin will be taken to prison, +Elfie,' he said in his kind, rather slow way. 'It's only naughty little +boys that the policemen take to prison, and Peterkin isn't naughty,' and +then he wiped Elf's eyes again, and she forgot to go on crying, for just +then nurse came upstairs. _She_ was not actually crying, of course, but +she did look very worried, so Clem and Blanche's faces did not clear up +at all. Nor did mine, I suppose. I really did not know what to think, I +was waiting to see what the others thought, for we three younger ones +looked up to Clement and Blanche a good deal, and we still do. They are +twins, and they seem to mix together so well. Blanche is quick and +clever, and Clement is awfully sensible, and they are both very kind, +though Clem is the gentlest. They are nearly sixteen now, and I am +thirteen past, so at the time I am writing about they were twelve and I +was going to be ten my next birthday, and Peterkin was eight and Elvira +five. I won't say much about what sort of a boy Peterkin was, for as my +story is mostly about him and the funny things he did and thought, it +will show of itself. + +He _was_ a funny child; a queer child in some ways, I mean, and he still +is. Mamma says it is stupid to say 'funny' when we mean queer or odd, +but I think it says it better than any other word, and I am sure other +children will think so too. + +Blanche was the first to speak to nurse. + +'Is mamma really frightened about Peterkin, nurse?' she asked. 'Tell us +what it is.' + +But nurse had caught sight of her darling pet baby's red eyes. + +'Miss Blanchie,' she said, 'I asked you to look after Miss Elvira, and +she's been crying.' + +'You asked me to see that she didn't spill her tea, and she hasn't spilt +it. It's some nonsense she has got in her head about policemen taking +strayed children to prison that she has been crying about,' replied +Blanche, rather crossly. + +'I only wish,' began nurse, but the rest of her sentence she mumbled to +herself, though I heard part of it. It was wishing that the policemen +_had_ got Peterkin safely. + +'Of course, your poor mamma is upset about it,' she went on, though I +could see she did not want to say very much for fear of Elf's beginning +to cry again. 'It was this way. Your mamma had to go round by Belton +Street, and she did not want to keep Master Peterkin out so late to miss +his tea, so she dropped him at the corner of Lindsay Square, and told +him to run home. It's as straight as straight can be, and he's often run +that far alone. So where he's got to or gone to, there's no guessing.' + +'And what is mamma doing?' asked Blanche. + +'She has sent Mr. Drew and James off in different directions,' said +nurse, 'and she has gone herself again in the carriage to the station, +as it's just time for your papa's train, and he will know what more to +do.' + +We did not live in London then; papa went up and down every day from the +big town by the sea where our home was. Clement thinks perhaps I had +better not say what town it is, as some people might remember about us, +and I _might_ say things that would vex them; so I won't call it +anything, though I must explain that it is not at all a little place, +but quite big enough for any one to lose their way in, if they were +strangers. But Peterkin wasn't a stranger; and the way he had to come +was, as nurse said, as straight as straight. + +We all listened with grave faces to what nurse told us. Suddenly Clement +got up--I can't say 'jumped up,' for he was always rather slow. + +'Nurse,' he said, 'mamma's out, so I can't ask her leave. But I've got +an idea about Peterkin. Will you give me leave to go out for +half-an-hour or so? I promise you I won't go far, but I would rather not +tell you where I want to go, as it may be all nonsense.' + +Nurse looked at him doubtfully. She trusted Clem the most of us all, I +know, and she had good reason to do so, for he was and is very +trustworthy. And it was nice of him to ask her leave, considering he was +twelve years old and quite out of the nursery, except that he still +liked having tea there when he came in from school every evening. + +'Well, Master Clement,' said nurse, 'I don't quite know. Supposing you +go out and don't get back as soon as you expect? It would be just a +double fright for your poor mamma.' + +'Let me go too!' I exclaimed, and I jumped up so suddenly that I made +all the cups rattle and nearly threw over the table altogether. 'Then if +anything stops Clem getting back quickly, I can run home and explain. +Anyway you'd be more comfortable if you knew the two of us were on the +hunt together. You don't mind my coming, do you, Clem?' + +'No,' said Clem, 'but do let's go.' + +'And you won't be long?' pleaded nurse. + +Clem shook his head. + +'I don't think we can be--not if there's anything in my idea', he called +out, as we ran off. + +We didn't take a minute to pull on our coats, which were hanging in the +hall. I daresay I should never have thought of mine at all, if Clem +hadn't reminded me, even though it was late in November and a cold +evening. And as soon as we were outside and had set off at a good pace, +I begged Clem to tell me what his idea was, and where we were going to +look for Peterkin. + +'It's the parrot,' he replied; 'the parrot in Rock Terrace.' + +'I don't know what you mean,' I said. 'I never heard of a parrot, and I +don't know where Rock Terrace is.' + +'Nonsense,' said Clem, stopping for a moment. 'You must have forgotten.' + +'I haven't indeed,' I said. + +'Not about the parrot that Peterkin has been dreaming of ever since we +passed it on Saturday, when we were out with mamma--next door to old +Mrs. Wylie's?' Clem exclaimed. + +'No,' I repeated. 'I wasn't with you that day, and----' + +'No more you were,' said Clem. + +'And,' I went on, 'I don't know where Mrs. Wylie lives, though I've +often seen her herself at our house. And you know, Clement, that's just +like Peterkin. If he's got anything very much in his head, he often +doesn't speak of it, except to any one who knows about it already.' + +'He hasn't said very much about it, even to me,' said Clement. 'But, all +the same, I know he has got it tremendously in his head.' + +'How do you mean? Is he making up fairy stories about it?' + +'Perhaps! You see he had never heard a parrot speaking. I'm not sure if +he knew they ever did. But he wanted very much to see it again, and it +just came into my mind all at once, that if he had a chance he might +have run round there and lost his way. I don't suppose he _meant_ to +when mamma told him to go home. It may just have struck him when he got +to the corner of Lindsay Square.' + +I did not answer. We were walking so fast that it was not easy to go on +speaking. But I did think it was very clever of Clement to have thought +of it. It was so like Peterkin. + +Clement hurried on. It was quite dark by now, but the lamps were +lighted, and Clem seemed quite sure of his way. In spite of feeling +rather unhappy about Peterkin, I was enjoying myself a little. I did not +think it possible that he was really badly lost, and it was very +exciting to rush along the streets after dark like this, and then I +could not help fancying how triumphant we should feel if we actually +found him. + +It was not very surprising that I did not know where Rock Terrace was, +or that I had never even heard of it. It was such a tiny little row of +such tiny houses, opening out of one corner of Lindsay Square. The +houses were rather pretty; at least, very neat-looking and +old-fashioned, with a little bit of garden in front, and small iron +gates. They looked as if old maids lived in them, and I daresay there +were a good many. + +Clement hurried along till he was close to the farther off end. Then he +stopped short, and for the first time seemed at a loss. + +'I don't know the number,' he said, 'but I'm sure it was almost the end +house. And--yes--isn't that a big cage on the little balcony, Giles? +Look well.' + +I peeped up. The light of the lamps was not very good in Rock Terrace. + +'Yes,' I said. 'It is a big cage, but I can't see if there's a bird in +it.' + +'Perhaps they take him in at night,' said Clement. Then he looked up +again at the balconies. + +'Let me see,' he went on, 'which side is Mrs. Wylie's? Mamma went in at +the--' but before he had time to finish his sentence his doubts were set +at rest--his doubts and all our fears about Peterkin. For the door on +the left of the parrot's home opened slowly, letting out what seemed, in +contrast with the darkness outside, a flood of light, just within which, +in the small hall or lobby of the miniature house, stood two +figures--the one, that of a short thin old lady with white hair, dressed +all in black; the other, a short fat little boy in a thick coat--our +missing Peterkin! + +[Illustration: OUR MISSING PETERKIN.--p. 13.] + +They were speaking to each other most politely. + +'So pleased to have seen you, my dear,' said Mrs. Wylie. 'Give my love +to your dear mamma. I will not forget about the parrot, you may be sure. +He shall have a proper invitation. And--you are quite certain you can +find your way home? Oh, dear!--that poor child must have been bemoaning +herself again! Polly always knows.' + +And as we stood there, our minds scarcely made up as to what we should +do, we heard a queer croaking voice, from inside the house on the right +of Mrs. Wylie--the parrot's voice, of course, calling out-- + +'I'm so tired, Nana; I'm so tired. I won't be good; no, I won't.' + +Mrs. Wylie and Peterkin both stood silent for a moment, listening. So +did we. Then Clement opened the gate and ran up the two or three steps, +I following him. + +'Peterkin!' he exclaimed, 'mamma has been so frightened about you.' + +And Peterkin turned round and looked up in his face with his big blue +eyes, apparently quite astonished. + +'Has mamma come back?' he said. 'I've only been here for a minute or +two. I just wanted to look at the parrot.' + +Mrs. Wylie was a quick-witted old lady. She took it all in, in a moment. + +'Dear, dear!' she said. 'I am afraid it is my fault. I saw the dear boy +looking up at the parrot next door when I came in from my stroll round +to the pillar-box with a letter, and he told me he was one of Mrs. +Lesley's little sons, and then we got talking. But I had no idea his +mamma would be alarmed. I am afraid it has been much more than a few +minutes. I _am_ sorry.' + +It was impossible to say anything to trouble the poor old lady: she +looked as if she were going to cry. + +'It will be all right now,' said Clement. 'Mamma will be so delighted to +see him safe and sound. But we had better hurry home. Come along, +Peterkin.' + +But nothing would make Peterkin forget his good manners. He tugged off +his sailor cap again, which he had just put on, and held out his hand, +for the second or third time, I daresay, as he and his old lady had +evidently been hobnobbing over their leave-takings for some minutes +before we made our appearance. + +'Good-bye!' he said; 'and thank you very much. And I'll ask mamma to let +me come whenever you fix the day for the parrot. And please tell me all +he tells you about the little girl. And--thank you very much.' + +They were the funniest pair. She so tiny and thin and white, with bright +dark eyes, like some bird's, and Peterkin so short and sturdy and rosy, +with his big dreamy ones looking up at her. She was just a little taller +than he. And suddenly I saw his rosy face grow still rosier; crimson or +scarlet, really. For Mrs. Wylie made a dash at him and kissed him, and +unluckily Peterkin did not like being kissed, except by mamma and Elf. +His politeness, however, stood him in good stead. He did not pull away, +or show that he hated it, as lots of fellows would have done. He stood +quite still, and then, with another tug at his cap, ran down the steps +after Clem and me. + +Clement waited a moment or two before he spoke. It was his way; but just +now it was a good thing, as Mrs. Wylie did not shut the door quite at +once, and everything was so quiet in that little side street, in the +evening especially, that very likely our voices would have carried back +to her. I, for my part, was longing to shake Peterkin, though I felt +very inclined to burst out laughing, too. But I knew it was best to +leave the 'rowing' to Clem. + +'Peterkin,' he began at last, 'I don't know what to say to you.' + +Peterkin had got hold of Clem's hand and was holding it tight, and he +was already rather out of breath, as Clem was walking fast--very fast +for him--and he has always been a long-legged chap for his age, thin and +wiry, too; whereas, in those days--though, thank goodness, he is growing +like a house on fire _now_--Peterkin was as broad as he was long. So to +keep up with Clement's strides he had to trot, and that sort of pace +soon makes a kid breathless, of course. + +'I--I never thought mamma'd be flightened,' he managed to get out at +last. He had been a long time of saying his 'r's' clearly, and now they +still all got into 'l's' if he was bothered or startled. 'I never +thought she'd be flightened.' + +'Then you were a donkey,' I burst out, and Clement interrupted me. + +'How could she not have been frightened?' he went on. 'She told you to +run straight home, which wouldn't have taken you five minutes, and you +have been at least an hour.' + +'I thought it wouldn't be no farther to come this way,' replied +Peterkin, 'and I only meant to look at the pallot one minute. And it +would have been very lu--_rude_ not to speak to the old lady, and go +into her house for a minute when she asked me. Mamma always says we +mustn't be rude,' said Peterkin, plucking up some spirit. + +'Mamma always says we must be _obedient_' replied Clement, severely. + +Then he relapsed into silence, and his quick footsteps and Peterkin's +short trotty ones were the only sounds. + +'I believe,' I couldn't help murmuring, half to myself, half to +Peterkin--'I believe you've got some rubbish in your head about the +parrot being a fairy. If I were mamma I'd stop your----' but at that I +stopped _myself_. If Clement had heard me he would have been down upon +me for disrespectfulness in saying to a baby like Pete what I thought +mamma should or should not do; and I didn't care to be pulled up by +Clement before the little ones. + +Peterkin was as sharp as needles in some ways. He guessed the end of my +unfinished sentence. + +'No,' he half whispered, 'mamma'd _never_ stop me reading faily +stolies--you know she wouldn't, Gilly, and it's velly unkind of you to +say so.' + +'I didn't say so,' I replied. + +'Be quiet, both of you,' said Clem, 'and hurry on,' for we had slackened +a little. + +But in spite of the breathlessness of the pace, I heard another gasp +from Peterkin-- + +'It _is_ velly like the blue-bird,' were the words I distinguished. + +And 'I knew I was right,' I thought to myself triumphantly. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +FOUND + + +THE carriage was standing waiting at our own house when we got there. +And there was some bustle going on, for the front door was not shut, and +we could see into the hall, which of course was brightly lighted up. + +Papa was there, speaking to some one; he had his hat on, as if he was +just coming out again. And--yes--it was Drew he was speaking to, and +James too, I think--but behind them was poor mamma, looking so +dreadfully unhappy. It did make me want to shake Peterkin again. + +They did not see us as quickly as we saw them, for it was dark outside +and they were all talking: papa giving directions, I fancy. + +So they did jump when Clem--hurrying for once--rushed up the steps, +dragging Peterkin after him. + +'We've found him--we've found him!' he shouted. 'In with you, Pete: show +yourself, quick.' + +For mamma had got quite white, and looked as if she were going to faint +or tumble down in some kind of a fit; but luckily before she had time +for anything, there was that fat boy hugging and squeezing her so tight +that she'd have been clever to move at all, though if she _had_ tumbled +down he would have made a good buffer. + +'Oh, mamma, mamma--oh, mummy,' he said, and by this time he was howling, +of course, 'I never meant to flighten you. I never did. I thought I'd +been only five minutes, and I thought it was nearly as quick home that +way.' + +And of course mamma didn't scold him! She hugged him as if he'd been +lost for a year, and as if he was the prodigal son and the good brother +mixed up together. + +But papa looked rather stern, and I was not altogether sorry to see it. + +'Where have you been, Peterkin?' he said. And then he glanced up at us +two--Clem and me--as Peterkin seemed too busy crying to speak. 'Where +has he been?' papa repeated. 'It was very clever of you to find him, I +must say.' + +And mamma's curiosity began to awaken, now that she had got old Pete +safe in her arms again. She looked up with the same question in her +face. + +'Where--' she began. + +And I couldn't help answering. + +'It was all Clem's idea,' I said, for it really was only fair for Clem +to get some praise. 'He thought of the parrot.' + +'The _parrot_', mamma repeated, growing more puzzled instead of less. + +'Yes,' said Clement. 'The parrot next door to Mrs. Wylie's. Perhaps you +don't remember, mamma. It was the day Peterkin and I were out with +you--Giles wasn't there--and you went in to Mrs. Wylie's and we waited +outside, and the parrot was in a cage on the balcony, and we heard it +talk.' + +'Yes,' said Peterkin, 'he _talked_,' as if that was an explanation of +everything. + +Mamma's face cleared. + +'I think I do remember something about it,' she said. 'But I have never +heard you mention it since, Peterkin?' + +'No,' said Peterkin, getting rather red. + +'He has spoken of it a little to me,' said Clement; 'that's how I knew +it was in his mind. But Peterkin often doesn't say much about what he's +thinking a lot about. It's his way.' + +'Yes,' said Peterkin, 'it's my way.' + +'And have you been planning all these days to run off to see the parrot +again?' asked mamma. I wasn't quite sure if she was vexed or not, but +_I_ was; it seemed so queer, queer as Pete often was, for him not to +have confided in somebody. + +But we were mistaken. + +'No, no, truly, mamma,' he said, speaking in a much more determined way +now, and shaking his curly head. 'I didn't ever think of it till after +I'd got out of the calliage and I saw it was the corner of the big +square where the little houses are at one end, and then I only meant to +go for one minute. I thought it was nearly as quick that way, and I ran +fast. I never meant to flighten you, mamma,' he repeated again, his +voice growing plaintive. 'I wasn't planning it a bit all these days. I +only kept thinking it _were_ like the blue-bird.' + +The last sentence was almost in a whisper; it was only a sort of honesty +that forced him to say it. As far as Clement and I were concerned, he +needn't have said it. + +'I knew he'd got some fairy-story rubbish in his head,' I muttered, but +I don't think Peterkin heard me, though papa and mamma did; for I saw +them glance at each other, and papa said something under his breath, of +which I only caught the words 'getting too fanciful,' and 'schoolboy,' +which made mamma look rather unhappy again. + +'I don't yet understand how old Mrs. Wylie got mixed up in it all,' said +papa. + +'She lives next door to the parrot,' said Clem, and we couldn't help +smiling at the funny way he said it. + +'And she saw me when she was coming back from the post, and she was very +kind,' Peterkin went on, taking up the story again, as the smile had +encouraged him. 'She 'avited me to go in, up to her drawing-room, so +that I could hear him talking better. And he said lots of things.' + +'Oh yes, by the bye,' I exclaimed, 'there was something about a little +girl, Mrs. Wylie said. What was it, Pete?' + +But Peterkin shut up at this. + +'I'll tell you the next time I go there. Mummy, you will let me go to +see that old lady again, won't you?' he begged. 'She was so kind, and I +only thought I'd been there five minutes. Mayn't I go again to see +her?' + +'_And_ the parrot,' said mamma, smiling. She was sharp enough to take in +that it was a quarter for Mrs. Wylie and three quarters for the parrot +that he wanted so to go back to Rock Terrace. 'Well, you must promise +never to pay visits on your own account again, Peterkin, and then we +shall see. Now run upstairs to the nursery as fast as you can and get +some tea. And I'm sure Clem and Giles will be glad of some more. I hope +poor nurse and Blanche and Elfie know he is all right,' she added, +glancing round. + +'Yes, ma'am. I took the liberty of going up to tell the young ladies and +Mrs. Brough, when Master Peterkin first returned,' said James in his +very politest and primmest tone. + +'That was very thoughtful of you,' said mamma, approvingly, which made +James get very red. + +We three boys skurried upstairs after that. At least I did. Clement came +more slowly, but as his legs were long enough to take two steps at a +time, he got to the top nearly as soon as I did, and Peterkin came +puffing after us. I was rather surprised that Blanche and Elf had been +content to stay quietly in the nursery, considering all the excitement +that had been going on downstairs, and I think it was very good of +Blanche, for she told me afterwards that she had only done it to keep +Elvira from getting into one of her endless crying fits. They always say +Elf is such a nervous child that she can't help it, but _I_ think it's a +good bit of it cross temper too. + +Still she is rather growing out of it, and, after all, that night there +was something to cry about, and there might have been worse, as nurse +said. She had been telling the girls stories of people who got lost, +though she was sensible enough to make them turn up all right at the +end. She can tell very interesting stories sometimes, but she keeps the +_best_ ones to amuse us when we are ill, or when mamma's gone away on a +visit, or something horrid like that has happened. + +They all three flew at Peterkin, of course, and hugged him as if he'd +been shipwrecked, or putting out a fire, or something grand like that. +And he took it as coolly as anything, and asked for his tea, as if he +deserved all the petting and fussing. + +That was another of his little 'ways,' I suppose. + +Then, as we were waiting for the kettle to boil up again to make fresh +tea, if you please, for his lordship--though Clem and I were to have +some too, of course, and we did deserve it--all the story had to be +told over for the third or fourth time, of the parrot, and old Mrs. +Wylie meeting Pete as she came in, and his thinking he'd only been there +about five minutes, and all the rest of it. + +'And what did the Polly parrot talk about?' asked Elf. She had a picture +of a parrot in one of her books, and some rhymes about it. + +'Oh,' answered Peterkin,' he said, "How d'ye do?" and "Pretty Poll," and +things like that.' + +'He said queerer things than that; you know he--' I began. I saw Pete +didn't want to tell about the parrot copying the mysterious child that +Mrs. Wylie had spoken of, so I thought I'd tease him a bit by reminding +him of it. I felt sure he had got some of his funny ideas out of his +fairy stories in his head; that the little girl--for Mrs. Wylie had +spoken of a 'her'--was an enchanted princess or something like that, and +I wasn't far wrong, as you will see. But I didn't finish my sentence, +for Peterkin, who was sitting next me, gave me a sort of little kick, +not to hurt, of course, and whispered, 'I'll tell you afterwards.' So I +felt it would be ill-natured to tease him, and I didn't say any more, +and luckily the others hadn't noticed what I had begun. Blanchie was on +her knees in front of the fire toasting for us, and Elf was putting +lumps of sugar into the cups, to be ready. + +Pete was as hungry as a hunter, and our sharp walk had given Clem and me +a fresh appetite, so we ate all the toast and a lot of plum-cake as +well, and felt none the worse for it. + +And soon after that, it was time to be tidied up to go down to the +drawing-room to mamma. Peterkin and Elvira only stayed half-an-hour or +so, but after they had gone to bed we three big ones went into the +library to finish our lessons while papa and mamma were at dinner. +Sometimes we went into the dining-room to dessert, and sometimes we +worked on till mamma called us into the drawing-room: it all depended on +how many lessons we'd got to do, or how fast we had got on with them. +Clement and Blanche were awfully good about that sort of thing, and went +at it steadily, much better than I, I'm afraid, though I could learn +pretty quickly if I chose. But I did not like lessons, especially the +ones we had to do at home, for in these days Clem and I only went to a +day-school and had to bring books and things back with us every +afternoon. And besides these lessons we had to do at home for school, we +had a little extra once or twice a week, as we had French conversation +and reading on half-holidays with Blanche's teachers, and they sometimes +gave us poetry to learn by heart or to translate. We were not exactly +_obliged_ to do it, but of course we didn't want Blanche, who was only a +girl, to get ahead of us, as she would very likely have done, for she +did grind at her lessons awfully. I think most girls do. + +It sounds as if we were rather hard-worked, but I really don't think we +were, though I must allow that we worked better in those days, and +learnt more in comparison, than we do now at--I won't give the name of +the big school we are at. Clement says it is better not--people who +write books never do give the real names, he says, and I fancy he's +right. It is an awfully jolly school, and we are as happy as sand-boys, +whatever that means, but I can't say that we work as Blanche does, +though she does it all at home with governesses. + +That part of the evening--when we went back to the drawing-room to +mamma, I mean--was one of the times I shall always like to remember +about. It is very jolly now, of course, to be at home for the holidays, +but there was then the sort of 'treat' feeling of having got our lessons +done, and the little ones comfortably off to bed, and the +grown-up-ness. + +Mamma looked so pretty, as she was always nicely dressed, though I liked +some of her dresses much better than others--I don't like her in black +ones at all; and the drawing-room was pretty, and then there was mamma's +music. Her playing was nice, but her singing was still better, and she +used to let us choose our favourite songs, each in turn. Blanche plays +the violin now, very well, they say, and mamma declares she is really +far cleverer at music than she herself ever was; but for all that, I +shall never care for her fiddle anything like mamma's singing; if I live +to be a hundred, I shall never forget it. + +It is a great thing to have really jolly times like those evenings to +think of when you begin to get older, and are a lot away from home, and +likely to be still less and less there. + +But I must not forget that this story is supposed to be principally +about Peterkin and his adventures, so I'll go on again about the night +after he'd been lost. + +He and I had a room together, and he was nearly always fast asleep, like +a fat dormouse, when I went up to bed. He had a way of curling himself +round, like a ball, that really did remind you of a dormouse. I believe +it kept him from growing; I really do, though I did my best to pull him +out straight. He didn't like that, ungrateful chap, and used to growl at +me for it, and I believe he often pretended to be asleep when he wasn't, +just to stop me doing it; for one night, nurse had come in to know what +the row was about, and though she agreed with me that it was much better +for him to lie properly stretched at his full length, she said I wasn't +to wake him up because of it. + +But if he was generally fast asleep at night when I came to bed, he +certainly made up for it by waking in the morning. I never knew anything +like him for that. I believe he woke long before the birds, winter as +well as summer, and then was his time for talking and telling me his +stories and fancies. Once I myself was well awake I didn't mind, as it +was generally rather interesting; but I couldn't stand the being +awakened ages before the time. So we made an agreement, that if I didn't +wake him up at night, he'd not bother me in the morning till I gave a +sign that I was on the way to waking of myself. The sign was a sort of +snort that's easy to make, even while you're still pretty drowsy, and it +did very well, as I could lie quiet in a dreamy way listening to him. +He didn't want me to speak, only to snort a little now and then till I +got quite lively, as I generally did in a few minutes, as his stories +grew more exciting, and there came something that I wanted him to alter +in them. + +That night, however, when I went up to bed there was no need to think of +our bargain, for Peterkin was as wide awake as I was. + +'Haven't you been to sleep yet?' I asked him. + +'Not exactly,' he said. 'Just a sort of half. I'm glad you've come, +Gilley, for I've got a lot of things in my head.' + +'You generally have,' I said, 'but _I'm_ sleepy, if you're not. That +scamper in the cold after you, my good boy, was rather tiring, I can +tell you.' + +'I'm very sorry,' said he, in a penitent tone of voice, 'but you know, +Giles, I never meant to----' + +'Oh, stop that!' I exclaimed; 'you've said it twenty times too often +already. Better tell me a bit of the things in your head. Then you can +go to sleep, and dream them out, and have an interesting story ready for +me in the morning.' + +'Oh, but--' objected Pete, sitting up in bed and clasping his hands +round his knees, his face very red, and his eyes very blue and bright, +'they're not dreamy kind of things at all. There's really something +very misterist--what is the proper word, Gilley?' + +'"Mysterious," I suppose you mean,' I said. + +'Yes, misterous,' repeated he, 'about what the parrot said, and I'm +pretty sure that old lady thinks so too.' + +'Didn't she explain about it, at all?' I asked him. I began to think +there _was_ something queer, perhaps, for Peterkin's manner impressed +me. + +'Well, she did a little,' he replied. 'But I'd better tell you all, +Gilley; just what I first heard, before she came up and spoke to me, you +know, and----' + +Just then, however, there came an interruption. + +Mamma put her head in at the door. + +'Boys,' she said, 'not asleep yet? At least _you_ should be, Peterkin. +You didn't wake him, I hope, Giles?' + +I had no time for an indignant 'No; of course, not,' before Pete came to +my defence. + +'No, no, mummy! I was awake all of myself. I wanted him to come very +much, to talk a little.' + +'Well, you must both be rather tired with all the excitement there has +been,' mamma said. 'So go to sleep, now, and do your talking in the +morning. Promise,--both of you--eh?' + +'Yes,' we answered; 'word of honour, mamma,' and she went away, quite +sure that we would keep our promise, which was sealed by a kiss from +her. + +Dear little mother! She did not often come up to see us in bed, for fear +of rousing us out of our 'beauty' sleep, but to-night she had felt as if +she must make sure we were all right after the fuss of Peterkin's being +lost, you see. + +And of course we were as good as our word, and only just said +'Good-night!' to each other; Pete adding, 'I'll begin at the beginning, +and tell you everything, as soon as I hear your first snort in the +morning, Giles.' + +'You'd better wait for my second or third,' I replied. 'I'm never very +clear-headed at the first, and I want to give my attention, as it's +something real, and not one of your make-ups,' I said. 'So, good-night!' + +It is awfully jolly to know that you are trusted, isn't it? + + + + +CHAPTER III + +AN INVITATION + + +I SLEPT on rather later than usual next morning. I suppose I really was +tired. And when I began to awake, and gradually remembered all that had +happened the night before, I heartily wished I hadn't promised Peterkin +to snort at all. + +I took care not to open my eyes for a good bit, but I couldn't carry on +humbugging that I was still asleep for very long. Something made me open +my eyes, and as soon as I did so I knew what it was. There was +Pete--bolt upright--as wide awake as if he had never been asleep, +staring at me with all his might, his eyes as round and blue as could +be. You know the feeling that some one is looking at you, even when you +don't see them. I had not given one snort, and I could not help feeling +rather cross with Peterkin, even when he exclaimed-- + +'Oh, I am so glad you're awake!' + +'You've been staring me awake,' I said, very grumpily. 'I'd like to know +who could go on sleeping with you wishing them awake?' + +'I'm very sorry if you wanted to go on sleeping,' he replied meekly. He +did not seem at all surprised at my saying he had wakened me. He used to +understand rather queer things like that so quickly, though we counted +him stupid in some ways. + +'But as I am awake you can start talking,' I said, closing my eyes +again, and preparing to listen. + +Pete was quite ready to obey. + +'Well,' he began, 'it was this way. Mamma didn't want me to be late for +tea, so she stopped at the end of that big street--a little farther away +than Lindsay Square, you know----' + +'Yes, Meredith Place,' I grunted. + +'And,' Pete went on, 'told me to run home. It's quite straight, if you +keep to the front, of course.' + +'And you did run straight home, didn't you?' I said teasingly. + +'No,' he replied seriously, but not at all offended. 'When I got to the +corner of the square I looked up it, and I remembered that it led to +the funny little houses where Clem and I had seen the parrot. So, almost +without settling it in my mind, I ran along that side of the square till +I came to Rock Terrace. I ran _very_ fast----' + +'I wish I'd been there to see you,' I grunted again. + +'And I thought if I kept round by the back, I'd get out again to the +front nearly as soon--running all the way, you see, to make up. And I'd +scarcely got to the little houses when I heard the parrot. His cage was +out on the balcony, you know. And it is very quiet there--scarcely any +carts or carriages passing--and it was getting dark, and I think you +hear things plainer in the dark; don't you think so, Gilley?' + +I did not answer, so he went on. + +'I heard the parrot some way off. His voice is so queer, you know. And +when I got nearer I could tell every word he said. He kept on every now +and then talking for himself--real talking--"Getting cold. Polly wants +to go to bed. Quick, quick." And then he'd stop for a minute, as if he +was listening and heard something I couldn't. _That_ was the strange +part that makes me think perhaps he isn't really a parrot at all, +Giles,' and here Pete dropped his voice and looked very mysterious. I +had opened my eyes for good now; it was getting exciting. + +'What did he say?' I asked. + +'What you and Clement heard, and a lot more,' Peterkin replied. 'Over +and over again the same--"I'm so tired, Nana, I won't be good, no I +won't."' + +'Yes, that's what we heard,' I said, 'but what was the lot more?' + +'Oh, perhaps there wasn't so _very_ much more,' said he, consideringly. +'There was something about "I won't be locked up," and "I'll write a +letter," and then again and again, "I won't be good, I'm so tired." That +was what you and Clement heard, wasn't it?' + +'Yes,' I said. + +'And one funny thing about it was that his voice, the parrot's, sounded +quite different when he was talking his own talking, do you see?--like +"Pretty Poll is cold, wants to go to bed"--from when he was copying the +little girl's. It was always croaky, of course, but _squeakier_, +somehow, when he was copying her.' + +Peterkin sat up still straighter and looked at me, evidently waiting for +my opinion about it all. I was really very interested, but I wanted +first to hear all he had in his head, so I did not at once answer. + +'Isn't it very queer?' he said at last. + +'What do you think about it?' I asked. + +He drew a little nearer me and spoke in a lower voice, though there was +no possibility of any one ever hearing what he said. + +'P'raps,' he began, 'it isn't _only_ a parrot, or p'raps some fairy +makes it say these things. The little girl might be shut up, you see, +like the princess in the tower, by some _bad_ fairy, and there might be +a _good_ one who wanted to help her to get out. I wonder if they ever do +invite fairies to christenings now, and forget some of them,' he went +on, knitting his brows, 'or not ask them, because they are bad fairies? +I can't remember about Elf's christening feast; can you, Gilley?' + +'I can remember hers, and yours too, for that matter,' I replied. 'You +forget how much older I am. But of course it's not like that now. There +are no fairies to invite, as I've often told you, Pete. At least,' for, +in spite of my love of teasing, I never liked to see the look of +distress that came over his chubby face when any one talked that sort of +common sense to him, 'at least, people have got out of the way of seeing +them or getting into fairy-land.' + +'But we _might_ find it again,' said Peterkin, brightening up. + +And I didn't like to disappoint him by saying I could not see much +chance of it. + +Then another idea struck me. + +'How about Mrs. Wylie?' I said. 'Didn't she explain it at all? You told +her what you had heard, didn't you? Yes, of course, she heard some of it +herself, when we were all three standing at the door of her house.' + +'Well,' said Peterkin, 'I was going to tell you the rest. I was +listening to the parrot, and it was much plainer than _you_ heard, +Gilley, for when you were there you only heard him from down below, and +I was up near him--well, I was just standing there listening to him, +when that old lady came up.' + +'I know all about that,' I interrupted. + +'No, you don't, not nearly all,' Peterkin persisted. He could be as +obstinate as a little pig sometimes, so I said nothing. 'I was just +standing there when she came up. She looked at me, and then she went in +at her own gate, next door to the parrot's, you know, and then she +looked at me again, and spoke over the railings. She said, "Are you +talking to the parrot, my dear?" and I said, "No, I'm only listening to +him, thank you"; and then she looked at me again, and she said, "You +don't live in this terrace, I think?" And I said, "No, I live on the +Esplanade, number 59." Then she pulled out her spectacles--long things, +you know, at the end of a turtle-shell stick.' + +'Tortoise-shell,' I corrected. + +'Tortoise-shell,' he repeated, 'and then she looked at me again. "If you +live at 59," she said, "I think you must be one of dear Mrs. Lesley's +little sons," and I said, "That's just what I am, thank you." And then +she said, "Won't you come in for a few minutes? You can see the Polly +from my balcony, and it is getting cold for standing about. Are you on +your way home from school?" So I thought it wouldn't be polite not to go +in. She was so kind, you see,' and here his voice grew 'cryey' again, 'I +never thought about mamma being flightened, and I only meant to stay a +min----' + +'Shut up about all that,' I interrupted. 'We've had it often enough, and +I want to hear what happened.' + +'Well,' he said, quite briskly again, 'she took me in, and up to her +drawing-room. The window was a tiny bit open, and she made me stand just +on the ledge between it and the balcony, so that I could see the parrot +without his seeing me, for she said if he saw me he'd set up screeching +and not talk sense any more. He knows when people are strangers. The +cage was close to the old lady's end of the balcony, so that I could +almost have touched it, and then I heard him say all those queer things. +I didn't speak for a good while, for fear of stopping him talking. But +after a bit he got fidgety; I daresay he knew there was somebody there, +and then he flopped about and went back to his own talking, and said he +was cold and wanted to go to bed, and all that. And somebody inside +heard him and took him in. And then--' Pete stopped to rest his voice, I +suppose. He was always rather fond of resting, whatever he was doing. + +'Hurry up,' I said. 'What happened after that?' + +'The old lady said I'd better come in, and she shut up the window--I +suppose she felt cold, like the parrot--and she made me sit down; and +then I asked her what made him say such queer things in his squeakiest +voice; and she said he was copying what he heard, for there was a little +girl in the _next_ house--not in his own house--who cried sometimes and +seemed very cross and unhappy, so that Mrs. Wylie often is very sorry +for her, though she has never really seen her. And I said, did she think +anybody was unkind to the little girl, and she said she hoped not, but +she didn't know. And then she seemed as if she didn't want to talk about +the little girl very much, and she began to ask me about if I went to +school and things like that, and then I said I'd better go home, and she +came downstairs with me and--I think that's all, till you and Clement +came and we all heard the parrot again.' + +'I wonder what started him copying the little girl again, after he'd +left off,' I said. + +'P'raps he hears her through the wall,' said Pete. 'P'raps he hears +quicker than people do. Yes,' he went on thoughtfully, 'I think he must, +for the old lady has never heard exactly what the little girl said. She +only heard her crying and grumbling. She told me so.' + +'I daresay she's just a cross little thing,' I said. 'And I think it was +rather silly of Mrs. Wylie to let you hear the parrot copying her. It's +a very bad example. And you said Mrs. Wylie seemed as if she didn't want +to talk much about her.' + +'I think she's got some plan in her head,' said Peterkin, eagerly, 'for +she said--oh, I forgot that--she said she was going to come to see +mamma some day very soon, to ask her to let me go to have tea with her. +And I daresay she'll ask you too, Gilley, if we both go down to the +drawing-room when she comes.' + +'I hope it'll be a half-holiday, then,' I said, 'or, anyway, that she +will come when I'm here. It is very funny about the crying little girl. +Has she been there a long time? Did your old lady tell you that?' + +Peterkin shook his head. + +'Oh no, she's only been there since Mrs. Wylie came back from the +country. She told me so.' + +'And when was that?' I asked, but Pete did not know. He was sometimes +very stupid, in spite of his quickness and fancies. 'It's been long +enough for the parrot to learn to copy her grumbling,' I added. + +'That wouldn't take him long,' said Peterkin, in his whispering voice +again, '_if_ he's some sort of a fairy, you know, Gilley.' + +This time, perhaps, it was a good thing he spoke in a low voice, for at +that moment nurse came in to wake us, or rather to make us get up, as we +were nearly always awake already, and if she had heard the word +'fairy,' she would have begun about Peterkin's 'fancies' again. + +Some days passed without our hearing anything of the parrot or the old +lady or Rock Terrace. We did not exactly forget about it; indeed, it was +what we talked about every morning when we awoke. But I did not think +much about it during the day, although I daresay Pete did. + +So it was quite a surprise to me one afternoon, about a week after the +evening of all the fuss, when, the very moment I had rung the front +bell, the door was opened by Pete himself, looking very important. + +'She's come,' he said. 'I've been watching for you. She's in the +drawing-room with mamma, and mamma told me to fetch you as soon as you +came back from school. Is Clem there?' + +'No,' I said, 'it's one of the days he stays later than me, you know.' + +Peterkin did not seem very sorry. + +'Then she's come just to invite you and me,' he said. 'Clement _is_ too +big, but she might have asked him too, out of polititude, you know.' + +He was always fussing about being polite, but I don't think I answered +her in that way. + +'Bother,' I said, for I was cross; my books were heavier than usual, +and I banged them down; 'bother your politeness. Can't you tell me what +you're talking about? Who is "she" that's in the drawing-room? I don't +want to go up to see her, whoever she is.' + +'Giles!' said Peterkin, in a very disappointed tone. 'You can't have +forgotten. It's the old lady next door to the parrot's house, of course. +I told you she meant to come. And she's going to invite us, I'm sure.' + +In my heart I was very anxious to go to Rock Terrace again, to see the +parrot, and perhaps hear more of the mysterious little girl, but I was +feeling rather tired and cross. + +'I must brush my hair and wash my hands first,' I said, 'and I daresay +mamma won't want me without Clement. She didn't say me alone, did she?' + +'She said "your brothers,"' replied Peterkin, 'but of course you must +come. And she said she hoped "they" wouldn't be long. So you must come +as you are. I don't think your hands are very dirty.' + +It is one of the queer things about Peterkin that he can nearly always +make you do what he wants if he's really in earnest. So I had to give +in, and he went puffing upstairs, with me after him, to the +drawing-room, when, sure enough, the old lady was sitting talking to +mamma. + +Mamma looked up as we came in, and I saw that her eyes went past me. + +'Hasn't Clement come in?' she asked, and it made me wish I hadn't given +in about it to Pete. + +'No, mamma,' I said. 'It's one of his late days, you know. And Peterkin +made me come up just as I was.' + +I felt very ashamed of my hair and crushed collar and altogether. I +didn't mind so much about my hands; boys' hands _can't_ be like ladies'. +But Mrs. Wylie was so awfully neat--she might have been a fairy herself, +or a doll dressed to look like an old lady. I felt as clumsy and messy +as could be. But she was awfully jolly; she seemed to know exactly how +uncomfortable it was for me. + +'Quite right, quite right,' she said. 'For I must be getting back. It +looks rather stormy, I'm afraid. It was very thoughtful of you both, my +dear boys, to hurry. I should have liked to see Mr. Clement again, but +that must be another time. And may we fix the day now, dear Mrs. Lesley? +Saturday next we were talking of. Will you come about four o'clock, or +even earlier, my dears? The parrot stays out till five, generally, and +indeed his mistress is very good-natured, and so is her maid. They were +quite pleased when I told them I had some young friends who were very +interested in the bird and wanted to see him again. So you shall make +better acquaintance with him on Saturday, and perhaps--' but here the +old lady stopped at last, without finishing her sentence. + +Nevertheless, as each of us told the other afterwards, both Peterkin and +I finished it for her in our own minds. We glanced at each other, and +the same thought ran through us--had Mrs. Wylie got some plan in her +head about the little girl? + +'It is very kind indeed of you, Mrs. Wylie,' said mamma. 'Giles and +Peterkin will be delighted to go to you on Saturday, won't you, boys?' + +And we both said, 'Yes, thank you. It will be very jolly,' so heartily, +that the old lady trotted off, as pleased as pleased. + +Of course, I ran downstairs to see her out, and Pete followed more +slowly, just behind her. She had a very nice, rather stately way about +her, though she was so small and thin, and it never suited Pete to hurry +in those days, either up or down stairs; his legs were so short. + +We were very eager for Saturday to come, and we talked a lot about it. I +had a kind of idea that Mrs. Wylie had said something about the little +girl to mamma, though mamma said nothing at all to us, except that we +must behave very nicely and carefully at Rock Terrace, and not forget +that, though she was so kind, Mrs. Wylie was an old lady, and old ladies +were sometimes fussy. + +We promised we would be all right, and Peterkin said to me that he +didn't believe Mrs. Wylie was at all 'fussy.' + +'She is too fairyish,' he said, 'to be like that.' + +That was a very 'Peterkin' speech, but I did not snub him for it, as I +sometimes did. I was really so interested in all about the parrot and +the invisible little girl that I was almost ready to join him in making +up fanciful stories--that there was an ogre who wouldn't let her out, or +that any one who tried to see her would be turned into a frog, or things +like that out of the old fairy-tales. + +'But Mrs. Wylie _has_ seen her,' said Peterkin, 'and _she_ hasn't turned +into a frog!' + +That was a rather tiresome 'way' of his--if I agreed about fairies and +began making up, myself, he would get quite common-sensical, and almost +make fun of my ones. + +'How do you know that she doesn't turn into a frog half the day?' I +said. 'That's often the way in enchantments.' + +And then we both went off laughing at the idea of a frog jumping down +from Mrs. Wylie's drawing-room sofa, and saying, 'How do you do, my +dears?' instead of the neat little old lady. + +So our squabble didn't come to anything that time. + +Blanchie and Elf were rather jealous of our invitation, I think, though +Blanche always said she didn't care to go anywhere without Clement. But +Elf made us promise that some day we would get leave to take her round +by the parrot's house for her to see him. + +Of course we never said anything to any one but ourselves about the +shut-up little girl, and Clement had forgotten what he had heard that +evening. He was very busy just then working extra for some prize he +hoped to get at school--I forget what it was, but he did get it--and +Blanche was helping him. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +VERY MYSTERIOUS + + +SATURDAY came at last. Of course jolly things and times _do_ come, +however long the waiting seems. But the worst of it is that they are so +soon gone again, and then you wish you were back at the looking forward; +perhaps, after all, it is often the jolliest part of it. + +Clement says I mustn't keep saying 'jolly'; he says 'nice' would be +better in a book. He is looking it over for me, you see. _I_ think +'nice' is a girl's word, but Clem says you shouldn't write slang in a +book, so I try not to; though of course I don't really expect this story +ever to be made into an actual book. + +Well, Saturday came, and Peterkin and I set off to Mrs. Wylie's. She was +a very nice person to go to see; she seemed so really pleased to have +us. And she hadn't turned into a frog, or anything of the kind. She was +standing out on the little balcony, watching for us, with a snowy-white, +fluffy shawl on the top of her black dress, which made her seem more +fairyish, or fairy-godmotherish, than ever. I never did see any one so +beautifully neat and spotless as she always was. + +As soon as the front door was opened, we heard her voice from upstairs. + +'Come up, boys, come up. Polly and I have both been watching for you, +and he is in great spirits to-day, and so amusing.' + +We skurried up, and nearly tumbled over each other into the +drawing-room. Then, of course, Peterkin's politeness came into force, +and he walked forward soberly to shake hands with his old lady and give +her mamma's love and all that sort of thing, which he was much better at +than I. She had just stepped in from the balcony, but was quite ready to +step out again at the parrot's invitation. + +'Come quick,' he said, 'Polly doesn't like waiting.' + +[Illustration: NO SOONER DID HE CATCH SIGHT OF US TWO WITH HIS UGLY +ROUND BEADY EYES . . . THAN HE SHUT UP.--p. 52.] + +Really it did seem wonderful to me, though he wasn't the first parrot I +had ever seen, and though I had heard him before--it did seem wonderful +for a bird, only a bird, to talk so sensibly, and I felt as if there +might be something in Peterkin's idea that he was more than he seemed. +And to this day parrots, clever ones, still give me that feeling. + +They are very like children in some ways. They are so 'contrairy.' You'd +scarcely believe it, but no sooner did the creature catch sight of us +two with his ugly, round, painted-bead-looking eyes--I don't like +parrot's eyes--than he shut up, and wild horses couldn't have made him +utter another word, much less Mrs. Wylie. + +I was quite sorry for her, she seemed so disappointed. + +It was just like a tiresome baby, whose mamma and nurse want to show off +and bring it down to the drawing-room all dressed up, and it won't go to +anybody, or say 'Dada,' or 'Mam-ma,' or anything, and just screeches. I +can remember Elvira being like that, and I daresay we all were. + +'It is too bad,' said our old lady. 'He has got to know me, and I have +been teaching him some new words. And his mistress and her maid are out +this afternoon, so I thought we should have him all to ourselves, and it +would be so amusing. But'--just then a bright idea struck +her--'supposing you two go back into the room, so that he can't see +you, and I will say "Good-bye, my dears," very loud and plainly, to make +him think you have gone. Then I will come out again, and you shall +listen from behind the curtain. I believe he will talk then, just as he +has been doing.' + +Pete and I were most willing to try--we were all three quite excited +about it. It was really quite funny how his talking got the Polly +treated as if he was a human being. We stalked back into the +drawing-room, Mrs. Wylie after us, saying in a very clear tone-- + +'Good-bye, then, my dears. My love to your mamma, and the next time you +come I hope Poll-parrot will be more friendly.' + +And then I shut the door with a bang, to sound as if we had gone, +though, of course, it was all 'acting,' to trick the parrot. Peterkin +and I peeped out at him from behind the curtain, and we could scarcely +help laughing out loud. He looked so queer--his head cocked on one side, +listening, his eyes blinking; he seemed rather disgusted on the whole, I +thought. + +Then Mrs. Wylie stepped out again. + +'Polly,' she said, 'I'm ashamed of you. Why couldn't you be kind and +friendly to those nice boys who came to see you?' + +'Pretty Poll,' he said, in a coaxing tone. + +'No,' she replied; 'not pretty Poll at all. Ugly Poll, I should say.' + +'Polly's so tired; take Polly in. Polly's cold,' he said, in what we +called his natural voice; and then it seemed as if the first words had +reminded him of the little girl, for his tone suddenly changed, and he +began again: 'I'm so tired, Nana. No, I won't be good; no, I won't. I'll +write a letter, and I won't be locked up,' in the squeakier sort of +voice that showed he was copying somebody else. + +'Nonsense!' said Mrs. Wylie. 'You are not tired or cold, Polly, and +nobody is going to lock you up.' + +He was silent for a moment, and peeping out again, we saw that he was +staring hard at the old lady. + +Then he said very meekly--I am not sure which voice it was in-- + +'Polly be good! Polly very sorry!' + +Mrs. Wylie nodded approvingly. + +'Yes,' she said, 'that's a much prettier way to talk. Now, supposing we +have a little music,' and she began to sing in a very soft, very thin, +old voice a few words of 'Home, Sweet Home.' + +There was something very piteous about it. I think there is a better +word than 'piteous'--yes, Clement had just told it me. It is 'pathetic.' +I felt as if it nearly made me cry, and so did Peterkin. We told each +other so afterwards, and though we were so interested in the parrot and +in hearing him, I wished he would be quiet again, and let Mrs. Wylie go +on with her soft, sad little song. But of course he didn't. He started, +too, a queer sort of whistle, not very musical, certainly, but yet, no +doubt, there was a bit of the tune in it, and now and then sounds rather +like the words 'sweet' and 'home.' I do think, altogether, it was the +oddest musical performance that ever was heard. + +And when it was over, there came another voice. It was the maid next +door, who had stepped quietly on to the balcony-- + +'I'm afraid, ma'am, I must take him in now,' she said, very +respectfully. 'It is getting cold, and it would never do for him to get +a sore throat just as he's learning to sing so. You are clever with him, +ma'am; you are, indeed: there's quite a tune in his voice.' + +Mrs. Wylie gave a little laugh of pleasure. + +'And did the young gentlemen you were speaking of never come, after +all?' the maid asked, as she was turning away, the big cage in her hand. + +'Oh yes,' said Mrs. Wylie, 'they are here still. But Polly was very +naughty,' and she explained about it. + +'He's learnt that "won't be good" from next door,' said the girl, 'and I +do believe he knows what it means.' + +'I very sorry; I be good,' here said the parrot. + +They both started. + +'Upon my word!' exclaimed the maid. + +'Has he learnt _that_ from next door?' said Mrs. Wylie, in a lower +voice. + +'I hope so. It's very clever of him, and it's not unlikely. The child is +getting better, I believe, and there's not near so much crying and +complaining.' + +'So I have heard,' said the old lady, and we fancied she spoke rather +mysteriously, 'and I hope,' she went on, but we could not catch her next +words, as she dropped her voice, evidently not wishing us to hear. + +Peterkin squeezed my hand, and I understood. There _was_ a mystery of +some kind! + +Then Mrs. Wylie came in and shut the glass door. She was smiling now +with pleasure and satisfaction. + +'I did get him to talk, did I not?' she said. 'He _is_ a funny bird. By +degrees I hope he will grow quite friendly with you too.' + +I did not feel very sure about it. + +'I'm afraid,' I said, 'that he will not see us enough for that. It isn't +like you, Mrs. Wylie, for I daresay you talk to him every day.' + +'Yes,' she replied, 'I do now. I have felt more interested in him +since--' here she hesitated a little, then she went on again--'since the +evening I found Peterkin listening to him,' and she smiled very kindly +at Pete. 'Before that, I had not noticed him very much; at least, I had +not made friends with him. But he has a wonderful memory; really +wonderful, you will see. He will not have forgotten you the next time +you come, and each time he will cock his head and pretend to be shy, and +gradually it will get less and less.' + +This was very interesting, but what Peterkin and I were really longing +for was some news of the little girl. We did not like to ask about her. +It would have seemed rather forward and inquisitive, as the old lady did +not mention her at all. We felt that she had some reason for it, and of +course, though we could not have helped hearing what she and the +parrot's maid had said to each other, we had to try to think we _hadn't_ +heard it. Clement says that's what you should do, if you overhear things +not meant for you, unless, sometimes, when your having heard them might +really matter. _Then_, he says, it's your duty--you're in honour +bound--to tell that you've heard, and _what_ you've heard. + +'Now,' said our old lady, 'I fancy tea will be quite ready. I thought it +would be more comfortable in the dining-room. So shall we go +downstairs?' + +We were quite ready, and we followed her very willingly. The dining-room +was even smaller than the drawing-room, and that was tiny enough. But it +was all so neat and pretty, and what you'd call 'old-fashioned,' I +suppose. It reminded me of a doll-house belonging to one of our +grandmothers--mamma's mother, who had kept it ever since she was a +little girl, and when we go to stay with her in the country she lets us +play with it. Even Peterkin and I are very fond of it, or used to be so +when we were smaller. There's everything you can think of in it, down to +the tiniest cups and saucers. + +The tea was very jolly. There were buns and cakes, and awfully good +sandwiches. I remember that particular tea, you see, though we went to +Mrs. Wylie's often after that, because it was the first time. The cups +_were_ rather small, but it didn't matter, for as soon as ever one was +empty she offered us more. I would really be almost ashamed to say how +many times mine was filled. + +And Mrs. Wylie was very interesting to talk to. She had never had any +children of her own, she told us, and her husband had been dead a long +time. I think he had been a sailor, for she had lots of curiosities: +queer shells, all beautifully arranged in a cabinet, and a book full of +pressed and dried seaweed, and stuffed birds in cases. I don't care for +stuffed birds: they look too alive, and it seems horrid for them not to +be able to fly about and sing. Peterkin took a great fancy to some of +the very tiny ones--humming-birds, scarcely bigger than butterflies; +and, long afterwards, when we went to live in London, Mrs. Wylie gave +him a present of a branch with three beauties on it, inside a glass +case. He has it now in his own room. And she gave me four great big +shells, all coloured like a rainbow, which I still have on my +mantelpiece. + +Once or twice--I'm going back now to that first time we went to have tea +with her--I tried to get the talk back to the little girl. I asked the +old lady if she wouldn't like to have a parrot of her own. I thought it +would be so amusing. But she said No; she didn't think she would care to +have one. The one next door was almost as good, and gave her no trouble +or anxiety. + +And then Peterkin asked her if there were any children next door. Mrs. +Wylie shook her head. + +'No,' she said. 'The parrot's mistress is an old maid--not nearly as old +as I am, all the same, but she lives quite alone; and on the other side +there are two brothers and a sister, quite young, unmarried people.' + +'And is the--the little girl the only little girl or boy in _her_ +house?' asked Peterkin. + +He did stumble a bit over asking it, for it had been very plain that +Mrs. Wylie did not want to speak about her; but I got quite hot when I +heard him, and if we had been on the same side of the table, or if his +legs had been as long as they are now, I'd have given him a good kick to +shut him up. + +Our old lady was too good-natured to mind; still, there was something in +her manner when she answered that stopped any more questions from Pete. + +'Yes,' she said, 'there are no other children in that house, or in the +terrace, except some very tiny ones, almost babies, at the other end. I +see them pass in their perambulators, dear little things.' + +It was quite dark by the time we had finished tea, and the lamps were +lighted upstairs in the drawing-room, where Mrs. Wylie showed us some of +the curiosities and things that I have already written about. + +They were rather interesting, but I think we've got to care more for +collections and treasures like that, now, than we did then. Perhaps we +were not quite old enough, and, I daresay, it was a good deal that the +great reason we liked to go to Mrs. Wylie's was because of the parrot +and the mysterious little girl. At least, _Peterkin's_ head was full of +the little girl. I myself was beginning to get rather tired of all his +talk about her, and I thought the parrot very good fun of himself. + +So when the clock struck six, and Mrs. Wylie asked us if mamma had fixed +any time for us to be home by--it wasn't that she wanted to get rid of +us, but she was very afraid of keeping us too late--we thought we might +as well go, for mamma had said, 'soon after six.' + +'Is any one coming to fetch you?' Mrs. Wylie said. + +I didn't quite like her asking that: it made me seem so babyish. I was +quite old enough to look after Pete, and the fun of going home by +ourselves through the lighted-up streets was one of the things we had +looked forward to. + +But I didn't want Master Peterkin to begin at me afterwards about not +being polite, so I didn't show that I was at all vexed. I just said-- + +'Oh no, Peterkin will be all right with me!' + +And then we said good-bye, and 'thank you very much for inviting us.' +And Pete actually said-- + +'May we come again soon, please?' + +His ideas of politeness were rather original, weren't they? + +But Mrs. Wylie was quite pleased. + +'Certainly, my dear. I shall count on your doing so. And I am glad you +spoke of it, for I wanted to tell you that I am going to London the end +of this next week for a fortnight. Will you tell your dear mamma so, and +say that I shall come to see her on my return, and then we must fix on +another afternoon? I am very pleased to think that you care to come, +and I hope you feel the same,' she went on, turning to me. + +She was so kind that I felt I had been rather horrid, for I _had_ +enjoyed it all very much. And I said as nicely as I could, that I'd like +to come again, only I hoped we didn't bother her. She beamed all over at +that, and Peterkin evidently approved of it too, for he grinned in a +queer patronising way he has sometimes, as if I was a baby compared to +him. + +I was just going to pull him up for it after we had got on our coats and +caps, and were outside and the door shut, but before I had got farther +than--'I say, youngster,'--he startled me rather by saying, in a very +melancholy tone-- + +'It's too bad, Giles, isn't it? Her going away, and us hearing nothing +of the little girl. I really thought she'd have asked her to tea too.' + +'How you muddle your "her's" and "she's"!' I said. But of course I +understood him. 'I think you muddle yourself too. If there's a mystery, +and you know you'd be very disappointed if there wasn't, you couldn't +expect the little girl to come to tea just as if everything was quite +like everybody else about her.' + +'No, that's true,' said he, consideringly. 'P'raps she's invisible +sometimes, or p'raps she's like the "Light Princess," that they had to +tie down for fear she'd float away, or p'raps----' + +'She's invisible to us, anyway,' I interrupted, for, as I said, I was +getting rather tired of Pete's fancies about the little girl, 'and +so----' + +But just as I got so far, we both stopped--we were passing the railing +of the little girl's house at that moment, and voices talking rather +loudly caught our ears. Peterkin touched my arm, and we stood quite +still. No one could see us, it was too dark, and there was no lamp just +there, though some light was streaming out from the lower windows of the +house. One of them, the dining-room one, was a little open, even though +it was a chilly evening. + +It was so queer, our hearing the voices and almost seeing into the room, +_just_ as we had been making up our minds that we'd never know anything +about the little girl; it seemed so queer, that we didn't, at first, +think of anything else. It wasn't for some minutes, or moments, +certainly, that it came into my head that we shouldn't stay there +peeping and listening. I'm afraid it wasn't a very gentlemanly sort of +thing to do. As for Peterkin, I'm pretty sure he never had the +slightest idea that we were doing anything caddish. + +What we heard was this-- + +'No, I don't want any more tea. I'd better go to bed. It's so dull, +Nana.' + +Then another voice replied--it came from some one further back in the +room, but we could not distinguish the words-- + +'There aren't any stars. You may as well shut the window. And stars +aren't much good. I want some one to play with me. Other little--' but +just then we saw the shadow of some one crossing the room, and the +window--it was a glass-door kind of window like the ones up above, which +opened on to the balcony, for there was a little sort of balcony +downstairs too--was quickly closed. There was no more to be heard or +seen; not even shadows, for the curtains were now drawn across. + +Pete gave a deep sigh, and I felt that he was looking at me, though it +was too dark to see, and there was no lamp just there. He wanted to know +what I thought. + +'Come along,' I said, and we walked on. + +'Did you hear?' asked Peterkin at last. 'She said she wanted somebody to +play with her.' + +'Yes,' I said, 'it is rather queer. You'd think Mrs. Wylie might have +made friends with her, and invited her to tea. But it's no good our +bothering about it,' and I walked a little faster, and began to whistle. +I did not want Pete to go on again talking a lot about his invisible +princess, for such she seemed likely to remain. + +It was far easier, however, to get anything into Peterkin's fancy than +to get it out again, as I might have known by experience. We had not +gone far before I felt him tugging at my arm. + +'Don't walk so fast, Gilley,' he said--poor, little chap, he was quite +breathless with trying to keep up with me, so I had to slacken a +bit,--'and do let me talk to you. When we get home I shan't have a +chance--not till to-morrow morning in bed, I daresay; for they'll all be +wanting to hear about Mrs. Wylie, and what we had for tea, and +everything.' + +I did not so much mind about _that_ part of it, but I did not want to be +awakened before dawn the next morning to listen to all he'd got to say. +So I thought I might as well let him come out with some of it. + +'What do you want to talk about?' I said. + +'Oh! of course, you know,' he replied. 'It's about the _poor_ little +girl. I am so dreffully sorry for her, Gilley, and I want to plan +something. It's no good asking Mrs. Wylie. We'll have to do something +ourselves. I'm afraid the people she's with lock her up, or something. +_P'raps_ they daren't let her go out, if there's some wicked fairy, or a +witch, or something like that, that wants to run off with her.' + +'Well, then, the best thing to do _is_ to lock her up,' I said sensibly. + +But that wasn't Peterkin's way of looking at things. + +'It's never like that in my stories,' he said--and I know he was shaking +his curly head,--'and some of them are very, very old--nearly as old as +Bible stories, I believe; so they must be true, you see. There's always +somebody that comes to break the--the--I forget the proper word.' + +'The enchantment, you mean,' I said. + +'No, no; a shorter word. Oh, I know--the spell,' he replied. 'Yes, +somebody comes to break the _spell_. And that's what we've got to do, +Gilley. At least, I'm sure I've got to, and you must help me. You see, +it's all been so funny. The parrot knows, I should think, for I'm sure +he's partly fairy. But, very likely, he daren't say it right out, for +fear of the bad fairy, and----' + +'Perhaps he's the bad fairy himself,' I interrupted, half joking, but +rather interested, all the same, in Peterkin's ideas. + +'Oh no,' he replied, 'I know he's not, and I'm sure Mrs. Wylie has +nothing to do with the bad fairy.' + +'Then why do you think she won't talk about the little girl, or invite +her, or anything?' I asked. + +Pete seemed puzzled. + +'I don't know,' he said. 'There's a lot to find out. P'raps Mrs. Wylie +doesn't know anything about the spell, and has just got some stupid, +common reason for not wanting us to play with the little girl, or +p'raps'--and this was plainly a brilliant idea--'_p'raps_ the spell's +put on her without her knowing, and stops her when she begins to speak +about it. Mightn't it very likely be that, Giles?' + +But I had not time to answer, for we had got to our own door by now, and +it was already opened, as some tradesman was giving James a parcel. So +we ran in. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +'STRATAGEMS' + + +I REALLY don't quite know what made me listen to Peterkin's fancies +about his invisible princess, as I got into the habit of calling her. It +was partly, I suppose, because it amused me--we had nothing much to take +us up just then: there was no skating that winter, and the weather was +dull and muggy--and partly that somehow he managed to make me feel as if +there might really be something in it. I suppose when anybody quite +believes in a thing, it's rather catching; and Peterkin's head was so +stuffed and crammed with fairy stories that at that time, I think, they +were almost more real to him than common things. + +He went about, dreaming of ogres and magicians, and all the rest, so +much, that I scarcely think anything marvellous would have surprised +him. If I had suddenly shot up to the ceiling, and called out that I +had learnt how to fly, I don't believe he would have been startled; or +if I had shown him a purse with a piece of gold in it, and told him that +it was enchanted, and that he'd always find the money in it however +often he spent it, he'd have taken it quite seriously, and been very +pleased. + +So the idea of an enchanted little girl did not strike us as at all out +of the way. + +We did not talk about her any more that night after we had been at Mrs. +Wylie's, for we had to hurry up to get neat again to come down to the +drawing-room to mamma. Blanche and Elf were already there when we came +in, and they, and mamma too, were full of questions about how we'd +enjoyed ourselves, and about the parrot, and what we'd had for tea--just +as I knew they would be; I don't mean that mamma asked what we'd had for +tea, but the girls did. + +And then Pete and Elf went off to bed, and when I went up he was quite +fast asleep, and if he hadn't been, I could not have spoken to him +because of my promise, you know. + +He made up for it the next morning, however. + +I suppose he had had an extra good night, for I felt him looking at me +long before I was at all inclined to open my eyes, or to snort for him +to know I was awake. And when at last I did--it's really no good trying +to go to sleep again when you feel there's somebody fidgeting to talk to +you--there he was, his eyes as bright and shiny as could be, sitting +bolt up with his hands round his knees, as if he'd never been asleep in +his life? + +I couldn't help feeling rather cross, and yet I had a contradictory sort +of interest and almost eagerness to hear what he had to say. I suppose +it was a kind of love of adventure that made me join him in his fancies +and plans. I knew that his fancies were only fancies really, but still I +felt as if we might get some fun out of them. + +He was too excited to mind my being grumpy. + +'Oh, Gilley!' he exclaimed at my first snort, 'I am so glad you are +awake at last.' + +'I daresay you are,' I said, 'but I'm not. I should have slept another +half-hour if you hadn't sat there staring me awake.' + +'Well, you needn't talk,' he went on, in a 'smoothing-you-down' tone; +'just listen and grunt sometimes.' + +I did grunt there and then. There was one comfortable thing about +Peterkin even then, and it keeps on with him now that he is getting big +and sensible. He always understands what you say, however you say it, or +half say it. He was not the least surprised at my talking of his staring +me awake, though he had not exactly meant to do so. + +'It has come into my mind, Giles,' he began, very importantly, 'how +queer and lucky it is that the old lady is going away for a fortnight. I +should not wonder if it had been managed somehow.' + +He waited for my grunt, but it turned into-- + +'What on earth do you mean?' + +'I mean, perhaps it's part of the spell, without her knowing, of course, +that she should have to go to London. For if she was still there, we +couldn't do anything without her finding out.' + +'I don't know what you mean about doing anything,' I said. 'And please +don't say "we." I haven't promised to join you. Most likely I'll do my +best to stop whatever it is you've got in that rummy head of yours.' + +'Oh no, you won't!' he replied coolly. 'I don't know that you could if +you tried, without telling the others. And you can't do that, of course, +as I've trusted you. It's word of honour, you see, though I didn't +exactly make you say so. And it's nothing naughty or mischievous, else I +wouldn't plan it.' + +'What is it, then? Hurry up and tell me, without such a lot of +preparation,' I grumbled. + +'I can't tell you very much,' he answered, ''cos, you see, I don't know +myself. It will show as we go on--I'm certain you'll help me, Gilley. +You remember the prince in the "Sleeping Beauty" did not know exactly +what he would do--no more did the one in----' + +'Never mind all that,' I interrupted. + +'Well, then, what we've got to do is to try to talk to her ourselves +without any one hearing. That's the first thing. We will tell her what +the parrot says, and then it will be easy to find out if she knows +herself about the spell.' + +'But what do you think the spell is?' I asked, feeling again the strange +interest and half belief in his fancies that Peterkin managed to put +into me. 'What do you suppose your bad fairies, or whatever they are, +have done to her?' + +'There are lots of things, it might be,' he replied gravely. 'They may +have made her not able to walk, or very queer to look at--p'raps turned +her hair white, so that you couldn't be sure if she was a little girl +or an old woman; or made her nose so long that it trails on the floor. +No, I don't think it's that,' he added, after stopping to think a +minute. 'Her voice sounds as if she was pretty, even if it's rather +grumbly. P'raps she turns into a mouse at night, and has to run about, +and that's why she's so tired. It might be that.' + +'It would be easy to catch her, then, and bring her home in your pocket, +if you waited till the magic time came,' I suggested, half joking again, +of course. + +'It might be,' agreed Pete, quite seriously, 'or it might be very, very +difficult, unless we could make her understand at the mouse time that we +were friends. We can't settle anything till we see her, and talk to her +like a little girl, of course.' + +'You certainly couldn't talk to her like anything else,' I said; 'but +I'm sure I don't see how you mean to talk to her at all.' + +'I do,' said Peterkin. 'I've been planning it since last night. We can +go round that way once or twice to look at the parrot, and just stand +about. Nobody would wonder at us if they saw we were looking at him. And +very likely we'd see _something_, as she lives in the very next-door +house. P'raps she comes to the window sometimes, and she might notice +us if we were looking up at the parrot. It would be easiest if she was +in the downstairs room.' + +'I don't suppose she is there all day,' I said. 'The parrot would not +have heard her talking so much if she were. I think she must have been +out on the balcony sometimes when it was warmer.' + +'Yes,' Peterkin agreed. 'I thought of that. Very likely she only comes +downstairs for her dinner and tea. It's the dining-room, like Mrs. +Wylie's.' + +'And if she only comes down there late she wouldn't see us in the dark, +and, besides, the parrot wouldn't be out by then. And besides that, +except for going to tea to Mrs. Wylie's, we'd never get leave to be out +by ourselves so late. At least _you_ wouldn't. Of course, for me, it's +sometimes nearly dark when I come home from school.' + +I really did not see how Pete did mean to manage it. But the +difficulties I spoke of only seemed to make him more determined. I could +not help rather admiring him for it: he quite felt, I fancy, as if he +was one of his favourite fairy-tale princes. And in the queer way I have +spoken of already, he somehow made me feel with him. I did not go over +all the difficulties in order to stop him trying, but because I was +actually interested in seeing how he was going to overcome them. + +He was silent for a moment or two after my last speech, staring before +him with his round blue eyes. + +Then he said quietly-- + +'Yes; I'd thought of most of those things. But you will see. We'll +manage it somehow. I daresay she comes downstairs in the middle of the +day, too, for she's sure to have dinner early, and the parrot will be +out then, if we choose a fine day.' + +'But we always have to be in for our own dinner by half-past one,' I +said. + +'Well, p'raps _she_ has hers at one, or even half-past twelve, like we +used to, till you began going to school,' said he hopefully. 'And a +_very_ little talking would do at the first beginning. Then we could be +very polite, and say we'd come again to see the parrot, and p'raps--' +here Peterkin looked rather shy. + +'Perhaps what? Out with it!' I said. + +'We might take her a few flowers,' he answered, getting red, 'if--if we +could--could get any. They're very dear to buy, I'm afraid, and we +haven't any of our own. The garden is so small; it isn't like if we +lived in the country,' rather dolefully. + +'You wouldn't have known anything about Rock Terrace, or the invisible +princess, or the parrot, if we lived in the country,' I reminded him. + +'No,' said Pete, more cheerfully, 'I hadn't thought of that.' + +'And--' I went on, 'I daresay I could help you a bit if it really seemed +any good,' for I rather liked the idea of giving the little girl some +flowers. It made it all look less babyish. + +Peterkin grinned with delight. + +'You _are_ kind, Gilley!' he exclaimed. 'I knew you would be. Oh, +bother! here's nurse coming, and we haven't begun to settle anything +properly.' + +'There's no hurry,' I said; 'you've forgotten that we certainly can't go +there again till Mrs. Wylie's out of the way. And she said, "the end of +the week"; that means Saturday, most likely, and this is--oh dear! I was +forgetting--it's Sunday, and we'll be late.' + +Nurse echoed my words as she came in-- + +'You'll be late, Master Giles, and Master Peterkin, too,' she said. 'I +really don't think you should talk so much on Sunday mornings.' + +It wasn't that we had to be any earlier on Sundays than any other day, +but that dressing in your best clothes takes so much longer somehow, +and we had to have our hair very neat, and all like that, because we +generally went down to the dining-room, while papa and mamma and Clement +and Blanche were at breakfast, after we had had our own in the nursery. + +There would be no good in trying to remember all our morning talks that +week about Peterkin's plans. He did not get the least tired of them, and +I didn't, for a wonder, get tired of listening to him, he was so very +much in earnest. + +He chopped and changed a good bit in little parts of them, but still he +stuck to the general idea, and I helped him to polish it up. It was +really more interesting than any of his fairy stories, for he managed to +make both himself and me feel as if we were going to be _in_ one of them +ourselves. + +So I will skip over that week, and go on to the next. By that time we +knew that Mrs. Wylie was in London, because mamma said something one day +about having had a letter from her. Nothing to do with the little girl, +as far as we knew; I think it was only about somebody who wanted a +servant, or something stupid like that. + +It got on to the Monday of the next week _again_, and by that time Pete +had got a sort of start of his plans. He had got leave to come to meet +me at the corner of Lindsay Square, once or twice in the last few days. +I used to get there about a quarter or twenty minutes to one. We were +supposed to leave school not later than a quarter past twelve, but you +know how fellows get fooling about coming out of a day-school, so, +though it was really quite near, I was often later. + +Mamma was pleased for Peterkin to want to come to meet me. She was not +at all coddling or stupid like that about us boys, though her being in +such a fuss that evening Pete was lost may have seemed so. And she was +always awfully glad for us to be fond of each other. She used to say she +hoped we'd grow up 'friends' as well as brothers, which always reminded +me of the verse about it in the Bible about 'sticking closer than a +brother.' And I like to think that dear little mummy's hopes will come +true for her sons. + +It wasn't exactly a fit of affection for me, of course, that made Pete +want to get into the way of coming to meet me. Still, we _were_ very +good friends; especially good friends just then, as you know. + +So that Monday, which luckily happened to be a very nice bright day, he +had no difficulty in getting leave for it again. I had promised him to +hurry over getting off from school, so we counted on having a good bit +of time to spend in looking at the parrot and talking to him, and in +'spying the land' generally, including the invisible princess, if we got +a chance, without risking coming in too late for our dinner. We had +taken care never to be late, up till now, for fear of Peterkin's coming +to meet me being put a stop to; but we hadn't pretended that we would +come straight home, and once or twice we had done a little shopping +together, and more than once we had spent several minutes in staring in +at the flower-shop windows, settling what kind of flowers would be best, +and in asking the prices of hers from a flower-woman who often sat near +the corner of the square. She was very good-natured about it. We +shouldn't have liked to go into a regular shop only to ask prices, so it +was a good thing to know a little about them beforehand. + +I remember all about that Monday morning particularly well. I did hurry +off from school as fast as I could, though of course--I think it nearly +always happens so--ever so many stupid little things turned up to keep +me later than I often was. + +I skurried along pretty fast, you may be sure, once I did get out, and +it wasn't long before I caught sight of poor old Pete eagerly watching +for me at the corner of Lindsay Square. He did not dare to come farther, +because, you see, he had promised mamma he never would, and that if I +were ever very late he'd go home again. + +I didn't give him time to be doleful about it. + +'I've been as quick as I possibly could,' I said, 'and it's not so bad +after all, Pete. We shall have a quarter of an hour for Rock Terrace at +least, if we hurry now. Don't speak--it only wastes your breath,' for in +those days, with being so plump and sturdy and his legs rather short, it +didn't take much to make him puff or pant. He's in better training now +by a long way. + +He was always very sensible, so he took my advice and we got over the +ground pretty fast, only pulling up when we got to the end, or +beginning, of the little row of houses. + +'Now,' said I, 'let's first walk right along rather slowly, and if we +hear the Polly we can stop short, as if we were noticing him for the +first time, the way people often do, you know.' + +Peterkin nodded. + +'I believe I see the corner of his cage out on the balcony,' he said, +half whispering, 'already.' + +He was right. The cage was out. + +We walked past very slowly, though we took care not to look up as if we +were expecting to see anything. The parrot was in the front of the cage, +staring down, and I'm almost certain he saw us, and even remembered us, +though, out of contradiction, he pretended he didn't. + +'Don't speak or turn,' I whispered to Pete. It was so very quiet along +Rock Terrace, except when some tradesman's cart rattled past--and just +now there was nothing of the kind in view--that even common talking +could have been heard. 'Don't speak or seem to see him. They are awfully +conceited birds, and the way to make them notice you and begin talking +and screeching is to pretend you don't see them.' + +So we walked on silently to the farther end of the terrace, in a very +matter-of-fact way, turning to come back again just as we had gone. And +I could be positive that the creature saw us all the time, for the row +of houses was very short, and he was well to the front of the balcony. + +Our 'stratagem'--I have always liked the word, ever since I read _Tales +of a Grandfather_, which I thought a great take-in, as it's just a +history book, neither more nor less, and the only exciting part is when +you come upon stratagems--succeeded. As we got close up to the parrot's +house, next door to Mother Wylie's, you understand, _and_, of course, +next door to the invisible princess's, we heard a sound. It was a sort +of rather angry squeak or croak, but loud enough to be an excuse for our +stopping short and looking up. + +And then, as we still did not speak, Master Poll, his round eyes glaring +at us, I felt certain, was forced to open the conversation. + +'Pretty Poll,' he began, of course. 'Pretty Poll.' + +'All right,' I called back. 'Good morning, Pretty Poll. A fine day.' + +'Wants his dinner,' he went on. 'I say, wants his dinner.' + +'Really, does he?' I said, in a mocking tone, which he understood, and +beginning to get angry--just what I wanted. + +'Naughty boy! naughty boy!' he screeched, very loudly. Pete and I +grinned with satisfaction! + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MARGARET + + +THERE'S an old proverb that mamma has often quoted to us, for she's +awfully keen on our all being 'plucky,' and, on the whole, I think we +are-- + +'Fortune favours the brave.' + +I have sometimes thought it would suit Peterkin to turn it into 'Fortune +favours the determined.' Not that he's _not_ 'plucky,' but there's +nothing like him for sticking to a thing, once he has got it into his +head. And certainly fortune favoured him at the time I am writing about. +Nothing could have suited us better than the parrot's screeching out to +us 'naughty boy, naughty boy.' + +I suppose he had been taught to say it to errand-boys and boys like that +who mocked at him. But we did not want to set up a row, so I replied +gently-- + +'No, no, Polly, good boys. Polly shall have his dinner soon.' + +'Good Polly, good Polly,' he repeated with satisfaction. + +And then--what _do_ you think happened? The door-window of the +drawing-room of the next house, _the_ house, was pushed open a little +bit, and out peeped a child's head, a small head with smooth short dark +hair, but a little girl's head. We could tell that at once by the way it +was combed, or brushed, even if we had not seen, as we did, a white +muslin pinafore, with lace ruffly things that only a girl would wear. My +heart really began to beat quite loudly, as if I'd been running fast--we +had been so excited about her, you see, and afterwards Pete told me his +did too. + +The only pity was, that she was up on the drawing-room floor. We could +have seen her so much better downstairs. But we had scarcely time to +feel disappointed. + +When she saw us, and saw, I suppose, that we were not errand-boys or +street-boys, she came out a little farther. I felt sure by her manner +that she was alone in the room. She looked down at us, looked us well +over for a moment or two, and then she said-- + +'Are you talking to the parrot?' + +She did not call out or speak loudly at all, but her voice was very +clear. + +'Yes,' Peterkin replied. As he had started the whole business I thought +it fair to let him speak before me. 'Yes, but he called out to us first. +He called us "naughty boys."' + +'I heard him,' said the little girl, 'and I thought perhaps you _were_ +naughty boys, teasing him, you know, and I was going to call to you to +run away. But--' and she glanced at us again. I could see that she +wanted to go on talking, but she did not quite know how to set about it. + +So I thought I might help things on a bit. + +'Thank you,' I said, taking off my cap. 'My little brother is very +interested in the parrot. He seems so clever.' + +At another time Pete would have been very offended at my calling him +'little,' but just now he was too eager to mind, or even, I daresay, to +notice. + +'So he is,' said the little girl. 'I could tell you lots about him, but +it's rather tiresome talking down to you from up here. Wait a minute,' +she added, 'and I'll come down to the dining-room. I may go downstairs +now, and nurse is out, and I'm very dull.' + +We were so pleased that we scarcely dared look at each other, for fear +that somehow it should go wrong after all. We did glance along the +terrace, but nobody was coming. If only her nurse would stay out for ten +minutes longer, or even less. + +We stood there, almost holding our breath. But it was not really--it +could not have been--more than half a minute, before the dark head and +white pinafore appeared again, this time, of course, on the ground +floor; the window there was a little bit open already, to air the room +perhaps. + +We would have liked to go close up to the small balcony where she stood, +but we dared not, for fear of the nurse coming. And the garden was very +tiny, we were only two or three yards from the little girl, even outside +on the pavement. + +She looked at us first, looked us well over, before she began to speak +again. Then she said-- + +'Have you been to see the parrot already?' + +'Oh yes,' said Peterkin, in his very politest tone, 'oh yes, thank you.' +I did not quite see why he said 'thank you.' I suppose he meant it in +return for her coming downstairs. 'I've been here two, no, three times, +and Giles,' he gave a sort of nod towards me, 'has been here two.' + +'Is your name Giles?' she asked me. She had a funny, little, rather +condescending manner of speaking to us, but I didn't mind it somehow. + +'Yes,' I replied, 'and his,' and I touched Pete, 'is "Peterkin."' + +'They are queer names; don't you think so? At least,' she added quickly, +as if she was afraid she had said something rude, 'they are very +uncommon. "Giles" and "Perkin."' + +'Not "Perkin,"' I said, "Peterkin."' + +'Oh, I thought it was like a man in my history,' she said, 'Perkin +War--something.' + +'No,' said Peterkin, 'it isn't in history, but it's in poetry. About a +battle. I've got it in a book.' + +'I should like to see it,' she said. 'There's lots of _my_ name in +history. My name is Margaret. There are queens and princesses called +Margaret.' + +Pete opened his mouth as if he was going to speak, but shut it up again. +I know what he had been on the point of saying,--'Are you a princess?' +'a shut-up princess?' he would have added very likely, but I suppose he +was sensible enough to see that if she had been 'shut-up,' in the way he +had been fancying to himself, she would scarcely have been able to come +downstairs and talk to us as she was doing. And she was not dressed like +the princesses in his stories, who had always gold crowns on and long +shiny trains. Still, though she had only a pinafore on, I could see that +it was rather a grand one, lots of lace about it, like one of Elf's very +best, and though her hair was short and her face small and pale, there +was something about her--the way she stood and the way she spoke--which +was different from many little girls of her age. + +Peterkin took advantage very cleverly of what she had said about his +name. + +'I'll bring you my poetry-book, if you like,' he said. 'It's a quite old +one. I think it belonged to grandmamma, and she's as old as--as old +as--' he seemed at a loss to find anything to compare poor grandmamma +to, till suddenly a bright idea struck him--'nearly as old as Mrs. +Wylie, I should think,' he finished up. + +'Oh,' said Margaret, 'do you know Mrs. Wylie? I've never seen her, but I +think I've heard her talk. Her house is next door to the parrot's.' + +'Yes,' said I, 'but I wonder you've never seen her. She often goes out.' + +'But--' began the little girl again, 'I've been--oh, I do believe that's +my dinner clattering in the kitchen, and nurse will be coming in, and +I've never told you about the parrot. I've lots to tell you. Will you +come again? Not to-morrow, but on Wednesday nurse is going out to the +dressmaker's. I heard her settling it. Please come on Wednesday, just +like this.' + +'We could come a little earlier, perhaps,' I said. + +Margaret nodded. + +'Yes, do,' she replied, 'and I'll be on the look-out for you. I shall +think of lots of things to say. I want to tell you about the parrot, +and--about lots of things,' she repeated. 'Good-bye.' + +We tugged at our caps, echoing 'good-bye,' and then we walked on towards +the farther-off end of the terrace, and when we got there we turned and +walked back again. And then we saw that we had not left the front of +Margaret's house any too soon, for a short, rather stout little woman +was coming along, evidently in a hurry. She just glanced at us as she +passed us, but I don't think she noticed us particularly. + +'That's her nurse, I'm sure,' said Peterkin, in a low voice. 'I don't +think she looks unkind.' + +'No, only rather fussy, I should say,' I replied. + +We had scarcely spoken to each other before, since bidding Margaret +good-bye. Pete had been thinking deeply, and I was waiting to hear what +he had to say. + +'I wonder,' he went on, after a moment or two's silence,--'I wonder how +much she knows?' + +'Why?' I exclaimed. 'What do you think there is to know?' + +'It's all very misterous, still,' he answered solemnly. 'She--the little +girl--said she had lots to tell us about the parrot and other things. +And she didn't want her nurse to see us talking to her. And she said she +could come downstairs _now_, but, I'm sure, they don't let her go out. +She wouldn't be so dull if they did.' + +'Who's "they"?' I asked. + +'I don't quite know,' he replied, shaking his head. 'Some kind of +fairies. P'raps it's bad ones, or p'raps it's good ones. No, it can't be +bad ones, for then they wouldn't have planned the parrot telling us +about her, so that we could help her to get free. The parrot is a sort +of messenger from the good fairies, I believe.' + +He looked up, his eyes very bright and blue, as they always were when he +thought he had made a discovery, or was on the way to one. And I, half +in earnest, half in fun, like I'd been about it all the time, let my +own fancy go on with his. + +'Perhaps,' I said. 'We shall find out on Wednesday, I suppose, when we +talk more to Margaret. We needn't call her the invisible princess any +more.' + +'No, but she is a princess sort of little girl, isn't she?' he said, +'though her hair isn't as pretty as Blanche's and Elf's, and her face is +very little.' + +'She's all right,' I said. + +And then we had to hurry and leave off talking, for we had been walking +more slowly than we knew, and just then some big clock struck the +quarter. + +I think, perhaps, I had better explain here, that none of us--neither +Margaret, nor Peterkin, nor I--thought we were doing anything the least +wrong in keeping our making acquaintance a secret. What Margaret thought +about it, so far as she did think of that part of it, you will +understand as I go on; and Pete and I had our minds so filled with his +fairies that we simply didn't think of anything else. + +It was growing more and more interesting, for Margaret had something +very jolly about her, though she wasn't exactly pretty. + +I can't remember if it did come into my mind, a very little, perhaps, +that we should tell somebody--mamma, perhaps, or Clement--about our +visits to Rock Terrace even then. But if it did, I think I put it out +again, by knowing that Margaret meant it to be a secret, and that, till +we saw her again, and heard what she was going to tell us, it would not +be fair to mention anything about it. + +We were both very glad that Wednesday was only the day after to-morrow. +It would have been a great nuisance to have had to wait a whole week, +perhaps. And we were very anxious when Wednesday morning came, to see +what sort of weather it was, for on Tuesday it rained. Not very badly, +but enough for nurse to tell Peterkin that it was too showery for him to +come to meet me, and it would not have been much good if he had, as we +couldn't have spoken to Margaret. + +Nor could we have strolled up and down the terrace or stood looking at +the parrot, even if he'd been out on the terrace, which he wouldn't have +been on at all on a bad day--if it was rainy. It would have been sure to +make some of the people in the houses wonder at us; just what we didn't +want. + +But Wednesday was fine, luckily, and this time I got off from school to +the minute without any one or anything stopping me. + +I ran most of the way to the corner of Lindsay Square, all the same; +and I was not too early either, for before I got there I saw Master +Peterkin's sturdy figure steering along towards me, not far off. And +when he got up to me I saw that he had a small brown-paper parcel under +his arm, neatly tied up with red string. + +He was awfully pleased to see me so early, for his round face was +grinning all over, and as a rule it was rather solemn. + +'What's that you've got there?' I asked. + +He looked surprised at my not knowing. + +'Why, of course, the poetry-book,' he said. 'I promised it her, +and I've marked the poetry about "Peterkin." It's the Battle of +Blen--Blen-hime--mamma said, when I learnt it, that that's the +right way to say it; but Miss Tucker' ('Miss Tucker' was Blanche's +and the little ones' governess) 'called it Blen_nem_, and I always +have to think when I say it. I wish they didn't call him "_little_ +Peterkin," though,' he went on, 'it sounds so babyish.' + +'I don't see that it matters, as it isn't about you yourself,' I said. +'I'd forgotten all about it; I think it's rather sharp of you to have +remembered.' + +'I couldn't never forget anything I'd promised _her_,' said Pete, and +you might really have thought by his tone that he believed he was the +prince going to visit the Sleeping Beauty--after she'd come awake, I +suppose. + +We did not need to hurry; we were actually rather too early, so we went +on talking. + +'How about the flowers we meant to get for her?' I said suddenly. + +'_I_ didn't forget about them,' he answered, 'but we didn't promise +them, and I thought it would be better to ask her first. She might like +chocolates best, you know.' + +'All right,' I said, and I thought perhaps it was better to ask her +first. You see, if she didn't want her nurse to know about our coming to +see her it would have been tiresome, as, of course, Margaret could not +have told a story. + +There she was, peeping out of the downstairs window already when we got +there. And when she saw us she came farther out, a little bit on to the +balcony. It was a sunny day for winter, and besides, she had a red shawl +on, so she could not very well have caught cold. It was a very pretty +shawl, with goldy marks or patterns on it. It was like one grandmamma +had been sent a present of from India, and afterwards Margaret told me +hers had come from India too. And it suited her, somehow, even though +she was only a thin, pale little girl. + +She smiled when she saw us, though she did not speak till we were near +enough to hear what she said without her calling out. And when we +stopped in front of her house, she said-- + +'I think you might come inside the garden. We could talk better.' + +So we did, first glancing up at the next-door balcony, to see if the +parrot was there. + +Yes, he was, but not as far out as usual, and there was a cloth, or +something, half-down round his cage, to keep him warmer, I suppose. + +He was quite silent, but Margaret nodded her head up towards him. + +'He told me you were coming,' she cried, 'though it wasn't in a very +polite way. He croaked out--"Naughty boys! naughty boys!"' + +We all three laughed a little. + +'And now,' Margaret went on, 'I daresay he won't talk at all, all the +time you are here.' + +'But will he understand what we say?' asked Peterkin, rather anxiously. + +Margaret shook her head. + +[Illustration: PETE HELD OUT HIS BROWN-PAPER PARCEL. 'THIS IS THE +POETRY-BOOK,' HE SAID.--p. 97.] + +'I really don't know,' she replied. 'We had better talk in rather low +voices. I don't _think_,' she went on, almost in a whisper, 'that he is +fairy enough to hear if we speak very softly.' + +Peterkin gave a sort of spring of delight. + +'Oh!' he exclaimed, 'I am _so_ glad you think he is fairyish, too.' + +'Of course I do,' said she; 'that's partly what I wanted to tell you.' + +We came closer to the window. Margaret looked at us again in her +examining way, without speaking, for a minute, and before she said +anything, Pete held out his brown-paper parcel. + +'This is the poetry-book,' he said, 'and I've put a mark in the place +where it's about my name.' + +He pulled off his cap as he handed the packet to her, and stood with his +curly wig looking almost red in the sunlight, though it was not very +bright. + +'Put it on again,' said Margaret, in her little queer way, meaning his +cap. 'And thank you very much, Perkin, for remembering to bring it. I +think I should like to call you "Perkin," if you don't mind. I like to +have names of my own for some people, and I really thought yours was +Perkin.' + +I wished to myself she would have a name of her own for _me_, but I +suppose she thought I was too big. + +'I think you are very nice boys,' she went on, 'not "naughty" ones at +all; and if you will promise not to tell any one what I am going to tell +_you_, I will explain all I can. I mean you mustn't tell any one till I +give you leave, and as it's only about my own affairs, of course you can +promise.' + +Of course we did promise. + +'Listen, then,' said Margaret, glancing up first of all at the parrot, +and drawing back a little into the inside of the room. 'You can hear +what I say, even though I don't speak very loudly, can't you?' + +'Oh yes! quite well,' we replied. + +'Well, then, listen,' she repeated. 'I have no brothers or sisters, and +Dads and Mummy are in India. I lived there till about three years ago, +and then they came here and left me with my grandfather. That's how +people always have to do who live in India.' + +'Didn't you mind awfully?' I said. 'Your father and mother leaving you, +I mean?' + +'Of course I minded,' she replied. 'But I had always known it would have +to be. And they will come home again for good some day; perhaps before +very long. And I have always been quite happy till lately. Gran is very +good to me, and I'm used to being a good deal alone, you see, except for +big people. I've always had lots of story books, and not _very_ many +lessons. So, after a bit, it didn't seem so very different from India. +Only _now_ it's quite different. It's like being shut up in a tower, and +it's very queer altogether, and I _believe_ she's a sort of a witch,' +and Margaret nodded her head mysteriously. + +'_Who?_' we asked eagerly. + +'The person I'm living with--Miss Bogle--isn't her name witchy?' and she +smiled a little. 'No, no, not nurse,' for I had begun to say the word. +'_She_ is only rather a goose. No, this house belongs to Miss Bogle, and +she's quite old--oh, as old as old! And she's got rheumatism, so she +very seldom goes up and down stairs. And nurse does just exactly what +Miss Bogle tells her. It was this way. Gran had to go away--a good way, +though not so far as India, and he is always dreadfully afraid of +anything happening to me, I suppose. So he sent me here with nurse, and +he told me I would be very happy. He knew Miss Bogle long ago--I think +she had a school for little boys once; perhaps that was before she got +to be a witch. But I've been dreadfully unhappy, and I don't know +what's going to happen to me if I go on like this much longer.' + +She stopped, out of breath almost. + +'Do you think she's going to enchanter you?' asked Peterkin, in a +whisper. 'Do you think she wasn't asked to your christening, or anything +like that?' + +Margaret shook her head again. + +'_Something_ like that, I suppose,' she replied. 'She looks at me +through her spectacles so queerly, you can't think. You see, I was ill +at Gran's before I came here: not very badly, though he fussed a good +deal about it. And he thought the sea-air would do me good. But I've +often had colds, and I never was treated like this before--never. For +ever so long, _she_,' and Margaret nodded towards somewhere unknown, +'wouldn't let me come downstairs at all. And then I cried--sometimes I +_roared_, and luckily the parrot heard, and began to talk about it in +his way. And you see it's through him that _you_ got to know about me, +so I'm sure he's on the other side, and knows she's a witch, but----' + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE GREAT PLAN + + +AT that moment the clock--a clock somewhere near--struck. Margaret +started, and listened,--'One, two, three.' She looked pleased. + +'It's only a quarter to one,' she said. 'Half-an-hour still to my +dinner. What time do you need to get home by?' + +'A quarter-past will do for us,' I said. + +'Oh, then it's all right,' she replied. 'But I must be quick. I want to +know all that the parrot told you.' + +'It was more what he had said to Mrs. Wylie,' I explained, 'copying you, +you know. And, at first, she called you "that poor child," and told us +she was so sorry for you.' + +'But now she won't say anything. She pinched up her lips about you the +other day,' added Peterkin. + +Margaret seemed very interested, but not very surprised. + +'Oh, then, Miss Bogle is beginning to bewitch her too,' she said. 'Nurse +is a goose, as I told you. She just does everything Miss Bogle wants. +And if it wasn't for the parrot and you,' she went on solemnly, 'I +daresay when Gran comes home he'd find me turned into a pussy-cat.' + +'Or a mouse, or even a frog,' said Peterkin, his eyes gleaming; 'only +then he wouldn't know it was you, unless your nurse told him.' + +'She wouldn't,' said Margaret, 'the witch would take care to stop her, +or to turn her into a big cat herself, or something. There'd be only the +parrot, and Gran mightn't understand him. It's better not to risk it. +And that's what I'm planning about. But it will take a great deal of +planning, though I've been thinking about it ever since you came, and I +felt sure the good fairies had sent you to rescue me. When can you come +again?' + +'Any day, almost,' said Pete. + +'Well, then, I'll tell you what. I'll be on the look-out for you passing +every fine day about this time, and the first day I'm sure of nurse +going to London again--and I know she has to go once more at least--I'll +manage to tell you, and _then_ we'll fix for a long talk here.' + +'All right,' I said, 'but we'd better go now.' + +There was a sound of footsteps approaching, so with only a hurried +'good-bye' we ran off. + +We did not need to stroll up and down the terrace to-day, as we knew +Margaret's nurse was away; luckily so, for we only just got home in time +by the skin of our teeth, running all the way, and not talking. + +I wish I could quite explain about myself, here, but it is rather +difficult. I went on thinking about Margaret a lot, all that day; all +the more that Pete and I didn't talk much about her. We both seemed to +be waiting till we saw her again and heard her 'plans.' + +And I cannot now feel sure if I really was in earnest at all, as she and +Peterkin certainly were, about the enchantment and the witch. I remember +I laughed at it to myself sometimes, and called it 'bosh' in my own +mind. And yet I did not quite think it only that. After all, I was only +a little boy myself, and Margaret had such a common-sensical way, even +in talking of fanciful things, that somehow you couldn't laugh at her, +and Pete, of course, was quite and entirely in earnest. + +I think I really had a strong belief that _some_ risk or danger was +hanging over her, and I think this was natural, considering the queer +way our getting to know her had been brought about. And any boy would +have been 'taken' by the idea of 'coming to the rescue,' as she called +it. + +There was a good deal of rather hard work at lessons just then for me. +Papa and mamma wanted me to get into a higher class after Christmas, and +I daresay I had been pretty idle, or at least taking things easy, for I +was not as well up as I should have been, I know. So Peterkin and I had +not as much time for private talking as usual. I had often lessons to +look over first thing in the morning, and as mamma would not allow us to +have candles in bed, and there was no gas or electric light in our room, +I had to get up a bit earlier, when I had work to look over or finish. +And nurse was very good about that sort of thing: there was always a +jolly bright fire for me in the nursery, however early I was. + +Our best time for talking was when Peterkin came to meet me. But we had +two or three wet days about then. And Margaret did not expect us on +rainy days, even if Pete had been allowed to come, which he wasn't. + +It was, as far as I remember, not till the Monday after that Wednesday +that we were able to pass along Rock Terrace. And almost before we came +in real sight of her, I felt certain that the little figure was standing +there on the look-out. + +And so she was--red shawl and white pinafore, and small dark head, as +usual. + +We made a sort of pretence of strolling past her house at first, but we +found we didn't need to. She beckoned to us at once, and just at that +moment the parrot, who was out in _his_ balcony, most luckily--or +cleverly, Peterkin always declares he did it on purpose--screeched out +in quite a good-humoured tone-- + +'Good morning! good morning! Pretty Poll! Fine day, boys! Good morning!' + +'Good morning, Poll,' we called out as we ran across the tiny plot of +garden to Margaret. + +'I'm so glad you've come,' she said, 'but you mustn't stop a minute. +I've been out in a bath-chair this morning--I've just come in; and now +I'm to go every day. It's horrid, and it's all nonsense, when I can +walk and run quite well. It's all that old witch. I'm going again +to-morrow and Wednesday; but I'm going to manage to make it later on +Wednesday, so that you can talk to me on the Parade. Nurse is going to +London all day on Wednesday, but I'm to go out just the same, for the +bath-chair man is somebody that Miss Bogle knows quite well. So if you +watch for me on the Parade, between the street close to here,' and she +nodded towards the nearest side of Lindsay Square, 'and farther on +_that_ way,' and now she pointed in the direction of our own house, +'I'll look out for you, and we can have a good talk.' + +'All right,' we replied. 'On Wednesday--day after to-morrow, if it's +fine, of course.' + +'Yes,' she said; 'though I'll _try_ to go, even if it's not _very_ fine, +and you must try to come. I know now why nurse has to go to London. It's +to see her sister, who's in an hospital, and Wednesday's the only day, +and she's a dressmaker--that's why I thought nurse had to go to a +dressmaker's. I'm going on making up my plans. It's getting worse and +worse. After I've been out in the bath-chair, Miss Bogle says I'm to lie +down most of the afternoon! Just fancy--it's so _dreadfully_ dull, for +she won't let me read. She says it's bad for your eyes, when you're +lying down. Unless I do something quick, I believe she'll turn me into +a--oh! I don't know what,' and she stopped, quite out of breath. + +'A frog,' said Peterkin. He had enchanted frogs on the brain just then, +I believe. + +'No,' said Margaret, 'that wouldn't be so bad, for I'd be able to jump +about, and there's nothing I love as much as jumping about, especially +in water,' and her eyes sparkled with a sort of mischief which I had +seen in them once or twice before. 'No, it would be something much +horrider--a dormouse, perhaps. I should hate to be a dormouse. + +'You shan't be changed into a dormouse or--or _anything_,' said +Peterkin, with a burst of indignation. + +'Thank you, Perkins,' Margaret replied; 'but please go now and +remember--Wednesday.' + +We ran off, and though we thought we had only been a minute or two at +Rock Terrace, after all we were not home much too early. + +'We must be careful on Wednesday,' I said. 'I'm afraid my watch is +rather slow.' + +[Illustration: WE HAD NO DIFFICULTY IN FINDING HER BATH-CHAIR.--p. 108.] + +'Dinner isn't always quite so pumptual on Wednesdays,' said Pete, 'with +its being a half-holiday, you know.' + +It turned out right enough on Wednesday. + +Considering what a little girl she was then--only eight and a +bit--Margaret was very clever with her plans and settlings, as we have +often told her since. I daresay it was with her having lived so much +alone, and read so many story-books, and made up stories for herself +too, as she often did, though we didn't know that then. + +We had no difficulty in finding her bath-chair, and the man took it +quite naturally that she should have some friends, and, of course, made +no objection to our walking beside her and talking to her. He was a very +nice kind sort of a man, though he scarcely ever spoke. Perhaps he had +children of his own, and was glad for Margaret to be amused. He took +great care of the chair, over the crossing the road and the turnings, +and no doubt he had been told to be extra careful, but as Miss Bogle had +no idea that Margaret knew a creature in the place I don't suppose 'the +witch' had ever thought of telling him that he was not to let any one +speak to her. + +It was a very fine day--a sort of November summer, and when you were in +the full sunshine it really felt quite hot. There were bath-chairs +standing still, for the people in them to enjoy the warmth and to stare +out at the sea. + +Margaret did not want to stare at it, and no more did we. But it was +more comfortable to talk with the chair standing still; for though to +look at one going it seems to crawl along like a snail, I can tell you +to keep up with it you have to step out pretty fast, faster than +Peterkin could manage without a bit of running every minute or so, which +is certainly _not_ comfortable, and faster than I myself could manage as +well as talking, without getting short of breath. + +So we were very glad to pull up for a few minutes, though we had already +got through a good deal of business, as I will tell you. + +Margaret had made up her mind to run away! Fancy that--a little girl of +eight! + +Pete and I were awfully startled when she burst out with it. She could +stand Miss Bogle and the dreadful dulness and loneliness of Rock Terrace +no longer, she declared, not to speak of what might happen to her in the +way of being turned into a kitten or a mouse or _something_, if the +witch got really too spiteful. + +'And where will you go to?' we asked. + +'Home,' she said, 'at least to my nursey's, and that is close to home.' + +We were so puzzled at this that we could scarcely speak. + +'To your _nurse's_!' we said at last. + +'Yes, to my own nurse--my old nurse!' said Margaret, quite surprised +that we didn't understand. And then she explained what she thought she +had told us. + +'That stupid thing who is my nurse now,' she said, 'isn't my _real_ +nurse. I mean she has only been with me since I came here. She belongs +to Miss Bogle--I mean Miss Bogle got her. My own darling nursey had to +leave me. She stayed and stayed because of that bad cold I got, you +know, but as soon as I was better she _had_ to go, because her mother +was so old and ill, and hasn't _nobody_ but nursey to take care of her. +And then when Gran had to go away he settled it all with that witchy +Miss Bogle, and she got this goosey nurse, and my own nursey brought me +here. And she cried and cried when she went away, and she said she'd +come some day to see if I was happy, but the witch said no, she mustn't, +it would upset me; and so she's never dared to; and now you can fancy +what my life has been,' Margaret finished up, in quite a triumphant +tone. + +Peterkin was nearly crying by this time. But I knew I must be very +sensible. It all seemed so very serious. + +'But what will your grandfather say when he knows you've run away?' I +asked, while Peterkin stood listening, with his mouth wide open. + +'He'd be very glad to know where I was, _I_ should say,' Margaret +replied. 'My own nursey will write to him, and I will myself. It'll be a +good deal better than if I stayed to be turned into something he'd never +know was me. Then, what would Dads and Mummy say to _him_ for having +lost me?' + +'The parrot'd tell, p'raps,' said Pete. + +'As if anybody would believe him!' exclaimed Margaret, 'except people +who understand about fairies and witches and things like that, that you +two and I know about.' + +She was giving _me_ credit for more believing in 'things like that' than +I was feeling just then, to tell the truth. But what I did feel rather +disagreeably sure of, was this queer little girl's determination. She +sometimes spoke as if she was twenty. Putting it all together, I had a +sort of instinct that it was best not to laugh at her ideas at all, as +the next thing would be that she and her devoted 'Perkins' would be +making plans without me, and really getting lost, or into dreadful +troubles of some kind. So I contented myself with just saying-- + +'Why should Miss Bogle want to turn you into anything?' + +'Because witches are like that,' said Peterkin, answering for his +princess. + +'And because she hates the bother of having me,' added Margaret. 'She +has written to Gran that I am very troublesome--nurse told me so; nurse +can't hold her tongue--and I daresay I am,' she added truly. 'And so, if +I seemed to be lost, she'd say it wasn't her fault. And as I suppose I'd +never be found, there'd be an end of it.' + +'You couldn't but be found _now_,' said Peterkin, 'as, you see, _we'd_ +know.' + +'If she didn't turn _you_ into something too,' said Margaret, with the +sparkle of mischief in her eyes again. + +Pete looked rather startled at this new idea. + +'The best thing to do is for me to go away to a safe place while I'm +still myself,' she added. + +'But have you got the exact address? Do you know what station to go to, +and all that sort of thing?' I asked. 'And have you got money enough?' + +'Plenty,' she said, nodding her head; 'plenty for all I've planned. Of +course I know the station--it's the same as for my own home, and nursey +lives in the village where the railway comes. Much nearer than _our_ +house, which is two miles off. And I know nursey will have me, even if +she had to sleep on the floor herself. The only bother is that I'll have +to change out of the train from _here_, and get into another at a place +that's called a Junction. Nursey and I had to do that when we came here, +and I heard Gran explain it all to her, and I know it's the same going +back, for the nurse I have _now_ told me so. When she goes to London she +stays in the same railway; but if you're _not_ going to London, you have +to get into another one. And nursey and I had to wait nearly +half-an-hour, I should think, and that's the part I mind,' and, for the +first time, her eager little face looked anxious. 'The railway people +would ask me who I was, and where I was going, as, you see, I look so +much littler than I am; so I've planned for you two kind boys to come +with me to that changing station, and wait till I've got into the train +that goes to Hill Horton; that's _our_ station. I've plenty of money,' +she went on hurriedly, for, I suppose, she saw that I was looking very +grave, and Peterkin's face was pink with excitement. + +'It isn't that,' I said; 'it's--it's the whole thing. Supposing you got +lost after all, it would be----' + +'No, no! I won't get lost,' she said, speaking again in her very +grown-up voice. 'And remember, you're on your word of honour as +_gentlemen_!--_gentlemen_!' she repeated, 'not to tell any one without +my leave. If you do, I'll just run away by myself, and very likely get +lost or stolen, or something. And how would you feel then?' + +'We are not going to break our promise,' I said. 'You needn't be +afraid.' + +'I'm not,' she said, and her face grew rather red. 'I always keep _my_ +word, and I expect any one I trust to keep theirs.' + +And though she was such a little girl, not much older than Elvira, whom +we often called a 'baby,' I felt sure she _would_ 'keep hers.' It +certainly wouldn't mend matters to risk her starting off by herself, as +I believe she would have done if we had failed her. + +It has taken longer to write down all our talking than the talking +itself did, even though it was a little interrupted by the bath-chair +man every now and then taking a turn up and down, 'just to keep Missy +moving a bit,' he said. + +Margaret's plans were already so very clear in her head that she had no +difficulty in getting us to understand them thoroughly, and I don't +think I need go on about what she said, and what we said. I will tell +what we fixed to do, and what we did do. + +Next Wednesday--a full week on--was the day she had settled for her +escape from Rock Terrace. It was a long time to wait, but it was the day +her nurse was pretty sure--really quite sure, Margaret thought--to go to +London again, for she had said so. She went by a morning train, and did +not come back till after dark in the evening, so there was no fear of +our running up against her at the railway station. There was a train +that would do for Hill Horton, after waiting a little at the Junction, +at about three o'clock in the afternoon; and as it was my half-holiday, +Peterkin and I could easily get leave to go out together if it was fine, +and if it wasn't, we would have to come without! We trusted it would be +fine; and I settled in my own mind that if we _had_ to come without +asking, I'd leave a message with James the footman, that they weren't to +be frightened about us at home, for I didn't want mamma and all the +others to be in a fuss again, like the evening Peterkin was lost. + +Margaret said we needn't be away more than about an hour and a half. I +don't quite remember how she'd got all she knew about the times of the +trains. I think it was from the cook or housemaid at Miss Bogle's, for I +know she said one of them came from near Hill Horton, and that she was +very good-natured, and liked talking about Margaret's home and her own. + +So it was settled. + +Just to make it even more fixed, we promised to go round by Rock Terrace +on Monday at the usual time, and Margaret was either to speak to us from +the dining-room window, or, if she couldn't, she would hang out a white +handkerchief somewhere that we should be sure to see, which would mean +that it was all right. + +We were to meet her at the corner of her row of houses nearest Lindsay +Square, at half-past two on Wednesday. How she meant to do about her +bath-chair drive, and all the rest of it, she didn't tell us, and, +really, there wasn't time. + +But I felt sure she would manage it, and Peterkin was even surer than I. + +The last thing she said was-- + +'Of course, I shall have very little luggage; not more than you two boys +can easily carry between you.' + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A TERRIBLE IDEA + + +THAT was on a Wednesday, and the same day the next week was to be _the_ +day. On the Monday, as we had planned, we strolled along Rock Terrace. +Luckily, it was a fine day, and we could look well about us without +appearing to have any particular reason for doing so. It would have +seemed rather funny if we had been holding up umbrellas, or, I should +say, if _I_ had been, for when it rained Peterkin wasn't allowed to come +to meet me. + +We stood still in front of the parrot's house. He was out on the +balcony. I wondered if he would notice us, or if he did, if he would +condescend to speak to us. + +Yes, I felt that his ugly round eyes--don't you think all parrots' eyes +are ugly, however pretty their feathers are?--were fixed on us, and in +a moment or two came his squeaky, croaky voice-- + +'Good morning, boys! Good morning! Pretty Poll!' + +'He didn't say "naughty boys,"' I remarked. + +'No, of course not,' replied Peterkin; 'because he knows all about it +now, you see.' + +'We mustn't stand here long, however,' I said. 'I wond----' + +'I wonder why Margaret hasn't hung out a handkerchief if she couldn't +get to speak to us,' I was going to have said, but just at that moment +we heard a voice on the upstairs balcony-- + +'Good Polly,' it said, 'good, good Polly.' + +And the parrot repeated with great pride-- + +'Good, good Polly.' + +But when we looked up there was no one to be seen, only I thought one of +the glass doors of Margaret's dining-room clicked a little. And I was +right. In another moment there she was herself, on the dining-room +balcony--half on it, that's to say, and half just inside. + +'Isn't he good?' she said, when we came as near as we dared to hear her. +'I told him to let me know as soon as he saw you, for I couldn't manage +the handkerchief, and I was afraid you might have gone before I could +catch you. Nurse has been after me so this morning, for the witch was +angry with me yesterday for standing at the window without my shawl. But +you mustn't stay,' and she nodded in her queenly little way. 'It's +keeping all right--Wednesday at half-past two, at the corner next the +Square--wet or fine. Good-bye.' + +'Good-bye, all right,' we whispered, but she heard us. + +So did the parrot. + +'Good-bye, boys; good Polly! good, good Polly!' and something else which +Peterkin declared meant, 'Wednesday at half-past two.' + +I felt pretty nervous, I can tell you, that day and the next. At least I +suppose it's what people call feeling very nervous. I seemed half in a +dream, and, as if I couldn't settle to anything, all queer and fidgety. +A little, just a very little perhaps, like what you feel when you know +you are going to the dentist's, especially if you _haven't_ got +toothache; for when you have it badly, you don't mind the thought of +having a tooth out, even a thumping double one. + +Yet I should have felt disappointed if the whole thing had been given +up, and, worse than that, horribly frightened if it had ended in +Margaret's saying she'd run away by herself without us helping her, as I +know--I have said so two or three times already, I'm afraid: it's +difficult to keep from repeating if you're not accustomed to writing and +feel very anxious to explain things clearly--as I know she really would +have done. + +And then there was the smaller worry of wondering what sort of weather +there was going to be on Wednesday, which did matter a good deal. + +I shall never forget how thankful I felt in the morning when it came, +and I awoke, and opened my eyes, without any snorting for once, to hear +Peterkin's first words-- + +'It's a very fine day, Gilley--couldn't be better.' + +'Thank goodness,' I said. + +He was sitting up, as usual; but I don't think he had stared me awake +this morning, for he was gazing out in the direction of the window, +where up above the short blind a nice show of pale-blue sky was to be +seen; a wintry sort of blue, with the early mist over it a little, but +still quite cheering and 'lasting' looking. + +'All the same,' I went on, speaking more to myself, perhaps, than to +him, 'I wish we were well through it, and your princess safe with her +old nurse.' + +For I could not have felt comfortable about her, as I have several times +said, even if _we_ had not promised to help her. More than that--I do +believe she was so determined, that supposing mamma or Mrs. Wylie or any +grown-up person had somehow come to know about it, Margaret would have +kept to her plan, and perhaps even hurried it on and got into worse +trouble. + +She needed a lesson; though I still do think, and always shall think, +that old Miss Bogle and her new nurse and everybody were not a bit right +in the way they tried to manage her. + +I hurried home from school double-quick that morning, you may be sure. +And Peterkin and I were ready for dinner--hands washed, hair brushed, +and all the rest of it--long before the gong sounded. + +Mamma looked at us approvingly, I remember, when she came into the +dining-room, where we were waiting before the girls and Clement had made +their appearance. + +'Good boys,' she said, smiling, 'that's how I like to see you. How neat +you both look, and down first, too!' + +I felt rather a humbug, but I don't believe Peterkin did; he was so +completely taken up with the thought of Margaret's escape, and so +down-to-the-ground sure that he was doing a most necessary piece of +business if she was to be saved from the witch's 'enchantering,' as he +would call it. + +But as I was older, of course, the mixture of feelings in my mind _was_ +a mixture, and I couldn't stand being altogether a humbug. + +So I said to mamma-- + +'It's mostly that we want to go out as soon as ever we've had our +dinner; you know you gave us leave to go?' + +'Oh yes,' said she. 'Well, it's a very nice day, and you will take good +care of Peterkin, won't you, Giles? Don't tire him. Are any of your +schoolfel----' + +But at that moment a note was brought to her, which she had to send an +answer to, and when she sat down at the table again, she was evidently +still thinking of it, and forgot she had not finished her question, +which I was very glad of. + +So we got off all right, though I had a feeling that Clement looked at +us _rather_ curiously, as we left the dining-room. + +At the _very_ last moment, I did give the message I had thought about +in my own mind, with James. Just for him to say that mamma and nobody +was to be frightened if we _were_ rather late of coming back--_even_ if +it should be after dark; that we should be all right. + +And then we ran off without giving James time to say anything, though he +did open his mouth and begin to stutter out some objection. He was +rather a donkey, but I knew that he was to be trusted, so I just laughed +in his face. + +We were a little before the time at the corner of the square, but that +was a good thing. It would never have done to keep _her_ waiting, +Peterkin said. He always spoke of her as if she was a kind of queen. And +he was right enough. All the same, my heart did beat in rather a funny +way, thinking to myself what could or should we do if she didn't come? + +But we were not kept waiting long. In another minute or so, a little +figure appeared round the corner, hastening towards us as fast as it +could, but evidently a good deal bothered by a large parcel, which at +the first glance looked nearly as big as itself. + +Of course it was Margaret. + +'Oh,' she exclaimed, 'I am so glad you are here already. It's this +package. I had no idea it would seem so heavy.' + +'It's nothing,' said Peterkin, valiantly, taking it from her as he +spoke. + +And it really wasn't very much--what had made it seem so conspicuous was +that the contents were all wrapped up in her red shawl, and naturally it +looked a queer bundle for a little girl like her to be carrying. She was +not at all strong either, even for a little girl, and afterwards I was +not surprised at this, for the illness she had spoken of as a bad cold +had really been much worse than that. + +'Let's hurry on,' she said, 'I shan't feel safe till we've got to the +station,' for which I certainly thought she had good reason. + +I had meant to go by the front way, which was actually the shortest, but +the scarlet bundle staggered me. Luckily I knew my way about the streets +pretty well, so I chose rather less public ones. And before long, even +though the package was not very heavy, Peterkin began to flag, so I had +to help him a bit with it. + +But for that, there would have been nothing about us at all noticeable. +Margaret was quite nicely and quietly dressed in dark-blue serge, +something like Blanche and Elvira, and we just looked as if we were a +little sister and two schoolboy brothers. + +'Couldn't you have got something less stary to tie up your things in?' I +asked her when we had got to some little distance from Rock Terrace, and +were in a quiet street. + +She shook her head. + +'No,' she said, 'it was the only thing. I have a nice black bag, as well +as my trunks, of course, but the witch or nurse has hidden it away. I +_couldn't_ find it. It's just as if they had thought I might be planning +to run away. I _nearly_ took nurse's waterproof cape; she didn't take it +to London to-day, because it is so fine and bright. But I didn't like +to, after all. It won't matter once we are in the train, and at Hill +Horton it will be a good thing, as my own nursey will see it some way +off.' + +We were almost at the station by now, and I told Margaret so. + +'All right,' she said. 'I have the money all ready. One for me to Hill +Horton, and two for you to the Junction station,' and she began to pull +out her purse. + +'You needn't get it out just yet,' I said. 'We shall have quite a +quarter of an hour to wait. If you give me your purse once we're +inside, I will tell you exactly what I take out. How much is there in +it?' + +'A gold half-sovereign,' she replied, 'and a half-crown, and five +sixpences, and seven pennies.' + +'There won't be very much over,' I said, 'though we are all three under +twelve; so halves will do, and returns for Pete and me. Second-class, I +suppose?' + +'Second-class!' repeated Margaret, with great scorn; 'of course not. +I've never travelled anything but first in my life. I don't know what +Gran would say, or nursey even, if she saw me getting out of a +_second_-class carriage.' + +She made me feel a little cross, though she didn't mean it. _We_ often +travelled second, and even third, if there were a lot of us and we could +get a carriage to ourselves. But, after all, it was Margaret's own +affair, and as she was to be alone from the Junction to Hill Horton, +perhaps it was best. + +'_I_ don't want you to travel second, I'm sure,' I said, 'if only +there's enough. I'd have brought some of my own, but unluckily I'm very +short just now.' + +'I've--'began Peterkin, but Margaret interrupted him. + +'As if I'd let you pay anything!' she said indignantly. 'I'd rather +travel third than _that_. You are only coming out of kindness to me.' + +After all, there was enough, even for first-class, leaving a shilling or +so over. Hill Horton was not very far away. + +A train was standing ready to start, for the station was a terminus. I +asked a guard standing about if it was the one for Hill Horton, and he +answered yes, but we must change at the Junction, which I knew already. + +So we all got into a first-class carriage, and settled ourselves +comfortably, feeling safe at last. + +'I wish we were going all the way with you,' said Peterkin, with a sigh +made up of satisfaction, as he wriggled his substantial little person +into the arm-chair first-class seat, and of regret. + +'I'll be all right,' said Margaret, 'once I am in the Hill Horton +railway.' + +For some things I wished too that we were going all the way with her, +but for others I couldn't help feeling that I should be very glad to be +safe home again and the adventure well over. + +'By the day after to-morrow,' I thought, 'there will be no more reason +for worrying, if Margaret keeps her promise of writing to us.' + +I had made her promise this, and given her an envelope with our address +on. For otherwise, you see, we should not have heard how she had got on, +as no one but the parrot knew that she had ever seen us or spoken to us. + +Then the train moved slowly out of the station, and Margaret's eyes +sparkled with triumph. And we felt the infection of her high spirits. +After all, we were only children, and we laughed and joked about the +witch, and the fright her new nurse would be in, and how the parrot +would enjoy it all, of which we felt quite sure. + +We were very merry all the way to the Junction. It was only about a +quarter-of-an-hour off, and just before we got there the guard looked at +our tickets. + +'Change at the Junction,' he said, when he caught sight of the 'Hill +Horton,' on Margaret's. + +'Of course, we know that, thank you,' she said, rather pertly perhaps, +but it sounded so funny that Pete and I burst out laughing again. I +suppose we were all really very excited, but the guard laughed too. + +'How long will there be to wait for the Hill Horton train?' I had the +sense to ask. + +'Ten minutes, at least,' he replied, glancing at his watch, the way +guards nearly always do. + +I was glad he did not say longer, for the sooner Peterkin and I caught a +train home again, after seeing Margaret off, the better. And I knew +there were sure to be several in the course of the afternoon. + +As soon as we stopped we got out--red bundle and all. I did not see our +guard again, he was somewhere at the other end; but I got hold of +another, not so good-natured, however, and rather in a hurry. + +'Which is the train for Hill Horton? Is it in yet?' I asked. + +He must have thought, so I explained it to myself afterwards, that we +had just come in to the station, and were at the beginning of our +journey. + +'Hill Horton,' I _thought_ he said, but, as you will see, my ears must +have deceived me, 'all right. Any carriage to the front--further back +are for----.' I did not clearly hear--I think it must have been 'Charing +Cross,' but I did not care. All that concerned _us_ was 'Hill Horton.' + +'Come along,' I called to the two others, who had got a little behind +me, lugging the bundle between them, and I led the way, as the man had +pointed out. + +It seemed a very long train, and as he had said 'to the front,' I +thought it best to go pretty close up to the engine. There were two or +three first-class carriages next to the guard's van, but they were all +empty, and I had meant to look out for one with nice-looking people in +it for Margaret to travel with. Farther back there were some ladies and +children in some first-class, but I was afraid of putting her into a +wrong carriage. + +'I expect you will be alone all the way,' I said to her. 'I suppose +there are not very many people going to Hill Horton.' + +'Not first-class,' said Margaret. 'There are often lots of farmers and +village people, I daresay. Nursey said it was very crowded on market +days, but I don't know when it is market days. But it is rather funny, +Giles, to be getting into the same train again!' + +'No,' I replied, 'these carriages will be going to split off from the +others that go on to London. The man said it would be all right for Hill +Horton at the front. They often separate trains like that. I daresay we +shall go a little way out of the station and come back again. You'll +see. And he said--the _first_ man, I mean--that we should have at least +ten minutes to wait, and we've scarcely been two, so we may as well get +in with you for a few minutes.' + +'Yes, do,' said Margaret, 'but don't put my package up in the netted +place, for fear I couldn't get it down again myself. The trains never +stop long at our station.' + +So we contented ourselves with leaving the red bundle on the seat beside +her. It was lucky, I told her, that the carriage _wasn't_ full, +otherwise it would have had to go up in the rack, where it wouldn't have +been very firm. + +'It is so fat,' said Peterkin, solemnly. + +'Something like you,' I said, at which we all laughed again, as if it +was something very witty. We were still feeling rather excited, I think, +and rather proud--at least I was--of having, so far, got on so well. + +But before we had finished laughing, there came a startling surprise. +The train suddenly began to move! We stared at each other. Then I +remembered my own words a minute or two ago. + +'It's all right,' I said, 'we'll back into the station again in a +moment.' + +Margaret and Peterkin laughed again, but rather nervously. At least, +Margaret's laugh was not quite hearty; though, as for Peterkin, I think +he was secretly delighted. + +On we went--faster and faster, instead of slower. There was certainly no +sign of 'backing.' I put my head out of the window. We were quite clear +of the Junction by now, getting every instant more and more into the +open country. At last I had to give in. + +'We're off, I do believe,' I said. 'There's been some mistake about our +waiting ten minutes. We're clear on the way to Hill Horton.' + +'_I'm_ very glad,' said Pete. 'I always wanted to come all the way.' + +'But perhaps it needn't be all the way,' I said. 'Do you remember, +Margaret, how many stations there are between the Junction and yours?' + +'Three or four, I think,' she replied. + +'Oh well, then,' I said, 'it won't matter. We can get out the first time +we stop, and I daresay we shall soon get a train back again, and not be +late home after all.' + +Margaret's face cleared. She was thoughtful enough not to want us to get +into trouble through helping her. + +'We shall be stopping soon, I think,' she said, 'for this seems a fast +train.' + +But to me her words brought no satisfaction. For it did indeed seem a +fast train, and a much more horrible idea than the one of our going all +the way to Hill Horton suddenly sprang into my mind-- + +Were we in the Hill Horton train at all? + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +IN A FOG + + +I WAITED a minute or two before I said anything to the others. They went +on laughing and joking, and I kept looking out of the window. At last I +turned round, and then Margaret started a little. + +'What's the matter, Giles?' she said. 'You're quite white and funny +looking.' + +And Peterkin stared at me too. + +'It's--'I began, and then I felt as if I really couldn't go on; but I +had to. 'It's that I am dreadfully afraid,' I said, 'almost quite sure +now, that we are in the wrong train. I've seen the names of two stations +that we've passed without stopping already. Do you remember the names of +any between the Junction and Hill Horton, Margaret?' + +She shook her head. + +'No,' she said, 'but I know we never pass any without stopping; at +least I think so. They are quite little stations, and I've never known +the train go as fast as this till after the Junction, when we were in +the London train. I've been to London several times with Gran, you see.' + +Then it suddenly struck her what I meant. + +'Oh!' she exclaimed, with a little scream, 'is it _that_ you are afraid +of, Giles? Do you think we are in the _London_ train? I did think it was +funny that we were getting back into the same one, but you said that the +man said that the carriages at the front were for Hill Horton?' + +'Well, I _thought_ he did,' I replied, 'but--' one's mind works quickly +when you are frightened sometimes--'he _might_ have said "Victoria," for +the "tor" in "Victoria" and "Horton" sound rather alike.' + +'But wouldn't he have said "London"?' asked Peterkin. + +'No, I think they generally say the name of the station in London,' I +explained. 'There are so many, you see.' + +Then we all, for a minute or two, gazed at each other without speaking. +Margaret had got still paler than usual, and I fancied, or feared, I +heard her choke down something in her throat. Peterkin, on the +contrary, was as red as a turkey-cock, and his eyes were gleaming. I +think it was all a part of the fairy-tale to him. + +'What shall we do?' said Margaret, at last, and I was forced to answer, +'I don't know.' + +Bit by bit things began to take shape in my mind, and it was no good +keeping them to myself. + +'There'll be the extra money to pay for our tickets to London,' I said +at last. + +'How much will it be? Isn't there enough over?' asked Margaret quietly, +and I could not help admiring her for it, as she took out her purse and +gave it to me to count over what was left. + +There were only four or five shillings. I shook my head. + +'I don't know how much it will be, but I'm quite sure there's not +enough. You see, though we're only halves, it's first-class.' + +'And what will they do to us if we can't pay,' she went on, growing +still whiter. 'Could we--could we possibly be sent to prison?' + +'Oh no, no. I don't think so,' I answered, though I was really not at +all sure about it; I had so often seen notices stuck up on boards at +railway stations about the punishments of passengers not paying +properly, or trying to travel without tickets. 'But--I'm afraid they +would be very horrid to us somehow--perhaps telegraph to papa or mamma.' + +'Oh!' cried Margaret, growing now as red as she had been white, 'and +that would mean my being shut up again at Rock Terrace--worse than +before. I don't know _what_ the witch wouldn't do to me,' and she +clasped her poor little hands in a sort of despair. + +Then Peterkin burst out-- + +'I've got my gold half-pound with me,' he said, in rather a queer voice, +as if he was proud of being able to help and yet half inclined to cry. + +'Goodness!' I exclaimed, 'why on earth didn't you say so before?' + +'I--I--wanted it for something else,' said he. 'I don't quite know why I +brought it.' + +He dived into his pocket, and dug out a very grimy little purse, out of +which, sure enough, he produced a half-sovereign. + +The relief of knowing that we should not get into trouble as far as our +journey _to_ London was concerned, was such a blessing, that just for +the moment I forgot all the rest of it. + +'Anyway we can't be put in prison now,' said Margaret, and a little +colour came into her face. 'Oh, Perkins, you _are_ a nice boy!' + +I did think her praising him was rather rough on _me_, for I had had +bother enough, goodness knows, about the whole affair, even though I had +made a stupid mistake. + +We whizzed on, for it was an express train, and for a little while we +didn't speak. Peterkin was still looking rather upset about his money. +He told me afterwards that he had been keeping it for his Christmas +presents, especially one for Margaret, as we had never had a chance of +getting her any flowers. But all that was put right in the end. + +After a bit Margaret said to me, in a half-frightened voice-- + +'What shall we do when we get to London, Giles? Do you think perhaps the +guard would help us to go back again to the Junction, when he sees it +was a mistake? As we've got money to pay to London, he'd see we hadn't +meant to cheat.' + +'No,' I said, 'he wouldn't have time, and besides I don't think it'll be +the same one. And if we said anything, he'd most likely make us give our +names, or take us to some station-master or somebody, and then there'd +be no chance of our keeping out of a lot of bother.' + +'You mean,' said she, in a shaky voice, 'we should have to go all the +way back, and I'd be sent to the witch again?' + +'Something like it, I'm afraid,' I said. 'If I just explain that we got +into the wrong train and pay up, they'll have no business to meddle with +us.' + +'But what are we to do, then?' she asked again. + +'I don't know,' I replied. I'm afraid I was rather cross. I was so sick +of it all, you see, and so fearfully bothered. + +Margaret at last began to cry. She tried to choke it down, but it was no +use. + +I felt awfully sorry for her, but somehow the very feeling so bad made +me crosser, and I did not try to comfort her up. + +Pete, on the contrary, tugged out his pocket-handkerchief, which was +quite a decently clean one, and began wiping her eyes. This made her try +again to stop crying. She pulled out her own handkerchief and said-- + +'Dear little Perkins, you are so kind.' + +I glanced at them, not very amiably, I daresay. And I was on the point +of saying that, instead of crying and petting each other, they'd better +try to think what we should do, for I knew we must be getting near +London by this time, when I saw something white on the floor of the +carriage. + +I stooped to pick it up. It had dropped out of Margaret's pocket when +she pulled out her handkerchief. It was an envelope, or what had been +one, and for a moment I thought it was the one I had given her with our +address on, to use when she wrote to us from Hill Horton, but _that_ one +couldn't have got so dirty and torn-looking in the time. And when I +looked at it more closely, I saw that it was jagged and nibbled in a +queer way, and _then_ I saw that it had the name 'Wylie' on it, and an +address in London. And when I looked still more closely, I saw that it +had never been through the post or had a stamp on, and that it had a +large blot in one corner. Evidently the person who had written on it had +not liked to use it because of the blot, and the name on it was _Miss_, +not _Mrs._ Wylie, '19 Enderby Street + LONDON, S.W.' + +I turned it round and round without speaking for a moment or two. I +couldn't make it out. Then I said-- + +'What's this, Margaret? It must have dropped out of your pocket.' + +She stopped crying--well, really, I think she had stopped already, for +whatever her faults were she wasn't a babyish child--to look at it. She +seemed puzzled, and felt in her pocket again. + +'No, of course it's not the envelope you gave me,' she said. 'I've got +it safe, and--oh, I believe I know how this old one got into my pocket. +I remember a day or two ago when I was trying if it would do to tie my +handkerchief on to Polly's cage, he was nibbling some paper. He's very +fond of nibbling paper, and it doesn't hurt him, for he doesn't eat it. +But he would keep pecking at me when I was tying the handkerchief, and I +was vexed with him, and so when he dropped this I picked it up and shook +it at him, and told him he shouldn't have it again, and then I put it +into my pocket. He was very tiresome that day, not a bit a fairy; he is +like that sometimes.' + +'But how did he come to have an envelope with "Miss Wylie" on?' I said. +'He doesn't live in Mrs. Wylie's house, but in the one between yours and +hers, and this must have come from _her_.' + +'I daresay she gave it him to play with, or her servant may have given +it him,' said Margaret, 'You see he's sometimes at the end of the +balcony nearest her, and sometimes at our end. I think his servants have +put him more at our end since she's been away; perhaps they've heard me +talking to him. Anyway, I'm sure this old envelope must have come out of +his cage.' + +I did not speak for a moment. I was gazing at the address. + +'Margaret,' I exclaimed, 'look at it.' + +She did so, and then stared up at me, with a puzzled expression in her +eyes, still red with crying. + +'I believe,' I went on, 'I believe this is going to help us.' + +Peterkin, who had been listening with all his ears, could contain +himself no longer. + +'And the parrot _must_ be a fairy after all,' he said, 'and he must have +done it on purpose.' + +But Margaret did not seem to hear what he said, she was still gazing at +me and wondering what I was going to say. + +'Don't you see,' I went on, touching the envelope, 'this must be the +house of some of Mrs. Wylie's relations? Very likely she's staying with +them there, and anyway they'd tell us where she is, as we know she's +still in London. She told us she was going to be there for a fortnight. +And she's very kind. We would ask her to lend us money enough to go back +to the Junction, and then we'd be all right. You have got your ticket +for Hill Horton, and we have our returns for home.' + +'Oh,' cried Margaret, 'how clever you are to have thought of it, Giles! +But,' and the bright look went out of her face, 'you don't think she'd +make me go back to the witch, do you? Are you sure she wouldn't?' + +'I really don't think she would,' I said. 'I know she has often been +sorry for you, for she knew you weren't at all happy. And we'd tell her +more about it. She is awfully kind.' + +I meant what I said. Perhaps I saw it rather too favourably; the idea of +finding a friend in London was such a comfort just then, that I felt as +if everything else might be left for the time. I never thought about +catching trains at the Junction or about its getting late and dark for +Margaret to be travelling alone from there to Hill Horton, or anything, +except just the hope--the tremendous hope--that we might find our kind +old lady. + +[Illustration: HE LOOKED AT THE TICKETS . . . 'HOW'S THIS?' HE +SAID.--p. 145.] + +The train slackened, and very soon we pulled up. It wasn't the station +yet, however, but the place where they stop to take tickets, just +outside. I know it so well now, for we pass it ever so often on our way +from and to school several times a year. But whenever we pass it, or +stop at it, I think of that miserable day and all my fears. + +The man put his head in at the window. He was a stranger. + +'Tickets, please,' he said. + +I was ready for him--tickets, Peterkin's half-sovereign, and all. I held +out the tickets. + +'There's been a mistake,' I began. 'I shall have to pay up,' and when he +heard that, he opened the door and came in. + +He looked at the tickets. + +'Returns--half-returns to the Junction,' he said, 'and a half to Hill +Horton. How's this?' + +'We got into the wrong train at the Junction,' I replied. 'In fact, we +got back into the same one we had just got out of. I expect the guard +thought I said "Victoria" when I said "Hill Horton," for he told us to +go to the front.' + +'And didn't he tell you, you were wrong when he looked at the tickets +before you started?' the man asked, still holding our tickets in his +hand and examining us rather queerly. + +I began to feel angry, but I didn't want to have any fuss, so instead of +telling him to mind his own business, as I was ready to pay the +difference, I answered again quite coolly-- + +'No one looked at the tickets at the Junction. There were two or three +empty carriages at the front: perhaps no one noticed us getting in.' + +I thought I heard the man murmur to himself something about 'rum go. +Three kids by themselves, and first-class.' + +So, though I was getting angrier every moment, I just said-- + +'I don't see that it matters. Here we are, anyway, and I'll pay if +you'll tell me how much.' + +He counted up. + +'Eight-and-six--no, eight-and-tenpence.' + +I held out the half-sovereign. He felt in his pocket and gave me back +the change--a shilling and twopence, and walked off with the halves of +Pete's and my return tickets and the half-sovereign. + +We all began to breathe more freely; but, as the train slowly moved +again at last--we had been standing quite a quarter-of-an-hour--a new +trouble started. + +'It's very dark,' said Margaret, 'and it can't be late yet.' + +I looked out of the window. Yes, it was very dark. I put my head out. It +felt awfully chilly too--a horrid sort of chilly feeling. But that +wasn't the worst of it. + +'It's a fog,' I said. 'The horridest kind--I can't see the lights almost +close to us. It's getting worse every minute. I believe it'll be as dark +as midnight when we get into the station. What luck, to be sure!' + +The other two seemed more excited than frightened. + +'I've never seen a really bad fog,' said Margaret, as if she was rather +pleased to have the chance. + +Pete said nothing. I expect he'd have had a fairy-tale all ready about a +prince lost in a mist, if I'd given him an opening. But I was again +rather taken aback. How were we to find our way to Enderby Street? + +I had meant to walk, you see, in spite of the red bundle! For I was +afraid of being cheated by the cabman; and I was afraid too of running +quite short of money, in case we _didn't_ find Mrs. Wylie, or that she +had left, and that, if the worst came to the worst, I might have to go +to a hotel with the two children, and telegraph to mamma to say where we +were. Papa, unluckily, was not in London just then. He had gone away on +business somewhere--I forget where--for a day or two, and besides, I was +not at all sure of the exact address of his chambers, otherwise I might +have telegraphed _there_. I only knew it was a long way from Victoria. + +Indeed, I don't think I thought about that at all at the time, though +afterwards mamma said to me I might have done so, _had_ the worst come +to the worst. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +BERYL + + +YES, the fog _was_ a fog, and no mistake. I don't think I have ever seen +so bad a one since we came to live in London, or else it seemed to me +terribly bad that day because I was not used to it, and because I was so +anxious. + +I felt half provoked and yet in a way glad that Margaret and Peterkin +were not at all frightened, but rather pleased. They followed me along +the platform after we got out of the carriage, lugging the bundle +between them. It was not really heavy, and I had to go first, as the +station was pretty full in that part, in spite of the fog. The lamps +were all lighted, but till you got within a few yards of one you +scarcely saw it. + +I went on, staring about me for some one to ask advice from. At last, +close to a book-stall, where several lights together made it a little +clearer, I saw a railway man of some kind, standing, as if he was not in +a hurry. + +'Can you tell me where Enderby Street is, if you please?' I asked as +civilly as I knew how. + +'Enderby Street,' he repeated, in surprise. 'Of course; it's no distance +off.' + +Wasn't I thankful? + +'How far?' I said. + +'Well--it depends upon which part of it you want. It's a long street. +But if you're a stranger you'll never find your way in this fog. Better +take a hansom.' + +'Thank you,' I said. 'It's only a shilling, I suppose?' + +He glanced at me again; he had been turning away. By this time the two +children were close beside me. He saw that we belonged to each other. + +'A shilling for two--one-and-six for three,' he replied. 'Hansom or +four-wheeler,' and then he moved off. + +Just then Margaret began to cough, and a new fear struck me. She looked +very delicate, and she had had a bad cold. Supposing the fog made her +very ill? I was glad the man had spoken of a four-wheeler. + +'Stuff your handkerchief or something into your mouth,' I said, 'so as +not to get the fog down your throat. I'm going to call a four-wheeler.' + +In some ways that dreadful day was not as bad as it might have been. +There were scarcely any cabs about, but just then one stopped close to +the end of the platform. + +'Jump in,' I said, and before the driver had time to make any objection, +for I know they do sometimes make a great favour of taking you anywhere +in a fog, we were all inside. + +I heard him growling a little, but when I put my head out of the window +again, and said '19 Enderby Street,' he smoothed down. + +We drove off, slowly enough, but that was to be expected. I pulled up +both windows, for Margaret kept on coughing, in spite of having her +handkerchief, and Peterkin's too, for all I knew, stuffed over her mouth +and throat. They were both very quiet, but I _think_ they were rather +enjoying themselves. I suppose my taking the lead, as I had had to, +since our troubles began, and managing things, made them feel 'safe,' as +children like to do, at the bottom of their hearts, however they start +by talking big. + +It _was_ a horrid fog, but the lights made it not quite so bad outside, +for the shops had got all their lamps on, and we could see them now and +then. There was a lot of shouting going on, and yet every sound was +muffled. There were not many carts or omnibuses or anything on wheels +passing, and what there were, were moving slowly like ourselves. + +After a few minutes it got darker again; it must have been when we got +into Enderby Street, I suppose, for there are no shops, or scarcely any, +there. I've often and often passed along it since, but I never do +without thinking of that evening, or afternoon, for it was really not +yet four o'clock. + +And then we stopped. + +'Nineteen, didn't you say?' asked the driver as I jumped out. + +'Yes, nineteen,' I said. 'Stop here for a moment or two, till I see if +we go in.' + +For it suddenly struck me that _if_ we had the awful bad luck not to +find Mrs. Wylie, we had better keep the cab, to take us to some hotel, +otherwise it might be almost impossible to get another. And then we +should be out in the street, with Margaret and her bundle, and worse +still, her cough. + +I made my way, more by feeling than seeing, up the steps, and fumbled +till I found the bell. I had not actually told the others to stay in +the cab, though I had taken care to keep the window shut when I got out, +and I never dreamt but what they'd stay where they were till I had found +out if Mrs. Wylie was there. + +But just as the door opened--the servant came in double-quick time +luckily, the reason for which was explained--I heard a rustling behind +me, and lo and behold, there they both were, and the terrible red bundle +too, looking huger and queerer than ever, as the light from inside fell +on it. + +We must have looked a funny lot, as the servant opened the door. She--it +was a parlour-maid--did start a little, but I didn't give her time to +speak, though I daresay she thought we were beggars, thanks to those +silly children. + +'Mrs. Wylie is staying here,' I said. I thought it best to speak +decidedly. 'Is she at home?' + +I suppose my way of speaking made her see we were not beggars, and +perhaps she caught sight of the four-wheeler, looming faintly through +the fog, for she answered quite civilly. + +'She is not exactly staying here. She is in rooms a little way from +here, but she comes round most afternoons. I thought it was her when you +rang, but I don't think she'll be coming now--not in this fog.' + +My heart had gone down like lead at the first words--'she is not,' but +as the servant went on I got more hopeful again. + +'Can you--' I began--I was going to have asked for Mrs. Wylie's address, +but just then Margaret coughed; the worst cough I had heard yet from +her. 'Why couldn't you have stayed in the cab?' I said sharply, and +perhaps it was a good thing, to show that we _had_ a cab waiting for us. +'Please,' I went on, 'let this little girl come inside for a minute. The +fog makes her cough so.' + +The parlour-maid stepped back, opening the door a little wider, but +there was something doubtful in her manner, as if she was not quite sure +if she was not running a risk in letting us in. I pushed Margaret +forward, and not Margaret only! She was holding fast to her precious +bundle, and Peterkin was holding fast to _his_ side of it, so they +tumbled in together in a way that was enough to make the servant stare, +and I stayed half on the steps, half inside, but from where I was I +could see into the hall quite well. It looked so nice and comfortable, +compared with the horribleness outside. It was a square sort of hall. +The house was not a big one, not nearly as big as ours at home, but lots +bigger than the Rock Terrace ones, of course. + +'Can you give me Mrs. Wylie's address?' I said. 'I think the best thing +we can do is to--' but I was interrupted again. + +A girl--a grown-up girl, a lady, I mean--came forward from the inner +part of the hall. + +'Browner,' she said, 'do shut the door. You are letting the fog get all +over the house, and it is bitterly cold.' + +She was blinking her eyes a little as she spoke: either the light or the +fog, or both, hurt them. Perhaps she had been sitting over the fire in a +darkish room. 'Blinking her eyes' doesn't sound very pretty, but it was, +I found afterwards, a sort of trick of hers, and somehow it suited her. +_She_ was very pretty. I didn't often notice girls' looks, but I +couldn't help noticing hers. Everything about her was pretty; her voice +too, though she spoke a little crossly. She was rather tall, and her +hair was wavy, almost as wavy as Elf's, and the colour of her dress, +which was pinky-red, and everything about her, seemed to suit, and I +just stood--we all did--staring at her. + +And as soon as she caught sight of us--I daresay we seemed quite a +little crowd at the door--she stared too! + +Then she came forward quickly, her voice growing anxious, and almost +frightened. + +'What is the matter?' she exclaimed. 'Has there been an accident? Who +are these--children?' + +Browner moved towards her. + +'Indeed, Miss,' she began, but the girl stopped her. + +'Shut the door first,' she said decidedly. 'No, no, come in, please,' +this was to me; I suppose I seemed to hesitate, 'and tell me what you +want, and who you are?' + +Her voice grew more hesitating as she went on, and it must have been +very difficult to make out what sort of beings we were. Margaret's +colourless face and dark eyes and hair, and the bright red of the +bundle, at the first hasty glance, might almost have made you think of a +little Italian wandering musician; but the moment I spoke I think the +girl saw we were not that class. + +'We are friends of Mrs. Wylie's--Mrs. Wylie who lives at Rock Terrace,' +I said, 'and--and we've come to her because--oh! because we've got into +a lot of trouble, and the fog's made it worse, and we don't know +anybody else in London.' + +Then, all of a sudden--I'm almost ashamed to tell it, even though it's a +good while ago now, and I really was scarcely more than a little boy +myself--something seemed to get into my throat, and I felt as if in +another moment it would turn into a sob. + +Margaret is awfully quick in some ways. She heard the choke in my voice +and darted to me, leaving the bundle to Pete's tender mercies; so half +of it dropped on to the floor and half stuck to him, as he stood there +staring with his round blue eyes. + +Margaret stretched up and flung her arms round my neck. + +'Giles, Giles,' she cried, 'don't, oh don't!' Then she burst out-- + +'It's all my fault; at least it's all for me, and Giles and Perkins have +been so good to me. Oh dear, oh dear, what shall I do?' and she began +coughing again in a miserable way. I think it was partly that she was +trying not to cry. + +Seeing her so unhappy, made me pull myself together. I was just going to +explain things a little to the girl, when she spoke first. She looked +very kind and sorry. + +'I'll tell you what's the first thing to do,' she said, 'and that's to +get this child out of the cold,' and she opened a door a little farther +back in the hall, and got us all in, the maid following. + +It was a very nice, rather small dining-room; a bright fire was burning, +and the girl turned on an electric lamp over the table. There were +pretty ferns and things on it, ready for dinner, just like mamma has +them at home. + +'Now,' she began again, but there seemed nothing but interruptions, for +just at that moment another door was heard to open, and as the one of +the room where we were was not shut, we could hear some one calling-- + +'Beryl, Beryl, is there anything the matter? Has your aunt come?' + +It was a man's voice--quite a kind one, but rather fussy. + +'Wait a moment or two, I'll be back directly,' said the girl, and as she +ran out of the room we heard her calling, 'I'm coming, daddy.' + +The parlour-maid drew back nearer the door, not seeming sure if she +should leave us alone or not, and _we_ drew a little nearer the fire. So +that we could talk without her hearing us. + +[Illustration: 'NOW,' SHE BEGAN . . . DRAWING MARGARET TO HER, 'TELL ME +ALL ABOUT IT.'--p. 159.] + +'Isn't she a kind lady?' said Margaret, glancing up at me. 'I think she +looks very kind. You don't think she'll send me back to the witch, do +you, Giles?' + +'Bother the witch,' I was on the point of saying, for I would have given +anything by this time to be back in our homes again, witch or no witch. +But I thought better of it. It wouldn't have been kind, with Margaret +looking up at me, with tears in her big dark eyes, so white and anxious. + +'I shouldn't think so,' I replied. 'She must be Mrs. Wylie's niece, and +we'll go on to Mrs. Wylie, and she will tell us what to do.' + +The girl--perhaps I'd better call her 'Beryl' now. We always do, though +she is no longer Beryl Wylie. Beryl was back almost at once. + +'Now,' she began again, sitting down in an arm-chair by the fire, and +drawing Margaret to her, 'tell me all about it. In the first place, who +are you? What are your names?' + +'Lesley,' I said. 'At least _ours_ is,' and I touched Peterkin. 'I'm +Giles and he's Peterkin. We know Mrs. Wylie, and we live on the Marine +Parade.' + +Beryl nodded. + +'Yes,' she said, 'I've heard of you. And,' she touched Margaret gently, +'this small maiden? What is her name--she is not your sister?' + +'No,' I replied. 'She is Margaret----' I stopped short. For the first +time it struck me that I had never heard her last name! + +'Margaret Fothergill,' she said quickly. 'I live next door but one to +Mrs. Wylie, and next door to the parrot. Do you know the parrot in Rock +Terrace?' + +Beryl nodded again. + +'I have heard of him too,' she said. + +But suddenly a new idea--I should rather say the old one--struck +Margaret again. Her voice changed, and she clasped her hands piteously. + +'You won't, oh, you won't send me back to the witch? Say you won't.' + +'What does she mean?' asked Beryl, turning to me, as if she thought +Margaret was half out of her mind, though, all the same, she drew her +still closer. + +'She--we--' I began, and Peterkin opened his mouth too. But I suppose I +must have glanced at the servant, for Beryl turned towards her, as if to +tell her not to wait. Then she changed and said instead-- + +'Bring tea in here, Browner, as quickly as you can. You can put it on +the side table.' + +Browner went off at once; she seemed a very good-natured girl. And then, +as quickly as I could, helped here and there by Margaret and by Peterkin +(though to any one less 'understanding' than Beryl, his funny way of +muddling up real and fancy would certainly not have 'helped'), I told +our story. It was really wonderful how Beryl took it all in. When I +stopped at last, almost out of breath, she nodded her head quietly. + +'We won't talk it over just yet,' she said. 'The first thing to do is to +see my auntie. You three stay here while I run round to her, and try to +enjoy your tea. I shall not be long. It is very near.' + +The idea of tea did seem awfully tempting, but a new thought struck me. + +'The cab!' I exclaimed, 'the four-wheeler! It's waiting all this time, +and if we send it away, most likely we shan't be able to get another in +the fog. There'll be such a lot to pay, too. Don't you think we'd better +go with you in it to Mrs. Wylie, and perhaps she'd lend us money to go +to the Junction by the first train? I don't think we should stay to +have tea, thank you,' though, as I said it, a glance at Margaret's poor +little white face made me wish I needn't say it. She was clinging to +Beryl so by this time as if she felt safe. + +And Peterkin looked almost as piteous as she did. + +Beryl gently loosened Margaret's hold of her, and got up from the big +leather arm-chair where she had been sitting. + +'Never mind about the cab,' she said. 'I will go round in it to my aunt, +and perhaps bring her back in it. I will settle with the man. I may be a +quarter-of-an-hour or twenty minutes away. So all you three have got to +do in the meantime is to have a good tea, and trust me. And don't think +about witches, or bad fairies, or anything disagreeable till you see me +again,' she added, nodding to the two children. 'Browner, you will see +that they have everything they want.' + +Browner smiled, and Beryl ran off, and in a minute or two we heard her +come downstairs again, with her cloak and hat on, no doubt, and the +front door shut, and I heard the cab drive away. + +Talking of fairies, I can't imagine anything more like the best of good +ones than Beryl Wylie seemed to us that afternoon. + +Browner was very kind and sensible. For after she had poured out our +tea, and handed us a plateful of bread-and-butter and another of little +cakes, she left the room, showing us the bell, in case we wanted more +milk or anything. + +And then--perhaps it may seem very thoughtless of us, but, as I have +said before, even I, the eldest, wasn't very old--we really enjoyed +ourselves! It was so jolly to feel warm and to have a good tea, and, +above all, to know that we had found kind friends, who would tell us +what to do. + +Margaret seemed perfectly happy, and to have got rid of all her fears of +being sent back to the witch. And Peterkin, in those days, was never +very surprised at anything, for nothing that could happen was as +wonderful as the wonders of the fairy-land he lived in. So he was quite +able to enjoy himself without any trying to do so. + +I do feel, however, rather ashamed of one bit of it all. You'd scarcely +believe that it never came into my head to think that mamma might be +frightened about us, even though the afternoon was getting on into +evening, and the darkness outside made it seem later than it really was! + +I can't understand it of myself, considering that I had seen with my +own eyes how frightened she had been the evening Peterkin got lost. I +suppose my head had got tired and confused with all the fears and things +it had been full of, but it is rather horrid to remember, all the same. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +DEAR MAMMA + + +BERYL must have been away longer than she had expected, for when we +heard the front bell ring and a minute later she hurried in, her first +words were-- + +'Did you think I was never coming back? I will explain to you what I +have been doing.' + +When her eyes fell on us, however, her expression changed. She looked +pleased, but a little surprised, as she took in that we had not been, by +any means, sitting worrying ourselves, but quite the contrary. Margaret +was actually in the middle of a laugh, which did not seem as if she was +feeling very bad, even though it turned into a cough. Peterkin was +placidly content, and I was--well, feeling considerably the better for +the jolly good tea we had had. + +'We've been awfully comfortable, thank you,' I said, getting up, +'and--will you please tell us what you think we'd better do? +And--please--how much was the cab?' + +'Never mind about that,' she said. 'Here is my aunt,' and then I heard a +little rustle at the door, and in came Mrs. Wylie, who had been taking +off her wraps in the hall, looking as neat and white-lacy and like +herself as if she had never come within a hundred miles of a fog in her +life. + +'She _would_ come,' Beryl went on, smiling at the old lady as if she +loved her very much. 'Auntie is always so kind.' + +I began to feel very ashamed of all the trouble we were giving, and I'm +sure my face got very red. + +'I'm so sorry,' I said, as Mrs. Wylie shook hands with us, 'I never +thought of you coming out in the fog.' + +'It will not hurt me,' she replied; 'but I feel rather anxious about +this little person,' and she laid her hand on Margaret's shoulder, for +just then Margaret coughed again. + +'Oh,' I exclaimed, 'you don't think it will make her cough worse, do +you?' and I felt horribly frightened. 'We'll wrap her up much more, and +once we are clear of London, there won't be any fog. I daresay it's +quite light still, in the country. It can't be late. But hadn't we +better go at once? Will you be so very good as to lend us money to go +back to the Junction? I know mamma will send it you at once.' + +All my fears seemed to awaken again as I hurried on, and the children's +faces grew grave and anxious. + +Mrs. Wylie sat down quietly. + +'My dear boy,' she said, 'there can be no question of any of you, +Margaret especially, going back to-night. The fog is very bad, and it is +very cold besides. My niece has told me the whole story, and----' + +'I suppose you think we've all been dreadfully naughty,' I interrupted. +'I did not mean to be, and _they_ didn't,' glancing at the others. 'But +of course I'm older, only----' + +Mrs. Wylie laid her hand on my arm. + +'There will be a good deal to talk over,' she said, speaking still very +quietly, but rather gravely. 'And I feel that your dear mamma is the +right person to--to explain things--your mistakes, and all about it. I +believe certainly you did not _mean_ to do wrong.' + +Her mention of mamma startled me into remembering at last how +frightened she and all of them would be at home. + +'Oh!' I exclaimed, 'if we stay away all night, what _will_ mamma do?' + +'I was just going to tell you what we have done,' said Mrs. Wylie. 'That +was what kept us--Beryl and me. We have telegraphed to your mamma. She +will not be frightened now. Indeed, I hope she may have got the telegram +in time to prevent her beginning to be anxious. And we also--' but here +she stopped, for a glance at Margaret, as she told me afterwards, +reminded her of Margaret's fears lest she should be sent back to Rock +Terrace and Miss Bogle. And what she had been on the point of saying +was, that they had also telegraphed to 'the witch.' + +'It was awfully good of you,' I said, feeling more and more ashamed of +the trouble we were causing. + +I would have given anything to go home that night, even if it had been +to find papa and mamma more displeased with me than they had ever been +in their life, and, as I was beginning to see, as they had a right to +be. But in the face of all Mrs. Wylie and Beryl were doing, I could not +possibly have gone against what they thought best. + +'I shall also write to your mamma to-night,' Mrs. Wylie went on. 'There +is plenty of time. It is not really as late as the fog makes it seem. +And the first thing we now have to do,' for just then Margaret had +another bad fit of coughing, 'is to put this child to bed. If you are +not better in the morning, or rather if you are any worse, we must send +for the doctor.' + +'Oh, _please_ don't!' said Margaret, as soon as she could speak. 'It's +only the fog got into my throat. It doesn't hurt me at all, as it did +when I had that very bad cold at home. I don't like strange doctors, +_please_, Mrs. Wylie. And to-morrow nursey can send for our own doctor +at home at Hill Horton, if I'm not quite well. I may go home to my +nursey quite early, mayn't I? And you will tell their mamma not to be +vexed with them, won't you? They only wanted to help me.' + +She looked such a shrimp of a creature, with her tiny face, so pale too, +that nobody could have found it in their heart to scold her. Mrs. Wylie +just patted her hand and said something about putting it all right, but +that she must go to bed now and have a good long sleep. + +And just then Beryl, who had left us with Mrs. Wylie, came back to say +that everything was ready for Margaret upstairs, and then she walked +her and the red bundle off--to put her to bed. + +I really think that by this time Margaret was so tired that she scarcely +knew where she was: she did not make the least objection, but was as +meek as a mouse. You would never have thought her the same child as the +determined little 'ordering-about' sort of child I knew she could be, +and I, rather suspected, generally _had_ been till she came under +stricter management. + +When she was alone with us--with Peterkin and me--Mrs. Wylie spoke a +little more about the whole affair. But not very much. She had evidently +made up her mind to leave things in mamma's hands. And she did not at +all explain any of the sort of mystery there seemed about Margaret. + +She rang the bell and told Browner to take us upstairs to the little +room that had been got ready for us, and where we were to sleep, saying, +that she herself was now going to write to mamma. + +'_And_ to Miss Bogle,' she added, 'though I thought it better not to say +so to Margaret.' + +She looked at us rather curiously as she spoke; I think she most likely +wanted to find out what we really believed about 'the witch.' Peterkin +started, and grew very red. + +'You won't let her go back there?' he exclaimed. 'I'm sure she'll run +away again if you do.' + +It sounded rather rude, but Mrs. Wylie knew that he did not mean it for +rudeness. She only looked at him gravely. + +'I am very anxious to see how your little friend is to-morrow morning,' +she replied. 'I earnestly hope she has not caught any serious cold.' + +The way she said it frightened me a little somehow, though we children +often caught cold and didn't think much about it. But then we were all +strong. None of us ever coughed the way Margaret used to about that +time, except when we had hooping-cough, and it wasn't that that she had +got, I knew. + +'You don't think she is going to be badly ill?' I said, feeling as if it +would be all my fault if she was. + +Mrs. Wylie only repeated that she hoped not. + +We couldn't do much in the way of dressing or tidying ourselves up, as +we had nothing with us, not even a red bundle. We could only wash our +faces and hands, which were _black_ with the fog, so having them clean +was an improvement. And there was a very pretty brush and comb put out +for us--Beryl's own. I think it was awfully good of her to lend us her +nice things like that. I don't believe Blanchie would have done it, +though I daresay mamma would. So we made ourselves as decent-looking as +we could, and our collars didn't look as bad that evening as in the +daylight the next morning. + +And then Beryl put her head in at the door and told us to come down to +the drawing-room, where her father was. + +'He is not able to go up and down stairs just now,' she said. 'His +rheumatism is very bad. So he stays in the drawing-room, and we dine +earlier than usual for his sake--at seven.' + +She went on talking, partly to make us more comfortable, for I knew we +were both looking very shy. And just outside the drawing-room door she +smiled and said, 'Don't be frightened of him, he is the kindest person +in the world.' + +[Illustration: THE FRILLS HAD WORKED UP ALL ROUND HIS FACE.--p. 173.] + +So he was, I am sure. He had white hair and a thin white face, and he +was sitting in a big arm-chair, and he shook hands kindly, and didn't +seem to mind our being there a bit. Of course, Beryl had explained it +all to him, and it was easy to see that he was most awfully fond of +her, and pleased with everything she did. All the same, I was very glad, +though it sounds horrid, that he couldn't come downstairs. It didn't +seem half so frightening with only Mrs. Wylie and Beryl. + +Peterkin got very sleepy before dinner was really over. I think he +nodded once or twice at dessert, though he was very offended when I said +so afterwards. I began to feel jolly tired too, and we were both very +glad to go to bed. There was a fire in our room. 'Miss Wylie had ordered +it because of the fog,' the servant said. Wasn't it kind of her? + +We couldn't help laughing at the things they had tried to find for us +instead of proper night things--jackety sort of affairs, with lots of +frills and fuss. I don't know if they belonged to mother Wylie or to +Beryl. But we were too sleepy to mind, though next morning Pete was +awfully offended when I said he looked like Red-Riding Hood's +grandmother, as the frills had worked up all round his face, and he +looked still queerer when he got out of bed, as his robe trailed on the +floor, with his being so short. + +He did not wake as early as usual, but I did. And for a minute or two I +_couldn't_ think where I was. And I didn't feel very happy when I did +remember. + +The fog had gone, but it still looked gloomy, compared with home. Still +I was glad it was clear, both because I wanted so to go home, and also +because of Margaret's cold. I think that was what I first thought of. If +only she didn't get ill, I thought I wouldn't mind how angry they were +with me. As to Peterkin, I would stand up for him, if he needed it, +though I didn't think he would. They'd be sure to remind me how much +older I was, and pleasant things like that. And yet when I went over and +over it in my own mind, I couldn't get it clear what else I could have +done. There _are_ puzzles like that sometimes, and anyway it was better +than if Margaret had run away alone, and perhaps got really lost. + +And, after all, as you will hear, I hadn't much blame to bear. The name +of this chapter will show thanks to whom _that_ was. + +When we were dressed--and oh, how we longed for clean collars!--we made +our way down to the dining-room. Beryl was there already, and I saw that +she looked even prettier by daylight, such as it was than the evening +before. She smiled kindly, and said she hoped we had managed to sleep +well. + +'Oh yes, thank you,' we said, 'but--' and we both looked round the room. +'How is Margaret?' + +'None the worse, I am glad to say,' Beryl answered, and then I thought +to myself I might have guessed it, by Beryl's bright face. 'I really +think it was only the fog that made her cough so last night. She looks a +very delicate little girl, however, and she speaks of having had a very +bad cold not long ago, which may have been something worse than a cold. +So I made her stay in bed for breakfast, till----' + +At that moment the parlour-maid brought in a telegram. Beryl opened it, +and then handed it to me. It was from mamma. + +'A thousand thanks for telegram and letter. Coming myself by earliest +train possible.' + +'It's very good of mamma,' I said, and in my heart I was glad she was +coming before we--or I--saw papa. For though he is very kind too, he is +not quite so 'understanding,' and a good deal sharper, especially with +us boys. I suppose fathers need to be, and I suppose boys need it more +than girls. + +'Yes,' said Beryl, and though she had been so awfully jolly about the +whole affair, I could tell by her tone that she was glad that some one +belonging to us was coming to look after us all. 'It is very +satisfactory. My aunt said she would come round early too. I think it +will be quite safe for Margaret to get up now, so I will go and tell her +she may. You will find some magazines and picture-papers in my little +sitting-room, behind this room, if you can amuse yourselves there till +auntie comes.' + +I stopped her a moment as she was leaving the room, to ask what I knew +Peterkin was longing to hear. + +'Mamma will take us home, of course,' I said, 'but what do you think +will be done about Margaret?' + +'They--' whom he meant by 'they' I don't know, and I don't think he knew +himself--'they won't send her back to the witch, you don't think, do +you?' he burst out, growing very red. + +Beryl hesitated. Then she said quietly-- + +'No, I _don't_ think so,' and Peterkin gave a great sigh of relief. If +she had answered that she _did_ think so, I believe he would have broken +into a howl. I really do. + +It seemed rather a long time that we had to wait in Beryl's room before +anything else happened. Peterkin said it felt a good deal like waiting +at the dentist's, and I agreed with him. It was the looking at the +picture-papers that put it into his head, I think. + +We heard the front-door bell ring several times, and once I was sure I +caught Beryl's voice calling, 'Auntie, is it you?' but it must have been +nearly twelve o'clock--breakfast had been a good deal later than at +home--before the door of the room where we were, opened, and some one +came in. I was standing staring out of the window, which looked into a +very small sort of fernery or conservatory, and wishing Beryl had told +me to water the plants, when I heard a voice behind me. + +'Boys!' it said; 'Giles?' and turning round, I saw that it was mamma. I +forgot all about being found fault with and everything else, and just +flew to her, and so did poor old Pete, and then--I am almost ashamed to +tell it, though perhaps I should not be--I broke out crying! + +Mamma put her arms round me. I don't know what she had been meaning to +say to us, or to me, perhaps, in the way of blame, but it ended in her +hugging me, and saying 'poor old Gilley.' She hugged Peterkin too, +though he wasn't crying, and had no intention of it, _unless_ his +beloved Margaret was to be sent back to Miss Bogle, and then, I have no +doubt, he would have howled loudly enough. His whole mind was fixed on +this point, and he had hardly patience even to be hugged, before he +burst out with it. + +'Mummy, mummy,' he said,'they're not going to send her back to the +witch, are they?' + +Mamma understood. She knew Peterkin's little ways so well,--how he got +his head full of a thing, and could take in nothing else,--and she saw +that it was best to satisfy him at once if we were to have any peace. + +'No,' she said. 'The little girl is not to go back to Miss Bogle.' + +Peterkin gave a great sigh of comfort. After all, he _had_ rescued his +princess, I suppose he said to himself. _I_ thought it very +extraordinary that mamma should be able to speak so decidedly about it, +and I daresay she saw this, for she went on almost at once-- + +'I have a good deal to explain. Some unexpected things happened +yesterday and this morning. But for this, I should have come by an +earlier train.' + +Here, I think, before I go on to say what these unexpected things were, +is a good place for telling what mamma said to me afterwards, when we +were by ourselves, about the whole affair, and my part in it. She quite +allowed that I had not meant to do wrong or to be deceitful, or anything +like that, and that I had been rather in a hole. But she made me see +that, to start with, I should not have promised Margaret to keep it a +secret, and she said she was sure that Margaret would have given in to +our telling _her_--mamma, I mean--of her troubles, if I had spoken to +her sensibly and seriously about it. And now that I know Margaret so +well, I think so too. For she is particularly sensible for her age, +especially since she has got her head clearer of fairy-tales and witches +and enchantments and ogres and all the rest of it; and even then, there +was a good deal of sense and reasonableness below her self-will and +impatience. + +Now, I can go on with what mamma told us. The first she heard of it all +was the telegram from Mrs. Wylie, for she had been out till rather late +and found it lying on the hall-table when she came in, before she had +even heard that Pete and I had not turned up at the nursery tea. That +was what Beryl had hoped--that the news of our being all right would +come before mamma had had a chance of being anxious. At first she was +completely puzzled, but James, who was faithful to his promise, though +rather stupid, helped to throw a little light on it by giving her my +message. + +And then, as she was still standing in the hall, talking to him and +trying to think what in the world had made us dream of going to London +to Mrs. Wylie's, all by ourselves, there came a great ring at the bell, +and when James opened, a startled-looking maid-servant's voice was heard +asking for Mrs. Lesley. + +'I am Mrs. Wylie's parlour-maid,' she said, 'and I offered to run round, +for the old lady next door to us, Miss Bogle, to ask if Mrs. Lesley +would have the charity--I was to say--to come to see her. The little +young lady, Miss Fothergill, who lives with her, has been missing all +the afternoon. Miss Bogle did not know it till an hour or two ago, as +she always rests in her own room till four o'clock. But I was to say she +would explain it all to Mrs. Lesley, if she could possibly come to see +Miss Bogle at once.' + +Mamma had gone forward and heard this all herself, though the maid had +begun by giving the message to James. And she said immediately that she +would come. She still had her going-out things on, you see, so no time +was lost. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +NO MYSTERY AFTER ALL + + +WE listened with all our ears, you may be sure, to what mamma told us; +she did so, very quickly. It takes me much longer to write it. + +'And did you see Miss Bogle?' I asked. 'And what _is_ she like?' + +'The witch herself,' said Peterkin, his eyes nearly starting out of his +head. + +'No, Peterkin,' said mamma, 'you are not to call her that any more. You +must help me to explain to little Margaret, that Miss Bogle is a good +old lady, who has meant nothing but kindness, though she made a great +mistake in undertaking the charge of the child, for she is old and +infirm and suffers sadly. Yes, of course, I saw her. She was terribly +upset, the tears streaming down her poor face, though she had scarcely +had time to be actually terrified about Margaret, thanks to Mrs. +Wylie's telegram. She was afraid of the child having got cold, and she +was altogether puzzled and miserable. And I was not able to explain very +much myself, till I got Mrs. Wylie's _letter_ this morning, fully +telling all. Still, I comforted her by saying I knew Mrs. Wylie was +goodness itself, and would take every care of all the three of you for +the night. Miss Bogle had not missed Margaret, as she always rests in +the afternoon, till about four. And, strange to say, the servants had +not missed her either. The nurse was away for the day, and I suppose +that the others, not being used to think about the child, had not given +a thought to her, though it seems strangely careless, till it got near +her tea-time, and then they ran to Miss Bogle and startled her terribly. +The first thing she did was to send in to the next-door house'--('The +parrot's house?' interrupted Pete)--'and to Mrs. Wylie's,' mamma went +on, 'where the parlour-maid knew that you boys and Margaret had made +friends, and she offered to speak to Miss Bogle, thinking that perhaps +you had all gone a walk together, and would soon be coming in. And +_while_ she was telling Miss Bogle this, came the telegram, showing that +indeed you had gone a walk, and more than a walk,'--here mamma turned +away for a moment, and I _think_ it was to hide a smile that she could +not help. I suppose to grown-up people there was a comical side to the +story,--'together. And then the poor old lady sent for me.' + +'And was that all that happened?' I asked. + +Mamma shook her head. + +'No,' she said. 'While I was still talking to Miss Bogle, came another +telegram, from the little girl's nurse, her present nurse, to say that +her sister was so ill that she could not leave her, and that she was +writing to explain. Poor Miss Bogle! Her cup of troubles did seem full; +I felt very sorry for her, and I promised to go back to see her, first +thing this morning, which I did, before starting to fetch you boys. The +nurse's letter had come, saying she did not know _when_ she could +return. And so--' mamma stopped for a moment--'it all ended--papa came +back last night, so he was with me, and it was his idea first of all--in +a way which I don't think you will be very sorry for,'--and again mamma +smiled,--'in our settling that Margaret is to come home with _us_, and +stay with us till there is time to hear from her grandfather, General +Fothergill, what he wishes. How do you like the idea?' + +'I'm awfully glad of it,' I said. And so I was. Not so much for the sake +of having Margaret as a companion, as because it quite took away all +responsibility and fears about her. For I felt sure she would never have +settled down happily or contentedly in Miss Bogle's house. + +But as for Peterkin! You never saw anything like his delight. He took +all the credit of it to himself, and was more certain than ever that the +parrot was a fairy, Miss Bogle a witch, and himself a hero who had +rescued a lovely princess. His eyes sparkled like--I don't know what to +compare them to; and his cheeks got so red and fat that I thought they'd +burst. + +And when I said quietly--I thought it a good thing to sober him down a +bit, but I really meant it too--that I hoped Blanchie and Elf would like +Margaret, he really looked as if he wanted to knock me down--ungrateful +little donkey, after all I'd done and gone through for him and his +princess! But mamma glanced at me, and I understood that she meant that +it was better to say nothing much to him. He would grow out of his +fancies by degrees. And she just said, quietly too, that she was sure +the little girls would get on all right together, and that Blanche and +Elvira would do all they could to make Margaret happy. + +'And I am so thankful,' mamma went on, 'that the poor child is none the +worse for her adventures, and able to travel back with us to-day. And I +can never, never be grateful enough to Mrs. Wylie and her niece for +their goodness to you. Miss Wylie is perfectly sweet.' + +Just as she said this the door opened and Beryl came in, leading +Margaret with her. Mamma, of course, had already seen them upstairs, +before she saw us. + +Margaret looked pale, naturally, paler than usual, I thought, and she +never was rosy in those days, though she is now. But she seemed very +happy and smiling, and she was not coughing at all. And another thing +that pleased me, was that she came round and stood by mamma's chair, as +if she already felt quite at home with her. + +Beryl drew a chair close to them and sat down. + +'I was just saying,' said mamma, 'that we shall never be able to thank +you enough, dear Miss Wylie, for your goodness to these three.' + +'I am so glad, so _very_ glad,' said Beryl, in her nice hearty sort of +way, 'to have been of use. It was really quite a pleasant excitement +last night--when it all turned out well, and Margaret was clever enough +not to get ill. But please don't call me Miss Wylie. You have known dear +old auntie so long--and she counts me almost like her own child. Do call +me "Beryl."' + +And from that time she has always been 'Beryl' to us all. + +They, the Wylies, made us stay to luncheon. It was just about time for +it by this. We did not see Mr. Wylie again, though he sent polite +messages to mamma, and was very kind about it all. + +And Mrs. Wylie came in to luncheon, and petted us all round, and said +that we must _all_--Blanche and Elvira, and Clement too, if he wasn't +too big, come to have tea with her, as soon as she got back to Rock +Terrace. + +We thanked her, of course. At least Peterkin and I did, but I noticed +that Margaret got rather red and did not say anything except 'thank you' +very faintly. She was still half afraid of finding herself again where +she had been so unhappy, and indeed it took a good while, and a good +deal of quiet talking too, to get it _quite_ out of her head about Miss +Bogle being a witch who was trying to 'enchanter' her, as her dear +'Perkins' (she calls him 'Perkins' to this day) would persist in saying. + +Mrs. Wylie noticed her manner too, I fancy. For she went on to say, with +a funny sort of twinkle in her eyes-- + +'There will be a great deal to tell the parrot. And I don't expect that +he will feel quite happy in his mind about you, little Margaret, till he +has seen you again. He will miss you sadly, I am afraid.' + +And at this, Margaret brightened up. + +'Yes,' she said, 'I _must_ come to see dear Poll. But I may talk to him +from your side of the balcony, mayn't I, Mrs. Wylie?' + +'Certainly,' said the kind old lady, 'and you must introduce your new +friends to him. Mrs. Lesley's little girls, I mean.' + +Margaret liked the idea of this, I could see. She is not at all shy, and +she still is very fond of planning, or managing things, and people too, +for that matter, though of course she is much more sensible now, and not +so impatient and self-willed as she used to be. Still, on the whole, she +gets on better with Peterkin than with any of us, though she is fond of +us, I know, and so are we of her. But Peterkin is just a sort of slave +to her, and does everything she asks, and I expect it will always be +like that. + +What a different journey it was that day to the miserable one the day +before! To _me_, at least; for though I wasn't feeling particularly +happy, as I will explain, in some ways, the horrible responsibility +about the others had gone. _They_ were as jolly as could be, but then I +knew they hadn't felt half as bad as I had done. They sat in a corner, +whispering, and I overheard that they were making plans for all sorts of +things they would do while Margaret stayed with us. And Pete was telling +her all about Blanche and Elf, especially about Elf, and about the lots +of fairy story-books he had got, and how they three would act some of +them together, till Margaret got quite pink with pleasure. + +I saw mamma looking at me now and then, as if she was wondering what I +was thinking about. I _was_ thinking a good deal. There were some things +I couldn't yet quite understand about it all--why there should have been +a sort of mystery, and why Mrs. Wylie had pinched up her lips when we +had asked her about Margaret the day we went to tea with her. And +besides this, I was feeling, in a kind of a way, rather ashamed of being +taken home like a baby, even though mamma--and all of them, I must +say--had been so very good, not to make a regular row and fuss, after +the fright we had given them, or had _nearly_ given them. + +But I didn't say anything more to mamma just then. For one thing, I saw +that she was looking very tired, and no wonder, poor dear little mamma, +when you think what a day of it she had had, and all the bother with the +witch the night before, too. + +I never saw Miss Bogle, and I've never wanted to. I shall always +consider that she was nearly as bad as if she _had_ been a witch, and it +was no thanks to her that poor little Margaret didn't get really lost, +or badly ill, or something of that kind. + +They were expecting us when we got home. Blanche and Elf were in the +hall, looking rather excited and very shy. But there was not much fear +of shyness with Margaret and Peterkin, as neither of them was ever +troubled with such a thing. + +I left Pete to do the honours, so to say, helped by mamma, of course. +They all went off together upstairs to show Margaret her room and the +nursery, and to introduce her to nurse and all the rest of it, and I +went into the schoolroom--a small sort of study behind the dining-room, +and sat down by myself, feeling rather 'out of it' and 'flat,' and +almost a little ashamed of myself and the whole affair somehow. + +And the fire was low and the room looked dull and chilly, and I began +thinking how horrid it would be to go to school the next morning without +having done my lessons properly, and not knowing what to say about +having missed a day, without the excuse, or good reason, of having been +ill. + +I had sat there some time, a quarter-of-an-hour or so, I daresay, when I +heard the front-door bell ring. Then I heard James opening and the door +shutting, and, a moment after, the door of the room where I was opened, +and some one came in, and banged something down on to the table. By that +I knew who it was. It was Clement, with his school-books. + +It was nearly dark by this time, and the room was not lighted up at all. +So he did not see me at first, till I moved a little, which made him +start. + +'Good gracious!' he exclaimed, 'is that you, Gilley? What are you doing +all alone in the dark? James told me you had all come--the kid from Rock +Terrace too. By jove--' and he began to laugh a little to himself. + +It seemed a sort of last straw. I was tired and ashamed, and all wrong +somehow. I did not speak till I was at the door, for I got up to leave +the room at once. Then I said-- + +'You needn't go at me like that. You might let me sit here if I want to. +You don't suppose I've been enjoying myself these two days, do you?' + +He seemed to understand all about it at once. He caught hold of my arm +and pulled me back again. + +'Poor old Gilley!' he said. + +Then he took up the poker and gave a good banging to the coals. There +was plenty on the fire, but it had got black for want of stirring up. In +a moment or two there was a cheery blaze. Clement pushed me into a seat +and sat down near me on the table, his legs dangling. + +I have not said very much about Clem in this story--if it's worth +calling a story--except just at the beginning, for it has really been +meant to be about Peterkin and his princess. But I can't finish it +without a little more about him--Clem, I mean. Some day, possibly, I may +write about him especially, about our real school-life and all he has +been to me, and how tremendously lucky I always think it has been for me +to have such a brother. He is just as good as gold, without any pretence +about it, and jolly too. And I can never forget how kind he was that +afternoon. + +'Poor old Gilley!' he repeated. 'It must have been rather horrid for +you--much worse than for those two young imps. Mamma told me all about +it, as soon as she got the letter--she told me a good deal last night +about what Miss Bogie, or whatever the old thing's name is, had told +her.' + +I looked up at this. + +'Yes?' I said. 'I don't understand it at all, yet. But, Clem, what shall +I do about school to-morrow? I've no lessons ready or anything.' + +'Is it that that you are worrying about?' he said. + +'Partly, and----' + +'Well, you can put _that_ out of your head. It's all right. Mamma told +me what to say--that there'd been a mistake about the trains, and you'd +had to stay the night in London. It wasn't necessary to say more, and +you'll find it all right, I promise you.' + +I was very glad of this, and I said so, and thanked Clem. + +He sat still for a minute or two as if he was expecting me to speak. + +'Well?' he said at last. + +'Mamma's been very good, _very_ good about it altogether,' I said at +last, 'and so has papa, by what she says. But still--' and then I +hesitated. + +'Well?' said Clement again. 'What? I don't see that there's much to be +down in the mouth about.' + +'It's just that--I feel rather a fool,' I said. 'Anybody would laugh so +at the whole affair if they heard it. I daresay Blanche will think I've +no more sense than Pete. She has a horrid superior way sometimes, you +know.' + +'You needn't bother about that, either,' said he. 'She and Elf have got +their heads perfectly full of Margaret. I don't suppose Blanche will +ever speak of your part of it, or think of it even. As long as papa and +mamma are all right--and I'm sure they are--you may count it a case of +all's well that ends well.' + +I did begin to feel rather cheered up. + +'You're sure I'm not going to get a talking to, after all?' I said, +still doubtfully. 'I saw mamma looking at me rather funnily in the +train.' + +'Did you, my boy?' said another voice, and glancing round, I saw mamma, +who had come into the room so quietly that neither of us had heard her. + +She sat down beside us. And then it was that she explained to me what I +had done wrong, and been foolish about. I have already told what she +said, and I felt that it was all true and sensible. And she was so +kind--not laughing at me a bit, even for having a little believed about +the witch and all that--that I lost the horrid, mortified, ashamed +feelings I had been having. + +Just then the nursery tea-bell rang. I got up--slowly--I still felt a +little funny and uncomfortable about Blanche, and even nurse. You see +nurse made such a pet of Peterkin that she never scarcely could see that +he should be found fault with, and of course he was a very good little +chap, though not exactly an angel without wings--and certainly rather a +queer child, with all his fairy-tale fancies. + +But mamma put her hand on my arm. + +'No,' she said. 'Clem and you are going to have tea in the drawing-room +with me. The nursery party will be better left to itself to-day, and +little Margaret is not accustomed to so many.' + +'I don't believe anything would make her feel shy, though,' I said. 'She +is just as funny in her way as Peterkin in his. And, mamma, there are +some things I don't understand still. Is there any sort of mystery? Why +did Mrs. Wylie leave off talking about Margaret, and you too, I think, +all of a sudden? I'm sure it was Mrs. Wylie's way of pinching up her +lips about her, that made Pete surer than ever about the enchantment and +the parrot and the witch and everything.' + +Mamma smiled. + +'No,' she said, 'there is no mystery at all. I will explain about it +while we are having tea. It must be ready for us.' + +And she went into the drawing-room, Clement and I following her. It +looked so nice and comfortable--I was jolly glad, I know, to be at home +again! + +Then mamma told us--or me; I think Clem had heard it already--about +Margaret. + +Her father and mother were in India, as I have said, have I not? And her +grandfather was taking care of her. He was not a very old man, though he +was a General. He had vineyards or something--yes, I am sure it was +vineyards, in the south of France, and he had had to go, suddenly, to +look after some business to do with them. And just when he was starting, +Margaret got ill. It was the illness she had spoken of several times, +which she called a very bad cold. But it was much worse than that, +though she didn't know. + +Her grandfather put off going till she was getting better, and the +doctors said she must have change of air. He couldn't take her with him, +and he had to go, so the only thing he could think of was to ask old +Miss Bogle, who had been Margaret's father's governess once--or General +Fothergill's own governess when he was a little boy; I am not sure +which--to take charge of her. He had forgotten how old, Miss Bogle was, +and I think she must have forgotten it herself! She wasn't fit to look +after a child, especially as Margaret's nurse had to leave just then. + +So you can pretty well understand how dull and lonely Margaret was. And +General Fothergill was in such a fuss about her, and so terrified of her +getting any other illness, that he forbade her making friends with any +one out of Miss Bogle's house, unless he was asked about it, and wrote +to give leave. + +And when Mrs. Wylie found out about her, she--or Miss Bogle--_did_ write +to ask leave for her to know _us_, explaining how good and sensible +mamma was about children every way. But till the leave came Mrs. Wylie +and mamma settled that it was better to say nothing about it to us. And +in this, _I_ think, they made a mistake. + +That was all. The leave _did_ come, while Margaret was with us. Of +course, all that had happened was written to her grandfather, but she +wasn't a bit scolded! + +Neither was her 'Perkins'; the big people only said that they must not +be given so many fairy-stories to read. + +_I_ wasn't scolded either, though, so I should not complain. And several +nice things came of it: the knowing Beryl Wylie, and the going to stay +at General Fothergill's country house, and the having Margaret with us +sometimes. + +I don't know what the parrot thought of it all. I believe he is still +there, as clever and 'uncanny' as ever; at least so Mrs. Wylie said, the +last time she came to see us. + +THE END + + _Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_ + + + + +BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS. + +=By Mrs. MOLESWORTH.= + + +=THE WOODPIGEONS AND MARY.= Illustrated by H. R. MILLAR. Crown 8vo. 4s. +6d. + +_Illustrated by_ =Alice B. Woodward=. _Globe 8vo. 2s. 6d._ + + +=THE HOUSE THAT GREW.= + +_Illustrated by_ HUGH THOMSON. _Globe 8vo. 2s. 6d._ + + +=THIS AND THAT: A Tale of Two Tinies.= + +_Illustrated by_ WALTER CRANE. _Globe 8vo. 2s. 6d. each._ + + =A CHRISTMAS POSY.= + ="CARROTS," JUST A LITTLE BOY.= + =A CHRISTMAS CHILD.= + =CHRISTMAS-TREE LAND.= + =THE CUCKOO CLOCK.= + =FOUR WINDS FARM.= + =GRANDMOTHER DEAR.= + =ADVENTURES OF HERR BABY.= + =LITTLE MISS PEGGY.= + =THE RECTORY CHILDREN.= + =ROSY.= + =THE TAPESTRY ROOM.= + =TELL ME A STORY.= + =TWO LITTLE WAIFS.= + ="US"; an Old-Fashioned Story.= + =CHILDREN OF THE CASTLE.= + +_Illustrated by_ LESLIE BROOKE. _Globe 8vo. 2s. 6d. each._ + + =SHEILA'S MYSTERY.= + =THE CARVED LIONS.= + =MARY.= + =MY NEW HOME.= + =NURSE HEATHERDALE'S STORY.= + =THE GIRLS AND I.= + =THE ORIEL WINDOW.= + =MISS MOUSE AND HER BOYS.= + +_Illustrated by_ ROSIE M. M. 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Crown 8vo. + 6s. net. + + =ALICE'S ADVENTURES UNDER GROUND.= Being a + facsimile of the original MS. book afterwards + developed into "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." + With 37 Illustrations by the Author. Fourth + Thousand. Crown 8vo. 4s. net. + + =THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, AND WHAT ALICE FOUND + THERE.= With 50 Illustrations by JOHN TENNIEL. + Sixty-third Thousand. Crown 8vo. 6s. net. + _People's Edition._ Seventy-fifth Thousand. Crown + 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. + + =ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, AND THROUGH THE + LOOKING-GLASS, AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE.= With + 92 Illustrations by JOHN TENNIEL. _People's + Edition._ Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d. net. + + =THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK: An Agony in Eight + Fits.= With 9 Illustrations by HENRY HOLIDAY. + Twenty-third Thousand. Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d. net. + + =RHYME? AND REASON?= With 65 Illustrations by + ARTHUR B. FROST, and 9 by HENRY HOLIDAY. Eighth + Thousand. Crown 8vo. 6s. net. + + =SYLVIE AND BRUNO.= With 46 Illustrations by HARRY + FURNISS. Seventeenth Thousand. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. + net. _People's Edition._ Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. + + =SYLVIE AND BRUNO=, Concluded. With Illustrations + by HARRY FURNISS. Fifth Thousand. Crown 8vo. 7s. + 6d. net. _People's Edition._ Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. + + =SYMBOLIC LOGIC.= Part I. ELEMENTARY. Crown 8vo, + limp cloth. 2s. net. Second Thousand. + +N.B.--_An Envelope, containing two blank diagrams (Biliteral and +Triliteral) and nine counters (four red and five grey), can be had for +3d., by Post 4d._ + + +MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page 62, "little's girl" changed to "little girl's" (little girl's +house) + +Page 81, "eagly" changed to "eagerly" (old Pete eagerly) + +Page 83, "get" changed to "got" (we got close) + +Page 121, italics removed from the word "the" (thankful I felt in the) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Peterkin, by Mary Louisa Molesworth + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETERKIN *** + +***** This file should be named 26322-8.txt or 26322-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/3/2/26322/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Lindy Walsh, Emmy, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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