DOLL’S LETTERS
I had the next day a great joy. It was the arrival of a letter from my
dear Ellen Plummy, which her brother Thomas had brought and given to
one of the housemaids, saying it was a ‘Doll’s letter.’ The housemaid
had given it to a page, and the page had given it to the tall footman,
and he--after some consideration--had taken it to the governess, who,
having opened it, and read it, and shown it to Lady Flowerdale, had
asked my little lady mamma if she would allow me to receive a letter,
as one had been sent for me by the little girl from whom she had
received me. Lady Flora was at first going to say ‘No,’ but suddenly
she recollected the sad face of poor Ellen when she placed me in her
hands, and then she said ‘Oh, yes!--I should so like to read it.’ This
was the letter. It was addressed on the outside to ‘Maria Poppet.’
‘My dearest Maria:
‘I have never forgotten you, though I have got another doll; and
often when I love this other doll, I am thinking of it as if you were
this. I have also had a cradle sent me by the kind great lady and
little lady both, and some things for the bedding, and a necklace
of beads for myself, besides a small painted work-box. We get up at
six o’clock to work as usual, and go to bed at nine, after bread and
butter. I am so glad to think you are happy and comfortable, and that
you have no hard needlework to do, and the little lady is fond of
you. Don’t you remember the Twelfth-cake my brother Tommy gave for
you, and how he laughed all the way we ran home at something that had
happened in the doll-shop about Bonaparte and Abernethy biscuits? I
often think of you. I never forget you, nor all who have been good
to me, and whom I love, and I hope we may some day meet again; and I
also hope that your happy life among all the riches of the world will
not make you quite forget your poor first mamma.
‘Your affectionate,
‘ELLEN PLUMMY.’
The little Lady Flora and the governess were rather amused with this
letter of my poor dear Ellen’s, but Lady Flowerdale was very much
pleased with it, and said that, however simple or foolish it might
seem, it showed a good and affectionate nature in the little girl who
had sent it; and she was of opinion that the doll should write an
answer.
This idea of my writing an answer greatly delighted Lady Flora, and
she and her governess sat a whole morning thinking what to say, and
writing upon a slate, and then rubbing it out because it would not do.
At the same time the governess was obliged to put a pen very often
into my hand, and teach me to write, and she often seemed so vexed and
tired; but Lady Flora would never let her rest, so that I really had in
this manner an excellent lesson in writing.
At last a letter, in answer, was composed on a slate by the governess,
with Lady Flora’s assistance, and then a pen was put into my hand by
the governess, so that I wrote the letter. It was then sent to Lady
Flowerdale, to know if she approved of it; but she did not. She said
it wanted ease and simplicity, and was not what a nursery letter ought
to be, nor like what a doll would say. She then tried herself, but she
could not write one to her mind.
That same evening, as she sat at dinner with the earl, her husband,
they happened to be alone. Lady Flora was gone to bed, but had left me
sitting upright in one corner of the room, having forgotten to take me
upstairs with her. Her ladyship, observing that Lord Flowerdale, who
was a cabinet minister, was troubled with state business, sought to
relieve his mind by telling him all about this letter to me, and their
difficulty in answering it. The minister at first paid no attention to
this triviality, but when her ladyship related how the governess and
Lady Flora had tried all the morning to write a proper answer for the
doll, and how hard she herself had tried, but could not, the minister
was amused, and in the end quite laughed, forgot the business of the
state, and actually became pleasant. He desired to see the letter. It
was brought in by a footman,--placed upon a splendid silver salver, and
handed to the minister by the butler with a grave and important face.
The minister read the letter very attentively; then smiled, and laid it
by the side of his plate, on which was a slice of currant tart. ‘So,’
said he, ‘Flora and her governess have tried in vain to write a proper
reply to this letter, from the doll; and your ladyship has also tried
in vain. Well, I have a mind to write the reply myself; I need not go
down to the house (meaning, as I afterwards learnt, the House of Lords)
for ten minutes, and if I do not eat this currant tart, but write
instead, I can very well spare that time. Bring me my writing-desk.’
The desk was brought, and placed on a side-table. His lordship sat
down, and opening Ellen Plummy’s letter, began to write a reply for me.
He sat with his forehead full of lines, frowning and screwing up his
mouth, and working very hard at it, and only writing a few words at a
time, after studying Ellen’s letter, which lay open before him.
Three times a servant came to announce to his lordship that his
carriage was at the door; but he had not finished. At last, however, it
was done, and he was about to read it when, hearing the clock strike,
he found he had been three-quarters of an hour over it, and, jumping
up, hurried out of the room, and I heard the carriage drive off at a
great rate.
Lady Flowerdale, with a face of smiling curiosity, told one of the
footmen to bring her what his lordship had been writing. She cast her
eyes over it, laid it down, and then calmly desired all the servants to
leave the room. As soon as they were gone she took it up again hastily,
and read it aloud, as if to enjoy it more fully. It was as follows:--
‘TO MISS E. PLUMMY
‘Hanover Square, July 15.
‘My dear Madam,--I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
very kind letter, the date of which has been omitted, no doubt by an
oversight. You have stated that I still hold a place in your memory,
although you have now got another doll, and that your affection for
this latter one is only by reason of your thoughts dwelling upon me.
You have also stated that you possess various little articles; and
I, moreover, notice sundry allusions to needlework and Twelfth-cake,
to your brother Master Thomas, and to Bonaparte and Mr. Abernethy;
the purport of which is not necessary for me to discuss. But I
must frankly tell you that, having now become the doll of another,
I cannot with propriety reciprocate that solicitude which you are
pleased to entertain for me, nor can I, for the same reason, address
you in similar terms of affection. At the same time, my dear madam,
permit me to add that I cherish a lively sense of all the kindness
you once showed me, and I cannot doubt the sincerity of your present
professions of respect and esteem.
‘I have the honor to be, my dear Madam, very faithfully yours,
‘M.P.’
When the countess had concluded this letter she hastily put a cambric
handkerchief up to her face, and particularly over her mouth, and
laughed to herself for at least a minute. I also laughed to myself.
What a polite, unfeeling, stupid reply to a kind, tender-hearted little
girl like Ellen Plummy! Whatever knowledge the minister might have had
of grown-up men and women, and the world and the affairs of state, it
was certain he was not equal to enter into the mind of a doll who had
a heart like mine. It would have been so much better if his lordship,
instead of writing that letter, had eaten his currant tart,--and then
gone to bed.
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