from the crowd, and it was repeated by several other voices, equally
indignant. “They’re taking them off to prison.”
The Lord Chancellor held up his hand. “Now then, my good people,” he
said, “don’t disturb yourselves, I do pray and beg of you. It’s the
King’s orders, you know, and you can really hardly call it going to
prison. They are going to be his Majesty’s guests for a little time
in the House of Cards. There’s a glorious view from there, and they
will get very good food. You see, we’ve just been buying pot-plants to
brighten up their apartments for them. Here they are. The guards are
carrying them. You can see them for yourselves. Do please let us get
on. The ladies want their tea.”
The Lord Chancellor seemed to attach great importance to the
pot-plants, and they did make some impression on the crowd, because
they could all see them, and there was no doubt about them at all. They
made way for the Lord Chancellor to go on for a few steps, followed by
his charges.
But Teddy wasn’t at all satisfied. “Here, wait a minute, Mister,” he
said. “What are you taking my young mistress to prison _for_? That’s
what I want to know. And, why bless me! here’s Wooden, too, and Lady
Grace, and Wooden’s mother and aunt. I say, this won’t do at all, you
know. Are they all going to prison?”
“Oh, yes, but only--well, you might almost call it for a little fun,”
said the Lord Chancellor. “It’s more like a first-class hotel than a
prison, you know. And--and--well, look at the pot-plants! You can see
for yourself!”
“Oh, blow the pot-plants!” said Teddy; and Peggy did not object to the
vulgarity of the expression, as he spoke as if he really meant to do
something. “What are they going to prison _for_?”
“Three wooden dolls, too!” said Mrs. Noah. “And one of them was going
to be Queen, we were all told. It doesn’t seem to me as if the new King
was acting quite right, it doesn’t.”
There were murmurs among the crowd. Mrs. Noah seemed to have hit upon
a feeling that they all shared, more or less. “No, it isn’t right.”
“There was hardly any sending to prison in Queen Rosebud’s time.” “They
don’t look as if they had done anything wrong either.” “Nice kind
faces, all of them!” These were a few of the speeches that reached
Peggy’s ears from among the dolls who were all round her.
The Lord Chancellor still kept his good-natured expression of face, as
if they were all making a great fuss about nothing, but he would put
up with it for the sake of pleasing them. “Now, look here,” he said in
a persuasive voice, “I think there’s a great deal in what you say, and
I should be the last one to want to go against you. A more intelligent
and intellectual-looking crowd I have seldom set eyes on, and it’s a
real pleasure to address you.”
There were murmurs of approval, and one smartly dressed lady doll
standing near to Peggy, said, “Lord Norval can be trusted. I know all
about him, and I once met him at a garden party.”
“Now suppose we come to a compromise,” said the Lord Chancellor.
There were more murmurs of approval. Another lady doll near to Peggy
asked, “What is a compromise?”
“Oh, don’t you know?” said the first lady doll. “It’s ‘If you give way,
I’ll pretend to.’”
“What I suggest is this,” said the Lord Chancellor. “Let us all take
these ladies to the House of Cards--it isn’t really like a prison at
all, you know--and when we have made them comfortable there, and got
them off our minds, then we’ll talk about what can be done. Now that
strikes me as eminently fair.”
“Yes, that’s a compromise,” said the first lady doll, “and a very good
one. But I knew that the Lord Chancellor could be trusted. A cook I
once had had been kitchen maid to a great friend of his wife’s.”
Peggy did not think much of the Lord Chancellor’s compromise, but
it seemed to satisfy the crowd, who greeted it with enthusiasm, and
immediately made a way through for them, and went along with them.
Peggy thought that Teddy would have seen that if they were once all
shut up in prison it would be much more difficult to get them out
again than to prevent their going there. But he said no more. With an
encouraging wave of the paw he took himself off, followed by Mr. and
Mrs. Noah, and was lost to view. Peggy felt a little sad, but only for
a moment, because she couldn’t help treating the whole business as a
sort of game; and everybody knows that whatever dreadful things happen
in dolls’ games, everything always comes right in the end.
So on they all went, and by-and-by they came to the House of Cards.
[Illustration]
VIII
PEGGY BATHES A BABY AND HAS A SURPRISE
The House of Cards was a noble structure, and one which interested
Peggy extremely. She had once built one herself, up to five stories,
and had nearly finished the sixth before it tumbled down. But the House
of Cards in Dolltown was of no less than thirteen stories, and towered
high above all the other buildings. Each story was as high as the shops
round the market-place, and not even the Post-Office, which was an
imposing edifice of terra-cotta bricks, reached higher than its second
story. It was built up of gigantic cards, just as Peggy had built hers
with ordinary sized ones, but it seemed quite strong, and as if it
would last for ever. There were windows and doors in the cards, and the
ones that were laid flat at each story formed platforms and balconies,
on which you could go out to look about you.
Just as the Lord Chancellor was ushering them in to the House of Cards,
a lead Life Guardsman from the palace rode up on his black horse and
handed him a note. “Now I am rather sorry for that,” he said, when
he had read it. “I had intended to shut you all up in the top story,
for the sake of the view. But the King doesn’t wish that. You are to
be imprisoned on the first floor. Those are his very words. Well,
you will be able to see the life of the market-place, which is very
entertaining. As a distinguished doll once said, ‘There is no cloud
without its silver lining.’ You couldn’t do that so conveniently from
the top story. Perhaps the King thought of that. There is a good deal
of thoughtfulness in his nature, though he is apt to be a little
irritable after meals.”
“It’s like his nastiness not to let us see the view,” said Wooden’s
aunt. “I wouldn’t marry him now, not if he was to go down on his bended
knees, I wouldn’t.”
Peggy would have liked to go up to the top of the House of Cards, but
it turned out very well for them all that they were not shut up there,
as will presently appear.
The cards of which the house was built were so enormous that each
story had two floors of several rooms. They were taken upstairs by a
policeman doll, and found themselves in a spacious apartment furnished
with quite nice dolls’ furniture, and not like a prison at all. The
Lord Chancellor rubbed his hands as he looked round him, and said,
“Well, this isn’t so bad, is it? With the pot-plants it will look quite
home-like, and I should think, when you are set free, you will hardly
like to leave it. You can go out on this balcony, see? We might go out
now, and look at the people. I’m sure they will be pleased to see us
all, especially me. The people have a great love for me, and it is very
gratifying. I often think about it when I am alone, and it sometimes
brings tears to my eyes.”
They went out on the balcony, and looked down at the crowd of dolls in
the market-place. There were all sorts there except wax. Peggy looked
to see if she could see Teddy or the Noahs among them. There were
several Teddy bears, and one or two Noahs in the crowd, but although
she might not have recognized the Noahs of the royal Ark, Peggy would
have known her own Teddy anywhere. She was sure that he was not in the
crowd, and wondered what had become of him.
The crowd of dolls cheered when they appeared on the balcony. The Lord
Chancellor put himself in front, and bowed repeatedly, but the dolls
seemed to be cheering Wooden more than him. This was probably because
they had been told that she was to be their Queen, and because any
doll who knew her would have told their friends how nice and good
she was. So the news would have spread, and Wooden would have become
popular. At any rate the dolls kept on calling out, “Wooden! Wooden!
Speech! Speech!”
The platform was too high above the market-place to make it convenient
for anybody to make a speech from it, even if they had wished to.
Wooden did not wish to, not being accustomed to public speaking, but
her aunt offered to dance a Highland fling, which her late husband had
taught her. This offer was refused, and Wooden’s mother told her to
behave herself, and remember where she was.
“Now, I must leave you,” said the Lord Chancellor. “Good-bye, ladies,
and a very pleasant imprisonment to you!”
He shook hands affably with all of them, and bowed himself out. He
seemed already to have forgotten the compromise he had come to with the
people, and they seemed to have forgotten it, too; for Peggy watched
him go off, followed by the palace guards, and bowing to right and
left. The dolls in the market-place cheered heartily, but none of them
stopped him to say anything, and he disappeared round the corner.
“Dolls seem to have very short memories,” said Peggy to herself. She
could not help feeling a little unhappy at being shut up in a prison,
though it was only a dolls’ prison, and quite different from the stone
cells she had read about. She did think that her own Teddy might have
done something more to help them. She knew now that he was rather
flighty, but surely he need not have gone off like that, and have left
his mistress and her friends to be locked up, without trying to do
anything to rescue them! She supposed he was amusing himself with his
new friends, Mr. and Mrs. Noah, and had forgotten all about her.
But she did Teddy an injustice there, as you will soon see.
The policeman doll came up to see if they wanted anything directly
the Lord Chancellor had gone, and brought his wife with him. He was
a large, amiable-looking doll, and his wife was nice too. She was
dressed as a Swiss peasant, and when she saw Peggy she said, “Bonjour,
Mademoiselle! Comment ça va t’il?”
Now Peggy knew a good deal of French already, because her father and
mother took her to Etretat every summer for the holidays. So she said
at once, “Merci, Madame, ça va bien. Et vous?”
The policeman doll’s wife was delighted to hear her own language
spoken, and asked Peggy if she might kiss her. The policeman doll
beamed affectionately at them, and said, “Isn’t that clever now? I
never could pick up her lingo.”
[Illustration]
They said they would like some tea as soon as possible, and apricot jam
with it. The policeman doll’s wife, whose name was Mrs. Emma, said that
she would bring it up as soon as she had bathed her baby.
“Oh, have you got a long-clothes baby?” asked Peggy, clasping her two
hands together.
Mrs. Emma said that she had, and Peggy begged her to let her go down
and bathe it for her.
The policeman doll said he didn’t think he could allow that without
orders, but Mrs. Emma persuaded him, and he said that as the outer
door of the house was locked, perhaps it wouldn’t much matter after
all; only she wasn’t to tell anybody. Peggy would have promised almost
anything for the sake of bathing a real live baby doll, and promised
this readily enough. So she left the four dolls, promising to come back
soon, and went downstairs with Mr. and Mrs. Emma.
They lived in the basement, where they had a large and well furnished
kitchen, spotlessly clean. In one corner of it was a pretty bassinette
covered with muslin and ribbons, and inside it was the sweetest little
baby doll, beautifully dressed in a hand-made robe of cambric and lace.
Everything was so pretty and dainty that it might have belonged to
a princess, and Mrs. Emma told Peggy that she took a great pride in
having everything very nice for her baby.
Peggy lost her heart to the baby doll at once. She would have loved
it even if it had been just like other dolls, but when it smiled at
her, and put out its little pudgy hands, and gurgled happily, she could
almost have eaten it, it was so fascinating.
[Illustration: Peggy lost her heart to the baby doll]
Mrs. Emma put on her a large bath apron, and got out a white enamelled
toy bath, with a gold rim round it, and a cake of pink soap, and filled
the bath with hot water. And then Peggy lifted the baby doll carefully
out of the cot and undressed it and put it into the bath, first putting
her own hand in the water to see that it was not too hot.
It was lovely, bathing that beautiful fat laughing baby doll. Mrs. Emma
stood over the bath smiling at them both, but she soon saw that Peggy
knew exactly what to do and how to do it, so she went away to her work
in another part of the kitchen.
Peggy was so busy with the baby doll, and so wrapped up in it, that
she did not pay much attention to what Mr. and Mrs. Emma were talking
about. But she heard some of the things they said, and, although she
did not pay much attention to them at the time, as I have said, they
turned out to be important afterwards, as you will see.
When Peggy had bathed the baby doll, and dressed it and put it back
into its cot, she was taken upstairs again. She found the Woodens and
Lady Grace on the balcony, where something interesting was just about
to happen.
A Teddy bear had made its appearance in the market-place with an
enormous pole, and just as Peggy went out on to the balcony he was
balancing it on his head. Then he balanced it on different parts of his
body, as he knelt or lay or stooped on the ground. The crowd of dolls
who still filled the market-place was absolutely delighted with his
performance, and when he shouted out that he would climb up to the top
of the pole and balance himself on his head, if somebody would hold it
for him, all the gentlemen dolls in the market-place wanted to have the
honour of holding the pole for him.
But the Teddy bear said he must choose who should hold the pole
himself, and chose out of the crowd four tall wooden dolls with shiny
black hats and different coloured robes. Then he looked up at Peggy and
the four dolls standing on the balcony of the House of Cards, and waved
his paw and made a low bow, and told his four assistants to hold up the
pole near the House, so that the ladies could see. The crowd of dolls
was pleased at this, for they were sorry for the prisoners, and wanted
them to have all the amusement that they could get.
Well, of course you have already understood that the Teddy bear who was
so clever at his acrobatic feats was Peggy’s own old Teddy, who had not
forgotten her at all, but had evidently chosen this means of getting
at them. And the four tall wooden dolls who were helping him were Mr.
Noah of the Royal Ark, and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet. It
was rather clever of Teddy to have chosen them out of the crowd, as
if he hadn’t known them before. But Teddy was clever, in spite of his
flightiness, and faithful, too, as Peggy was very glad to see. She had
recognized him at once, but the crowd had not. One Teddy bear is very
much like another, unless he happens to be your own, and there were
several of them in the crowd itself, as I have already said.
Teddy climbed carefully up to the top of the pole, and when he got
there he stood on one foot and waved his paws about, and then changed
to the other foot, and kissed his paw to the crowd, and to Peggy and
the dolls on the balcony. Peggy was afraid that he might tumble, and
almost forgot to listen for anything that he might say when he got near
to them. But he seemed quite at home on his pole, and as he turned
towards them and kissed his paw, he said in a mysterious voice, “One of
you go to the other side.”
That was all he said, and the crowd down below could not have known
that he was saying anything at all, he did it so cleverly. He was just
on a level with the balcony, and could easily have jumped on to it if
he had wanted to. Peggy had thought that perhaps he had meant to do
that, so as to be with them, because he could not have got there in
any other way. But he was too clever for that, for if he had stepped
on to the balcony, all the dolls who had been watching him would have
known at once that they had been deceived. And besides, he would only
have been locked up with Peggy and the four dolls, and could have done
nothing more to help them.
When Teddy had said, “One of you go to the other side,” he turned round
again, and then stood on his head on the top of the pole, as he had
promised to do. The crowd of dolls was wild with delight, and none of
them suspected that he had given a message to the prisoners.
“What does he mean? What are we to go to the other side for?” asked
Wooden.
“I expect there is somebody there,” said Lady Grace. “Shall I go?”
“No, I’ll go,” said Wooden’s aunt, who had largely recovered her
spirits during Teddy’s performance, and had danced a few steps of a
Highland fling on her own account, while he was posturing on the pole.
“I think Peggy had better go,” said Wooden’s mother. “She has a
slightly better head than any of us, because she is human.”
“Oh, yes, let Peggy go,” said all the others at once. So Peggy went
round the balcony to the other side of the house, feeling proud at the
trust reposed in her, but a little alarmed also at what should happen.
But she hid that from the dolls, and walked with a firm and confident
step.
There was as big a space in the market-place on the other side of the
House of Cards as in the one in which Teddy was performing, but it was
absolutely empty. Every doll was watching Teddy, and even the shops
were deserted, as all the doll shopkeepers had gone round to the other
side. A thief might have taken anything he liked from the shops, and
nobody would have seen him. But dolls are never thieves, so it was
quite safe.
Perhaps I ought not to have said that that side of the market-place was
absolutely empty. It looked so to Peggy when she got there, but when
she looked over the edge of the platform she saw a solitary doll figure
standing below her, looking up. It was rather a disappointment to
her, for it was a gentleman doll wrapped up in a long black cloak, and
he had his arms full of pot-plants, like the ones the Lord Chancellor
had bought to brighten up their rooms. Peggy thought they had quite
enough pot-plants to go on with, and, if the gentleman doll only wanted
to sell them some more, it was hardly worth Teddy’s cleverness to get
all the people round on the other side, so that he might do so without
being observed.
And that was apparently all that the gentleman doll did want, for
directly he saw Peggy looking over the platform at him he called up to
her, “Kind lady, buy a few pot-plants from a poor man. I’ve got some
lovely ones here.”
“No, thank you,” said Peggy. “We have plenty. Besides, I haven’t got
any money; at least, not here.”
“I don’t want any money for them,” said the gentleman doll. “Let me
come up and show you my lovely pot-plants.”
Now there was something in his voice that Peggy seemed to recognize.
She thought she had heard it before, but she couldn’t remember where or
when. However, she began to understand that the pot-plants were only an
excuse for the gentleman doll to get into the House of Cards, and that
if he did so he might have something interesting to say.
“I should be glad if you could come up,” she said. “But the doors are
locked, and I don’t suppose they will let you.”
“Yes, they will, if you say the word ‘pot-plants,’” said the gentleman
doll. “Say that somebody has come from the palace with some pot-plants
for you. Go quickly, before anybody comes.”
Peggy went back, and told Wooden and the others what had happened. “I
don’t know who it was,” she said, “but I couldn’t help thinking that I
had heard his voice before.”
“Was it the Lord Chancellor?” asked Wooden’s mother. “Perhaps this is
his compromise.”
“I don’t think so,” said Peggy. “But hadn’t we better ask for him to be
let in?”
Teddy had finished his performance, and was climbing down the pole. It
was time to do something, for soon the crowd of dolls would disperse,
and some would go round to the other side of the House.
“Yes, dear, we had better do that,” said Wooden. “It is a very good
idea. Perhaps you had better go yourself, if you don’t mind, as it was
you who heard what he said.”
Peggy would have been quite willing to go down, but the door of their
room was locked. So after a little more discussion they rang the bell,
and presently Mr. Emma came up to see what they wanted.
The dolls seemed to expect Peggy to speak, so she said, “There is a man
outside who wants to come up and see us.”
Mr. Emma beamed affectionately upon her. “Bless your dear little
heart!” he said. “I’d do anything to please you, but I can’t let
anybody up to see you without orders. It would be as much as my place
is worth.”
“He has come from the palace with some pot-plants,” said Peggy.
Mr. Emma’s face underwent a complete change. “Come with what?” he asked.
“With some pot-plants.”
“Oh, well then, I’ll let him up at once,” said Mr. Emma. “Oh,
certainly.”
He went out quickly, but did not forget to lock the door behind him.
Just as he had locked it, and they thought he was on his way
downstairs, he unlocked it again, and put his head into the room. “What
did you say the man had come with?” he asked.
“With some pot-plants,” said Peggy again.
“Ah, that’s the word,” he said. “I wasn’t quite certain I’d got it
right.”
Then he locked the door behind him again, and they heard his feet going
heavily downstairs.
In a few minutes he came back again, unlocked the door, and came into
the room with the gentleman doll, who was wrapped in his long cloak,
and carried his pots in his arms.
“I’ll leave the gentleman with you for a bit,” said Mr. Emma, “as I’m
just in the middle of my tea.”
He went out and locked the door behind him once more. The gentleman
doll, who had put the pots down on the floor, stood up and threw off
his cloak, and revealed the stalwart form and handsome features of
Colonel Jim, of the Lifeguards.
[Illustration]
IX
THEY DISCUSS A PLAN OF ESCAPE
The first thing Colonel Jim did when he had thrown off his disguise
was to bow politely to all of them. But to Lady Grace he did more than
that. He took her hand and kissed it respectfully, and then said,
“Very sorry to see you here, my lady. Forming plans to get you out.
Disgraceful affair altogether!”
[Illustration: He took her hand and kissed it respectfully]
Lady Grace looked pleased at the attention paid to her, and blushed.
Peggy had not known before that dolls could fall in love, but it was
quite plain that Lady Grace was in love with handsome Colonel Jim.
It seemed plain also that he was in love with her. He spoke in short
sharp sentences because he was a soldier, and loved deeds better than
words. But there was a tenderness in his manner when he addressed Lady
Grace which he did not show to anybody but her, though his manners were
always courteous.
Wooden’s aunt gave a screech of enjoyment when Colonel Jim kissed Lady
Grace’s hand, and said, “Lawks! I wish I’d got a handsome beau like
that.” But nobody took any notice of her, as there was so much to talk
about. Wooden’s mother requested Colonel Jim to take a seat, which he
did, and proceeded to explain himself.
“Didn’t hear you were shut up till Teddy bear came and told me so,”
he said. “Determined at once to use the pass-word for the day, which
I knew, as commanding troops at palace. Pass-word ‘Pot-plants.’ So
concocted plan with Teddy bear, and here I am.”
Peggy wondered that she had not known who he was under his disguise.
But he had not then spoken in the military way he used now, as he had,
of course, been playing his part as well as he could.
“And very pleased we are to see you, Colonel Jim,” said Wooden, in her
nice gentle manner. “It’s a sad thing, this shutting up of Waxes and
others. I’m sure dear Queen Rosebud would never have allowed it, if she
had been alive.”
“It’s my belief,” said Colonel Jim, “that Queen Rosebud _is_ alive.”
All the dolls exclaimed, in surprise. And Wooden said, after the pause
which followed, “But King Selim said that she was dead, Colonel Jim. We
all heard him with our own ears.”
“I know that,” said Colonel Jim shortly.
There was another pause of consternation. “Do you mean that you think
the King has told an untruth?” asked Lady Grace, in an awestruck voice.
“Yes,” said Colonel Jim.
Another pause. “It would be a dreadful thing if he had,” said Wooden.
“He wouldn’t deserve to be King if he could do a thing like that, would
he?”
“He doesn’t deserve it,” said Colonel Jim.