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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 talki... |
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 ... |
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 standin... |
'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, e... |
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 n... |
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' lookin... |
'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 eve... |
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 sho... |
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