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 pa.s.sed 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 polit.i.tude, 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?
Sat.u.r.day 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 Sat.u.r.day, 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 Sat.u.r.day, 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 Sat.u.r.day 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
SAt.u.r.dAY 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, Sat.u.r.day 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-G.o.dmotherish, 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."
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.