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. n.o.body 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 Sat.u.r.day, 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."