Chapter XX: The Last 264 (3)

But just as it was beginning to be difficult to move forward, because of the crowd, Peggy suddenly caught sight of something that took her mind off what was happening. This was the shiny black hat and yellow robe of Mr. Noah on the edge of the crowd, and not only that, but the brown coat and merry face of her own old Teddy. She had been so occupied with all the curious and interesting things that had been happening since she had come off the ark that she had had no time to think about Teddy, or to wonder what he was doing. But evidently he had made great friends with Mr. and Mrs. Noah, and was going about with them.

Well, Teddy was peering between the heads of the people to see what was happening, and directly he caught sight of Peggy he pushed his way through the crowd, followed by Mr. and Mrs. Noah. All of them were tall and strong, and although there were some complaints from the dolls they elbowed aside, such as, “Now then, where do you think you are going?” and “Mind who you’re shoving, can’t you?” the three of them quickly got through.

“Now then, Mr. Man,” said Teddy to the Lord Chancellor, “where are you taking my young mistress off to?”

“Why, they’re taking them off to prison!” said an indignant voice 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.

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.”

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.

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.

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!”

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.

Nobody spoke. The matter was too serious to be treated in a light conversational way, and it was felt that Colonel Jim must have more to tell them, if he could only get it out.

He seemed to feel, himself, that he owed them explanations, and must try to make them as clear as possible, for he spoke slowly, and in longer sentences than he usually employed. He could do this all right if he liked.

“It was Rose who put him up to it all,” he said. “She’s mad all the time because she isn’t Wax.”

“And only half Composition,” put in Wooden’s aunt.

“Well, that’s as may be,” said Colonel Jim. “Anyhow, she got him to let her nurse the Queen, and told him to give out that she was dead. She wasn’t dead at all, but getting better all the time.”

“Do you mean that _she_ told a story?” asked Wooden, in a voice of consternation.

“Yes,” said Colonel Jim. “I do.”

“Well,” said Wooden, “I never liked her; but I did not think she would go so far as that.”

“It’s depravity,” said Wooden’s mother. “That’s what I call it; positive depravity.”

“Well, that’s as may be,” said Colonel Jim again. “Anyhow, that’s what she did.”

“How did you find out about Rose so cleverly?” asked Lady Grace.

Colonel Jim looked pleased at being called clever, which he wasn’t very. “One of my troopers is going to be married to Rose’s maid,” he said. “She heard them talking--Rose and Selim--and told him about it. He came and told me. Very proper thing to do. Made him a lance-corporal on the spot. He marries the maid tomorrow. Shall give them a wedding present. Silver pepper-castor.”

“Then, where is dear Queen Rosebud?” asked Wooden. “I am so glad she isn’t dead after all. I wish we could see her.”

“This is my month to be in waiting,” said Lady Grace. “Could you take me to her, do you think?”

“Afraid that’s impossible,” said Colonel Jim. “Don’t know where she is. She was taken out of the palace and hidden somewhere.”

“How dreadful it all sounds,” said Wooden. “I shouldn’t have thought such things could have happened in Toyland. I do hope they give her enough to eat.”

“I expect she’s having her tea now,” said Wooden’s aunt. “If I was a Queen, I’d have herrings every day.”

It was a foolish remark, as many of Wooden’s aunt’s remarks were, but it turned out to be a lucky one, for it reminded Peggy of something she had heard downstairs, while she was bathing the baby doll.

“I suppose she couldn’t be the lady in the top story!” she said.

They stared at her. “What do you mean, dear? What lady?” asked Wooden.

“When I was downstairs just now,” said Peggy, “Mrs. Emma was getting tea ready for the lady in the top story, and Mr. Emma said he was sorry for her being shut up there, and he wondered if she would like a herring for her tea.”

“Did they give her one?” asked Wooden’s aunt.

“No,” said Peggy. “Mrs. Emma said that as she was Wax she might not like herrings.”

“It’s the best fish out of the sea,” said Wooden’s aunt, smacking her lips. “Lawks! How I wish they’d bring me one!”

“Adone, now!” said Wooden’s mother sharply. “We’re talking about the Queen in the top story, not about what you’d like to have for your tea.”

“I don’t know that it is the Queen,” said Peggy. “But there is a lady on the top story, and she is Wax. I know as much as that.”

“And it’s a good deal to know, dear,” said Wooden fondly. “It was very clever of you to find it out.”

“Oh, it’s the Queen, right enough,” said Colonel Jim. “Wonder we never thought of her being here before. Question is now how to get at her. I wish that Teddy bear was here.”

They all seemed at a loss what to do next, and the suggestions they made were not very helpful. Wooden thought that it would be a good thing if Teddy were to bring a very long pole and climb up to the top of the House of Cards. But it was quite certain that there wasn’t a pole long enough in the whole of Toyland, or anywhere else. Wooden’s mother suggested throwing the Queen a rope. But it was equally certain that nobody could have thrown it far enough. Wooden’s aunt said, why not telephone to her? But this was silly, because there was no telephone.

By-and-by they all looked at Peggy, as if they expected her to suggest something sensible. She did not like to disappoint them, as it was flattering the way they seemed to believe in her. So she knitted her brows hard, to see if she could think of something.

“We could do so much more if we weren’t locked up in prison,” she said at last.

All the dolls looked at one another in admiration, and Wooden said, “Now, that’s one of the cleverest things I ever heard said, dear. How these things come into your head I can’t think.”

Peggy didn’t think that what she had said was so clever as all that, though she had had something further in her mind when she had said it. But she was pleased at being praised; most of us are; and she wanted to be as helpful as she could.

“Did you and Teddy make any plan for getting us out of prison?” she asked, turning to Colonel Jim.

“Now, I wonder what made her think of that?” said Wooden’s mother.

“Well, we did make a plan,” said Colonel Jim; “though how you guessed it I don’t know, as you couldn’t have heard us talking. Our plan was this: When I’m ready to go out, I say to Mr. Emma, ‘I should like to look at the view.’ He says, ‘With pleasure,’ and takes me up to the top story.”

“But supposing he doesn’t say ‘With pleasure,’” suggested Wooden.

Colonel Jim looked worried. “Teddy bear said he’d say ‘With pleasure,’” he said. “Never thought of asking what to do if he didn’t.”

“If Teddy said he’d say ‘With pleasure,’ I should think he would,” said Wooden. “Teddy is flighty, but I have always found his word reliable.”

Colonel Jim brightened. “Well, then, we go up to the top story,” he said. “Then I look at the view, and I say--let’s see, what is it I say? I’ve learnt it all up, but it’s difficult to remember. Oh, yes, I know. I say, ‘What’s that bird flying towards the sea?’ No, that’s wrong. I say, ‘What’s that bird over there?’ He says, ‘What bird? Where?’ I say, ‘Over there!’ pointing towards the sea. He turns to where I point, you see, and----”

“But are you sure there will be a bird to point at?” asked Lady Grace. “If not, won’t it be telling a story?”

“Do you think it will?” asked Colonel Jim. “I shouldn’t like to do that.”

There was a pause. “I like the plan,” said Wooden, “but that does rather interfere with it, doesn’t it?”

They all looked at Peggy as if they expected her to find a way out of the difficulty; and she did so at once. “I think there are sure to be birds flying about,” she said, “and some of them will be flying towards the sea.”

Their faces brightened, and Wooden’s aunt slapped her knee. “Now, doesn’t that beat all?” she said. “How she do think of things, to be sure! Well, go on, soldier.”

“Directly he says, ‘What bird, where?’” proceeded Colonel Jim, “that’s my sign. I get behind him. I whip off my cloak. I throw it over his head. I tie the cord--it’s got a cord, you see--round his arms, so that he can’t move. Then I say to him, ‘Your keys, please.’ Then I come downstairs with the keys, unlock the doors, and off we go. Well, that’s the plan, and if it all goes right I don’t think a better plan was ever invented. It’s Teddy bear’s plan chiefly, but it was me who thought of saying, ‘Your keys, please,’ instead of ‘Hand over your keys.’ More polite.”

The plan was not received with the pleasure that Colonel Jim seemed to expect. Wooden said doubtfully, “Mr. Emma is a very nice man. He might not like to have a cloak thrown over his head.”

“Don’t you think he would?” asked Colonel Jim, in a disturbed way. “I never thought of that. What do you say, Peggy?”

“If you were to treat him as gently as you could,” said Peggy, “and tell him that he might go downstairs to Mrs. Emma and the baby in five minutes, when we had all got away, he might not mind so much.”

“He couldn’t do that,” said Colonel Jim. “His legs would be tied up too. I forgot to say that. Can’t keep everything in your head at once.”

“Try again, dear,” said Wooden hopefully.

“Well, supposing we told Mrs. Emma she could go up and untie him, as we went out!” suggested Peggy.

“The very thing!” exclaimed Wooden’s mother. “I should never have thought of that if I had tried for a week.”

They had no time to settle anything further, for at that moment the key was heard turning in the lock outside. Colonel Jim had just time to put on his long cloak again before Mr. Emma came into the room.

He seemed not to be in quite such a good temper as before. Directly he came in, he said to Colonel Jim, “Now, then, my man, you’ve been here quite long enough. Pot-plants or no pot-plants, it’s time you cleared out.”

Colonel Jim hesitated. Peggy was afraid for the moment that he had forgotten the words he had learned so carefully. But they seemed to come to him all of a sudden. He straightened himself up, and said in a firm voice, but rather as if he were repeating a lesson, “I should like to go up to the top story and look at the view.”

Peggy heard Wooden say, “With pleasure,” under her breath, as if she were helping Mr. Emma to remember his part.

But unfortunately Mr. Emma had not learnt his part. What he did say was, “Oh, you would, would you? Well, I’m afraid I can’t oblige you. I’m almost run off my legs with work as it is. Now you come along down with me.”

X

PEGGY TALKS TO A ROYAL PRISONER

Colonel Jim threw a despairing look at Peggy; she could just see it under the hood that he had put over his head. His carefully arranged plan had gone wrong at the very beginning, and he hadn’t the least idea what to do next. Of course, he might just as well have thrown his cloak over Mr. Emma’s head there and then, as done it on the top of the House of Cards, after pointing to a bird which might not have been there. But perhaps he did not like to exercise violence before ladies, or perhaps it never occurred to him to alter the plan so as to suit the circumstances. At any rate, he prepared to follow Mr. Emma downstairs without any further ado. If Peggy had not suddenly thought of something, there would have been an end of any good he had done by making his way in to them.

As they were going out, Peggy said to Mr. Emma, “If you and Mrs. Emma have got so much work to do, couldn’t I come down and help you?”

Mr. Emma turned round and beamed at her. “Now, you _are_ a kind little lady!” he said. “And I don’t know as you can’t help us. Yes, you come along o’ me, dearie. My missus will be glad to see your pretty little face, anyhow, and you can talk to her a bit in her own lingo, which I never could fathom, nohow.”

Peggy was very glad at that moment that she had paid attention to her French, which gave her this opportunity of helping her doll friends, though she had been far from thinking that she would ever make such extraordinary use of it when she had talked as much as she could to French people during her holidays. She followed Mr. Emma out of the room, and he locked the door carefully after him, and led the way downstairs.

Now would have been Colonel Jim’s opportunity, either to throw his cloak over Mr. Emma, who was in front of him, or else to bolt upstairs instead of down. If he had done that, Mr. Emma would have had to follow him, and then they could have had it out together, and Colonel Jim would probably have won, as he was younger and stronger than Mr. Emma. But, though as brave as a lion, Colonel Jim had a brain that did not move very fast. All he could do, as they went downstairs, was to nudge Peggy with his elbow, and that did not take them very far, for when she whispered to him, “What is it?” he had nothing to say.

So it rested with her to think of something, and she whispered to Colonel Jim, unheard by Mr. Emma, whose large feet were making a considerable noise, “I will try to get upstairs, and see if it is the Queen who is there; and you and Teddy must try to get in to us again. Then I will tell you what I have found out.”

Colonel Jim nodded his head repeatedly, and Peggy could only hope that he had understood what she had said, and would remember it, for she had not time to say it over again, as they had now reached the ground floor.

Mr. Emma unlocked the big door leading into the market-place, and Colonel Jim went out. Just as he was going down the steps, Peggy had another bright idea. She said to Mr. Emma, “We should like this man to bring us a few more pot-plants later on. I suppose you will let him in, if he comes.”

But Mr. Emma spoilt that little plan at the beginning, for he said, “No, dearie, I can’t do that. When he once goes out he stays out.” Then he locked the door.

Mrs. Emma was pleased to see Peggy again. She and Mr. Emma had had their own tea, and she was preparing trays to take up to the prisoners. Peggy helped her to do this, while Mr. Emma sat by the cradle of his baby doll, of which he seemed to be very fond. Peggy couldn’t help going over to have a look at it sometimes, and see it smile and gurgle; and it delighted Mr. Emma to see her so taken up with his baby doll. This was a very good thing, for when Peggy said, “Now, I will take up the trays, if you like,” Mr. Emma replied, “I ought not to let you do it, I suppose, because I shall have to give you my keys. But I’ve been so rushed off my legs today that I shan’t be sorry to sit still for a bit; and you’re such a nice little lady that I really feel as if I could do anything for you.”

“It is more like Mademoiselle doing something for _you_,” said Mrs. Emma, with a laugh. But if she had only known, she might not have said that.

“I know you wouldn’t want to get me into trouble,” said Mr. Emma as he handed Peggy his keys. “You won’t tell the King now, will you? He’s Wood, and so am I; but he don’t seem above punishing Woods, if it suits him, any more than the rest.”

Peggy promised not to tell the King, readily enough. She was not quite sure that Mr. Emma might not get into trouble, if anything came of her taking his keys; but she made up her mind to speak up for him when affairs in Toyland came to be righted, as she hoped they would be. Selim was only a usurping King, after all, and if Queen Rosebud was restored to her throne he would not be able to do any harm to Mr. Emma, or to anybody else.

“First of all,” said Mrs. Emma, “you might take this tray up to the top story. There is a wax lady there who hasn’t been very well. I should like her to have her tea first.”

Peggy was almost frightened at the easiness of it all. She had hardly taken any trouble to bring it about, and here she was with the key to the Queen’s prison, and her tea-tray in her hands. For she had little doubt now that it was the Queen who was shut up in the top story. Mrs. Emma had no idea who she was, but she said she had been ill, and Peggy knew that the Queen had been ill.

Just as she was going out with the tea-tray, Mrs. Emma said, “Don’t stay very long, because there are the other trays to take up. But you might just talk to her a little. She is a nice lady, and it is lonely for her up there, all by herself.”

This made it all the easier for Peggy, and she started upstairs, thinking how luckily it had all turned out.

It took her quite a long time to reach the top story. There were four flights of stairs to each story, and each flight had ten steps. Four times ten times thirteen are five hundred and twenty all the world over, and if you ever try going up five hundred and twenty stairs with a rather heavy tea-tray in your hands you will find that it is no light matter. However, Peggy got to the top at last, with one or two rests on the way--But wait a minute. She did not have to go up the last two flights of stairs, which would have led to the roof, so that takes twenty off the total, and makes exactly five hundred steps, which is almost as serious as five hundred and twenty.

She put the tray on the floor outside while she unlocked the door. Then she knocked at it, and a voice inside said, “Come in.”

She opened the door a little, took up the tea-tray from the floor, and then pushed the door open with her elbow and went in.

The room was much like the one downstairs, and was quite as comfortably furnished, but was without the pot-plants which made theirs so bright and gay. So that it did look rather bare, and not altogether unlike a prison, in spite of the large window, which showed a magnificent view of the country. But perhaps what gave it the air of being a prison was not that, but the sad figure of the lady doll that was sitting in a chair by the window.

Peggy knew that it must be the Queen, directly she saw her. Indeed, it was surprising that neither Mr. nor Mrs. Emma had guessed who the prisoner on the top story really was.

For she looked very royal. She was most delicately made of wax, and looked a little faded, which would have been accounted for by her great age. But she was beautiful, too, with young features; for, of course, dolls do not grow old like human beings, and when they are in Toyland even breakages do not count.

She wore a dress of rich brocade embroidered with seed pearls, rather like those that you see in pictures of Queen Elizabeth. It was quite possible that she might have been born about the same time as Queen Elizabeth, which would have made her very interesting, if she had had a good memory, and could have talked about all the changes she had seen. But dolls’ memories are short, and Peggy did not find out how old the Queen really was, and, indeed, it would not have been good manners to ask.

When Peggy came in with the tea-tray, the Queen looked surprised, and said, in a sad but gentle voice, “Who are you? Have you come to take me home? Why am I kept locked up here?”

Peggy put the tray down on the table, and said, “I am Peggy, your Majesty. Wooden brought me to Toyland. You said that she might.”

“Why do you call me your Majesty?” asked the Queen. “They said that if anybody called me that, or I told anybody who I was, I should be locked up in a dungeon where I could not see the light.”

Peggy felt desperately sorry for her. She had called her “Your Majesty” quite naturally, for she was very royal, both in appearance and manner, although she was only a doll. It seemed quite dreadful that she should be locked up there, and be threatened with still worse imprisonment, and for no fault of her own at all.

“I know that you are the Queen,” Peggy said, “and I hope that you will soon be back in your beautiful palace again. They are making plans outside to rescue you.”

“I can’t understand it,” said the poor Queen, passing her hand wearily over her brow. “I have always been as nice as I could to everybody. And yet they told me that the people hate me, because I am Wax, and don’t want me to be their Queen any longer.”

“That isn’t true,” said Peggy. “That wicked Selim has told everybody that you are dead, and that you said that he was to be King after you.”

“Oh, I never said that,” said the Queen indignantly. “How can he have said such a thing? I never said anything like it.”

“That is what he has given out,” said Peggy. “It was Rose who made it up. She is as wicked as he is.”

The Queen thought for a little time, looking out of the window at the beautiful view of her own kingdom. Then she looked at Peggy searchingly and said, “Isn’t it true that my people hate me because I am Wax, and want to have a Wooden King and Queen in my place? Rose told me that Selim was going to marry Wooden, who brought you here. I was very sorry to hear that, because I have always liked Wooden, and I didn’t think she would want to take my place.”

“Oh, she doesn’t,” said Peggy, speaking as indignantly as the Queen had done. “Nobody will be more pleased to hear that you are really alive. And she doesn’t want to marry Selim. She hates him. Why, he has actually sent her to prison, because she said she didn’t want to marry him.”

The Queen looked out of the window and did not speak for some time. Then she said, “I was kind to Selim. When he was brought to me after he had been wrecked, and had lost everything that he had, I gave him apartments in my own royal palace, and money every month from my treasury.”

“He is bad and wicked,” said Peggy. “And Rose is bad, too. She used to be mine once, and I never liked her. Now I know why.”

“I didn’t like her either,” said the Queen. “She wanted to be my lady-in-waiting. She said that I ought to have one Composition at least, and not all Waxes round me. But I said no. Perhaps I would have a Wood, so as to please the Woods. I chose Wooden herself, and I was going to appoint her when I fell ill. You are sure that it is not true that the Woods hate me?”

Peggy assured her again that it was not true, and she seemed much relieved. “I will not say anything about Selim and Rose,” she said, in a stately kind of way that was more effective than if she had said how wicked she thought they were. “When I get back my throne, and put on my crown again, I shall know what to do. My people have always been good, and I will not have them taught to tell untruths and to deceive.” She smiled gently at Peggy. “Why, what would you think of us over there?” she asked, “if you could not trust us?”