15 A Little Princess - Stephanie Poppins

A LITTLE PRINCESS by Frances Hodgson Burnett CHAPTER 15 THE MAGIC When Sarah had passed the house next door,

She had seen Ram Dass closing the shutters and caught her glimpse of this room also.

It is a long time since I saw a nice place from the inside,

Was the thought which crossed her mind.

There was the usual bright fire glowing in the grate,

And the Indian gentleman was sitting before it.

His head was resting in his hand,

And he looked as lonely and as unhappy as ever.

Poor man,

Said Sarah,

I wonder what you are supposing?

And this was what he was supposing at that very moment.

Suppose even if Carmichael traces the people to Moscow,

The little girl they took from Adam Pascal's is not the one we are in search of.

Suppose she proves to be quite a different child.

What step shall I take next?

When Sarah went into the house,

She met Miss Minchin who had come downstairs to scold the cook.

Where have you wasted your time?

She demanded.

You have been out for hours.

It was so wet and muddy,

Sarah answered.

It was hard to walk because my shoes were so bad and slipped about.

Make no excuses,

Said Miss Minchin,

And tell me no falsehoods.

Sarah went into the cook.

The cook had received a severe lecture and was in a fearful temper as a result.

She was only too rejoiced to have someone to vent her rage on,

And Sarah was a convenience,

As usual.

Why didn't you stay all night?

She snapped.

Sarah laid her purchases on the table.

Here are the things,

She said.

The cook looked them over,

Grumbling.

She was in a very savage humour indeed.

May I have something to eat?

Sarah asked rather faintly.

Tea's over and done with,

Was the answer.

Did you expect me to keep it hot for you?

Sarah stood silent for a second.

I had no dinner,

She said next,

And her voice was quite low.

She made it low because she was afraid it would tremble.

There's some bread in the pantry,

Said the cook.

That's all you'll get at this time of day.

Sarah went and found the bread.

It was old and hard and dry.

The cook was in too vicious a humour to give her anything to eat with it.

It was always safe and easy to vent her spite on Sarah.

But it was hard for the child to climb the three long flights of stairs leading to her attic.

She found them long and steep when she was tired,

But tonight it seems as if she would never reach the top.

Several times she was obliged to stop and rest.

When at last she did reach the top,

She was glad to see the glimmer of a light coming from under the door.

That meant Ermengarde had managed to creep up to pay her a visit.

There was some comfort in that.

It was better than to go into the room alone and find it empty and desolate.

The mere presence of plump,

Comfortable Ermengarde wrapped in her red shawl would warm it a little.

And there there was Ermengarde when she opened the door,

Sitting in the middle of her bed with her feet tucked safely under her.

She had never become intimate with Machilderdec and his family,

Although they rather fascinated her.

When she found herself alone in the attic,

She always preferred to sit on the bed until Sarah arrived.

She had in fact on this occasion come rather nervous because Machilderdec had appeared and sniffed about a good deal.

Oh,

Sarah,

She cried out,

I am glad you've come.

That rat would sniff about so.

I tried to coax him to go back,

But he wouldn't for such a long time.

I like him,

You know,

But it does frighten me when he sniffs at me.

Do you think he ever would jump?

No,

Answered Sarah.

Ermengarde crawled forward on the bed to look at her.

You do look tired,

She said.

I am tired,

Said Sarah.

I did not expect to see you tonight,

Ermie.

Ermengarde hugged herself in the red shawl.

Miss Amelia's gone out to spend the night with her old aunt,

She explained.

No one else ever comes and look into the bedrooms after we're in bed.

I could stay here till morning if I wanted to.

She pointed towards the table under the skylight.

Sarah had not looked towards it as she came in.

A number of books had been piled on it.

Papa sent me some more books,

Sarah.

There they are,

She said.

Sarah looked round and got up at once.

She ran over to the table and picking up the top volume,

Turned over its leaves quickly.

Ah,

She cried out,

Forgetting her discomforts for a moment.

How beautiful!

Carlisle's French Revolution.

I've so wanted to read that.

I haven't,

Said Ermengarde,

And Papa will be so cross if I don't.

He'll expect me to know all about it when I go home for the holidays.

What shall I do?

Sarah stopped turning over the leaves and looked at her with an excited flush.

Look here,

She cried.

If you lend me these books,

I will read them and then tell you everything that's in them afterwards,

So that you'll remember it too.

Oh,

Goodness!

Exclaimed Ermengarde.

Do you think you can?

I know I can,

Answered Sarah.

The little ones always remember what I tell them.

Take the books then,

Said Ermengarde.

I wish I wanted them,

But I don't.

I'm not clever and my father is and he thinks I ought to be.

Sarah opened one book after the other.

What are you going to tell your father?

She asked,

A slight doubt dawning in her mind.

Oh,

He needn't know,

Answered Ermengarde.

He'll think I've read them.

Sarah put down her book and shook her head slowly.

That's almost like telling lies,

She said.

And lies,

Well,

They're not only wicked,

They're vulgar.

Sometimes I thought perhaps I might do something wicked.

I might suddenly fly into a rage and kill Miss Minchin when she was ill-treating me.

But I couldn't be vulgar.

Why can't you tell your father I read them?

He wants me to read them,

Said Ermengarde.

He wants you to know what's in them,

Said Sarah.

And if I can tell it to you in an easy way and make you remember it,

I should think he'd like that.

He'll like it if I learn it anyway,

Said rueful Ermengarde.

You would if you were my father.

It's not your fault you can't learn things quickly.

If you can't,

You can't.

If I can,

Why,

I can.

That's all.

Sarah had always felt very tender of Ermengarde,

And she tried not to let her feel too strongly the difference between them.

As she looked at her plump face,

One of her wise old-fashioned thoughts came to her.

Perhaps,

She said,

To be able to learn things quickly isn't everything.

To be kind is worth a great deal more to other people.

If Miss Minchin knew everything on earth and was like what she is now,

She'd still be detestable and everyone would still hate her.

As they sat together,

Ermengarde did not know that Sarah was faint as well as ravenous.

And while she talked,

She now and then wondered if her hunger would let her sleep when she was left alone.

I wish I was as thin as you,

Sarah,

She said suddenly.

I believe you're thinner than you used to be.

Your eyes look so big.

Look at the sharp little bones sticking out of your elbow.

Sarah pulled down her sleeve,

Which had pushed itself up.

I always was a thin child,

She said bravely,

And I always had big green eyes.

I love your queer eyes,

Said Ermengarde,

Looking into them with affectionate admiration.

They always look as if they saw such a long way.

Their cat's eyes,

Laughed Sarah,

But I can't see in the dark with them because I've tried and I wish I could but I can't.

It was just at this minute that something happened at the skylight which neither of them saw.

If either of them had chance to turn and look,

They would have been startled by the sight of a dark face,

Which peered cautiously into the room and then disappeared just as quickly.

Not quite as silently,

However.

Did you hear something?

Asked Sarah.

No,

Ermengarde faltered.

Did you?

Perhaps I didn't,

Said Sarah,

But I thought I did.

It sounded as if something was on the slates,

Something dragging along softly.

What could it be?

Asked Ermengarde.

Could it be robbers?

No,

Sarah began cheerfully,

There's nothing to steal.

She broke off in the middle of her words.

They both heard the sound that checked her.

It was not on the slates,

But on the stairs below,

And it was Miss Minchin's angry voice.

Sarah sprang off the bed and put out the candle.

She's scolding Becky,

She whispered as she stood in the darkness.

She's making her cry.

Will she come in here?

Ermengarde whispered,

Panic-stricken.

No,

She'll think I'm in bed.

Don't stir.

It was very seldom that Miss Minchin mounted the last flight of stairs.

Sarah could only remember she'd done it once before.

But now she was angry enough to be coming at least part of the way up,

And it sounded as if she was driving Becky before her.

You impudent,

Dishonest child,

They heard her say.

Cook tells me she's missed things repeatedly.

Twant me,

Mum,

Said Becky,

Sobbing.

I was angry enough,

But twant me?

Never.

You deserve to be sent to prison,

Said Miss Minchin's voice,

Picking and stealing half a meat pie indeed.

Twant me,

Wept Becky.

I could have eaten a whole one,

But I never lay a finger on it.

Miss Minchin was out of breath between temper and mounting the stairs.

The meat pie had been intended for her special late supper.

Don't tell falsers,

She said,

Boxing Becky's ears.

Go to your room this instant.

Both Sarah and Ermengarde heard the slap,

And then heard Becky run in her slipshod shoes up the stairs and into her attic.

Her door shut,

And they knew she threw herself upon her bed.

I could have ate two of them,

They heard her cry into her pillow,

And I never took a bite,

Was Cook give it to her policeman.

Sarah stood in the middle of the room in the darkness.

She was clenching her little teeth and opening and shutting fiercely her outstretched hands.

She could scarcely stand still,

But she dared not move until Miss Minchin had gone down the stairs and all was still.

The wicked,

Cruel thing,

She burst forth.

The Cook takes things herself and says Becky steals them.

She doesn't.

Becky's so hungry sometimes she eats crust out of the ash barrel.

She pressed her hands hard against her face and burst into passionate little sobs.

And Ermengarde,

Hearing this unusual thing,

Was overawed.

Sarah was crying.

The unconquerable Sarah.

It seemed to denote something new,

Some mood she had never known.

A new dread possibility presented itself to her slow little mind all at once.

She crept off the bed in the dark and found her way to the table where the candle stood.

She struck a match and lit the candle.

When she had lighted it,

She bent forward and looked at Sarah with her new thought growing to a definite fear in her eyes.

Sarah,

She said in a timid,

Almost awe-stricken voice.

Are you?

You never told me.

I don't want to be rude.

Are you ever hungry?

It was too much just at that moment.

The barrier broke down.

Yes,

Said Sarah in a new passionate way.

Yes,

I am.

I'm so hungry now I could almost eat you.

And that makes it worse to hear poor Becky.

She's even hungrier than I am.

Ermengarde gasped.

And I never knew,

She cried woefully.

I didn't want you to know,

Said Sarah.

It would have made me feel like a street beggar,

Even though I do look like one.

No,

You don't.

You don't.

Ermengarde broke in.

Your clothes are a little queer,

But you couldn't look like a street beggar.

You haven't a street beggar face.

A little boy once gave me sixpence for charity,

Said Sarah with a short little laugh.

Here it is.

And she pulled out the thin ribbon from her neck.

It wouldn't have given me Christmas sixpence if it hadn't looked as if I needed it.

Ermengarde was shocked.

Then she said in an excited hurry.

This afternoon my nicest aunt sent me a box.

It's full of good things.

I never touched it.

I had so much pudding at dinner.

I was so bothered about Papa's books.

Her words began to tumble over each other.

It's got cake and little mince pies and jam tarts and buns and oranges and red currant wine and figs and chocolate and things.

I'll creep back to my room and get it this minute and we'll eat it now.

Sarah almost reeled.

When one is faint with hunger,

The mention of food has sometimes a curious effect.

She clutched Ermengarde's arm.

Do you think you could?

She ejaculated.

I know I could,

Answered Ermengarde and she ran to the door,

Opened it softly,

Put her head out into the darkness and listened.

The lights are out.

Everybody's in bed.

I'll creep and no one will hear.

A sudden light sprung into Sarah's eyes.

Ermie,

She said,

Let us pretend.

Let us pretend it's a party.

And won't you invite the prisoner in the next cell?

Yes,

Let us knock on the wall now.

The jailer won't hear,

Said Ermengarde.

Sarah went to the wall and knocked four times.

That means come to me through the secret passage under the wall,

She explained.

Then five quick knocks answered her.

She's coming,

Sarah said.

Almost immediately,

The door of the attic opened and Becky appeared.

Her eyes were red and her cap was sliding off,

And when she caught sight of Ermengarde,

She began to rub her face nervously with her apron.

Don't mind me a bit,

Becky,

Cried Ermengarde.

Ermengarde's going to bring a box of good things to eat up here,

Said Sarah.

Becky's cap almost fell off entirely and she broke in with such excitement.

To eat,

Miss,

She said.

Things that's good to eat.

Yes,

Answered Sarah.

And now we're going to pretend a party.