peggy went down to the kitchen. she had time as she went down the five hundred stairs, to make up her mind as to whether she should tell mr. and mrs. emma that the wax lady on the top floor was the queen. she decided not to do so just yet, but to wait a little longer and see what happened. they might be very indignant at hearing what selim and rose had done, but on the other hand they might be frightened that they would be punished for having let peggy see such an important prisoner; and in that case they would probably not let her see her again. and peggy wanted to see queen rosebud again.
when peggy went into the kitchen mrs. emma said, “you have been a long time away, but i know it takes a long time to go up and down those stairs. how did you find the lady? i hope she liked the tea i sent her. i gave her some bread and honey instead of bread and butter.”
peggy thought this rather remarkable, as she remembered the nursery rhyme about the queen being[pg 153] in her parlour eating bread and honey. she wondered whether mrs. emma had any suspicion of the prisoner being the queen.
before she could reply mrs. emma went on, “i was just saying to my husband that she is very like what queen rosebud was, except for her crown. queen rosebud had no sisters, but i shouldn’t be at all surprised if she didn’t turn out to be a sort of cousin. if you think that is likely, i shall ask her to write her name in my birthday book.”
so she seemed to have no suspicion of the truth; but that seemed to be only because the queen was not wearing her crown.
“it would be nice to have her name in your book,” said peggy. “shall i take up the other tray now?”
“yes, dear,” said mrs. emma. “and then will you please bring the keys down? you have been very kind helping us, but of course we must not forget that you are a prisoner.”
peggy smiled to herself as she went upstairs again. if she took the keys down, their room would not be locked, and she would hardly be a prisoner. but she did not say anything, as she thought that if the door was left unlocked she might take wooden or lady grace, or both of them, up to see the queen.
[pg 154]
the dolls were interested in what she told them, but they were now quite used to the idea of queen rosebud being alive, and showed less excitement at her news than peggy had expected. while she had been away, they seemed to have been talking about the failure of the plan concocted by teddy and colonel jim, and to have agreed that teddy had not behaved well in telling colonel jim that mr. emma would say, “with pleasure,” when he asked him if he could go up to the top story. for mr. emma had said quite the opposite.
“i always knew teddy was flighty,” said wooden, “but i did not think that he would go so far as to tell a story.”
“so many people seem to be telling them now,” said lady grace sadly. “it is very dreadful.”
“but teddy didn’t tell a story,” said peggy. “he only thought that mr. emma would say that, and told colonel jim so.”
wooden’s aunt, who was already very busy with her tea, slapped her knee, and said, with a mouth full of bread and butter, “there now! didn’t i say the very same thing? i was the only one as stuck up for teddy. i said he wouldn’t tell a lie, because i knowed he wouldn’t.”
[pg 155]
“you didn’t say what peggy says he told colonel jim,” said wooden’s mother. “are you sure he said that, dear?”
“yes,” said peggy stoutly. “that is what he must have said.”
“well, i am sure i am very glad to hear it,” said wooden, with a sigh of relief. “i know you wouldn’t tell a story, dear, and if you say that is what teddy said, of course he said it. i am very glad he didn’t tell a story, as i shouldn’t like to think ill of him. i suppose you couldn’t tell us what rose really said, could you? i have never liked her, but you did exchange her for me over there, and i have always felt sorry for her, because the exchange was such a good thing for me. i should like not to think badly of her, if i could.”
“rose has told nothing but stories,” said peggy decisively. “she is really wicked, and when queen rosebud comes to the throne again i hope she will do something to her. i am very glad i did exchange her for you, dear wooden, especially now i know what she is really like.”
“perhaps if she had stayed with you she might not have been so wicked,” said wooden; and peggy thought this was a great compliment from a doll, because[pg 156] in some ways they are better than human beings. of course they have not so many temptations to be naughty, but i am not sure that they don’t resist the temptations that they do have better than a good many humans. rose was quite an exception, and as for selim, he wasn’t a proper doll at all, and had spent his active life in being so harried about a chess board, with hectoring queens, and heavy castles, and sliding bishops, and hopping knights, and perky little pawns always giving him check, and he not able to move more than one square at a time, that perhaps it was no wonder that he would do anything to get into a position in which he could really act like a king. however, i am far from excusing his abominable behaviour at this particular time, and think that peggy was quite right in hoping that he would come to be soundly punished for it.
when they had nearly finished their tea, footsteps and voices were heard coming up the stairs, and to their surprise the lord chancellor came into the room, followed by mr. emma.
the lord chancellor looked annoyed, and mr. emma looked frightened. peggy guessed at once that this was because the lord chancellor had found out about mr. emma giving her his keys.
she was right. as they came into the room, the lord chancellor said, “i dare say the young lady did want to see your baby. nobody knows better than i do, from long experience of the law, that young ladies like to see babies, and you have nothing to teach me[pg 158] about that. but you had no right whatever to lend her your keys, and allow her to go in and out of this room as she pleases.”
when he had said this he changed his expression of face completely, and smiled at peggy and the four dolls. “well, ladies,” he said, “i am glad to see you all looking so well, and i expect you are glad to see me looking well. i should say now that none of you have been in the least inconvenienced by your visit to this handsome building.”
he said this as if he were inviting them to agree with him, and added, “why, for part of the time you haven’t even had the door locked, which must have taken away the idea of a prison from your minds altogether.”
peggy thought this was rather cool, considering they had just heard him scolding mr. emma for letting them have the door unlocked. while the lord chancellor had been speaking, mr. emma had been making signs to her in a pathetic imploring sort of way, pointing up to the ceiling and at her and himself and the lord chancellor and the tea-tray on the table, and making words at her with his mouth, none of which she could understand. but suddenly she understood by his signs what he wanted to convey to her. he was[pg 159] begging her not to tell the lord chancellor that she had carried the tray up to the top story. so she nodded her head and put her finger on her mouth to assure him that she would keep his secret, for she did not want to get him into further trouble. he seemed a little soothed by this, but still very dejected, as he stood with his head on one side behind the lord chancellor.
“if i had not made it a rule of life never to take tea twice on the same day,” said the lord chancellor, “i should feel inclined to ask you for a cup. i assure you that this is better tea than i drank at my own house half an hour ago. really, i feel inclined to wish that i could be sent to the house of cards myself, for a short time. i doubt if there is a more comfortable place in the whole of dolltown. now, confess, ladies. haven’t you found it so?”
“we have nothing to complain of in our treatment,” said wooden, in a polite and simple but yet dignified way. “but nobody likes to be in prison, and i would rather go without my tea altogether than have it and be shut up.”
the lord chancellor seemed delighted with this speech. “now, it is a most extraordinary thing,” he said, “that you should express those sentiments. i[pg 160] was half afraid, when i came in, that you would be so delighted with your present situation that you would not want to exchange it for another. in fact, i thought you might even refuse to do so. i am very glad indeed that i was mistaken. for i have come to tell you that his most gracious majesty, moved by one or two things that i have said to him, has instructed me to release you and peggy. now, don’t tell me—please don’t tell me—that you would rather stay where you are.”
“no, i shall not,” said wooden. “i am very glad to be let out of prison. i ought never to have been sent here. none of us ought. are my mother and aunt and lady grace still to be kept here?”
“if she and peggy go, i go,” said wooden’s aunt. “that’s flat.”
“you will go by-and-by,” said the lord chancellor in a soothing voice. “leave it to me, and i will arrange it all. but i’m afraid you three others will have to stay here a little longer. lady grace is wax, you see, and the order for releasing waxes has not yet been given. but it will be. you needn’t have the slightest doubt about that. just have patience for a little; that’s all.”
“well, i ain’t wax,” said wooden’s aunt. “i’m[pg 161] wood, and proud of it. what’s the matter with me being let out?”
“well,” said the lord chancellor, “the fact is that the king is still rather annoyed with you for thinking of such a thing as him marrying you.”
“i don’t think of it no more,” said wooden’s aunt. “i don’t want to marry the old heathen image. you tell him that, mr. lawyer, with wooden’s aunt’s comps.”
“certainly, i will,” said the lord chancellor, with a polite bow. “it may make all the difference; there’s no telling.”
“am i to stay in prison?” asked wooden’s mother. “if so, i think it is very unfair. i’ve done nothing.”
“i hinted as much to his majesty,” said the lord chancellor, “but he said two out at a time was enough. so i shouldn’t worry about it if i were you. you’ll be let out all in good time, and you are so comfortable here that it hardly makes any difference whether it’s sooner or later.”
“you keep on saying that like a poll-parrot,” said wooden’s aunt. “i’ve no patience with you. you go back and tell your master that if i ain’t let out of this in an hour’s time i’ll yell the place down. so there now!”
[pg 162]
“i will be sure to convey your message, madam,” said the lord chancellor, as politely as before. “now, i think we might make a start, eh?” he turned towards emma, and his face became severe once more. “as for you, sir,” he said, “i shall have you dismissed from your post. you have given your keys to a prisoner. that is the most serious offence you could have committed.”
poor mr. emma threw himself on his knees and held up his hands in supplication. “oh, don’t dismiss me, your honour,” he cried, “i’ve got a wife and a dear little baby, and you wouldn’t want them to starve, now would you? you’ve got a kind face; and a kind heart goes with it—i know it do. don’t turn me off; please don’t.”
the lord chancellor’s face became softer. “it is quite true that i have a kind face,” he said. “many people have remarked the same thing before now, and some of them have even gone so far as to say that for my age it is a handsome face. of course that was only said in compliment, i know; i don’t wish to make too much of it; but it does show that there is something in my face that strikes people, and i don’t wonder that it has struck you. well, now, about dismissing you from your post—if i could find a way out of it——!”
[pg 163]
he looked at peggy, as if he expected her to help him, but for the moment she couldn’t think of anything.
“of course you have committed a serious fault,” he said to mr. emma, who had risen from his knees and was waiting to hear what was to be done to him, with a mournful expression on his face. “prisoners are entrusted to you, and you are right in treating them as well as you can. but you have treated this young lady as if she weren’t a prisoner at all.”
“but i am not a prisoner,” said peggy. “you have said yourself that i am not.”
the lord chancellor’s face lightened. “now, why didn’t i think of that?” he said. “it makes all the difference. mr. emma, you have committed no fault whatever. in fact, by carrying out his majesty’s wishes at the earliest possible moment, you have shown yourself a zealous servant of the crown, and i shall have much pleasure in recommending you for a rise in wages.”
so that matter was settled in the most satisfactory fashion, and peggy was pleased to see mr. emma cheer up and look proud of himself, as if he had done something particularly clever.
she and wooden said good-bye to the others, who[pg 164] did not seem so disappointed at still being kept in prison as might have been expected. there are many advantages in being a doll, and one of them is that they have such a lot of time before them that they are a good deal more patient than we are when things are not going well for them. they know that the bad time will end, and are content to wait till it does. peggy managed to whisper to lady grace that she would do all she could to set things right and get the queen out of prison. then, of course, she would come out, too, and be restored to her post as lady-in-waiting. wooden’s aunt was still eating and drinking in great enjoyment, and wooden’s mother, after kissing them farewell, said that she should have a little nap, and when she woke up perhaps she would be let out.
