the late imprisonment of peggy and wooden, and especially of wooden, naturally formed the chief subject of conversation.
“i must say,” said mrs. winifred, “that i was surprised to hear that you had been sent to prison, mrs. wooden. we had all heard that such a very different lot had been prepared for you.”
“yes,” said mrs. hilda. “what we heard was that you were to be made queen and live in the palace.”
“and we were very glad to hear it,” said mrs. joyce, a thin, rather vinegary-looking doll, whom peggy did not very much take to. “we knew that if you were made queen there would be no more high-and-mightiness at the palace, and you wouldn’t give yourself airs with us.”
“it would be the beginning of a new era,” said mr. joyce, who was a members of the dolls’ parliament. “the woodens would be no longer oppressed by the waxes, and peace and contentment would reign, where before there had been strife and inequality.”
[pg 177]
“i’m not sure,” said the lord chancellor, “that i quite agree with that observation. as woods, all this extremely intelligent and entertaining company is naturally pleased at having a wooden king to reign over toyland. but under our late lamented queen rosebud, as far as my memory carries me back, there was no oppression. and personally i boast intimate friends amongst dolls of all varieties, from wax to rag.”
“what i think,” said mrs. mollie, a severe-looking doll with a long upper lip, “is that we were a good deal better off under queen rosebud than we are likely to be under king selim. i don’t hold with these foreigners.”
the other dolls seemed to be rather taken aback by this plainness of speech, and the lord chancellor said, “tut, tut! you mustn’t say things like that, my dear lady. it isn’t respectful to the crown.”
“but it’s what a good many of us are feeling,” said mrs. winifred. “at first it was very nice to feel we were considered as good as the waxes. in this company there’s no harm in saying that waxes do give themselves airs, and it isn’t nice to feel you are considered common, when you know you are nothing of the sort, but quite the opposite.”
“but all waxes don’t give themselves airs,” said wooden, speaking for the first time. “there’s lady grace, now. both of us live with this dear little girl when we’re over there, and we are real friends, and[pg 179] there’s never a word awry between us. and it’s the same here.”
“i’m sure,” said mrs. ida, a young-looking doll who was dressed more fashionably than the rest, “that i have always got on as well as possible with the waxes. in fact, most of my friends were wax before they were all sent to prison.”
“i should think you must feel a bit lonely, then,” said mrs. jane. “i’ve always associated with woods myself, and prefer their company.”
“the best company in toyland,” said mrs. winifred, “is to be found amongst the higher classes of woods. still, i’m against this sending to prison of all waxes, whether they give themselves airs or not.”
“it isn’t so much the shutting up of waxes that i object to,” said mrs. louisa. “it’s the shutting up of woods. how did it come about, wooden, that instead of marrying the king you were sent to prison?”
captain louisa cleared his throat behind his hand. “manners, my dear, manners!” he whispered to his wife.
“we don’t want to go into all that,” said the lord chancellor. “perhaps a slight mistake was made; but[pg 180] it has now been put right, chiefly owing to representations made to his majesty by myself.”
“it hasn’t been put right, and we do want to talk about it,” said mrs. mollie. “there are two wooden dolls still locked up in the house of cards, to say nothing of a wax one. what were they locked up for, and when are they going to be let out?”
she addressed her question directly to the lord chancellor, and there seemed to be a general opinion amongst the other dolls that it was right to ask it, and that it wanted an answer.
the lord chancellor gave one. he gave it at great length, but there was not much in it. it seemed that all they had to do was to trust to him, and everything would come right in the end.
“that doesn’t satisfy me,” said mrs. mollie, when he had quite finished. “and it isn’t only woods either that have been sent to prison, and are being kept there for nothing at all. what about this human child? what was she sent to prison for? i’m against sending human children to prison when they are allowed to come over and visit us. it’s likely to make bad feeling over there.”
there were murmurs of approval at this, and all[pg 181] the dolls looked sympathetically at peggy, who felt rather shy.
“you are quite right, mrs. mollie,” said captain louisa. “and i may tell you in strict confidence that the army feels with you about it. it is the best army to be found anywhere. leads and woods alike are devoted to their duty, and quite ready for a war, if a war is forced on us. but we don’t want a war with the people over there. we should win, of course, in the long run, but it would leave bad blood behind it, and while it was going on our women and children wouldn’t be safe.”
“it’s a prospect i don’t like at all,” said mrs. winifred. “i have received nothing but kindness from humans, myself, and i believe the same may be said by most of us here. i say that peggy ought not to have been locked up, and i hope she will remember that i said that when she goes back. mrs. winifred, 4 prospect place, dolltown, are my name and address, and over there i may be found at any time at top drawer, day nursery chest, 43 hamilton square, london, s.w.”
all the other dolls hastened to give peggy their names and addresses, except mr. joyce, who said,[pg 182] “my peace-loving sentiments are well known, and nobody over there is likely to make any mistake about them. i agree with the opinion of this assembly to this extent: i believe that a wood king is the best kind of king we could have for toyland, but i’m not at all sure that king selim is the right doll in the right place, or that this reign is likely to be an improvement on the last. wax or no wax, queen rosebud would never have made the mistakes in foreign policy that have already been made in this reign. if we are not very careful, this young lady, and others who may come over to visit us, will carry back a report that may bring serious trouble. king selim ought to be told that.”
“for my part, i’ve no patience with king selim,” said mrs. mollie. “i heartily wish queen rosebud wasn’t dead.”
“but queen rosebud isn’t dead,” said wooden. “she is locked up in the house of cards. peggy took her tea up to her this very afternoon.”
she spoke in a tone of surprise, as if everybody ought to know that queen rosebud was alive. peggy had been wondering whether it would be a good thing to tell the dolls what she had discovered, and now that wooden had let it out, she was rather glad. she[pg 183] didn’t much like keeping such a secret to herself, and, of course, a doll is hardly capable of keeping any secret, and wooden had only not spoken before because she had got used to the idea of queen rosebud being alive, and had not thought much about it since.
“oh, my dear lady!” said the lord chancellor, before anybody could speak. “you mustn’t say a thing like that, you know. king selim has said that queen rosebud is dead and of course she must be dead.”
“but she isn’t,” wooden persisted. “peggy has seen her.”
“yes, i did,” said peggy. “she is in the top story of the house of cards. selim and rose had her locked up there, and they said that if she told anybody who she was they would put her in a dark dungeon. they are both very wicked.”
“well, that’s beyond everything!” said mrs. winifred. “and i should like to know who rose is, to go locking up the queen.”
“if waxes like to give themselves airs, that’s one thing,” said mrs. ida. “but for a composition——! that’s what nobody can stand.”
“there are compositions and compositions,” said mrs. mollie. “but rose would be a disgrace to any class. she ought to be locked up herself.”
[pg 184]
“and i think you ought to see to it, lord norval,” said mrs. jane. “according to peggy, she has told a deliberate falsehood, and that is punishable by law, as i’ve always understood.”
they seemed to be in danger of forgetting all about queen rosebud in their disgust for rose. but this brought them back to the subject.
“i quite agree with you,” said the lord chancellor. “it is a most disgraceful affair altogether. i shall inform his majesty about it at once, and request him to see that rose is properly punished. what i shall suggest is that she shall take queen rosebud’s place in prison. i fancy that would be rather neat, eh? i shall press the point on his majesty.”
“but selim is just as bad as she is,” exclaimed peggy. “he ought to be sent to prison, too. why do you call him ‘his majesty’? he isn’t a king at all.”
“hush, hush, my dear young lady!” said the lord chancellor, much shocked. “i know you are human, and to be excused on that account, but if one of us had said that, it would be punishable, you know. selim is a king. he wears a crown. we have all seen it.”
“he is only a chess king,” said peggy. “i meant[pg 185] that he isn’t king of toyland. he can’t be, if queen rosebud is still alive.”
“that’s one way of looking at it, certainly,” said the lord chancellor, in a puzzled kind of way. “i shall have to think about it very carefully when i go home. he says he’s king of toyland. i shall get at it better when i’ve slept over it.”
“but aren’t you going to do anything now?” asked peggy. “there’s queen rosebud still locked up in the house of cards. i think captain louisa ought to take his soldiers at once, and let her out.”
all the dolls had sat with puzzled faces, looking at peggy and the lord chancellor. they had all been ready to talk a great deal, but when it came to doing something they seemed quite at a loss.
captain louisa started when his name was mentioned. “if it was my duty, i should do it,” he said. “i should do it very well—nobody better.”
“well, i think it is your duty,” said peggy. “don’t you, wooden?”
“well, dear,” said wooden, “if we all did our duty as well as captain louisa, we might be very proud of ourselves.”
captain louisa looked proudly at peggy. “you see what she thinks of me,” he said. “and it isn’t only[pg 186] me either. my men would follow me anywhere.”
mrs. winifred rose from her seat. “i’m afraid i must say good-bye, dear mrs. wooden,” she said. “i am so glad you have been let out of prison. and i’m so glad that queen rosebud isn’t dead. somehow, i could never feel that she was.”
all the dolls rose one after the other to say good-bye. they all said they were glad that queen rosebud was alive, and some of them said that she ought not to stay in prison a moment longer. but none of them seemed interested in how she was to be got out, or in what should happen afterwards, except that mrs. mollie said she hoped rose would get her deserts, and mrs. ida said that they saw now what came of compositions giving themselves airs. however much they seemed to be different from one another in their way of talking and looking at things, they all seemed alike in having no idea of acting for themselves. they were very nice, but peggy thought that if she had been the queen in prison she would hardly have felt so confident as queen rosebud had been of her doll subjects getting her out again.
however, the lord chancellor, who stayed behind, did seem to think that[pg 187] something ought to be done, though he seemed disinclined to do it himself. “when the people get to know of this,” he said, “i’m afraid there will be trouble. the question is, how to act so as to save[pg 188] trouble.”
“i should think the question was how to get poor queen rosebud out of prison as soon as possible,” said peggy.
“well, certainly there is that side of it,” he said. “the only thing is that if she comes out of prison and goes back to the palace, there will be two of them—a king and a queen—and that is something that it is very difficult to know how to deal with, without a great deal of careful thought. if king selim could marry queen rosebud, now! how does that strike you as a way of getting over the difficulty?”
“it doesn’t strike me at all,” said peggy. “selim has done a very wicked and horrible thing. queen rosebud was ill, and she might have died, and if she had it would have been all his fault. he has told heaps of stories about her. she never told him that he was to be king after her at all. that’s one story. and he told the people she was dead. that’s another. and he has sent a lot of dolls to prison for nothing at all. he has done very wrong, and he ought to be punished.”
“that is a very eloquent speech,” said the lord[pg 189] chancellor. “very eloquent indeed. i wish i could make one like it. but you see the trouble is that the king can do no wrong; so of course you can’t punish him.”
“but he has done wrong,” said peggy. “and he isn’t the king. you keep on talking about him as if queen rosebud wasn’t alive. she is the queen. selim is only a usurper.”
“i’m beginning to see it,” said the lord chancellor. “it’s a very subtle point, but i’m beginning to see it, or at least some of it.”
whether he would have seen all of it in time cannot be known, for just at that moment the door was opened by the housemaid doll, and in came colonel jim and teddy.
