FullReads

I felt puzzled. When I complained to nurse that Joseph “was so tiresome,” she grumbled back again that “she never knew such children,” and so forth. It is always easy to meet grievance with grievance, but I found that it was not so easy to make up my mind and pluck up my courage to ask in so many words for what I wanted.

“Shall I ask Joseph to put away his cannon and come and play at your game for an hour now, my dear? I will certainly forbid him to fire into your shop.”

This did not quite satisfy me. As a matter of fact, Joseph had left his fortress to play with me; and I did not really think he would discharge his cannon at the poulterer’s again. But I thought myself hardly used, and I wanted my godmother to think so too, and to scold Joseph. What else I wanted, I did not feel quite sure.

“I wish you would speak to Joseph,” I said. “He would attend to you if you told him how selfish and stupid he is.”

“My dear, I never offered to complain to Joseph, but I will order him not to molest you, and I will ask him to play with you.”

“I’m sure I don’t want him to play with me, unless he can play nicely, and invent things for the dolls to say, as Maud Mary would,” was my reply; for I was getting thoroughly vexed.

“Then I will tell him that unless he can play your game as you wish it, he had better amuse himself with his own toys. Is there anything else that you want, my dear?”

I could not speak, for I was crying, but I sobbed out that “I missed Maud Mary so.”

“Who is Maud Mary, Selina?”

“Maud Mary Ibbetson, my particular friend–my very particular friend,” I explained.

I spoke warmly, for at that moment the memory of Maud Mary seemed adorable, and I longed to pour my complaints into her sympathetic ear. Besides, I had another reason for regretting that she was not with me. When we were together, it was she, as a rule, who had new and handsome toys to exhibit, whilst I played the humbler part of admirer. But if she had been with me, then, what would not have been my triumph in displaying the Dutch fair! The longer I thought of her the faster my tears fell, but they did not help me to think of anything definite to ask for; and when Lady Elizabeth said, “would you like to go home, my dear? or do you want me to ask your friend to stay with you?” I had the grace to feel ashamed of my peevishness, and to thank my godmother for her kindness, and to protest against wanting anything more. I only added, amid my subsiding sobs, that “it did seem such a thing,” when I had got a Dutch fair to play at dolls in, that Joseph should be so stupid, and that dear Maud Mary, who would have enjoyed it so much, should not be able to see it.

CHAPTER III.

“Nous aurons aussi la fete dans notre rue.”–RUSSIAN
PROVERB.

Next day, when our drill in the long corridor was over, Lady Elizabeth told Joseph to bring his fortress, guns, and soldiers into the library, and to play at the Thirty Years’ War in the bay-window from a large book with pictures of sieges and battles, which she lent him.

To me my godmother turned very kindly and said, “I have invited your little friend Maud to come and stay here for a week. I hope she will arrive to-day, so you had better prepare your dolls and your shops for company.”

Maud Mary coming! I danced for joy, and kissed my godmother, and expressed my delight again and again. I should have liked to talk about it to Joseph, but he had plunged into the Thirty Years’ War, and had no attention to give me.