Part 7 (1/2)
”Well, in India people sleep in the day when they're not a bit ill, just because it's hot--so why shouldn't they here?”
”What a lot of sillies they must be in India then!” cried Bunny contemptuously. ”Why, I have not been asleep in the day for years--not since I was quite small,” and she rattled away more noisily than ever at the door-handle.
”Miss Kerr is not there, children,” said a housemaid who pa.s.sed along the pa.s.sage at that moment, ”she has been in the drawing-room all the morning.”
”Has she?” said Bunny, ”oh, then, I tell you what, Mervyn, we'll just go in and wait for her. She will be sure to come up in a few minutes to wash her hands before dinner, and then we'll tell her.”
”Oh, but there is Sophie calling to us to get ready ourselves. She will be awfully angry if we don't go,” said Mervyn. ”Listen how she is screaming.”
”Never mind her, the nasty, cross old thing!” cried Bunny, opening the bed-room door. ”Come in, Mervyn, come in! There is Sophie--do be quick, or she will catch us and drag us off with her--and then she'll tell Miss Kerr before we do. Come in, come in,” and once more she hurried her cousin along with her, against his own will and inclination.
”But, Bunny, I do think we ought to go to Sophie, I do indeed,” said Mervyn; ”listen, she is asking the housemaid if she has seen us anywhere. And oh, she is coming here to look for us--she will be awfully cross! Do let us go into the nursery quietly and take off our things and get ready for dinner.”
”Well, you are a silly, Mervyn! That would spoil all the fun. But I know what I'll do--I'll lock the door, and then Sophie will not be able to get us. I can easily open it for Miss Kerr when she comes up,” cried Bunny; and before Mervyn could say a word to prevent her, the little girl turned the key in the lock, and, clapping her hands with delight, danced up and down the room singing at the top of her voice:
”What a good plan! What a good plan!
And the dinner is in the frying pan!”
”Indeed, then I wish it was here,” grumbled Mervyn, ”I'm awfully hungry, and it would be much better to go down to dinner now, and tell Miss Kerr afterwards, or at dinner-time, Bunny, indeed it would.”
”Yes, and let Sophie hear her scolding us,” cried the little girl.
”I am hungry too, I can tell you, Mervyn; but Miss Kerr won't be long, I am sure. Hasn't she got a pretty room? and doesn't the sea and the bridge look nice from the window?”
”Well enough,” answered Mervyn crossly, as he rolled about in an arm-chair that stood away in the furthest corner. ”But oh, it is silly to be sticking up here when the dinner is ready down-stairs--oh, I smell it, and it does smell nice! and I am so hungry, and it's very stupid of you to keep me shut up here.”
”Well, I thought you were sorry and wanted to tell Miss Kerr so,”
said Bunny complacently, as she shook out her frock and admired herself in the long gla.s.s. ”It's very greedy to talk so much about your dinner.”
”Is it?” grumbled Mervyn. ”Well, I don't care! I'm sure you're just as bad twisting about and looking at yourself in the gla.s.s, for that's being vain, and I'd rather be greedy than vain, so I would, Bunny.”
”Would you? Oh, that's because you're a boy. Boys are greedy, but it's vulgar to be greedy--Sophie says it is, but it's different to be vain, I--”
”Mademoiselle Bunny, come out this minute. Ah, what a little naughty one you are! and that cousin of yours he is a wicked bad boy--he leads you into the mischiefs of all kinds. Come out, I say, the dinner is ready and Miss Kerr is waiting for you;” and Sophie rattled the handle and hammered at the door till the whole pa.s.sage was filled with the noise and the other servants came running from all parts of the house to see what could be the matter.
”What is wrong, Sophie?” asked Miss Kerr, as she too hurried upstairs wondering what was going on in the corridor. ”Why are you making such a dreadful noise?”
”Ah! ma foi! Noise, Miss Kerr! What can I do but make a noise, when those two children have locked themselves into your room, and will not come out for their dinner. Is it then a wonder that I make a noise?” and she began once more to bang the door as if she would like to break it in.
”That was Miss Kerr's voice, Bunny,” whispered Mervyn; ”do open the door and let us go out to her now.”
”Is it really? I only heard Sophie. Miss Kerr,” she called, ”are you there?”
”Yes, Bunny, I am here. Come out, child, come to your dinner. You must be starving, both of you.”
”Yes, we are,” answered Bunny, ”and we will go out if you will send Sophie away. Mervyn and I want to tell you something.”
”Ah! what a naughty child!” cried Sophie. ”Meess Kerr, they have both been so very difficult, so wicked! They have run away, they have gone in the lift, they have just escaped being seized by kidnappers and--”
”That's a great story, Sophie,” cried Bunny through the door, ”for there was not a single kidnapper near us; was there, Mervyn?”