Part 7 (2/2)
”No, there wasn't,” said Mervyn, ”not one, Sophie, there wasn't really.”
”Now!” shouted Bunny triumphantly, ”you see you are quite wrong, Sophie.”
”Open the door, Bunny, this minute,” said Miss Kerr decidedly, ”I am surprised that you should behave in such a naughty way, just when I thought you were going to be a good girl.”
”I'll open it now, indeed I will,” cried Bunny, ”and please, please don't be angry with us. We are so sorry we ran away from Sophie, indeed we are, and that is the reason we came up here, just to tell you so.”
All the time the child was talking she was also working away at the key, trying her very best to open the door. But no matter how she turned or pulled it, round it would not go, and at last, hot and tired with so many violent efforts, she begged Mervyn to try if he could make it turn.
”No, Bunny, I can't,” said the boy sadly, after working patiently at the key for some time. ”It's no use, I can't do it at all.”
”Oh dear, oh dear!” cried Bunny in a miserable voice, ”what shall we do? Miss Kerr, dear, we can't open the door, it's locked quite fast.”
”Take the key out of the lock and push it under the door, and I will try and open it from this side,” said Miss Kerr; ”it was really very naughty of you to lock yourselves up in such a way. But be quick and give me the key.”
After a good deal of pulling and tugging, Bunny at last managed to get the key out of the lock, and kneeling on the floor she tried with all the strength of her tiny hands to push it out under the door.
But the key was too large or the door fitted too closely, and the little girl gave a cry of alarm as she found that it was quite impossible to get it out into the pa.s.sage.
”Oh, Mervyn, dear, it won't go out! Oh! Miss Kerr, what shall we do?” she cried, bursting into tears; ”if we can't open the door what shall we do?”
”And I am so hungry,” said Mervyn in a doleful tone. ”How nasty it will be to be stuck in here for ever! Oh, pray open the door! Oh!
pray open the door, Miss Kerr.”
”Throw the key out of the window, Bunny,” said Miss Kerr, ”and I will go round and pick it up, and let you out in a minute.”
”Oh! the window is shut. The window is shut,” cried the two children in despair, ”and we cannot reach to open it. What shall we do? What shall we do?”
”Good gracious!” exclaimed Miss Kerr, ”who can have shut the window?”
”I am sorry to say I did, miss,” said the housemaid. ”The wind was so strong upon the window that was open, that I shut it, intending to open the middle one, but I forgot all about it when I was leaving the room.”
”It is extremely awkward, and has helped to give the poor children a great fright,” said Miss Kerr. ”Go and bring me the keys of all the doors, Sarah, and I will try if any of them will fit the lock. Don't be uneasy, Bunny; don't cry, little Mervyn. We will get you out some way or other, you may be quite sure, so don't be afraid. I have sent for some keys to try if they will open the door, so don't fret. Ah!
here they are.”
One after the other the keys were taken and tried, but not one was of the slightest use. One was too large, and another too small, and Miss Kerr felt really grieved for the poor little prisoners, whose sobs were distinctly heard through the door.
”What can I do?” she said. ”It is really very hard on them to be shut in there for such a long, long time! And they are so hungry too.”
”Send for a man to pick the lock, miss,” said Sarah. ”Ashton will get some one from one of the shops.”
”But that will take such a time!” cried Miss Kerr; ”it is a long way to the town, and the children want their dinner so badly. No, I must think of some quicker plan than that. Ah, now I know one!” she exclaimed with a sudden smile; ”it is a pity, but it can't be helped! Bunny, dear, will you take the poker, break a pane of gla.s.s with it, and throw the key out upon the gra.s.s. Be very careful not to cut your fingers.”
”I'll do it!” cried Mervyn, jumping up out of the chair, where he had been rolling about disconsolately. ”I'd just like to break a window, and I'm taller than you, Bunny; do let me, like a good girl.”
”No, no; Miss Kerr told me to do it,” cried Bunny, ”and I should like to break a pane too;” and seizing the poker she sent it crash through the gla.s.s.
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