"Good night," said Mabel. "You're a darling, Cathy; you've been most awfully1 good to me, and I shan't forget it. I didn't like to say so before the boys, because I know boys think you're a muff if you're grateful. But I am. Good night."
Kathleen lay awake for some time. She was just getting sleepy when she remembered that the maid who would call them in the morning would see those wonderful Princess clothes.
"I'll have to get up and hide them," she said. "What a bother!"
And as she lay thinking what a bother it was she happened to fall asleep, and when she woke again it was bright morning, and Eliza was standing2 in front of the chair where Mabel's clothes lay, gazing at the pink Princess-frock that lay on the top of her heap and saying, "Law!"
"Oh, don't touch, please!" Kathleen leaped out of bed as Eliza was reaching out her hand.
"Where on earth did you get hold of that?"
"We're going to use it for acting3," said Kathleen, on the desperate inspiration of the moment. "It's lent me for that."
"You might show me, miss," suggested Eliza.
"Oh, please not!" said Kathleen, standing in front of the chair in her nightgown. "You shall see us act when we are dressed up. There! And you won't tell anyone, will you?"
"Not if you're a good little girl," said Eliza. "But you be sure to let me see when you do dress up. But where"
Here a bell rang and Eliza had to go, for it was the postman, and she particularly wanted to see him.
"And now," said Kathleen, pulling on her first stocking, "we shall have to do the acting. Everything seems very difficult."
"Acting isn't," said Mabel; and an unsupported stocking waved in the air and quickly vanished. "I shall love it.,"
"You forget," said Kathleen gently, "invisible actresses can't take part in plays unless they're magic ones."
"Oh," cried a voice from under a petticoat that hung in the air, "I've got such an idea!"
"Tell it us after breakfast," said Kathleen, as the water in the basin
began to splash about and to drip from nowhere back into itself.
"And oh! I do wish you hadn't written such whoppers to your aunt.
I'm sure we oughtn't to tell lies for anything."
"What's the use of telling the truth if nobody believes you?" came from among the splashes
"I don't know," said Kathleen, "but I'm sure we ought to tell the truth."
"You can, if you like," said a voice from the folds of a towel that waved lonely in front of the wash-hand stand
"All right. We will, then, first thing after brek your brek, I mean. You'll have to wait up here till we can collar something and bring it up to you. Mind you dodge4 Eliza when she comes to make the bed."
The invisible Mabel found this a fairly amusing game; she further enlivened it by twitching5 out the corners of tucked-up sheets and blankets when Eliza wasn't looking.
"Drat the clothes!" said Eliza; "anyone ud think the things was bewitched."
She looked about for the wonderful Princess clothes she had glimpsed earlier in the morning. But Kathleen had hidden them in a perfectly6 safe place under the mattress7, which she knew Eliza never turned.
Eliza hastily brushed up from the floor those bits of fluff which come from goodness knows where in the best regulated houses. Mabel, very hungry and exasperated8 at the long absence of the others at their breakfast, could not forbear to whisper suddenly in Eliza's ear:
"Always sweep under the mats."
The maid started and turned pale. "I must be going silly," she murmured; "though it's just what mother always used to say. Hope I ain't going dotty, like Aunt Emily. Wonderful what you can fancy, ain't it?"
She took up the hearth-rug all the same, swept under it, and under the fender. So thorough was she, and so pale, that Kathleen, entering with a chunk9 of bread raided by Gerald from the pantry window, exclaimed:
"Not done yet. I say, Eliza, you do look ill! What's the matter?"
"I thought I'd give the room a good turn-out," said Eliza, still very pale.
"Nothing's happened to upset you?" Kathleen asked. She had her own private fears.
"Nothing only my fancy, miss," said Eliza. "I always was fanciful from a child dreaming of the pearly gates and them little angels with nothing on only their heads and wings so cheap to dress, I always think, compared with children."
When she was got rid of, Mabel ate the bread and drank water from the tooth-mug.
"I'm afraid it tastes of cherry tooth-paste rather," said Kathleen apologetically.
"It doesn't matter," a voice replied from the tilted10 mug; "it's more interesting than water. I should think red wine in ballads11 was rather like this."
"We've got leave for the day again," said Kathleen, when the last bit of bread had vanished, "and Gerald feels like I do about lies, So we're going to tell your aunt where you really are."
"She won't believe you."
"That doesn't matter, if we speak the truth," said Kathleen primly12.
"I expect you'll be sorry for it," said Mabel; "but come on and, I say, do be careful not to shut me in the door as you go out. You nearly did just now."
In the blazing sunlight that flooded the High Street four shadows to three children seemed dangerously noticeable. A butcher's boy looked far too earnestly at the extra shadow, and his big, liver-coloured lurcher snuffed at the legs of that shadow's mistress and whined13 uncomfortably.
"Get behind me," said Kathleen; "then our two shadows will look like one."
But Mabel's shadow, very visible, fell on Kathleen's back, and the ostler of the Davenant Arms looked up to see what big bird had cast that big shadow.
A woman driving a cart with chickens and ducks in it called out: "Halloa, missy, ain't you blacked yer back, neither! What you been leaning up against?"
Everyone was glad when they got out of the town.
Speaking the truth to Mabel's aunt did not turn out at all as anyone even Mabel expected. The aunt was discovered reading a pink novelette at the window of the housekeeper14's room, which, framed in clematis and green creepers, looked out on a nice little courtyard to which Mabel led the party.
"Excuse me," said Gerald, "but I believe you've lost your niece?"
"Not lost, my boy," said the aunt, who was spare and tall, with a drab fringe and a very genteel voice.
"We could tell you something about her," said Gerald.
"Now," replied the aunt, in a warning voice, "no complaints, please. My niece has gone, and I am sure no one thinks less than I do of her little pranks15. If she's played any tricks on you it's only her lighthearted way. Go away, children, I'm busy."
"Did you get her note?" asked Kathleen.
The aunt showed rather more interest than before, but she still kept her finger in the novelette.
"Oh," she said, "so you witnessed her departure? Did she seem glad to go?"
"Quite," said Gerald truthfully.
"Then I can only be glad that she is provided for," said the aunt. "I dare say you were surprised. These romantic adventures do occur in our family. Lord Yalding selected me out of eleven applicants16 for the post of housekeeper here. I've not the slightest doubt the child was changed at birth and her rich relatives have claimed her."
"But aren't you going to do anything tell the police, or"
"Shish!" said Mabel.
"I won't shish," said Jimmy. "Your Mabel's invisible that's all it is.
She's just beside me now."
"I detest17 untruthfulness," said the aunt severely18, "in all its forms. Will you kindly19 take that little boy away? I am quite satisfied about Mabel."
"Well," said Gerald, "you are an aunt and no mistake! But what will Mabel's father and mother say?"
"Mabel's father and mother are dead," said the aunt calmly, and a little sob20 sounded close to Gerald's ear.
"All right," he said, "we'll be off. But don't you go saying we didn't tell you the truth, that's all."
"You have told me nothing," said the aunt, "none of you, except that little boy, who has told me a silly falsehood."
"We meant well," said Gerald gently. "You don't mind our having come through the grounds, do you? we're very careful not to touch anything."
"No visitors are allowed," said the aunt, glancing down at her novel rather impatiently.
"Ah! but you wouldn't count us visitors," said Gerald in his best manner. "We re friends of Mabel's. Our father's Colonel of the th."
"Indeed!" said the aunt.
"And our aunt's Lady Sandling, so you can be sure we wouldn't hurt anything on the estate."
"I'm sure you wouldn't hurt a fly," said the aunt absently.
"Good-bye. Be good children."
And on this they got away quickly.
"Why," said Gerald, when they were outside the little court, "your aunt's as mad as a hatter. Fancy not caring what becomes of you, and fancy believing that rot about the motor lady!"
"I knew she'd believe it when I wrote it," said Mabel modestly. "She's not mad, only she's always reading novelettes, I read the books in the big library. Oh, it's such a jolly room such a queer smell, like boots, and old leather books sort of powdery at the edges. I'll take you there some day. Now your consciences are all right about my aunt, I'll tell you my great idea. Let's get down to the Temple of Flora21. I'm glad you got aunt's permission for the grounds. It would be so awkward for you to have to be always dodging22 behind bushes when one of the gardeners came along."
"Yes," said Gerald modestly, "I thought of that."
The day was as bright as yesterday had been, and from the white marble temple the Italian-looking landscape looked more than ever like a steel engraving23 coloured by hand, or an oleographic imitation of one of Turner's pictures.
When the three children were comfortably settled on the steps that led up to the white statue, the voice of the fourth child said sadly: "I'm not ungrateful, hut I'm rather hungry. And you can't be always taking things for me through your larder24 window. If you like, I'll go back and live in the castle. It's supposed to be haunted. I suppose I could haunt it as well as anyone else. I am a sort of ghost now, you know. I will if you like."
"Oh no," said Kathleen kindly; "you must stay with us.
"But about food. I'm not ungrateful, really I'm not, but breakfast is breakfast, and bread's only bread."
"If you could get the ring off, you could go back."
"Yes," said Mabel's voice, "but you see, I can't. I tried again last night in bed, and again this morning. And it's like stealing, taking things out of your larder even if it's only bread."
"Yes, it is," said Gerald, who had carried out this bold enterprise.
"Well, now, what we must do is to earn some money."
Jimmy remarked that this was all very well. But Gerald and
Kathleen listened attentively25.
"What I mean to say," the voice went on, "I'm really sure is all for the best, me being invisible. We shall have adventures you see if we don t."
"Adventures," said the bold buccaneer, "are not always profitable."
It was Gerald who murmured this.
"This one will be, anyhow, you see. Only you mustn't all go. Look here, if Jerry could make himself look common "
"That ought to be easy," said Jimmy. And Kathleen told him not to be so jolly disagreeable.
"I'm not," said Jimmy, "only "
"Only he has an inside feeling that this Mabel of yours is going to get us into trouble," put in Gerald. "Like La Belle26 Dame27 Sans Merci, and he does not want to be found in future ages alone and palely loitering in the middle of sedge and things."
"I won't get you into trouble, indeed I won t," said the voice. "Why, we're a band of brothers for life, after the way you stood by me yesterday. What I mean is Gerald can go to the fair and do conjuring28."
"He doesn't know any," said Kathleen.
"I should do it really," said Mabel, "but Jerry could look like doing it move things without touching29 them and all that. But it wouldn't do for all three of you to go. The more there are of children the younger they look, I think, and the more people wonder what they re doing all alone by themselves."
"The accomplished30 conjurer deemed these the words of wisdom," said Gerald; and answered the dismal31 "Well, but what about us? of his brother and sister by suggesting that they should mingle32 unsuspected with the crowd. "But don't let on that you know me," he said; "and try to look as if you belonged to some of the grown-ups at the fair. If you don't, as likely as not you'll have the kind policemen taking the little lost children by the hand and leading them home to their stricken relations French governess, I mean."
"Let's go now," said the voice that they never could get quite used to hearing, coming out of different parts of the air as Mabel moved from one place to another. So they went.
The fair was held on a waste bit of land, about half a mile from the castle gates. When they got near enough to hear the steam-organ of the merry-go-round, Gerald suggested that as he had ninepence he should go ahead and get something to eat, the amount spent to be paid back out of any money they might make by conjuring. The others waited in the shadows of a deep-banked lane, and he came back, quite soon, though long after they had begun to say what a long time he had been gone. He brought some Barcelona nuts, red-streaked apples, small sweet yellow pears, pale pasty gingerbread, a whole quarter of a pound of peppermint33 bulls-eyes, and two bottles of ginger-beer.
"It's what they call an investment," he said, when Kathleen said something about extravagance. "We shall all need special nourishing to keep our strength up, especially the bold conjurer."
They ate and drank. It was a very beautiful meal, and the far-off music of the steam-organ added the last touch of festivity to the scene. The boys were never tired of seeing Mabel eat, or rather of seeing the strange, magic-looking vanishment of food which was all that showed of Mabel's eating. They were entranced by the spectacle, and pressed on her more than her just share of the feast, just for the pleasure of seeing it disappear.
"My aunt!" said Gerald, again and again; "that ought to knock 'em!"
It did.
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1
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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dodge
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| v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计 | |
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twitching
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| n.颤搐 | |
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6
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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7
mattress
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| n.床垫，床褥 | |
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8
exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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9
chunk
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| n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量） | |
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10
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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11
ballads
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| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
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12
primly
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| adv.循规蹈矩地，整洁地 | |
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13
whined
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| v.哀号( whine的过去式和过去分词 )；哀诉，诉怨 | |
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14
housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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15
pranks
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| n.玩笑，恶作剧( prank的名词复数 ) | |
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16
applicants
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| 申请人，求职人( applicant的名词复数 ) | |
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17
detest
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| vt.痛恨，憎恶 | |
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18
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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19
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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21
flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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22
dodging
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| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
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23
engraving
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| n.版画；雕刻（作品）；雕刻艺术；镌版术v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的现在分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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24
larder
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| n.食物贮藏室，食品橱 | |
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25
attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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26
belle
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| n.靓女 | |
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27
dame
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| n.女士 | |
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28
conjuring
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| n.魔术 | |
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29
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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30
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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32
mingle
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| vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往 | |
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33
peppermint
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| n.薄荷，薄荷油，薄荷糖 | |
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