The Dolls’ House by Rumer Godden Read Free Book Online

she must break into splinters, but of course, being made of such good wood, she gave no outward sign.
    A lady took her up in her hand. ‘Where shall we put this darling little thing?’ she asked. ‘Look. She goes with this sampler.’
    ‘What a charming idea,’ said another, but Tottie did not think it was in the least bit charming.
    ‘A farthing doll!’ said another lady. ‘Why I should think she must be unique.’
    Tottie did not know what ‘unique’ meant (if you don’t, go and look it up in the dictionary), for all she could tell it might be something rude, and she wished she could hang
her head, but of course a wooden neck will never, never bend and so she stayed, staring as woodenly as possible, straight in front of her. The ladies took her and set her up on the centre of one of
the long tables, with the sampler behind her and two square cards and one longer one in front of her. From Tottie’s point of view, these cards were upside down, so that she could not read
them. They looked like this:

    On the table opposite Tottie were four dolls under a glass-domed cover. Next to her, on her right side, was a wax doll with a satin dress, and on the other side a walking doll
dressed in blue satin with a bustle behind and white flounces. She held, tiptilted, a blue parasol, and in the other tiny hand, a fan.
    ‘Who – who are those in the case?’ asked Tottie.
    ‘They were Queen Victoria’s dolls when she was a child,’ said the wax doll.
    ‘O-ooh!’ said Tottie. She remembered Queen Victoria of course.
    ‘La! We’ave been put in one of ze best positions, is it you say? in ze room,’ said the walking doll.
    ‘Why does she talk like that?’ asked Tottie in a whisper of the wax doll.
    ‘She is French,’ said the wax doll. ‘She is very proud.’
    The walking doll held her tiptilted parasol and her fan and glanced at Tottie. ‘What ees it you are made of?’ she asked. ‘Pardonnez-moi, but la! I do not recognize ze
substance.’
    ‘I am made of wood,’ answered Tottie with dignity.
    ‘Wood? La! La! La! Tee-hee-hee.’ Her laughing sounded as if it were wound up. ‘Tee-hee. La! La! I thought doorknobs and broom ’andles and bedposts and clothes-pegs were
made of wood, not dolls.’
    ‘So they are,’ said Tottie. ‘And so are the masts of ships and flagpoles and violins – and trees,’ said Tottie.
    She and the walking doll looked at one another and, though the walking doll was quite ten inches taller than Tottie, Tottie did not flinch.
    ‘I am made of keed and porcelain,’ said the walking doll. ‘Inside I ’ave a leetle set of works. Wind me up and I walk.’
    ‘Walk, walk, walk,’ cried the other dolls.
    ‘ Merci! Je ne marcherai pas que si ça me chante, ’ which means she would not walk unless she wanted, but of course she could not walk unless someone wound her up.
    ‘I once knew a kid doll,’ said Tottie. ‘I did not like her.’
    ‘Who is talking about kid dolls?’ came a voice from the opposite table. ‘Who did not like kid dolls?’
    ‘I don’t,’ said Tottie firmly though, at the sound of that voice, she felt as if instead of being wood all through, she might have been made hollow inside.
    ‘And who are you?’ said the voice.
    ‘It is a leetle object,’ said the walking doll, ‘that ’as found its way in ’ere. La! It is made of wood.’
    ‘Of wood?’ said the voice. ‘Once I knew a little doll made of wood and I did not like her at all!’
    ‘I ’ave nevaire see one,’ said the walking doll.
    ‘They were sold in the cheaper shops. A shilling a dozen or four for a penny. The children, silly little things, would waste their money on them.’
    ‘La! Children! Merci. Je ne mange pas de ce pain là. ’Orrible leetle creatures. Je les déteste. ’
    ‘Silly little things! Little creatures! Those are children they are talking of!’ said the wax doll, shocked. Her voice, after the others, was meltingly soft. ‘How dare
they!’ said the wax doll.