The Dolls’ House by Rumer Godden Read Free Book Online Page A

‘They don’t deserve the name of “doll”. But tell me about those things you were talking of – the ships and flagpoles. It must be good
to be made of something hard,’ said the wax doll.
    ‘It is,’ said Tottie. At the moment all the good wood in her was standing firmly against the things the voice and the haughty doll had said. Tottie knew that voice. She looked across
at the other table and she saw whom she had expected to see. She saw Marchpane. Marchpane saw her.
    ‘Oh, it’s you,’ said Marchpane.
    ‘Yes,’ said Tottie.
    ‘Strange!’ said Marchpane. ‘I thought you would have been broken or thrown away long, long ago.’
    ‘No,’ said Tottie.
    ‘What is it they used to call you?’ asked Marchpane. ‘Spotty, Dotty. Surely it was Dotty.’
    ‘Tee! Tee-hee! Tee-hee!’ giggled the walking doll. ‘Tee-hee-hee! Tee-hee!’
    ‘My name is Tottie,’ said Tottie. ‘It always has been.’
    ‘I couldn’t be expected to remember,’ said Marchpane. ‘There were so many of you.’
    ‘Not in our family,’ said Tottie. ‘I was the only one.’
    ‘She is the only one now,’ said the wax doll. ‘The only one of her kind in the Exhibition. I heard them say so.’
    For some time there had been whispers going on among the dolls and now the walking doll was listening. ‘La! Is it possible?’ she asked. ‘Non. Non. Je m’en
doute. ’
    ‘What is it?’ asked Marchpane.
    ‘Dey say that some of the dolls ’ere are to be sold, sold out of their families.’
    ‘What? Sold by your own family?’
    ‘Sold!’
    ‘Sold!’
    ‘Sold!’ ran the whisper among the dolls.
    ‘ La! Quel malheur! ’ said the walking doll. ‘My museum would nevaire part with me.’
    ‘Nor mine,’ said Marchpane quickly.
    ‘Nor mine,’ said the wax doll, but she said it with a fluttering sigh.
    You notice that Tottie had said nothing all this time. This was Tottie’s secret trouble. Yes, Tottie thought that Emily and Charlotte had sold her to Mrs Innisfree. If you look back to
page 50 of this book you will see why. ‘We pay for some of the dolls,’ Mrs Innisfree had said. ‘I should like to pay you for Tottie.’
    ‘How much would you pay?’ Charlotte had asked. Oh, Charlotte! ‘Would you pay a whole pound?’
    Tottie shuddered when she remembered that.
    ‘We should pay a guinea,’ said Mrs Innisfree.
    Of course Tottie did not know that Emily and Charlotte had given the guinea back to Mrs Innisfree. She thought she was sold and would presently be sold again. She was filled with shame.
    ‘It must be there on those cards,’ thought Tottie. ‘Only they can’t read them because they are upside down and Marchpane is too far away on the other table. But soon they
must know!’ thought Tottie.
    ‘La! I am glad I am not standing next to such a one,’ said the walking doll.
    ‘But you are. You are,’ thought Tottie. She wished she could sink through the table.
    The other dolls were longing for the Exhibition to open. Marchpane, of course, was eager for the people to come and admire her, and so was the haughty doll. The wax doll was excited. She had
been packed away in a box so long. ‘Do you think there will be any children?’ she asked with longing in her voice.
    ‘Children? I hope not!’ said Marchpane.
    ‘I ’ope zey will not touch,’ said the haughty doll.
    ‘They had better not touch me,’ said Marchpane. ‘That must certainly not be allowed.’
    ‘But – were you not meant to be played with?’ asked the wax doll. ‘I was. I was.’
    ‘La! You are un’appy?’
    ‘I am shut away in a box. Away from children, and it is children who give us life,’ said the wax doll.
    ‘And tumble one about and spoil one,’ said Marchpane, and the walking doll shuddered to the tip of her parasol.
    ‘Isn’t that life?’ asked Tottie.
    ‘I want children,’ cried the wax doll. ‘I-I –’ She stopped. It had been on the tip of her tongue to say, ‘I wish I could be sold.’ She wished she dared
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