Mary Poppins Opens the Door. P. Travers L.
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Название: Mary Poppins Opens the Door
Автор: P. Travers L.
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Книги для детей: прочее
isbn: 9780007404315
isbn:
“What did you wish?” asked Jane and Michael.
But Mr Twigley seemed suddenly to have become deaf, for he took no notice of the question. He shook hands hurriedly as though, having wished all his wishes, he was now anxious to be alone.
“You have to be going, you said? How sad! Is this your hat? Well, delighted you came! I hope – are these your gloves, dear Mary? – I hope you’ll pay me another visit when my wishes come round again!”
“When will that be?” demanded Michael.
“Oh, in about ninety years or so,” Mr Twigley answered airily.
“But we’ll be quite old by then!” said Jane.
“Maybe,” he replied, with a little shrug. “But at least not as old as I am!”
And with that he kissed Mary Poppins on both cheeks and hustled them out of the room.
The last thing they saw was his jubilant smile as he began to fix a Penny-in-the-Slot to Mrs Clump’s palace…
Later, when they came to think about it, Jane and Michael could never remember how they got out of Mr Twigley’s house and into Cherry Tree Lane. It seemed as though at one moment they were on the dusty stairs and the next they were following Mary Poppins through the pearly evening light.
Jane glanced back for one last look at the little house.
“Michael!” she said in a startled whisper. “It’s gone. Everything’s gone!”
He looked round. Yes! Jane was right. The little street and the old-fashioned houses were nowhere to be seen. There was only the shadowy Park before them and the well-known curve of Cherry Tree Lane.
“Well, where have we been all afternoon?” said Michael, staring about him.
But it needed someone wiser than Jane to answer that question truly.
“We must have been somewhere,” she said sensibly.
But that was not enough for Michael. He rushed away to Mary Poppins and pulled at her best blue skirt.
“Mary Poppins, where have we been today? What’s happened to Mr Twigley?”
“How should I know?” snapped Mary Poppins. “I’m not an Encyclopaedia.”
“But he’s gone! And the street’s gone! And I suppose the musical box has gone too – the one he went round on this afternoon!”
Mary Poppins stood still on the kerb and stared.
“A cousin of mine on a musical box? What nonsense you do talk, Michael Banks!”
“But he did!” cried Jane and Michael together. “We all went round on musical boxes. Each of us to our own true music. And yours was ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’.”
Her eyes blazed sternly through the darkness. She seemed to grow larger as she glared.
“Each to our – weasel? Round and round?” Really, she was so angry she could hardly get the words out.
“On top of a musical box, did you say? So, this is what I get for my pains! You spend the afternoon with a well-brought-up, self-respecting pair like my cousin and myself. And all you can do afterwards is to make a mock of us. Round and round with a weasel, indeed! For Two Pins I’d leave you – here, on this spot – and never come back! I warn you!”
“On top of a musical weasel!” she fumed, as she stalked through the gathering dusk.
Snap, snap, went her heels along the pavement. Even her back had an angry look.
Jane and Michael hurried after her. It was no good arguing with Mary Poppins, especially when she looked like that. The best thing to do was to say nothing. And be glad there was nobody in the Lane to offer her Two Pins. In silence they walked along beside her, and thought of the afternoon’s adventure and looked at each other and wondered…
“Oh, Mary Poppins!” said Mrs Banks brightly, as she opened the front door. “I’m sorry, but I don’t need your cousin, after all. I tried the piano again just now. And it’s quite in tune. In fact, better than ever.”
“I’m glad of that, ma’am,” said Mary Poppins, stealing a glance at herself in the mirror. “My cousin will make no charge.”
“Well, I should think not!” cried Mrs Banks indignantly. “Why, he hasn’t even been here.”
“Exactly, ma’am,” said Mary Poppins. She sniffed as she turned towards the stairs.
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