The Dolls’ House Read Online Free

Father?’
    ‘Can we?’
    ‘Can we?’
    ‘Can we?’ begged the Plantaganets.
    Apple was getting nearer and nearer to the coal.
    ‘We had better take it,’ said Father. ‘And then we can advertise it in the newspapers and get twenty-five pounds.’
    ‘Do we need twenty-five pounds?’ asked Mr Plantaganet, but Tottie told him Father was only teasing.
    ‘I wish he wouldn’t only tease,’ said Mr Plantaganet. Mr Plantaganet could never tell when Father was teasing. ‘Ought Fathers to tease?’ he asked wistfully.
‘Perhaps I am not a proper sort of Father.’ He very much wanted to be a proper sort of everything. ‘A house!’ said Mr Plantaganet, forgetting Father. ‘I suppose it is
that house, Tottie?’
    ‘I should think it must be,’ said Tottie in her calming, calm wood voice. ‘An old dolls’ house that belonged to Great-Great-Aunt Laura. What else could it be?’
    ‘That – that dream house?’ said Mr Plantaganet.
    ‘You didn’t dream it, I told you of it,’ said Tottie, who was strictly truthful; she could see Mr Plantaganet was getting into a state.
    ‘I can’t believe it,’ said Mr Plantaganet. ‘I can’t.’
    ‘Yes, you can,’ said Tottie, ‘easily Now Father has said “Yes,” it is going to happen.’
    ‘No more shoe-boxes!’ said Mr Plantaganet, with a catch in his voice. ‘And it has been awfully cold in those shoe-boxes sometimes, hasn’t it, Tottie?’
    ‘Yes, but that’s all over now,’ said Tottie. ‘At least, soon it will be over. Apple! Apple! Take care!’
    ‘That little doll is nearly in the coal,’ said Father, and he touched Apple with his foot.
    Charlotte picked him out of the fender just in time.
    ‘And Birdie will have her birdcage, and Apple will have his cot, and Darner his kennel.’
    ‘And you will be able to wish Emily and Charlotte to shut the front when they have done playing with us, and I am sure they will,’ said Tottie. ‘And we shall live there happy
ever after.’
    ‘Yes. Oh yes! Oh YES!’ said Mr Plantaganet, and he said to himself, ‘No more shoe-boxes. No more dark toy cupboards. No more dark at all; we shall have the little lamp and even
if they forget the candle, with a lamp it is easy to pretend that it is light. Red walls,’ whispered Mr Plantaganet, ‘taps that really run (if you fill the tank first), wax roses in the
vase, nicked blankets on the beds.’
    His eyes looked as if they might break their glass. No doll can cry tears, they have to keep their tears in, but Mr Plantaganet’s eyes looked as if they held tears of joy. Did you know
people could cry for joy as well as for sorrow? They can, and dolls would too sometimes if they could.
    ‘Happy ever after,’ said Mr Plantaganet. ‘Happy ever after, Tottie.’
    As I told you, they had forgotten Marchpane.

Chapter 4
    When the dolls’ house arrived, Marchpane was not in it.
    She had been sent to the cleaners.
    That was very bad for Marchpane. The cleaners took such care of her that it went to her head which, being china, was empty, which is a very dangerous kind of head to have. Mr Plantaganet had one
too, and it had been filled with his gloomy thoughts of dark toy cupboards and boys who drew moustaches, but now it was more happily filled with thoughts of the dolls’ house.
Marchpane’s was filled with thoughts of Marchpane; and at the cleaners she thought how wonderful Marchpane was: how valuable Marchpane was: how beautifully Marchpane was made: what elegant
clothes Marchpane had, with what small exquisite stitching. ‘I am a beautiful little creature, really I am,’ thought Marchpane. ‘I must be worth a fabulous amount of money. No
wonder they are so careful of me. They can hardly be careful enough. I am so very important,’ said Marchpane. There was no one to contradict her and her thoughts of Marchpane grew larger and
larger till you would have thought her little head was hardly big enough to contain them.
    The cleaners took off her fine-sewn wedding