The Dolls’ House Read Online Free Page A

clothes and washed and cleaned them exquisitely so that they were whiter than snowdrops or snow. Then they cleaned Marchpane herself all over and she
was whiter too, but they cleaned her with petrol, and after it, I must confess, she smelled strongly and nastily of petrol: in fact, ever afterwards, she had a faintly nasty smell (which was quite
right, because she was nasty).
    The cleaners redressed her, and replaited her hair, which they had cleaned until it looked like golden floss; then, having politely asked permission first, they put her on the counter of their
shop, with a card:
    Mid-nineteenth-century doll, as cleaned by us .
    Marchpane stood on the counter and everyone who came into the shop looked at her and admired her. Marchpane liked being looked at and admired more and more, though she thought
of course it was only her due, and that the people were very lucky to have a chance to see such an elegant and beauteous doll as Marchpane.

Chapter 5
    Charlotte and Emily, the Plantaganet family, had been busy.
    The dolls’ house was exactly as Tottie had described it, but . . .
    ‘Oh dear!’ said Mr Plantaganet, and if the corners of his mouth had been made to turn down, they would have turned down.
    ‘Oh dear! Oh dear! O-oh dear!’
    On the dolls’ house, and in it, were years and years of dust and grime and cobwebs and mold and rust. The children and the Plantaganets looked at the tattered chair and sofa covers, at the
torn old curtains, at the sea-shells fallen off the picture frames, at the remains of the butler. The blue tin stove was rusty and so was the bath, the mangle was stuck, some of the kitchen chairs
were broken and the nicked-round blankets were grey with mildew. ‘Oh dear! Oh dear!’ said Mr Plantaganet.
    ‘Stop staying “Oh dear!”’ said Tottie sharply.
    ‘But what shall we do? What can we do?’
    ‘We can wish,’ said Tottie still sharply because, truth to tell, she was feeling worried and anxious herself. Could the children, would the children, be able to put it in order? That
was the question in Tottie’s mind.
    ‘It’s dusty. It’s dirty. It’s horrible!’ cried little Apple.
    ‘Is it?’ asked Birdie anxiously. She could not herself see anything more than the birdcage and the bird. They were so wonderful to Birdie that she could not see anything else, and,
being two things of the same kind, she did not feel the thoughts of them knocking together in her head.
    ‘Is it dusty and dirty, Tottie?’ asked Birdie.
    ‘Wish! Wish! Wish!’ said Tottie, and every knot and grain of her seemed to harden. She came from a tree.
    ‘What shall we do? What can we?’ said Mr Plantaganet.
    ‘Don’t bleat. Wish,’ said Tottie hardly, and her hard voice made the word sound so hard and firm that even Mr Plantaganet took heart and they all began to wish. ‘Wish
that Emily and Charlotte can put our house in order and make it good again. Go on, all of you. Wish. Wish. Wish,’ said Tottie.
    At that moment, among the Plantaganets appeared hands, Emily and Charlotte’s hands, lifting them on to the mantelpiece out of the way where they could see. Then those same hands began to
strip the dolls’ house.
    ‘What did I tell you?’ said Tottie.
    ‘But – they are not making it, they are taking it all away.’
    ‘Taking it all to pieces.’
    ‘Taking it all away.’
    ‘Wait and see,’ said Tottie. ‘Wait and see.’
    Emily and Charlotte and their mother took everything out of the dolls’ house; they took the carpets up from their tintacks and with the carpets came layers of dust. They did not look like
carpets but pieces of crinkled old grey flannel. Birdie hid her face in her hands. ‘I wanted the pink one and there isn’t a pink one,’ she said.
    ‘Wait and see. Wait and see,’ said Tottie.
    ‘The carpets are filthy,’ said Mother. ‘I will take them to wash and iron.’
    ‘What did I say?’ said Tottie.
    Meanwhile Charlotte was brushing down the walls and roof, Emily