CONCLUSIONCHAPTER XVIICONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
Themoment Columbine entered her room she held me up to a good-natured old lady, who was dressing herself like a scaly green dragon for the last scene, and cried out, ‘Here’s a pretty doll I have just found on the stage!’
‘Where did you get it?’ said the good-natured old lady, going to a looking-glass to fit on the dragon’s head.
‘Oh, grandmother,’ said Columbine,‘I’ve no time to tell you now, as I have to dance a hornpipe in the next scene. Take care of her.’ Saying which, away ran the pretty Columbine.
As soon as the old lady had tied the strings of the dragon’s head under her chin, so that her face could look through the large red throat and open mouth of the dragon, she held her head on one side before the glass and said, ‘There! I think that does very nicely.’ She then folded me up in a handkerchief, and placed me with their bonnets and shawls.
Here I lay hearing all sorts of noises of trumpets and drums, and singing and dancing, and tumbling about, and calling out, and laughing, and fireworks, and the great rolling of many wheels, and loud sounds of distant applause from the audience. When all was over, I was taken home by the Columbine and her grandmother. It was a wet night, and they walked through the rain in shawls and clogs, and holding up a great umbrellawith three slits in the top. They lived in the back parlor of a small green-grocer’s, near Covent Garden. The bed and the rest of the furniture were very humble, the hangings of the bed being of grey draft-board pattern, and the coverlid of the bed of patch-work; but all looking as clean as it was poor.
I now saw that the pleasant old grandmother, who had acted the green dragon, was dressed all in brown, even with a brown bonnet and brown stockings; the umbrella was brown too. Columbine was dressed in a high frock of grey checked gingham, but very neatly made, and she wore a small straw cottage bonnet. Under one arm, however, she had a bundle from which shining things peeped out, and she took a pair of silver slippers out of her pocket, folded them up in a bit of newspaper, and placed them in a little band-box, into which I peeped and saw it was full of precious things. Then down they sat to a supper of boiled eggs, followedby bread and cheese and porter, and endive and beet-root, and then they laughed and talked about the Pantomime, and looked at me and examined my gold bracelet; and then went to bed.
I was placed away very carefully the next morning, as the pretty little Columbine had too much to do to attend to me. I was therefore, during all the time of the Pantomime, left quite alone. I, however, employed my time by thinking very much over my past life, and going over everything in my own mind from the day of my birth in the room of the celebrated Mr. Sprat, down to the present time.
When the Christmas Pantomime was over in London, the little Columbine and her grandmother went into the country, to act at a small theatre there, and they took me with them. After the performances had gone on for three weeks, Columbine had a benefit night. The first piece was the tragedy of ‘Douglas,’ and, as no green dragon was wanted in it, the grandmotheracted Lady Randolph. The little Columbine acted Norval, with his bow and quiver; she had taken the part, I suppose, on account of its resemblance to Cupid.
Near the town in which the theatre was, there stood a large country mansion, called Ashbourn Hall, and the lady of this mansion was very kind, and took so many tickets for Columbine’s benefit that her party filled all the three front boxes.
The next morning the pretty little Columbine took me out of the drawer in which I was lying in the dark, and feeling very dull. I saw that she looked smiling and happy, and was nicely dressed in a neatly made blue frock with white sprigs on it, and a new bonnet. ‘Come with me, Maria Poppet,’ said she, ‘and we shall see if we cannot give them a little pleasure in return for all their kindness;’—so she wrapped me up in silver paper, all but my head. I was still dressed in my pretty muslin frock with pink roses. Away shewalked, with me in her hand, to Ashbourn Hall.
First we came up to the high iron gates, and inside I could see a very smooth, green lawn, with fine spreading trees about it, and broad gravel walks, and great, round ever-greens and numbers of gay flowers, and a round fish-pond with a fountain in the middle, and beautiful water lilies growing in it. Columbine rang the bell, and a good-natured looking, fat old man-servant opened the gate, and smiled when he saw her, as if he remembered her. She said she wished to see Mrs. Ashbourn, and he asked her to walk in. We went up the gravel walk, and there was a flight of very white stone steps up to the door, with large flower-pots on them; and when we got in there was a square lobby with a billiard table, and large pictures on the walls; and then the servant threw open a door and showed us into the drawing-room. Oh, it was such a beautiful room! There was a large, bright, sparkling fire, and a largebay window opposite, with a most lovely view out of it, and flower-stands full of geraniums and other flowers in it, and bright crimson curtains, and a bright carpet, and numbers of sofas and arm-chairs, and ottomans, and tables with crimson cloths on them, with large china jars of flowers, and Christmas annuals, and dolls’ books, and scent bottles, and all manner of pretty things; and book-cases, and a piano, and harp, and guitar, and there was such a sweet scent in the room; and there was a German piping bullfinch, who was singing a sweet waltz, and a large white dog lying asleep on the rug, who, when we came in, raised his head. But what I liked best of all, was the sight of a pretty, gentle-looking little girl, about seven years old, who sat on a sofa, reading to a handsome, kind-looking lady.
The lady, who was Mrs. Ashbourn, rose up and received the little Columbine very kindly, and the little girl came forward and smiled, and held out her hand to her,and they made her sit down by them. Then little Columbine said in the prettiest manner, ‘I am come, ma’am, to thank you for your kindness to me, and to ask you to allow this young lady to accept a doll from me.’
Mrs. Ashbourn thanked her, and said her little girl would be delighted to have such a pretty doll; and so I was placed in the soft little hands of my present dear mamma, Lucy Ashbourn; and then, after a few minutes’ more talking, in which a great many flattering things were said of me, pretty little Columbine took leave, and left me in the house where I now am.
Here I feel that I am settled for life. Only yesterday, my mamma, as she was sitting on her papa’s knee, told him that when she grew too old to play with me, she would give me to her little sister. She takes the greatest care of me. Everything is made for me just like hers. I have morning dresses, afternoon dresses, and night-clothes, and a little chest ofdrawers to keep my things in. I have a little bed, with white curtains and nice blankets and sheets, in which my mamma lays me every night, after undressing me and putting on my night-gown and night-cap; and in the morning she makes believe to wash me all over, and brushes my hair, and dresses me. When I go out I have a bonnet and cloak put on, and I am always dressed for dinner, and have my hair done. I have also had the happiness to become acquainted with another doll, who lives in a country-house near ours. At different times, when we have been sitting in the garden while our mammas played about, she has told me the history of her life, and I hope at a future time that these ‘Memoirs of a Country Doll’ will be made public, as mine have been.
I now take an affectionate leave of my readers, who may perhaps hear of me again, when the Country Doll relates her history.