Читать онлайн «The Secret Garden / Таинственный сад»
Автор Бёрнетт Фрэнсис Элиза Ходжсон
© Подготовка, оформление. ООО «Харвест», 2006
One frightfully hot morning she awakened feeling very cross and saw that the servant who stood by her bedside was not her Ayah. Mary wanted the strange woman to send Ayah to her.The woman only stammered that the Ayah could not come. Then Mary began to beat and kick her but she only repeated that it was not possible for the Ayah to come to her.
Suddenly Mary heard her mother talking together with a fair young man. He was a very young officer who had just come from England. The child stared at him, but she stared most at her mother. She was such a tall, slim, pretty person and wore such lovely clothes. Her hair was like curly silk and she had a delicate little nose and large laughing eyes. All her clothes were thin and floating, and Mary said they were “full of lace.” The officer said to Mrs. Lennox that she must have gone to the hills two weeks ago. The Mem Sahib began to cry and blame herself.
“Some one has died,” answered the boy officer. “You did not say it had broken out among your servants.”
“I did not know!” the Mem Sahib cried. “Come with me! Come with me!” and she turned and ran into the house.
During the confusion of the second day Mary hid herself in the nursery and was forgotten by everyone. Mary alternately cried and slept through the hours. She only knew that people were ill and that she heard and frightening sounds. Once she crept into the dining-room and drank a glass of wine. Very soon it made her intensely drowsy. She lay down on her bed and fell asleep.
Many things happened during the hours in which she slept so heavily, but she was not disturbed by the wails and the sound of things being carried in and out of the bungalow.
But no one came. She lay waiting the house to grow more and more silent.
“Barney!” he cried out. “There is a child here! A child alone! In a place like this! Mercy on us, who is she!”
“I am Mary Lennox,” the little girl said, drawing herself up stiffly. She thought the man was very rude to call her father's bungalow “A place like this!”
“I fell asleep when everyone had the cholera and I have only just wakened up. Why does nobody come?”
The young man whose name was Barney looked at her very sadly. None of the servants who had not died even remembering that there was a Missie Sahib. There was no one in the bungalow but herself and the little rustling snake.
It was Basil who thought of it first and Mary hated him. One day he came up to her while she was playing and began to tease. He made faces, sang and laughed. He called her “Mistress Mary Quite Contrary”.
“You are going to be sent home,” Basil said to her, “at the end of the week. And we're glad of it.”
“I am glad of it, too,” answered Mary. “Where is home?”
“I don't know anything about him,” snapped Mary.
