The Secret Garden | Page 2

it
was not possible for the Ayah to come to Missie Sahib.
There was something mysterious in the air that morning. Nothing was
done in its regular order and several of the native servants seemed
missing, while those whom Mary saw slunk or hurried about with ashy
and scared faces. But no one would tell her anything and her Ayah did
not come. She was actually left alone as the morning went on, and at
last she wandered out into the garden and began to play by herself
under a tree near the veranda. She pretended that she was making a
flower-bed, and she stuck big scarlet hibiscus blossoms into little heaps
of earth, all the time growing more and more angry and muttering to
herself the things she would say and the names she would call Saidie
when she returned.
"Pig! Pig! Daughter of Pigs!" she said, because to call a native a pig is
the worst insult of all.
She was grinding her teeth and saying this over and over again when
she heard her mother come out on the veranda with some one. She was
with a fair young man and they stood talking together in low strange
voices. Mary knew the fair young man who looked like a boy. She had
heard that 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 always did this when she had a chance to see her, because the Mem
Sahib--Mary used to call her that oftener than anything else--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 which seemed to be
disdaining things, and she had large laughing eyes. All her clothes were
thin and floating, and Mary said they were "full of lace." They looked
fuller of lace than ever this morning, but her eyes were not laughing at
all. They were large and scared and lifted imploringly to the fair boy
officer's face.
"Is it so very bad? Oh, is it?" Mary heard her say.
"Awfully," the young man answered in a trembling voice. "Awfully,
Mrs. Lennox. You ought to have gone to the hills two weeks ago."
The Mem Sahib wrung her hands.
"Oh, I know I ought!" she cried. "I only stayed to go to that silly dinner
party. What a fool I was!"
At that very moment such a loud sound of wailing broke out from the
servants' quarters that she clutched the young man's arm, and Mary
stood shivering from head to foot. The wailing grew wilder and wilder.
"What is it? What is it?" Mrs. Lennox gasped.
"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.
After that appalling things happened, and the mysteriousness of the
morning was explained to Mary. The cholera had broken out in its most
fatal form and people were dying like flies. The Ayah had been taken
ill in the night, and it was because she had just died that the servants
had wailed in the huts. Before the next day three other servants were
dead and others had run away in terror. There was panic on every side,

and dying people in all the bungalows.
During the confusion and bewilderment of the second day Mary hid
herself in the nursery and was forgotten by every one. Nobody thought
of her, nobody wanted her, and strange things happened of which she
knew nothing. Mary alternately cried and slept through the hours. She
only knew that people were ill and that she heard mysterious and
frightening sounds. Once she crept into the dining-room and found it
empty, though a partly finished meal was on the table and chairs and
plates looked as if they had been hastily pushed back when the diners
rose suddenly for some reason. The child ate some fruit and biscuits,
and being thirsty she drank a glass of wine which stood nearly filled. It
was sweet, and she did not know how strong it was. Very soon it made
her intensely drowsy, and she went back to her nursery and shut herself
in again, frightened by cries she heard in the huts and by the hurrying
sound of feet. The wine made her so sleepy that she could scarcely
keep her eyes open and she lay down on her bed and knew nothing
more for a long time.
Many things happened during the hours in which she slept so heavily,
but she was not disturbed by the wails and the sound of