The Secret Garden | Page 7

to see him, because ten to one you won't," said
Mrs. Medlock. "And you mustn't expect that there will be people to talk
to you. You'll have to play about and look after yourself. You'll be told
what rooms you can go into and what rooms you're to keep out of.
There's gardens enough. But when you're in the house don't go
wandering and poking about. Mr. Craven won't have it."
"I shall not want to go poking about," said sour little Mary; and just as
suddenly as she had begun to be rather sorry for Mr. Archibald Craven
she began to cease to be sorry and to think he was unpleasant enough to
deserve all that had happened to him.
And she turned her face toward the streaming panes of the window of
the railway carriage and gazed out at the gray rain-storm which looked
as if it would go on forever and ever. She watched it so long and
steadily that the grayness grew heavier and heavier before her eyes and

she fell asleep.
CHAPTER III
ACROSS THE MOOR
She slept a long time, and when she awakened Mrs. Medlock had
bought a lunchbasket at one of the stations and they had some chicken
and cold beef and bread and butter and some hot tea. The rain seemed
to be streaming down more heavily than ever and everybody in the
station wore wet and glistening waterproofs. The guard lighted the
lamps in the carriage, and Mrs. Medlock cheered up very much over
her tea and chicken and beef. She ate a great deal and afterward fell
asleep herself, and Mary sat and stared at her and watched her fine
bonnet slip on one side until she herself fell asleep once more in the
corner of the carriage, lulled by the splashing of the rain against the
windows. It was quite dark when she awakened again. The train had
stopped at a station and Mrs. Medlock was shaking her.
"You have had a sleep!" she said. "It's time to open your eyes! We're at
Thwaite Station and we've got a long drive before us."
Mary stood up and tried to keep her eyes open while Mrs. Medlock
collected her parcels. The little girl did not offer to help her, because in
India native servants always picked up or carried things and it seemed
quite proper that other people should wait on one.
The station was a small one and nobody but themselves seemed to be
getting out of the train. The station-master spoke to Mrs. Medlock in a
rough, good-natured way, pronouncing his words in a queer broad
fashion which Mary found out afterward was Yorkshire.
"I see tha's got back," he said. "An' tha's browt th' young 'un with thee."
"Aye, that's her," answered Mrs. Medlock, speaking with a Yorkshire
accent herself and jerking her head over her shoulder toward Mary.
"How's thy Missus?"

"Well enow. Th' carriage is waitin' outside for thee."
A brougham stood on the road before the little outside platform. Mary
saw that it was a smart carriage and that it was a smart footman who
helped her in. His long waterproof coat and the waterproof covering of
his hat were shining and dripping with rain as everything was, the burly
station-master included.
When he shut the door, mounted the box with the coachman, and they
drove off, the little girl found herself seated in a comfortably cushioned
corner, but she was not inclined to go to sleep again. She sat and looked
out of the window, curious to see something of the road over which she
was being driven to the queer place Mrs. Medlock had spoken of. She
was not at all a timid child and she was not exactly frightened, but she
felt that there was no knowing what might happen in a house with a
hundred rooms nearly all shut up--a house standing on the edge of a
moor.
"What is a moor?" she said suddenly to Mrs. Medlock.
"Look out of the window in about ten minutes and you'll see," the
woman answered. "We've got to drive five miles across Missel Moor
before we get to the Manor. You won't see much because it's a dark
night, but you can see something."
Mary asked no more questions but waited in the darkness of her corner,
keeping her eyes on the window. The carriage lamps cast rays of light a
little distance ahead of them and she caught glimpses of the things they
passed. After they had left the station they had driven through a tiny
village and she had seen whitewashed cottages and the lights of a
public house. Then they had passed a church and a vicarage and a little
shop-window or so in a cottage with toys and sweets