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The Little Princess Chapter 14 - What Melchisedec Heard and Saw · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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  Speaker 1: CHAPTER XIV. WHAT MELCHIZEDEK HEARD AND SAW On this very
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  Speaker 1: afternoon while Sarah was out, a strange thing happened in
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  Speaker 1: the attic. Only Melchizedek saw and heard it, and he
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  Speaker 1: was so much alarmed and mystified that he scuttled back
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  Speaker 1: to his hole and hid there, and really quaked and
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  Speaker 1: trembled as he peeped out furtively and with great caution
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  Speaker 1: to watch what was going on. The attic had been
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  Speaker 1: very still all the day after Sarah had left it
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  Speaker 1: in the early morning. The stillness had only been broken
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  Speaker 1: by the pattering of the rain upon the slates and
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  Speaker 1: the skylight. Melchizedek had in fact found it rather dull,
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  Speaker 1: and when the rain ceased to patter and perfect silence reigned,
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  Speaker 1: he decided to come out and reconnoiter. though experience taught
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  Speaker 1: him that Sarah would not return for some time. He
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  Speaker 1: had been rambling and sniffing about, and had just found
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  Speaker 1: a totally unexpected and unexplained crumb left from his last meal,
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  Speaker 1: when his attention was attracted by a sound on the roof.
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  Speaker 1: He stopped to listen with a palpitating heart. The sound
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  Speaker 1: suggested that something was moving on the roof. It was
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  Speaker 1: approaching the skylight. It reached the skylight. The skylight was
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  Speaker 1: being mysteriously opened. A dark face peered into the attic,
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  Speaker 1: then another face appeared behind it, and both looked in
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  Speaker 1: with signs of caution and interest. Two men were outside
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  Speaker 1: on the roof, and were making silent preparations to enter
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  Speaker 1: through the skylight itself. One was Ram Dass, and the
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  Speaker 1: other was a young man who was the Indian gentleman's secretary.
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  Speaker 1: But of course Melchizedek did not know this. He only
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  Speaker 1: knew that the men were invading the silence and privacy
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  Speaker 1: of the attic. and as the one with the dark
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  Speaker 1: face let himself down through the aperture with such lightness
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  Speaker 1: and dexterity that he did not make the slightest sound,
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  Speaker 1: Melchizedek turned tail and fled precipitately back to his hole.
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  Speaker 1: He was frightened to death. He had ceased to be
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  Speaker 1: timid with Sarah, and knew she would never throw anything
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  Speaker 1: but crumbs, and would never make any sound other than
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  Speaker 1: the soft, low, coaxing whistling, but strange men were dangerous
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  Speaker 1: things to remain near. He lay close and flat near
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  Speaker 1: the entrance of his home, just managing to peep through
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  Speaker 1: the crack with a bright, alarmed eye. How much he
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  Speaker 1: understood of the talk he heard I am not in
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  Speaker 1: the least able to say, but even if he had
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  Speaker 1: understood it all, he would probably have remained greatly mystified.
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  Speaker 1: The secretary, who was light and young, slipped through the
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  Speaker 1: skylight as noiselessly as Ram Dass had done, and he
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  Speaker 1: caught a last glimpse of Melchizedek's vanishing tail.' Was that
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  Speaker 1: a rat?' he asked Ram Dass in a whisper.' Yes,
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  Speaker 1: a rat, Sahib,' answered Ram Dass, also whispering.' There are
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  Speaker 1: many in the walls.'' Ugh!' exclaimed the young man.' It
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  Speaker 1: is a wonder the child is not terrified of them.'
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  Speaker 1: Ram Dass made a gesture with his hands. He also
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  Speaker 1: smiled respectfully. He was in this place as the intimate
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  Speaker 1: exponent of Sarah, though she had only spoken to him once.'
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  Speaker 1: The child is the little friend of all things, Sahib,'
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  Speaker 1: he answered. She is not as other children. I see
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  Speaker 1: her when she does not see me. I slip across
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  Speaker 1: the slates and look at her many nights to see
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  Speaker 1: that she is safe. I watch her from my window
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  Speaker 1: when she does not know that I am near. She
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  Speaker 1: stands on the table there and looks out at the
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  Speaker 1: sky as if it spoke to her. The sparrows come
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  Speaker 1: at her call. The rat she has fed and tamed
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  Speaker 1: in her loneliness. The poor slave of the house comes
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  Speaker 1: to her for comfort. There is a little child who
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  Speaker 1: comes to her in secret. There is one older who
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  Speaker 1: worships her and would listen to her forever if she might.
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  Speaker 1: This I have seen when I have crept across the roof.
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  Speaker 1: By the mistress of the house, who is an evil woman,
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  Speaker 1: she is treated like a pariah. But she has the
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  Speaker 1: bearing of a child who is the blood of kings.
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  Speaker 1: You seem to know a great deal about her, the
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  Speaker 1: secretary said. All her life, each day I know, answered
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  Speaker 1: Ram Dass. Her going out I know, and her coming in.
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  Speaker 1: her sadness and her poor joys, her coldness and her hunger.
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  Speaker 1: I know when she is alone until midnight learning from
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  Speaker 1: her books. I know when her secret friends steal to
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  Speaker 1: her and she is happier, as children can be even
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  Speaker 1: in the midst of poverty, because they come and she
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  Speaker 1: may laugh and talk with them in whispers. If she
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  Speaker 1: were ill, I should know, and I would come and
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  Speaker 1: serve her, if it might be done. You are sure
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  Speaker 1: no one comes near this place but herself, and that
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  Speaker 1: she will not return and surprise us? She would be
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  Speaker 1: frightened if she found us here, and the Sahib Carisford's
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  Speaker 1: plan would be spoiled. Ram Dass crossed noiselessly to the
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  Speaker 1: door and stood close to it. None mount here but herself, Sahib,
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  Speaker 1: he said. She has gone out with her basket and
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  Speaker 1: may be gone for hours. If I stand here, I
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  Speaker 1: can hear any step before it reaches the last flight
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  Speaker 1: of the stairs. The secretary took a pencil and a
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  Speaker 1: tablet from his breast pocket. Keep your ears open,' he said,
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  Speaker 1: and he began to walk slowly and softly round the
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  Speaker 1: miserable little room, making rapid notes on his tablet as
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  Speaker 1: he looked at things. First he went to the narrow bed.
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  Speaker 1: He pressed his hand upon the mattress and uttered an exclamation.'
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  Speaker 1: As hard as a stone,' he said.' That will have
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  Speaker 1: to be altered some day when she is out. A
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  Speaker 1: special journey can be made to bring it across. It
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  Speaker 1: cannot be done to-night.' He lifted the covering and examined
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  Speaker 1: the one thin pillow.' Coverlet dingy and worn, blanket thin,
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  Speaker 1: sheets patched and ragged,' he said.' What a bed for
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  Speaker 1: a child to sleep in, and in a house which
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  Speaker 1: calls itself respectable. There has not been a fire in
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  Speaker 1: that grate for many a day.' Glancing at the rusty fireplace.'
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  Speaker 1: Never since I have seen it,' said Ram Dass.' The
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  Speaker 1: mistress of the house is not one who remembers that
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  Speaker 1: another than herself may be cold.' The secretary was writing
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  Speaker 1: quickly on his tablet. He looked up from it as
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  Speaker 1: he tore off a leaf and slipped it into his
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  Speaker 1: breast pocket. It is a strange way of doing the thing,
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  Speaker 1: he said. Who planned it? Ram Dass made a modestly
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  Speaker 1: apologetic obeisance. It is true that the first thought was mine, Sahib,
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  Speaker 1: he said, though it was naught but a fancy. I
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  Speaker 1: am fond of this child. We are both lonely. It
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  Speaker 1: is her way to relate her visions to her secret friends.
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  Speaker 1: Being sad one night, I lay close to the open
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  Speaker 1: skylight and listened. The vision she related told what this
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  Speaker 1: miserable room might be if it had comforts in it.
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  Speaker 1: She seemed to see it as she talked, and she
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  Speaker 1: grew cheered and warmed as she spoke. Then she came
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  Speaker 1: to this fancy, and the next day the Sahib, being
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  Speaker 1: ill and wretched, I told him of the thing to
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  Speaker 1: amuse him. It seemed then but a dream, but it
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  Speaker 1: pleased the Sahib. To hear of the child's doings gave
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  Speaker 1: him entertainment. He became interested in her, and asked questions.
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  Speaker 1: At last he began to please himself with the thought
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  Speaker 1: of making her visions real things.' You think that it
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  Speaker 1: can be done while she sleeps? Suppose she awakened?' suggested
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  Speaker 1: the secretary, and it was evident that whatsoever the plan
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  Speaker 1: referred to was, it had caught and pleased his fancy
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  Speaker 1: as well as the Sahib Carisford's.' I can move as
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  Speaker 1: if my feet were of velvet,' Ram Dass replied. and
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  Speaker 1: children sleep soundly, even the unhappy ones. I could have
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  Speaker 1: entered this room in the night many times, and without
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  Speaker 1: causing her to turn upon her pillow. If the other
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  Speaker 1: bearer passes to me the things through the window, I
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  Speaker 1: can do all, and she will not stir. When she awakens,
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  Speaker 1: she will think a magician has been here. He smiled
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  Speaker 1: as if his heart warmed under his white robe, and
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  Speaker 1: the secretary smiled back at him. It will be like
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  Speaker 1: a story from the Arabian Nights, he said, Only an
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  Speaker 1: Oriental could have planned it. It does not belong to
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  Speaker 1: London fogs.' They did not remain very long, to the
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  Speaker 1: great relief of Melchizedek, who, as he probably did not
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  Speaker 1: comprehend their conversation, felt their movements and whispers ominous. The
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  Speaker 1: young secretary seemed interested in everything. He wrote down things
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  Speaker 1: about the floor, the fireplace, the broken footstool, the old table,
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  Speaker 1: the walls, which last he touched with his hand again
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  Speaker 1: and again— seeming much pleased when he found that a
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  Speaker 1: number of old nails had been driven in various places.'
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  Speaker 1: You can hang things on them,' he said. Ram Dass
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  Speaker 1: smiled mysteriously.' Yesterday, when she was out,' he said,' I entered,
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  Speaker 1: bringing with me small sharp nails,' which can be pressed
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  Speaker 1: into the wall without blows from a hammer.' I placed
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  Speaker 1: many in the plaster where I may need them.' They
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  Speaker 1: are ready.'' The Indian gentleman's secretary stood still, and looked
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  Speaker 1: round him as he thrust his tablets back into his pocket.'
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  Speaker 1: I think I have made notes enough. We can go now,'
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  Speaker 1: he said.' The Sahib Carisford has a warm heart. It
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  Speaker 1: is a thousand pities that he has not found the
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  Speaker 1: lost child.'' If he should find her, his strength would
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  Speaker 1: be restored to him,' said Ram Dass.' His god may
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  Speaker 1: lead her to him yet.' Then they slipped through the
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  Speaker 1: skylight as noiselessly as they had entered it, and, after
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  Speaker 1: he was quite sure that they had gone, Melchizedek was
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  Speaker 1: greatly relieved, and in the course of a few minutes
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  Speaker 1: felt it safe to emerge from his hole again and
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  Speaker 1: scuffle about in the hope that even such alarming human
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  Speaker 1: beings as these might have chance to carry crumbs in
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  Speaker 1: their pockets and drop one or two of them. End
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  Speaker 1: of chapter 14