“Oh, I would like to go into one of those dear little houses,” said Peggy. “Can’t we stop here, Wooden?”
“We shall see much better dolls’ houses than those when we get to Dolltown,” said Wooden. “I have got a very nice dolls’ house myself, bigger than any of those. I shall take you there, dear, and you will occupy the spare room. And I will show you the Queen’s Palace, which is finer than any of them.”
At this moment Mrs. Noah came forward, and stood by them smiling, as if she would like a little conversation.
“Won’t you sit down, Mrs. Noah?” said Lady Grace politely; and Mrs. Noah thanked her and sat down.
Mrs. Noah was a large smiling woman who liked to make friends. She smiled at Lady Grace, and Wooden, and Wooden’s mother, and Peggy, and then said suddenly, “I thought you’d like to know how it all was.”
Of course they would like to know how it all was, though they didn’t quite know what she meant. So they smiled back at her, and then she began.
“Of course he is wood,” she said, “begging your pardon, Lady Grace, and I ought to like him on that account. But the truth is that I don’t, and can’t.”
There was a little pause, and then Wooden’s mother said, nodding her head wisely, “Ah, I know who you mean, and I don’t much like him either. I suppose because he’s a foreigner.”
Wooden shook her head, but said nothing. Lady Grace said, “I hate him; but then I’m wax, you see.”
Peggy wondered who they were talking about, but just as she was going to ask Wooden, Mrs. Noah looked at her, and said, “Why, bless me! the little lady must be thinking that we’re talking in riddles.”