So on they all went, and by-and-by they came to the House of Cards.
VIII
PEGGY BATHES A BABY AND HAS A SURPRISE
The House of Cards was a noble structure, and one which interested Peggy extremely. She had once built one herself, up to five stories, and had nearly finished the sixth before it tumbled down. But the House of Cards in Dolltown was of no less than thirteen stories, and towered high above all the other buildings. Each story was as high as the shops round the market-place, and not even the Post-Office, which was an imposing edifice of terra-cotta bricks, reached higher than its second story. It was built up of gigantic cards, just as Peggy had built hers with ordinary sized ones, but it seemed quite strong, and as if it would last for ever. There were windows and doors in the cards, and the ones that were laid flat at each story formed platforms and balconies, on which you could go out to look about you.
Just as the Lord Chancellor was ushering them in to the House of Cards, a lead Life Guardsman from the palace rode up on his black horse and handed him a note. “Now I am rather sorry for that,” he said, when he had read it. “I had intended to shut you all up in the top story, for the sake of the view. But the King doesn’t wish that. You are to be imprisoned on the first floor. Those are his very words. Well, you will be able to see the life of the market-place, which is very entertaining. As a distinguished doll once said, ‘There is no cloud without its silver lining.’ You couldn’t do that so conveniently from the top story. Perhaps the King thought of that. There is a good deal of thoughtfulness in his nature, though he is apt to be a little irritable after meals.”
“It’s like his nastiness not to let us see the view,” said Wooden’s aunt. “I wouldn’t marry him now, not if he was to go down on his bended knees, I wouldn’t.”
Peggy would have liked to go up to the top of the House of Cards, but it turned out very well for them all that they were not shut up there, as will presently appear.
The cards of which the house was built were so enormous that each story had two floors of several rooms. They were taken upstairs by a policeman doll, and found themselves in a spacious apartment furnished with quite nice dolls’ furniture, and not like a prison at all. The Lord Chancellor rubbed his hands as he looked round him, and said, “Well, this isn’t so bad, is it? With the pot-plants it will look quite home-like, and I should think, when you are set free, you will hardly like to leave it. You can go out on this balcony, see? We might go out now, and look at the people. I’m sure they will be pleased to see us all, especially me. The people have a great love for me, and it is very gratifying. I often think about it when I am alone, and it sometimes brings tears to my eyes.”
They went out on the balcony, and looked down at the crowd of dolls in the market-place. There were all sorts there except wax. Peggy looked to see if she could see Teddy or the Noahs among them. There were several Teddy bears, and one or two Noahs in the crowd, but although she might not have recognized the Noahs of the royal Ark, Peggy would have known her own Teddy anywhere. She was sure that he was not in the crowd, and wondered what had become of him.
The crowd of dolls cheered when they appeared on the balcony. The Lord Chancellor put himself in front, and bowed repeatedly, but the dolls seemed to be cheering Wooden more than him. This was probably because they had been told that she was to be their Queen, and because any doll who knew her would have told their friends how nice and good she was. So the news would have spread, and Wooden would have become popular. At any rate the dolls kept on calling out, “Wooden! Wooden! Speech! Speech!”