They had hardly sat down, Peggy and Wooden on the sofa and the Lord Chancellor on a large chair, before the doll housemaid opened the door and announced a visitor, by the name of Mrs. Winifred.
Mrs. Winifred was a mature-looking Dutch doll. Most of the wooden dolls in Toyland were of Dutch extraction, even Wooden herself, just like many of the old families of New York, but they were no more Dutch than the New Yorkers are. She came forward and kissed Wooden, and said she was very glad she had come out of prison, and she felt that she must come round at once and tell her so.
Mrs. Winifred had hardly been accommodated with a seat before Mrs. Hilda was announced, and when Mrs. Hilda had said the same as Mrs. Winifred, Captain and Mrs. Louisa were announced. Captain Louisa was an officer in a regiment of wooden soldiers, and wore his uniform. His wife and Mrs. Hilda were wooden dolls like Mrs. Winifred. These were followed by Mr. and Mrs. Joyce, Mr. and Mrs. Ida, Mrs. Mollie, Mrs. Jane, and one or two more, all of the best wooden families of Dolltown, and it was evidently a source of great pride to Wooden that they should show such a nice feeling towards her.
She introduced them all to Peggy, and those who did not know him to the Lord Chancellor. There were so many of them that it was like a sort of party. The dolls sat rather stiffly in their chairs, and there were other little points about them, such as their knees showing rather prominently through their skirts and trousers, which made it seem like a dolls’ party, and as if they were all playing at something. This pleased Peggy. She felt as if she had set them all down herself on their chairs and on the sofas, exactly where she wanted them to be, as she did sometimes with her smaller dolls in her dolls’ house at home, and pretended that they were talking politely to each other.
XIII
THE DOLLS TALK IT ALL OVER
The late imprisonment of Peggy and Wooden, and especially of Wooden, naturally formed the chief subject of conversation.
“I must say,” said Mrs. Winifred, “that I was surprised to hear that you had been sent to prison, Mrs. Wooden. We had all heard that such a very different lot had been prepared for you.”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Hilda. “What we heard was that you were to be made Queen and live in the palace.”
“And we were very glad to hear it,” said Mrs. Joyce, a thin, rather vinegary-looking doll, whom Peggy did not very much take to. “We knew that if you were made Queen there would be no more high-and-mightiness at the palace, and you wouldn’t give yourself airs with us.”