I was at first very sorry to be parted from my merry Italian mamma; but I soon became very fond of this kind little Lydia. She used to play with me a great deal, and she took off that ugly tin bracelet from my arm, but not till she had read my name—‘Maria Poppet.’ She dressed me very nicely, too, so that I had, as I have said, a new wardrobe; and a very few days after I was settled in this new home, I had the second pleasure I have mentioned. It happened in this manner.
One very cloudy morning, a voice crying ‘Clo’! clo’!’ came down Finsbury Square, and stopped in front of our house. Again the voice said, ‘Clo’!’ and then, after stopping a little, said very quickly, ‘Clo’! clo’!’ I recollected whose voice that was in a moment, and it made me tremble. It was the old Jew who had bought me of Punch’s showman.
Lydia had left me sitting at the nursery window, with my nose and cheek resting against the glass; I could therefore look out, and I now saw him walk up to the area, and poke his head through the iron rails, looking down, so that I saw only his round shoulders and his rusty black bag. Now I heard the area door open, as if one of the maids was coming out, and instantly the Jew said, ‘My dear, I want to speak something!’ ‘Speak then,’ said the merry voice of my mamma’s nursery maid.
‘Come up the area steps, my dear,’ said the Jew; ‘it’s a cold wind, and I’m rather hoarse to-day; and besides, my dear, I’ve something of great consequence to speak.’
The nursery maid ran up, saying, ‘Well, be quick then.’
‘Yes, my dear,’ said the Jew, and then, lowering his voice, he said, ‘You’ve got a wooden doll in this house, my dear.’ I trembled more than ever at this; I thought he had come for me.
‘Well,’ said the nursery maid, ‘and what of that?—is that all you’ve got to say, with your whispering and winking, and screwing your face?’
‘Not all, my dear,’ said the Jew. ‘Your doll is a doll of some rank and consequence, and her family name is Poppet, and her other name is Maria.’
‘Well, lauk now!’ said the maid, ‘how did you guess that?’
‘Guess it, my dear,’ said the Jew, ‘I knew it long ago. She used to have a bracelet upon her arm, with the name engraved upon it.’