FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76  
77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   >>   >|  
went to Charing Cross, and we just went round to Whitehall to see the soldiers and then by St James's for the same reason--and when we'd looked in the shops a bit we got to Brook Street, Bond Street. It was a brass plate on a door next to a shop--a very grand place, where they sold bonnets and hats--all very bright and smart, and no tickets on them to tell you the price. We rang a bell and a boy opened the door and we asked for Mr Rosenbaum. The boy was not polite; he did not ask us in. So then Dicky gave him his visiting card; it was one of Father's really, but the name is the same, Mr Richard Bastable, and we others wrote our names underneath. I happened to have a piece of pink chalk in my pocket and we wrote them with that. Then the boy shut the door in our faces and we waited on the step. But presently he came down and asked our business. So Dicky said-- 'Money advanced, young shaver! and don't be all day about it!' And then he made us wait again, till I was quite stiff in my legs, but Alice liked it because of looking at the hats and bonnets, and at last the door opened, and the boy said-- 'Mr Rosenbaum will see you,' so we wiped our feet on the mat, which said so, and we went up stairs with soft carpets and into a room. It was a beautiful room. I wished then we had put on our best things, or at least washed a little. But it was too late now. The room had velvet curtains and a soft, soft carpet, and it was full of the most splendid things. Black and gold cabinets, and china, and statues, and pictures. There was a picture of a cabbage and a pheasant and a dead hare that was just like life, and I would have given worlds to have it for my own. The fur was so natural I should never have been tired of looking at it; but Alice liked the one of the girl with the broken jug best. Then besides the pictures there were clocks and candlesticks and vases, and gilt looking-glasses, and boxes of cigars and scent and things littered all over the chairs and tables. It was a wonderful place, and in the middle of all the splendour was a little old gentleman with a very long black coat and a very long white beard and a hookey nose--like a falcon. And he put on a pair of gold spectacles and looked at us as if he knew exactly how much our clothes were worth. And then, while we elder ones were thinking how to begin, for we had all said 'Good morning' as we came in, of course, H. O. began before we could stop him. He said:
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76  
77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

things

 

Rosenbaum

 

pictures

 
opened
 

looked

 

Street

 

bonnets

 
natural
 

washed

 

worlds


carpet

 

cabbage

 
pheasant
 

cabinets

 

picture

 
splendid
 

curtains

 

statues

 

velvet

 

tables


clothes
 

falcon

 
spectacles
 

thinking

 

morning

 

hookey

 

glasses

 

cigars

 
candlesticks
 

clocks


littered
 

gentleman

 

splendour

 

chairs

 
wonderful
 

middle

 

broken

 

tickets

 
bright
 

polite


Father

 

visiting

 

reason

 

soldiers

 
Charing
 

Whitehall

 

Richard

 

Bastable

 
carpets
 

beautiful