They gave themselves up to her rocking arms, swinging lightly with her as a boat swings with the tide.
To-and-fro, to-and-fro.
A light flickered across their eyes. Was that the Dragon going brightly by or the nursery candle held guttering above them?
To-and-fro, to-and-fro.
They nestled down into soft, sweet warmth. Was it the lapping heat of the Sun? Or the eiderdown on a nursery bed?
"I think it is the Sun," thought Jane, dreamily.
"I think it is my eiderdown," thought Michael.
And a far-away voice, like a dream, like a breath, cried faintly, faintly—"It is whatever you think it is. Farewell… Farewell…"
Michael woke with a shout. He had suddenly remembered something.
"My overcoat! My overcoat! I left it under the Royal Box!"
He opened his eyes. He saw the painted duck at the end of his bed. He saw the mantel-piece with the clock and the Royal Doulton Bowl and the jam-jar full of green leaves. And he saw, hanging on its usual hook, his overcoat with his hat just above it.
"But where are the stars?" he called, sitting up in bed and staring. "I want the stars and Constellations!"
"Oh? Indeed?" said Mary Poppins, coming into the room and looking very stiff and starched in her clean apron. "Is that all? I wonder you don't ask for the Moon, too!"
"But I did!" he reminded her reproachfully. "And I got it, too! But I squeezed it too tight and it bust!"
"Burst!"
"Well, burst, then!"
"Stuff!" said Mary Poppins, tossing him his dressing-gown.
"Is it morning already?" said Jane, opening her eyes and gazing round the room very surprised to find herself in her own bed. "But how did we get back? I was dancing with the Twin stars, Castor and Pollux."
"You two and your stars," said Mary Poppins crossly, pulling back the blankets. "I'll star you. Spit-spot out of bed, please. I'm late already."
"I suppose you danced too long last night," said Michael, bundling unwillingly out on to the floor.
"Danced? Humph, a lot of dancing I get a chance for, don't I — looking after the five worst children in the world!"
Mary Poppins sniffed and looked very sorry for herself and as if she had not had enough sleep.
"But weren't you dancing — on your Evening Out?" said Jane. For she was remembering how Mary Poppins and the Sun had waltzed together in the centre of the star-dust ring.
Mary Poppins opened her eyes wide.
"I hope," she remarked, drawing herself up haughtily, "I have something better to do with my Evening Out than to go round and round like a Careering Whirligig."
"But I saw you!" said Jane. "Up in the sky. You jumped down from the Royal Box and went to dance in the ring."
Holding their breaths, she and Michael gazed at Mary Poppins as her face slowly flushed red with fury.
"You," she said shortly, "have been having a nice sort of a nightmare, I must say. Who ever heard of me, a person in my position, jumping down from—"
"But I had the nightmare, too," interrupted Michael, "and it was lovely. I was in the sky with Jane and I saw you!"
"What, jumping?"
"Er — yes — and dancing."
"In the sky?" He trembled as she came towards him. Her face was dark and terrible.
"One more insult—" she said threateningly, "Just one more and you'll find yourself dancing in the corner. So I warn you!"
He hurriedly looked the other way, tying the cord of his dressing-gown, and Mary Poppins, her very apron crackling with anger, flounced across the room to wake up the Twins.
Jane sat on her bed staring at Mary Poppins as she bent over the cots.
Michael slowly put on his slippers and sighed.
"We must have dreamt it after all," he said sadly. "I wish it had been true."
"It was true," said Jane in a cautious whisper, her eyes still fixed on Mary Poppins.
"How do you know? Are you sure?"
"Quite sure. Look!"
Mary Poppins' head was bent over Barbara's cot. Jane nodded towards it. "Look at her face," she whispered in his ear.
Michael regarded Mary Poppins' face steadily. There was the black hair looped back behind the ears, there the familiar blue eyes so like a Dutch doll's, and there were the turned-up nose and the bright red shiny cheeks.
"I can't see anything—" he began and broke off suddenly. For now, as Mary Poppins turned her head, he saw what Jane had seen.
Burning bright, in the very centre of her cheek, was a small fiery mark. And, looking closer, Michael saw that it was curiously shaped. It was round, with curly, flame-shaped edges and like a very small sun.
"You see?" said Jane softly. "That's where he kissed her."
Michael nodded — once, twice, three times.
"Yes," he said, standing very still and staring at Mary Poppins. "I do see. I do…"
CHAPTER EIGHT
Balloons
and
Balloons
I wonder, Mary Poppins," said Mrs. Banks, hurrying into the Nursery one morning, "if you will have time to do some shopping for me?"
And she gave Mary Poppins a sweet, nervous smile as though she were uncertain what the answer would be.
Mary Poppins turned from the fire where she was airing Annabel's clothes.
"I might," she remarked, not very encouragingly.
"Oh, I see—" said Mrs. Banks, and she looked more nervous than ever.
"Or again — I might not," continued Mary Poppins, busily shaking out a woollen jacket and hanging it over the fire-guard.
"Well — in case you did have time, here is the List and here is a Pound Note. And if there is any change left over you may spend it!"
Mrs. Banks put the money on the chest of drawers.
Mary Poppins said nothing. She just sniffed.
"Oh!" said Mrs. Banks, suddenly remembering something. "And the Twins must walk to-day, Mary Poppins. Robertson Ay sat down on the perambulator this morning. He mistook it for an arm-chair. So it will have to be mended. Can you manage without it — and carry Annabel?"
Mary Poppins opened her mouth and closed it again with a snap.
"I," she remarked tartly, "can manage anything — and more, if I choose."
"I–I know!" said Mrs. Banks, edging towards the door. "You are a Treasure — a perfect Treasure — an absolutely wonderful and altogether suitable Treas—" Her voice died away as she hurried down the stairs.
"And yet — and yet — I sometimes wish she wasn't!" Mrs. Banks remarked to her great-grandmother's portrait as she dusted the Drawing-room. "She makes me feel small and silly, as though I were a little girl again. And I'm not!" Mrs. Banks tossed her head and flicked a speck of dust from the spotted cow on the mantel-piece. "I'm a very important person and the Mother of five children. She forgets that!" And she went on with her work thinking out all the things she would like to say to Mary Poppins but knowing all the time that she would never dare.
Mary Poppins put the list and the Pound Note into her bag and in no time she had pinned on her hat and was hurrying out of the house with Annabel in her arms and Jane and Michael, each holding the hand of a Twin, following as quickly as they could.
"Best foot forward, please!" she remarked, turning sternly upon them.