Presently the front door banged and Mr. Banks went away to the City. Mrs. Banks hurried into the drawing-room to answer the morning's letters. Down in the kitchen Mrs. Brill was having a kipper for breakfast. Ellen had caught another cold and was busily blowing her nose. And up in the Nursery the fire went pop! and Mary Poppins' apron went crackle! Altogether, except for the wind outside, it was a peaceful morning.
Not for very long, however. For Michael burst in with a sudden rush and stood in the doorway in his pajamas. His eyes had a silver, sleepy look as he stood there staring at Mary Poppins. He stared at her face and he stared at her feet with an earnest, measuring, searching gaze that missed out no part of her. Then he said "Oh!" in a disappointed voice and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
"Well? What's the matter with you?" she enquired. "Lost sixpence and found a penny?"
He shook his head dejectedly. "I dreamed you had turned into a beautiful princess. And here you are just the same as ever!"
She bridled and gave her head a toss. "Handsome is as Handsome does!" she said with a haughty sniff. "I'm perfectly well as I am, thank you! I'm satisfied, if you're not."
He flew to her side and tried to appease her.
"Oh, I am satisfied, Mary Poppins!" he said eagerly. "I just thought that if the dream had come true it would be — er — a sort of a change."
"Change!" she exclaimed with another sniff. "You'll get all the changes you want soon enough — I promise you, Michael Banks!"
He looked at her uneasily. What did she mean by that, he wondered.
"I was only joking, Mary Poppins. I don't want any changes, really! I only want you — for always!"
And suddenly it seemed to him that princesses were very silly creatures with nothing to be said in their favour.
"Humph!" said Mary Poppins crossly, as she planked the toast on the table. "You can't have anything for always — and don't you think it, sir!"
"Except you!" he retorted confidently, smiling his mischievous smile.
A strange expression came over her face. But Michael did not notice it. Out of the corner of his eye he had seen what Jane was doing. And now he was climbing up beside her to breathe on another patch of window.
"Look!" he said proudly. "I'm drawing a ship. And there's another Michael outside drawing one igzactly like it!"
"Um-hum!" said Jane, without looking up, as she gazed at her own reflection. Then suddenly she turned away and called to Mary Poppins.
"Which is the real me, Mary Poppins? The one in here or the one out there?"
With a bowl of porridge in her hand, Mary Poppins came and stood between them. Each time she breathed, her apron crackled, and the steam from the bowl went up with a puff. In silence she looked at her own reflection and smiled a satisfied smile.
Then: " — Is this a riddle?" she demanded, sniffing.
"No, Mary Poppins," Jane said eagerly. "It's something I want to know."
For a moment they thought, as they looked at her, that she might be going to tell them. Then, apparently, she thought better of it, for she gave her head a scornful toss and turned away to the table.
"I don't know about you," she said, conceitedly, "but I'm glad to say that I'm real wherever I happen to be! Dress yourself, Michael, if you please! And Jane, you come to breakfast!"
Under the gleam of those steely eyes they hurried to obey her. And by the time breakfast was over and they were sitting on the floor building a Castle out of rubber bricks, they had quite forgotten their reflections. Indeed, had they looked, they would not have found them, for the fire had settled to a rosy glow and the bright flames had gone.
"That's better!" said Number Seventeen, snuggling closer into the earth.
The warmth from the fire crept through its bones and the house came alive as Mary Poppins went scuttling about it.
Today she seemed even busier than usual. She sorted the clothes and tidied the drawers, sewed on odd buttons and mended socks. She put fresh papers on the shelves; let down the hems of Jane's and Barbara's frocks; and stitched new elastics into John's hat and Michael's. She collected Annabel's old clothes and made them into a bundle for Mrs. Brill's niece's baby. She cleaned out cupboards, sorted the toys and put the books straight in the bookcases.
"How busy she is! It makes me quite giddy!" said Michael in a whisper.
But Jane said nothing. She gazed at the crackly, bustling figure. And a thought that she could not quite get hold of was wandering round in her mind. Something — was it a memory? — whispered a word that she couldn't quite catch.
And all through the morning, the Starling sat on the Next Door chimney and screeched his endless song. Every now and then he would dart across the garden and peer through the window at Mary Poppins with bright anxious eyes. And the wind went round and round the house, sighing and crying.
The hours went by and lunch time came. And still Mary Poppins went on bustling like a very tidy tornado. She put fresh daffodils in the jam-jar; she straightened the furniture and shook out the curtains. The children felt the Nursery tremble beneath her ministering hand.
"Will she never stop!" Michael complained to Jane, as he added a room to the Castle.
And at that moment, as though Mary Poppins had heard what he said, she suddenly stood still.
"There!" she exclaimed, as she looked at her handiwork. "It's as Neat as a Pin. And I hope it remains so!"
Then she took down her best blue coat and brushed it. She breathed on the buttons to make them shine and pinned the starfish brooch on her collar. She tweaked and pulled at her black straw hat till the daisies stood up as stiff as soldiers. Then she took off her white crackling apron and buckled the snakeskin belt round her waist. The message written on it was clearly visible: "A Present from the Zoo."
"You haven't worn that for a long, long time," said Michael, watching with interest.
"I keep it for Best," she replied calmly, as she twitched the belt into place.
Then she took her umbrella from the corner and polished the parrot-head with bees' wax. And after that, with a quiet smile, she plucked the Tape Measure from the mantelpiece and popped it into the pocket of her coat.
Jane lifted her head quickly. Somehow, the sight of that bulging pocket made her feel strangely anxious.
"Why don't you leave the Tape Measure there? It's perfectly safe, Mary Poppins."
There was a pause. Mary Poppins appeared to be considering the question.
"I have my reasons," she said at last, as she gave a superior sniff.
"But it's always been on the mantelpiece, ever since you came back!"
"That doesn't mean that it always will be. What's good for Monday won't do for Friday," she replied with her priggish smile.
Jane turned away. What was the matter with her heart? It suddenly felt too big for her chest.
"I'm lonely," she said in a whisper to Michael, taking care not to look at him.
"You can't be lonely as long as I'm here!" he put his last brick on the roof of the Castle.
"It's not that kind of loneliness. I feel I'm going to lose something."
"Perhaps it's your tooth," he said, with interest. "TVy it and see if it wobbles."
Jane shook her head quickly. Whatever it was she was going to lose, she knew it was not a tooth.