Английский по методу w_cat - [4]

72 "Do you call her 'George'?" asked Anne, in surprise. "I thought her name was Georgina."

73 "So it is," said her aunt. "But George hates being a girl, and we have to call her George, as if she was a boy. The naughty girl won't answer if we call her Georgina."

74 The children thought that Georgina sounded rather exciting. They wished she would come. But she didn't. Their Uncle Quentin suddenly appeared instead. He was a most extraordinary looking man, very tall, very dark, and with a rather fierce frown on his wide forehead.

75 "Hallo, Quentin!" said Daddy. "It's a long time since I've seen you. I hope these three won't disturb you very much in your work."

76 "Quentin is working on a very difficult book," said Aunt Fanny. "But I've given him a room all to himself on the other side of the house. So I don't expect he will be disturbed."

77 Their uncle looked at the three children, and nodded to them. The frown didn't come off his face, and they all felt a little scared, and were glad that he was to work in another part of the house.

78 "Where's George?" he said, in a deep voice.

79 "Gone off somewhere again," said Aunt Fanny, vexed. "I told her she was to stay here and meet her cousins."

80 "She wants spanking," said Uncle Quentin. The children couldn't quite make out whether he was joking or not. "Well, children, I hope you have a good time here, and maybe you will knock a little common-sense into George!"

81 There was no room at Kirrin Cottage for Mother and Daddy to stay the night, so after a hurried supper they left to stay at a hotel in the nearest town. They would drive back to London immediately after breakfast the next day. So they said goodbye to the children that night.

82 Georgina still hadn't appeared. "I'm sorry we haven't seen Georgina," said Mother. "Just give her our love and tell her we hope she'll enjoy playing with Dick, Julian and Anne."

83 Then Mother and Daddy went. The children felt a little bit lonely as they saw the big car disappear round the corner of the road, but Aunt Fanny took them upstairs to show them their bedrooms, and they soon forgot to be sad.

84 The two boys were to sleep together in a room with slanting ceilings at the top of the house. It had a marvellous view of the bay. The boys were really delighted with it. Anne was to sleep with Georgina in a smaller room, whose windows looked over the moors at the back of the house. But one side-window looked over the sea, which pleased Anne very much. It was a nice room, and red roses nodded their heads in at the window.

85 "I do wish Georgina would come," Anne said to her aunt. "I want to see what she's like."

86 "Well, she's a funny little girl," said her aunt. "She can be very rude and haughty-but she's kind at heart, very loyal and absolutely truthful. Once she makes friends with you, she will always be your friend- but she finds it very difficult indeed to make friends, which is a great pity."

87 Anne suddenly yawned. The boys frowned at her, because they knew what would happen next. And it did!

88 "Poor Anne! How tired you are! You must all go to bed straight away, and have a good long night. Then you will wake up quite fresh tomorrow," said Aunt Fanny.

89 "Anne, you are an idiot," said Dick, crossly, when his aunt had gone out of the room. "You know quite well what grown-ups think as soon as we yawn. I did want to go down on the beach for a while."

90 "I'm so sorry," said Anne. "Somehow I couldn't help it. And anyway, you're yawning now, Dick, and Julian too!"

91 So they were. They were as sleepy as could be with their long drive. Secretly all of them longed to cuddle down into bed and shut their eyes.

92 "I wonder where Georgina is," said Anne, when she said good-night to the boys, and went to her own room. "Isn't she queer- not waiting to welcome us- and not coming in to supper- and not even in yet! After all, she's sleeping in my room- goodness knows what time she'll be in!"

93 All the three children were fast asleep before Georgina came up to bed! They didn't hear her open Anne's door. They didn't hear her get undressed and clean her teeth. They didn't hear the creak of her bed as she got into it. They were so tired that they heard nothing at all until the sun awoke them in the morning.

When Anne awoke she couldn't at first think where she was. She lay in her little bed and looked up at the slanting ceiling, and at the red roses that nodded at the open window- and suddenly remembered all in a rush where she was! "I'm at Kirrin Bay - and it's the holidays." she said to herself, and screwed up her legs with joy.

94 Then she looked across at the other bed. In it lay the figure of another child, curled up under the bed-clothes. Anne could just see the top of a curly head, and that was all. When the figure stirred a little, Anne spoke.

95 "I say! Are you Georgina?"

96 The child in the opposite bed sat up and looked across at Anne. She had very short curly hair, almost as short as a boy's. Her face was burnt a dark-brown with the sun, and her very blue eyes looked as bright as forget-me-nots in her face. But her mouth was rather sulky, and she had a frown like her father's.