星空娱乐官网

POLICEMAN. To begin with, who is the woman we are talking about?

BODIE. On the surface, she is just a little drudge. These studios are looked after by a housekeeper, who employs this girl to do the work.

POLICEMAN. H鈥檓! Sleeps on the premises?

BODIE. No; she is here from eight to six.

POLICEMAN. Place of abode?

BODIE. She won鈥檛 tell anyone that.

POLICEMAN. Aha! What鈥檚 the party鈥檚 name?

BODIE. Cinderella. Haven鈥檛 you heard that name before?

POLICEMAN. Can鈥檛 say I have, sir. But I鈥檒l make inquiries at the Yard.

BODIE. It was really I who gave her that name, because she seemed such a poor little neglected waif. After the girl in the story-book, you know.

POLICEMAN. No, sir, I don鈥檛 know. In the Force we find it impossible to keep up with current fiction.

BODIE. She was a girl with a broom. There must have been more in the story than that, but I forget the rest.

POLICEMAN. The point is, that鈥檚 not the name she calls herself by.

BODIE. Yes, indeed it is. I think she was called something else when she came, Miss Thing, or some such name; but she took to the name of Cinderella with avidity, and now she absolutely denies that she ever had any other.

POLICEMAN. Parentage?

BODIE. That鈥檚 another odd thing. I seem to remember vaguely her telling me that her parents when alive were very humble persons indeed. Touch of Scotch about her, I should say鈥攑erhaps from some distant ancestor; but Scotch words and phrases still stick to the Cockney child like bits of egg-shell to a chicken.

POLICEMAN. Egg-shell to chicken.

BODIE. I find, however, that she has lately been telling the housekeeper quite a different story.

POLICEMAN. Proceed.

BODIE. According to this, her people were of considerable position鈥攁 Baron and Baroness, in fact.

POLICEMAN. Proceed.

BODIE. The only other relatives she seems to have mentioned are two sisters of unprepossessing appearance.

POLICEMAN. If this story is correct, what is she doing here?

BODIE. I understand there is something about her father having married again, and her being badly treated. She doesn鈥檛 expect this to last. It seems that she has reason to believe that some very remarkable change may take place in her circumstances at an early date, at a ball for which her godmother is to get her what she calls an invite. This is evidently to be a very swagger function at which something momentous is to occur, the culminating moment being at midnight.

POLICEMAN. Godmother. Invite. Twelve P.M. Fishy! Tell me about them boards now.

BODIE. You can鈥檛 think how wistful she is to get hold of boards. She has them on the brain. Carries them off herself into the unknown.

POLICEMAN. I daresay she breaks them up for firewood.

BODIE. No; she makes them into large boxes.

POLICEMAN. Very likely to keep things in.

BODIE. She has admitted that she keeps things in them. But what things? Ask her that, and her mouth shuts like a trap.

POLICEMAN. Any suspicions?

BODIE. I鈥檓 sorry to say I have. I don鈥檛 know what the things are, but I do know they are connected in some way with Germany.

POLICEMAN. Proceed.

BODIE. Officer, she is too curious about Germany.

POLICEMAN. That鈥檚 bad.

BODIE. She plies me with questions about it鈥攏ot openly鈥攙ery cunningly.

POLICEMAN. Such as鈥�?

BODIE. For instance, what would be the punishment for an English person caught hiding aliens in this country?

POLICEMAN. If she鈥檚 up to games of that kind鈥�

BODIE. Does that shed any light on the boxes, do you think?

POLICEMAN. She can鈥檛 keep them shut up in boxes.

BODIE. I don鈥檛 know. She is extraordinarily dogged. She knows a number of German words.

POLICEMAN. That鈥檚 ugly.

BODIE. She asked me lately how one could send a letter to Germany without Lord Haig knowing. By the way, do you, by any chance, know anything against a firm of dressmakers called Celeste et Cie.?

POLICEMAN. Celest A. C.? No, but it has a German sound.

BODIE. It鈥檚 French.

POLICEMAN. Might be a blind.

BODIE. I think she lives at Celeste鈥檚. Now I looked up Celeste et Cie. in the telephone book, and I find they are in Bond Street. Immensely fashionable.

POLICEMAN. She lives in Bond Street? London鈥檚 full of romance, sir, to them as knows where to look for it鈥攏amely, the police. Is she on the premises?

BODIE. Sure to be; it isn鈥檛 six yet.

POLICEMAN. Well, leave her to me.

BODIE. You mustn鈥檛 frighten her. I can鈥檛 help liking her. She鈥檚 so extraordinarily homely that you can鈥檛 be with her many minutes before you begin thinking of your early days. Where were you born, officer?

POLICEMAN. I鈥檓 from Badgery.

BODIE. She鈥檒l make you think of Badgery.

POLICEMAN. She had best try no games on me.

Citation: J.M. Barrie, A Kiss for Cinderella, Public domain.

Full text: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/69817/pg69817-images.html