8. In the Attic

A Little Princess

by Francis Hodgson Burnett

The first night she spent in her attic was a thing Sara never
forgot. During its passing she lived through a wild, unchildlike woe
of which she never spoke to anyone about her. There was no one who
would have understood. It was, indeed, well for her that as she lay
awake in the darkness her mind was forcibly distracted, now and then,
by the strangeness of her surroundings. It was, perhaps, well for her
that she was reminded by her small body of material things. If this
had not been so, the anguish of her young mind might have been too
great for a child to bear. But, really, while the night was passing
she scarcely knew that she had a body at all or remembered any other
thing than one.

"My papa is dead!" she kept whispering to herself. "My papa is
dead!"

It was not until long afterward that she realized that her bed
had been so hard that she turned over and over in it to find a place
to rest, that the darkness seemed more intense than any she had ever
known, and that the wind howled over the roof among the chimneys like
something which wailed aloud. Then there was something worse. This
was certain scufflings and scratchings and squeakings in the walls
and behind the skirting boards. She knew what they meant, because
Becky had described them. They meant rats and mice who were either
fighting with each other or playing together. Once or twice she even
heard sharp-toed feet scurrying across the floor, and she remembered
in those after days, when she recalled things, that when first she
heard them she started up in bed and sat trembling, and when she lay
down again covered her head with the bedclothes.

The change in her life did not come about gradually, but was
made all at once.

"She must begin as she is to go on," Miss Minchin said to Miss
Amelia. "She must be taught at once what she is to expect."

Mariette had left the house the next morning. The glimpse Sara
caught of her sitting room, as she passed its open door, showed her
that everything had been changed. Her ornaments and luxuries had
been removed, and a bed had been placed in a corner to transform it
into a new pupil's bedroom.

When she went down to breakfast she saw that her seat at Miss
Minchin's side was occupied by Lavinia, and Miss Minchin spoke to her
coldly.

"You will begin your new duties, Sara," she said, "by taking
your seat with the younger children at a smaller table. You must
keep them quiet, and see that they behave well and do not waste their
food. You ought to have been down earlier. Lottie has already upset
her tea."

That was the beginning, and from day to day the duties given to
her were added to. She taught the younger children French and heard
their other lessons, and these were the least of her labors. It was
found that she could be made use of in numberless directions. She
could be sent on errands at any time and in all weathers. She could
be told to do things other people neglected. The cook and the
housemaids took their tone from Miss Minchin, and rather enjoyed
ordering about the "young one" who had been made so much fuss over
for so long. They were not servants of the best class, and had
neither good manners nor good tempers, and it was frequently
convenient to have at hand someone on whom blame could be laid.

During the first month or two, Sara thought that her willingness
to do things as well as she could, and her silence under reproof,
might soften those who drove her so hard. In her proud little heart
she wanted them to see that she was trying to earn her living and not
accepting charity. But the time came when she saw that no one was
softened at all; and the more willing she was to do as she was told,
the more domineering and exacting careless housemaids became, and the
more ready a scolding cook was to blame her.

If she had been older, Miss Minchin would have given her the
bigger girls to teach and saved money by dismissing an instructress;
but while she remained and looked like a child, she could be made
more useful as a sort of little superior errand girl and maid of all
work. An ordinary errand boy would not have been so clever and
reliable. Sara could be trusted with difficult commissions and
complicated messages. She could even go and pay bills, and she
combined with this the ability to dust a room well and to set things
in order.

Her own lessons became things of the past. She was taught
nothing, and only after long and busy days spent in running here and
there at everybody's orders was she grudgingly allowed to go into the
deserted schoolroom, with a pile of old books, and study alone at
night.

"If I do not remind myself of the things I have learned, perhaps
I may forget them," she said to herself. "I am almost a scullery
maid, and if I am a scullery maid who knows nothing, I shall be like
poor Becky. I wonder if I could quite forget and begin to drop my
H'S and not remember that Henry the Eighth had six wives."

One of the most curious things in her new existence was her
changed position among the pupils. Instead of being a sort of small
royal personage among them, she no longer seemed to be one of their
number at all. She was kept so constantly at work that she scarcely
ever had an opportunity of speaking to any of them, and she could not
avoid seeing that Miss Minchin preferred that she should live a life
apart from that of the occupants of the schoolroom.

"I will not have her forming intimacies and talking to the other
children," that lady said. "Girls like a grievance, and if she
begins to tell romantic stories about herself, she will become an
ill-used heroine, and parents will be given a wrong impression. It is
better that she should live a separate life--one suited to her
circumstances. I am giving her a home, and that is more than she has
any right to expect from me."

Sara did not expect much, and was far too proud to try to
continue to be intimate with girls who evidently felt rather awkward
and uncertain about her. The fact was that Miss Minchin's pupils
were a set of dull, matter-of-fact young people. They were accustomed
to being rich and comfortable, and as Sara's frocks grew shorter and
shabbier and queerer-looking, and it became an established fact that
she wore shoes with holes in them and was sent out to buy groceries
and carry them through the streets in a basket on her arm when the
cook wanted them in a hurry, they felt rather as if, when they spoke
to her, they were addressing an under servant.

"To think that she was the girl with the diamond mines, Lavinia
commented. "She does look an object. And she's queerer than ever. I
never liked her much, but I can't bear that way she has now of
looking at people without speaking--just as if she was finding them
out."

"I am," said Sara, promptly, when she heard of this. "That's
what I look at some people for. I like to know about them. I think
them over afterward."

The truth was that she had saved herself annoyance several times
by keeping her eye on Lavinia, who was quite ready to make mischief,
and would have been rather pleased to have made it for the ex-show
pupil.

Sara never made any mischief herself, or interfered with anyone.
She worked like a drudge; she tramped through the wet streets,
carrying parcels and baskets; she labored with the childish
inattention of the little ones' French lessons; as she became
shabbier and more forlorn-looking, she was told that she had better
take her meals downstairs; she was treated as if she was nobody's
concern, and her heart grew proud and sore, but she never told anyone
what she felt.

"Soldiers don't complain," she would say between her small, shut
teeth, "I am not going to do it; I will pretend this is part of a
war."

But there were hours when her child heart might almost have
broken with loneliness but for three people.

The first, it must be owned, was Becky--just Becky. Throughout
all that first night spent in the garret, she had felt a vague
comfort in knowing that on the other side of the wall in which the
rats scuffled and squeaked there was another young human creature.
And during the nights that followed the sense of comfort grew. They
had little chance to speak to each other during the day. Each had her
own tasks to perform, and any attempt at conversation would have been
regarded as a tendency to loiter and lose time. "Don't mind me,
miss," Becky whispered during the first morning, "if I don't say
nothin' polite. Some un'd be down on us if I did. I means `please'
an' `thank you' an' `beg pardon,' but I dassn't to take time to say
it."

But before daybreak she used to slip into Sara's attic and
button her dress and give her such help as she required before she
went downstairs to light the kitchen fire. And when night came Sara
always heard the humble knock at her door which meant that her
handmaid was ready to help her again if she was needed. During the
first weeks of her grief Sara felt as if she were too stupefied to
talk, so it happened that some time passed before they saw each other
much or exchanged visits. Becky's heart told her that it was best
that people in trouble should be left alone.

The second of the trio of comforters was Ermengarde, but odd
things happened before Ermengarde found her place.

When Sara's mind seemed to awaken again to the life about her,
she realized that she had forgotten that an Ermengarde lived in the
world. The two had always been friends, but Sara had felt as if she
were years the older. It could not be contested that Ermengarde was
as dull as she was affectionate. She clung to Sara in a simple,
helpless way; she brought her lessons to her that she might be
helped; she listened to her every word and besieged her with requests
for stories. But she had nothing interesting to say herself, and she
loathed books of every description. She was, in fact, not a person
one would remember when one was caught in the storm of a great
trouble, and Sara forgot her.

It had been all the easier to forget her because she had been
suddenly called home for a few weeks. When she came back she did not
see Sara for a day or two, and when she met her for the first time
she encountered her coming down a corridor with her arms full of
garments which were to be taken downstairs to be mended. Sara herself
had already been taught to mend them. She looked pale and unlike
herself, and she was attired in the queer, outgrown frock whose
shortness showed so much thin black leg.

Ermengarde was too slow a girl to be equal to such a situation.
She could not think of anything to say. She knew what had happened,
but, somehow, she had never imagined Sara could look like this--so
odd and poor and almost like a servant. It made her quite miserable,
and she could do nothing but break into a short hysterical laugh and
exclaim--aimlessly and as if without any meaning, "Oh, Sara, is that
you?"

"Yes," answered Sara, and suddenly a strange thought passed
through her mind and made her face flush. She held the pile of
garments in her arms, and her chin rested upon the top of it to keep
it steady. Something in the look of her straight-gazing eyes made
Ermengarde lose her wits still more. She felt as if Sara had changed
into a new kind of girl, and she had never known her before. Perhaps
it was because she had suddenly grown poor and had to mend things and
work like Becky.

"Oh," she stammered. "How--how are you?"

"I don't know," Sara replied. "How are you?"

"I'm--I'm quite well," said Ermengarde, overwhelmed with
shyness. Then spasmodically she thought of something to say which
seemed more intimate. "Are you--are you very unhappy?" she said in a
rush.

Then Sara was guilty of an injustice. Just at that moment her
torn heart swelled within her, and she felt that if anyone was as
stupid as that, one had better get away from her.

"What do you think?" she said. "Do you think I am very happy?"
And she marched past her without another word.

In course of time she realized that if her wretchedness had not
made her forget things, she would have known that poor, dull
Ermengarde was not to be blamed for her unready, awkward ways. She
was always awkward, and the more she felt, the more stupid she was
given to being.

But the sudden thought which had flashed upon her had made her
over-sensitive.

"She is like the others," she had thought. "She does not really
want to talk to me. She knows no one does."

So for several weeks a barrier stood between them. When they
met by chance Sara looked the other way, and Ermengarde felt too
stiff and embarrassed to speak. Sometimes they nodded to each other
in passing, but there were times when they did not even exchange a
greeting.

"If she would rather not talk to me," Sara thought, "I will keep
out of her way. Miss Minchin makes that easy enough."

Miss Minchin made it so easy that at last they scarcely saw each
other at all. At that time it was noticed that Ermengarde was more
stupid than ever, and that she looked listless and unhappy. She used
to sit in the window-seat, huddled in a heap, and stare out of the
window without speaking. Once Jessie, who was passing, stopped to
look at her curiously.

"What are you crying for, Ermengarde?" she asked.

"I'm not crying," answered Ermengarde, in a muffled, unsteady
voice.

"You are," said Jessie. "A great big tear just rolled down the
bridge of your nose and dropped off at the end of it. And there goes
another."

"Well," said Ermengarde, "I'm miserable--and no one need
interfere." And she turned her plump back and took out her
handkerchief and boldly hid her face in it.

That night, when Sara went to her attic, she was later than
usual. She had been kept at work until after the hour at which the
pupils went to bed, and after that she had gone to her lessons in the
lonely schoolroom. When she reached the top of the stairs, she was
surprised to see a glimmer of light coming from under the attic
door.

"Nobody goes there but myself," she thought quickly, "but
someone has lighted a candle."

Someone had, indeed, lighted a candle, and it was not burning in
the kitchen candlestick she was expected to use, but in one of those
belonging to the pupils' bedrooms. The someone was sitting upon the
battered footstool, and was dressed in her nightgown and wrapped up
in a red shawl. It was Ermengarde.

"Ermengarde!" cried Sara. She was so startled that she was
almost frightened. "You will get into trouble."

Ermengarde stumbled up from her footstool. She shuffled across
the attic in her bedroom slippers, which were too large for her. Her
eyes and nose were pink with crying.

"I know I shall--if I'm found out." she said. "But I don't
care--I don't care a bit. Oh, Sara, please tell me. What is the
matter? Why don't you like me any more?"

Something in her voice made the familiar lump rise in Sara's
throat. It was so affectionate and simple--so like the old Ermengarde
who had asked her to be "best friends." It sounded as if she had not
meant what she had seemed to mean during these past weeks.

"I do like you," Sara answered. "I thought--you see, everything
is different now. I thought you--were different.

Ermengarde opened her wet eyes wide.

"Why, it was you who were different!" she cried. "You didn't
want to talk to me. I didn't know what to do. It was you who were
different after I came back."

Sara thought a moment. She saw she had made a mistake.

"I am different," she explained, "though not in the way you
think. Miss Minchin does not want me to talk to the girls. Most of
them don't want to talk to me. I thought--perhaps--you didn't. So I
tried to keep out of your way."

"Oh, Sara," Ermengarde almost wailed in her reproachful dismay.
And then after one more look they rushed into each other's arms. It
must be confessed that Sara's small black head lay for some minutes
on the shoulder covered by the red shawl. When Ermengarde had seemed
to desert her, she had felt horribly lonely.

Afterward they sat down upon the floor together, Sara clasping
her knees with her arms, and Ermengarde rolled up in her shawl.
Ermengarde looked at the odd, big-eyed little face adoringly.

"I couldn't bear it any more," she said. "I dare say you could
live without me, Sara; but I couldn't live without you. I was nearly
dead. So tonight, when I was crying under the bedclothes, I thought
all at once of creeping up here and just begging you to let us be
friends again."

"You are nicer than I am," said Sara. "I was too proud to try
and make friends. You see, now that trials have come, they have
shown that I am not a nice child. I was afraid they would.
Perhaps"--wrinkling her forehead wisely--"that is what they were sent
for."

"I don't see any good in them," said Ermengarde stoutly.

"Neither do I--to speak the truth," admitted Sara, frankly. "But
I suppose there might be good in things, even if we don't see it.
There might"--doubtfully--"Be good in Miss Minchin."

Ermengarde looked round the attic with a rather fearsome
curiosity.

"Sara," she said, "do you think you can bear living here?"

Sara looked round also.

"If I pretend it's quite different, I can," she answered; "or if
I pretend it is a place in a story."

She spoke slowly. Her imagination was beginning to work for
her. It had not worked for her at all since her troubles had come
upon her. She had felt as if it had been stunned.

"Other people have lived in worse places. Think of the Count of
Monte Cristo in the dungeons of the Chateau d'If. And think of the
people in the Bastille!"

"The Bastille," half whispered Ermengarde, watching her and
beginning to be fascinated. She remembered stories of the French
Revolution which Sara had been able to fix in her mind by her
dramatic relation of them. No one but Sara could have done it.

A well-known glow came into Sara's eyes.

"Yes," she said, hugging her knees, "that will be a good place
to pretend about. I am a prisoner in the Bastille. I have been here
for years and years--and years; and everybody has forgotten about me.
Miss Minchin is the jailer--and Becky"--a sudden light adding itself
to the glow in her eyes--"Becky is the prisoner in the next cell."

She turned to Ermengarde, looking quite like the old Sara.

"I shall pretend that," she said; "and it will be a great
comfort."

Ermengarde was at once enraptured and awed.

"And will you tell me all about it?" she said. "May I creep up
here at night, whenever it is safe, and hear the things you have made
up in the day? It will seem as if we were more `best friends' than
ever."

"Yes," answered Sara, nodding. "Adversity tries people, and
mine has tried you and proved how nice you are."