JIMMY GOES TO LONDON
As he sat at breakfast Jimmy saw a large railway van stop at the door, with a porter sitting on the board behind. The driver climbed down from his high seat in front, and the two men began to carry out the boxes. Jimmy saw his clothes-box carried out, then his play-box, so that he knew that he was to go to London with the rest, although Miss Rosina had not heard from his uncle.
'Jimmy,' said Miss Roberts after breakfast, 'Miss Rosina wants to see you in the drawing-room. You must go at once.'
So he went to the drawing-room, tapped at the door, and was told to enter.
'It is very annoying that your uncle has not answered my letter,' said Miss Rosina, looking as angry as if Jimmy were to blame for it.
'He couldn't answer if he didn't get it,' cried Jimmy.
'Of course not,' said Miss Rosina, 'but I sincerely hope he did get it.'
'So do I,' answered Jimmy.
'Perhaps he will send to meet you although he has not written to say so,' said Miss Rosina.
'Perhaps he will,' replied Jimmy thoughtfully.
'But,' Miss Rosina continued, 'if he doesn't send to meet you, Miss Roberts must take you to his house in Brook Street in a cab.'
'Only suppose he isn't there!' exclaimed Jimmy.
'At all events the servants will be there.'
'Only suppose they're not!'
'Surely,' said Miss Rosina, 'they would not leave the house without any one in it!'
'If Uncle Henry and Aunt Mary have gone to France they might.'
'Do they often go to France?' asked Miss Rosina.
'They go sometimes,' said Jimmy, 'because Aunt Mary writes to me, and I've got the stamps in my Album. And then they leave the house empty and shut the shutters and put newspapers in all the windows, you know.'
Whilst Jimmy stood on the hearth-rug, Miss Rosina sat in an arm-chair staring seriously at the fire.
'Have you any other relations in London?' she asked, a few moments later.
'No,' said Jimmy.
'Think, now,' she continued. 'Are you sure there is nobody?'
'At least,' cried Jimmy, 'there's only Aunt Selina.'
'Where does your Aunt Selina live?' asked Miss Rosina, looking a great deal more pleased than Jimmy felt. He put his small hands together behind his back, and took a step closer.
'Please,' he said, 'I—I don't want to go to Aunt Selina's.'
'Tell me where she lives,' answered Miss Rosina.
'I think it's somewhere called Gloucester Place,' said Jimmy;' but, please, I'd rather not go.'
'You silly child! You must go somewhere!'
'Yes, I know,' said Jimmy, 'but I'd rather not go to Aunt Selina's.'
'What is her number in Gloucester Place?' asked Miss Rosina.
'I don't know the number,' cried Jimmy much more cheerfully, because he thought that as he did not know the number, Miss Rosina could not very well send him to the house.
'What is your aunt's name? Is it Wilmot?' Miss Rosina asked.
'No, it isn't Wilmot,' said Jimmy.
'Do you know what it is?' she demanded, and Jimmy began to wish he didn't know; but Aunt Selina always wrote on his birthday, although it wasn't much use as she never sent him a present.
'Her name's Morton,' he answered.
'Mrs. Morton or Miss Morton?'
'Miss Morton, because she's never been married,' said Jimmy.
'Very well then,' was the answer, 'if nobody comes to meet you at Victoria Station, Miss Roberts will take you in a cab to Brook Street, and if your Uncle Henry is not there——'
'I hope he will be!' cried Jimmy.
'So do I,' Miss Rosina continued, 'because Miss Roberts will not have much time to spare. She will take you to Brook Street; but if the house is empty, then she will go on to Miss Morton's in Gloucester Place.'
'But how can she if she doesn't know the number?' said Jimmy.
'Miss Roberts will easily be able to find your aunt's house,' was the answer.
'Oh!' cried Jimmy in a disappointed tone, and then he was sent back to the other boys.
When it was time to start to the railway station Miss Rosina went on first in a fly to take the tickets, and they found her waiting for them on the platform. They all got into a carriage, and Jimmy sat next to Miss Roberts, who asked him soon after the train started, why he looked so miserable.
'I do hope that Uncle Henry will send some one to meet me,' he answered.
'I hope so too,' said Miss Roberts, who was much younger than Miss Rosina, 'because I have to travel to the north of England, and it is a very long journey. I shall only just have time to drive to the other station to catch my train.'
'But suppose you don't catch it?' asked Jimmy.
'That would be extremely inconvenient,' she explained, 'because I should either have to travel all night or else to sleep at an hotel in London. But I hope your uncle will come to meet you.'
Long before the train reached London, Jimmy began to look anxiously out at the window. Presently it stopped on a bridge over the Thames, and a man came to collect the tickets, and soon after the train moved on again Jimmy saw that he was at Victoria. The door was opened, and all the other boys jumped out, and whilst they were shaking hands with their fathers and mothers Jimmy stood alone on the platform. He looked wistfully at every face in the small crowd, but he did not know one of them, and it was plain that nobody had been sent to meet him.
He followed Miss Roberts towards the luggage van and saw his own boxes taken out with the rest, and then one by one the boys got into cabs and were driven away, and Jimmy began to feel more miserable than ever.
His boxes stood beside Miss Roberts's, and she looked up and down the platform almost as anxiously as the boy, for she was in a great hurry to go.
'Well, Jimmy,' she said, 'nobody seems to have come for you.'
'No,' answered Jimmy.
'It is really very annoying!' cried Miss Roberts, looking at her watch.
'Perhaps Uncle Henry has made a mistake in the time,' said Jimmy.
'I think the best thing we can do is to take a cab to Brook Street,' was the answer.
'Mightn't we wait just a little longer?' he asked.
'No,' said Miss Roberts, 'we have lost quite enough time already. Hi! Cab!' she exclaimed, and a four-wheeled cab was driven up beside the boxes. Then a porter lifted these, one by one, and put them on top of the cab.
'Get in,' said Miss Roberts, and with a last glance along the platform, Jimmy entered the cab and sat down. Then Miss Roberts stepped in also, the old cab-horse started, and Jimmy was driven out of the gloomy railway station.
'I hope Uncle Henry will be at home,' he said presently.
'So do I,' answered Miss Roberts. 'I have not a minute to spare.'
'Perhaps you won't have time to take me to Aunt Selina's!' exclaimed Jimmy.
'What do you suppose I am to do with you then?' she asked.
'I don't know,' he said; 'only I don't want to go there!'
'I am sure I don't want to have to take you there,' was the answer, as the cab passed Hyde Park.
Jimmy had been the same way every holiday since he had gone to Miss Lawson's school, so that he knew he was drawing near to Brook Street. As the cab turned the corner, he put his head out at the window and looked anxiously for his uncle's house.
'Oh!' he cried, drawing it in again.
'What is the matter?' asked Miss Roberts.
'I believe the shutters are up,' said Jimmy.