much longer. I can t stand lying still and pretending, and besides I
look too different. I wish it wasn t raining today.
It was then Mistress Mary had her inspiration.
Colin, she began mysteriously, do you know how many rooms there are
in this house?
About a thousand, I suppose, he answered.
There s about a hundred no one ever goes into, said Mary. And one
rainy day I went and looked into ever so many of them. No one ever
knew, though Mrs. Medlock nearly found me out. I lost my way when I was
coming back and I stopped at the end of your corridor. That was the
second time I heard you crying.
Colin started up on his sofa.
A hundred rooms no one goes into, he said. It sounds almost like a
secret garden. Suppose we go and look at them. Wheel me in my chair and
nobody would know we went.
That s what I was thinking, said Mary. No one would dare to follow
us. There are galleries where you could run. We could do our exercises.
There is a little Indian room where there is a cabinet full of ivory
elephants. There are all sorts of rooms.
Ring the bell, said Colin.
When the nurse came in he gave his orders.
I want my chair, he said. Miss Mary and I are going to look at the
part of the house which is not used. John can push me as far as the
picture-gallery because there are some stairs. Then he must go away and
leave us alone until I send for him again.
Rainy days lost their terrors that morning. When the footman had
wheeled the chair into the picture-gallery and left the two together in
obedience to orders, Colin and Mary looked at each other delighted. As
soon as Mary had made sure that John was really on his way back to his
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