More about Mary Poppins / И снова о Мэри Поппинз

It was a most pleasant and peaceful scene.

“I believe we’re in China,” whispered Jane to Michael. “Yes, I’m sure we are!” she went on, as they watched the door of one of the little paper houses opening and an old man stepping through it. He was curiously dressed, in a stiff brocade kimono of gold, and silken trousers gathered in with a golden ring at the ankles. His shoes turned up at the toes, very stylishly; from his head there hung a long grey pigtail that reached nearly to his knees, and from his lips drooped as far as his waist a very long moustache.

The old gentleman, seeing the little group formed by Mary Poppins and the children, bowed so low that his head touched the ground. Jane and Michael were surprised to see Mary Poppins bowing in the same way, till the daisies in her hat were brushing the earth.

“Where are your manners?*” hissed Mary Poppins, looking up at them from that unusual position. And she said it so fiercely that they thought they had better bow, too, and the Twins bent their foreheads against the edge of their perambulator.

The old man, rising ceremoniously, began to speak.

“Honourable Mary* of the House of Poppins,” he said. “Deign to shed upon my unworthy abode the light of your virtuous countenance. And, I beseech you, lead thither to its graceless hearth these other honourable travellers.” He made another bow and waved his hand towards his house.

Jane and Michael had never heard such strange and beautiful language and were very astonished.

“Gracious Sir,” she began, “it is with deep regret that we, the humblest of your acquaintances, must refuse your expansive and more-than-royal invitation. The lamb does not leave the ewe, nor the young bird its nest, more unwillingly than we depart from your shining presence. But, noble and ten-times-splendid Sir, we are in the act of encompassing the world and our visit to your honourable city can, alas, be but momentary.

The Mandarin, for such indeed he was, bent his head and was preparing another elaborate bow, when Mary Poppins very quickly moved the compass again.

“West!” she said firmly.

Round went the world till Jane and Michael were quite dizzy.