انتقام

chapter two

Revenge

At that moment, a motor car with servants drove up to the emporium. A large lady and a sulky little boy stepped out. He was wearing a very white sailor suit.

‘Now Victor,’ said the lady, ‘come and buy a nice doll for your cousin Bertha. She gave you a beautiful box of soldiers on your birthday, and you must give her a present on hers.’

‘Bertha is a fat little fool,’ said the little boy loudly.

‘Victor,’ said his mother, ‘you shouldn’t say such things. Bertha is not a fool, and she is not fat. You must come in and choose a doll for her.’

They then walked into the shop.

‘He is in a bad temper,’ exclaimed Emmeline. However, she and Bert believed him when he said that his cousin was fat and foolish.

‘I want to see some dolls,’ said the mother to the shop assistant. ‘It’s for a girl of eleven.’

‘A fat little girl of eleven,’ added Victor.

‘Victor, if you say such rude things about your cousin, you will go to bed the moment we get home, without tea.’

‘This is one of the newest dolls,’ said the assistant, taking Morlvera out of the shop window. ‘You won’t find anything newer anywhere. It’s an exclusive design.’

‘Look!’ whispered Emmeline outside. ‘They have taken Morlvera.’

She was both excited and a little sad. She really wanted to look at Morlvera a little longer.

‘She is probably going away in a carriage to marry the rich lord,’ said Bert.

‘She’s up to no good,’ said Emmeline seriously.

Inside the shop, Victor and his mother bought the doll.

‘It’s a beautiful doll, and Bertha will be very happy with it,’ said Victor’s mother.

‘Oh, very well,’ said Victor sulkily, ‘but we don’t have to wait for him to wrap it. We can take it directly to Bertha’s house so that I don’t have to write, ‘For dear Bertha, with Victor’s love’ on a piece of paper.’

‘Very well,’ said the mother, ‘we can go to Bertha’s house on the way home. You must wish her happy birthday and give her the doll.’

‘But I won’t let the little beast kiss me,’ said Victor.

His mother said nothing because, in the end, Victor had not acted so badly. When he wanted, he could be terribly naughty.

Emmeline and Bert were just walking away from the window, when Victor came out holding Morlvera. She seemed to have a look of triumph on her face. As for Victor, he had a peaceful look on his face now. He seemed to have accepted his defeat.

His mother got into the motor car and gave directions to the driver, and Victor got in beside her, holding the elegantly dressed doll.

The driver started moving the car back a little bit in order to turn around. Very secretly, very gently, very mercilessly, Victor threw the doll over his shoulder and it fell just behind one of the wheels.

The car went over the doll and made a crunching sound as it broke. Then the car moved forward making another crunching sound. The motor car drove away, and Bert and Emmeline looked with scared delight at the mess of dirty clothes, sawdust and leopard skin, which was all that remained of the hateful Morlvera. They cheered happily and ran away from the scene of the tragedy.

Later that afternoon in St James’s Park, Emmeline said seriously to Bert, ‘I’ve been thinking. Do you know who he was? He was the little boy that she had sent away to live with poor people. He came back and did that to her.’