I'm quite all right, Miss Honey, so don't be alarmed.
You seemed so far away.
Oh, I was.
I was flying past the stars on silver wings.
It was wonderful.
I don't believe it.
It's not possible.
Oh, Matilda, I think we both need time to understand this.
I tell you what, would you like to come back and have tea at my cottage?
Oh, I'd love to.
Good.
Gather up your things and I'll meet you outside in a couple of minutes.
You won't tell anyone, will you, Miss Honey?
I wouldn't dream of it.
Miss Honey lived in a tiny red brick cottage down a narrow lane.
I remember thinking that it looked more like a doll's house than a human dwelling.
It was like an illustration from a children's story.
There was a little well in the garden and the front door was covered with flaky green paint.
There was no keyhole.
Miss Honey just lifted the latch, opened the door and in we went.
There now, you can come through to the kitchen and help me make the tea.
First of all, we'll need to get some water from the well in the garden.
Then I'll light the primer stove.
Here, take the bucket.
Oh, yes.
What we do is hook the bucket onto the end of this rope here, turn the handle and that lowers the bucket down into the well.
Oh, I see.
That's it.
Then turn the handle the other way.
That's right.
And here it is.
Is this enough?
Just about.
I don't suppose you've ever done that before, have you?
Never.
Now, let's go and light the primer stove.
How do you get enough water for your bath?
I don't take a bath, i get a bucket full of water and i heat it on this little stove and i strip and wash myself all over.
Really, of course, every poor person in england used to wash that way until not so very long ago.
Are you poor, miss honey?
Yes, very.
It's a good little stove, isn't it?
Yes, now then bread and margarine.
I'm afraid i don't have any sugar.
Oh, that's all right, let's have it in a sitting room.
Okay, come on through here, Pull up a box to sit on.
I'm sorry there aren't any chairs.
That's all right.
Sit down, my dear, sit down.
Now then, both slices of bread are for you.
I never eat anything when I get home.
I have a good old tuck-in at the school lunch and that keeps me going until the next morning.
Miss Honey, do they pay you very badly at our school?
Not too badly.
I get about the same as the others.
But it must still be very little if you're so dreadfully poor.
Do all the teachers live like this with no furniture and no kitchen stove and no bathroom?
No, they don't.
I just happen to be the exception.
I expect you just happen to like living in a very simple way.
It must make housecleaning an awful lot easier.
And I suppose if you don't have a fridge, you don't have to go out and buy all sorts of junky things like eggs and mayonnaise and ice cream to fill it up with.
I'm sorry, Miss Honey.
I shouldn't have asked you those questions.
Why shouldn't you ask?
You're much too bright not to have wondered.
Perhaps I even wanted you to ask.
Maybe that's why I invited you here after all.
I'm really glad you did invite me.
Up to now, I've found it impossible to talk to anyone about my problems.
But now, all of a sudden, I have a sort of desperate wish to tell everything to somebody...
I know you're only a tiny little girl, but there is some kind of magic in you somewhere.
I've seen it with my own eyes.
May I tell you a story, Matilda?
You can tell me anything.
I'm 23 years old, and when I was born, my father was a doctor in this village.
Magnus.
His name was agnes, that's right.
What a lovely name.
And he was a lovely man too.
I loved him very much.
We had a nice old house.
It's tucked away in the woods behind the hills.
I was born there, and then came the first tragedy.
My mother died when i was two.
My father invited my mother's unmarried sister, my aunt agatha, to come and live with us to help him to run the house and to look after me.
How old was the aunt when she moved in?
Not very old, i should say about 30, but i hated her right from the start.
Oh no, i missed my mother terribly, and the aunt agatha was not a kind person.
My father didn't know that because he was hardly ever around, but when he did put in an appearance, the aunt behaved differently.
Go on, please.
Well, then came the second tragedy.
When I was five, my father died very suddenly.
One day he was there and the next day he was gone.
My aunt became my legal guardian.
How awful!
And in some way or another, she became the actual owner of the house.
How did your father die?
Nobody knew exactly.
You see, no one could believe that he would ever have done it.
Done what?
Killed himself.
Did he?
That's what it looked like, but who knows?
