More about Mary Poppins / И снова о Мэри Поппинз

A stodgy meal, I call it – really.”

And that, when you think how very much she liked raspberry-jam-cakes, was rather nice of Mary Poppins.

The Match-Man apparently thought so, too, for he took her white-gloved hand in his and squeezed it hard. Then together they walked down the row of pictures.

“Now, there’s one you’ve never seen before!” said the Match-Man proudly, pointing to a painting of a mountain covered with snow and its slopes simply littered with grasshoppers sitting on gigantic roses.

This time Mary Poppins could indulge in a sigh without hurting his feelings.

“Oh, Bert,” she said, “that’s a fair treat*!” And by the way she said it she made him feel that by rights* the picture should have been in the Royal Academy*, which is a large room where people hang the pictures they have painted. Everybody comes to see them, and when they have looked at them for a very long time, everybody says to everybody else, “The idea* – my dear!”

The next picture Mary Poppins and the Match-Man came to was even better.

It was the country – all trees and grass and a little bit of blue sea in the distance, and something that looked like Margate* in the background.

“My word!” said Mary Poppins admiringly, stooping so that she could see it better. “Why, Bert, whatever is the matter?”

For the Match-Man had caught hold of her other hand now, and was looking very excited.

“Mary,” he said, “I got an idea! A real idea. Why don’t we go there – right now – this very day? Both together, into the picture.

Eh, Mary?” And still holding her hands he drew her right out of the street, away from the iron railings and the lamp-posts, into the very middle of the picture. Pff! There they were, right inside it!

How green it was there and how quiet, and what soft crisp grass under their feet! They could hardly believe it was true, and yet here were green branches huskily rattling on their hats as they bent beneath them, and little coloured flowers curling round their shoes.

They stared at each other, and each noticed that the other had changed. To Mary Poppins the Match-Man seemed to have bought himself an entirely new suit of clothes, for he was now wearing a bright green-and-red striped coat and white flannel trousers and, best of all, a new straw hat. He looked unusually clean, as though he had been polished.

“Why, Bert, you look fine!” she cried in an admiring voice.