More about Mary Poppins / И снова о Мэри Поппинз

” And he kissed his wife absent-mindedly on one side of her nose and waved to the children and went away to the City*.

Now, the City was a place where Mr Banks went every day – except Sundays, of course, and Bank Holidays* – and while he was there he sat on a large chair in front of a large desk and made money*. All day long he worked, cutting out pennies and shillings and half-crowns and threepenny-bits*. And he brought them home with him in his little black bag. Sometimes he would give some to Jane and Michael for their money-boxes, and when he couldn’t spare any he would say, “The Bank is broken,” and they would know he hadn’t made much money that day.

Well, Mr Banks went off with his black bag, and Mrs Banks went into the drawing-room and sat there all day long writing letters to the papers and begging them to send some Nannies to her at once as she was waiting; and upstairs in the Nursery, Jane and Michael watched at the window and wondered who would come. They were glad Katie Nanna had gone, for they had never liked her.

She was old and fat and smelt of barley-water*. Anything, they thought, would be better than Katie Nanna – if not much better.

When the afternoon began to die away* behind the Park, Mrs Brill and Ellen came to give them their supper and to bath the Twins. And after supper Jane and Michael sat at the window watching for Mr Banks to come home, and listening to the sound of the East Wind blowing through the naked branches of the cherry-trees in the Lane.

The trees themselves, turning and bending in the half light, looked as though they had gone mad and were dancing their roots out of the ground.

“There he is!” said Michael, pointing suddenly to a shape that banged heavily against the gate. Jane peered through the gathering darkness.

“That’s not Daddy,” she said. “It’s somebody else.”

Then the shape, tossed and bent under the wind, lifted the latch of the gate, and they could see that it belonged to a woman, who was holding her hat on with one hand and carrying a bag in the other.

As they watched, Jane and Michael saw a curious thing happen. As soon as the shape was inside the gate the wind seemed to catch her up into the air and fling her at the house. It was as though it had flung her first at the gate, waited for her to open it, and then had lifted and thrown her, bag and all*, at the front door. The watching children heard a terrific bang, and as she landed the whole house shook.