1 There Is No One Left Mary Lennox had a little thin face and a little thin body Her yellow hair hung limp and dull Her skin was faintly yellow and she wore a tight sour expression at all times She was born in India squalling thin and ugly Her pretty mother took one look at her and said that she must be kept out of sight Mary was handed over to a servant and her mother rarely looked upon her again For nine years Mary’s life rarely changed Then one frightfully hot morning she awoke feeling very cross She sat up to snap at her nursemaid only to see a strange servant standing beside her bed Why are you there she demanded Send my Ayah to me now 4
The looked stranger frightened and stammered I sorry Missie Sahib Your Ayah cannot come Mary shrieked slapped and kicked as the strange woman tried to help her dress The stranger left the room as quickly as she could Mary stormed around the house None of the servants would tell her anything about her Ayah They merely hurried away when they spotted her Finally Mary wandered out into the garden and began to play by herself near the veranda Mary pretended she was making a fl ower bed She picked blossoms from the tall hibiscus hedge and stuck the red fl owers into little heaps of dirt Mary heard her mother come out on the veranda with a fair young offi cer The two spoke together in low voices Mary stared at her mother since she got so few glimpses of her She was a tall slim pretty person who 5
wore such lovely clothes and seemed always to be laughing or smiling Now her eyes were large and scared Is it so very bad she asked Oh is it Awfully the young man said and Mary heard his voice tremble You ought to have gone to the hills two weeks ago Mary’s mother wrung her hands I only stayed to go to a silly dinner party she cried What a fool I was While Mary puzzled over what her mother meant wailing rang out from the servants quarters Mary’s mother clutched the young offi cer’s arm Mary stood up shivering as the wailing grew wilder and wilder What is it her mother cried Someone has died the young offi cer said You didn’t say the sickness had broken out here I didn’t know Mrs Lennox gasped She turned and ran into the house with the young offi cer at her heels 6
