Jane bent and picked it up. It was the gold locket, hanging loosely from its broken golden chain.
'It's true, then, it's true!' came Michael's bursting cry. 'Oh, open it, Jane!'
With trembling fingers she pressed the catch and the locket flew open. The flickering light fell across the glass and they saw before them their own pictured faces, clustered about a figure with straight black hair, stern blue eyes, bright pink cheeks, and a nose turning upwards like the nose of a Dutch doll.
'Jane, Michael, John, Barbara and Annabel Banks,
and
Mary Poppins.'
read Jane from the little scroll beneath the picture.
'So that's what was in it!' said Michael, miserably, as Jane shut the locket and put it in her pocket. He knew there was no hope now.
They turned again to the Merry-go-round, dazzled and giddy in the spinning light. For by now the horses were flying more swiftly than ever and the pealing music was louder than before.
And then a strange thing happened. With a great blast of trumpets, the whole Merry-go-round rose, spinning, from the ground. Round and round, rising ever higher, the coloured horses wheeled and raced with Caramel and Mary Poppins at their head. And the swinging circle of light went lifting among the trees, turning the leaves to gold as the light fell upon them.
'She's going!' said Michael.
'Oh, Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins! Come back, come back!' they cried, lifting their arms towards her.
But her face was turned away, she looked out serenely above her horse's head and gave no sign that she had heard.
'Mary Poppins!' It was a last despairing cry.
No answer now came from the air.
By now the Merry-go-round had cleared the trees and was whirling up towards the stars. Away it went and away, growing smaller and smaller, until the figure of Mary Poppins was but a dark speck in a wheel of light.
On and on, pricking through the sky, went the Merry-go-round, carrying Mary Poppins with it. And at last it was just a tiny twinkling shape, a little larger but not otherwise different from a star.
Michael sniffed and fumbled for his handkerchief.
'I've got a crick in my neck,' he said to explain the sniff. But when she was not looking he hurriedly wiped his eyes.
Jane, still watching the bright spinning shape, gave a little sigh. Then she turned away.
'We must go home,' she said flatly, remembering that Mary Poppins had told her to take care of Michael and the Twins.
'Come along, come along! Threepence a ride!' The Park Keeper, who had been putting litter in the baskets returned to the scene. He glanced at the place where the Merry-go-round had been and started violently. He looked around him and his mouth fell open. He looked up and his eyes nearly burst out of his head.
'See here!' he shouted. 'This won't do! Here one minute and gone the next! It's against the regulations! I'll have the law on you.' He shook his fist wildly at the empty air. 'I never saw such a thing! Not even when I was a boy! I must make a report! I shall tell the Lord Mayor!'
Silently the children turned away. The Merry-go-round had left no trace in the grass, not a dent in the clover. Except for the Park Keeper, who stood there shouting and waving his arms, the green lawn was quite empty.
'She took a Return,' said Michael, walking slowly beside the perambulator. 'Do you think that means she'll come back?'
Jane thought for a moment. 'Perhaps. If we want her enough,' she said slowly.
'Yes, perhaps…!' he repeated, sighing a little, and said no more till they were back in the Nursery….
'I say! I say! I say!'
Mr. Banks came running up the path and burst in at the front door.
'Hi! Where's everybody?' he shouted, running up the stairs three at a time.
'Whatever is the matter?' said Mrs. Banks, hurrying out to meet him.
'The most wonderful thing!' he cried, flinging open the Nursery door. 'A new star has appeared. I heard about it on the way home. The Largest Ever. I've borrowed Admiral Boom's telescope to look at it. Come and see!'
He ran to the window and clapped the telescope to his eye.
'Yes! Yes!' he said, hopping excitedly. 'There it is! A Wonder! A Beauty! A Marvel! A Gem! See for yourself!'
He handed Mrs. Banks the telescope.
'Children!' he shouted. 'There's a new star!'
'I know—' began Michael. 'But it's not really a star. It's—'
'You know? And it isn't? What on earth do you mean?'
'Take no notice. He is just being silly!' said Mrs. Banks. 'Now, where is this star? Oh, I see!
She gave the telescope in turn to Jane and Michael, and as they looked through the glass they could clearly see the circle of painted horses, the brass poles and the dark blur that ever and again whirled across their sight for a moment and was gone.
They turned to each other and nodded. They knew what the dark blur was — a neat, trim figure in a blue coat with silver buttons, a stiff straw hat on its head, and a parrot-headed umbrella under its arm. Out of the sky she had come, back to the sky she had gone. And Jane and Michael would not explain to anyone for they knew there were things about Mary Poppins that could never be explained.
A knock sounded at the door.
'Excuse me, Ma'am,' said Mrs. Brill, hurrying in, very red in the face. 'But I think you ought to know that that there Mary Poppins has gone again!'
'Gone!' said Mrs. Banks unbelievingly.
'Lock, stock and barrer — gone!' said Mrs. Brill, triumphantly. 'Without a word or By Your Leave. Just like last time. Even her Camp-bed and her Carpet-bag — clean gone! Not even her Postcard-album as a Memento. So there!'
'Dear, dear!' said Mrs. Banks. 'How very tiresome! How thoughtless, how and — George!' she turned to Mr. Banks. 'George, Mary Poppins has gone again!'
'Who? What? Mary Poppins? Well, never mind that! We've got a new star!'
'A new star won't wash and dress the children!' said Mrs. Banks crossly.
'It will look through their window at night!' cried Mr. Banks, happily. 'That's better than washing and dressing.'
He turned back to the telescope.
'Won't you, my Wonder? My Marvel? My Beauty!' he said, looking up at the star.
Jane and Michael drew close and leant against him, gazing across the window-sill into the evening air.
And high above them the great shape circled and wheeled through the darkening sky, shining and keeping its secret for ever and ever and ever….
