_All right, I have then,_ said Digory in a much louder voice, like a boy who was so miserable that he didn_t care who knew he had been crying. She had been going to say _After you_ve been blubbing,_ but she thought that wouldn_t be polite. _At any rate I do wash my face,_ said Polly, _which is what you need to do especially after_ and then she stopped. _It isn_t half so funny as Polly,_ said Digory.
As a matter of fact, this was very nearly what he had been doing. It could hardly have been grubbier if he had first rubbed his hands in the earth, and then had a good cry, and then dried his face with his hands. The face of the strange boy was very grubby. Ketterley and Miss Ketterley, a brother and sister, old bachelor and old maid, living together. Polly was very surprised because up till now there had never been any children in that house, but only Mr. One morning she was out in the back garden when a boy scrambled up from the garden next door and put his face over the wall. She lived in one of a long row of houses which were all joined together.
And in those days there lived in London a girl called Polly Plummer. But meals were nicer and as for sweets, I won_t tell you how cheap and good they were, because it would only make your mouth water in vain. In those days, if you were a boy you had to wear a stiff Eton collar every day, and schools were usually nastier than now. Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street and the Bastables were looking for treasure in the Lewisham Road. It is a very important story because it shows how all the comings and goings between our own world and the land of Narnia first began.