25. Mr and Mrs Brown

Mr and Mrs Brown lived in a small house near London with their child. Sometimes Mr Brown came back from work very late, when his wife and the child were asleep, and then he opened the front door of his house with his key and came in very quietly. But one night when he was coming home late, he lost his
key, so when he reached his house, he rang the bell. Nothing happened. He rang it again. Again nothing happened — nobody moved inside the house. Mr Brown knocked at the bedroom window, he spoke to his wife, he shouted, but she did not wake up. At last he stopped and thought for a few seconds. Then he began to speak like a small child. ‘Mother!’ he said, ‘I want to go to the lavatory!’ He spoke quite quietly but at once Mrs Brown woke up. Then he spoke to her, and she opened the door for him.