Her tone was so kind and persuading that he found himself saying after
her, 'I, Philip, agree to try and like you, Lucy, and to stand by you
till we're out of this, and always to act the part of a noble friend to
you. And it's real Pax. Shake hands.'
'Now then,' said he when they had shaken hands, and Lucy uttered these
words:
'Don't you see? It's your own city that we're in, your own city that you
built on the tables in the drawing-room? It's all got big by magic, so
that we could get in. Look,' she pointed out of the window, 'see that
great golden dome, that's one of the brass finger-bowls, and that white
building's my old model of St. Paul's. And there's Buckingham Palace
over there, with the carved squirrel on the top, and the chessmen, and
the blue and white china pepper-pots; and the building we're in is the
black Japanese cabinet.'
Philip looked and he saw that what she said was true. It _was_ his city.
'But I didn't build insides to my buildings,' said he; 'and when did
_you_ see what I built anyway?'
'The insides are part of the magic, I suppose,' Lucy said; 'and I saw
the cities you built when Auntie brought me home last night, after you'd
been sent to bed. And I did love them. And oh, Philip, I'm so glad it's
Pax because I do think you're so _frightfully_ clever, and Auntie
thought so too, building those beautiful things. And I knew nurse was
going to pull it all down. I begged her not to, but she was addymant,
and so I got up and dressed and came down to have another look by
moonlight. And one or two of the bricks and chessmen had fallen down. I
expect nurse knocked them down. So I built them up again as well as I
could--and I was loving it all like anything; and then the door opened
and I hid under the table, and you came in.'
'Then you were there--did you notice how the magic began?'
'No, but it all changed to grass; and then I saw you a long way off,
going up a ladder. And so I went after you. But I didn't let you see me.
I knew you'd be so cross. And then I looked in at the guard-room door,
and I did so want some of the cocoa-nut milk.'
'When did you find out it was _my_ city?'
'I thought the soldiers looked like my lead ones somehow. But I wasn't
sure till I saw the judge. Why he's just old Noah, out of the Ark.'
'So he is,' cried Philip; 'how wonderful! How perfectly wonderful! I
wish we weren't prisoners. Wouldn't it be jolly to go all over it--into
all the buildings, to see what the insides of them have turned into?
And all the other people. I didn't put _them_ in.'
'That's more magic, I expect. But--Oh, we shall find it all out in
time.'
She clapped her hands. And on the instant the door opened and the gaoler
appeared.
'A visitor for you,' he said, and stood aside to let some one else come
in, some one tall and thin, with a black hooded cloak and a black
half-mask, such as people wear at carnival time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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