The House of Arden E. Nesbit (top android ebook reader TXT) đ
- Author: E. Nesbit
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âWhat a dull chap he is!â said Edred. âBut, I say, when was it printedâ â1822?â ââ ⊠I believe I know why the rural Whatâs-his-names wouldnât let on about the stream. Donât you see, itâs the stream that runs through the smugglersâ cave? and they were smuggling then for all they were worth.â
âThatâs clever of you,â said Elfrida.
âWell, I bet we find traces of its existence, when weâve found the treasure. Come on; letâs try the chests again. Weâll put on the first things we find, and chance it, this time. Thereâs nothing to stop us. We havenât quarrelled or anything.â
They had not quarrelled, but there was something to stop them, all the same. And that something was the fact that they could not find The Door. It simply was not there.
âAnd we havenât quarrelled or anything,â said Elfrida, despairing when they had searched the East House again and again, and found no door that would consent to lead them to the wonderful attic where the chests stood in their two wonderful rows. She sat down on the top step of the attic stairs, quite regardless of the dust that lay there thick.
âItâs all upâ âI can see that,â said Edred. âWeâve muffed it somehow. I wonder whether we oughtnât to have taken those photographs.â
âDo you think perhapsâ ââ ⊠could we have dreamed it all?â
âNo,â said Edred, âthere are the printsâ âat least, I suppose theyâre there. Weâll go down and see.â
Miserably doubting, they went down and saw that the photographs were where they had put them, in between the pages of the History of Arden.
âI donât see what we can do. Do you?â said Edred forlornly. It was a miserable ending to the happenings that had succeeded each other in such a lively procession ever since they had been at Arden. It seemed as though a door had been shut in their faces, and âNot any more,â written in very plain letters across the chapter of their adventures.
âI wish we could find the witch again,â said Elfrida; âbut she said she couldnât come into these times more than once.â
âI wonder why,â said Edred, kicking his boots miserably against the leg of the table on which he sat. âThat Dicky chap must have been here pretty often, to have an address at New Cross. I say, suppose we wrote to him. It would be something to do.â
So they wrote. At least Elfrida did, and they both signed it. This was the letter:â â
Dear Cousin Richardâ âYou remember meeting us at the Gunpowder Plot. If you are at these modern times again we should like to know you and to know how you get into the future. Perhaps we could get into the past the same way, because the way we used to get we canât any more.
Perhaps you could come here next time instead of New Cross.
Your affectionate friends at a distance,
(Miss) Elfrida Arden
(Lord) Edred Arden.
P.S.â âI donât know how lords sign letters because I have not been it long, but youâll know who it is.
P.S.S.â âRemember old Parrot-nose.
They walked down to the post with this, and as they went they remembered how they had gone to the âGeorgeâ with old Lady Ardenâs letter in Boneyâs time; and Edred remarked, listlessly, that it would be rather fun to find the smugglersâ cave. So when they had bought a stamp and licked it and put it on the letter they went up on the cliff and looked among the furze-bushes for the entrance to the smugglersâ cave. But they did not find it. Nothing makes you hotter than looking for things that you canât findâ âand there is no hotter place to look for things than a furze forest on the downs on a sunny summer afternoon. The children were glad to sit down on a clean, smooth, grassy space and look out at the faint blue line of the sea.
They had not really enjoyed looking for the smugglersâ cave. Vain regrets were busy in each breast. Edred gave voice to them when he saidâ â
âOh, if only we had put those gold clothes on when we had the chance!â
And Elfrida echoed the useless heartfelt wail with, âOh, if we only had!â
And then they sat in silence and looked at the sea for quite a long time.
Now, if you sit perfectly silent for a long time and look at the sea, or the sky, or the running water of a river, something happens to youâ âa sort of magic. Not the violent magic that makes the kind of adventures that I have been telling you about, but a kind of gentle but very strong inside magic, that makes things clear, and shows you what things are important, and what are not. You try it next time you are in a very bad temper, or when you think someone has been very unjust to you, or when you are very disappointed and hurt about anything.
The magic worked in Edred and Elfrida till Edred saidâ â
âAfter all, weâve got the castle;â and Elfrida saidâ â
âAnd we have had some ripping times.â
And then they looked at the sea in more silence, during which Hope came and whispered to Elfrida, who instantly saidâ â
âThe Mouldiwarp! Perhaps itâs not all over. It told us to find
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