E. Nesbit

“ And the attic was gone—and the chests, and the blue-chinked tiles of the roof, and the walls and the rafters. And the room had shrunk to less than half its old size. And it was higher, and it was not an attic any more, but a round room with narrow windows, and just such a fireplace, with a stone hood, as the ones the children had seen when they looked down from the tops of the towers. You must have often heard of events that take people's breath away. ”

“ When you first begin to draw, you draw a good many things wrong, don't you? I assure you that nobody would have known that the black and grey muddle on Elfrida's paper was meant to be a picture of a castle. Edred's was much more easily recognised, even before he printed "Arden Castle" under it in large, uneven letters. He never once raised his eyes from his paper, and just drew what he thought the front of the castle looked like from the outside. Also he sucked his pencil earnestly—Elfrida's pencil, I mean—and this made the lines of his drawing very black. ”

“ I never do try at school. I don't like it. But it's jolly easy. I know that. Burslemmi always takes the drawing prize, and you know what a duffer he is. We might begin to learn now, don't you think?"
Elfrida sat down on a fallen stone in the middle of the castle yard, and looked at the intricate wonderful arches and pillars, the crenulated battlements of the towers, the splendid stoutness of the walls, and she sighed. ”

“ Come, play ball in the garden." This, Elfrida concluded, must be Cousin Dick, and she decided at once that she was fond of him.
There was a big and beautiful garden behind the house. The children played ball there, and they ran in the box alleys, and played hide-and-seek among the cut trees and stone seats, and statues and fountains.
Old Parrot-nose, who was Cousin Richard's tutor, and was dressed in black, and looked as though he had been eating lemons and vinegar, sat on a seat and watched them, or walked up and down the flagged terrace with his thumb in a dull-looking book. ”

“ And if it could all be exactly like it was when it was brand-new."
"There wasn't the house when it was brand-new—the house like it is now, I mean," said Edred. "I don't suppose there was any attic with chests in when the castle was new."
"There couldn't be, not with all the chests," said Elfrida; "of course not, because some of the clothes in the chest weren't made till long after the castle was built. I believe grown-ups can tell what a broken thing was like when it was new. I know they can with bones—mastodons and things. ”

“ But days pass quickly when the sun shines, and it is holiday-time, and you have a big ruined castle to explore and examine—a castle that is your own, or your brother's.
"After all," said Elfrida sensibly, "we might quite likely find the treasure ourselves, without any magic Mouldiwarpiness at all. We'll look thoroughly. We won't leave a stone unturned." ”

“ Poor people are very friendly and kind to you when you are a child. They will let you come into their houses and talk to you and show you things in a way that they would never condescend to do with your grown-up relations. This is, of course, if you are a really nice child, and treat them in a respectful and friendly way. Edred and Elfrida very soon knew more about the insides of the cottages round Arden than any grown-up could have learned in a year. ”

“ Elfrida thought it best to curtsey beside her brother. Aunt Edith had taught them to dance the minuet, and somehow the bow and curtsey which belong to that dance seemed the right thing now. And the lady on the stairs smiled, well pleased. She was a wonderfully dressed lady. Her bodice was of yellow satin, richly embroidered; her petticoat of gold tissue with stripes; her robes of red velvet, lined with yellow muslin with stripes of pure gold. She had a point lace apron and a collar of white satin under a delicately worked ruff. ”

“ And when we got back, and I'd changed and everything, there was that bit of plaster in my own shoe. If we can take plaster we can take photographs—cameras, I mean." This close and intelligent reasoning commanded Elfrida's respect, and she wished she had thought of it herself. But then she had not had any plaster in her shoe. So she said—
"You're getting quite clever, aren't you?"
"Aha," said Edred, "you'd like to have thought of that yourself, wouldn't you? I can be clever sometimes same as you can."
It is very annoying to have our thoughts read. Elfrida said swiftly. ”

“ Elfrida frowned. Afterwards she was glad that she had done no more than frown. It is dangerous, as you know, to quarrel in a boat, but far more dangerous to quarrel in a century that is not your own. She frowned and opened her mouth. ”

“ And I know some of the names of the conspirators, too, and who they wanted to kill, and everything."
"Tell me," said Cousin Richard idly.
"The King hadn't been fair to the Catholics, you know," said Elfrida, full of importance, "so a lot of them decided to kill him and the Houses of Parliament. They made a plot—there were a whole lot of them in it. They said Lord Arden was, but he wasn't, and some of them were to pretend to be hunting, and to seize the Princess Elizabeth and proclaim her Queen, and the rest were to blow the Houses of Parliament up when the King went to open them." ”

“ It makes your head ache, and gives you a queer feeling at the back of your neck, and makes you turn so pale that the grown-up people with whom you are travelling will ask you what is the matter, and sometimes heartlessly insist that the buns you had at the junction, or the chocolate creams pressed into your hand at the parting hour by Uncle Fred or Aunt Imogen, are the cause of your sufferings. ”

“ Bonny means pretty. You'd think a King would know better, wouldn't you?"
This was all that Edred could find to tell. I could have told more, but one can't tell everything, and there is Elfrida's adventure to be told about.
When the coach had disappeared in the mist and the mud—for the weather was anything but summer weather—Elfrida went upstairs to the room where she had left the old nurse. She did not know where else to go.
"Sit thee down," said the nurse, "and sew on thy sampler." ”

“ No; thou can't go. Little ladies stay at home and sew their samplers. Thou'll go to Court soon enough, I warrant."
So Elfrida sat and watched while Edred was partially washed—the soap got in his eyes just as it gets in yours nowadays—and dressed in the beautiful white page's dress, white velvet, diamond buckles, little sword, and all. ”

“ It's all nonsense—I mean, it's only history, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself, listening behind doors—I mean, out of doors behind stone seats, when people are talking nonsense to their own cousins. ”