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09 - The House of Arden - E Nesbit · Classic Science Fiction Books

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Chapter seven. The key of the parlor, Elfrida was behind the secret panel,
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and the panel had shut with the spring. She had come there hoping
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to find the jewels that had been hidden two hundred years ago by Sir Edward
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Talbot when he was pretending to be the Chevalier Saint George. She had not
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had time even to look for the jewels before the panel closed, And now
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that she was alone in the dusty dark, with the door shut between her
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and the bright light parlor where her brother was, the jewels hardly seemed to
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matter at all. And what did so dreadfully and very much matter was that
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closed panel. Edred had tried to open it, and he had fallen off
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the chair. Well, there had been plenty of time for him to get
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up again. Why don't you open the door, she called impatiently, and
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there was no answer Behind that panel. Silence seemed a thousand times more silent
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than it ever had before, and it was so dark, and Edred had
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the matches in his pocket. Edred, Edred, she called suddenly and very
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loud, why don't you open the door? And this time he answered,
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because I can't reach, he said, I feel that I ought to make
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that the end of the chapter and leave you to wonder till the next how
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Elfrida got out, and how she liked the not getting out, which certainly
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looked as though it were going to last longer than anyone could possibly be expected
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to find pleasant. But that would make the chapter too short, and there
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are other reasons, so I will not disguise from you that when Elfrida put
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her hand to her pocket and felt something there, something hard and heavy,
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and remembered that she had put the key of the parlor there because it was
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such a nice, safe place where it couldn't possibly be lost, she uttered
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what is known as a hollow groan. Ah. You see now, said
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Edred. Outside. You see, I'm not so stupid, after all,
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Elfrida was thinking, I say, she called through the panel. It's no
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use my standing here. I shall try to feel my way up to the
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secret chamber. I wish I could remember whether there's a window there or not.
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If I were you, I should just take a book and read till
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something happens. Missus Honeyset's sure to come back sometime. I can't hear half
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you say, said Edred. You do whiffles, Take a book shouted.
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His sister read missus honeyset, we'll come back some time. So Edith got
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down a book called Red Cotton Nightcap Country, which she thought looked interesting.
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But I don't advise you to try it. And Elfrida, her heart beating,
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rather heavily, put out her hands and felt her way along the passage
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to the stairs. It's all very well, she told herself. The secret
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panel is there all right, like it was when I went into the past.
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But suppose the stairs are gone, or weren't really ever there at all,
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or suppose I walked straight into a wall or something, or perhaps not
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a wall. A well, she suggested to herself, with a sudden shrill
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of terror. And after that she felt very carefully with each foot in turn
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before she ventured to put it down in a fresh step. The boards were
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soft to tread on, as though they had been carpeted with velvet, and
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so were the stairs, for there were stairs, sure enough. She went
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up them, very slowly and carefully, reaching her hands before her, and
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at last her hands came against something that seemed like a door. She stroked
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it gently, feeling for the latch, which she presently found. The door
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had not been opened for such a very long time that it was not at
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all inclined to open. Now Elfrida had to show with shoulder and knee,
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and with all the strength she had. The door gave way out of politeness,
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I should think, for Elfrida's knee and shoulder and strength were all quite
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small. And there was the room just as she had seen it when the
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Chevalier Saint George stood in it, bowing and smiling by the light of one
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candle in a silver candlestick. Only now Elfrida was alone, and the light
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was a sort of green twilight that came from a little window over the mantelpiece
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that was hung outside with a thick curtain of ivy. If Elfrida had come
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out of the sunlight, she would have called this a green darkness. But
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she had been so long in the dark that this shadowy dusk seemed quite light
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to her. All the same, she made haste when she had shut the
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door to drag a chair in front of the fireplace and to get the window
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open. It opened inwards, and it did not want to open at all,
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But it also was polite enough to yeeld to her wishes, and when
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it had suddenly given way. She reached out and broke the ivy leaves of
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one by one, making more and more daylight in the secret room. She
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did not let the leaves fall outside, but on the hearth stone, for
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said she, we don't want outside people to get to know all about the
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arden's secret hiding place. I'm glad I thought of that. I really am
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rather like a detective in a book. When all the leaves were plucked from
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the window square, and only the brown ivy bows left, she turned back
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to the room. The furniture was all powdered heavily with dust, and what
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had made the floor so soft to walk upon was the thick carpet of dust
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that lay there. There was the table on which the Chevalier Saint George no
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Sir Edward Talbot had set the train. There were the chairs, and there
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sure enough was the corner cupboard in which he had put the jewels. Elfrida
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got its door opened with I don't know what of mingled hopes and fears.
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It had three shelves, but their jewels were on none of them. In
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fact, there was nothing on any of them, but on the inside of
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the door. Her hand as she held it open, felt something rough,
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and when she looked it was a name card. And when she swung the
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door well back so that the light fell full on it, she saw that
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the name was E. Talbot. So then she knew that all she had
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seen in that room before must have really happened two hundred years before, and
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was not just a piece of magic, moldy warpiness. She climbed up on
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the chair again and looked out through the little window. She could see nothing
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of the castle walls, only the distant shoulder of the downs and the path
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that cut across it towards the station. She would have liked to see a
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red figure or a violet one coming along that path, but there was no
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figure on it at all. What do you usually do when you are shut
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up in a secret room with no chance of getting out for hours? As
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for me, I always say poetry to myself. It is one of the
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uses of poetry. One says it to oneself in distressing circumstances of that kind,
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or when one has to wait at railway stations, or when one cannot
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get to sleep at night. You will find poetry most useful for this purpose,
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So learn plenty of it. And be sure it is the best kind,
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because this is most useful as well as most agreeable. Elfrida began with
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ruin sees the Ruthless King. But there were parts of that which she liked
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best when there were other people about, So she stopped it and began Horacious
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and the Bridge. This lasts a long time. Then came the favorite Cat
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drowned in a tub of goldfish. And in the middle of that, quite
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suddenly, and I don't know why, she thought of the mouldiwar. It
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didn't quite quarrel, she told herself, at least not really truly quarreling.
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I might try, anyhow, So she set to work to make a piece
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of poetry to call up the Mouldiwarp with. This was how, after a
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long time, the first peace came out. The mouldiwarpop Arden by the nine
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Gods. Its war that Elfrida of Arden should be shut up no more.
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By the nine Gods. It swore it and named a convenient time, no
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doubt, and bade its messengers ride forth east and west, south and north
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to let Elfrida out. But when she said it aloud, nothing happened.
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I wonder, said Elfrida, whether it's because we quarreled, or because it
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just says he'll let me out and doesn't ask him to, or because I
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had to say Elfrida to make its sound right, or because it's such dreadful
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nonsense. I'll try again. She tried again. This time she got behind
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the secret panel's lines. The pensive Elfrida reclines and wishes she was at home
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at least. I'm at home, of course, but things are getting worse
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and worse. Dear mole, come, come, come, come, She
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said it aloud, and when she came to the last words, there was
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the white mouldiwarp sitting on the floor at her feet and looking up at her
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with eyes that blink. You are good to come, Elfrida said, Well,
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what do you want now? Said the mole. I I ought to
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tell you that I oughtn't to ask you to do anything, but I didn't
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think you'd come. If it really counted as a quarrel. It was only
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little one, and we were both sorry quite directly. You have a straightforward
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nature, said the moleiwarf Well, well, I must say you've got yourself
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into a nice hole. It would be a very nice hole, said Elfrida
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eagerly, if only the panel were open, I wouldn't mind how long I
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stayed here. Then that's funny, isn't it, Yes, said the mole.
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Well, if you hadn't quarreled, I could get you into another time,
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some time when the panel was open, and you could just walk out.
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You shouldn't quarrel. It makes everything different. It puts dust into the
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works. It stops the wheels of the clock the clock, said Elfrida slowly.
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Couldn't that work backwards? I don't know what you mean, said the
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mole. I don't know that. I quite know myself, Elfrida explained.
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But the daisy clock you sit on the second hand, and there isn't any
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time, and yet there's lots where you're not sitting. If I could sit
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on the daisy clock, the time wouldn't be anything before some one comes to
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let me out. But I can't get to the daisy clock, even if
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you'd make it for me. So that's no good. You are a very
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clever girl, said the mouldiwarp, And all the clocks in the world aren't
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made of daisis. Move the table and chairs back against the wall. We'll
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see what we can do for you. While Elfrida was carrying out this order.
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The white mole stood on its hind feet and called out softly in a
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language she did not understand. Others understood it, though it seemed for A
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white pigeon fluttered in through the window, and then another and another, till
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the room seemed full of circling wings and gentle cooings, and a shower of
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soft white feather fell like snow. Then the mole was silent, and one
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by one the white pigeons sailed back through the window into the blue and gold
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world of out of doors. Get upon a chair, and keep out of
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the way, said the moleiwarp and Elfrida did. And then a soft wind
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blew through the little room, a wind like the wind that breathes softly in
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walled gardens and shakes down the rose leaves on sparkling summer mornings. And the
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white feathers on the floor were stirred by the sweet wind and drifted into little
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heaps and lines and curves, till they made on the dusty floor the circle
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of a clock face, with all its figures and its long hand and its
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short hand and its second hand. And the white mole stood in the middle
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all white things. Sopay me, it said, Come sit down on the
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minute hand, and you'll be there in no time. Where, asked Elfrida,
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getting off the chair, Why at the time when they opened the panel.
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Let me get out of the clock first, and give me the key
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of the parlor door. It'll say time in the end. So Elfrida sat
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down on the minute hand, and instantly it began to move round faster than
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you can possibly imagine, and it was very soft to sit on, like
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a cloud would be, if the laws of nature ever permitted you to sit
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on clouds. And it spun round so that it seemed no time at all
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before she found herself sitting on the floor and heard voices and knew that the
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secret panel was open. I see, she said, wisely, It does
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work backwards, doesn't it. But there was no one to answer her,
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for the mouliwark was gone. When the white pigeons feathers were in heaps on
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the floor, she saw them as she stood up, and there wasn't any
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clock face any more. Edred soon got tired of red cotton nightcup country,
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which really is not half such good fun as it sounds, even for grown
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ups, and he tried several other books, but reading did not seem amusing
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somehow, And the house was so much too quiet, and the clock outside
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ticks so much too loud, and Elfrida was shut up, and there were
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bars to the windows, and the door was locked. He walked about and
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sat in each of the chairs in turn, but no one of them was
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comfortable, and his thoughts were not comfortable either. Suppose no one ever came
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to let them out. Supposing the years rode on and found him still a
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prisoner. When he he was a white haired old man like people in the
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bastili or in iron masks. His eyes filled with tears at the thought.
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Fortunately, did not occur to him that unless someone came pretty soon, he
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would be unlikely to live to a great age, since people cannot live long
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without eating. If he had thought of this, he would have been even
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more unhappy than he was, and he was quite unhappy enough. Then he
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began to wonder if anything had happened to Elfrida. She was dreadfully quiet inside
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there behind the panel. He wished he had not quarreled with her. Everything
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was very miserable. He went to the window and looked out as Elfrida had
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done to see if he could see a red dress or a violet dress coming
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over the downs, but there was nothing, And the time got longer and
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longer, drawing itself out like a putty snake when you rub it between your
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warm hands. And at last, what with misery and having cried a good
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deal, and it's being long past tea time, he fell asleep on the
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window seat. He was raised by a hand on his shoulder and a voice
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calling his name. Next moment he was in the arms of Aunt Edith,
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or as much in her arms as he could be with the window bars between
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them. When he told her where Elfrida was and where the room key was,
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which took some time, he began to cry again, for he did
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not quite see even now how he was to be got out. Now,
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don't be a dear silly, said Aunt digit If we can't get you out
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any other way, I'll run and fetch a locksmith. But look what I
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found right in the middle of the path as I came up from the station.
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It was a key and light. It was an ivory label, and
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on the label were written the words parlor door arden. You might try it,
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she said. He did try it, and it fitted, and he
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unlocked the parlor door and then the front door so that Aunt Edith could come
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in, And together they got the kitchen steps and found the secret spring,
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and opened the panel and got out the dusty Elfrida, and then Aunt Edith
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lighted the kitchen fire and boiled the kettle. They had tea, which everyone
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wanted very badly. Indeed, and Aunt Edith had brought little cakes for tea
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with pink icing on them, very soft inside with apricot jam, and she
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had come to stay over Sunday. She was as much excited as the children
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over the secret panel. And after tea, when Edred had fetched Emily from
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the wild goose Chase for a parcel at the station on which she was still
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engaged, the aunt and the niece and the nephew explored the secret stare and
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the secret chamber thoroughly. What a wonderful lot of pigeons feathers, said Aunt
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Edith. They must have been piling up here for years and years. It
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was lucky you finding that key, said Edred. I wonder who dropped it?
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Where's the other one? Elf? I don't know, said Elfrida,
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truthfully, it isn't in my pocket now, and though Edred and Aunt Edith
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searched every corner of the secret hiding place, they never found that key.
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Elfrida alone knows that she gave it to the moldiwarp, And as missus Honeysid
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declared that there had never been a parlor key with a label on it in
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her time, it certainly does seem as though the mole must have put the
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key he got from Elfrida on the path for Aunt Idith to find, after
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carefully labely it to prevent mistakes. How the mole got the label is another
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question, But I really think that finding a label for a key is quite
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a simple thing to do. I have done it myself, whereas making a
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clockface of white pigeon feathers is very difficult, indeed, and a thing that
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I have never been able to do. And as for making that clock face,
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the means of persuading time to go fast or slow just as one wishes,
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well, I don't suppose even you could do that. Elfrida found it
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rather a relief to go back to the ordinary world, where magic moles did
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not upset the clock, a world made pleasant by nice aunts and the old
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delightful games that delight ordinary people, games such as Hunt the Thimble, what
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is My thought Like? And Proverbs. The three had a delightful weekend,
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and Aunt Edith told them all about the lodgers and the seaside house, which
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already seemed very long ago and far away. On Sunday evening, as they
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walked home from Arden Church, where they had tried to attend to the service
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and not to look too much at the tombs and monuments of dead and gone
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Ardens that line the chancel, the three sat down on Arden Knoll and Aunt
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Edith explained things a little to them. She told them much more than they
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could understand about wills and trustees and incomes. But they were honored by her
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confidence and pleased by the fact that she seemed to think they could understand such
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grown up kind of things. And the thing that remained on their minds after
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the talk, like a ship cast up by a high tide, was this
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that Arden Castle was theirs, and that there was very little money to keep
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it up with, so that every one must be very careful and no one
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must be at all extravagant. And Aunt Edith was going back to the world
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o lawyers and wills and trustees early on Monday morning, and they must be
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very good children and not bother missus Honeysett, and never never lock themselves in
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and hide the key in safe places. All this remained as the lasting result
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of the pleasant talk on the downs in the softly lessening light, And another
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thing remained, which Edith put into words as the two children looked back from
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the station where they had seen Aunt Edith into the train and weighed their good
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byes to her. It is very important, indeed, he said, for
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us to find the treasure, then we could keep up the castle without any
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bother. We must have it built up again first course, and then we'll
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keep it up, and we won't have any old clocks and not keeping together.
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This time, we'll both of us go and find thee attic the minute
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our quarrels three days old, and we'll ask the Mouldiwarp to send us to
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a time when we can really see the treasure with our own eyes. I
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do think that's a good idea, don't you, he asked with modest pride.
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Very Elfrida said, And I say, Edrid, I don't mean to
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quarrel any more. If I can help it. It is such a waste
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of time, she added, in her best grown up manner, and does
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delay everything. So delays are dangerous, it says, so in the proverb
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game. Suppose there really was a chance of getting the treasure, and we
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had to wait three days because of quarreling. But I'll tell you one thing
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I found out. You can get the mold to come and help you,
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even if you have quarreled a little, because I did, and she told
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him how. But I expect, she added, it would only come if
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I were in the most awful trouble and all human aid despaired of. Well
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we are not that, now, said Edred, knocking the head off a
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poppy with a stick. And I am jolly glad we're not, I wonder,
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said Elfrida, who lives in that cottage where the witch was. I
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know exactly where it is. I expect it's been pulled down, though.
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Let's go round that way. It'll be something to do. So they went
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round that way, and the way was quite easy to find. But when
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they got to the place where the tumble down cottage had been in Bonney's time,
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there was only a little slate roofed house with a blue bill pasted up
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on its yellow brick face, saying that somebody's a one genior bear and up
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to date minerals were sold there. The house was dull to look at,
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and they did not happen to have any spare money for ginger beer, so
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they turned round to go home, and suddenly found themselves face to face with
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a woman. She wore a red and black plaid blouse and a bought ready
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made black skirt, and on her head was a man's peaked cap, such
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as women in the country were now, instead of the pretty sun bonnets that
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they used to wear when I was a little girl. So they pulled an
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old cottage down, she said, they SNeW housel be fine and dry.
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Inside I lay. The rain comes in through the roof of the old one,
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so's you might a most as well be laying in the open meadow.
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The children listened politely, and both were wondering where they had seen this woman
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before, for her face was strangely familiar to them, and yet they didn't
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seem really to know her either. Most O, the cottage's bout ere is
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just as bad as they always was, she went on. When arden has
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the handling of the treasure, he'll see to it that poor folks lie warm
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and dry. Won't tea now? And then, all in a minute,
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the children both knew, and she knew that they knew. Why, said
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he did? You're the yes, she said, I'm the witch, come
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from old ancient times. If you can go back, I can go forth,
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because then and now it's the same. If I know how to make
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a clock, can you make clocks? Said Elfrida. I thought it was
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only so it be, said the witch. I can't make them, but
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I know them as can. And I've come here to find you, cause
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you brought me the tea and sugar. I've got the wise eye I have.
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I can see back and forth. I looked forward and I saw ye,
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and I looked back, and I saw what you're seeking. And I
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know where the treasure is. And but where did you get those clothes?
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Edodosk. And it was a question he was afterwards to have reason to regret.
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Oh, clothes is easy to come by, said the witch. If
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it was only close, I could be a crowned queen. This very minute,
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the children had a fleeting impression of seeing against the criss cross fence of
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the potato patch, a lady in crimson and ermine with a gold crown.
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They blinked, startled, and saw that there was no crimson and gold,
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only the dull clothes of the witch against the background of potato patch. And
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how did you get here, edodosk That speckled hen o mines settin' on the
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clock face now, she said, I quieted her with a chalk line drawn
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from her beaks end and straight out into the world, O wonders. If
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she rouses up, then I'm back there, And I can't never come back
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here, my DearS, not more than once. I can't. So let's
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make haste down to the castle and I'll show you where my great granny see
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them put the treasure when she was a little girl. The three hurried down
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the steep bank lane. Men's the time the witch went on. My granny
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pointed it out to me. It's just alongside where. And then the witch
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was not there any more. Edred and Elfrida were alone in the lane.
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The speckled hen must have recovered from her quieting and got off the clock.
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She's gone right enough, said Edred, And now we'll never know. And
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just when she was going to tell us where it was. I do think
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it's too jolly stupid for anything. It's you that's too jolly stupid for anything,
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said Elfrida hotly. What did you want to go asking her about her
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silly clothes for? It was that, did it? She'd have told us
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where it was before now if you hadn't taken her time up with clothes,
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as if clothes mattered. I do wish to goodness you'd sometimes try to behave
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as if you'd got some sense, got it, said Edith bitterly, as
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if everything wasn't tiresome enough. Now there's another three days to wait because of
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your nagging. Oh it's just exactly like a girl, so it is.
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I'm I'm sorry, said Elfrida, eve stricken. Let's do something good to
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make up. I'll give you that note book of mine with the lead pointed
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mother of pearl pencil, and we'll go round to all the cottages and find
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out which are leaky, so as to be ready to patch them up when
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we've got the treasure. I don't want to be good, said Edred bitterly.
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I haven't quarreled and put everything back, but I'm going to now,
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he said with determination. I don't see why everything should be smashed up and
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me not said any of the things I want to say. Oh don't,
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cried Elfrida. It's bad enough to quarrel when you don't want to, but
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to set out to quarrel, don't. Edred didn't. He kicked the dust
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up with his boots, and the two went back to the castle in gloomy
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silence. At the gate, Edred paused, I'll make it up now if
30:41
you like, He said, I've only just thought of it. But perhaps
30:45
it's three days from the end of the quarrel, I see, said Elfrida.
30:51
So the longer we keep it up, yes, said Edred. So
30:55
let's call it packs and not waste any more time. End of Section nine.