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

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Chapter eleven, Developments, Part one. Come on, said Drid. You
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measure up the hypo and put the four pie dishes ready. I'll get the
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water. He got it with Missus Hornyset's help, two brimming pailsful. You
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mustn't come in for anything, will you, missus Honyset, He earnestly urged.
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You see, if the door's open ever so little, all the photographs
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will be done for lo love a duck, said Missus Honeyset, holding her
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fat waist with her fat hands. I sha'n't come in. I ain't got
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nothin to come in for. We'll bolt the door all the same, said
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Edred when she was gone. In case she was to think of something,
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he shot the great wooden bolt. Now it'll be quite dark, he said,
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And of course it wasn't you know the aggravating way rooms have of pretending
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to be quite dark until you want them to be dark, and then by
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no means. This room didn't even pretend to be dark to begin with.
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Its shutters had two hard shaped holes high up through which the light showed quite
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dazzingly. Edred had to climb up on to the window seat and stuff up
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the holes very tight with crusted newspaper to get, which she had to unbolt
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the door. There, he said, as he pulled and patted the newspaper
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till it really and darkly filled the heart shaped holes. Now it will be
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quite dark. And again it wasn't long. Dusty rays of light came through
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the cracks where the hinges of the shutters were. Newspapers were no good for
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them. The door had to be unbolted, and missus Hornysett found she was
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sitting in a little low chair at the back door, plucking a white chicken.
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The sight of the little white feathers floating fluffing above brought wonderful memories to
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Edred, but he only said, I say, you haven't any old curtains,
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have you? Thick ones or thin if they were red. Missus Honeyset
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laid the chickens down among his white feathers and went to chest of drawers that
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stood in the kitchen. Here you are, she said, handing out the
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two old red velvet curtains, with which she disappeared. But he was back
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again quite quickly. You haven't got a hammer, I suppose, said he.
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The dresser drawer yielded a hammer and Edrith took it away to return almost
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at once with I suppose there aren't any tacks, I suppose, said missus
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honeyst laughing. There ain't much sense locking that steel room door on the inside,
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when it ain't me that keeps sola popping in, but you that keeps
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all a poppin out. However, she gave him the tax rusty ones in
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a damp screw of paper when he had hammered his fingers a good deal,
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and the tax a little. The tax consented to hold up the curtain,
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or the curtain condescended to be held up by the tax. And now said
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Ydred, shutting the door. It really is dark, he meant, But
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of course it wasn't. There was a gap under the door so wide,
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as Elfrida said that you could have almost crawled through it. That meant another
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appeal to missus Honeyset for another curtain, And this time missus Honeyset told him
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to go along with him for a little boret and threw a handful of downy,
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soft white feathers at him. But she laughed too, and gave him
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the curtain, and at last it really was dark, And then they had
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to unbolt the door again, because Elfrida had forgotten where she had put the
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matches. You will readily understand that after all this preparation, the children were
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at the last point of impatience, and everything seemed to go slowly. The
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lamp with the red shade burned up presently, and then the four pie dishes
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were filled with water that looked pink in that strange light. One good thing,
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said Edred. The hypo has had time to melt, and now there
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was careful snipping, and long ribbons of black paper curled unheeded round the legs
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of the operators. I wish we were born photographers like the man who took
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aunt Edith and you on the beach with the donkey, said Edrid nervously,
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as he began to pass the film in and out of the water in pie
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dish number one. Oh be sure there are no air bubbles, said Elfrida.
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You might let me do some of it. You shall do the next
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one, said Edred, almost holding his breath. Dear reader, do you
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recall the agitating moment when you pass the film through the hypol and hold it
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up to the light and nothing happens. Do you remember the painful wonder whether
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you may have forgotten to set the shutter, or whether you have got hold
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of an unexposed film by mistake. Your breath comes with difficulty, your fingers
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feel awkward, and the film is unnaturally slippery. You dip it into the
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hypo bath again and draw it through and through with a calmness of despair.
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I don't believe it's coming out at all, you say, And then comes
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the glorious moment when you hold it up again to the red light and murmur
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rapturously. Ah, it is beginning to show. If you will kindly remember
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all the emms of those exciting moments on an occasion, let us say,
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when you had not had your camera very long, Then multiply by seven million,
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add x an unknown quantity of an emotion quite different from anything you have
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ever felt, and you will have some idea what Edred and Elfrida felt when
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the first faint, gray, formless patches began to appear on the film.
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But you might multiply till you had used up the multiplication table and had ixies
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as long as you could afford them, And yet never imagine the rapture with
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which the two children saw the perfect development of the six little perfect pictures,
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for they were perfect. They were perfect pictures of arden Castle at the time
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when it too was perfect, no broken arches, no crumbling wall, but
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every part neat and clear cut as they had seen it when they went into
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the past that was three hundred years ago. They were equally fortunate with the
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second film, it too had its six faultless pictures of Ardencastle three hundred years
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ago. Only just before the moment which was the right moment for taking the
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film out of the hyperbath and beginning to wash it, a tiny white feather
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fell out of Edred's hair into the dish. It was so tiny that in
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that dim light he did not notice it, and it did not stick to
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the film or do any of those things which you might have feared if you
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had seen the little white thing flutter down. It may have been the feathers
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doing I don't know. I just tell you the thing as it happened.
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Of course, you know that films have to be pinned up to dry well.
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The first film was pinned on the right hand panel of the door,
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and the second film was pinned on the left hand panel of the door,
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And when it came to the third, the one that had had the little
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white feather dropped near it. There was nothing wooden left to pinito, for
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the walls were of stone, nothing wooden except the shutters, and it was
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spinned across these. It doesn't matter, said Edred, because we needn't open
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the shutters till it's dry. And with that he stuck in four pins at
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his four corners and turned to blow out the lamp and unbolt the door.
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He meant to do this, but the door, as a matter of fact,
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wasn't bolted at all, because Edith had forgotten to do it when he
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came back with the dusters, so he couldn't have unbolted it anyway. But
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he could blow out the red sided lamp, and hit did, and then
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the wonderful thing happened. Of course, the room ought to have been quite
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dark, I'm sure enough trouble had been taken to make it so. But
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it wasn't the window. The window. The shutters were the shutters that the
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film was pinned on, the film on which the little white feather had fallen,
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the little white feather that had settled on Edrid's hair when Missus Honyset was
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plucking that chicken at the back door. That window now showed as a broad
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oblong of light, and in that broad oblong was a sort of shining,
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a faint, sparkling movement, like the movement of the light on the sheet
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of a cinematograph before the pictures begin to show. Oh, said Elfrida,
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catching at Edred's hand, What she did catch was his hair. She felt
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her way down his arm, and so caught what she had meant to catch,
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and held it fast. It's more magic, said Edred, ungratefully.
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I do wish. Oh hush, said Elfrida. Look, oh, look,
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the light broad oblong saw suddenly changed from mere light to figures, to
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movement. It was a living picture, rather like a cinematograph, but much
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more like something else. The something else that it was more like was life.
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It seemed as though the window had been opened, as though they could
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see through it into the world of light and sunshine and blue sky, the
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world where things happened. There was the castle, and there were people going
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across the drawbridge, men with sacks on their backs, and a man with
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a silver chain round his neck and a tall stick in his hand was standing
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under the great gateway, telling them where to take the sacks, and a
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car drew up with casks, and they were rolled across the drawbridge and under
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the tall arch of the gate tower. The men were dressed. Then something
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blinked and the scene changed. It was indoors, now a long room with
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many pictures on one side of it, and many windows on the other.
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A lady in a large white collar and beautiful long curls bery like Aunt Edith,
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was laying fine dresses in a chest. A gentleman, also with long
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hair and with a good deal of lace about his collar and cuffs, was
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putting jugs and plates of gold and silver into another chest. And servants kept
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bringing more golden, grand things, and more and more. Edrit and Elfrida
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did not say a word. They couldn't. What they were looking at was
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far too thrilling. But in each heart the same words were uttered, that's
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the treasure, And each mind held the same thought. If it only goes
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on till the treasure's hidden, we shall see where they put it, and
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then we can go and fire it. I think myself that the white moldiwarp
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was anxious to help a little. I believe it had arranged the whole of
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this exhibition, so that the children might get an idea of the whereabouts of
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the treasure, and so ceased to call on it at all hours of the
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day and night, with a sort of poetry which even a mole must see
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not to be so very good. However this may be, it was a
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wonderful show. One seemed to see things better, somehow, like that through
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the window that looked into the past, than one did who was really in
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the past, taking an active part in what was going on. There appeared,
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at any rate, to be no doubt that this really was the treasure,
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and still less that it was a treasure both plentiful and picturesque. Quickly
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and more quickly, the beautiful, rich things were being packed into the chests,
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more and more pale, looked the lady, more and more anxious the
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gentleman. The lady was taking from her waiting woman little boxes and bundles with
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which the woman's apron was filled, and the chest before which she was kneeling
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was nearly full when the door at the end of the gallery opened suddenly,
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and Elfrida and Edred, in the dark in the still room, were confronted
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with the spectacle of themselves coming down the long picture gallery towards that group of
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chests and treasure and hurried human people. They saw themselves in blue silk and
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lace and black velvet, and they saw on their own faces fear and love
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and the wonder what was to happen next. They saw themselves embraced by the
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grown ups, who were quite plainly father and mother. They saw themselves speak,
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and the grown up's reply, I'd give all my pocket money for a
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year to hear what they're saying. Edred told himself that daddy is just like
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my daddy, Elfrida was telling herself, And just like the daddy in the
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tower, that was so like my own daddy. Then the children in the
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picture kneel down, and the daddy in the picture laid his hands on their
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heads, and the children out of the picture bent their own heads there in
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the dark still room, for they knew what was happening in the picture.
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Elfrida even half held out her arms, but it was no good. Again,
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the scene changed. A chest was being carried by four men who strained
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and staggered under its weight. They were carrying it along a vaulted passage by
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ropes that passed under the chest and over their shoulders. Every now and then
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they set it down and stretched and wiped their faces, and the picture kept
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on changing, so that the children seemed to be going with the men down
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a flight of stairs into a spacious hall full of men, all talking and
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very busy with armor and big boots. And then across the courtyard full of
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more men, very busy too, polishing axes and things that looked like spears,
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cleaning muskets, and fitting new flints to pistols, and sharpening swords on
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a big grindstone. Edred would have loved to stay and watch them do these
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things. But they and their work were gone quite quickly, and the chest
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and the men who carried it were going under an archway ere. One of
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the men wanted to rest again, but the others said it was not worth
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while they were almost there. It was quite plain that they said this,
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though no sound could be heard. Now we shall really know, said Dre
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to himself. Elfrida squeezed his hand. That was just what she was thinking.
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Two the men stopped at a door, knocked, knocked again, and
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yet once more, and curiously enough, the children in the still room could
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hear the sound of the knocking quite plainly, though they heard nothing else.
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The men looked at each other across the chest that they had set down.
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Then one man set his shoulder to the door. There was a scrunching sound,
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and the picture disappeared went out, and there were the shutters with the
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film pinned across them and behind them. The door opened, and Missus Honey
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said, telling them that dinner, which was roast rabbit and a bold hand
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of pork, would be cold if they didn't make haste and come along.
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Oh, missus Honey, said, said Elfrida, with deep feeling. You
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are too bad, you really are. I hope I've not spoiled the photos,
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said Missus Honeysett. But I did not three times, and you was
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that quiet. I was afraid something had happened to you, poisoned yourselves without
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thinking, or something of that. It's too bad, said Edred bitterly.
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It's much too bad. I don't want any dinner. I don't want anything.
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Everything spoiled, perhaps, said Missus hanneyst patiently. I might have on
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knocking longer, only I thought the door was bolted. You did so keep
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on a bolting of it at the beginning, didn't you? So? I
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just got hold of the handle to try and it come open in my hand.
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Come along, Levey, don't bear malice now I didn't go for to
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do it. And I'll get you some more or whatever it is that's spoilt,
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and you can take some more photos tomorrow. You might have known we
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were all right, said Edred, still furious. But both thought it only
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fair to say it. It wasn't the photographs that were spoiled. And they
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said it at the same moment. Then what was it, said missus Honeyset,
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And do come along, for godness sake and eat your dinner while it's
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hot. It was. It was a different sort of picture, said Elfrida
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with a gulp. And it was a pity. Never mind, love,
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said missus Honeyset, who was as kind as a grandmother. And I can't
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say more than that, there's a lovely surprise coming by and by for good
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little girls and boys, and the rabbit'll be stone cold if you don't make
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haste. Leastways it would have been if I hadn't thought so popp it in
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the oven when I came to call you, knowing full well what your hands
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would be like after all that messing about with poisoning dishes, and if I
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was your aunt, art forbid it done right? And now come along and
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wash your hands, and don't let's have any more nonsense about it. Do
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you hear? I dare say you noticed that missus Honeysett was quite cross at
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the end of this speech, and quite coaxing and kind at the beginning.
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She had just talked herself into being cross. It's quite easy, I dare
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say, you have often done it. It was a silent dinner, the
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first silent meal since the children had come to arden Castle. You can judge
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of Edrid's feelings when I tell you that he felt as though the rabbit would
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choke him and refused a second helping of gooseberry pie with heart falt sincerity.
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Elfrida did not eat so much as usual either. It really was a bitter
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disappointment. You have been so near seeing where the treasure was. And then
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just because they hadn't happened to bolt the door that last time, all was
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in vain. Missus Honneysett thought they were sulking about a silly try rifle,
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and nearly said so when Edred refused the pie. It was at the end
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of the dinner that Elfrida, as she got down from her chair, saw
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Missus Honeyst's face and saw how different it looked from the kind face that she
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usually wore. She went over to her, very slowly and very quickly,
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threw her arms round her and kissed her. I'm sorry we've been so piggy,
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she said. It's not your fault that you're not clever enough to know
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about pictures than things, is it. If missus Honeyset hadn't been a perfect
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dear, this apology would have been worse than none. But she was a
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perfect dear, So she laughed and hugged Elfrida, and somehow Edred got caught
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into the hug and the love, and the three were friends again. The
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sky was blue and the sun began to shine. End of Section fourteen.