The Story of the Amulet, E. Nesbit [free ebook reader for iphone txt] 📗

rubbed his other hand across his forehead in the way they were so used to.

“Dreams, dreams!” he said; “old age is full of them!”

“You’ve been in dreams with us before now,” said Robert, “don’t you remember?”

“I do, indeed,” said he. The room had many more books than the Fitzroy Street room, and far more curious and wonderful Assyrian and Egyptian objects. “The most wonderful dreams I ever had had you in them.”

“Where,” asked Cyril, “did you get that thing in your hand?”

“If you weren’t just a dream,” he answered, smiling, “you’d remember that you gave it to me.”

“But where did we get it?” Cyril asked eagerly.

“Ah, you never would tell me that,” he said, “You always had your little mysteries. You dear children! What a difference you made to that old Bloomsbury house! I wish I could dream you oftener. Now you’re grown up you’re not like you used to be.”

“Grown up?” said Anthea.

The learned gentleman pointed to a frame with four photographs in it.

“There you are,” he said.

The children saw four grown-up people’s portraits⁠—two ladies, two gentlemen⁠—and looked on them with loathing.

“Shall we grow up like that?” whispered Jane. “How perfectly horrid!”

“If we’re ever like that, we shan’t know it’s horrid, I expect,” Anthea with some insight whispered back. “You see, you get used to yourself while you’re changing. It’s⁠—it’s being so sudden makes it seem so frightful now.”

The learned gentleman was looking at them with wistful kindness. “Don’t let me undream you just yet,” he said. There was a pause.

“Do you remember when we gave you that Amulet?” Cyril asked suddenly.

“You know, or you would if you weren’t a dream, that it was on the 3rd December, 1905. I shall never forget that day.”

“Thank you,” said Cyril, earnestly; “oh, thank you very much.”

“You’ve got a new room,” said Anthea, looking out of the window, “and what a lovely garden!”

“Yes,” said he, “I’m too old now to care even about being near the Museum. This is a beautiful place. Do you know⁠—I can hardly believe you’re just a dream, you do look so exactly real. Do you know⁠ ⁠…” his voice dropped, “I can say it to you, though, of course, if I said it to anyone that wasn’t a dream they’d call me mad; there was something about that Amulet you gave me⁠—something very mysterious.”

“There was that,” said Robert.

“Ah, I don’t mean your pretty little childish mysteries about where you got it. But about the thing itself. First, the wonderful dreams I used to have, after you’d shown me the first half of it! Why, my book on Atlantis, that I did, was the beginning of my fame and my fortune, too. And I got it all out of a dream! And then, ‘Britain at the Time of the Roman Invasion’⁠—that was only a pamphlet, but it explained a lot of things people hadn’t understood.”

“Yes,” said Anthea, “it would.”

“That was the beginning. But after you’d given me the whole of the Amulet⁠—ah, it was generous of you!⁠—then, somehow, I didn’t need to theorize, I seemed to know about the old Egyptian civilization. And they can’t upset my theories”⁠—he rubbed his thin hands and laughed triumphantly⁠—“they can’t, though they’ve tried. Theories, they call them, but they’re more like⁠—I don’t know⁠—more like memories. I know I’m right about the secret rites of the Temple of Amen.”

“I’m so glad you’re rich,” said Anthea. “You weren’t, you know, at Fitzroy Street.”

“Indeed I wasn’t,” said he, “but I am now. This beautiful house and this lovely garden⁠—I dig in it sometimes; you remember, you used to tell me to take more exercise? Well, I feel I owe it all to you⁠—and the Amulet.”

“I’m so glad,” said Anthea, and kissed him. He started.

“That didn’t feel like a dream,” he said, and his voice trembled.

“It isn’t exactly a dream,” said Anthea softly, “it’s all part of the Amulet⁠—it’s a sort of extra special, real dream, dear Jimmy.”

“Ah,” said he, “when you call me that, I know I’m dreaming. My little sister⁠—I dream of her sometimes. But it’s not real like this. Do you remember the day I dreamed you brought me the Babylonish ring?”

“We remember it all,” said Robert. “Did you leave Fitzroy Street because you were too rich for it?”

“Oh, no!” he said reproachfully. “You know I should never have done such a thing as that. Of course, I left when your old Nurse died and⁠—what’s the matter!”

“Old Nurse dead?” said Anthea. “Oh, no!”

“Yes, yes, it’s the common lot. It’s a long time ago now.”

Jane held up the Amulet in a hand that twittered.

“Come!” she cried, “oh, come home! She may be dead before we get there, and then we can’t give it to her. Oh, come!”

“Ah, don’t let the dream end now!” pleaded the learned gentleman.

“It must,” said Anthea firmly, and kissed him again.

“When it comes to people dying,” said Robert, “goodbye! I’m so glad you’re rich and famous and happy.”

“Do come!” cried Jane, stamping in her agony of impatience.

And they went. Old Nurse brought in tea almost as soon as they were back in Fitzroy Street. As she came in with the tray, the girls rushed at her and nearly upset her and it.

“Don’t die!” cried Jane, “oh, don’t!” and Anthea cried, “Dear, ducky, darling old Nurse, don’t die!”

“Lord, love you!” said Nurse, “I’m not agoing to die yet a while, please Heaven! Whatever on earth’s the matter with the chicks?”

“Nothing. Only don’t!”

She put the tray down and hugged the girls in turn. The boys thumped her on the back with heartfelt affection.

“I’m as well as ever I was in my life,” she said. “What nonsense about dying! You’ve been a sitting too long in the dusk, that’s what it is. Regular blind man’s holiday. Leave go of me, while I light the gas.”

The yellow light illuminated four pale faces.

“We do love you so,” Anthea went on, “and we’ve made you a picture to show you how we love you. Get it out, Squirrel.”

The glazed testimonial was dragged out from under the