help, and arranged that,
turning a corner in the lane which leads to the village, he should come
face to face with Edred and Elfrida Arden. And they looked exactly like
the Edred and Elfrida whom he had played with and quarrelled with in the
dream. He halted, leaning on his crutch, for them to come up and speak
to him. They came on, looking hard at him--the severe might have called
it staring--looked, came up to him, and passed by without a word! But he
saw them talking eagerly to each other.

Dickie was left in the lane looking after them. It was a miserable
moment. But quite quickly he roused himself. They were talking to each
other eagerly, and once Elfrida half looked round. Perhaps it was his
shabby clothes that made them not so sure whether he was the Dickie they
had known. If they did not know him it should not be his fault. He
balanced himself on one foot, beat with his crutch on the ground, and
shouted, "Hi!" and "Hullo!" as loud as he could. The other children
turned, hesitated, and came back.

"What is it?" the little girl called out; "have you hurt yourself?" And
she came up to him and looked at him with kind eyes.

"No," said Dickie; "but I wanted to ask you something."

The other two looked at him and at each other, and the boy said,
"Righto."

"You're from the Castle, aren't you?" he said. "I was wondering whether
you'd let me go down and have a look at it?"

"Of course," said the girl. "Come on."

"Wait a minute," said Dickie, nerving himself to the test. If they
didn't remember him they'd think he was mad, and never show him the
Castle. Never mind! Now for it!

"Did you ever have a tutor called Mr. Parados?" he asked. And again the
others looked at him and at each other. "Parrot-nose for short," Dickie
hastened to add; "and did you ever shovel snow on to his head and then
ride away in a carriage drawn by swans?"

"It _is_ you!" cried Elfrida, and hugged him. "Edred, it _is_ Dickie! We
were saying, _could_ it be you? Oh! Dickie darling, how did you hurt
your foot?"

Dickie flushed. "My foot's always been like that," he said, "in Nowadays
time. When we met in the magic times I was like everybody else, wasn't
I?"

Elfrida hugged him again, and said no more about the foot. Instead, she
said, "Oh, how ripping it is to really and truly find you here! We
thought you couldn't be real because we wrote a letter to you at the
address it said on that bill you gave us. And the letter came back with
'n