to Arden.

The Ardens had gone back to the Castle, and Dickie with them, and old
Beale was smoking in his usual chair by his front door--so there was no
one to hear Beale's compliment to his bride. He came behind her and put
his arm round her as she was dusting the mantelpiece. "Go on with you,"
said the new Mrs. Beale; "any one 'ud think we was courting."

"So we be," said Beale, and kissed 'Melia for the first time. "We got
all our courtin' to do now. See? I might a-picked an' choosed," he added
reflectively, "but there--I dare say I might a-done worse."

'Melia blushed with pleasure at the compliment, and went on with the
dusting.

* * * * *

It was as the Ardens walked home over the short turf that Lord Arden
said to his sister, "I wish all the cottages about here were like
Beale's. It didn't cost so very much. If I could only buy back the rest
of the land, I'd show some people what a model village is like. Only I
can't buy it back. He wants far more than we can think of managing."

And Dickie heard what he said. That was why, when next he was alone with
his cousins, he began--

"Look here--you aren't allowed to use your magic any more, to go and
look for the treasure. But _I_ am. And I vote we go and look for it. And
then your father can buy back the old lands, and build the new cottages
and mend up Arden Castle, and make it like it used to be."

"Oh, let's," said Elfrida, with enthusiasm. But Edred unexpectedly
answered, "I don't know." The three children were sitting in the window
of the gate-tower looking down on the green turf of the Castle yard.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Elfrida asked briskly.

"I _mean_ I don't know," said Edred stolidly; "we're all right as we
are, _I_ think. I used to think I liked magic and things. But if you
come to think of it something horrid happened to us every single time we
went into the past with our magic. We were always being chased or put in
prison or bothered somehow or other. The only really nice thing was when
we saw the treasure being hidden, because that looked like a picture and
we hadn't to do anything. And we don't know where the treasure is,
anyhow. And I don't like adventures nearly so much as I used to think I
did. We're all right and jolly as we are. What I say is, 'Don't let's.'"

This cold water damped the spirit of the others only for a few minutes.

"You know," Elfrida explained to Dickie, "our magic took us t