e
longing to hear each other's adventures.'

'You first,' said Mr. Noah to the Lord High Islander, who stepped ashore
very gravely.

When Helen saw him come forward, she suddenly kissed Philip, and as the
Lord High Islander's foot touched the shore of that enchanted island,
she simply and suddenly vanished.

'Oh!' cried Philip, 'I wish I hadn't.' And his mouth trembled as girls'
mouths do if they are going to cry.

'The more a present costs you, the more it's worth,' said Mr. Noah.
'This has cost you so much, it's the most splendid present in the
world.'

'I know,' said Philip; 'make yourselves at home, won't you?' he just
managed to say. And then he found he could not say any more. He just
turned and went into the forest. And when he was alone in a green glade,
he flung himself down on his face and lay a long time without moving. It
had been such a happy week. And he was so tired of adventures.

When at last he sniffed with an air of finality and raised his head, the
first thing he saw was Lucy, sitting quite still with her back to him.

'Hullo!' he said rather crossly, 'what are you doing here?'

'Saying the multiplication table,' said Lucy promptly and turned her
head, 'so as not even to think about you. And I haven't even once
turned round. I knew you wanted to be alone. But I wanted to be here
when you'd done being alone. See? I've got something to say to you.'

'Fire ahead,' said Philip, still grumpy.

'I think you're perfectly splendid,' said Lucy very seriously, 'and I
want it to be real pax for ever. And I'll help you in the rest of the
adventures. And if you're cross, I'll try not to mind. Napoleon was
cross sometimes, I believe,' she added pensively, 'and Julius Caesar.'

'Oh, that's all right,' said Philip very awkwardly.

'Then we're going to be real chums?'

'Oh yes, if you like. Only--I don't mind just this once; and it was
decent of you to come and sit there with your back to me--only I hate
gas.'

'Yes,' said Lucy obediently, 'I know. Only sometimes you feel you must
gas a little or burst of admiration. And I've got your proper clothes in
a bundle. I've been carrying them about ever since the islanders' castle
was washed away. Here they are.'

She produced the bundle. And this time Philip was really touched.

'Now I _do_ call that something like,' he said. 'The seaweed dress is
all right here, but you never know what you may have to go through when
you're doing adventures. There migh