fresh air. I am going to make them open the
door."

He had become quite excited and his strange
eyes began to shine like stars and looked more
immense than ever.

"They have to please me," he said. "I will
make them take me there and I will let you go,
too."

Mary's hands clutched each other. Everything
would be spoiled -- everything! Dickon would
never come back. She would never again feel like
a missel thrush with a safe-hidden nest.

"Oh, don't -- don't -- don't -- don't do that!"
she cried out.

He stared as if he thought she had gone crazy!

"Why?" he exclaimed. "You said you
wanted to see it."

"I do," she answered almost with a sob in her
throat, "but if you make them open the door and
take you in like that it will never be a secret again."

He leaned still farther forward.

"A secret," he said. "What do you mean?
Tell me."

Mary's words almost tumbled over one another.

"You see -- you see," she panted, "if no one
knows but ourselves -- if there was a door, hidden
somewhere under the ivy -- if there was -- and
we could find it; and if we could slip through it

[[165]]

p164 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p165w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p166

v?