"I think you're right," said Glan. "But there's more to come--though we'll talk about those to-morrow. You must be too tired to-night. I am very glad you got here all right, I was delayed in coming to meet you--I felt sure, somehow, that you'd decide to stay, after you had heard Old Nancy's story. And anyway, I should have been half-way down the hill to meet you, only so many people stopped me to know if the bad news was true--that the Pumpkin had returned--and there were such a lot of things to see to, and I had to run home to tell Aunt Janet to get things ready for you--in case you came back with me, so that I reached the gate just in time to let you in." He stopped a little out of breath.
They had been walking fairly quickly all this time, and the children could now see more clearly what a beautiful City they had entered. Everything glistened, a pure white, in the moonlight. Houses, walls, roofs, chimneys, front doors, gates, pavements, roads--all were white and spotlessly clean. Yet the curious part of it all was, that it was not monotonous to the eye; instead, it seemed to make a fine background for the coloured flowers and trees and dresses of the people. And to-night, the City was full of soft shadows, cast by the objects that stood in the light of the moon, Glan and the two children turned into a narrow, hilly street, down the centre of which ran a sparkling brooklet, that babbled and gurgled as it splashed over its pebbly bed. Most of the houses in this street were quaintly built, with the top part bulging out over the street. And Molly noticed as they passed that all the windows had coloured curtains--in one house all the curtains were blue, in another a deep amber shade, in another a glowing crimson, and so on--which had a very pretty effect, especially if the windows were lit from within. The white houses, the coloured curtains, and the window-boxes full of flowers that adorned each window in the street made a great impression on the children. They thought it all charming, and said so to Glan.
"The Possible World," he said, then shook his head and held up his finger. The tolling of the bell floated across to them.
"I suppose that's to warn people, isn't it?" said Jack.