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If that room would only stay put! Really, things behaved rather queerly in Tomorrow. If she could only turn her head and see the talkers… Elizabeth gave a long sigh.

Then they came over to her bed – Miss Shirley and the man, Miss Shirley all tall and white, like a lily, looking as if she had been through some terrible experience, but with some inner radiance shining behind it all, a radiance that seemed part of the golden sunset light which suddenly flooded the room. The man was smiling down at her. Elizabeth felt that he loved her very much, and that there was some secret, tender and dear, between them which she would learn as soon as she had learned the language spoken in Tomorrow.

‘Are you feeling better, darling?’ said Miss Shirley.

‘Have I been sick?’

‘You were knocked down by a team of runaway horses on the mainland road,’ said Miss Shirley. ‘I – I wasn’t quick enough. I – I thought you were killed. I brought you right back here in the flat and your – this gentleman telephoned for a doctor and nurse.’

‘Will I die?’ said little Elizabeth.

‘No, indeed, darling! You were only stunned, and you will be all right soon… And, Elizabeth darling, this is your father.’

‘Father is in France. Am I in France too?’ Elizabeth would not have been surprised at it. Wasn’t this Tomorrow? Besides, things were still a bit wobbly.

‘Father is very much here, my sweet.’ He had such a delightful voice; you loved him for his voice. He bent and kissed her. ‘I’ve come for you. We’ll never be separated any more.’

The woman in the white cap was coming in again. Somehow Elizabeth knew whatever she had to say must be said before she got quite in.

‘Will we live together?’

‘Always,’ said Father.

‘And will Grandmother and the Woman live with us?’

‘They will not,’ said Father.

The sunset gold was fading, and the nurse was looking her disapproval. But Elizabeth didn’t care.

‘I’ve found Tomorrow,’ she said, as the nurse took Father and Miss Shirley out.

‘I’ve found a treasure I didn’t know I possessed,’ said Father, as the nurse shut the door on him. ‘And I can never thank you enough for that letter, Miss Shirley.’

‘And so,’ wrote Anne to Gilbert that night, ‘little Elizabeth’s road of mystery has led on to happiness and the end of her old world.’

14

Windy Willows

Spook’s Lane

(For the last time)

June 27

DEAREST,

I’ve come to another bend in the road. I’ve written you a good many letters in this old tower room these past three years. I suppose this is the last one I will write you for a long, long time. Because after this there won’t be any need of letters. In just a few weeks now we’ll belong to each other for ever. We’ll be together. Just think of it – being together, talking, walking, eating, dreaming, planning together, sharing each other’s wonderful moments, making a home out of our house of dreams! Our house! Doesn’t that sound ‘mystic and wonderful’, Gilbert? I’ve been building dream-houses all my life, and now one of them is going to come true. As to whom I really want to share my house of dreams with… Well, I’ll tell you that at four o’clock next year.

Three years sounded endless at the beginning, Gilbert. And now they are gone like a watch in the night. They have been very happy years – except for those first few months with the Pringles. After that life has seemed to flow by like a pleasant golden river. And my old feud with the Pringles seems like a dream. They like me now for myself; they have forgotten they ever hated me. Cora Pringle, one of the Widow Pringle’s brood, brought me a bouquet of roses yesterday, and twisted round the stems was a bit of paper bearing the legend, ‘To the sweetest teacher in the whole world.’ Fancy that for a Pringle!

Jen is broken-hearted because I am leaving. I shall watch Jen’s career with interest. She is brilliant and rather unpredictable. One thing is certain: she will have no commonplace existence. She can’t look so much like Becky Sharp for nothing.

Lewis Allen is going to McGill. Sophy Sinclair is going to Queen