"Yes; but I couldn't do it, my good child. Being in the Sixth doesn't make me a magician."
"We tried a little bit at home," pursued Edie. "We had a book that told us how; only I never could manage it quickly. People always saw how I did it."
"Rona's the girl for that," suggested Hattie Goodwin.
"Is she? Come here, Rona, I want you. Can you really and truly do conjuring?"
"Oh, not properly!" laughed Rona. "But when I was on board ship there was a gentleman who was very clever at it, and I and some boys I'd made friends with were tremendously keen at learning. We got him to show us a few easy tricks, and we were always trying them. I could manage it just a little, but I'm out of practice now. You'd see in a second how it was done, I'm afraid."
"Oh, do show us, just for fun!"
"What do you want to see?"
"Oh, anything!"
"The vanishing coin?"