The golden woman leant forward, resting her hand intimately on the Faun Man’s shoulder. She was interested and her face became gentle. “Harry’s friends! But we’re in disgrace with Harry. He’s run away with Canute because—because he’s jealous. He wants his big brother all to himself—— What shall we do with them, Lorie? I think we’ll have to make them our pals.”
Kay had been hiding behind Peter in the doorway. She looked round him timidly, still ready for escape. “But—but will Harry come back?”
The concern in her voice made the woman clap her hands. “He always comes back. Men always do come back, don’t they, Lorie?” She slipped her feet off the couch and came across the room. “What a dear little girl!”
Kay looked up at her, willing to be frightened. Then her arms reached up and the woman stooped over her. “You’re nice,” she said.
“Have you been here often?” It was the Faun Man speaking.
Peter thought. He tried to reckon. “Not often, but several times.”
The Faun Man took him by the shoulders, looking down on him. Seen that way, from below, he seemed tremendously high. “You needn’t be afraid, young ‘un; I’m not angry. You won’t get Harry into a row. Where d’you come from?”
“Come from!” Peter laid his fingers on the thin brown hand. “Would you mind very much if I didn’t tell? You see, Harry doesn’t know. It’s such fun—we’re just pretence people. We tricycle out from—from nowhere on a tandem, Kay and I. And then we meet Harry and leave the trike behind a hedge and go into the Haunted Wood together. You see, if Harry doesn’t know who we are, it’s almost as though we were fairies, and as though he were a fairy, and we—— You know what I mean: we meet in fairyland, and can do what we like with the world.”
The Faun Man turned his head. “Eve, did you hear that? He wants to do what he likes with the world. He’s one of us.”
But Eve had Kay on her lap and her lips were in her silky hair. Something had happened to her—something difficult to express. She had melted. With the child pressed against her bosom, she looked a mother—very young and good. As the Faun Man watched her, his eyes became tender—oddly tender.