>"'I'VE THOUGHT OF NOTHING ELSE FOR A MONTH,' SAID DICKIE"
"You shan't," said Elfrida. "I'll tell father."
"I've thought of all that," Dickie said, "and I'm going to ask the Mouldiwarps to make it so that you can't tell. I can't stay here and feel that I'm turning you and your father out. And think what Edred did for me, in this very cave. No, my mind's made up."
It was, and they could not shake it.
"But we shan't ever see you again."
Dickie admitted that this was so.
"And oh, Dickie," said Elfrida, with deep concern, "you won't ever see us again either. Think of that. Whatever will you do without us?"
"That," said Dickie, "won't be so bad as you think. The Elfrida and Edred who live in those times are as like you as two pins. No, they aren't really! Oh, don't make it any harder. I've got to do it."
There was that in his voice which silenced and convinced them. They felt that he had, indeed, to do it.
"I could never be happy here—never," he went on; "but I shall be happy there. And you'll never forget me, though there are one or two things I want you to forget. And I'm going now."