“You make everything so difficult,” said the Mouldiwarp, more crossly than ever. “That’s the worst of people who think they know a lot and really only know a little, and pretend they know everything. If I’d come the easy poetry way, I could have taken them back as easily. But now—— Well, it can’t be helped. I’ll take them back, of course, but it’ll be a way they won’t like. They’ll have to go on to the top of the roof and jump off.”
“I don’t believe that is necessary,” said the witch nurse.
“All right,” said the Mouldiwarp, “get them away yourself then,” and it actually began to disappear.
“No, no!” said Elfrida, “we’ll do anything you say.”
“There’s a foot of snow on the roof,” said the witch nurse.
“So much the better,” said the Mouldiwarp, “so much the better. You ought to know that.”
“You think yourself very clever,” said the nurse.
“Not half so clever as I am,” said the Mouldiwarp, rather unreasonably Elfrida thought. “There!” it added sharply as a great hammering at the front door shattered the quiet of the night. “There, to the roof for your lives! And I’m not at all sure that it’s not too late.”
The knocking was growing louder and louder.