They were indeed discovered.
They found themselves looking down into an attic, which was also a lumber-room. It had boxes and broken chairs, old fenders and picture-frames, and rag-bags hanging from nails.
In the middle of the floor was a box, open, half full of clothes. Other clothes lay on the floor in neat piles. In the middle of the piles of clothes sat a lady, very fat indeed, with her feet sticking out straight in front of her. And it was she who had screamed, and who, in fact, was still screaming.
‘Don’t!’ cried Jane, ‘please don’t! We won’t hurt you.’
‘Where are the rest of your gang?’ asked the lady, stopping short in the middle of a scream.
‘The others have gone on, on the wishing carpet,’ said Jane truthfully.
‘The wishing carpet?’ said the lady.
‘Yes,’ said Jane, before Robert could say ‘You shut up!’ ‘You must have read about it. The Phoenix is with them.’
Then the lady got up, and picking her way carefully between the piles of clothes she got to the door and through it. She shut it behind her, and the two children could hear her calling ‘Septimus! Septimus!’ in a loud yet frightened way.
‘Now,’ said Robert quickly; ‘I’ll drop first.’