‘Perhaps it isn’t it,’ suggested Charlotte. ‘Then he’d be furious perhaps.’
‘We’ll soon see.’ Charles reached out a hand. ‘Let’s have a squint. It ought to be all magic and Abracadabra and crossed triangles like in Ingoldsby Legends.’
‘I’ll have first look any way,’ said Caroline. ‘I found it.’
‘I found it,’ said Charles. ‘You only picked it up.’
‘You only dropped it. Oh, bother——’ she had opened the book, and now let her hands fall, still holding it.
‘Bother what?’ asked the others.
‘It isn’t English. It’s French or Latin or something. Isn’t that just like things! Here, you can look.’
Charles took the book. ‘It’s Latin,’ he said. ‘I could read it if I knew a little more Latin. I can read some of it as it is. I know quam, or apud, and rara. Let’s take it to the Uncle.’
‘Oh no,’ said Caroline. ‘Let’s find out what it is, first.’