She paused in the doorway. Could it be true that the Uncle was playing? No, it could not.
‘Thank you,’ said the Uncle; ‘I feel safer on the wreck. I’m glad you’ve been having a game,’ he said, blinking kindly at her.
‘I hope you don’t mind the room being a little untidy, uncle,’ said Caroline. For, indeed, the others had decided that the clearing-up bargain was off, and had gone on with the game.
‘Not at all, if you don’t break things,’ he said a little nervously.
‘We’re most awfully careful,’ Charles explained. ‘You see we keep the raft on the carpet for fear of scratching it.’
‘I think it polishes it, being dragged about on this Turkish sea,’ Charlotte told them.
‘And so you’re not dull, even on this rainy day? I feared you might find it wearisome.’
‘Oh no,’ said every one; ‘it’s the loveliest house in the world.’ And Charlotte asked him kindly how his magic was getting on.
‘Poorly,’ he said; ‘poorly. And yours?’
There was a silence, full of the thoughts of the magic of fern-seed and of the great Rupert-secret.