"You say that she's happy. I suggest that she is merely snug. That's what a dormouse calls happiness."
"Well, there's a good deal of the dormouse in Lucy," Vera said. "If you stroke her she shines."
"Silence!" he cried sharply out. "You don't know anything at all. I have had her radiant—like a moonstone. When am I to see her?"
"I'll tell her that you want to see her—but it would be reasonable if she refused."
"She won't refuse," he said.
James must be told, of course. He took it quietly. "Yes, on the whole—yes. I don't think you can refuse him that. It will try you."
"It will be horrid—but anyhow you know everything he can say."
"He doesn't know that I do. He'll build on that."
"Build!" said Lucy quickly. "What sort of building?"