"Do you think you will go back?" he asked.
She replied with another question.
"Have you found out what my treasure is, daddy?"
"I believe I could guess," he answered. "But you have found a good many things already, apart from treasure, haven't you, little daughter?"
She sat silent and looked into the fire.
"I suppose I have," she said.
"We won't enumerate them," said the Student. "It spoils things entirely, sometimes, to put them into words. But I will tell you something an old writer once said. He was talking of that particular kind of treasure which men call Truth; and he said that if he were offered Truth itself on the one hand, and the everlasting search for it on the other hand, he would choose the search. I expect you can understand that now; for you have seen what has happened to you over your own search."
"I think I can understand," said Fiona. "I must be growing older, daddy."
"You'll be too old soon to go back to Fairyland at all, little daughter," said the Student. "If you are going, you will have to go at once."