chater ten the agician’ bk (第2/6页)

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Before she reached the last door on the left，Lucy was beginning to wonder whether the corridor had grown longer since she began her journey and whether this was part of the magic of the house．But she got to it at last．And the door was open．

It was a large room with three big windows and it was lined from floor to ceiling with books；more books than Lucy had ever seen before，tiny little books，fat and dumpy books，and books bigger than any church Bible you have ever seen，all bound in leather and smelling old and learned and magical．But she knew from her instructions that she need not bother about any of these． For the Book，the Magic Book，was lying on a reading-desk in the very middle of the room．She saw she would have to read it standingand anyway there were no chairsand also that she would have to stand with her back to the door while she read it．So at once she turned to shut the door．

It wouldn’t shut．

Some people may disagree with Lucy about this，but I think she was quite right．She said she wouldn’t have minded if she could have shut the door，but that it was unpleasant to have to stand in a place like that with an open doorway right behind your back．I should have felt just the same．But there was nothing else to be done．

One thing that worried her a good deal was the size of the Book．The Chief Voice had not been able to give her any idea whereabouts in the Book the spell for making things visible came． He even seemed rather surprised at her asking．He expected her to begin at the beginning and go on till she came to it；obviously he had never thought that there was any other way of finding a place in a book．“But it might take me days and weeks ！”said Lucy， looking at the huge volume，“and I feel already as if I’d been in this place for hours．”

She went up to the desk and laid her hand on the book；her fingers tingled when she touched it as if it were full of electricity． She tried to open it but couldn’t at first；this，however，was only because it was fastened by two leaden clasps，and when she had undone these it opened easily enough．And what a book it was ！

It was written，not printed；written in a clear，even hand，with thick downstrokes and thin upstrokes，very large，easier than print，and so beautiful that Lucy stared at it for a whole minute and forgot about reading it．The paper was crisp and smooth and a nice smell came from it；and in the margins，and round the big coloured capital letters at the beginning of each spell，there were pictures．

There was no title page or title；the spells began straight away，and at first there was nothing very important in them．They were cures for wartsby washing your hands in moonlight in a silver basinand toothache and cramp，and a spell for taking a swarm of bees．The picture of the man with toothache was so lifelike that it would have set your own teeth aching if you looked at it too long， and the golden bees which were dotted all round the fourth spell looked for a moment as if they were really flying．

Lucy could hardly tear herself away from that first page， but when she turned over，the next was just as interesting．“But I must get on，”she told herself．And on she went for about thirty pages which，if she could have remembered them，would have taught her how to find buried treasure，how to remember things forgotten，how to forget things you wanted to forget，how to tell whether anyone was speaking the truth，how to call upor prevent wind，fog，snow，sleet or rain，how to produce enchanted sleeps and how to give a man an ass’s headas they did to poor Bottom. And the longer she read the more wonderful and more real the pictures became．

Then she came to a page which was such a blaze of pictures that one hardly noticed the writing．Hardly-but she did notice the first words．They were，An infallible spell to make beautiful her that uttereth it beyond the lot of mortals．Lucy peered at the pictures with her face close to the page，and though they had seemed crowded and muddlesome before，she found she could now see them quite clearly．The first was a picture of a girl standing at a reading-desk reading in a huge book．And the girl was dressed exactly like Lucy．In the next picture Lucyfor the girl in the picture was Lucy herselfwas standing up with her mouth open and a rather terrible expression on her face，chanting or reciting something．In the third picture the beauty beyond the lot of mortals had come to her．It was strange，considering how small the pictures had looked at first，that the Lucy in the picture now seemed quite as big as the real Lucy；and they looked into each other’s eyes and the real Lucy looked away after a few minutes because she was dazzled by the beauty of the other Lucy；though she could still see a sort of likeness to herself in that beautiful face． And now the pictures came crowding on her thick and fast．She saw herself throned on high at a great tournament in Calormen and all the Kings of the world fought because of her beauty．After that it turned from tournaments to real wars，and all Narnia and Archenland，Telmar and Calormen，Galma and Terebinthia， were laid waste with the fury of the kings and dukes and great lords who fought for her favour．Then it changed and Lucy，still beautiful beyond the lot of mortals，was back in England．And Susanwho had always been the beauty of the familycame home from America．The Susan in the picture looked exactly like the real Susan only plainer and with a nasty expression．And Susan was jealous of the dazzling beauty of Lucy，but that didn’t matter a bit because no one cared anything about Susan now．