Deptford been then—all this time—while those other kids were here pretending to be them?" Dickie asked.
"Oh, they were somewhere else—in Julius Cæsar's time, to be exact—but they don't know it, and never will know it. They haven't the charm. To them it will be like a dream that they have forgotten."
"But the swans and the carriages and the voice and jumping out of the window . . . ." Dickie urged.
"The swans were white magic—the white Mouldiwarp of Arden did all that."
Then she told him all about the white Mouldiwarp of Arden, and how it was the badge of Arden's house—its picture being engraved on Tinkler, and how it had done all sorts of magic for Edred and Elfrida, and would do still more.
Dickie and the nurse sat most of the night talking by the replenished fire, for the tale seemed endless. Dickie learned that the Edred and Elfrida who belonged to his own times had a father who was supposed to be dead. " I am forbidden to tell them," said the nurse, "but thou canst help them, and shalt."
"I should like that," said Dickie—"but can't I see the white Mouldiwarp?"
"I dare not—even I dare not call it again to-night," the nurse owned. "But maybe I will teach thee a little spell to bring it on another day. It is an angry little beast at times, but kindly, and hard-working."
Then Dickie told her about the beginnings of
