《黎明踏浪號》第10章:魔法書
THE invisible people feasted their guests royally. It was very funny to see the plates and dishes coming to the table and not to see anyone carrying them. It would have been funny even if they had Moved along level with the floor, as you would expect things to do in invisible hands. But they didn't. They progressed up the long dining-hall in a series of bounds or jumps. At the highest point of each jump a dish would be about fifteen feet up in the air; then it would come down and stop quite suddenly about three feet from the floor. When the dish contained anything like soup or stew the result was rather disastrous.
"I'm beginning to feel very inquisitive about these people," whispered Eustace to Edmund. "Do you think they're human at all? More like huge grasshoppers or giant frogs, I should say."
"It does look like it," said Edmund. "But don't put the idea of the grasshoppers into Lucy's head. She's not too keen on insects; especially big ones."
The meal would have been pleasanter if it had not been so exceedingly messy, and also if the conversation had not consisted entirely of agreements. The invisible people agreed about everything. Indeed most of their remarks were the sort it would not be easy to disagree with: "What I always say is, when a chap's hungry, he likes some victuals," or "Getting dark now; always does at night," or even "Ah, you've come over the water. Powerful wet stuff, ain't it?" And Lucy could not help looking at the dark yawning entrance to the foot of the staircase - she could see it from where she sat - and wondering what she would find when she went up those stairs next morning. But it was a good meal otherwise, with mushroom soup and boiled chickens and hot boiled ham and gooseberries, redcurrants, curds, cream, milk, and mead. The others liked the mead but Eustace was sorry afterwards that he had drunk any.
When Lucy woke up next morning it was like waking up on the day of an examination or a day when you are going to the dentist. It was a lovely morning with bees buzzing in and out of her open window and the lawn outside looking very like somewhere in England. She got up and dressed and tried to talk and eat ordinarily at breakfast. Then, after being instructed by the Chief Voice about what she was to do upstairs, she bid goodbye to the others, said nothing, walked to the bottom of the stairs, and began going up them without once looking back.
It was quite light, that was one good thing. There was, indeed, a window straight ahead of her at the top of the first flight. As long as she was 9n that flight she could hear the tick-tock-tick-tock of a grandfather clock in the hall below. Then she came to the landing and had to turn to her left up the next flight; after that she couldn't hear the clock any more.
Now she had come to the top of the stairs. Lucy looked and saw a long, wide passage with a large window at the far end. Apparently the passage ran the whole length of the house. It was carved and panelled and carpeted and very many doors opened off it on each side. She stood still and couldn't hear the squeak of a mouse, or the buzzing of a fly, or the swaying of a curtain, or anything - except the beating of her own heart.
"The last doorway on the left," she said to herself. It did seem a bit hard that it should be the last. To reach it she would have to walk past room after room. And in any room there might be the magician - asleep, or awake, or invisible, or even dead. But it wouldn't do to think about that. She set out on her journey. The carpet was so thick that her feet made no noise.
"There's nothing whatever to be afraid of yet," Lucy told herself. And certainly it was a quiet, sunlit passage; perhaps a bit too quiet. It would have been nicer if there had not been strange signs painted in scarlet on the doors twisty, complicated things which obviously had a meaning and it mightn't be a very nice meaning either. It would have been nicer still if there weren't those masks hanging on the wall. Not that they were exactly ugly - or not so very ugly - but the empty eye-holes did look queer, and if you let yourself you would soon start imagining that the masks were doing things as soon as your back was turned to them.
After about the sixth door she got her first real fright. For one second she felt almost certain that a wicked little bearded face had popped out of the wall and made a grimace at her. She forced herself to stop and look at it. And it was not a face at all. It was a little mirror just the size and shape of her own face, with hair on the top of it and a beard hanging down from it, so that when you looked in the mirror your own face fitted into the hair and beard and it looked as if they belonged to you. "I just caught my own reflection with the tail of my eye as I went past," said Lucy to herself. "That was all it was. It's quite harmless." But she didn't like the look of her own face with that hair and beard, and went on. (I don't know what the Bearded Glass was for because I am not a magician.)
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 standing (and anyway there were no chairs) and 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 warts (by washing your hands in moonlight in a silver basin) and 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 up (or prevent) wind, fog, snow, sleet or rain, how to produce enchanted sleeps and how to give a man an ass's head (as 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 Lucy (for the girl in the picture was Lucy herself) was 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 Susan (who had always been the beauty of the family) came 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.
"I will say the spell," said Lucy. "I don't care. I will."
She said I don't care because she had a strong feeling that she mustn't.
But when she looked back at the opening words of the spell, there in the middle of the writing, where she felt quite sure there had been no picture before, she found the great face of a lion, of The Lion, Aslan himself, staring into hers. It was painted such a bright gold that it seemed to be coming towards her out of the page; and indeed she never was quite sure afterwards that it hadn't really moved a little. At any rate she knew the expression on his face quite well. He was growling and you could see most of his teeth. She became horribly afraid and turned over the page at once.
A little later she came to a spell which would let you know what your friends thought about you. Now Lucy had wanted very badly to try the other spell, the one that made you beautiful beyond the lot of mortals. So she felt that to make up for not having said it, she really would say this one. And all in a hurry, for fear her mind would change, she said the words (nothing will induce me to tell you what they were). Then she waited for something to happen.
As nothing happened she began looking at the pictures. And all at once she saw the very last thing she expected - a picture of a third-class carriage in a train, with two schoolgirls sitting in it. She knew them at once. They were Marjorie Preston and Anne Featherstone. Only now it was much more than a picture. It was alive. She could see the telegraph posts flicking past outside the window. Then gradually (like when the radio is "coming on") she could hear what they were saying.
"Shall I see anything of you this term?" said Anne, "or are you still going to be all taken up with Lucy Pevensie. "
"Don't know what you mean by taken up," said Marjorie.
"Oh yes, you do," said Anne. "You were crazy about her last term."
"No, I wasn't," said Marjorie. "I've got more sense than that. Not a bad little kid in her way. But I was getting pretty tired of her before the end of term."
"Well, you jolly well won't have the chance any other term!" shouted Lucy. "Two-faced little beast." But the sound of her own voice at once reminded her that she was talking to a picture and that the real Marjorie was far away in another world.
"Well," said Lucy to herself, "I did think better of her than that. And I did all sorts of things for her last term, and I stuck to her when not many other girls would. And she knows it too. And to Anne Featherstone of all people! I wonder are all my friends the same? There are lots of other pictures. No. I won't look at any more. I won't, I won't' and with a great effort she turned over the page, but not before a large, angry tear had splashed on it.
On the next page she came to a spell "for the refreshment of the spirit'. The pictures were fewer here but very beautiful. And what Lucy found herself reading was more like a story than a spell. It went on for three pages and before she had read to the bottom of the page she had forgotten that she was reading at all. She was living in the story as if it were real, and all the pictures were real too. When she had got to the third page and come to the end, she said, "That is the loveliest story I've ever read or ever shall read in my whole life. Oh, I wish I could have gone on reading it for ten years. At least I'll read it over again."
But here part of the magic of the Book came into play. You couldn't turn back. The right-hand pages, the ones ahead, could be turned; the left-hand pages could not.
"Oh, what a shame!" said Lucy. "I did so want to read it again. Well, at least I must remember it. Let's see . . . it was about . . . about . . . oh dear, it's all fading away again.
And even this last page is going blank. This is a very queer book. How can I have forgotten? It was about a cup and a sword and a tree and a green hill, I know that much. But I can't remember and what shall I do?"
And she never could remember; and ever since that day what Lucy means by a good story is a story which reminds her of the forgotten story in the Magician's Book.
She turned on and found to her surprise a page with no pictures at all; but the first words were A Spell to make hidden things visible. She read it through to make sure of all the hard words and then said it out loud. And she knew at once that it was working because as she spoke the colours came into the capital letters at the top of the page and the pictures began appearing in the margins. It was like when you hold to the fire something written in Invisible Ink and the writing gradually shows up; only instead of the dingy colour of lemon juice (which is the easiest Invisible Ink) this was all gold and blue and scarlet. They were odd pictures and contained many figures that Lucy did not much like the look of. And then she thought, "I suppose I've made everything visible, and not only the Thumpers. There might be lots of other invisible things hanging about a place like this. I'm not sure that I want to see them all."
At that moment she heard soft, heavy footfalls coming along the corridor behind her; and of course she remembered what she had been told about the Magician walking in his bare feet and making no more noise than a cat. It is always better to turn round than to have anything creeping up behind your back. Lucy did so.
Then her face lit up till, for a moment (but of course she didn't know it), she looked almost as beautiful as that other Lucy in the picture, and she ran forward with a little cry of delight and with her arms stretched out. For what stood in the doorway was Aslan himself, The Lion, the highest of all High Kings. And he was solid and real and warm and he let her kiss him and bury herself in his shining mane. And from the low, earthquake-like sound that came from inside him, Lucy even dared to think that he was purring.
"Oh, Aslan," said she, "it was kind of you to come."
"I have been here all the time," said he, "but you have just made me visible."
"Aslan!" said Lucy almost a little reproachfully. "Don't make fun of me. As if anything 1 could do would make you visible!"
"It did," said Aslan. "Do you think I wouldn't obey my own rules?"
After a little pause he spoke again.
"Child," he said, "I think you have been eavesdropping."
"Eavesdropping?"
"You listened to what your two schoolfellows were saying about you."
"Oh that? I never thought that was eavesdropping, Aslan. Wasn't it magic?"
"Spying on people by magic is the same as spying on them in any other way. And you have misjudged your friend. She is weak, but she loves you. She was afraid of the older girl and said what she does not mean."
"I don't think I'd ever be able to forget what I heard her say."
"No, you won't."
"Oh dear," said Lucy. "Have I spoiled everything? Do you mean we would have gone on being friends if it hadn't been for this - and been really great friends - all our lives perhaps- and now we never shall."
"Child," said Aslan, "did I not explain to you once before that no one is ever told what would have happened?"
"Yes, Aslan, you did," said Lucy. "I'm sorry. But please -"
"Speak on, dear heart."
"Shall I ever be able to, read that story again; the one I couldn't remember? Will you tell it to me, Aslan? Oh do, do, do."
"Indeed, yes, I will tell it to you for years and years. But now, come. We must meet the master of this house."
"我對這些人倒感到非常好奇起來了，"尤斯塔斯跟愛德蒙咬耳朵說，"你看他們究竟是不是人？我看倒更像大蚱蜢或大青蛙呢。
"看起來倒像，"愛德蒙說，"可別讓露茜想起什麼蚱蜢。她不大喜歡昆蟲，尤其是大個的。"
`這頓飯要不是弄得亂七八糟，而且話題不總是意見一致那一套，倒還要盡興些。隱身人對什麼事情都意見一致。他們的說法多半是那種難以不同意的一套"我總是說，人餓了就喜歡找點吃的，"或者"天黑了，一到晚上天總要黑，甚至還有"啊呀，你們是漂洋過海來的啊，海是很溼很溼的吧？"露茜在座位上正好看得見樓梯腳下那黑洞洞的樓梯口，不禁朝那裏看着，心裏很想知道明天早晨走上樓梯會有什麼發現。不過其他方面說來這頓飯菜還不壞，有蘑菇湯、煮熟的雞、煮熟的熱火腿、鵝莓、紅醋栗、奶酷、奶油、牛奶和蜂蜜酒。另外幾個都喜歡蜂蜜酒，不過飯後尤斯塔斯後悔有點喝醉了。
第二天早晨露茜醒來，那心情就像在考試那天或上牙醫生那兒去的早晨醒來一樣。晨光明媚，蜜蜂嗡嗡叫，在開着的窗口飛出飛進，窗外草地看上去非常像英國什麼地方。她起身梳妝，早餐時儘量和平常一樣邊談邊吃。吃完早餐，頭兒聲音吩咐她在樓上該如何行事後，她就同其他幾個告別，一言不發，徑自走到樓梯腳邊，頭也不回，開始上樓。
幸虧光線很亮，可不，第一段樓梯頭上就有一扇窗筆直對着他。她走在那段樓梯上，一直聽見下面過道上那隻高背大時鐘滴答滴答走着。待她走到樓梯臺，得往左拐到第二段樓梯，此後就再也聽不見鐘聲了。
這時露茜來到了樓上，一看只見一條又長又寬的走廊，走廊盡頭有扇大窗子。這條走廊分明跟整幢房子一樣長。走廊上有雕花和鑲嵌木板，還鋪着地毯，兩邊有好多扇門都開着。她站着一動也不動，聽不見老鼠吱吱叫，也聽不見蒼蠅嗡嗡叫，聽不見窗簾壩壩飄，什麼都聽不見——只聽見自己的心在怦怦跳。
"左邊最後一個門口。"她自言自語說。得走到最後一個門口倒有點難。要走到那兒就得一間間屋子走過去。任何一間屋子都可能有魔法師——睡着了，或是醒着，或是隱身，甚至可能死了。不過心裏想着這種事可不行。她開始她的艱苦歷程了。地毯好厚，她的腳踩上去無聲無息。
"還沒有什麼事情好害怕的呢。"露茜暗自說。這條走廊的確安靜，一片陽光，也許太安靜了。要是那些門上沒漆着猩紅的古怪符號本來還會更好些——這些符號歪歪扭扭，圖形複雜，顯然含有什麼意義，可能也不是什麼很好的意義吧。要是牆上沒掛着那些面具就更好了。倒不是說那些面具醜陋不堪——或者說不是很醜——而是面具上一個個空洞的眼窩看上去真是怪怪的，如果你由着自己瞎想，馬上就會想到自己一轉身，面具就會下手呢。
走到第六扇門之後，她才真正嚇了一跳。剎那間她幾乎認定有一張長着鬍子，邪氣十足的小臉衝出牆壁，對她做個鬼臉。她勉強站住，望着鬼臉。原來這根本不是一張臉，而是一面小鏡子，大小形狀跟她的臉恰好一樣，鏡子上邊有頭髮，下端掛着一把鬍子，所以你朝鏡子裏一看，你的臉就正好配上頭髮和鬍子，看上去像長在你頭上似的。"我只是走過時眼角一掃，看見自己的影子了，"露茜暗自說，"原來是這麼回事。一點也不礙事。"不過她並不喜歡自己的臉長着那種頭髮和鬍子，就徑自往前走。(因爲我不是魔法師，所以不知道長鬍子的鏡子派什麼用處。
露茜還沒走到左面最後一扇門，心裏不禁納悶起來，從她開始這段歷程以來，這條走廊是不是越來越長了，這是不是房子的魔法的一部分。可是她終究走到了。門開着。
這是間大房間，有三扇大窗，一排排的書從地板上一直堆到天花板;露茜從來沒見過這麼多書，有的小書小巧玲瓏，有的大書笨重厚實，有的書比你見過的任何教堂的〈聖經〉還要大，全是皮面精裝的，一股陳舊的書卷氣，透着魔法味兒。不過已經有人吩咐過她了，她知道用不着爲哪一本書操心。因爲那本書，魔法書，就放在房間正中一張書桌上。她明白自己得站着看了(反正沒有椅子)，而且她看書時得背對着門站着，於是她馬上轉身去關門。
門關不上。
有人會不贊成露茜這麼做，可我認爲她做得完全對。她說能關上門就不用擔心了，可是要你站在這種地方，背後直對着洞開的門，心裏總不好受。要是我一定也會有這種感覺。可是又沒有什麼辦法。
有一件使她大傷腦筋的事是書這麼大。頭兒沒法告訴她現形的咒語在魔法書上哪一段。他聽到她問起甚至還大爲驚訝暱。他想讓她從頭看起，查到才罷休;顯然他就沒想過還有別的法子好在書裏查到這一段。"只是這樣看興許要化上我好幾天、好幾星期的工夫呢！"露茜看着那本厚厚的大書說，"而且我覺得就像已經在這地方待了好幾個小時了。"
她走到書桌前，手擱在書上;手指剛摸到書就不由震顫一下，彷彿書裏充電似的。她竭力打開書，可是起初打不開，不過這只是因爲書給兩個鉛釦子夾住了。等她解開釦子，就一下子打開了書。這是本多怪的書啊！
這是手寫本，不是印刷本，字跡清晰，筆法勻稱，向下捺的筆劃粗，向上挑的筆劃細，字體很大，看起來比印刷體舒服，寫得極美，露茜盯着看了整整一分鐘，忘了唸了。紙張又脆又滑，有股好聞的味兒，在空白處和每段咒語開頭的大寫字母周圍，還有插圖。
這本書沒有扉頁，也沒有書名;開門見山就是咒語，開頭幾條沒什麼大不了的。有治療疵子的土法(在月光下用銀盆洗手)，有治牙痛的，有治抽筋的，還有一種捕捉蜂羣的咒語。牙痛病人那幅插圖畫得很生動，要是你對着畫看得太久了，牙齒也會發痛呢。第四條咒語周圍密密麻麻畫着金黃色蜜蜂，要是你對着畫多看一會兒，它們就彷彿真在飛舞。,
露茜看了第一頁就捨不得離開，但等翻過一頁，下頁還是同樣有趣。"可我必須翻下去，"她暗自說。她路往下翻了三十頁，如果她記得住上面內容的話，就可以學會怎樣去找尋寶藏，怎樣記住忘掉的事物，怎樣忘掉想要忘掉的事物，怎樣呼風，怎樣喚雨，怎樣求雪，怎樣變霧，怎樣招雨夾雪，以及怎樣招之即來，揮之即去。她看得越久，插圖就越奇妙，越逼真。
接下來她翻到一頁，上面的插圖光彩奪目，叫你簡直沒法注意寫的字。簡直沒法——可她還是注意到開頭一行字句，這樣寫道:美貌超羣絕倫靈方。露茜臉蛋湊到書頁上盯着看插圖，雖然剛纔圖畫似乎擠成一團，模糊不清，可是現在她看起來十分清楚了。第一幅畫的是一個姑娘站在書桌前看本大書。那姑娘的穿着跟露茜一模一樣。第二幅畫上露茜(因爲畫中人就是露茜)站着，張大嘴巴唸唸有詞，臉色相當可怕。第三幅畫上那個美入向她走來了。怪的是想想這些畫開頭看上去多麼小，現在畫中露茜看上去竟跟露茜真人一般大小了，兩人對視了片刻，真露茜就移開眼光，因爲她被畫中露茜的美貌弄得眼花繚亂，但她還能從那張美麗的臉蛋中看出跟她本人的相像之處。現在這些畫面迅速向她蜂擁而來。她看見自己在卡樂門國一次大比武中高踞寶座，世界各國的國王爲她的美貌而拼殺。後來從比武中的拼殺演變爲真正的戰爭，由於各國國王、公爵和大貴族瘋狂爭奪她的青睞，納尼亞、阿欽蘭、臺爾馬、卡樂門、加爾馬和特里賓西亞各國都弄得生靈塗炭，一片荒蕪。後來，畫面一變，依然是絕色美人的露茜，回到英國。原來一直是家裏的美人兒蘇珊從美國回來了。畫中的蘇珊活像蘇珊本人，只是難看些，一副生氣的神情。蘇珊妒忌露茜那份令人眼花繚亂的美貌，不過這一點也沒關係，因爲現在誰也不把蘇珊放在心上了。
"我一定要念這條咒語，"露茜說，"我不管。我一定要念。"她說我不管，因爲她心裏一股勁地覺得她念不得。
誰知正當她回頭再去看那條咒語開頭的字句時，原先她完全肯定沒有畫面的字裏行間，卻發現有隻獅子，獅王阿斯蘭的大臉正深深盯着她的臉。畫面色彩金光燦燦，那獅子彷彿走出畫面，向她迎面而來。事後她當然也不敢十分肯定畫上獅子真的不曾有過一點活動。總而言之，她十分清楚獅子臉上的表情。他正在咆哮，你都看得見他大半口牙了。她害怕得不得了，就馬上翻過這一頁。
過一會兒她又翻到一條咒語，可以讓你知道你朋友對你的看法。其實這時露茜心裏很想試試剛纔那條咒語，那條使你變得美貌超羣絕倫的咒語。所以她感到爲了彌補沒念剛纔那條咒語的損失，倒真願意念念這條看。她生怕自己改變主意，就匆匆忙忙唸了咒語(我是決不會告訴你們這些咒語的)。唸完她就等着看結果。
一看毫無結果，她就看起插圖了。突然一下子她看見自己最意想不到的一幕——一節火車的三等車廂，裏面坐着兩個女學生。她馬上就認出她們。一個是瑪喬麗;普雷斯頓，一個是安妮;費瑟斯通。不過現在這不僅是一幅畫了。這幅畫是活動的。她看得見火車窗外電線杆飛馳而過。她看得見兩個姑娘有說有笑。接着就像"打開"收音機似的，她漸漸聽得見她們說的話。
"這學期我能見你一兩面嗎？"安妮說，"你還是打算一直跟露茜;佩文西鬼混？”
"不知道你說的鬼混是什麼意思？"瑪喬麗說。
"晴，你知道的，"安妮說，"你上學期對她可癡心呢。"
"不，我沒有，"瑪喬麗說，"我很有頭腦，不會這麼做的。說起來她還不算壞孩子。但學期還沒結束我就對她厭透了。"
"得了，你哪一學期都決不會有這機會了I"露茜大叫道，"兩面三刀的小畜生。"可是聽到自己的嗓門這麼大，又頓時想起她是在對着一幅畫說話，真正的瑪喬麗遠在另外一個世界裏呢。
"得了，"露茜自言自語說，"我過去對她的看法倒真不壞。上學期我替她做了各種各樣的事，別的姑娘不大有人多理她，我偏守着她。這點她也有數。偏偏去找安妮;費瑟斯通！我真想知道我所有的朋友是不是都一樣？還有不少圖呢。不，我決不再看了。我決不看了，我決不看了。"——她費了好大勁兒才翻過這頁，可是不久，一大滴憤怒的眼淚就濺在上面了。
在下一頁她看到一條"提神法"的咒語。這一頁插圖雖少，不過很美。露茜不知不覺看的竟不是咒語，倒更像一篇故事。這篇故事有三頁，她還沒看到這一頁末了，就完全忘了自己是在看書。她生活在這故事中，好像這是真事似的，而且所有的畫面也是真的。當她翻到第三頁，看到末了一行，她說"這是我所看過的最可愛的故事，今後這輩子可看不到這麼可愛的故事了。啊呀，我真希望我能一直看上十年。至少我要再看一遍。"
誰知這本書的魔法到此有些起作用了。你不能再倒翻過去，只有右手一邊的書頁，後面的書頁才翻得過去，左手一邊的，前面的書頁就翻不過來了。
"啊呀，真糟糕！II露茜說，"我真想再看一遍呢。好吧，至少，我一定得記住它。讓我看看……寫的是……是……天哪，圖文又全消失了。連末了一頁也一片空白。這是本非常古怪的書。我怎麼能忘記呢？這故事講的是一隻酒杯、一把寶劍、一棵樹，還有一座青山，我只知道這麼多。可我記不住，我怎麼辦啊？"
而且她永遠也記不起來了;從那一天起，露茜心目中認爲的好故事，指的就是使她想起魔法書中忘掉了的故事的一個故事。
她再翻過去，不料翻到一頁根本沒有插圖，不過開頭的字句倒寫着：隱形事物現形法。她先從頭到尾看一遍，把全部生字認認準，再大聲念出來。一念她就立刻知道咒語起作用了，因爲她一念出聲，書頁上部的大寫字母就現出顏色來，空白處也開始現出圖畫來。正像你把用隱顯墨水寫的字放在火上烤，字跡就漸漸現出來一樣，只是用的不是擰橡汁(最簡易的隱顯墨水)那種暗黑色，而是純金的、碧藍的和猩紅的顏色。這些畫都很怪，其中有不少人物的樣子露茜可不大喜歡。於是她心裏想，"我不僅把砰砰砰的東西現了原形，而且大概把一切東西都現形了。這麼個地方準有不少其他隱形的東西在閒逛呢，我可說不準要不要都見見。"
就在那工夫，她聽到身後一陣輕柔而有力的腳步聲，沿着走廊過來，她當然記得他們跟她說過魔法師光着腳，像貓似的走路不出聲的事。回過頭去看看清楚總比有什麼偷偷摸到你背後要好些。露茜回過頭去看了。
於是她臉上露出笑容，一時間(但她當然不知道)，她看上去幾乎就同畫中的露茜一樣美麗了，她高興得輕輕叫了一聲，伸出雙臂，奔上前去。站在門口的原來就是所有至尊王中最至高無上的獅王阿斯蘭本人。他是真的，結結實實，暖暖和和，他聽任她親吻，把臉埋在閃閃發亮的獅霞裏。他身子裏發出猶如地震的低沉聲音，露茜甚至敢於想象他是在咕嚕呢。.
"啊呀，阿斯蘭，"她說，"謝謝你還特地來一次。"
"我一直在這裏，"他說，"只是你讓我現了形罷了。"
"阿斯蘭！”露茜稍帶責怪的口氣說，"別拿我開玩笑了。好像我真有什麼辦法讓你現形似的！"
"真的，"阿斯蘭說，"你認爲我會違背自己的規則嗎？"
沉默了片刻，他又說話了。
"孩子啊，"他說，"我看你剛纔一直在偷聽。""偷聽？"
"你聽兩個同學背後在說你。"
"啊呀，那個嗎？我根本沒想到那是偷聽呢，阿斯蘭。那不是魔法嗎？"
"用魔法暗中監視人家跟用任何其他辦法監視是一回事。你錯看你的朋友了。她雖然爲人軟弱，可是她愛你。她害怕那年齡大的姑娘，才說了違心的話。"
"我想，我再也忘不了我聽到她說的那番話。""不，你不能這樣。"
"啊呀，"露茜說，"我把一切都搞糟了嗎？你意思是說，如果沒有這麼回事，我們原來會一直是朋友——成爲真正的好朋友——說不定是終身朋友——可現在我們就不行了吧？"
"孩子啊，"阿斯蘭說，"以前我沒跟你說清楚，誰也無法預知將來發生的事嗎？"
"不錯，阿斯蘭，你說過，"露茜說，"對不起。可是請……”
"心肝兒，說啊。"
"我還能再看一遍那故事嗎？就是我記不起來的那一個。你願意跟我講那故事嗎，阿斯蘭？唉，講吧，講吧，講吧。"
"好，一定講，我要對你講好多好多年。可是現在，快來吧。我們該去見見這屋子的主入了。
