CHAPTER TEN THE MAGICIAN’S BOOK（第2/3页）

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．”