's an earl
now. Now you and I must take camel and be off.'

And now came seven long days of camel travelling, through desert and
forest and over hill and through valley, till at last Lucy and Mr. Noah
came to the Hidden Place where the oracle is, and where that is I may
not tell you--because it's one of the eleven mysteries. And I must not
tell you what the oracle is because that is another of the mysteries.
But I may tell you that if you want to consult the oracle you have to go
a long way between rows of round pillars, rather like those in Egyptian
tombs. And as you go it gets darker and darker, and when it is quite
dark you see a little, little light a very long way off, and you hear
very far away, a beautiful music, and you smell the scent of flowers
that do not grow in any wood or field or garden of this earth. Mixed
with this scent is the scent of incense and of old tapestried rooms,
where no one has lived for a very long time. And you remember all the
sad and beautiful things you have ever seen or heard, and you fall down
on the ground and hide your face in your hands and call on the oracle,
and if you are the right sort of person the oracle answers you.

Lucy and Mr. Noah waited in the dark for the voice of the oracle, and at
last it spoke. Lucy heard no words, only the most beautiful voice in the
world speaking softly, and so sweetly and finely and bravely that at
once she felt herself brave enough to dare any danger, and strong enough
to do any deed that might be needed to get Philip out of the clutches of
the base Pretenderette. All the tiredness of her long journey faded
away, and but for the thought that Philip needed her, she would have
been content to listen for ever to that golden voice. Everything else in
the world faded away and grew to seem worthless and unmeaning. Only the
soft golden voice remained and the grey hard voice that said, 'You've
got to look after Philip, you know!' And the two voices together made a
harmony more beautiful than you will find in any of Beethoven's sonatas.
Because Lucy knew that she should follow the grey voice, and remember
the golden voice as long as she lived.

But something was tiresomely pulling at her sleeve, dragging her away
from the wonderful golden voice. Mr. Noah was pulling her sleeve and
saying, 'Come away,' and they turned their backs on the little light and
the music and the enchanting perfumes, and instantly the voice stopped
and they were walking between