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IT was so sudden, and so horribly unlike anything that had ever happened to Digory even

in a nightmare, that he let out a scream. Instantly Uncle Andrew's hand was over his

mouth. "None of that!" he hissed in Digory's ear. "If you start making a noise your

Mother'll hear it. And you know what a fright might do to her."

As Digory said afterwards, the horrible meanness of getting at a chap in that way, almost

made him sick. But of course he didn't scream again.

"That's better," said Uncle Andrew. "Perhaps you couldn't help it. It is a shock when you

first see someone vanish. Why, it gave even me a turn when the guinea-pig did it the

other night."

"Was that when you yelled?" asked Digory.

"Oh, you heard that, did you? I hope you haven't been spying on me?"

"No, I haven't," said Digory indignantly. "But what's happened to Polly?"

"Congratulate me, my dear boy," said Uncle Andrew, rubbing his hands. "My experiment

has succeeded. The little girl's gone - vanished - right out of the world."

"What have you done to her?"

"Sent her to - well - to another place."

"What do you mean?" asked Digory.

Uncle Andrew sat down and said, "Well, I'll tell you all about it. Have you ever heard of

old Mrs Lefay?"

"Wasn't she a great-aunt or something?" said Digory.

"Not exactly," said Uncle Andrew. "She was my godmother. That's her, there, on the

wall."

Digory looked and saw a faded photograph: it showed the face of an old woman in a

bonnet. And he could now remember that he had once seen a photo of the same face in an

old drawer, at home, in the country. He had asked his Mother who it was and Mother had

not seemed to want to talk about the subject much. It was not at all a nice face, Digory

thought, though of course with those early photographs one could never really tell.

"Was there - wasn't there - something wrong about her, Uncle Andrew?" he asked.

"Well," said Uncle Andrew with a chuckle, "it depends what you call wrong. People are

so narrow-minded. She certainly got very queer in later life. Did very unwise things. That

was why they shut her up."