TURKISH DELIGHT "BUT what are you?" said the Queen again. "Are you a great rown dwarf that has cut off its beard?」
"No, your Majesty," said Edmund, "I never had a beard, Im a boy.」
"A boy!" said she. "Do you mean you are a Son of Adam?」
Edmund stood still, saying nothing. He was too fused by this time to uand what the questio.
"I see you are an idiot, whatever else you may be," said the Queen. "Answer me, ond for all, or I shall lose my patience. Are you human?」
"Yes, your Majesty," said Edmund.
"And how, pray, did you e to enter my dominions?」
"Please, your Majesty, I came in through a wardrobe.」
"A wardrobe? What do you mean?」
"I - I opened a door and just found myself here, your Majesty," said Edmund.
"Ha!" said the Queen, speaking more to herself than to him. "A door. A door from the world of men! I have heard of such things. This may wreck all. But he is only one, and he is easily dealt with." As she spoke these words she rose from her seat and looked Edmund full in the face, her eyes flaming; at the same moment she raised her wand. Edmu sure that she was going to do something dreadful but he seemed uo move. Then, just as he gave himself up for lost, she appeared to ge her mind.
"My poor child," she said in quite a different voice, "how cold you look! e and sit with me here on the sledge and I will put my mantle round you and we will talk.」
Edmund did not like this arra at all but he dared not disobey; he stepped on to the sledge and sat at her feet, and she put a fold of her fur mantle round him and tucked it well in.
"Perhaps something hot to drink?" said the Queen. "Should you like that?」
"Yes please, your Majesty," said Edmund, whose teeth were chattering.
The Queen took from somewhere among her ings a very small bottle which looked as if it were made of copper. Then, holding out her arm, she let one drop fall from it on the snow beside the sledge. Edmund saw the drop for a sed in mid-air, shining like a diamond. But the moment it touched the snow there was a hissing sound and there stood a jewelled cup full of something that steamed. The dwarf immediately took this and ha to Edmund with a bow and a smile; not a very nice smile. Edmund felt much better as he began to sip the hot drink. It was something he had asted before, very sweet and foamy and creamy, and it warmed him right down to his toes.
"It is dull, Son of Adam, to drink without eating," said the Queen presently. "What would you like best to eat?」
"Turkish Delight, please, your Majesty," said Edmund.
The Quee another drop fall from her bottle on to the snow, and instantly there appeared a round box, tied with green silk ribbon, which, when opened, turned out to tain several pounds of the best Turkish Delight. Each piece was sweet and light to the very tre and Edmund had asted anything more delicious. He was quite warm now, and very fortable.
While he was eating the Quee asking him questions. At first Edmund tried to remember that it is rude to speak with ones mouth full, but soon he fot about this and thought only to shovel down as much Turkish Delight as he could, and the more he ate the more he wao eat, and he never asked himself why the Queen should be so inquisitive. She got him to tell her that he had one brother and two sisters, and that one of his sisters had already been in Narnia and had met a Faun there, and tha