Now he was outside it and, at the same time, was inside nothing else.

It might be that in a week's time he would be so familiar with his new world that he would be as happy as a cricket--he did not know.

He only knew that at this moment he would have given all that he had to fling his arms round his mother's neck, to be hugged and kissed and nursed by her, and that, at the same time, he would have died rather than do such a thing.
The evening came to an end.

The girls got up and said good-night.

His mother kissed him, holding him perhaps for a moment longer than usual, but at that same instant she said: "Oh, I must remind Ella about the half-past seven breakfast again, she always has to be told everything twice." The girls went on ahead, Jeremy and Hamlet following close behind.
Jeremy found himself alone in the schoolroom, where the fire was very low, giving only little spurts and flashes that ran like golden snakes suddenly through the darkness.
Moved by an impulse, he went to the toy-cupboard and, opening it, put his hand quite by chance on the toy village.