It's most awful strong!--as strong as--Peppermint!' he ended abruptly.
'I know not the god,' said Ritti-Marduk, bending timorously.
'She'll tear it up directly she gets it,' said Robert, 'That'll end the charm.

You needn't be afraid if you go now.' Ritti-Marduk went, seeming only partly satisfied; and then the Queen began to admire the penny account-book and the bit of pencil in so marked and significant a way that Cyril felt he could not do less than press them upon her as a gift.

She ruffled the leaves delightedly.
'What a wonderful substance!' she said.

'And with this style you make charms?
Make a charm for me! Do you know,' her voice sank to a whisper, 'the names of the great ones of your own far country ?' 'Rather!' said Cyril, and hastily wrote the names of Alfred the Great, Shakespeare, Nelson, Gordon, Lord Beaconsfield, Mr Rudyard Kipling, and Mr Sherlock Holmes, while the Queen watched him with 'unbaited breath', as Anthea said afterwards.
She took the book and hid it reverently among the bright folds of her gown.
'You shall teach me later to say the great names,' she said.

'And the names of their Ministers--perhaps the great Nisroch is one of them ?' 'I don't think so,' said Cyril.