CHAPTER FOUR THE BELL AND THE HAMMER（第2/4页）

“If it’s lasted till now，I suppose it’ll last a bit longer，”said Digory．“But we must be very quiet．You know a noise sometimes brings things down-like an avalanche in the Alps．”

They went on out of that courtyard into another doorway，and up a great flight of steps and through vast rooms that opened out of one another till you were dizzy with the mere size of the place． Every now and then they thought they were going to get out into the open and see what sort of country lay around the enormous palace． But each time they only got into another courtyard．They must have been magnificent places when people were still living there．In one there had once been a fountain．A great stone monster with wide-spread wings stood with its mouth open and you could still see a bit of piping at the back of its mouth，out of which the water used to pour．Under it was a wide stone basin to hold the water；but it was as dry as a bone．In other places there were the dry sticks of some sort of climbing plant which had wound itself round the pillars and helped to pull some of them down．But it had died long ago．And there were no ants or spiders or any of the other living things you expect to see in a ruin；and where the dry earth showed between the broken flagstones there was no grass or moss．

It was all so dreary and all so much the same that even Digory was thinking they had better put on their yellow rings and get back to the warm，green，living forest of the In-between place，when they came to two huge doors of some metal that might possibly be gold．One stood a little ajar．So of course they went to look in．Both started back and drew a long breath：for here at last was something worth seeing．

For a second they thought the room was full of people-hundreds of people，all seated，and all perfectly still．Polly and Digory，as you may guess，stood perfectly still themselves for a good long time，looking in．But presently they decided that what they were looking at could not be real people．There was not a movement nor the sound of a breath among them all．They were like the most wonderful waxworks you ever saw．

This time Polly took the lead．There was something in this room which interested her more than it interested Digory：all the figures were wearing magnificent clothes．If you were interested in clothes at all，you could hardly help going in to see them closer．And the blaze of their colours made this room look，not exactly cheerful，but at any rate rich and majestic after all the dust and emptiness of the others．It had more windows，too，and was a good deal lighter．

I can hardly describe the clothes．The figures were all robed and had crowns on their heads．Their robes were of crimson and silvery grey and deep purple and vivid green：and there were patterns，and pictures of flowers and strange beasts，in needlework all over them．Precious stones of astonishing size and brightness stared from their crowns and hung in chains round their necks and peeped out from all the places where anything was fastened．

“Why haven’t these clothes all rotted away long ago ？”asked Polly.

“Magic，”whispered Digory．“Can’t you feel it ？ I bet this whole room is just stiff with enchantments．I could feel it the moment we came in．”

“Any one of these dresses would cost hundreds of pounds，”said Polly.

But Digory was more interested in the faces，and indeed these were well worth looking at．The people sat in their stone chairs on each side of the room and the floor was left free down the middle． You could walk down and look at the faces in turn．

“They were nice people，I think，”said Digory．

Polly nodded．All the faces they could see were certainly nice．Both the men and women looked kind and wise，and they seemed to come of a handsome race．But after the children had gone a few steps down the room they came to faces that looked a little different．These were very solemn faces．You felt you would have to mind your P’s and Q’s，if you ever met living people who looked like that．When they had gone a little further，they found themselves among faces they didn’t like：this was about the middle of the room．The faces here looked very strong and proud and happy，but they looked cruel．A little further on they looked crueller．Further on again，they were still cruel but they no longer looked happy．They were even despairing faces：as if the people they belonged to had done dreadful things and also suffered dreadful things．The last figure of all was the most interesting-a woman even more richly dressed than the others，very tall（but every figure in that room was taller than the people of our world），with a look of such fierceness and pride that it took your breath away． Yet she was beautiful too．Years afterwards when he was an old man，Digory said he had never in all his life known a woman so beautiful．It is only fair to add that Polly always said she couldn’t see anything specially beautiful about her．