LUCY ran out of the empty room into the passage and found the other three.
“It's all right, ” she repeated, “I've come back.”
“What on earth are you talking about, Lucy? ” asked Susan.
“Why? ” said Lucy in amazement, “haven't you all been wondering where I was? ”
“So you've been hiding, have you? ” said Peter. “Poor old Lu, hiding and nobody noticed! You'll have to hide longer than that if you want people to start looking for you.”
“But I've been away for hours and hours, ” said Lucy.
The others all stared at one another.
“Batty! ” said Edmund, tapping his head. “Quite batty.”
“What do you mean, Lu? ” asked Peter.
“What I said, ” answered Lucy. “It was just after breakfast when I went into the wardrobe, and I've been away for hours and hours, and had tea, and all sorts of things have happened.”
“Don't be silly, Lucy, ” said Susan. “We've only just come out of that room a moment ago, and you were there then.”
“She's not being silly at all, ” said Peter, “she's just making up a story for fun, aren't you, Lu? And why shouldn't she? ”
“No, Peter, I'm not, ” she said. “It's—it's a magic wardrobe. There's a wood inside it, and it's snowing, and there's a Faun and a Witch and it's called Narnia; come and see.”
The others did not know what to think, but Lucy was so excited that they all went back with her into the room. She rushed ahead of them, flung open the door of the wardrobe and cried, “Now! go in and see for yourselves.”
“Why, you goose, ” said Susan, putting her head inside and pulling the fur coats apart, “it's just an ordinary wardrobe; look! there's the back of it.”
Then everyone looked in and pulled the coats apart; and they all saw—Lucy herself saw—a perfectly ordinary wardrobe. There was no wood and no snow, only the back of the wardrobe, with hooks on it. Peter went in and rapped his knuckles on it to make sure that it was solid.