"Ten years is a long time.

It may be too late to do anything--quite too late.
What have I been thinking of!" Of course this was the wrong Magic--to begin by saying "too late." Even Colin could have told him that.

But he knew nothing of Magic--either black or white.

This he had yet to learn.

He wondered if Susan Sowerby had taken courage and written to him only because the motherly creature had realized that the boy was much worse--was fatally ill.