The crowd held its collective breath, except for a small part of it that hit surrounding people with its stick and muttered, 'What's happening? What's going on? Why won't anyone tell me what's happening?
I demand someone tell me, mm, what's happening?'
The door stayed shut. Ginger was gripping the handle as if it was a lifeline.
'There's thousands of them out there!' said Ginger. 'I can't go out there!'
'But they all watch your clicks,' pleaded Soll.
'They're your public.'
'No!'
Soll threw up his hands. 'Can't you persuade her?' he said to Victor.
'I'm not even sure I can persuade myself,' said Victor.
'But you've spent days in front of these people,' said Dibbler.
'No I haven't,' said Ginger. 'It was just you and the handlemen and the trolls and everyone. That was different. Anyway, that wasn't really me,' she added. 'That was Delores De Syn.'
Victor bit his lip thoughtfully.
'Maybe you ought to send Delores de Syn out there, then,' he said.
'How can I do that?' she demanded.
'Well . . . why not pretend it's a click .
The Dibblers, uncle and nephew, exchanged glances. Then Soll cupped his hands around his face like the eye of a picture box and Dibbler, after a prompting nudge, placed one hand on his nephew's head and turned an invisible handle in his ear.
'Action!' he directed.
The carriage door swung open.
The crowd gasped, like a mountain breathing in. Victor stepped out, reached up, took Ginger's hand . . .
The crowd cheered, madly.
The Lecturer in Recent Runes bit his fingers in sheer excitement. The Chair made a strange hoarse noise in the back of his throat.
'You know you said what could a boy find to do that was better than being a wizard?' he said.
'A true wizard should only be interested in one thing,' muttered the Dean.
'You know that.'
'Oh, I know it.'
'I was referring to magic.'
The Chair peered at the advancing figures.
'You know, that is young Victor. I'll swear it,' he said.
'That's disgusting,' said the Dean. 'Fancy choosing to hang around young women when he could have been a wizard.'
'Yeah. What a fool,' said the Lecturer in Recent Runes, who was having trouble with his breathing.
There was a sort of communal sigh.
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