I knocked at the door. Nobody answered. I knocked again. I could hear movements inside, but nobody appeared. I was just going to get to work with that knocker in such a way that it would filter through these people’s heads that I wasn’t standing there just for the fun of the thing, when a voice from somewhere above shouted “Hi!”

I looked up and saw a round, pink face, with grey whiskers east and west of it, staring down at me from an upper window.

“Hi!” it shouted again. “You can’t come in.”

“I don’t want to come in.”

“Because⁠—Oh, is that Tootles?”

“My name is not Tootles. Are you Mr. Kegworthy? I’ve brought back your son.”

“I see him. Peep-bo, Tootles, Dadda can see ’oo.”