If it were cold just then in the thick-walled, well-warmed old house, which was Jeanne"s home, you may fancy _how_ cold it was in the rumbling diligence, which in those days was the only way of travelling in France.
And for a little boy whose experience of long journeys was small, this one was really rather trying. But Jeanne"s cousin Hugh was a very patient little boy. His life, since his parents" death, had not been a _very_ happy one, and he had learnt to bear troubles without complaining. And now that he was on his way to the kind cousins his mother had so often told him of, the cousins who had been so kind to _her_, before she had any home of her own, his heart was so full of happiness that, even if the journey had been twice as cold and uncomfortable, he would not have thought himself to be pitied.
It was a pale little face, however, which looked out of the diligence window at the different places where it stopped, and a rather timid voice which asked in the pretty broken French he had not quite forgotten since the days that his mother taught him her own language, for a little milk for his "pet." The pet, which had travelled on his knees all the way from England--comfortably nestled up in hay and cotton wool in its cage, which looked something like a big mouse-trap--much better off in its way certainly than its poor little master. But it was a great comfort to him: the sight of its funny little nose poking out between the bars of its cage made Hugh feel ever so much less lonely, and when he had secured a little milk for his guinea-pig he did not seem to mind half so much about anything for himself.
Still it was a long and weary journey, and poor Hugh felt very glad when he was wakened up from the uncomfortable dose, which was all in the way of sleep he could manage, to be told that at last they had arrived. This was the town where his friends lived, and a "monsieur," the conductor added, was inquiring for him--Jeanne"s father"s valet it was, who had been sent to meet him and take him safe to the old house, where an eager little heart was counting the minutes till he came.
They looked at each other curiously when at last they met. Jeanne"s eyes were sparkling and her cheeks burning, and her whole little person in a flutter of joyful excitement, and yet she couldn"t speak. Now that the little cousin was there, actually standing before her, she could not speak. How was it? He was not _quite_ what she had expected; he looked paler and quieter than any boys she had seen, and--was he not glad to see her?--glad to have come?--she asked herself with a little misgiving.
She looked at him again--his blue eyes were very sweet and gentle, and, tired though he was, Jeanne could see that he was trying to smile and look pleased. But he was _very_ tired and very shy. That was all that was the matter. And his shyness made Jeanne feel shy too.
"Are you very tired, my cousin?" she said at last.
"Not very, thank you," said Hugh. "I am rather tired, but I am not very hungry," he added, glancing at a side-table where a little supper had been laid out for him. "I am not very hungry, but I think Nibble is.
Might I have a little milk for Nibble, please?"
As he spoke he held up for Jeanne to see the small box he was carrying, and she gave a little scream of pleasure when, through the bars, she caught sight of the guinea-pig"s soft nose, poking out, saying as plainly almost as if he had spoken, "I want my supper; please to see at once about my supper, little girl."
"Neeble," cried Jeanne, "O my cousin, is Neeble your pet? Why, he is a "cochon de Barbarie!" O the dear little fellow! We could not--at least papa and mamma could not--read what he was. And have you brought him all the way, my cousin, and do you love him very much? Marcelline, Marcelline, oh, do give us some milk for the cochon de Barbarie--oh, see, Marcelline, how sweet he is!"
Once set free, her tongue ran on so fast that sometimes Hugh had difficulty to understand her. But the ice was broken any way, and when, an hour or two later, Jeanne"s mother told her she might take Hugh up to show him his room, the two trotted off, hand-in-hand, as if they had been close companions for years.
"I hope you will like your room, cheri," said Jeanne, with a tiny tone of patronising. "It is not very far from mine, and mamma says we can keep all our toys and books together in my big cupboard in the pa.s.sage."
Hugh looked at Jeanne for a moment without speaking. "What was that name you called me just now, Jeanne?" he asked, after a little pause.
Jeanne thought for a minute.
""Mon cousin," was it that?" she said. "Oh no, I remember, it was "cheri." I _cannot_ say your name--I have tried all these days. I cannot say it better than "Ee-ou," which is not pretty."
She screwed her rosy little mouth into the funniest shape as she tried to manage "Hugh." Hugh could hardly help laughing.
"Never mind," he said. "I like "cheri" ever so much better. I like it better than "mon cousin" or any name, because, do you know," he added, dropping his voice a little, "I remember now, though I had forgotten till you said it--that was the name mamma called me by."
"Cheri!" repeated Jeanne, stopping half-way up the staircase to throw her arms round Hugh"s neck at the greatest risk to the equilibrium of the whole party, including the guinea-pig--"_Cheri!_ I shall always call you so, then. You shall be my Prince Cheri. Don"t you love fairy stories, mon cousin?"
"_Awfully_," said Hugh, from the bottom of his soul.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "ISN"T IT A FUNNY ROOM, CHeRI?"--p. 25]
"I knew you would," said Jeanne triumphantly. "And oh, so do I!
Marcelline says, Cheri, that the tapestry room--that"s the room you"re going to have--is full of fairy stories. I wonder if you"ll find out any of them. You must tell me if you do."
"The tapestry room?" repeated Hugh; "I don"t think I ever saw a tapestry room. Oh," he added, as a sudden recollection struck him, "is it like what that queen long ago worked about the battles and all that? I mean all about William the Conqueror."
"No," said Jeanne, "it"s quite different from that work. I"ve seen that, so I know. It isn"t pretty at all. It"s just long strips of linen with queer-shaped horses and things worked on. Not _at all_ pretty. And I think the pictures on the walls of your room _are_ pretty. Here it is.
Isn"t it a funny room, Cheri?"
She opened the door of the tapestry room as she spoke, for while chattering they had mounted the staircase and made their way along the corridor. Hugh followed his little cousin into the room, and stood gazing round him with curious surprise and pleasure. The walls were well lighted up, for Marcelline had carried a lamp upstairs and set it down on the table, and a bright fire was burning in the wide old-fashioned hearth.
"Jeanne," said Hugh, after a minute"s silence, "Jeanne, it is very funny, but, do you know, I am _sure_ I have seen this room before. I seem to know the pictures on the walls. Oh, _how_ nice they are! I didn"t think that was what tapestry meant. Oh, how glad I am this is to be my room--is yours like this too, Jeanne?"
Jeanne shook her head.
"Oh no, Cheri," she said. "My room has a nice paper--roses and things like that running up and down. I am very glad my room is not like this.
I don"t think I should like to see all these funny creatures in the night. You don"t know how queer they look in the moonlight. They quite frightened me once."
Hugh opened his blue eyes very wide.
"_Frightened_ you?" he said. "I should never be frightened at them. They are so nice and funny. Just look at those peac.o.c.ks, Jeanne. They are lovely."
Jeanne still shook her head.
"I don"t think so," she said. "I can"t bear those peac.o.c.ks. But I"m very glad _you_ like them, Cheri."
"I wish it was moonlight to-night," continued Hugh. "I don"t think I should go to sleep at all. I would lie awake watching all the pictures.
I dare say they look rather nice in the firelight too, but still not _so_ nice as in the moonlight."
"No, Monsieur," said Marcelline, who had followed the children into the room. "A moonlight night is the time to see them best. It makes the colours look quite fresh again. Mademoiselle Jeanne has never looked at the tapestry properly by moonlight, or she would like it better."
"I shouldn"t mind with Cheri," said Jeanne. "You must call me some night when it"s very pretty, Cheri, and we"ll look at it together."
Marcelline smiled and seemed pleased, which was rather funny. Most nurses would have begun scolding Jeanne for dreaming of such a thing as running about the house in the middle of the night to admire the moonlight on tapestry or on anything else. But then Marcelline certainly was rather a funny person.
"And the cochon de Barbarie, where is he to sleep, Monsieur?" she said to Hugh.
Hugh looked rather distressed.
"I don"t know," he said. "At home he slept in his little house on a sort of balcony there was outside my window. But there isn"t any balcony here--besides, it"s so _very_ cold, and he"s quite strange, you know."
He looked at Marcelline, appealingly.
"I daresay, while it is so cold, Madame would not mind if we put him in the cupboard in the pa.s.sage," she said; but Jeanne interrupted her.
"Oh no," she said. "He would be far better in the chickens" house. It"s nice and warm, I know, and his cage can be in one corner. He wouldn"t be nearly so lonely, and to-morrow I"ll tell Houpet and the others that they must be very kind to him. Houpet always does what I tell him."
"Who is Houpet?" said Hugh.
"He"s my pet chicken," replied Jeanne. "They"re all pets, of course, but he"s the most of a pet of all. He lives in the chicken-house with the two other little chickens. O Cheri," she added, glancing round, and seeing that Marcelline had left the room, "do let us run out and peep at Houpet for a minute. We can go through the tonnelle, and the chickens"
house is close by."
She darted off as she spoke, and Hugh, nothing loth, his precious Nibble still in his arms, followed her. They ran down the long corridor, on to which opened both the tapestry room and Jeanne"s room at the other end, through a small sort of anteroom, and then--for though they were _upstairs_, the garden being built in terraces was at this part of the house on a level with the first floor--then straight out into what little Jeanne called "the tonnelle."
Hugh stood still and gazed about him with delight and astonishment.
"O Jeanne," he exclaimed, "how pretty it is! oh, how very pretty!"
Jeanne stopped short in her progress along the tonnelle.
"What"s pretty?" she said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Do you mean the garden with the snow?"