"And I don"t suppose your great-grandmother would think yours at all pretty, either, Mademoiselle Jeanne," said Dudu, with the queer sort of croak which he used for a laugh. "It is one of the things that has amazed me very much in my observations--the strange fancies the human race has about clothes. Of course you are not so fortunate as we are in having them ready-made, but still I cannot understand why you don"t do the best you can--adopt a pattern and keep to it always. It would be the next best thing to having feathers, _I_ should say."
"I don"t think so," said Jeanne. "It would be very stupid every morning when you got up, and every time you were going out, or friends coming to see you, or anything like that--it would be _very_ stupid never to have to think, "What shall I put on?" or to plan what colours would look nice together. There would hardly be any use in having shops or dressmakers, or anything. And _certainly_, Monsieur Dudu, I wouldn"t choose to be dressed like you, never anything but black--as if one were always going to a funeral."
"It is all a matter of taste, Mademoiselle," replied Dudu, so amiably that Hugh wondered more and more at his politeness to Jeanne, who was certainly not very civil to him. "For my part, I confess I have always had a great fancy for white--the force of contrast, I suppose--and this brings me back to telling you how very nice your great-grandmother and her sister looked that day walking up and down the terrace path in their white dresses."
"My great-grandmother!" exclaimed Jeanne. "Why, you said "our young ladies.""
"So they were our young ladies," replied Dudu. "Even though one was your great-grandmother, Mademoiselle, and not yours only but Monsieur Cheri"s too, and the other, of course, your great-grand-aunt. There have been many "our young ladies" that I can remember in this house, which has so long been the home of one family, and my home always. In three or four hundred years one sees a good deal. Ah yes! Well, as I was saying, I was standing on the edge of the parapet looking over at the young ladies, and admiring them and the sunshine and the flowers in the garden all at once, when I suddenly heard a window open. It was not one of the windows of our house. I have very quick ears, and I knew that in an instant, so I looked about to see what window it was. In those days there were not quite so many houses behind our garden as there are now. Your great-great-grandfather sold some of the land about that time, and then houses were built, but just then there were only two or three that overlooked one side of the garden. One of them was a large high house, which was let in flats to various families, often visitors to the town, or strangers who had come for a short time for the education of their children, or some other reason. It was not long before I discovered that the window I had heard open was in this house. It was one on the second story, looking on to a little balcony which at one end was not very high above the terrace walk. I watched to see who had opened the window, and in a few moments I saw peeping out half timidly the pretty fair face of a little girl. Quite a little girl she was, not much older than you, Mademoiselle Jeanne, but not like you, for she had light hair and soft blue eyes, and a fair face like Monsieur Cheri. She was a little English girl. She peeped out, and then, seeing that no one was observing her, she came quietly on to the balcony, and, creeping down into a corner where she could scarcely be seen, she sat watching our two pretty young ladies with all her eyes. No wonder, I thought; they were very pretty young ladies, and it was nice to see them together, walking up and down with arms intertwined, and talking eagerly, their talk sometimes interrupted by merry bursts of soft girlish laughter. And all the time the lonely little creature on the balcony sat and watched them longingly, her little pale face pressed against the bars, her plain black dress almost hiding her from notice.
""How happy they look, those pretty young ladies," the lonely little girl said to herself. "How happy I should be if I had a sister, for I have no one to talk to, no one to kiss me and play with me and if ever I say I am sad my aunt is angry. O mother! why did you go away and leave me?""
"Could you hear all that from up here on the roof?" said Jeanne. "Dear me, Dudu, you must have good ears."
"Of course I have; I told you so, Mademoiselle," said Dudu drily. "I had better ears than your great-grandmother and her sister, for they heard nothing, not even when the poor little girl took courage to push her face farther forward between the railings, and to say very softly and timidly,
""Mesdemoiselles, Mesdemoiselles, _might_ I come and walk with you? I am so tired of being here all alone."
"They did not hear her. They were talking too busily about the fete of their mother, I think, which was to be in a few days, and of what they were to prepare for her. And the poor little girl sat up there for more than an hour watching them with longing eyes, but not daring to call out more loudly. It made me quite melancholy to see her, and when at last our young ladies went in, and she had to give up hopes of gaining their attention, it made me more melancholy still, she looked so disappointed, and her eyes were full of tears; and I felt quite upset about her, and kept turning over in my head what I could do to make her happier. I thought about it for some time, and at last I decided that the first thing to do was to find out more about the little stranger and the cause of her grief. For this purpose I stationed myself the next morning just below the window of the kitchen of her house, which, by hopping from the balcony, I was easily able to do, and by listening to the conversation of the servants I soon learned all I wanted to know.
She was, as I had supposed, a little English girl. Her mother had died in Italy but a short time before, and she was now in the charge of her mother"s aunt, an elderly and severe lady, who understood nothing about children, and took no pains to make poor little Charlotte happy. So it was a sad life for the child, whose father also was dead; and as from the talk of the servants I gathered that she was a good and gentle little girl, I felt more sorry for her than before; and as I hopped back on to the balcony I looked to see if she was again at the window. Yes, there she was, her face pressed against the gla.s.s, staring out in the direction of the terrace walk, watching, no doubt, to see if our young ladies were coming out again. I hopped in front of the window backwards and forwards two or three times to catch her attention, and a smile lit up her little pale face when she saw me.
""Good day, Mr. Raven," she said politely. "Have you come to see me? It is very kind of you if you have, for I have n.o.body to play with. But, oh! if you could tell those pretty young ladies how I should like to walk about their garden with them, how pleased I should be."
"I bowed to her in token of understanding what she said, but I was not sure that she noticed it, for she just went on chattering in her soft little voice.
""Poor old raven," she said. "What a pity you can"t speak, for if you could I might send a message by you to those pretty young ladies;" and though I walked slowly backwards and forwards on the balcony, and bowed most politely each time I pa.s.sed her, yet she did not seem to understand."
"Why didn"t you speak?" interrupted Jeanne. "You can speak quite well to Cheri and me. Had you not learned to speak at that time, Dudu?"
The raven hemmed and hawed and cleared his throat.
"It is not to the point, Mademoiselle," he said, "to enter into all these explanations. If you would have the goodness to let me continue my reminiscences without interrupting me, I should really be obliged. I warned you I had not any amusing stories to tell, merely recollections of scenes in my past life. If you would prefer my leaving off, you have only to say so."
"Oh no, no. Please go on," exclaimed Jeanne, seeing that the raven was really ruffled. "I think it"s _very_ interesting, and I"ll promise not to interrupt you any more."
"Well," continued Dudu, "I bowed, as I told you, very politely two or three times, and at last I hopped away, still revolving in my mind how I could serve the poor little girl. That afternoon our young ladies came again on to the terrace, but they did not stay long, and the little girl was not to be seen on the balcony, though I daresay she was peering out through the window to see as far as she could. And the next day and the day after were very rainy, so there was nothing I could do. But after that again there came a very fine day--a beautiful sunny day it was, I remember it well--and our young ladies came out like the flowers and the birds to enjoy it. Out, too, came the forlorn little black figure, hiding itself as before behind the railings of the balcony, but looking with longing eyes at the garden below, which to her must have seemed a kind of Paradise. I directed my steps to the terrace, and walked slowly in front of the young ladies, slowly and solemnly straight in front of them, for I wanted to attract their attention.
""How particularly solemn Dudu looks to-day," said one of them to the other.
""Yes," she replied, "quite as if he had something on his mind. Have you been doing anything naughty, Dudu?"
"I turned and looked at her reproachfully. I was not offended, I knew she was only joking, my character stood far above any imputation; but still, there are subjects on which jokes are better avoided, and there _was_ a cousin of mine whose honesty, I am sorry to say, had been more than once suspected; altogether, I hardly thought the remark in good taste, and Mademoiselle Eliane was not slow to perceive it.
""Poor old Dudu," she cried; "have I hurt your feelings? But tell me what are you looking so solemn about?"
"I looked at her again, and then, sure that she and her sister were both watching me with attention, I sprang up the side of the wall next the little stranger"s house, hopped over the balcony railings, and finding, as I expected, my little friend crouched down in the corner, I gave a loud, sharp croak, as if something were the matter. Charlotte started up in a fright, and the young ladies, watching me curiously, for the first time observed her little figure.
""Why, Dudu has a friend up there!" exclaimed Mademoiselle Jeanne--your great-grandmother, my dears. "Mademoiselle," she called out to the little girl, whose small black figure did not look very much bigger than mine as we stood up there side by side; "Mademoiselle, do not be frightened of our old raven. He will not hurt you."
""I am not frightened, thank you," said the little girl"s gentle voice.
"He has been to see me before. I was only startled when he made that funny noise. But O Mesdemoiselles," she continued, clasping her hands in entreaty, "you do not know how I should like to come down into your garden and play with you, or at least," as she suddenly recollected that such tall young ladies were rather past the age for mere "playing,"
"walk about and talk with you. I have watched you so many days, and I am so lonely. But I did not like to speak to you unless you spoke to me."
""We never saw you," said Mademoiselle Eliane. "We should have seen you now but for the funny way Dudu has been going on, as if he wanted to introduce us to each other."
"I felt quite proud when Mademoiselle Eliane said that. It has always been a gratification to me to find myself understood. And I felt still prouder when the little girl replied, looking at me gratefully,
""How nice of him! He must have understood what I said to him in fun the other day. But O Mesdemoiselles," she went on, "_may_ I come down to you?"
""How can you get down?" said Mademoiselle Jeanne; "and are you sure your mother would not mind?"
""I have no mother," said the little girl sadly, "and my aunt would not mind, I know. She never minds what I do, if I don"t make a noise."
""But how can you get down?" repeated Mademoiselle Jeanne, "unless Dudu can take you on his back and fly with you!"
""Oh, I can easily get down," said the little girl; "I have often planned it. I can climb over the railings at this end--look, there is a jutting-out ledge that I can put my foot on. Then I can stand a minute outside and jump--if you will come close to, so that I shall not roll down the terrace bank."
CHAPTER XII.
AU REVOIR.
"One after another they flew away Far up to the heavenly blue, To the better country, the upper day----"
JEAN INGELOW.
"Little Charlotte climbed over the railings," continued Dudu, "but she did not jump down on the other side, for Mademoiselle Eliane, who was tall, found that by standing half-way up the bank she could reach the child and hand her down to Mademoiselle Jeanne, a little way below.
There was a good deal of laughing over it all, and this helped them to make friends more quickly than anything else would have done. But indeed Charlotte was not a shy child, she had travelled too much and seen too many people to be so, and our young ladies, besides, were so kind and merry that no little girl could long have been strange with them. She ran about the garden in the greatest delight; her new friends showed her all their favourite nooks, and allowed her to make a bouquet of the flowers she liked best; and when they were tired of standing about they all sat down together on a bank, and Charlotte told to the young ladies the story of her short life. It was a sad little story; her father had died when she was very young, and her mother, whose health had never been good after the shock of his death, had gone to Italy with the aunt who had brought her up, in hopes of growing stronger. But through two or three years of sometimes seeming better and sometimes worse, she had really been steadily failing, and at last she died, leaving her poor little girl almost alone, "for the old aunt was now," said Charlotte, "always ill, and not ill as mamma used to be," she added, for however tired _she_ was, she always liked her little girl to be beside her, and never wearied of listening to all she had to say.
""But now," said the child, "I am always alone, and it is _so_ sad. And I have watched you so often from the balcony, and wished I might come down to you. And now, if you will let me come to see you every day, I shall be _so_ happy."
"She was a dear little girl, so sweet, and simple, and loving. She quite gained our young ladies" hearts with her pretty ways and her funny little English, accent. They kissed her on both cheeks, and told her they would be very pleased for her to come to them in the garden whenever she saw them from the balcony, as she was so sure her aunt would not object to it. They could not invite her to the house, they explained, unless their mother and her aunt had made acquaintance. Of course it would not have done, as little Charlotte quite understood; for in those days," Dudu observed in pa.s.sing, "politeness and ceremony were much more observed than is at present, I am sorry to say, the case.
"The little English girl, however," he went on, "was only too delighted to have received permission to visit them in their garden. And not many days pa.s.sed on which she did not join them there. It was a lovely summer that year--I remember it so well. Never now does the sun seem to me to shine quite so brightly as in those days. Perhaps it is that I am growing old, perhaps the sad days that soon after followed left a cloud on my memory and a mist on my spirit which have never since entirely cleared away; however that may be, I never remember so bright and beautiful a summer as the one I am telling you of. And little Charlotte"s merry laugh was often heard on the terrace walk, as she ran races with Mademoiselle Eliane"s dog, or made daisy wreaths for Mademoiselle Jeanne"s dark hair. Kindness and companionship were all she required to make her a bright and happy child. But the pleasant summer faded, and with the first autumn days came a fresh sorrow for the little girl. One morning, before the usual time for meeting in the garden, I caught sight of her on the balcony, her face looking again like the little pale Charlotte I had first known her, her eyes red with weeping.
And as by good chance the young ladies came out soon the reason was soon explained.
""I am going away, my dear young ladies," cried Charlotte, as she threw herself into their arms. "My aunt has just told me. We return to England in a few days. To England, where I have no friends, where I shall be again all alone. O Mademoiselle Eliane! O Mademoiselle Jeanne! what shall I do without you, and your pretty garden, and your kindness, and poor old Dudu, and the flowers, and everything?"
"They consoled her as well as they could, my kind young ladies, whose hearts were always full of sympathy. But the tears came to their own eyes when they saw how real and acute was the little girl"s grief.
""You will come back to see us again, little Charlotte, perhaps," they said. "Your aunt has travelled so much, very likely she will not wish to remain always in England. And you would always find us here--in the winter at any rate; generally in the summer we spend some months at our chateau, though this summer our father had business which obliged him to stay here. But for that we should not have seen you so much."
"But Charlotte was not to be consoled. Her aunt, she was sure, would never travel any more. She had said only that very morning, that once she got back to England she would stay there for the rest of her life, she was too old to move about any more.
""And I," added Charlotte, with a fresh burst of weeping, "I am to be sent to an English school as soon as aunt can settle about it."
""But you will be happier at school, dear," said Mademoiselle Eliane.
"You will have friends of your own age."