The Little Old Portrait Page 4

coaxingly, `tell Edmee astory--a pretty story.'

  "`What about? My little lady has heard all the stories I know, sooften,' said Pierre, gently stroking the pretty fair hair tumbling overhis arm, as she leant her head against him.

  "`Never mind, I like them again--only _not_ about Red Riding Hood,' saidEdmee; `that frightens me so, Pierre; I fancy I am little Red RidingHood, only then I always think my Pierrot would come running, running_so_ fast, so that the naughty wolf _shouldn't_ eat me. Wouldn't myPierrot do that? He _wouldn't_ let the naughty wolf eat poor littleEdmee?'

  "`No, indeed--_indeed_! I wouldn't,' said Pierre eagerly.

  "`I'd get the old sword--you know it, Edmee: father has it hanging upover the door in our cottage; it's rather rusty, but it would be goodenough for a wolf--and I'd run at him with it before he could touch you.If he _had_ to eat up somebody, I'd let him eat me first.'

  "`Oh, don't! don't, Pierrot,' said Edmee, trembling and clinging to him,`I don't say that; don't let us speak about things like that! There areno wolves here, are there? and don't you think, Pierrot dear, if peoplewere very, very kind to all the wolves, and never hunted them, oranything like that--don't you think perhaps the wolves would get kind?'Pierre smiled.

  "`I'm afraid not,' he said, `but there are no wolves about here.'

  "`No, no,' repeated Edmee, `no wolves and no naughty people at Valmont.Don't you wish there were no naughty people anywhere, Pierrot?'

  "`Indeed, I do,' said the boy, and then he sat silent. `What makes youtalk about naughty people, Edmee?'

  "`I don't know,' said Edmee; `sometimes I hear things, Pierrot, thatfrighten me. I hear the servants talking--they say that some lords likepapa are so naughty and unkind. Is it true, Pierrot?'

  "`I'm afraid all rich men are not so kind as the Count,' said Pierre.`But don't trouble yourself about it, dear; we won't let naughty unkindpeople come here.'

  "Somehow Edmee had grown silent; she sat there quite still, leaning herlittle head on the boy's shoulder. And he did not talk either; Edmee'sinnocent words had reminded him of things he too had heard--of talkbetween his father and mother, which, young as he was, he alreadyunderstood a good deal of. Even to quiet Valmont growlings of the yetdistant storm, which ere long was to overwhelm the country, had begun topenetrate. Now and then peasants from other villages would make theirway to this peaceful corner, with tales of cruelties and indignitiesfrom which they were suffering, which could not but rouse the sympathyof their more fortunate compatriots. And more than once Pierre had seenhis quiet and serious father strangely excited.

  "`It cannot go on for ever,' he would say to his wife; `we may not liveto see, but our children will, some terrible retribution on this unhappyland. Ah, if all masters were like ours! But I fear there are but few,even in his own family, think of the difference.'

  "But when Pierre eagerly asked what he meant, he would say no more--hewould say nothing to sow prejudice in the child's heart. But fromothers the boy learnt something of what his father was thinking of, andas he grew older and understand still more, his heart ached sometimeswith vague fear and anxiety, though not for himself.

  "`It would be a bad day for us all--a bad day for our poor mistress andthe dear little lady--if the good Count were taken from us,' he heardnow and then, and the words always struck a cold chill to his heart; forthe Count was by no means in good health--he had always been somewhatdelicate, unable to take part much in field sports, and such amusementas absorbed the time of most of his country neighbours. He read muchand thought much, and in many ways he was different from those amongwhom he lived. And though somewhat cold in manner, it was evident hewas not so in heart, for all the little children in the village lovedhim as well as his beautiful and loveable young wife, and their dearlittle daughter, and beyond the limits even of his own domain he wasspoken of as the good Count of Valmont.

  "Suddenly, as the two children sat there in silence, a voice was heardcalling--

  "`Mademoiselle! Mademoiselle! wherever can the child have hiddenherself? Mademoiselle, you are wanted at once in the drawing-room.'

  "And as Edmee rose slowly, and perhaps rather unwillingly, to her feet,she saw coming along the terrace her mother's new maid Victorine, towhom, it must be confessed, she was not partial.

  "`I am not hidden, Victorine,' she said; `it is easy to see if onelooks.'

  "`If one looks in proper places,' said the maid pertly, `_I_ neverbefore saw a young lady always playing with a clodhopper!' and she cameforward as if about to take Edmee by the hand and lead her away. Butshe reckoned without her host."

  CHAPTER THREE.

  Edmee drew herself away.

  "`Naughty Victorine!' she said. `You shall not call my Pierrot uglynames. Come away, Pierrot; we won't go with her.'

  "`But you _must_ come, Mademoiselle Edmee; your lady mamma has sent foryou,' said Victorine, by no means pleased, but a little afraid ofgetting into some trouble with this determined young lady.

  "`Mamma has sent for me? Oh, then I will come. Come, Pierrot, mammawants us in the drawing-room. You need not wait, Victorine; Pierre willbring me.'

  "Victorine's face grew very red.

  "`Nobody wants _him_,' she said. `However, do as you please. Thankgoodness, I am not that child's nurse,' she muttered as she walked offwith her head in the air. She was in hopes that Pierre, and perhapsEdmee too, would get a good scolding if the boy made his appearance withher in the drawing-room; but she was much mistaken. The childrenentered the house together, crossing the large cool hall, paved withblack and white marble, and then making their way down a side passage ofred tiles. Here Pierre stopped: it was the way to the Countess's ownrooms, which opened into the large drawing-room by a side door.

  "`I will wait here,' he said; `if my lady wants me you will come andtell me, will you not, Mademoiselle?'

  "For it was not often that Pierre returned to the village without somemessage for his mother from the Countess, who considered her as one ofher best and trustiest friends.

  "Edmee ran into her mother's room--there was no one there, but thedoors, one at each side of a tiny anteroom, which led into the bigdrawing-room, were both open, and voices, those of her father and motherand of another person, reached her ears. She ran gaily in.

  "`Here you are at last, my pet!' said her mother. `How long you havebeen! This gentleman has been waiting to see you; he has come all theway from Tours on purpose to--can Edmee guess what he has come for?'

  "Edmee looked up in the stranger's face with a half-puzzled,half-roguish expression, very pretty to see.

  "`All!' exclaimed the young man, hastily; `excuse me, Madame--if theyoung lady could but be taken as she is now, it would be admirable.'

  "`All in disorder!' exclaimed the countess, laughing. `Why I was justgoing to send her to have her hair brushed, and to have a clean white,frock put on; she is all tossed and tumbled.'

  "`All the better--nothing could be better,' said the artist, for such hewas, and the Count agreed with him. But it was not so easily done assaid. Edmee could not at all see why she was to sit still on astiff-backed chair when she so much preferred running about, and thoughshe had jerked one dimpled shoulder out of the strap of her frock, shehad by no means intended to keep it there, as the stranger insisted.Furthermore, she objected to looking up at him as he desired, and was onthe point of telling him that he was not pretty enough to look at somuch, when happily another idea struck her.

  "`Let Pierrot come in,' she said; `Pierrot can come and tell me a story,and then I'll sit still. Edmee always sits still when Pierrot tells herstories.'

  "`But how are we to get hold of him?' said the Count, whose patience wasrather tried by her fidgetiness. `There is not time to send to thevillage, the light will be failing'--for it was already advanced in theafternoon--`and Mr Denis is so anxious to make the first sketchto-day.'

  "`Pierrot is not in the village; he is here at the door. Send for himand tell him to come in, and then Edmee will be so good--oh so good, a
ndwill sit so still!'

  "The Countess rang a little bell which stood on a side table; an old manservant soon came to see what was wanted.

  "`Is Pierre Germain still here?' she said; `if so, tell him to come in.'

  "In a moment Pierre made his appearance. His boots were thick andclumsy, and clattered on the shining polished floor; he held his cap inboth hands, and stayed an instant at the door to make his bow and towait the lady's pleasure. But, country boy though he was, he neitherlooked nor felt foolish or awkward, and the young artist, taking hiseyes for a moment from his