e 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 ladie