admired in his grandfather’s garden.  Hugh was too much amazed to rub his eyes again—­he could do nothing but stare, and stare he did with all his might, but for a moment or two there was nothing else to be seen.  The peacocks stood still—­so still that Hugh now began to doubt whether they had not always stood, tails spread, just as he saw them now, and whether these same tails having ever drooped on the ground was not altogether his fancy.  A good deal puzzled, and a little disappointed, he was turning away to look at another part of the pictured walls, when again a slight flutter of movement caught his eyes.  What was about to happen this time?

[Illustration:—­“IT WAS DUDU!”—­p. 51.]

“Perhaps they are going to furl their tails again,” thought Hugh; but no.  One on each side of the castle door, the peacocks solemnly advanced a few steps, then stood still—­quite still—­but yet with a certain waiting look about them as if they were expecting some one or something.  They were not kept waiting long.  The door of the castle opened slowly, very slowly, the peacocks stepped still a little farther forward, and out of the door of the castle—­the castle into which little Jeanne had so longed to enter—­who, what, who do you think came forth?  It was Dudu!

A small black figure, black from head to foot, head very much cocked on one side, foot—­claw I should say—­stuck out like a walking-stick; he stood between the peacocks, right in Hugh’s view, just in front of the door which had closed behind him, at the top of the high flight of steps.  He stood still with an air of great dignity, which seemed to say, “Here you see me for the first time in my rightful character—­monarch of all I survey.”  And somehow Hugh felt that this unspoken address was directed to him.  Then, quietly and dignifiedly still, the raven turned, first to the right, then to the left, and gravely bowed to the two attendant peacocks, who each in turn saluted him respectfully and withdrew a little farther back, on which Dudu began a very slow and imposing progress down the steps.  How he succeeded in making it so imposing was the puzzle, for after all, his descent was undoubtedly a series of hops, but all the same it was very majestic, and Hugh felt greatly impressed, and watched him with bated breath.

“One, two, three, four,” said Hugh to himself, half unconsciously counting each step as the raven advanced, “what a lot of steps!  Five, six, seven,” up to twenty-three Hugh counted on.  And “what is he going to do now?” he added, as Dudu, arrived at the foot of the stairs, looked calmly about him for a minute or two, as if considering his next movements.  Then—­how he managed it Hugh could not tell—­he suddenly stepped out of the tapestry landscape, and in another moment was perched in his old place at the foot of Hugh’s bed.