there was
not congenial to him, but he liked it vastly better than the Huguenot
meeting, and was not prepared to understand or enter into Mr. Adderley's
vexation, when the tutor assured him that the reverent gestures that
came naturally to him were regarded by the Protestants as idolatry, and
that he would be viewed as a recreants from his faith. All Mr. Adderley
hoped was that no one would hear of it: and in this he felt himself
disappointed, when, in the midst of his lecture, there walked into the
room a little, withered, brown, dark-eyed man, in a gorgeous dress of
green and gold, who doffing a hat with an umbrageous plume, precipitated
himself, as far as he could reach, towards Berenger's neck, calling
him fair cousin and dear baron. The lad stood taken by surprise for
a moment, thinking that Tithonus must have looked just like this, and
skipped like this, just as he became a grasshopper; then he recollected
that this must be the Chevalier de Ribaumont, and tried to make up
for his want of cordiality. The old man had, it appeared, come out of
Picardy, where he lived on _soupe maigre_ in a corner of the ancestral
castle, while his son and daughter were at court, the one in Monsieur's
suite, the other in that of the Queen-mother. He had come purely to meet
his dear young cousin, and render him all the assistance is his power,
conduct him to Paris, and give him introductions.

Berenger, who had begun to find six Englishmen a troublesome charge in
France, was rather relieved at not being the only French scholar of
the party, and the Chevalier also hinted to him that he spoke with a
dreadful Norman accent that would never be tolerated at court, even if
it were understood by the way. Moreover, the Chevalier studied him all
over, and talked of Paris tailors and posture-masters, and, though the
pink of politeness, made it evident that there was immensely too much of
him. 'It might be the custom in England to be so tall; here no one
was of anything like such a height, but the Duke of Guise. He, in his
position, with his air, could carry it off, but we must adapt ourselves
as best we can.'

And his shrug and look of concern made Berenger for a moment almost
ashamed of that superfluous height of which they were all so proud at
home. Then he recollected himself, and asked, 'And why should not I be
tall as well as M. de Guise?'

'We shall see, fair cousin,' he answered, with an odd satirical bow;
'we are as Heaven made us. A