d her into the big kitchen with the shining copper
pans, purring and rubbing themselves against her legs. Babette coaxed
the cook till he gave her seven saucers of milk; then there was a great
smacking of lips.

When nurse awoke as usual at seven o'clock, she was frightened to find
that her little charge had vanished. "What a child to look after in my
old age!" she groaned. "And yet she is taking too! How sweet she looked
curled up in the old cot." She soon found out from the servants what
Babette had been doing; so the child was seized upon, washed and brushed
again, and dressed in a stiff frock with white frills.

Quite sober and respectable our little wild girl looked when she went
downstairs after breakfast to see my Lord and Lady in the dining-room.

She sat on the high, straight-backed sofa, and played with the carved
lions' heads, and had never a word to say for herself until the Count
produced a doll that he had rummaged out from among some old treasures.
It was yellow from age; but its frock was of satin, and it had on
little gold shoes. To Babette, who had never had a doll of her own, it
seemed very lovely indeed. "Is it _really_ for me?" she asked in tones
of ecstasy.

She was perfectly good all the morning, playing with it, washing its
face, dressing and undressing it, and putting it to bed as little girls
love to do.

At dinner she shocked the polite company by putting her food into her
mouth with her fingers; forks and spoons she did not know how to manage.
So she was sent to have dinner with the servants who made fine fun of
her again, till she flew into a passion and declared with many tears
that she would run away. Then they were frightened lest my Lord should
hear the noise, and soothed and petted her till she was quiet again.
They did not mean to be unkind; they were only stupid, and thought her
tempers amusing.

Well, the days went on, and Babette became more gentle and docile, and
gave up many of her wild ways. She saw but little of the Countess, but
she grew to admire the grave, silent lady, and to long for some response
to her affection. My Lord was Babette's best friend and protector in all
her childish troubles. Everyone said that he was quite infatuated with
the child. He would play ball with her in the garden, "regardless of
his knightly dignity," as his wife remarked.

Babette knew all the animals about the Castle and ruled over them like a
little queen.

She would go up to the prou