As the girls sat basking in the window-seat for a few minutes after
breakfast one morning, they surprised a private conversation between
their cavalier and Master Johnnie Vautrin. Graeme, with his back to
them, sat smoking on the low stone wall. Johnnie was, as usual,
bunched up in the hedge opposite.
"Well, Johnnie?" they heard. "Seen any crows this morning?"
"Ouaie!"
"How many then, you wretched little croaker?"
"J'annéveu deu et j'annéveu troy."
"Ah now, it's not polite--as I've told you before--to talk to an
uneducated foreigner, in a language he does not understand. How many,
in such English as you have attained to, and what did they mean
according to your wizardry?"
"Pergui, you, too, are not polite! Your words are like
this"--measuring off an expanding half yard in the air,--"they are all
wind."
"Smart boy! How many crows did you see this morning?"
"First I saw two and then I saw three."
"Two and three make five. Croaker! Five crows mean someone's going to
be sick. And which way did they go this time?"
"Noh, noh! First it wass two, and when they had gone then it wass
three more."
"I see. And two black crows--what might they mean now?"
"Two crows they mean good luck."
"Clever boy! Continue! Three black crows mean----?"
"Three crows--they mean a marrying,--ouaie, Dame!"
"Ah, a marrying! That's better! That is very much better. It strikes
me, Johnnie, that two lucky crows are worth twopence, and three
marrying crows are worth threepence. And as luck would have it I've
got exactly five pennies in my pocket. Catch, bearer of good tidings!
Here you are--one, two, three, four, five! Well caught! Is it going to
keep fine?" and Marielihou stopped licking herself to look at Graeme,
and then went on again with an air of,--"I could tell you things if I
would, but it's not worth while,"--in her ugly green eyes.
"I don' think," said Johnnie, jumping at the chance of ill news.
"You don't, you little rascal? Here, give me back my hard-earned
pence! You're a little humbug."
"What's Johnnie been up to now?" asked Miss Penny, as she came out
into the open.
"He's giving me lessons in necromancy and the black art of crows. He
declines to pledge his honour on the continued brightness of the day."
"Oh, Johnnie! And we're going to Brecqhou!"
"I cann'd help."
"But you might send us on our way rejoicing."
"Gimme six pennies an' I will say it will be fine."
"I'm beginning to think you're of a grasping disposition, Johnnie. If
you don't take care you'll die rich."
"Go'zamin, I wu'n't mind."
Then Graeme came out again, with the hamper he had had packed in the
kitchen under his own supervision, and their cloaks, which, thanks to
Johnnie, he had picked off the nails in the passage, and they set off
for Havre Gosselin and Brecqhou.