In fact, they did thus grow up together.
They were most kind-hearted people, these Bayards. They made no
difference between the humble orphan and their own dear boy, who would
one day in the firm of "Bayard & Son" work monopolies in rhubarb and
corners in castor-oil; indeed, they loved as their own child little
Norine, who was as intelligent as she was charming, as fair in mind as
she was delicate in body.
Now the nurse took the two children to the square of the Tour
Saint-Jacques when the weather was pleasant, and in the evening at the
family table there were two high-chairs side by side for the boy and his
foster sister.
In addition to which, the Bayards were not slow to perceive the good
influence which Norine had upon Leon. Quicker, of a more nervous
temperament, more easy of comprehension than the lymphatic boy, whose
wits were "wool-gathering," according to his father, she seemed to
communicate to him something of her own spirit and fire. "She jogs him
up," said Madame Bayard.
And since he had lived with his foster sister Leon had perceptibly grown
brighter and quicker. When they were of an age to learn to read, Leon,
who made but little progress, and stumbled along with one of those
alphabets with pictures where the letter E is by the side of an elephant
and the letter Z by the side of a zouave, was the despair of his mother.
But as soon as Norine, who in a very short time learned to spell and
read, came to the aid of the little man, he immediately made rapid
progress.
So things went on, until both children were sent to a school for little
children kept by a gentlewoman named Merlin, in the Rue de l'Homme
Armé. According to the fallacious circular which Mademoiselle Merlin
sent to the folks of the quarter, there was a garden--that is to say,
four broomsticks in a sandy court; and it was there, the first day
during recess, that the innocent Leon burst into cries of terror when he
saw the school-mistress, forced by some accident to interrupt her
knitting, stick one of her great knitting-needles in her capacious
head-dress. A "senior," who was more familiar with her head-dress,
explained the phenomenon in vain to Leon and Norine, for the boy, none
the less, preserved in the presence of Mademoiselle Merlin an impression
of superstitious terror.
[Illustration]
She would have paralyzed his infant faculties, and have prevented him in
the class from following the pointer of Mademoiselle Merlin, as she
sniffled through her sing-song lecture before the map of Europe, or the
table of weights and measures, if Norine had not been there to reassure
and encourage him. She was at once the first scholar in the school, and
became for slow and lazy Leon a sort of sisterly counsellor and
affectionate under-teacher. Towards four o'clock Madame Bayard had the
two children, whom the nurse had brought back to the store, placed near
her in the glass office; and Norine, opening a copy-book or a book,
explained to Leon the uncomprehended task or made him repeat the lesson
that he had not understood.
"The good God has rewarded us," Madame Bayard sometimes whispered to her
husband in the evening. "That little Norine is a treasure, and so good,
so industrious! Only to-day I listened to her helping Leon again. I
believe that without her he would never have learned the
multiplication-table."
"I believe you, Mimi," responded Bayard. "I have observed it. Things go
on marvellously well with us, and we will portion her and marry her,
shall we not, when she comes to a suitable age?"