The Magic Nuts

  CHAPTER X

  THE BLUE-SILK ROOM

  For this let each remember--life cannot all be play.

  _The New Year's Answer._

  But the children's plans for the next day did not come to pass.Unluckily, Leonore had caught cold. It was nothing very bad, but she wassubject to sore throats sometimes, which made Fraulein doubly careful,if ever she saw any symptoms of her having had a chill. And for somedays to come the little girl was not allowed to go out.

  At first she felt rather dull and depressed, but as her friends weresoon satisfied that there was not much the matter with her, Hildegardewas allowed to come to see her.

  'How did you catch cold?' were her visitor's first words; 'it couldn'tsurely have been from----' and she stopped short with a smile, forcuriously enough the children did not talk very much when they weretogether, in an ordinary way, of their fairy adventures.

  Leonore gave a little laugh.

  'From riding on a cloud,' she said softly. 'No, I am quite sure it wasnot from that, though certainly if we told anybody about it, they wouldthink it a sure way of catching cold.'

  'They wouldn't believe it,' said Hildegarde, 'or at least they wouldthink we had been dreaming, but do you know, Leonore,' she went oneagerly, 'I shouldn't wonder if some good came of your cold; it's only afortnight to Christmas now, and what grandmamma said that last day youwere at the Castle seems coming true. There are all the signs of a hardwinter, they say, and though grandmamma hasn't told me so, I have agreat idea that they are planning for you all to come and stay at theCastle with us.'

  Leonore's eyes danced with pleasure.

  'How lovely that would be,' she said, 'do tell me what makes you thinkso, Hildegarde?'

  'Two or three things,' was the reply. 'I heard grandpapa talking aboutthis house, "Aunt Anna's little house," he called it. He said the roofshould have something done to it, in case of heavy snow, and that thebailiff should have told him of this before, for it scarcely could bedone while the ladies were living in it. Then grandmamma smiled, andsaid that she thought the difficulty might be got over. And once ortwice lately I have met old Maria on her way to the blue-silk room. Oneday, she and another maid were carrying mattresses and things in there,and when I asked her what it was for, she looked funny, and saidsomething about airing things, and evidently didn't want me to go intothe room, or ask her any more questions about it. So I shouldn't wonderat all if they are preparing for your all coming. You see grandmamma islike that; she doesn't do things by halves, and if you are to come, shewould like to add to our pleasure by giving us the blue-silk roomtogether.'

  Leonore felt so excited that she could scarcely speak.

  'I wonder how soon we shall know?' she said at last. 'It wouldn't do toask Aunt Anna, or Fraulein, I suppose?'

  Hildegarde shook her wise little head very decidedly.

  'Oh no,' she said, 'if they wanted us to know they would have told us.If it is to be at all, it is to be a surprise; we must just be patientfor a few days.'

  Their patience, as it proved, was not very sorely tried. The very firstday that Leonore was well enough to go out again without fear of freshcold, she was met by Hildegarde at the foot of the hill, andHildegarde's beaming face told its own tale.

  'May I, oh may I tell Leonore?' she said to Fraulein Elsa, 'grandmammahas given me leave provided you and Aunt Anna have no objection.'

  Fraulein could not help smiling.

  'My dear child,' she said, 'there would not be much use in stopping younow; Leonore cannot but guess that there is a surprise in store; thevery way you came dancing down the hill was enough to show it. But wemust not keep Leonore standing. Come home with us and chatter as much asyou like.'

  And in another moment the secret, which of course Leonore had alreadyguessed, was told.

  'You are all coming to stay at the Castle for Christmas,' she exclaimed,'that is to say if your cold doesn't get worse, or----'

  Here Fraulein positively laughed.

  'And that was to be decided by testing, if it did her no harm to comeout to-day,' she said. 'You should have waited till to-morrow,Hildegarde.'

  The little girl looked rather penitent, but Leonore soon reassured her--

  'Of course it won't get worse,' she said, 'I haven't the least, tiniestbit of a scrap of sore throat now; the only thing is,' she went on,'that it doesn't seem as if any snowstorms were coming,' and she lookedup doubtfully into her governess's face.

  'But why should you want snowstorms?' asked Fraulein, 'one can be veryhappy at Christmas time, even if the weather is mild and the fieldsstill green.'

  'Oh,' said Leonore, a little confused, for she did not want to take awaythe pleasure of the 'surprise,' 'it was only that I thought----' and shehesitated.

  Hildegarde came to the rescue.

  'Oh,' she said, 'it was only that grandmamma had already mentionedsomething to us about your perhaps coming to stay at the Castle forChristmas, if the weather got very bad; and there was something aboutAunt Anna's house needing repair. But all that doesn't matter now in theleast. It is fixed, quite fixed, do you hear, Leonore?--that you areall coming next Monday, whether it snows, or hails, or thunders, orwhatever it does.'

  So far as the present was concerned, there was not much sign of anygreat weather disturbance, for the day was mild and bright, and Leonorewas by no means the worse, but decidedly the better, for her littleexpedition. Both children, as children always do, whenever there is anypleasure in prospect, thought that the days would never pass till 'nextMonday.' But pass they did, and it would have been difficult to find twohappier little maidens than Hildegarde and her guest, when the ratherlumbering old carriage, which had been sent to fetch the three visitors,drew up in front of the Castle door.

  'Come, come, quick,' were Hildegarde's first words to Leonore, 'I am insuch a hurry to take you to our room,' and scarcely allowing her littlefriend time to receive the greetings of the Baron and Baroness, andtheir two younger sons, Hildegarde's uncles, who had arrived the nightbefore to spend Christmas at home, she seized her little friend's hand,and hurried her off to a part of the Castle, which Leonore had not yetseen.

  'Leonore,' she said, stopping to take breath, for though the steps ofthe staircase which they were mounting were shallow, she had raced upthem at a tremendous rate. 'Leonore, it is as I thought, we are to havethe blue-silk room.'

  Up one other little flight they went, across a small landing and along acorridor, at the end of which a door stood partly open. A pleasantsparkle of firelight met them, and in another moment they were in themost fascinating room that Leonore had ever seen or even dreamt of.

  As Hildegarde had described, it was all hung with blue silk, round whichwere worked lovely wreaths of rosebuds. And the remarkable thing wasthat the colours both of the silk and the embroidery were as fresh as ifthey had only just been made, though, as the Baroness had told her,Leonore knew that certainly more than a century and a half had passedsince the room had first been furnished. She stood still, gazing roundher.

  'Oh what a lovely room!' she exclaimed. 'I had no idea any room couldhave been so beautiful, though you told me about it. But where are ourbeds, Hildegarde?'

  Hildegarde laughed.

  'That's the beauty of it,' she said, drawing back, as she spoke, theblue hangings at one end, thus disclosing to view a recess in whichstood two little beds side by side. 'It is like several rooms instead ofone, there are two or three alcoves that you don't see when the curtainsare drawn at night; one of them has a great big window to the south,where it is beautifully warm. I think we shall call that alcove ourboudoir.'

  It was a delightful room, and the two children were very happy, tillsummoned downstairs to supper, in arranging the newcomer's possessions,and planning how they should spend their time during Leonore's stay atthe Castle.

  'We are sure to have a good deal of fun,' said Hildegarde, 'for the nextweek or so while my uncles stay; it is rather a pity that the hardwinter that was talked so much about hasn't begun yet, for the
y wouldhave skated with us.'

  'I have never learnt to skate,' said Leonore, 'but your uncles look verykind, and perhaps they would have taught me.'

  'Yes,' Hildegarde replied, 'I am sure they would; they are very nice,though not to be compared with papa. If only he and mamma were here, andyour father, Leonore, we should have everything we could want in theworld, wouldn't we?'

  'Even to knowing that we have still two nuts to crack,' said Leonore ina low voice.

  Hildegarde's grandfather looked round the well-filled table withpleasure, when all had taken their places.

  'This is much better,' he said heartily, 'than being alone, as we werelast Christmas, not even our little Hildegarde was here. If only yourfather and mother and our little friend's father too,' he added kindly,turning to Leonore, 'were here, I should feel quite satisfied.'

  'That is just what we were saying on our way downstairs,' saidHildegarde, 'I do believe grandpapa, you have something of a fairy aboutyou too, to guess one's thoughts as you often do. Grandmamma iscertainly a kind of fairy godmother, as well as being grandmamma. Sheplans such lovely surprises. Leonore and I are _so_ happy in theblue-silk room.'

  'Oh that is where you have taken up your quarters, is it?' said hergrandfather. 'Well, you could not be anywhere better; it has the name ofbeing the luckiest room in the Castle under fairy guardianship, not thatI quite believe in such things, though I do think the Castle has somefairy visitors,' he went on more gravely; 'the fairies of love andkindness are with us I hope; indeed, when I look back through a longlife, mostly spent here, I think we have been a specially favouredfamily. My own parents and grandparents were good and kind toeverybody.'

  'And so, I am sure, are you and grandmamma,' said Hildegarde eagerly.

  Leonore looked up half timidly.

  'There are other fairies too, the fairies of industry and perseverance,that your grandmother told us about,' she said to Hildegarde.

  The Baroness overheard her.

  'Yes,' she said, with a smile, 'they must have had a hand in theadornment of the blue-silk room.'

  It was a charming nest in which to fall asleep, with the firelightdancing on the lovely colours of the sheeny silk, and it was a charmingroom to wake up in the next morning, when the first rays of the palewintry sunshine began to creep in through the one window, which thelittle girls had left uncurtained the night before. They were later thanusual of getting up, for they had been later than usual of going to bed.Rules were to be relaxed somewhat during the Christmas holidays.

  'Are you awake, Hildegarde?' said Leonore. 'Oh yes,' was the reply.'Doesn't the room look pretty?'

  Leonore raised herself on her elbow. 'Yes,' she said, 'and sobeautifully neat. Did you tidy it at all after I got into bed lastnight, Hildegarde?'

  'No indeed,' laughed her friend, 'I was too sleepy. I wonder if Amaliahas been in already this morning without waking us.'

  'I could almost fancy she had,' said Leonore, for I have a dreamyfeeling of having heard some one moving about softly, as if they wereputting things straight or dusting.'

  Just then came the maid's tap at the door; but on being questioned as towhether she had been in before, she laughingly shook her head, owningthat she herself had slept later than usual that morning--if the youngladies had heard any one arranging the room, it must have been a'brownie.'

  The children were not unwilling to think so.

  'I daresay it was,' said Hildegarde in a whisper, 'it is only to beexpected in a fairy room like this.'

  And certainly the next few days passed happily enough to justify thepleasant belief that the blue-silk room brought joy to those whoinhabited it. Though frost and snow kept off, and there was no chanceof skating, there were plenty of other amusements out of doors, as wellas indoors; for Hildegarde's uncles proved quite as kind as Leonorethought they looked, and planned pleasant walks and drives and games forthe two little girls.

  Then came Christmas itself, the happiest that Leonore had ever known,for her father had never been with her, that she could remember, at thatseason, and she had often, at home in England, felt it a little lonely.They had a Christmas-tree of course, a great beauty, provided withexactly the right presents for everybody, servants and humble friendsconnected with the Castle, as well as for the family itself and theirvisitors. And in the midst of all this enjoyment and excitement, thelittle girls almost forgot that they had still two magic nuts to crack,when the right time should come.

  Two days after Christmas the scene changed. In the first place, theuncles had to leave to rejoin their regiments--greatly to the littlegirls' regret, and then began the fulfilment of the weather prophet'spredictions. There came sudden and severe cold, soon followed by a heavyfall of snow, accompanied by gales, such as were seldom known in thatinland part of the country; weather indeed, almost approaching what isnowadays called a 'blizzard.'

  At first the children found it rather amusing, though the Baron lookedgrave, as news was brought in of the destruction among his trees, andafter a day or two, the wind fell, but the snow continued. And even whenit ceased to fall, leaving the house was completely out of the question,so deep did it lie, and to such a height had it, in many parts, drifted.After some days of this enforced imprisonment, Hildegarde and Leonorebegan to think a snowstorm by no means a laughing matter. They hadplayed all their games so often, that they were growing tired of them;they had read and re-read their books, of which there was no greatnumber suitable for children in the Castle, and one afternoon, when theywere by themselves, in their own room, they looked at each other ratherdisconsolately, the same question rising to the lips of both.

  'What shall we do with ourselves?'

  Fraulein had done her utmost to amuse them, but she too, by this time,was almost at the end of her resources, and they knew it was no use toapply to her again, unless they wished to begin lessons, in earnestbefore the holidays were over! So they sat down together on the floor,in front of the fire, half laughing at their own dullness.

  Suddenly, in one corner of the room, they heard a little tapping; had itbeen summer, and had the windows been open, they could have fancied itthe tap of a wood-pecker, so clear and dainty did it sound.

  'What can that be?' exclaimed Hildegarde; 'listen, Leonore,' and againcame the tapping.

  The children held their breath to listen. Then----