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.  All lies in the management and if you had the advantages of training, PERHAPS you could even turn your height into a grace.’

‘Am I such a great lubber?’ wondered Berenger; ’they did not think so at home.  No; nor did the Queen.  She said I was a proper stripling!  Well, it matters the less, as I shall not stay long to need their favour; and I’ll show them there is some use in my inches in the tilt-yard.  But if they think me such a lout, what would they say to honest Philip?’

The Chevalier seemed willing to take on him the whole management of his ‘fair cousin.’  He inquired into the amount of the rents and dues which old Osbert had collected and held ready to meet the young Baron’s exigencies; and which would, it seemed, be all needed to make his dress any way presentable at court.  The pearls, too, were inquired for, and handed over by Osbert to his young Lord’s keeping, with the significant intimation that they had been demanded when the young Madame la Baronne went to court; but that he had buried them in the orchard, and made answer that they were not in the chateau.  The contract of marriage, which Berenger could just remember signing, and seeing signed by his father, the King, and the Count, was not forthcoming; and the Chevalier explained that it was in the hands of a notary at Paris.  For this Berenger was not sorry.  His grandfather had desired him to master the contents, and he thought he had thus escaped a very dry and useless study.

He did not exactly dislike the old Chevalier de Ribaumont.  The system on which he had been brought up had not been indulgent, so that compliments and admiration were an agreeable surprise to him; and rebuffs and rebukes from his elders had been so common, that hints, in the delicate dressing of the old knight, came on him almost like gracious civilities.  There was no love lost between the Chevalier and the chaplain, that was plain; but how could there be between an ancient French courtier and a sober English divine?  However, to Mr. Adderley’s great relief, no attempts were made on Berenger’s faith, his kinsman even was disposed to promote his attendance at such Calvinist places of worship as they passed on the road, and treated him in all things as a mere guest, to be patronized indeed, but as much an alien as if he had been born in England.  And yet there was a certain deference to him as head of the family, and a friendliness of manner that made the boy feel him a real relation, and all through the journey it came naturally that he should be the entire manager, and Berenger the paymaster on a liberal scale.