Children -- Juvenile fiction; Paris (France) -- Juvenile fiction
"Yes, Madame," answered Auntie Sue. "With her brown eyes and slight
figure, the little mademoiselle should wear the frock as well as Jeanne
does."
Madame and Auntie Sue then talked for some time about the frock.
Jeanne went about the large audience, with Margot's wondering eyes
following her every movement.
At last Jeanne finished showing all the garments. The young model
disappeared behind the screen, and the audience began to leave.
Auntie Sue was showing a closet full of clothes to Madame Villard whose
many purchases made the pencil of Auntie Sue skip over the page and her
heart skip with gladness.
This was, of course, dull for Margot, and Margot was not used to things
being dull. She sat in the empty room, while Grandmother talked and
looked at clothes and paid no attention to her.
The little girl began to walk about the shop. She peered at the floppy
dolls on the tables and at the quaint hat stands and show-cases.
She came to the screen behind which Jeanne had disappeared. She longed
to peep behind that screen. She edged up close and tried to look through
the cracks to the back.
She heard a tiny sound. Then words: "Down with the Bastille
(bȧs-tēl´)!"
Margot pressed her head against the screen to hear better. The screen
began to topple. Over it went. There was a muffled sound, and Jeanne
stood up and faced Margot.
Jeanne was now in her own simple clothes. She held the Pierrot puppet,
who was, however, still grandly dressed.
She stared hard at Margot and then at the fallen screen. Margot stared,
too. Then Margot managed to remember her manners.
"Excuse me," she said. "I did not mean to knock down the screen."
Jeanne smiled and picked up the screen, while Margot helped her set it
in place. When it again stood erect, Margot found herself outside and
Jeanne inside. They were separated as before.
For a few moments there was silence from both sides of the screen. Then
came a giggle from one side and a giggle from the other.
And then from the outside, "May I come back and see you?"
From the inside, "Yes, do come!"
Margot went behind the screen, and for the first time in her life she
learned the magic of real play.
Jeanne had one plaything: a little forsaken puppet. But with love and
tenderness she made him a hero.
Jeanne told Margot about Pierrot. She told that he was no longer the
buffoon--the poor mistreated clown. He was now a hero.
He could play a knight or a king--Napoleon! She told Margot that Pierrot
was Napoleon in one of her plays and that she was Joan of Arc.
Margot lived in another world for the space of an hour. Then the two
little girls were called back suddenly by a voice from the room.
"Margot, Margot! Child! Where are you?"
Grandmother was looking for her.
Margot and Jeanne stepped out from behind the screen and found
Grandmother preparing to leave. Auntie Sue stood beside her with pencil
and pad.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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