He just turned towards the door by which he had entered, and it opened of itself. He hopped through, and the children followed him. They found themselves, as Dudu had said, on the roof of the house, of a part of the house, that is to say. It seemed more like the roof of a little tower or turret. Hugh and Jeanne stood for a moment or two in silence, looking up at the brilliant show of stars overhead. It was not cold, the air seemed peculiarly fresh and sweet, as if it were purer and finer than that lower down. "It's rather nice up here, eh?" said Dudu. "Yes, very," replied Hugh. "We're very much obliged to you for bringing us up here. Aren't we, Jeanne?" "Yes," said Jeanne, "not counting fairies and adventures that's to say, it's very nice up here." "I often come up here at night," said Dudu. "I wonder how many thousand times I've been up here." "Are you so very old, Dudu?" said Jeanne, "as old as the white lady?" "I daresay," said Dudu, vaguely--he seemed to be thinking to himself. "Yes," he continued, cocking his head on one side, "I suppose I am what _you_ would call very old, though the white lady would consider me quite a baby. Yes, I've seen queer things in my time." "_What?_" said the children both together, eagerly, "oh, do tell us some of them. If you would tell us a story, Dudu, it would be as nice as an adventure." "Stories," said Dudu, "are hardly in my line. I might tell you a little of some things I've seen, but I don't know that they would interest you." "Oh yes! oh yes!" cried the children, "of course they would. And it's so nice and warm up here, Dudu--much warmer than in the house." "Sit down, then," said Dudu, "here, in this corner. You can lean against the parapet,"--for a low wall ran round the roof--"and look at the stars while you listen to me. Well--one day, a good long while ago you would consider it, no doubt----" "Was it a hundred years ago?" interrupted Jeanne. "About that, I daresay," said the raven carelessly. "I cannot be quite exact to twenty or thirty years, or so. Well, one day--it was a very hot day, I remember, and I had come up here for a little change of air--I was standing on the edge of the parapet watching our two young ladies who were walking up and down the terrace path down there, and thinking how nice they looked in their white dresses and blue sashes tied close up under their arms, like the picture of your great-grandmother as a young girl, in the great salon, Mademoiselle Jeanne." "Oh yes, I know it," said Jeanne. "She has a nice face, but _I_ don't think her dress is at all pretty, Dudu."