CHAPTER XXXVIII.
It was about this time that I installed myself in my aunt Claire's
room for the purpose of study, and there too I busied myself
manufacturing wonders for the "Donkey's Skin." I took possession of
the place as entirely as an army occupies a conquered country--I would
not admit the possibility of being in the way.
My aunt Claire was the person who petted me most. And it was she who
was always so careful of my little things. She always looked after my
finery or anything uncommonly fragile, things that the least breath of
air would have blown away--such exquisitely delicate trifles, for
example, as the wings of a butterfly, or the bright scale of a beetle,
intended for the costumes of our nymphs and fairies--when I said to
her: "Will you please take care of this, dear auntie?" I felt that I
could be easy about it, for I knew that no one would be allowed to
touch it.
One of the great attractions in her room was a bear that was used for
holding burnt-almonds; and I often visited the place for the sole
purpose of paying my respects to this animal. He was made of china and
he sat upon his hind legs in the corner of the mantelpiece. According
to a compact that I had with my aunt, every time that his head was
turned to the side (and I found it so several times during a day) it
meant that there was an almond or some other kind of candy for me.
When I had eaten this I straightened his head to indicate that I had
been there, and then I departed.
Aunt Claire enjoyed helping us with the "Donkey's Skin"; she worked
enthusiastically over the costumes and each day I gave her some task.
She was especially skilful in devising hair for the fairies and
nymphs; she managed to fix upon their tiny heads, about as big as the
end of a little finger, blond wigs made of light silk thread, this
thread she twined upon the finest wires and thus she was able to twist
it into beautiful ringlets.
Then when it became absolutely necessary for me to study my lessons,
in the feverish haste of the last half hour that I reserved for my
task, after having wasted my time in idleness of every sort, it was
aunt Claire who came to my rescue; she would open the large dictionary
and hunt up for me the unfamiliar words in the exercises and lessons.
She also took up the study of Greek in order to assist me with my
lessons in that language. When I studied my Greek I always led my aunt
Claire to the stairway and I sprawled there upon the steps, my feet
higher than my head; for two or three years that was the classic pose
I took for the study of the Iliad, or Xenophon's Cyropedia.
