Page:Zodiac stories by Blanche Mary Channing.pdf/211

194 Bertrand smiled his sweet, wistful smile. He looked curiously at her.

"You really want me to tell you a story?" he asked.

"Oh, yes, indeed I do! Please begin!"

"It will be a true story."

"A true story?" Ellie preferred fairy tales about dragons and dwarfs and enchanted princesses, and such things.

"Are n't there any adventures in it?" she asked anxiously.

Bertrand still looked at her with the expression that puzzled her.

"I don't know," he said slowly.

"Well, tell it, anyway," begged Ellie, coming nearer and resting her elbows on the arm of his chair and putting her face in her hands, as she was fond of doing when listening.

"Very well,—once upon a time there was a château on a hill, with big trees growing thick all about it"