During the season, they saw each other and played together almost
every day. At the aunt's request, seconded by Professor Valerius,
Daae consented to give the young viscount some violin lessons.
In this way, Raoul learned to love the same airs that had charmed
Christine's childhood. They also both had the same calm and dreamy
little cast of mind. They delighted in stories, in old Breton legends;
and their favorite sport was to go and ask for them at the cottage-doors,
like beggars:
"Ma'am..." or, "Kind gentleman...have you a little story
to tell us, please?"
And it seldom happened that they did not have one "given" them;
for nearly every old Breton grandame has, at least once in her life,
seen the "korrigans" dance by moonlight on the heather.
But their great treat was, in the twilight, in the great silence
of the evening, after the sun had set in the sea, when Daae came
and sat down by them on the roadside and, in a low voice, as though
fearing lest he should frighten the ghosts whom he evoked, told them
the legends of the land of the North. And, the moment he stopped,
the children would ask for more.
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