Why, even the peacocks' tails seem to have got all sorts of new colours." He leant forward to examine them better.

They were standing--just as usual--one on each side of the flight of steps leading up to the castle.
But as Hugh gazed at them it certainly seemed to him--could it be his fancy only ?--no, it _must_ be true--that their long tails grew longer and swept the ground more majestically--then that suddenly--fluff! a sort of little wind seemed to rustle for an instant, and fluff! again, the two peacocks had spread their tails, and now stood with them proudly reared fan-like, at their backs, just like the real living birds that Hugh had often admired in his grandfather's garden.

Hugh was too much amazed to rub his eyes again--he could do nothing but stare, and stare he did with all his might, but for a moment or two there was nothing else to be seen.

The peacocks stood still--so still that Hugh now began to doubt whether they had not always stood, tails spread, just as he saw them now, and whether these same tails having ever drooped on the ground was not altogether his fancy.

A good deal puzzled, and a little disappointed, he was turning away to look at another part of the pictured walls, when again a slight flutter of movement caught his eyes.
What was about to happen this time?
[Illustration:--"IT WAS DUDU!"-- p.