Little Lord Fauntleroy
by
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Part 3 out of 4
"And what did she say to that?" asked his lordship, a trifle
uneasily.
"She said that was right, and we must always look for good in
people and try to be like it."
Perhaps it was this the old man remembered as he glanced through
the divided folds of the red curtain of his pew. Many times he
looked over the people's heads to where his son's wife sat alone,
and he saw the fair face the unforgiven dead had loved, and the
eyes which were so like those of the child at his side; but what
his thoughts were, and whether they were hard and bitter, or
softened a little, it would have been hard to discover.
As they came out of church, many of those who had attended the
service stood waiting to see them pass. As they neared the gate,
a man who stood with his hat in his hand made a step forward and
then hesitated. He was a middle-aged farmer, with a careworn
face.
"Well, Higgins," said the Earl.
Fauntleroy turned quickly to look at him.
"Oh!" he exclaimed, "is it Mr. Higgins?"
"Yes," answered the Earl dryly; "and I suppose he came to take
a look at his new landlord."
"Yes, my lord," said the man, his sunburned face reddening.
"Mr. Newick told me his young lordship was kind enough to speak
for me, and I thought I'd like to say a word of thanks, if I
might be allowed."
Perhaps he felt some wonder when he saw what a little fellow it
was who had innocently done so much for him, and who stood there
looking up just as one of his own less fortunate children might
have done--apparently not realizing his own importance in the
least.
"I've a great deal to thank your lordship for," he said; "a
great deal. I----"
"Oh," said Fauntleroy; "I only wrote the letter. It was my
grandfather who did it. But you know how he is about always
being good to everybody. Is Mrs. Higgins well now?"
Higgins looked a trifle taken aback. He also was somewhat
startled at hearing his noble landlord presented in the character
of a benevolent being, full of engaging qualities.
"I--well, yes, your lordship," he stammered, "the missus is
better since the trouble was took off her mind. It was worrying
broke her down."
"I'm glad of that," said Fauntleroy. "My grandfather was very
sorry about your children having the scarlet fever, and so was I.
He has had children himself. I'm his son's little boy, you
know."
Higgins was on the verge of being panic-stricken. He felt it
would be the safer and more discreet plan not to look at the
Earl, as it had been well known that his fatherly affection for
his sons had been such that he had seen them about twice a year,
and that when they had been ill, he had promptly departed for
London, because he would not be bored with doctors and nurses.
It was a little trying, therefore, to his lordship's nerves to be
told, while he looked on, his eyes gleaming from under his shaggy
eyebrows, that he felt an interest in scarlet fever.
"You see, Higgins," broke in the Earl with a fine grim smile,
"you people have been mistaken in me. Lord Fauntleroy
understands me. When you want reliable information on the
subject of my character, apply to him. Get into the carriage,
Fauntleroy."
And Fauntleroy jumped in, and the carriage rolled away down the
green lane, and even when it turned the corner into the high
road, the Earl was still grimly smiling.
VIII
Lord Dorincourt had occasion to wear his grim smile many a time
as the days passed by. Indeed, as his acquaintance with his
grandson progressed, he wore the smile so often that there were
moments when it almost lost its grimness. There is no denying
that before Lord Fauntleroy had appeared on the scene, the old
man had been growing very tired of his loneliness and his gout
and his seventy years. After so long a life of excitement and
amusement, it was not agreeable to sit alone even in the most
splendid room, with one foot on a gout-stool, and with no other
diversion than flying into a rage, and shouting at a frightened
footman who hated the sight of him. The old Earl was too clever
a man not to know perfectly well that his servants detested him,
and that even if he had visitors, they did not come for love of
him--though some found a sort of amusement in his sharp,
sarcastic talk, which spared no one. So long as he had been
strong and well, he had gone from one place to another,
pretending to amuse himself, though he had not really enjoyed it;
and when his health began to fail, he felt tired of everything
and shut himself up at Dorincourt, with his gout and his
newspapers and his books. But he could not read all the time,
and he became more and more "bored," as he called it. He hated
the long nights and days, and he grew more and more savage and
irritable. And then Fauntleroy came; and when the Earl saw him,
fortunately for the little fellow, the secret pride of the
grandfather was gratified at the outset. If Cedric had been a
less handsome little fellow, the old man might have taken so
strong a dislike to him that he would not have given himself the
chance to see his grandson's finer qualities. But he chose to
think that Cedric's beauty and fearless spirit were the results
of the Dorincourt blood and a credit to the Dorincourt rank. And
then when he heard the lad talk, and saw what a well-bred little
fellow he was, notwithstanding his boyish ignorance of all that
his new position meant, the old Earl liked his grandson more, and
actually began to find himself rather entertained. It had amused
him to give into those childish hands the power to bestow a
benefit on poor Higgins. My lord cared nothing for poor Higgins,
but it pleased him a little to think that his grandson would be
talked about by the country people and would begin to be popular
with the tenantry, even in his childhood. Then it had gratified
him to drive to church with Cedric and to see the excitement and
interest caused by the arrival. He knew how the people would
speak of the beauty of the little lad; of his fine, strong,
straight body; of his erect bearing, his handsome face, and his
bright hair, and how they would say (as the Earl had heard one
woman exclaim to another) that the boy was "every inch a lord."
My lord of Dorincourt was an arrogant old man, proud of his name,
proud of his rank, and therefore proud to show the world that at
last the House of Dorincourt had an heir who was worthy of the
position he was to fill.
The morning the new pony had been tried, the Earl had been so
pleased that he had almost forgotten his gout. When the groom
had brought out the pretty creature, which arched its brown,
glossy neck and tossed its fine head in the sun, the Earl had sat
at the open window of the library and had looked on while
Fauntleroy took his first riding lesson. He wondered if the boy
would show signs of timidity. It was not a very small pony, and
he had often seen children lose courage in making their first
essay at riding.
Fauntleroy mounted in great delight. He had never been on a pony
before, and he was in the highest spirits. Wilkins, the groom,
led the animal by the bridle up and down before the library
window.
"He's a well plucked un, he is," Wilkins remarked in the stable
afterward with many grins. "It weren't no trouble to put HIM
up. An' a old un wouldn't ha' sat any straighter when he WERE
up. He ses--ses he to me, `Wilkins,' he ses, `am I sitting up
straight? They sit up straight at the circus,' ses he. An' I
ses, `As straight as a arrer, your lordship!'--an' he laughs, as
pleased as could be, an' he ses, `That's right,' he ses, `you
tell me if I don't sit up straight, Wilkins!'"
But sitting up straight and being led at a walk were not
altogether and completely satisfactory. After a few minutes,
Fauntleroy spoke to his grandfather--watching him from the
window:
"Can't I go by myself?" he asked; "and can't I go faster? The
boy on Fifth Avenue used to trot and canter!"
"Do you think you could trot and canter?" said the Earl.
"I should like to try," answered Fauntleroy.
His lordship made a sign to Wilkins, who at the signal brought up
his own horse and mounted it and took Fauntleroy's pony by the
leading-rein.
"Now," said the Earl, "let him trot."
The next few minutes were rather exciting to the small
equestrian. He found that trotting was not so easy as walking,
and the faster the pony trotted, the less easy it was.
"It j-jolts a g-goo-good deal--do-doesn't it?" he said to
Wilkins. "D-does it j-jolt y-you?"
"No, my lord," answered Wilkins. "You'll get used to it in
time. Rise in your stirrups."
"I'm ri-rising all the t-time," said Fauntleroy.
He was both rising and falling rather uncomfortably and with many
shakes and bounces. He was out of breath and his face grew red,
but he held on with all his might, and sat as straight as he
could. The Earl could see that from his window. When the riders
came back within speaking distance, after they had been hidden by
the trees a few minutes, Fauntleroy's hat was off, his cheeks
were like poppies, and his lips were set, but he was still
trotting manfully.
"Stop a minute!" said his grandfather. "Where's your hat?"
Wilkins touched his. "It fell off, your lordship," he said,
with evident enjoyment. "Wouldn't let me stop to pick it up, my
lord."
"Not much afraid, is he?" asked the Earl dryly.
"Him, your lordship!" exclaimed Wilkins. "I shouldn't say as
he knowed what it meant. I've taught young gen'lemen to ride
afore, an' I never see one stick on more determinder."
"Tired?" said the Earl to Fauntleroy. "Want to get off?"
"It jolts you more than you think it will," admitted his young
lordship frankly. "And it tires you a little, too; but I don't
want to get off. I want to learn how. As soon as I've got my
breath I want to go back for the hat."
The cleverest person in the world, if he had undertaken to teach
Fauntleroy how to please the old man who watched him, could not
have taught him anything which would have succeeded better. As
the pony trotted off again toward the avenue, a faint color crept
up in the fierce old face, and the eyes, under the shaggy brows,
gleamed with a pleasure such as his lordship had scarcely
expected to know again. And he sat and watched quite eagerly
until the sound of the horses' hoofs returned. When they did
come, which was after some time, they came at a faster pace.
Fauntleroy's hat was still off; Wilkins was carrying it for him;
his cheeks were redder than before, and his hair was flying about
his ears, but he came at quite a brisk canter.
"There!" he panted, as they drew up, "I c-cantered. I didn't
do it as well as the boy on Fifth Avenue, but I did it, and I
staid on!"
He and Wilkins and the pony were close friends after that.
Scarcely a day passed in which the country people did not see
them out together, cantering gayly on the highroad or through the
green lanes. The children in the cottages would run to the door
to look at the proud little brown pony with the gallant little
figure sitting so straight in the saddle, and the young lord
would snatch off his cap and swing it at them, and shout,
"Hullo! Good-morning!" in a very unlordly manner, though with
great heartiness. Sometimes he would stop and talk with the
children, and once Wilkins came back to the castle with a story
of how Fauntleroy had insisted on dismounting near the village
school, so that a boy who was lame and tired might ride home on
his pony.
"An' I'm blessed," said Wilkins, in telling the story at the
stables,--"I'm blessed if he'd hear of anything else! He would
n't let me get down, because he said the boy mightn't feel
comfortable on a big horse. An' ses he, `Wilkins,' ses he, `that
boy's lame and I'm not, and I want to talk to him, too.' And up
the lad has to get, and my lord trudges alongside of him with his
hands in his pockets, and his cap on the back of his head,
a-whistling and talking as easy as you please! And when we come
to the cottage, an' the boy's mother come out all in a taking to
see what's up, he whips off his cap an' ses he, `I've brought
your son home, ma'am,' ses he, `because his leg hurt him, and I
don't think that stick is enough for him to lean on; and I'm
going to ask my grandfather to have a pair of crutches made for
him.' An' I'm blessed if the woman wasn't struck all of a heap,
as well she might be! I thought I should 'a' hex-plodid,
myself!"
When the Earl heard the story he was not angry, as Wilkins had
been half afraid that he would be; on the contrary, he laughed
outright, and called Fauntleroy up to him, and made him tell all
about the matter from beginning to end, and then he laughed
again. And actually, a few days later, the Dorincourt carriage
stopped in the green lane before the cottage where the lame boy
lived, and Fauntleroy jumped out and walked up to the door,
carrying a pair of strong, light, new crutches shouldered like a
gun, and presented them to Mrs. Hartle (the lame boy's name was
Hartle) with these words: "My grandfather's compliments, and if
you please, these are for your boy, and we hope he will get
better."
"I said your compliments," he explained to the Earl when he
returned to the carriage. "You didn't tell me to, but I thought
perhaps you forgot. That was right, wasn't it?"
And the Earl laughed again, and did not say it was not. In fact,
the two were becoming more intimate every day, and every day
Fauntleroy's faith in his lordship's benevolence and virtue
increased. He had no doubt whatever that his grandfather was the
most amiable and generous of elderly gentlemen. Certainly, he
himself found his wishes gratified almost before they were
uttered; and such gifts and pleasures were lavished upon him,
that he was sometimes almost bewildered by his own possessions.
Apparently, he was to have everything he wanted, and to do
everything he wished to do. And though this would certainly not
have been a very wise plan to pursue with all small boys, his
young lordship bore it amazingly well. Perhaps, notwithstanding
his sweet nature, he might have been somewhat spoiled by it, if
it had not been for the hours he spent with his mother at Court
Lodge. That "best friend" of his watched over him over closely
and tenderly. The two had many long talks together, and he never
went back to the Castle with her kisses on his cheeks without
carrying in his heart some simple, pure words worth remembering.
There was one thing, it is true, which puzzled the little fellow
very much. He thought over the mystery of it much oftener than
any one supposed; even his mother did not know how often he
pondered on it; the Earl for a long time never suspected that he
did so at all. But, being quick to observe, the little boy could
not help wondering why it was that his mother and grandfather
never seemed to meet. He had noticed that they never did meet.
When the Dorincourt carriage stopped at Court Lodge, the Earl
never alighted, and on the rare occasions of his lordship's going
to church, Fauntleroy was always left to speak to his mother in
the porch alone, or perhaps to go home with her. And yet, every
day, fruit and flowers were sent to Court Lodge from the
hot-houses at the Castle. But the one virtuous action of the
Earl's which had set him upon the pinnacle of perfection in
Cedric's eyes, was what he had done soon after that first Sunday
when Mrs. Errol had walked home from church unattended. About a
week later, when Cedric was going one day to visit his mother, he
found at the door, instead of the large carriage and prancing
pair, a pretty little brougham and a handsome bay horse.
"That is a present from you to your mother," the Earl said
abruptly. "She can not go walking about the country. She needs
a carriage. The man who drives will take charge of it. It is a
present from YOU."
Fauntleroy's delight could but feebly express itself. He could
scarcely contain himself until he reached the lodge. His mother
was gathering roses in the garden. He flung himself out of the
little brougham and flew to her.
"Dearest!" he cried, "could you believe it? This is yours!
He says it is a present from me. It is your own carriage to
drive everywhere in!"
He was so happy that she did not know what to say. She could not
have borne to spoil his pleasure by refusing to accept the gift
even though it came from the man who chose to consider himself
her enemy. She was obliged to step into the carriage, roses and
all, and let herself be taken to drive, while Fauntleroy told her
stories of his grandfather's goodness and amiability. They were
such innocent stories that sometimes she could not help laughing
a little, and then she would draw her little boy closer to her
side and kiss him, feeling glad that he could see only good in
the old man, who had so few friends.
The very next day after that, Fauntleroy wrote to Mr. Hobbs. He
wrote quite a long letter, and after the first copy was written,
he brought it to his grandfather to be inspected.
"Because," he said, "it's so uncertain about the spelling.
And if you'll tell me the mistakes, I'll write it out again."
This was what he had written:
"My dear mr hobbs i want to tell you about my granfarther he is
the best earl you ever new it is a mistake about earls being
tirents he is not a tirent at all i wish you new him you would be
good friends i am sure you would he has the gout in his foot and
is a grate sufrer but he is so pashent i love him more every day
becaus no one could help loving an earl like that who is kind to
every one in this world i wish you could talk to him he knows
everything in the world you can ask him any question but he has
never plaid base ball he has given me a pony and a cart and my
mamma a bewtifle cariage and I have three rooms and toys of all
kinds it would serprise you you would like the castle and the
park it is such a large castle you could lose yourself wilkins
tells me wilkins is my groom he says there is a dungon under the
castle it is so pretty everything in the park would serprise you
there are such big trees and there are deers and rabbits and
games flying about in the cover my granfarther is very rich but
he is not proud and orty as you thought earls always were i like
to be with him the people are so polite and kind they take of
their hats to you and the women make curtsies and sometimes say
god bless you i can ride now but at first it shook me when i
troted my granfarther let a poor man stay on his farm when he
could not pay his rent and mrs mellon went to take wine and
things to his sick children i should like to see you and i wish
dearest could live at the castle but i am very happy when i dont
miss her too much and i love my granfarther every one does plees
write soon
"your afechshnet old frend
"Cedric Errol
"p s no one is in the dungon my granfarfher never had any one
langwishin in there.
"p s he is such a good earl he reminds me of you he is a
unerversle favrit"
"Do you miss your mother very much?" asked the Earl when he had
finished reading this.
"Yes," said Fauntleroy, "I miss her all the time."
He went and stood before the Earl and put his hand on his knee,
looking up at him.
"YOU don't miss her, do you?" he said.
"I don't know her," answered his lordship rather crustily.
"I know that," said Fauntleroy, "and that's what makes me
wonder. She told me not to ask you any questions, and--and I
won't, but sometimes I can't help thinking, you know, and it
makes me all puzzled. But I'm not going to ask any questions.
And when I miss her very much, I go and look out of my window to
where I see her light shine for me every night through an open
place in the trees. It is a long way off, but she puts it in her
window as soon as it is dark, and I can see it twinkle far away,
and I know what it says."
"What does it say?" asked my lord.
"It says, `Good-night, God keep you all the night!'--just what
she used to say when we were together. Every night she used to
say that to me, and every morning she said, `God bless you all
the day!' So you see I am quite safe all the time----"
"Quite, I have no doubt," said his lordship dryly. And he drew
down his beetling eyebrows and looked at the little boy so
fixedly and so long that Fauntleroy wondered what he could be
thinking of.
IX
The fact was, his lordship the Earl of Dorincourt thought in
those days, of many things of which he had never thought before,
and all his thoughts were in one way or another connected with
his grandson. His pride was the strongest part of his nature,
and the boy gratified it at every point. Through this pride he
began to find a new interest in life. He began to take pleasure
in showing his heir to the world. The world had known of his
disappointment in his sons; so there was an agreeable touch of
triumph in exhibiting this new Lord Fauntleroy, who could
disappoint no one. He wished the child to appreciate his own
power and to understand the splendor of his position; he wished
that others should realize it too. He made plans for his future.
Sometimes in secret he actually found himself wishing that his
own past life had been a better one, and that there had been less
in it that this pure, childish heart would shrink from if it knew
the truth. It was not agreeable to think how the beautiful,
innocent face would look if its owner should be made by any
chance to understand that his grandfather had been called for
many a year "the wicked Earl of Dorincourt." The thought even
made him feel a trifle nervous. He did not wish the boy to find
it out. Sometimes in this new interest he forgot his gout, and
after a while his doctor was surprised to find his noble
patient's health growing better than he had expected it ever
would be again. Perhaps the Earl grew better because the time
did not pass so slowly for him, and he had something to think of
beside his pains and infirmities.
One fine morning, people were amazed to see little Lord
Fauntleroy riding his pony with another companion than Wilkins.
This new companion rode a tall, powerful gray horse, and was no
other than the Earl himself. It was, in fact, Fauntleroy who had
suggested this plan. As he had been on the point of mounting his
pony, he had said rather wistfully to his grandfather:
"I wish you were going with me. When I go away I feel lonely
because you are left all by yourself in such a big castle. I
wish you could ride too."
And the greatest excitement had been aroused in the stables a few
minutes later by the arrival of an order that Selim was to be
saddled for the Earl. After that, Selim was saddled almost every
day; and the people became accustomed to the sight of the tall
gray horse carrying the tall gray old man, with his handsome,
fierce, eagle face, by the side of the brown pony which bore
little Lord Fauntleroy. And in their rides together through the
green lanes and pretty country roads, the two riders became more
intimate than ever. And gradually the old man heard a great deal
about "Dearest" and her life. As Fauntleroy trotted by the big
horse he chatted gayly. There could not well have been a
brighter little comrade, his nature was so happy. It was he who
talked the most. The Earl often was silent, listening and
watching the joyous, glowing face. Sometimes he would tell his
young companion to set the pony off at a gallop, and when the
little fellow dashed off, sitting so straight and fearless, he
would watch him with a gleam of pride and pleasure in his eyes;
and when, after such a dash, Fauntleroy came back waving his cap
with a laughing shout, he always felt that he and his grandfather
were very good friends indeed.
One thing that the Earl discovered was that his son's wife did
not lead an idle life. It was not long before he learned that
the poor people knew her very well indeed. When there was
sickness or sorrow or poverty in any house, the little brougham
often stood before the door.
"Do you know," said Fauntleroy once, "they all say, `God bless
you!' when they see her, and the children are glad. There are
some who go to her house to be taught to sew. She says she feels
so rich now that she wants to help the poor ones."
It had not displeased the Earl to find that the mother of his
heir had a beautiful young face and looked as much like a lady as
if she had been a duchess; and in one way it did not displease
him to know that she was popular and beloved by the poor. And
yet he was often conscious of a hard, jealous pang when he saw
how she filled her child's heart and how the boy clung to her as
his best beloved. The old man would have desired to stand first
himself and have no rival.
That same morning he drew up his horse on an elevated point of
the moor over which they rode, and made a gesture with his whip,
over the broad, beautiful landscape spread before them.
"Do you know that all that land belongs to me?" he said to
Fauntleroy.
"Does it?" answered Fauntleroy. "How much it is to belong to
one person, and how beautiful!"
"Do you know that some day it will all belong to you--that and a
great deal more?"
"To me!" exclaimed Fauntleroy in rather an awe-stricken voice.
"When?"
"When I am dead," his grandfather answered.
"Then I don't want it," said Fauntleroy; "I want you to live
always."
"That's kind," answered the Earl in his dry way;
"nevertheless, some day it will all be yours--some day you will
be the Earl of Dorincourt."
Little Lord Fauntleroy sat very still in his saddle for a few
moments. He looked over the broad moors, the green farms, the
beautiful copses, the cottages in the lanes, the pretty village,
and over the trees to where the turrets of the great castle rose,
gray and stately. Then he gave a queer little sigh.
"What are you thinking of?" asked the Earl.
"I am thinking," replied Fauntleroy, "what a little boy I am!
and of what Dearest said to me."
"What was it?" inquired the Earl.
"She said that perhaps it was not so easy to be very rich; that
if any one had so many things always, one might sometimes forget
that every one else was not so fortunate, and that one who is
rich should always be careful and try to remember. I was talking
to her about how good you were, and she said that was such a good
thing, because an earl had so much power, and if he cared only
about his own pleasure and never thought about the people who
lived on his lands, they might have trouble that he could
help--and there were so many people, and it would be such a hard
thing. And I was just looking at all those houses, and thinking
how I should have to find out about the people, when I was an
earl. How did you find out about them?"
As his lordship's knowledge of his tenantry consisted in finding
out which of them paid their rent promptly, and in turning out
those who did not, this was rather a hard question. "Newick
finds out for me," he said, and he pulled his great gray
mustache, and looked at his small questioner rather uneasily.
"We will go home now," he added; "and when you are an earl,
see to it that you are a better earl than I have been!"
He was very silent as they rode home. He felt it to be almost
incredible that he who had never really loved any one in his
life, should find himself growing so fond of this little
fellow,--as without doubt he was. At first he had only been
pleased and proud of Cedric's beauty and bravery, but there was
something more than pride in his feeling now. He laughed a grim,
dry laugh all to himself sometimes, when he thought how he liked
to have the boy near him, how he liked to hear his voice, and how
in secret he really wished to be liked and thought well of by his
small grandson.
"I'm an old fellow in my dotage, and I have nothing else to
think of," he would say to himself; and yet he knew it was not
that altogether. And if he had allowed himself to admit the
truth, he would perhaps have found himself obliged to own that
the very things which attracted him, in spite of himself, were
the qualities he had never possessed--the frank, true, kindly
nature, the affectionate trustfulness which could never think
evil.
It was only about a week after that ride when, after a visit to
his mother, Fauntleroy came into the library with a troubled,
thoughtful face. He sat down in that high-backed chair in which
he had sat on the evening of his arrival, and for a while he
looked at the embers on the hearth. The Earl watched him in
silence, wondering what was coming. It was evident that Cedric
had something on his mind. At last he looked up. "Does Newick
know all about the people?" he asked.
"It is his business to know about them," said his lordship.
"Been neglecting it--has he?"
Contradictory as it may seem, there was nothing which entertained
and edified him more than the little fellow's interest in his
tenantry. He had never taken any interest in them himself, but
it pleased him well enough that, with all his childish habits of
thought and in the midst of all his childish amusements and high
spirits, there should be such a quaint seriousness working in the
curly head.
"There is a place," said Fauntleroy, looking up at him with
wide-open, horror-stricken eye--"Dearest has seen it; it is at
the other end of the village. The houses are close together, and
almost falling down; you can scarcely breathe; and the people are
so poor, and everything is dreadful! Often they have fever, and
the children die; and it makes them wicked to live like that, and
be so poor and miserable! It is worse than Michael and Bridget!
The rain comes in at the roof! Dearest went to see a poor woman
who lived there. She would not let me come near her until she
had changed all her things. The tears ran down her cheeks when
she told me about it!"
The tears had come into his own eyes, but he smiled through them.
"I told her you didn't know, and I would tell you," he said.
He jumped down and came and leaned against the Earl's chair.
"You can make it all right," he said, "just as you made it all
right for Higgins. You always make it all right for everybody.
I told her you would, and that Newick must have forgotten to tell
you."
The Earl looked down at the hand on his knee. Newick had not
forgotten to tell him; in fact, Newick had spoken to him more
than once of the desperate condition of the end of the village
known as Earl's Court. He knew all about the tumble-down,
miserable cottages, and the bad drainage, and the damp walls and
broken windows and leaking roofs, and all about the poverty, the
fever, and the misery. Mr. Mordaunt had painted it all to him in
the strongest words he could use, and his lordship had used
violent language in response; and, when his gout had been at the
worst, he said that the sooner the people of Earl's Court died
and were buried by the parish the better it would be,--and there
was an end of the matter. And yet, as he looked at the small
hand on his knee, and from the small hand to the honest, earnest,
frank-eyed face, he was actually a little ashamed both of Earl's
Court and himself.
"What!" he said; "you want to make a builder of model cottages
of me, do you?" And he positively put his own hand upon the
childish one and stroked it.
"Those must be pulled down," said Fauntleroy, with great
eagerness. "Dearest says so. Let us--let us go and have them
pulled down to-morrow. The people will be so glad when they see
you! They'll know you have come to help them!" And his eyes
shone like stars in his glowing face.
The Earl rose from his chair and put his hand on the child's
shoulder. "Let us go out and take our walk on the terrace," he
said, with a short laugh; "and we can talk it over."
And though he laughed two or three times again, as they walked to
and fro on the broad stone terrace, where they walked together
almost every fine evening, he seemed to be thinking of something
which did not displease him, and still he kept his hand on his
small companion's shoulder.
X
The truth was that Mrs. Errol had found a great many sad things
in the course of her work among the poor of the little village
that appeared so picturesque when it was seen from the
moor-sides. Everything was not as picturesque, when seen near
by, as it looked from a distance. She had found idleness and
poverty and ignorance where there should have been comfort and
industry. And she had discovered, after a while, that Erleboro
was considered to be the worst village in that part of the
country. Mr. Mordaunt had told her a great many of his
difficulties and discouragements, and she had found out a great
deal by herself. The agents who had managed the property had
always been chosen to please the Earl, and had cared nothing for
the degradation and wretchedness of the poor tenants. Many
things, therefore, had been neglected which should have been
attended to, and matters had gone from bad to worse.
As to Earl's Court, it was a disgrace, with its dilapidated
houses and miserable, careless, sickly people. When first Mrs.
Errol went to the place, it made her shudder. Such ugliness and
slovenliness and want seemed worse in a country place than in a
city. It seemed as if there it might be helped. And as she
looked at the squalid, uncared-for children growing up in the
midst of vice and brutal indifference, she thought of her own
little boy spending his days in the great, splendid castle,
guarded and served like a young prince, having no wish
ungratified, and knowing nothing but luxury and ease and beauty.
And a bold thought came in her wise little mother-heart.
Gradually she had begun to see, as had others, that it had been
her boy's good fortune to please the Earl very much, and that he
would scarcely be likely to be denied anything for which he
expressed a desire.
"The Earl would give him anything," she said to Mr. Mordaunt.
"He would indulge his every whim. Why should not that
indulgence be used for the good of others? It is for me to see
that this shall come to pass."
She knew she could trust the kind, childish heart; so she told
the little fellow the story of Earl's Court, feeling sure that he
would speak of it to his grandfather, and hoping that some good
results would follow.
And strange as it appeared to every one, good results did follow.
The fact was that the strongest power to influence the Earl was
his grandson's perfect confidence in him--the fact that Cedric
always believed that his grandfather was going to do what was
right and generous. He could not quite make up his mind to let
him discover that he had no inclination to be generous at all,
and that he wanted his own way on all occasions, whether it was
right or wrong. It was such a novelty to be regarded with
admiration as a benefactor of the entire human race, and the soul
of nobility, that he did not enjoy the idea of looking into the
affectionate brown eyes, and saying: "I am a violent, selfish
old rascal; I never did a generous thing in my life, and I don't
care about Earl's Court or the poor people"--or something which
would amount to the same thing. He actually had learned to be
fond enough of that small boy with the mop of yellow love-locks,
to feel that he himself would prefer to be guilty of an amiable
action now and then. And so--though he laughed at himself--after
some reflection, he sent for Newick, and had quite a long
interview with him on the subject of the Court, and it was
decided that the wretched hovels should be pulled down and new
houses should be built.
"It is Lord Fauntleroy who insists on it," he said dryly; "he
thinks it will improve the property. You can tell the tenants
that it's his idea." And he looked down at his small lordship,
who was lying on the hearth-rug playing with Dougal. The great
dog was the lad's constant companion, and followed him about
everywhere, stalking solemnly after him when he walked, and
trotting majestically behind when he rode or drove.
Of course, both the country people and the town people heard of
the proposed improvement. At first, many of them would not
believe it; but when a small army of workmen arrived and
commenced pulling down the crazy, squalid cottages, people began
to understand that little Lord Fauntleroy had done them a good
turn again, and that through his innocent interference the
scandal of Earl's Court had at last been removed. If he had only
known how they talked about him and praised him everywhere, and
prophesied great things for him when he grew up, how astonished
he would have been! But he never suspected it. He lived his
simple, happy, child life,--frolicking about in the park; chasing
the rabbits to their burrows; lying under the trees on the grass,
or on the rug in the library, reading wonderful books and talking
to the Earl about them, and then telling the stories again to his
mother; writing long letters to Dick and Mr. Hobbs, who responded
in characteristic fashion; riding out at his grandfather's side,
or with Wilkins as escort. As they rode through the market town,
he used to see the people turn and look, and he noticed that as
they lifted their hats their faces often brightened very much;
but he thought it was all because his grandfather was with him.
"They are so fond of you," he once said, looking up at his
lordship with a bright smile. "Do you see how glad they are
when they see you? I hope they will some day be as fond of me.
It must be nice to have EVERYbody like you." And he felt quite
proud to be the grandson of so greatly admired and beloved an
individual.
When the cottages were being built, the lad and his grandfather
used to ride over to Earl's Court together to look at them, and
Fauntleroy was full of interest. He would dismount from his
pony and go and make acquaintance with the workmen, asking them
questions about building and bricklaying, and telling them things
about America. After two or three such conversations, he was
able to enlighten the Earl on the subject of brick-making, as
they rode home.
"I always like to know about things like those," he said,
"because you never know what you are coming to."
When he left them, the workmen used to talk him over among
themselves, and laugh at his odd, innocent speeches; but they
liked him, and liked to see him stand among them, talking away,
with his hands in his pockets, his hat pushed back on his curls,
and his small face full of eagerness. "He's a rare un," they
used to say. "An' a noice little outspoken chap, too. Not much
o' th' bad stock in him." And they would go home and tell their
wives about him, and the women would tell each other, and so it
came about that almost every one talked of, or knew some story
of, little Lord Fauntleroy; and gradually almost every one knew
that the "wicked Earl" had found something he cared for at
last--something which had touched and even warmed his hard,
bitter old heart.
But no one knew quite how much it had been warmed, and how day by
day the old man found himself caring more and more for the child,
who was the only creature that had ever trusted him. He found
himself looking forward to the time when Cedric would be a young
man, strong and beautiful, with life all before him, but having
still that kind heart and the power to make friends everywhere,
and the Earl wondered what the lad would do, and how he would use
his gifts. Often as he watched the little fellow lying upon the
hearth, conning some big book, the light shining on the bright
young head, his old eyes would gleam and his cheek would flush.
"The boy can do anything," he would say to himself,
"anything!"
He never spoke to any one else of his feeling for Cedric; when he
spoke of him to others it was always with the same grim smile.
But Fauntleroy soon knew that his grandfather loved him and
always liked him to be near--near to his chair if they were in
the library, opposite to him at table, or by his side when he
rode or drove or took his evening walk on the broad terrace.
"Do you remember," Cedric said once, looking up from his book
as he lay on the rug, "do you remember what I said to you that
first night about our being good companions? I don't think any
people could be better companions than we are, do you?"
"We are pretty good companions, I should say," replied his
lordship. "Come here."
Fauntleroy scrambled up and went to him.
"Is there anything you want," the Earl asked; "anything you
have not?"
The little fellow's brown eyes fixed themselves on his
grandfather with a rather wistful look.
"Only one thing," he answered.
"What is that?" inquired the Earl.
Fauntleroy was silent a second. He had not thought matters over
to himself so long for nothing.
"What is it?" my lord repeated.
Fauntleroy answered.
"It is Dearest," he said.
The old Earl winced a little.
"But you see her almost every day," he said. "Is not that
enough?"
"I used to see her all the time," said Fauntleroy. "She used
to kiss me when I went to sleep at night, and in the morning she
was always there, and we could tell each other things without
waiting."
The old eyes and the young ones looked into each other through a
moment of silence. Then the Earl knitted his brows.
"Do you NEVER forget about your mother?" he said.
"No," answered Fauntleroy, "never; and she never forgets about
me. I shouldn't forget about YOU, you know, if I didn't live
with you. I should think about you all the more."
"Upon my word," said the Earl, after looking at him a moment
longer, "I believe you would!"
The jealous pang that came when the boy spoke so of his mother
seemed even stronger than it had been before; it was stronger
because of this old man's increasing affection for the boy.
But it was not long before he had other pangs, so much harder to
face that he almost forgot, for the time, he had ever hated his
son's wife at all. And in a strange and startling way it
happened. One evening, just before the Earl's Court cottages
were completed, there was a grand dinner party at Dorincourt.
There had not been such a party at the Castle for a long time. A
few days before it took place, Sir Harry Lorridaile and Lady
Lorridaile, who was the Earl's only sister, actually came for a
visit--a thing which caused the greatest excitement in the
village and set Mrs. Dibble's shop-bell tinkling madly again,
because it was well known that Lady Lorridaile had only been to
Dorincourt once since her marriage, thirty-five years before.
She was a handsome old lady with white curls and dimpled, peachy
cheeks, and she was as good as gold, but she had never approved
of her brother any more than did the rest of the world, and
having a strong will of her own and not being at all afraid to
speak her mind frankly, she had, after several lively quarrels
with his lordship, seen very little of him since her young days.
She had heard a great deal of him that was not pleasant through
the years in which they had been separated. She had heard about
his neglect of his wife, and of the poor lady's death; and of his
indifference to his children; and of the two weak, vicious,
unprepossessing elder boys who had been no credit to him or to
any one else. Those two elder sons, Bevis and Maurice, she had
never seen; but once there had come to Lorridaile Park a tall,
stalwart, beautiful young fellow about eighteen years old, who
had told her that he was her nephew Cedric Errol, and that he had
come to see her because he was passing near the place and wished
to look at his Aunt Constantia of whom he had heard his mother
speak. Lady Lorridaile's kind heart had warmed through and
through at the sight of the young man, and she had made him stay
with her a week, and petted him, and made much of him and admired
him immensely. He was so sweet-tempered, light-hearted, spirited
a lad, that when he went away, she had hoped to see him often
again; but she never did, because the Earl had been in a bad
humor when he went back to Dorincourt, and had forbidden him ever
to go to Lorridaile Park again. But Lady Lorridaile had always
remembered him tenderly, and though she feared he had made a rash
marriage in America, she had been very angry when she heard how
he had been cast off by his father and that no one really knew
where or how he lived. At last there came a rumor of his death,
and then Bevis had been thrown from his horse and killed, and
Maurice had died in Rome of the fever; and soon after came the
story of the American child who was to be found and brought home
as Lord Fauntleroy.
"Probably to be ruined as the others were," she said to her
husband, "unless his mother is good enough and has a will of her
own to help her to take care of him."
But when she heard that Cedric's mother had been parted from him
she was almost too indignant for words.
"It is disgraceful, Harry!" she said. "Fancy a child of that
age being taken from his mother, and made the companion of a man
like my brother! He will either be brutal to the boy or indulge
him until he is a little monster. If I thought it would do any
good to write----"
"It wouldn't, Constantia," said Sir Harry.
"I know it wouldn't," she answered. "I know his lordship the
Earl of Dorincourt too well;--but it is outrageous."
Not only the poor people and farmers heard about little Lord
Fauntleroy; others knew him. He was talked about so much and
there were so many stories of him--of his beauty, his sweet
temper, his popularity, and his growing influence over the Earl,
his grandfather--that rumors of him reached the gentry at their
country places and he was heard of in more than one county of
England. People talked about him at the dinner tables, ladies
pitied his young mother, and wondered if the boy were as handsome
as he was said to be, and men who knew the Earl and his habits
laughed heartily at the stories of the little fellow's belief in
his lordship's amiability. Sir Thomas Asshe of Asshawe Hall,
being in Erleboro one day, met the Earl and his grandson riding
together, and stopped to shake hands with my lord and
congratulate him on his change of looks and on his recovery from
the gout. "And, d' ye know," he said, when he spoke of the
incident afterward, "the old man looked as proud as a
turkey-cock; and upon my word I don't wonder, for a handsomer,
finer lad than his grandson I never saw! As straight as a dart,
and sat his pony like a young trooper!"
And so by degrees Lady Lorridaile, too, heard of the child; she
heard about Higgins and the lame boy, and the cottages at Earl's
Court, and a score of other things,--and she began to wish to see
the little fellow. And just as she was wondering how it might be
brought about, to her utter astonishment, she received a letter
from her brother inviting her to come with her husband to
Dorincourt.
"It seems incredible!" she exclaimed. "I have heard it said
that the child has worked miracles, and I begin to believe it.
They say my brother adores the boy and can scarcely endure to
have him out of sight. And he is so proud of him! Actually, I
believe he wants to show him to us." And she accepted the
invitation at once.
When she reached Dorincourt Castle with Sir Harry, it was late in
the afternoon, and she went to her room at once before seeing her
brother. Having dressed for dinner, she entered the
drawing-room. The Earl was there standing near the fire and
looking very tall and imposing; and at his side stood a little
boy in black velvet, and a large Vandyke collar of rich lace--a
little fellow whose round bright face was so handsome, and who
turned upon her such beautiful, candid brown eyes, that she
almost uttered an exclamation of pleasure and surprise at the
sight.
As she shook hands with the Earl, she called him by the name she
had not used since her girlhood.
"What, Molyneux!" she said, "is this the child?"
"Yes, Constantia," answered the Earl, "this is the boy.
Fauntleroy, this is your grand-aunt, Lady Lorridaile."
"How do you do, Grand-Aunt?" said Fauntleroy.
Lady Lorridaile put her hand on his shoulders, and after looking
down into his upraised face a few seconds, kissed him warmly.
"I am your Aunt Constantia," she said, "and I loved your poor
papa, and you are very like him."
"It makes me glad when I am told I am like him," answered
Fauntleroy, "because it seems as if every one liked him,--just
like Dearest, eszackly,--Aunt Constantia" (adding the two words
after a second's pause).
Lady Lorridaile was delighted. She bent and kissed him again,
and from that moment they were warm friends.
"Well, Molyneux," she said aside to the Earl afterward, "it
could not possibly be better than this!"
"I think not," answered his lordship dryly. "He is a fine
little fellow. We are great friends. He believes me to be the
most charming and sweet-tempered of philanthropists. I will
confess to you, Constantia,--as you would find it out if I did
not,--that I am in some slight danger of becoming rather an old
fool about him."
"What does his mother think of you?" asked Lady Lorridaile,
with her usual straightforwardness.
"I have not asked her," answered the Earl, slightly scowling.
"Well," said Lady Lorridaile, "I will be frank with you at the
outset, Molyneux, and tell you I don't approve of your course,
and that it is my intention to call on Mrs. Errol as soon as
possible; so if you wish to quarrel with me, you had better
mention it at once. What I hear of the young creature makes me
quite sure that her child owes her everything. We were told even
at Lorridaile Park that your poorer tenants adore her already."
"They adore HIM," said the Earl, nodding toward Fauntleroy.
"As to Mrs. Errol, you'll find her a pretty little woman. I'm
rather in debt to her for giving some of her beauty to the boy,
and you can go to see her if you like. All I ask is that she
will remain at Court Lodge and that you will not ask me to go and
see her," and he scowled a little again.
"But he doesn't hate her as much as he used to, that is plain
enough to me," her ladyship said to Sir Harry afterward. "And
he is a changed man in a measure, and, incredible as it may seem,
Harry, it is my opinion that he is being made into a human being,
through nothing more nor less than his affection for that
innocent, affectionate little fellow. Why, the child actually
loves him--leans on his chair and against his knee. His own
children would as soon have thought of nestling up to a tiger."
The very next day she went to call upon Mrs. Errol. When she
returned, she said to her brother:
"Molyneux, she is the loveliest little woman I ever saw! She
has a voice like a silver bell, and you may thank her for making
the boy what he is. She has given him more than her beauty, and
you make a great mistake in not persuading her to come and take
charge of you. I shall invite her to Lorridaile."
"She'll not leave the boy," replied the Earl.
"I must have the boy too," said Lady Lorridaile, laughing.
But she knew Fauntleroy would not be given up to her, and each
day she saw more clearly how closely those two had grown to each
other, and how all the proud, grim old man's ambition and hope
and love centered themselves in the child, and how the warm,
innocent nature returned his affection with most perfect trust
and good faith.
She knew, too, that the prime reason for the great dinner party
was the Earl's secret desire to show the world his grandson and
heir, and to let people see that the boy who had been so much
spoken of and described was even a finer little specimen of
boyhood than rumor had made him.
"Bevis and Maurice were such a bitter humiliation to him," she
said to her husband. "Every one knew it. He actually hated
them. His pride has full sway here." Perhaps there was not one
person who accepted the invitation without feeling some curiosity
about little Lord Fauntleroy, and wondering if he would be on
view.
And when the time came he was on view.
"The lad has good manners," said the Earl. "He will be in no
one's way. Children are usually idiots or bores,--mine were
both,--but he can actually answer when he's spoken to, and be
silent when he is not. He is never offensive."
But he was not allowed to be silent very long. Every one had
something to say to him. The fact was they wished to make him
talk. The ladies petted him and asked him questions, and the men
asked him questions too, and joked with him, as the men on the
steamer had done when he crossed the Atlantic. Fauntleroy did
not quite understand why they laughed so sometimes when he
answered them, but he was so used to seeing people amused when he
was quite serious, that he did not mind. He thought the whole
evening delightful. The magnificent rooms were so brilliant with
lights, there were so many flowers, the gentlemen seemed so gay,
and the ladies wore such beautiful, wonderful dresses, and such
sparkling ornaments in their hair and on their necks. There was
one young lady who, he heard them say, had just come down from
London, where she had spent the "season"; and she was so
charming that he could not keep his eyes from her. She was a
rather tall young lady with a proud little head, and very soft
dark hair, and large eyes the color of purple pansies, and the
color on her cheeks and lips was like that of a rose. She was
dressed in a beautiful white dress, and had pearls around her
throat. There was one strange thing about this young lady. So
many gentlemen stood near her, and seemed anxious to please her,
that Fauntleroy thought she must be something like a princess.
He was so much interested in her that without knowing it he drew
nearer and nearer to her, and at last she turned and spoke to
him.
"Come here, Lord Fauntleroy," she said, smiling; "and tell me
why you look at me so."
"I was thinking how beautiful you are," his young lordship
replied.
Then all the gentlemen laughed outright, and the young lady
laughed a little too, and the rose color in her cheeks
brightened.
"Ah, Fauntleroy," said one of the gentlemen who had laughed
most heartily, "make the most of your time! When you are older
you will not have the courage to say that."
"But nobody could help saying it," said Fauntleroy sweetly.
"Could you help it? Don't YOU think she is pretty, too?"
"We are not allowed to say what we think," said the gentleman,
while the rest laughed more than ever.
But the beautiful young lady--her name was Miss Vivian
Herbert--put out her hand and drew Cedric to her side, looking
prettier than before, if possible.
"Lord Fauntleroy shall say what he thinks," she said; "and I
am much obliged to him. I am sure he thinks what he says." And
she kissed him on his cheek.
"I think you are prettier than any one I ever saw," said
Fauntleroy, looking at her with innocent, admiring eyes, "except
Dearest. Of course, I couldn't think any one QUITE as pretty as
Dearest. I think she is the prettiest person in the world."
"I am sure she is," said Miss Vivian Herbert. And she laughed
and kissed his cheek again.
She kept him by her side a great part of the evening, and the
group of which they were the center was very gay. He did not
know how it happened, but before long he was telling them all
about America, and the Republican Rally, and Mr. Hobbs and Dick,
and in the end he proudly produced from his pocket Dick's parting
gift,--the red silk handkerchief.
"I put it in my pocket to-night because it was a party," he
said. "I thought Dick would like me to wear it at a party."
And queer as the big, flaming, spotted thing was, there was a
serious, affectionate look in his eyes, which prevented his
audience from laughing very much.
"You see, I like it," he said, "because Dick is my friend."
But though he was talked to so much, as the Earl had said, he was
in no one's way. He could be quiet and listen when others
talked, and so no one found him tiresome. A slight smile crossed
more than one face when several times he went and stood near his
grandfather's chair, or sat on a stool close to him, watching him
and absorbing every word he uttered with the most charmed
interest. Once he stood so near the chair's arm that his cheek
touched the Earl's shoulder, and his lordship, detecting the
general smile, smiled a little himself. He knew what the
lookers-on were thinking, and he felt some secret amusement in
their seeing what good friends he was with this youngster, who
might have been expected to share the popular opinion of him.
Mr. Havisham had been expected to arrive in the afternoon, but,
strange to say, he was late. Such a thing had really never been
known to happen before during all the years in which he had been
a visitor at Dorincourt Castle. He was so late that the guests
were on the point of rising to go in to dinner when he arrived.
When he approached his host, the Earl regarded him with
amazement. He looked as if he had been hurried or agitated; his
dry, keen old face was actually pale.
"I was detained," he said, in a low voice to the Earl, "by--an
extraordinary event."
It was as unlike the methodic old lawyer to be agitated by
anything as it was to be late, but it was evident that he had
been disturbed. At dinner he ate scarcely anything, and two or
three times, when he was spoken to, he started as if his thoughts
were far away. At dessert, when Fauntleroy came in, he looked at
him more than once, nervously and uneasily. Fauntleroy noted the
look and wondered at it. He and Mr. Havisham were on friendly
terms, and they usually exchanged smiles. The lawyer seemed to
have forgotten to smile that evening.
The fact was, he forgot everything but the strange and painful
news he knew he must tell the Earl before the night was over--the
strange news which he knew would be so terrible a shock, and
which would change the face of everything. As he looked about at
the splendid rooms and the brilliant company,--at the people
gathered together, he knew, more that they might see the
bright-haired little fellow near the Earl's chair than for any
other reason,--as he looked at the proud old man and at little
Lord Fauntleroy smiling at his side, he really felt quite shaken,
notwithstanding that he was a hardened old lawyer. What a blow
it was that he must deal them!
He did not exactly know how the long, superb dinner ended. He
sat through it as if he were in a dream, and several times he saw
the Earl glance at him in surprise.
But it was over at last, and the gentlemen joined the ladies in
the drawing-room. They found Fauntleroy sitting on the sofa with
Miss Vivian Herbert,--the great beauty of the last London season;
they had been looking at some pictures, and he was thanking his
companion as the door opened.
"I'm ever so much obliged to you for being so kind to me!" he
was saying; "I never was at a party before, and I've enjoyed
myself so much!"
He had enjoyed himself so much that when the gentlemen gathered
about Miss Herbert again and began to talk to her, as he listened
and tried to understand their laughing speeches, his eyelids
began to droop. They drooped until they covered his eyes two or
three times, and then the sound of Miss Herbert's low, pretty
laugh would bring him back, and he would open them again for
about two seconds. He was quite sure he was not going to sleep,
but there was a large, yellow satin cushion behind him and his
head sank against it, and after a while his eyelids drooped for
the last time. They did not even quite open when, as it seemed a
long time after, some one kissed him lightly on the cheek. It
was Miss Vivian Herbert, who was going away, and she spoke to him
softly.
"Good-night, little Lord Fauntleroy," she said. "Sleep
well."
And in the morning he did not know that he had tried to open his
eyes and had murmured sleepily, "Good-night--I'm so--glad --I
saw you--you are so--pretty----"
He only had a very faint recollection of hearing the gentlemen
laugh again and of wondering why they did it.
No sooner had the last guest left the room, than Mr. Havisham
turned from his place by the fire, and stepped nearer the sofa,
where he stood looking down at the sleeping occupant. Little
Lord Fauntleroy was taking his ease luxuriously. One leg crossed
the other and swung over the edge of the sofa; one arm was flung
easily above his head; the warm flush of healthful, happy,
childish sleep was on his quiet face; his waving tangle of bright
hair strayed over the yellow satin cushion. He made a picture
well worth looking at.
As Mr. Havisham looked at it, he put his hand up and rubbed his
shaven chin, with a harassed countenance.
"Well, Havisham," said the Earl's harsh voice behind him.
"What is it? It is evident something has happened. What was
the extraordinary event, if I may ask?"
Mr. Havisham turned from the sofa, still rubbing his chin.
"It was bad news," he answered, "distressing news, my
lord--the worst of news. I am sorry to be the bearer of it."
The Earl had been uneasy for some time during the evening, as he
glanced at Mr. Havisham, and when he was uneasy he was always
ill-tempered.
"Why do you look so at the boy!" he exclaimed irritably. "You
have been looking at him all the evening as if--See here now, why
should you look at the boy, Havisham, and hang over him like some
bird of ill-omen! What has your news to do with Lord
Fauntleroy?"
"My lord," said Mr. Havisham, "I will waste no words. My news
has everything to do with Lord Fauntleroy. And if we are to
believe it--it is not Lord Fauntleroy who lies sleeping before
us, but only the son of Captain Errol. And the present Lord
Fauntleroy is the son of your son Bevis, and is at this moment in
a lodging-house in London."
The Earl clutched the arms of his chair with both his hands until
the veins stood out upon them; the veins stood out on his
forehead too; his fierce old face was almost livid.
"What do you mean!" he cried out. "You are mad! Whose lie is
this?"
"If it is a lie," answered Mr. Havisham, "it is painfully like
the truth. A woman came to my chambers this morning. She said
your son Bevis married her six years ago in London. She showed
me her marriage certificate. They quarrelled a year after the
marriage, and he paid her to keep away from him. She has a son
five years old. She is an American of the lower classes,--an
ignorant person,--and until lately she did not fully understand
what her son could claim. She consulted a lawyer and found out
that the boy was really Lord Fauntleroy and the heir to the
earldom of Dorincourt; and she, of course, insists on his claims
being acknowledged."
There was a movement of the curly head on the yellow satin
cushion. A soft, long, sleepy sigh came from the parted lips,
and the little boy stirred in his sleep, but not at all
restlessly or uneasily. Not at all as if his slumber were
disturbed by the fact that he was being proved a small impostor
and that he was not Lord Fauntleroy at all and never would be the
Earl of Dorincourt. He only turned his rosy face more on its
side, as if to enable the old man who stared at it so solemnly to
see it better.
The handsome, grim old face was ghastly. A bitter smile fixed
itself upon it.
"I should refuse to believe a word of it," he said, "if it
were not such a low, scoundrelly piece of business that it
becomes quite possible in connection with the name of my son
Bevis. It is quite like Bevis. He was always a disgrace to us.
Always a weak, untruthful, vicious young brute with low
tastes--my son and heir, Bevis, Lord Fauntleroy. The woman is an
ignorant, vulgar person, you say?"
"I am obliged to admit that she can scarcely spell her own
name," answered the lawyer. She is absolutely uneducated and
openly mercenary. She cares for nothing but the money. She is
very handsome in a coarse way, but----"
The fastidious old lawyer ceased speaking and gave a sort of
shudder.
The veins on the old Earl's forehead stood out like purple cords.
Something else stood out upon it too--cold drops of moisture. He
took out his handkerchief and swept them away. His smile grew
even more bitter.
"And I," he said, "I objected to--to the other woman, the
mother of this child" (pointing to the sleeping form on the
sofa); "I refused to recognize her. And yet she could spell her
own name. I suppose this is retribution."
Suddenly he sprang up from his chair and began to walk up and
down the room. Fierce and terrible words poured forth from his
lips. His rage and hatred and cruel disappointment shook him as
a storm shakes a tree. His violence was something dreadful to
see, and yet Mr. Havisham noticed that at the very worst of his
wrath he never seemed to forget the little sleeping figure on the
yellow satin cushion, and that he never once spoke loud enough to
awaken it.
"I might have known it," he said. "They were a disgrace to me
from their first hour! I hated them both; and they hated me!
Bevis was the worse of the two. I will not believe this yet,
though! I will contend against it to the last. But it is like
Bevis--it is like him!"
And then he raged again and asked questions about the woman,
about her proofs, and pacing the room, turned first white and
then purple in his repressed fury.
When at last he had learned all there was to be told, and knew
the worst, Mr. Havisham looked at him with a feeling of anxiety.
He looked broken and haggard and changed. His rages had always
been bad for him, but this one had been worse than the rest
because there had been something more than rage in it.
He came slowly back to the sofa, at last, and stood near it.
"If any one had told me I could be fond of a child," he said,
his harsh voice low and unsteady, "I should not have believed
them. I always detested children--my own more than the rest. I
am fond of this one; he is fond of me" (with a bitter smile).
"I am not popular; I never was. But he is fond of me. He never
was afraid of me--he always trusted me. He would have filled my
place better than I have filled it. I know that. He would have
been an honor to the name."
He bent down and stood a minute or so looking at the happy,
sleeping face. His shaggy eyebrows were knitted fiercely, and
yet somehow he did not seem fierce at all. He put up his hand,
pushed the bright hair back from the forehead, and then turned
away and rang the bell.
When the largest footman appeared, he pointed to the sofa.
"Take"--he said, and then his voice changed a little--"take
Lord Fauntleroy to his room."
XI
When Mr. Hobbs's young friend left him to go to Dorincourt Castle
and become Lord Fauntleroy, and the grocery-man had time to
realize that the Atlantic Ocean lay between himself and the small
companion who had spent so many agreeable hours in his society,
he really began to feel very lonely indeed. The fact was, Mr.
Hobbs was not a clever man nor even a bright one; he was, indeed,
rather a slow and heavy person, and he had never made many
acquaintances. He was not mentally energetic enough to know how
to amuse himself, and in truth he never did anything of an
entertaining nature but read the newspapers and add up his
accounts. It was not very easy for him to add up his accounts,
and sometimes it took him a long time to bring them out right;
and in the old days, little Lord Fauntleroy, who had learned how
to add up quite nicely with his fingers and a slate and pencil,
had sometimes even gone to the length of trying to help him; and,
then too, he had been so good a listener and had taken such an
interest in what the newspaper said, and he and Mr. Hobbs had
held such long conversations about the Revolution and the British
and the elections and the Republican party, that it was no wonder
his going left a blank in the grocery store. At first it seemed
to Mr. Hobbs that Cedric was not really far away, and would come
back again; that some day he would look up from his paper and see
the little lad standing in the door-way, in his white suit and
red stockings, and with his straw hat on the back of his head,
and would hear him say in his cheerful little voice: "Hello, Mr.
Hobbs! This is a hot day--isn't it?" But as the days passed on
and this did not happen, Mr. Hobbs felt very dull and uneasy. He
did not even enjoy his newspaper as much as he used to. He would
put the paper down on his knee after reading it, and sit and
stare at the high stool for a long time. There were some marks
on the long legs which made him feel quite dejected and
melancholy. They were marks made by the heels of the next Earl
of Dorincourt, when he kicked and talked at the same time. It
seems that even youthful earls kick the legs of things they sit
on;--noble blood and lofty lineage do not prevent it. After
looking at those marks, Mr. Hobbs would take out his gold watch
and open it and stare at the inscription: "From his oldest
friend, Lord Fauntleroy, to Mr. Hobbs. When this you see,
remember me." And after staring at it awhile, he would shut it
up with a loud snap, and sigh and get up and go and stand in the
door-way--between the box of potatoes and the barrel of
apples--and look up the street. At night, when the store was
closed, he would light his pipe and walk slowly along the
pavement until he reached the house where Cedric had lived, on
which there was a sign that read, "This House to Let"; and he
would stop near it and look up and shake his head, and puff at
his pipe very hard, and after a while walk mournfully back again.
This went on for two or three weeks before any new idea came to
him. Being slow and ponderous, it always took him a long time to
reach a new idea. As a rule, he did not like new ideas, but
preferred old ones. After two or three weeks, however, during
which, instead of getting better, matters really grew worse, a
novel plan slowly and deliberately dawned upon him. He would go
to see Dick. He smoked a great many pipes before he arrived at
the conclusion, but finally he did arrive at it. He would go to
see Dick. He knew all about Dick. Cedric had told him, and his
idea was that perhaps Dick might be some comfort to him in the
way of talking things over.
So one day when Dick was very hard at work blacking a customer's
boots, a short, stout man with a heavy face and a bald head
stopped on the pavement and stared for two or three minutes at
the bootblack's sign, which read:
"PROFESSOR DICK TIPTON
CAN'T BE BEAT."
He stared at it so long that Dick began to take a lively interest
in him, and when he had put the finishing touch to his customer's
boots, he said:
"Want a shine, sir?"
The stout man came forward deliberately and put his foot on the
rest.
"Yes," he said.
Then when Dick fell to work, the stout man looked from Dick to
the sign and from the sign to Dick.
"Where did you get that?" he asked.
"From a friend o' mine," said Dick,--"a little feller. He
guv' me the whole outfit. He was the best little feller ye ever
saw. He's in England now. Gone to be one o' them lords."
"Lord--Lord--" asked Mr. Hobbs, with ponderous slowness, "Lord
Fauntleroy--Goin' to be Earl of Dorincourt?"
Dick almost dropped his brush.
"Why, boss!" he exclaimed, "d' ye know him yerself?"
"I've known him," answered Mr. Hobbs, wiping his warm forehead,
"ever since he was born. We was lifetime acquaintances--that's
what WE was."
It really made him feel quite agitated to speak of it. He pulled
the splendid gold watch out of his pocket and opened it, and
showed the inside of the case to Dick.
"`When this you see, remember me,'" he read. "That was his
parting keepsake to me `I don't want you to forget me'--those was
his words--I'd ha' remembered him," he went on, shaking his
head, "if he hadn't given me a thing an' I hadn't seen hide nor
hair on him again. He was a companion as ANY man would
remember."
"He was the nicest little feller I ever see," said Dick. "An'
as to sand--I never seen so much sand to a little feller. I
thought a heap o' him, I did,--an' we was friends, too--we was
sort o' chums from the fust, that little young un an' me. I
grabbed his ball from under a stage fur him, an' he never forgot
it; an' he'd come down here, he would, with his mother or his
nuss and he'd holler: `Hello, Dick!' at me, as friendly as if he
was six feet high, when he warn't knee high to a grasshopper, and
was dressed in gal's clo'es. He was a gay little chap, and when
you was down on your luck, it did you good to talk to him."
"That's so," said Mr. Hobbs. "It was a pity to make a earl
out of HIM. He would have SHONE in the grocery business--or dry
goods either; he would have SHONE!" And he shook his head with
deeper regret than ever.
It proved that they had so much to say to each other that it was
not possible to say it all at one time, and so it was agreed that
the next night Dick should make a visit to the store and keep Mr.
Hobbs company. The plan pleased Dick well enough. He had been a
street waif nearly all his life, but he had never been a bad boy,
and he had always had a private yearning for a more respectable
kind of existence. Since he had been in business for himself, he
had made enough money to enable him to sleep under a roof instead
of out in the streets, and he had begun to hope he might reach
even a higher plane, in time. So, to be invited to call on a
stout, respectable man who owned a corner store, and even had a
horse and wagon, seemed to him quite an event.
"Do you know anything about earls and castles?" Mr. Hobbs
inquired. "I'd like to know more of the particklars."
"There's a story about some on 'em in the Penny Story Gazette,"
said Dick. "It's called the `Crime of a Coronet; or, The
Revenge of the Countess May.' It's a boss thing, too. Some of us
boys 're takin' it to read."
"Bring it up when you come," said Mr. Hobbs, "an' I'll pay for
it. Bring all you can find that have any earls in 'em. If there
are n't earls, markises'll do, or dooks--though HE never made
mention of any dooks or markises. We did go over coronets a
little, but I never happened to see any. I guess they don't keep
'em 'round here."
"Tiffany 'd have 'em if anybody did," said Dick, "but I don't
know as I'd know one if I saw it."
Mr. Hobbs did not explain that he would not have known one if he
saw it. He merely shook his head ponderously.
"I s'pose there is very little call for 'em," he said, and that
ended the matter.
This was the beginning of quite a substantial friendship. When
Dick went up to the store, Mr. Hobbs received him with great
hospitality. He gave him a chair tilted against the door, near a
barrel of apples, and after his young visitor was seated, he made
a jerk at them with the hand in which he held his pipe, saying:
"Help yerself."
Then he looked at the story papers, and after that they read and
discussed the British aristocracy; and Mr. Hobbs smoked his pipe
very hard and shook his head a great deal. He shook it most when
he pointed out the high stool with the marks on its legs.
"There's his very kicks," he said impressively; "his very
kicks. I sit and look at 'em by the hour. This is a world of
ups an' it's a world of downs. Why, he'd set there, an' eat
crackers out of a box, an' apples out of a barrel, an' pitch his
cores into the street; an' now he's a lord a-livin' in a castle.
Them's a lord's kicks; they'll be a earl's kicks some day.
Sometimes I says to myself, says I, `Well, I'll be jiggered!'"
He seemed to derive a great deal of comfort from his reflections
and Dick's visit. Before Dick went home, they had a supper in
the small back-room; they had crackers and cheese and sardines,
and other canned things out of the store, and Mr. Hobbs solemnly
opened two bottles of ginger ale, and pouring out two glasses,
proposed a toast.
"Here's to HIM!" he said, lifting his glass, "an' may he teach
'em a lesson--earls an' markises an' dooks an' all!"
After that night, the two saw each other often, and Mr. Hobbs was
much more comfortable and less desolate. They read the Penny
Story Gazette, and many other interesting things, and gained a
knowledge of the habits of the nobility and gentry which would
have surprised those despised classes if they had realized it.
One day Mr. Hobbs made a pilgrimage to a book store down town,
for the express purpose of adding to their library. He went to
the clerk and leaned over the counter to speak to him.
"I want," he said, "a book about earls."
"What!" exclaimed the clerk.
"A book," repeated the grocery-man, "about earls."
"I'm afraid," said the clerk, looking rather queer, "that we
haven't what you want."
"Haven't?" said Mr. Hobbs, anxiously. "Well, say markises
then--or dooks."
"I know of no such book," answered the clerk.
Mr. Hobbs was much disturbed. He looked down on the floor,--then
he looked up.
"None about female earls?" he inquired.
"I'm afraid not," said the clerk with a smile.
"Well," exclaimed Mr. Hobbs, "I'll be jiggered!"
He was just going out of the store, when the clerk called him
back and asked him if a story in which the nobility were chief
characters would do. Mr. Hobbs said it would--if he could not
get an entire volume devoted to earls. So the clerk sold him a
book called "The Tower of London," written by Mr. Harrison
Ainsworth, and he carried it home.
When Dick came they began to read it. It was a very wonderful
and exciting book, and the scene was laid in the reign of the
famous English queen who is called by some people Bloody Mary.
And as Mr. Hobbs heard of Queen Mary's deeds and the habit she
had of chopping people's heads off, putting them to the torture,
and burning them alive, he became very much excited. He took his
pipe out of his mouth and stared at Dick, and at last he was
obliged to mop the perspiration from his brow with his red pocket
handkerchief.
"Why, he ain't safe!" he said. "He ain't safe! If the women
folks can sit up on their thrones an' give the word for things
like that to be done, who's to know what's happening to him this
very minute? He's no more safe than nothing! Just let a woman
like that get mad, an' no one's safe!"
"Well," said Dick, though he looked rather anxious himself;
"ye see this 'ere un isn't the one that's bossin' things now. I
know her name's Victory, an' this un here in the book, her name's
Mary."
"So it is," said Mr. Hobbs, still mopping his forehead; "so it
is. An' the newspapers are not sayin' anything about any racks,
thumb-screws, or stake-burnin's,--but still it doesn't seem as if
't was safe for him over there with those queer folks. Why, they
tell me they don't keep the Fourth o' July!"
He was privately uneasy for several days; and it was not until he
received Fauntleroy's letter and had read it several times, both
to himself and to Dick, and had also read the letter Dick got
about the same time, that he became composed again.
But they both found great pleasure in their letters. They read
and re-read them, and talked them over and enjoyed every word of
them. And they spent days over the answers they sent and read
them over almost as often as the letters they had received.
It was rather a labor for Dick to write his. All his knowledge
of reading and writing he had gained during a few months, when he
had lived with his elder brother, and had gone to a night-school;
but, being a sharp boy, he had made the most of that brief
education, and had spelled out things in newspapers since then,
and practiced writing with bits of chalk on pavements or walls or
fences. He told Mr. Hobbs all about his life and about his elder
brother, who had been rather good to him after their mother died,
when Dick was quite a little fellow. Their father had died some
time before. The brother's name was Ben, and he had taken care
of Dick as well as he could, until the boy was old enough to sell
newspapers and run errands. They had lived together, and as he
grew older Ben had managed to get along until he had quite a
decent place in a store.
"And then," exclaimed Dick with disgust, "blest if he didn't
go an' marry a gal! Just went and got spoony an' hadn't any more
sense left! Married her, an' set up housekeepin' in two back
rooms. An' a hefty un she was,--a regular tiger-cat. She'd tear
things to pieces when she got mad,--and she was mad ALL the time.
Had a baby just like her,--yell day 'n' night! An' if I didn't
have to 'tend it! an' when it screamed, she'd fire things at me.
She fired a plate at me one day, an' hit the baby--cut its chin.
Doctor said he'd carry the mark till he died. A nice mother she
was! Crackey! but didn't we have a time--Ben 'n' mehself 'n'
the young un. She was mad at Ben because he didn't make money
faster; 'n' at last he went out West with a man to set up a
cattle ranch. An' hadn't been gone a week'fore one night, I got
home from sellin' my papers, 'n' the rooms wus locked up 'n'
empty, 'n' the woman o' the house. she told me Minna 'd
gone--shown a clean pair o' heels. Some un else said she'd gone
across the water to be nuss to a lady as had a little baby, too.
Never heard a word of her since--nuther has Ben. If I'd ha' bin
him, I wouldn't ha' fretted a bit--'n' I guess he didn't. But he
thought a heap o' her at the start. Tell you, he was spoons on
her. She was a daisy-lookin' gal, too, when she was dressed up
'n' not mad. She'd big black eyes 'n' black hair down to her
knees; she'd make it into a rope as big as your arm, and twist it
'round 'n' 'round her head; 'n' I tell you her eyes 'd snap!
Folks used to say she was part _I_tali-un--said her mother or
father 'd come from there, 'n' it made her queer. I tell ye, she
was one of 'em--she was!"
He often told Mr. Hobbs stories of her and of his brother Ben,
who, since his going out West, had written once or twice to Dick.
Ben's luck had not been good, and he had wandered from place to
place; but at last he had settled on a ranch in California, where
he was at work at the time when Dick became acquainted with Mr
Hobbs.
"That gal," said Dick one day, "she took all the grit out o'
him. I couldn't help feelin' sorry for him sometimes."
They were sitting in the store door-way together, and Mr. Hobbs
was filling his pipe.
"He oughtn't to 've married," he said solemnly, as he rose to
get a match. "Women--I never could see any use in 'em myself."
As he took the match from its box, he stopped and looked down on
the counter.
"Why!" he said, "if here isn't a letter! I didn't see it
before. The postman must have laid it down when I wasn't
noticin', or the newspaper slipped over it."
He picked it up and looked at it carefully.
"It's from HIM!" he exclaimed. "That's the very one it's
from!"
He forgot his pipe altogether. He went back to his chair quite
excited and took his pocket-knife and opened the envelope.
"I wonder what news there is this time," he said.
And then he unfolded the letter and read as follows:
"DORINCOURT CASTLE"
My dear Mr. Hobbs
"I write this in a great hury becaus i have something curous to
tell you i know you will be very mutch suprised my dear frend
when i tel you. It is all a mistake and i am not a lord and i
shall not have to be an earl there is a lady whitch was marid to
my uncle bevis who is dead and she has a little boy and he is
lord fauntleroy becaus that is the way it is in England the earls
eldest sons little boy is the earl if every body else is dead i
mean if his farther and grandfarther are dead my grandfarther is
not dead but my uncle bevis is and so his boy is lord Fauntleroy
and i am not becaus my papa was the youngest son and my name is
Cedric Errol like it was when i was in New York and all the
things will belong to the other boy i thought at first i should
have to give him my pony and cart but my grandfarther says i need
not my grandfarther is very sorry and i think he does not like
the lady but preaps he thinks dearest and i are sorry because i
shall not be an earl i would like to be an earl now better than i
thout i would at first becaus this is a beautifle castle and i
like every body so and when you are rich you can do so many
things i am not rich now becaus when your papa is only the
youngest son he is not very rich i am going to learn to work so
that i can take care of dearest i have been asking Wilkins about
grooming horses preaps i might be a groom or a coachman. the
lady brought her little boy to the castle and my grandfarther and
Mr. Havisham talked to her i think she was angry she talked loud
and my grandfarther was angry too i never saw him angry before i
wish it did not make them all mad i thort i would tell you and
Dick right away becaus you would be intrusted so no more at
present with love from
"your old frend
"CEDRIC ERROL (Not lord Fauntleroy)."
Mr. Hobbs fell back in his chair, the letter dropped on his knee,
his pen-knife slipped to the floor, and so did the envelope.
"Well!" he ejaculated, "I am jiggered!"
He was so dumfounded that he actually changed his exclamation.
It had always been his habit to say, "I WILL be jiggered," but
this time he said, "I AM jiggered." Perhaps he really WAS
jiggered. There is no knowing.
"Well," said Dick, "the whole thing's bust up, hasn't it?"
"Bust!" said Mr. Hobbs. "It's my opinion it's a put-up job o'
the British ristycrats to rob him of his rights because he's an
American. They've had a spite agin us ever since the Revolution,
an' they're takin' it out on him. I told you he wasn't safe, an'
see what's happened! Like as not, the whole gover'ment's got
together to rob him of his lawful ownin's."
He was very much agitated. He had not approved of the change in
his young friend's circumstances at first, but lately he had
become more reconciled to it, and after the receipt of Cedric's
letter he had perhaps even felt some secret pride in his young
friend's magnificence. He might not have a good opinion of
earls, but he knew that even in America money was considered
rather an agreeable thing, and if all the wealth and grandeur
were to go with the title, it must be rather hard to lose it.
"They're trying to rob him!" he said, "that's what they're
doing, and folks that have money ought to look after him."
And he kept Dick with him until quite a late hour to talk it
over, and when that young man left, he went with him to the
corner of the street; and on his way back he stopped opposite the
empty house for some time, staring at the "To Let," and smoking
his pipe, in much disturbance of mind.
XII
A very few days after the dinner party at the Castle, almost
everybody in England who read the newspapers at all knew the
romantic story of what had happened at Dorincourt. It made a
very interesting story when it was told with all the details.
There was the little American boy who had been brought to England
to be Lord Fauntleroy, and who was said to be so fine and
handsome a little fellow, and to have already made people fond of
him; there was the old Earl, his grandfather, who was so proud of
his heir; there was the pretty young mother who had never been
forgiven for marrying Captain Errol; and there was the strange
marriage of Bevis, the dead Lord Fauntleroy, and the strange
wife, of whom no one knew anything, suddenly appearing with her
son, and saying that he was the real Lord Fauntleroy and must
have his rights. All these things were talked about and written
about, and caused a tremendous sensation. And then there came
the rumor that the Earl of Dorincourt was not satisfied with the
turn affairs had taken, and would perhaps contest the claim by
law, and the matter might end with a wonderful trial.
There never had been such excitement before in the county in
which Erleboro was situated. On market-days, people stood in
groups and talked and wondered what would be done; the farmers'
wives invited one another to tea that they might tell one another
all they had heard and all they thought and all they thought
other people thought. They related wonderful anecdotes about the
Earl's rage and his determination not to acknowledge the new Lord
Fauntleroy, and his hatred of the woman who was the claimant's
mother. But, of course, it was Mrs. Dibble who could tell the
most, and who was more in demand than ever.
"An' a bad lookout it is," she said. "An' if you were to ask
me, ma'am, I should say as it was a judgment on him for the way
he's treated that sweet young cre'tur' as he parted from her
child,--for he's got that fond of him an' that set on him an'
that proud of him as he's a'most drove mad by what's happened.
An' what's more, this new one's no lady, as his little lordship's
ma is. She's a bold-faced, black-eyed thing, as Mr. Thomas says
no gentleman in livery 'u'd bemean hisself to be gave orders by;
and let her come into the house, he says, an' he goes out of it.
An' the boy don't no more compare with the other one than nothin'
you could mention. An' mercy knows what's goin' to come of it
all, an' where it's to end, an' you might have knocked me down
with a feather when Jane brought the news."
In fact there was excitement everywhere at the Castle: in the
library, where the Earl and Mr. Havisham sat and talked; in the
servants' hall, where Mr. Thomas and the butler and the other men
and women servants gossiped and exclaimed at all times of the
day; and in the stables, where Wilkins went about his work in a
quite depressed state of mind, and groomed the brown pony more
beautifully than ever, and said mournfully to the coachman that
he "never taught a young gen'leman to ride as took to it more
nat'ral, or was a better-plucked one than he was. He was a one
as it were some pleasure to ride behind."
But in the midst of all the disturbance there was one person who
was quite calm and untroubled. That person was the little Lord
Fauntleroy who was said not to be Lord Fauntleroy at all. When
first the state of affairs had been explained to him, he had felt
some little anxiousness and perplexity, it is true, but its
foundation was not in baffled ambition.
While the Earl told him what had happened, he had sat on a stool
holding on to his knee, as he so often did when he was listening
to anything interesting; and by the time the story was finished
he looked quite sober.
"It makes me feel very queer," he said; "it makes me
feel--queer!"
The Earl looked at the boy in silence. It made him feel queer,
too--queerer than he had ever felt in his whole life. And he
felt more queer still when he saw that there was a troubled
expression on the small face which was usually so happy.
"Will they take Dearest's house from her--and her carriage?"
Cedric asked in a rather unsteady, anxious little voice.
"NO!" said the Earl decidedly--in quite a loud voice, in fact.
"They can take nothing from her."
"Ah!" said Cedric, with evident relief. "Can't they?"
Then he looked up at his grandfather, and there was a wistful
shade in his eyes, and they looked very big and soft.
"That other boy," he said rather tremulously--"he will have
to--to be your boy now--as I was--won't he?"
"NO!" answered the Earl--and he said it so fiercely and loudly
that Cedric quite jumped.
"No?" he exclaimed, in wonderment. "Won't he? I
thought----"
He stood up from his stool quite suddenly.
"Shall I be your boy, even if I'm not going to be an earl?" he
said. "Shall I be your boy, just as I was before?" And his
flushed little face was all alight with eagerness.
How the old Earl did look at him from head to foot, to be sure!
How his great shaggy brows did draw themselves together, and how
queerly his deep eyes shone under them--how very queerly!
"My boy!" he said--and, if you'll believe it, his very voice
was queer, almost shaky and a little broken and hoarse, not at
all what you would expect an Earl's voice to be, though he spoke
more decidedly and peremptorily even than before,--"Yes, you'll
be my boy as long as I live; and, by George, sometimes I feel as
if you were the only boy I had ever had."
Cedric's face turned red to the roots of his hair; it turned red
with relief and pleasure. He put both his hands deep into his
pockets and looked squarely into his noble relative's eyes.
"Do you?" he said. "Well, then, I don't care about the earl
part at all. I don't care whether I'm an earl or not. I
thought--you see, I thought the one that was going to be the Earl
would have to be your boy, too, and--and I couldn't be. That was
what made me feel so queer."
The Earl put his hand on his shoulder and drew him nearer.
"They shall take nothing from you that I can hold for you," he
said, drawing his breath hard. "I won't believe yet that they
can take anything from you. You were made for the place,
and--well, you may fill it still. But whatever comes, you shall
have all that I can give you--all!"
It scarcely seemed as if he were speaking to a child, there was
such determination in his face and voice; it was more as if he
were making a promise to himself--and perhaps he was.
He had never before known how deep a hold upon him his fondness
for the boy and his pride in him had taken. He had never seen
his strength and good qualities and beauty as he seemed to see
them now. To his obstinate nature it seemed impossible--more
than impossible--to give up what he had so set his heart upon.
And he had determined that he would not give it up without a
fierce struggle.
Within a few days after she had seen Mr. Havisham, the woman who
claimed to be Lady Fauntleroy presented herself at the Castle,
and brought her child with her. She was sent away. The Earl
would not see her, she was told by the footman at the door; his
lawyer would attend to her case. It was Thomas who gave the
message, and who expressed his opinion of her freely afterward,
in the servants' hall. He "hoped," he said, "as he had wore
livery in 'igh famblies long enough to know a lady when he see
one, an' if that was a lady he was no judge o' females."
"The one at the Lodge," added Thomas loftily, "'Merican or no
'Merican, she's one o' the right sort, as any gentleman 'u'd
reckinize with all a heye. I remarked it myself to Henery when
fust we called there."
The woman drove away; the look on her handsome, common face half
frightened, half fierce. Mr. Havisham had noticed, during his
interviews with her, that though she had a passionate temper, and
a coarse, insolent manner, she was neither so clever nor so bold
as she meant to be; she seemed sometimes to be almost overwhelmed
by the position in which she had placed herself. It was as if
she had not expected to meet with such opposition.
"She is evidently," the lawyer said to Mrs. Errol, "a person
from the lower walks of life. She is uneducated and untrained in
everything, and quite unused to meeting people like ourselves on
any terms of equality. She does not know what to do. Her visit
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