Stranica 22 [22]
2 LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY.
He felt her arms tremble, and so he turned his curly head and
looked in her face. There was something in it that made him
feel that he was going to cry.
‘‘ Dearest,” he said, "is he well?"
Then suddenly his loving little heart told him that he d better
put both his arms around her neck and kiss her again and again,
and keep his soft cheek close to hers; and he did so, and she laid
her face on his shoulder and cried bitterly, holding him as if she
could never let him go again.
“Yes, he is well,” she sobbed; "he is quite, quite well, but we—
we have no one left but each other. No one at all.”
Then, little as he was, he understood that his big, handsome
young papa would not come back any more; that he was dead, as
he had heard of other people being, although he could not compre¬
hend exactly what strange thing had brought all this sadness about.
It was because his mamma always cried when he spoke of his papa
that he secretly made up his mind it was better not to speak of him
very often to her, and he found out, too, that it was better not to let
her sit still and look into the fire or out of the window without
moving or talking. He and his mamma knew very few people, and
lived what might have been thought very lonely lives, although
Cedric did not know it was lonely until he grew older and heard
why it was they had no visitors. Then he was told that his mamma
was an orphan, and quite alone in the world when his papa had
married her. She was very pretty, and had been living as compan¬
ion to a rich old lady who was not kind to her, and one day Captain
Cedric Errol, who was calling at the house, saw her run up the
stairs with tears on her eyelashes; and she looked so sweet and
innocent and sorrowful that the Captain could not forget her. And
after many strange things had happened, they knew each other well
and loved each other dearly, and were married, although their mar¬