Oldal 70 [70]
50 LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY.
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be a more natural and affectionate one if he does not know that his
grandfather dislikes me so bitterly. He has never seen hatred or
hardness, and it would be a great blow to him to find out that any
one could hate me. He is so loving himself, and I am so dear to
him! It is better for him that he should not be told until he is much
older, and it is far better for the Earl. It would make a barrier
between them, even though Ceddie is such a child.”
So Cedric only knew that there was some mysterious reason for
the arrangement, some reason which he was not old enough to
understand, but which would be explained when he was older. He
was puzzled; but, after all, it was not the reason he cared about so
much; and after many talks with his mother, in which she comforted
him and placed before him the bright side of the picture, the dark
side of it gradually began to fade out, though now and then Mr.
Havisham saw him sitting in some queer little old-fashioned attitude,
watching the sea, with a very grave face, and more than once he
heard an unchildish sigh rise to his lips.
‘‘T dont like it,” he said once as he was having one of his almost
venerable talks with the lawyer. "You don’t know how much I
dont like it; but there are a great many troubles in this world, and
you have to bear them. Mary says so, and I "ve heard Mr. Hobbs
say it too. And Dearest wants me to like to live with my grandpapa,
because, you see, all his children are dead, and that’s very mourn¬
ful. It makes you sorry for a man, when all his children have died —
and one was killed suddenly.”
One of the things which always delighted the people who made
the acquaintance of his young lordship was the sage little air he
wore at times when he gave himself up to conversation ;—-combined
with his occasionally elderly remarks and the extreme innocence and
seriousness of his round childish face, it was irresistible. He was
such a handsome, blooming, curly-headed little fellow, that, when he