Stranica 95 [95]
LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY. 75
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poetry in Mr. Hobbs’s watch. It was, ‘When this you see, remember
me.’ When this I see, I shall always remember Dick.”
The sensations of the Right Honorable the Earl of Dorincourt
could scarcely be described. He was not an old nobleman who was
very easily bewildered, because he had seen a great deal of the
world; but here was something he found so novel that it almost took
his lordly breath away, and caused him some singular emotions.
He had never cared for children; he had been so occupied with his
own pleasures that he had never had time to care for them. His
own sons had not interested him when they were very young—
though sometimes he remembered having thought Cedrics father a
handsome and strong little fellow. He had been so selfish himself
that he had missed the pleasure of seeing unselfishness in others, and
he had not known how tender and faithful and affectionate a kind¬
hearted little child can be, and how innocent and unconscious are its
simple, generous impulses. A boy had always seemed to him a
most objectionable little animal, selfish and greedy and boisterous
when not under strict restraint; his own two eldest sons had given
their tutors constant trouble and annoyance, and of the younger one
he fancied he had heard few complaints because the boy was of no
particular importance. It had never once occurred to him that he
should like his grandson; he had sent for the little Cedric because
his pride impelled him to do so. If the boy was to take his place
in the future, he did not wish his name to be made ridiculous by
descending to an uneducated boor. He had been convinced the boy
would be a clownish fellow if he were brought up in America. He
had no feeling of affection for the lad; his only hope was that he
should find him decently well-featured, and with a respectable share
of sense; he had been so disappointed in his other sons, and had
been made so furious by Captain Errol’s American marriage, that he
had never once thought that anything creditable could come of it.