Stranica 117 [117]
LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY. 97
And the second reason was even worse, because it was a new
one and had been talked about with the most excited interest.
Who did not know of the old nobleman’s fury when his hand¬
some son the Captain had married the American lady? Who did
not know how cruelly he had treated the Captain, and how the big,
gay, sweet-smiling young man, who was the only member of the
grand family any one liked, had died in a foreign land, poor and
unforgiven? Who did not know how fiercely his lordship had hated
the poor young creature who had been this son’s wife, and how he
had hated the thought of her child and never meant to see the boy—
. until his two sons died and left him without an heir? And then, who
did not know that he had looked forward without any affection or
pleasure to his grandson’s coming, and that he had made up his
mind that he should find the boy a vulgar, awkward, pert American
lad, more likely to disgrace his noble name than to honor it?
The proud, angry old man thought he had kept all his thoughts
secret. He did not suppose any one had dared to guess at, much
less talk over what he felt, and dreaded; but his servants watched
him, and read his face and his ill-humors and fits of gloom, and dis¬
cussed them in the servants’ hall. And while he thought himself
quite secure from the common herd, Thomas was telling Jane and
the cook, and the butler, and the housemaids and the other footmen
that it was his opinion that "the hold man was wuss than usual
a-thinkin’ hover the Capting’s boy, an’ hanticipatin’ as he wont be no
credit to the fambly. An’ serve him right,” added Thomas; "hit s ‘is
hown fault. Wot can he iggspect from a child brought up in pore
circumstances in that there low Hamerica?”
And as the Reverend Mr. Mordaunt walked under the great trees,
he remembered that this questionable little boy had arrived at the
Castle only the evening before, and that there were nine chances to
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