Stranica 129 [129]
LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY. 109
di
He thought—you must nt mind 1t— that they were gory tyrants;
and he said he would nt have them hanging around his store. But
if he d known you, I’m sure he would have felt quite different. |
shall tell him about you.”
‘What shall you tell him ?”
‘“T shall tell him,” said Fauntleroy, glowing with enthusiam, ‘that
you are the kindest man | ever heard of. And you are always
thinking of other people, and making them happy and—and I hope
when | grow up, I shall be just like you.”
“Just like me!” repeated his lordship, looking at the little kind¬
ling face. And a dull red crept up under his withered skin, and he
suddenly turned his eyes away and looked out of the carriage win¬
dow at the great beech-trees, with the sun shining on their glossy,
red-brown leaves.
c Fust like you,” said Fauntleroy, adding modestly, “if I can.
Perhaps I’m not good enough, but I’m going to try.”
The carriage rolled on down the stately avenue under the beau¬
tiful, broad-branched trees, through the spaces of green shade and
lanes of golden sunlight. Fauntleroy saw again the lovely places
where the ferns grew high and the bluebells swayed in the breeze ;
he saw the deer, standing or lying in the deep grass, turn their
large, startled eyes as the carriage passed, and caught glimpses of
the brown rabbits as they scurried away. He heard the whir of
the partridges and the calls and songs of the birds, and it all seemed
even more beautiful to him than before. All his heart was filled
with pleasure and happiness in the beauty that was on every side.
But the old Earl saw and heard very different things, though he was
apparently looking out too. He saw a long life, in which there had
been neither generous deeds nor kind thoughts; he saw years in
which a man who had been young and strong and rich and power¬
ful had used his youth and strength and wealth and power only to