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LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY. 113
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silver-mounted harness. And she could tell, too, what all the ser¬
vants had said when they had caught glimpses of the child on the
night of his arrival; and how every female below stairs had said
it was a shame, so it was, to part the poor pretty dear from his
mother; and had all declared their hearts came into their mouths .
when he went alone into the library to see his grandfather, for
“there was no knowing how he d be treated, and his lordship’s
temper was enough to fluster them with old heads on their
shoulders, let alone a child.”
‘But if you Il believe me, Mrs. Jennifer, mum,” Mrs. Dibble
had said, "fear that child does not know—so Mr. Thomas hisself
says; an’:set an’ smile he did, an’ talked to his lordship as if
they d been friends ever since his first hour. An’ the Earl so
took aback, Mr. Thomas says, that he could n’t do nothing but
listen and stare from under his eyebrows. An’ it s Mr. [Thomas's
opinion, Mrs. Bates, mum, that bad as he is, he was pleased in his
secret soul, an’ proud, too; for a handsomer little fellow, or with
better manners, tough so old-fashioned, Mr. Thomas says he’d
never wish to see.
And then there had come the story of Higgins. The Reverend
Mr. Mordaunt had told it at his own dinner table, and the servants
who had heard it had told it in the kitchen, and from there it had
. spread like wildfire.
And on market-day, when Higgins had appeared in town, he
had been questioned on every side, and Newick had been questioned
too, and in response had shown to two or three people the note
signed " Fauntleroy.”
And so the farmers’ wives had found plenty to talk of over their
tea and their shopping, and they had done the subject full justice and
made the most of it. And on Sunday they had either walked to
church or had been driven in their gigs by their husbands, who
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