Page 172 [172]
I 32 LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY.
innocent nature returned his affection with most perfect trust and
good faith.
She knew, too, that the prime reason for the great dinner party
was the Earl’s secret desire to show the world his grandson and
heir, and to let people see that the boy who had been so much
spoken of and described was even a finer little specimen of boyhood .
than rumor had made him.
“ Bevis and Maurice were such a bitter humiliation to ffim,” she
said to her husband. "Every one knew it. He actually hated
them. His pride has full sway here.” Perhaps there was not one
person who accepted the invitation without feeling some curiosity
about little Lord Fauntleroy, and wondering if he would be on view.
And when the time came he was on view.
‘The lad has-good manners,” said the Earl. "He will be in
no one’s way. Children are usually idiots or bores,—mine were
both,— but he can actually answer when he’s spoken to, and be
silent when he is not. He is never offensive.”
But he was not allowed to be silent very long. Every one had
something to say to him. The fact was they wished to make him
talk. The ladies petted him and asked him questions, and the men
asked him questions too, and joked with him, as the men on the
steamer had done when he crossed the Atlantic. Fauntleroy did
not quite understand why they laughed so sometimes when he
answered them, but he was so used to seeing people amused when
he was quite serious, that he did not mind. He thought the whole
evening delightful. The magnificent rooms were so brilliant with
lights, there were so many flowers, the gentlemen seemed so gay,
and the ladies wore such beautiful, wonderful dresses, and such
sparkling ornaments in their hair and on their necks. There was
one young lady who, he heard them say, had just come down from
London, where she had spent the "season"; and she was so charm¬