Page 180 [180]
160 LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY.
—_— a —— = — — "emilni
son Bevis married her six years ago in London.. She showed me her
marriage certificate. They quarrelled a year after the marriage, and
he paid her to keep away from him. She has a son five years old.
She is an American of the lower classes,—an ignorant person,— and
until lately she did not fully understand what her son could claim.
She consulted a lawyer and found out that the boy was really Lord
Fauntleroy and the heir to the earldom of Dorincourt; and she, of
course, insists on his claims being acknowledged.”
There was a movement of the curly head on the yellow satin
cushion. A soft, long, sleepy sigh came from the parted lips, and the
little boy stirred in his sleep, but not at all restlessly or uneasily.
Not at all as if his slumber were disturbed by the fact that he was
being proved a small impostor and that he was not Lord Fauntleroy
at all and never would be the Earl of Dorincourt. He only turned
his rosy face more on its side, as if to enable the old man who stared
at it so solemnly to see it better.
The handsome, grim old face was ghastly. A bitter smile fixed
itself upon it.
“T should refuse to believe a word of it,” he said, “if it were
not such a low, scoundrelly piece of business that it becomes quite
possible in connection with the name of my son Bevis. It is quite
like Bevis. He was always a disgrace to us. Always a weak,
untruthful, vicious young brute with low tastes—my son and herr,
Bevis, Lord Fauntleroy. The woman is an ignorant, vulgar person,
you say?”
“T am obliged to admit that she can scarcely spell her own
name,” answered the lawyer. She is absolutely uneducated and
openly mercenary. She cares for nothing but the money. She is
very handsome in a coarse way, but i
The fastidious old lawyer ceased speaking and gave a sort of
shudder.