Oldal 184 [184]
164 LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY.
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say in his cheerful little voice: " Hello, Mr. Hobbs! This is a
hot day—is nt it?” But as the days passed on and this did not
happen, Mr. Hobbs felt very dull and uneasy. He did not even
enjoy his newspaper as much as he used to. He would put the
paper down on his knee after reading it, and sit and stare at the
high stool for a long time. There were some marks on the long
legs which made him feel quite dejected and melancholy. They
were marks made by the heels of the next Earl of Dorincourt, when
he kicked and talked at the same time. It seems that even youth¬
ful earls kick the legs of things they sit on; — noble blood and lofty
lineage do not prevent it. After looking at those marks, Mr. Hobbs
would take out his gold watch and open it and stare at the inscrip¬
tion: “From his oldest friend, Lord Fauntleroy, to Mr. Hobbs.
When this you see, remember me.” And after staring at it awhile,
he would shut it up with a loud snap, and sigh and get up
and go and stand in the door-way—between the box of potatoes
and the barrel of apples—and look up the street. At night, when
the store was closed, he would light his pipe and walk slowly
along the pavement until he reached the house where Cedric had
lived, on which there was a sign that read, " This House to Let”;
and he would stop near it and look up and shake his head, and
puff at his pipe very hard, and after a while walk mournfully
back again.
This went on for two or three weeks before any new idea came
to him. Being slow and ponderous, it always took him a long time to
reach a new idea. Asa rule, he did not like new ideas, but preferred
old ones. After two or three weeks, however, during which, instead
of getting better, matters really grew worse, a novel plan slowly
and deliberately dawned upon him. He would go to see Dick.
He smoked a great many pipes before he arrived at the conclusion,
but finally he did arrive at it. He would go to see Dick. He