Stranica 185 [185]
LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY: 165
knew all about Dick. Cedric had told him, and his idea was that
perhaps Dick might be some comfort to him in the way of talking
things over.
So one day when Dick was very hard at work blacking a cus¬
tomer’s boots, a short, stout man with a heavy face and a bald head
stopped on the pavement and stared for two or three minutes at the
bootblack’s sign, which read:
66 ProFEssoR Dick JT1pTon
CAN'T BE BEAT."
He stared at it so long that Dick began to take a lively interest
in him, and when he had put the finishing touch to his customer's
boots, he said:
‘‘ Want a shine, sir? ”
The stout man came forward deliberately and put his foot on
the rest.
“Ves,” he said.
Then when Dick fell to work, the stout man looked from Dick
to the sign and from the sign to Dick.
« Where did you get that?” he asked.
‘From a friend o" mine,” said Dick —"a little feller. He guv
me the whole outfit. He was the best little feller ye ever saw. He's
in England now. Gone to be one o them lords.”
“Lord — Lord —” asked Mr. Hobbs, with ponderous slowness,
“Lord Fauntleroy — Goin’ to be Earl of Dorincourt ?”
Dick almost dropped his brush.
“ Why, boss!” he exclaimed, "d ye know him yerself?”
“1 "ve known him,” answered Mr. Hobbs, wiping his warm fore¬
head. “ever since he was born. We was lifetime acquaintances —
that s what we was.”