Oldal 213 [213]
XIV
things to happen. It had taken only a few minutes, apparently,
to change all the fortunes of the little boy dangling his red legs
from the high stool in Mr. Hobbs’s store, and to transform him from
a small boy, living the simplest life in a quiet street, into an English
nobleman, the heir to an earldom and magnificent wealth. It had
taken only a few minutes, apparently, to change him from an English
nobleman into a penniless little impostor, with no right to any of the
splendors he had been enjoying. And, surprising as it may appear,
it did not take nearly so long a time as one might have expected, to
alter the face of everything again and to give back to him all that
he had been in danger of losing.
It took the less time because, after all, the woman who had
called herself Lady Fauntleroy was not nearly so clever as she was
wicked; and when she’had been closely pressed by Mr. Havisham’s
questions about her marriage and her boy, she had made one or two
blunders which had caused suspicion to be awakened; and then she
had lost her presence of mind and her temper, and in her excitement
and anger had betrayed herself still further. All the mistakes she
made were about her child. ‘There seemed no doubt that she had
been married to Bevis, Lord Fauntleroy, and had quarreled with
him and had been paid to keep away from him; but Mr. Havisham
found out that her story of the boy’s being born in a certain part of
London was false; and just when they all were in the midst of the
13 193
| is astonishing how short a time it takes for very wonderful