Oldal 224 [224]
204 LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY.
“Dear little Lord Fauntleroy! dear little boy! I am so glad!
I am so glad!”
And afterward she walked about the grounds with him, and let
him show her everything. And when he took her to where Mr.
Hobbs and Dick were, and said to her, " [his is my old, old friend
Mr. Hobbs, Miss Herbert, and this is my other old friend Dick. I
told them how pretty you were, and I told them they should see you
if you came to my birthday, —she shook hands with them both, and
stood and talked to them in her prettiest way, asking them about
America and their voyage and their life since they had been in Eng¬
land; while Fauntleroy stood by, looking up at her with adoring
eyes, and his cheeks quite flushed with delight because he saw that
Mr. Hobbs and Dick liked her so much.
“Well,” said Dick solemnly, afterward, "she "s the daisiest gal I
ever saw! She ’s—well, she’s just a daisy, that’s what she is, ’n’ no
mistake !”
Everybody looked after her as she passed, and every one looked
after little Lord Fauntleroy. And the sun shone and the flags flut¬
tered and the games were played and the dances danced, and as the
gayeties went on and the joyous afternoon passed, his little lordship
was simply radiantly happy.
The whole world seemed beautiful to him.
There was some one else who was happy, too,—an old man,
who, though he had been rich and noble all his life, had not often
been very honestly happy. Perhaps, indeed, I shall tell you that I
think it was because he was rather better than he had been that he
was rather happier. He had not, indeed, suddenly become as good
as Fauntleroy thought him; but, at least, he had begun to love some¬
thing, and he had several times found a sort of pleasure in doing the
kind things which the innocent, kind little heart of a child had sug¬
gested,—and that was a beginning. And every day he had been