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09 - Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett · Little Lord Fauntleroy

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  Speaker 1: The fact was his lordship. The Earl of Dorincourt thought
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  Speaker 1: in those days of many things of which he had
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  Speaker 1: never thought before, and all his thoughts were, in one
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  Speaker 1: way or another, connected with his grandson. His pride was
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  Speaker 1: the strongest part of his nature, and the boy gratified
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  Speaker 1: it at every point. Through this pride he began to
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  Speaker 1: find a new interest in life. He began to take
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  Speaker 1: pleasure in showing his heir to the world. The world
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  Speaker 1: had known of his disappointment in his son's, so there
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  Speaker 1: was an agreeable touch of triumph in exhibiting this new
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  Speaker 1: Lord Fauntleroy, who could disappoint no one. He wished the
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  Speaker 1: child to appreciate his own power and to understand the
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  Speaker 1: splendor of his position. He wished that others should realize
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  Speaker 1: it too. He made plans for his future. Sometimes in secret,
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  Speaker 1: he actually found himself wishing that his own past life
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  Speaker 1: had been a better one, and that there had been
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  Speaker 1: less in it that this pure child heart would shrink
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  Speaker 1: from if it knew the truth. It was not agreeable
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  Speaker 1: to think how the beautiful, innocent face would look if
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  Speaker 1: its owner should be made by any chance to understand
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  Speaker 1: that his grandfather had been called for many a year.
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  Speaker 1: The wicked Earl of Dorincourt. The thought even made him
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  Speaker 1: a trifle nervous. He did not wish the boy to
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  Speaker 1: find it out. Sometimes, in this new interest he forgot
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  Speaker 1: his gout, and after a while his doctor was surprised
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  Speaker 1: to find his noble patient's health growing better than he
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  Speaker 1: had expected it ever would be again. Perhaps the Earl
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  Speaker 1: grew better because the time did not pass so slowly
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  Speaker 1: for him, and he had something to think of besides
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  Speaker 1: his pains and infirmities. One fine morning, people were amazed
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  Speaker 1: to see Little Lord Fauntleroy riding his pony with another
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  Speaker 1: companion than Wilkins. This new companion wrote a tall, powerful
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  Speaker 1: gray horse, and was no other than the Earl himself.
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  Speaker 1: It was in fact Fauntleroy who had suggested this plan.
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  Speaker 1: As he had been on the point of mounting his pony,
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  Speaker 1: he had said rather wistfully to his grandfather, I wish
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  Speaker 1: you were going with me when I go away. I
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  Speaker 1: feel lonely because you are left all by yourself in
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  Speaker 1: such a big castle. I wish you could ride too.
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  Speaker 1: And the greatest excitement had been aroused in the stables
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  Speaker 1: a few minutes later by the arrival of an order
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  Speaker 1: that Selim was to be saddled for the Earl. After that,
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  Speaker 1: Selim was saddled almost every day, and the people became
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  Speaker 1: accustomed to the sight of the tall gray horse carrying
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  Speaker 1: the tall gray old man with his handsome, fierce eagle
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  Speaker 1: face by the side of the brown pony which bore
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  Speaker 1: Little Lord Fauntleroy, And in their rides together through the
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  Speaker 1: green lanes and pretty country roads, the two riders became
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  Speaker 1: more intimate than ever, and gradually the old man heard
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  Speaker 1: a great deal about Dearest and her life. As Fauntleroy
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  Speaker 1: trotted by the big horse, he chatted gaily. There could
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  Speaker 1: not well have been a brighter little comrade. His nature
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  Speaker 1: was so happy. It was he who talked the most.
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  Speaker 1: The Earl was often silent, listening and watching the joyous
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  Speaker 1: glowing face. Sometimes he would tell his young companion to
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  Speaker 1: set the pony off at a gallop, and when the
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  Speaker 1: little fellow dashed off, sitting so straight and fearless, he
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  Speaker 1: would watch him with a gleam of pride and pleasure
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  Speaker 1: in his eyes. And when after such a dash Fauntleroy
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  Speaker 1: came back, waving his cap with a laughing shout, he
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  Speaker 1: always felt that he and his grandfather were very good friends. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: one thing that the earl discovered was that his son's
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  Speaker 1: wife did not lead an idle life. It was not
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  Speaker 1: long before he learned that the poor people knew her
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  Speaker 1: very well. Indeed, when there was sickness or sorrow or
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  Speaker 1: poverty in any house, the little Brougham often stood before
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  Speaker 1: the door. Do you know, said Fauntleroy. Once they all
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  Speaker 1: say God bless you when they see her, and the
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  Speaker 1: children are glad. There are some who go to her
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  Speaker 1: house to be taught to sew. She says, she feels
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  Speaker 1: so rich now that she wants to help the poor ones.
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  Speaker 1: It had not displeased the Earl to find that the
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  Speaker 1: mother of his heir had a beautiful, young face, and
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  Speaker 1: looked as much like a lady as if she had
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  Speaker 1: been a duchess. And in one way it did not
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  Speaker 1: displease him to know that she was popular and beloved
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  Speaker 1: by the poor. And yet he was often conscious of
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  Speaker 1: a hard, jealous pang when he saw how she filled
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  Speaker 1: her child's heart, and how the boy clung to her
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  Speaker 1: as his best beloved. The old man would have desired
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  Speaker 1: to stand first himself and have no rival. That same morning,
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  Speaker 1: He drew up his horse on an elevated point of
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  Speaker 1: the moor over which they rode, and made a gesture
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  Speaker 1: with his whip over the broad, beautiful landscape spread before them.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know that all that land belongs to me?
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  Speaker 1: He said to Fauntleroy, does it? Answered Fauntleroy, how much
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  Speaker 1: it is to belong to one person, and how beautiful?
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  Speaker 1: Do you know that some day it will all belong
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  Speaker 1: to you? That and a great deal more to me,
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  Speaker 1: exclaimed Fauntleroy, in rather an awe stricken voice. When when
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  Speaker 1: I am dead, his grandfather answered, then I don't want it,
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  Speaker 1: said Fauntleroy, I want you to live always. That's kind,
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  Speaker 1: answered the Earl in his dry way. Nevertheless, some day
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  Speaker 1: it will all be yours. Some day you will be
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  Speaker 1: the Earl of Dorincourt. Little Lord Fauntleroy sat very still
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  Speaker 1: in his saddle for a few moments. He looked over
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  Speaker 1: the broad moors, the green farms, the beautiful copses, the
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  Speaker 1: cottages in the lanes, the pretty village, and over the trees,
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  Speaker 1: to where the turrets of the great castle rose gray
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  Speaker 1: and stately. Then he gave a queer little sigh, what
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  Speaker 1: are you thinking? Of, asked the earl. I am thinking,
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  Speaker 1: replied Fauntleroy, What a little boy I am. And of
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  Speaker 1: what dearest said to me? What was it, inquired the earl.
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  Speaker 1: She said that perhaps it was not so easy to
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  Speaker 1: be very rich, that if any one had so many
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  Speaker 1: things always one might sometimes forget that every one else
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  Speaker 1: was not so fortunate, and that one who is rich
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  Speaker 1: should always be careful and try to remember. I was
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  Speaker 1: talking to her about how good you were, and she
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  Speaker 1: said that was such a good thing, because an earl
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  Speaker 1: had so much power, and if he cared only about
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  Speaker 1: his own pleasure and never thought about the people who
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  Speaker 1: lived on his lands, they might have trouble that he
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  Speaker 1: could help. And there were so many people, and it
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  Speaker 1: would be such a hard thing. And I was just
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  Speaker 1: looking at all those houses and thinking, how I should
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  Speaker 1: have to find out about the people when I was
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  Speaker 1: an earl. How did you find out about them? As
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  Speaker 1: his lordship's knowledge of his tenantry consisted in finding out
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  Speaker 1: which of them paid their rent promptly, and in turning
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  Speaker 1: out those who did not. This was rather a hard question.
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  Speaker 1: Newick finds out for me, he said, and he pulled
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  Speaker 1: his great gray mustache and looked at his small questioner
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  Speaker 1: rather uneasily. We will go home now, he added, and
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  Speaker 1: when you are an earl, see to it that you
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  Speaker 1: are a better earl than I have been. He was
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  Speaker 1: very silent as they rode home. He felt it to
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  Speaker 1: be almost incredible that he who had never really loved
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  Speaker 1: any one in his life, should find himself growing so
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  Speaker 1: fond of this little fellow, as without doubt he was.
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  Speaker 1: At first he had only been pleased and proud of
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  Speaker 1: Cedric's beauty and bravery. But there was something more than
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  Speaker 1: pride in his feeling now. He laughed a grim, dry
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  Speaker 1: laugh all to himself sometimes when he thought how he
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  Speaker 1: liked to have the boy near him, how he liked
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  Speaker 1: to hear his voice, and how in secret he really
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  Speaker 1: wished to be liked and thought well of by his
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  Speaker 1: small grandson. I'm an old fellow in my dotage, and
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  Speaker 1: i have nothing else to think of, he would say
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  Speaker 1: to himself. And yet he knew it was not that altogether,
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  Speaker 1: And if he had allowed himself to admit the truth,
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  Speaker 1: he would perhaps have found himself obliged to own that
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  Speaker 1: the very things which attracted him in spite of himself
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  Speaker 1: were the qualities he had never possessed the frank, true,
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  Speaker 1: kindly nature, the affectionate trustfulness, which could never think evil.
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  Speaker 1: It was only about a week after that ride, when,
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  Speaker 1: after a visit to his mother, Fauntleroy came into the
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  Speaker 1: library with a troubled, thoughtful face. He sat down in
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  Speaker 1: that high backed chair in which he had sat on
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  Speaker 1: the evening of his arrival, and for a while he
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  Speaker 1: looked at the embers on the hearth. The Earl watched
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  Speaker 1: him in silence, wondering what was coming. It was evident
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  Speaker 1: that Cedric had something on his mind. At last he
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  Speaker 1: looked up. Does Nuwick know all about the people? He asked?
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  Speaker 1: It is his business to know about them, said his
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  Speaker 1: lordship been neglecting it has he? Contradictory as it may seem.
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  Speaker 1: There was nothing which entertained and edified him more than
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  Speaker 1: the little fellow's interest in his tenantry. He had never
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  Speaker 1: taken any interest in them himself. But it pleased him
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  Speaker 1: well enough that with all his childish habits of thought,
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  Speaker 1: and in the midst of all his childish amusements and
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  Speaker 1: high spirits, there should be such a quaint seriousness working
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  Speaker 1: in the curly head. There is a place, said Fauntleroy,
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  Speaker 1: looking up at him with wide open, horror stricken eyes.
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  Speaker 1: Dearest has seen it. It is at the other end
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  Speaker 1: of the village. The houses are close together and almost
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  Speaker 1: falling down. You can scarcely breathe. And the people are
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  Speaker 1: so poor, and everything is dreadful. Often they have fever,
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  Speaker 1: and the children die. And it makes them wicked to
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  Speaker 1: live like that and be so poor and miserable. It
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  Speaker 1: is worse than Michael and Bridget. The rain comes in
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  Speaker 1: at the roof. Dearest went to see a poor woman
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  Speaker 1: who lived there. She would not let me come near
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  Speaker 1: her until she had changed all her things. The tears
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  Speaker 1: ran down her cheeks when she told me about it.
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  Speaker 1: The tears had come into his own eyes, but he
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  Speaker 1: smiled through them. I told her you didn't know, and
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  Speaker 1: I would tell you, he said. He jumped down and
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  Speaker 1: came and leaned against the earl's chair. You can make
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  Speaker 1: it all right, he said, just as you made it
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  Speaker 1: all right for Higgins. You always make it all right
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  Speaker 1: for everybody. I told her you would, and that Knewick
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  Speaker 1: must have forgotten to tell you. The earl looked down
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  Speaker 1: at the hand on his knee. Knwick had not forgotten
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  Speaker 1: to tell him. In fact, Knwick had spoken to him
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  Speaker 1: more than once of the desperate condition of the end
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  Speaker 1: of the village known as Earl's Court. He knew all
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  Speaker 1: about the tumbled down, miserable cottages, and the bad drainage,
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  Speaker 1: and the damp walls and broken windows and leaking roofs,
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  Speaker 1: and all about the poverty, the fever and the misery.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Morton had painted it all to him in the
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  Speaker 1: strongest words he could use, and his lordship had used
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  Speaker 1: violent language and response. And when his gout had been
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  Speaker 1: at the worst, he had said that the sooner the
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  Speaker 1: people of Earl's Court died and were buried by the parish,
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  Speaker 1: the better it would be. And there was an end
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  Speaker 1: of the matter. And yet as he looked at the
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  Speaker 1: small hand on his knee, and from the small hand
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  Speaker 1: to the honest, earnest, frank eyed face, he was actually
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  Speaker 1: a little ashamed, both of Earl's Court and himself. What
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  Speaker 1: he said, You want to make a builder of model
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  Speaker 1: cottages of me, do you? And he positively put his
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  Speaker 1: own hand upon the childish one and stroked it. Those
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  Speaker 1: must be pulled down, said Fauntleroy with great eagerness, dearest says,
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  Speaker 1: so let us let us go and have them pulled
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  Speaker 1: down tomorrow. The people will be so glad when they
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  Speaker 1: see you. They'll know you have come to help them.
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  Speaker 1: And his eyes shone like stars, and his glowing face,
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  Speaker 1: the Earl rose from his chair and put his hand
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  Speaker 1: on the child's shoulder. Let us go out and take
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  Speaker 1: our walk on the terrace, he said, with a short laugh,
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  Speaker 1: and we can talk it over. And though he laughed
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  Speaker 1: two or three times again as they walked to and
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  Speaker 1: fro on the Broadstone Terrace, where they walked together almost
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  Speaker 1: every fine evening, he seemed to be thinking of something
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  Speaker 1: which did not displease him, and still he kept his
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  Speaker 1: hand on his small companion's shoulder. End of Chapter nine