XV
Ben took his boy and went back to his cattle ranch in California, andhe returned under very comfortable circumstances. Just before his going,Mr. Havisham had an interview with him in which the lawyer told him thatthe Earl of Dorincourt wished to do something for the boy who might haveturned out to be Lord Fauntleroy, and so he had decided that it wouldbe a good plan to invest in a cattle ranch of his own, and put Ben incharge of it on terms which would make it pay him very well, and whichwould lay a foundation for his son's future. And so when Ben went away,he went as the prospective master of a ranch which would be almost asgood as his own, and might easily become his own in time, as indeed itdid in the course of a few years; and Tom, the boy, grew up on it intoa fine young man and was devotedly fond of his father; and they were sosuccessful and happy that Ben used to say that Tom made up to him forall the troubles he had ever had.
But Dick and Mr. Hobbs--who had actually come over with the others tosee that things were properly looked after--did not return for sometime. It had been decided at the outset that the Earl would provide forDick, and would see that he received a solid education; and Mr. Hobbshad decided that as he himself had left a reliable substitute in chargeof his store, he could afford to wait to see the festivities which wereto celebrate Lord Fauntleroy's eighth birthday. All the tenantry wereinvited, and there were to be feasting and dancing and games in thepark, and bonfires and fire-works in the evening.
"Just like the Fourth of July!" said Lord Fauntleroy. "It seems a pitymy birthday wasn't on the Fourth, doesn't it? For then we could keepthem both together."
It must be confessed that at first the Earl and Mr. Hobbs were not asintimate as it might have been hoped they would become, in the interestsof the British aristocracy. The fact was that the Earl had known veryfew grocery-men, and Mr. Hobbs had not had many very close acquaintanceswho were earls; and so in their rare interviews conversation didnot flourish. It must also be owned that Mr. Hobbs had been ratheroverwhelmed by the splendors Fauntleroy felt it his duty to show him.
The entrance gate and the stone lions and the avenue impressed Mr.Hobbs somewhat at the beginning, and when he saw the Castle, and theflower-gardens, and the hot-houses, and the terraces, and the peacocks,and the dungeon, and the armor, and the great staircase, and thestables, and the liveried servants, he really was quite bewildered. Butit was the picture gallery which seemed to be the finishing stroke.
"Somethin' in the manner of a museum?" he said to Fauntleroy, when hewas led into the great, beautiful room.
"N--no--!" said Fauntleroy, rather doubtfully. "I don't THINK it's amuseum. My grandfather says these are my ancestors."
"Your aunt's sisters!" ejaculated Mr. Hobbs. "ALL of 'em? Yourgreat-uncle, he MUST have had a family! Did he raise 'em all?"
And he sank into a seat and looked around him with quite an agitatedcountenance, until with the greatest difficulty Lord Fauntleroy managedto explain that the walls were not lined entirely with the portraits ofthe progeny of his great-uncle.
He found it necessary, in fact, to call in the assistance of Mrs.Mellon, who knew all about the pictures, and could tell who painted themand when, and who added romantic stories of the lords and ladies whowere the originals. When Mr. Hobbs once understood, and had heard someof these stories, he was very much fascinated and liked the picturegallery almost better than anything else; and he would often walk overfrom the village, where he staid at the Dorincourt Arms, and would spendhalf an hour or so wandering about the gallery, staring at the paintedladies and gentlemen, who also stared at him, and shaking his headnearly all the time.
"And they was all earls!" he would say, "er pretty nigh it! An' HE'Sgoin' to be one of 'em, an' own it all!"
Privately he was not nearly so much disgusted with earls and their modeof life as he had expected to be, and it is to be doubted whether hisstrictly republican principles were not shaken a little by a closeracquaintance with castles and ancestors and all the rest of it. At anyrate, one day he uttered a very remarkable and unexpected sentiment:
"I wouldn't have minded bein' one of 'em myself!" he said--which wasreally a great concession.
What a grand day it was when little Lord Fauntleroy's birthday arrived,and how his young lordship enjoyed it! How beautiful the park looked,filled with the thronging people dressed in their gayest and best, andwith the flags flying from the tents and the top of the Castle! Nobodyhad staid away who could possibly come, because everybody was reallyglad that little Lord Fauntleroy was to be little Lord Fauntleroy still,and some day was to be the master of everything. Every one wanted tohave a look at him, and at his pretty, kind mother, who had made so manyfriends. And positively every one liked the Earl rather better, and feltmore amiably toward him because the little boy loved and trusted him so,and because, also, he had now made friends with and behaved respectfullyto his heir's mother. It was said that he was even beginning to befond of her, too, and that between his young lordship and his younglordship's mother, the Earl might be changed in time into quite awell-behaved old nobleman, and everybody might be happier and betteroff.
What scores and scores of people there were under the trees, and inthe tents, and on the lawns! Farmers and farmers' wives in their Sundaysuits and bonnets and shawls; girls and their sweethearts; childrenfrolicking and chasing about; and old dames in red cloaks gossipingtogether. At the Castle, there were ladies and gentlemen who had come tosee the fun, and to congratulate the Earl, and to meet Mrs. Errol.Lady Lorredaile and Sir Harry were there, and Sir Thomas Asshe and hisdaughters, and Mr. Havisham, of course, and then beautiful Miss VivianHerbert, with the loveliest white gown and lace parasol, and a circleof gentlemen to take care of her--though she evidently liked Fauntleroybetter than all of them put together. And when he saw her and ran to herand put his arm around her neck, she put her arms around him, too, andkissed him as warmly as if he had been her own favorite little brother,and she said:
"Dear little Lord Fauntleroy! dear little boy! I am so glad! I am soglad!"
And afterward she walked about the grounds with him, and let him showher everything. And when he took her to where Mr. Hobbs and Dick were,and said to her, "This 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,"--sheshook hands with them both, and stood and talked to them in herprettiest way, asking them about America and their voyage and their lifesince they had been in England; while Fauntleroy stood by, looking up ather with adoring eyes, and his cheeks quite flushed with delight becausehe saw that Mr. Hobbs and Dick liked her so much.
"Well," said Dick solemnly, afterward, "she's the daisiest gal Iever saw! She's--well, she's just a daisy, that's what she is, 'n' nomistake!"
Everybody looked after her as she passed, and every one looked afterlittle Lord Fauntleroy. And the sun shone and the flags fluttered andthe games were played and the dances danced, and as the gayeties wenton and the joyous afternoon passed, his little lordship was simplyradiantly happy.
The whole world seemed beautiful to him.
There was some one else who was happy, too,--an old man, who, though hehad been rich and noble all his life, had not often been very honestlyhappy. Perhaps, indeed, I shall tell you that I think it was because hewas rather better than he had been that he was rather happier. He hadnot, indeed, suddenly become as good as Fauntleroy thought him; but, atleast, he had begun to love something, and he had several times founda sort of pleasure in doing the kind things which the innocent, kindlittle heart of a child had suggested,--and that was a beginning. Andevery day he had been more pleased with his son's wife. It was true, asthe people said, that he was beginning to like her too. He liked tohear her sweet voice and to see her sweet face; and as he sat in hisarm-chair, he used to watch her and listen as she talked to her boy; andhe heard loving, gentle words which were new to him, and he began to seewhy the little fellow who had lived in a New York side street and knowngrocery-men and made fr
iends with boot-blacks, was still so well-bredand manly a little fellow that he made no one ashamed of him, even whenfortune changed him into the heir to an English earldom, living in anEnglish castle.
It was really a very simple thing, after all,--it was only that he hadlived near a kind and gentle heart, and had been taught to think kindthoughts always and to care for others. It is a very little thing,perhaps, but it is the best thing of all. He knew nothing of earls andcastles; he was quite ignorant of all grand and splendid things; but hewas always lovable because he was simple and loving. To be so is likebeing born a king.
As the old Earl of Dorincourt looked at him that day, moving about thepark among the people, talking to those he knew and making his readylittle bow when any one greeted him, entertaining his friends Dick andMr. Hobbs, or standing near his mother or Miss Herbert listening totheir conversation, the old nobleman was very well satisfied with him.And he had never been better satisfied than he was when they went downto the biggest tent, where the more important tenants of the Dorincourtestate were sitting down to the grand collation of the day.
They were drinking toasts; and, after they had drunk the health of theEarl, with much more enthusiasm than his name had ever been greeted withbefore, they proposed the health of "Little Lord Fauntleroy." And ifthere had ever been any doubt at all as to whether his lordship waspopular or not, it would have been settled that instant. Such a clamor ofvoices, and such a rattle of glasses and applause! They had begun tolike him so much, those warm-hearted people, that they forgot to feelany restraint before the ladies and gentlemen from the castle, whohad come to see them. They made quite a decent uproar, and one or twomotherly women looked tenderly at the little fellow where he stood, withhis mother on one side and the Earl on the other, and grew quite moistabout the eyes, and said to one another:
"God bless him, the pretty little dear!"
Little Lord Fauntleroy was delighted. He stood and smiled, and madebows, and flushed rosy red with pleasure up to the roots of his brighthair.
"Is it because they like me, Dearest?" he said to his mother. "Is it,Dearest? I'm so glad!"
And then the Earl put his hand on the child's shoulder and said to him:
"Fauntleroy, say to them that you thank them for their kindness."
Fauntleroy gave a glance up at him and then at his mother.
"Must I?" he asked just a trifle shyly, and she smiled, and so did MissHerbert, and they both nodded. And so he made a little step forward,and everybody looked at him--such a beautiful, innocent little fellow hewas, too, with his brave, trustful face!--and he spoke as loudly as hecould, his childish voice ringing out quite clear and strong.
"I'm ever so much obliged to you!" he said, "and--I hope you'll enjoy mybirthday--because I've enjoyed it so much--and--I'm very glad I'm goingto be an earl; I didn't think at first I should like it, but now Ido--and I love this place so, and I think it is beautiful--and--and--andwhen I am an earl, I am going to try to be as good as my grandfather."
And amid the shouts and clamor of applause, he stepped back with alittle sigh of relief, and put his hand into the Earl's and stood closeto him, smiling and leaning against his side.
And that would be the very end of my story; but I must add one curiouspiece of information, which is that Mr. Hobbs became so fascinatedwith high life and was so reluctant to leave his young friend that heactually sold his corner store in New York, and settled in the Englishvillage of Erlesboro, where he opened a shop which was patronized by theCastle and consequently was a great success. And though he and theEarl never became very intimate, if you will believe me, that man Hobbsbecame in time more aristocratic than his lordship himself, and he readthe Court news every morning, and followed all the doings of the Houseof Lords! And about ten years after, when Dick, who had finished hiseducation and was going to visit his brother in California, asked thegood grocer if he did not wish to return to America, he shook his headseriously.
"Not to live there," he said. "Not to live there; I want to be near HIM,an' sort o' look after him. It's a good enough country for them that'syoung an' stirrin'--but there's faults in it. There's not an auntsisteramong 'em--nor an earl!"
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