文档介绍：LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY
LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY
BY FRANCES HODGSON T
1
LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY
CHAPTER I
Cedric himself knew nothing whatever about it. It had never been
even mentioned to him. He knew that his papa had been an Englishman,
because his mamma had told him so; but then his papa had died when he
was so little a boy that he could not remember very much about him,
except that he was big, and had blue eyes and a long mustache, and that it
was a splendid thing to be carried around the room on his shoulder.
Since his papa's death, Cedric had found out that it was best not to talk to
his mamma about him. When his father was ill, Cedric had been sent
away, and when he had returned, everything was over; and his mother,
who had been very ill, too, was only just beginning to sit in her chair by
the window. She was pale and thin, and all the dimples had gone from
her pretty face, and her eyes looked large and mournful, and she was
dressed in black.
"Dearest," said Cedric (his papa had called her that always, and so the
little boy had learned to say it),--"dearest, is my papa better?"
He felt her arms tremble, and so he turned his curly head and looked in
her face. There was something in it that made him feel that he was going
to cry.
"Dearest," he said, "is he well?"
Then suddenly his loving little heart told him that he'd better put both
his arms around her neck and kiss her again and again, and keep his soft
cheek close to hers; and he did so, and she laid her face on his shoulder
and cried bitterly, holding him as if she could never let him go again.
"Yes, he is well," she sobbed; "he is quite, quite well, but we--we have
no one left but each other. No one at all."
Then, little as he was, he understood that his big, handsome young
papa would e back any more; that he was dead, as he had heard of
other people being, although he could prehend exactly what
strange thing had brought all this sadness about. It was because his