Page:Piccino and Other Child Stories (1897).djvu/231

 How Fauntleroy Occurred 219 be an earl ? ' he said. ' Shall I be your boy just as I was before ? ' But it was a real little heart that had beaten at the thought. He has been considered such an ideal little per- son Cedric Errol, Lord Fauntleroy and he was so real after all. Perhaps it is worth while ex- plaining- that he was only a simple, natural thing a child, whose great charm was that he was the innocent friend of the whole world. I have reason to believe that an impression ex- ists that the passage of years has produced no effect whatever on the great original, that he has still waving golden hair, and wears black velvet doublets and broad collars of lace. This is an error. He is sixteen. He plays foot -ball and tennis, and battles sternly with Greek. He is anxious not to "flunk " in geometry, and his hair is exceedingly short and brown. He has a fine sense of humor, and his relatives consider it rather a good joke to present him to intimates, as he appears before them, looking particularly cheerful and robust, in the words first heard by Havisham : " This is' Little Lord Fauntleroy.' " But there are things which do not change with the darkening of golden hair and the passage of boyish years. CENTRAL CIRCULATION CHILDREN'S HOOM