ver was.
But he is fond of me. He never was afraid of me--he always trusted me.
He would have filled my place better than I have filled it. I know that.
He would have been an honor to the name."

He bent down and stood a minute or so looking at the happy, sleeping
face. His shaggy eyebrows were knitted fiercely, and yet somehow he did
not seem fierce at all. He put up his hand, pushed the bright hair back
from the forehead, and then turned away and rang the bell.

When the largest footman appeared, he pointed to the sofa.

"Take"--he said, and then his voice changed a little--"take Lord
Fauntleroy to his room."

XI

When Mr. Hobbs's young friend left him to go to Dorincourt Castle and
become Lord Fauntleroy, and the grocery-man had time to realize that the
Atlantic Ocean lay between himself and the small companion who had spent
so many agreeable hours in his society, he really began to feel very
lonely indeed. The fact was, Mr. Hobbs was not a clever man nor even a
bright one; he was, indeed, rather a slow and heavy person, and he had
never made many acquaintances. He was not mentally energetic enough
to know how to amuse himself, and in truth he never did anything of an
entertaining nature but read the newspapers and add up his accounts. It
was not very easy for him to add up his accounts, and sometimes it took
him a long time to bring them out right; and in the old days, little
Lord Fauntleroy, who had learned how to add up quite nicely with his
fingers and a slate and pencil, had sometimes even gone to the length
of trying to help him; and, then too, he had been so good a listener and
had taken such an interest in what the newspaper said, and he and Mr.
Hobbs had held such long conversations about the Revolution and the
British and the elections and the Republican party, that it was no
wonder his going left a blank in the grocery store. At first it seemed
to Mr. Hobbs that Cedric was not really far away, and would come back
again; that some day he would look up from his paper and see the little
lad standing in the door-way, in his white suit and red stockings, and
with his straw hat on the back of his head, and would hear him say in
his cheerful little voice: "Hello, Mr. Hobbs! This is a hot day--isn't
it?" But as the days passed on and this did not happen, Mr. Hobbs felt
very dull and uneasy. He did not even enjoy his newspaper as much as he
used to. He would put the paper down on his knee after reading i