ry
few grocery-men, and Mr. Hobbs had not had many very close acquaintances
who were earls; and so in their rare interviews conversation did
not flourish. It must also be owned that Mr. Hobbs had been rather
overwhelmed 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 the
flower-gardens, and the hot-houses, and the terraces, and the peacocks,
and the dungeon, and the armor, and the great staircase, and the
stables, and the liveried servants, he really was quite bewildered. But
it was the picture gallery which seemed to be the finishing stroke.

"Somethin' in the manner of a museum?" he said to Fauntleroy, when he
was led into the great, beautiful room.

"N--no--!" said Fauntleroy, rather doubtfully. "I don't THINK it's a
museum. My grandfather says these are my ancestors."

"Your aunt's sisters!" ejaculated Mr. Hobbs. "ALL of 'em? Your
great-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 agitated
countenance, until with the greatest difficulty Lord Fauntleroy managed
to explain that the walls were not lined entirely with the portraits of
the 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 them
and when, and who added romantic stories of the lords and ladies who
were the originals. When Mr. Hobbs once understood, and had heard some
of these stories, he was very much fascinated and liked the picture
gallery almost better than anything else; and he would often walk over
from the village, where he staid at the Dorincourt Arms, and would spend
half an hour or so wandering about the gallery, staring at the painted
ladies and gentlemen, who also stared at him, and shaking his head
nearly all the time.

"And they was all earls!" he would say, "er pretty nigh it! An' HE'S
goin' to be one of 'em, an' own it all!"

Privately he was not nearly so much disgusted with earls and their mode
of life as he had expected to be, and it is to be doubted whether his
strictly republican principles were not shaken a little by a closer
acquaintance with castles and ancestors and all the rest of it. At any
rate, one day he uttered a very remarkable and unexpected sentiment:

"I wouldn't have minded bein' one of 'em