The Earl looked at it, and [the corners of his mouth twitched a little.]
“Yes,” he answered; “Higgins will find it entirely satisfactory.” And he handed it to Mr. Mordaunt.
What Mr. Mordaunt found written was this:—
“Dear mr. Newik if you pleas mr. higins is not to be inturfeared with for the present and oblige
“Yours [rispecferly]
“Fauntleroy.”
“Mr. Hobbs always signed his letters that way,” said Fauntleroy; “and I thought I’d better say ’please.’ Is that exactly the right way to spell ’interfered’?”
“It’s not exactly the way it is spelled in the dictionary,” answered the Earl.
“I was afraid of that,” said Fauntleroy. “I ought to have asked. You see, [that’s the way with] words of more than one syllable; you have to look in the dictionary. It’s always safest. I’ll write it over again.”
And write it over again he did, making quite an imposing copy, and taking precautions in the matter of spelling by consulting the Earl himself.
“Spelling is a curious thing,” he said. “It’s so often different from what you expect it to be. I used to think ’please’ was spelled p-l-e-e-s, but it isn’t, you know; and you’d think ’dear’ was spelled d-e-r-e, if you didn’t inquire. Sometimes it almost discourages you.”