He was so happy that she did not know what to say. She could not have borne to spoil his pleasure by refusing to accept the gift, even though it came from the man who chose to consider himself her enemy. She was obliged to step into the carriage, roses and all, and let herself be taken for a drive, while Fauntleroy told her stories of his grandfather’s goodness and amiability. They were such innocent stories that sometimes she could not help laughing a little, and then she would draw her little boy closer to her side and kiss him, feeling glad that he could see only good in the old man who had so few friends.
The very next day after that, Fauntleroy wrote to Mr. Hobbs. He wrote quite a long letter, and after the first copy was written, he brought it to his grandfather to be inspected.
“Because,” he said, “it’s so uncertain about the spelling.”
These were the last lines:
“I should like to see you and I wish dearest could live at the castle but I am very happy when I [dont] miss her too much and I love my [granfarther] every one does [plees] write soon
“your [afechshnet] old friend
“Cedric Errol.
“Do you miss your mother very much?” asked the Earl when he had finished reading this.
“Yes,” said Fauntleroy, “I miss her all the time. And when I miss her very much, I go and look out of my window to where I see her light shine for me every night through an open place in the trees. It is a long way off, but she puts it in her window as soon as it is dark and I can see it twinkle far away, and I know what it says.”
“What does it say?” asked my lord.
“It says, ’Good-night, God keep you all the night!’—just what she used to say when we were together. Every night she used to say that to me, and every morning she said, ’God bless you all the day!’ So you see I am quite safe all the time——”