“He gave me Cuckoopint,” he said, with the tears gushing from his eyes. “The cob Cuckoopint. May he go to Faldon? But I’ll groom him myself, if you please. I want to be a man, not a fool. He told me to——”
Then Jack’s voice broke down with a great sob in his throat.
“I beg your pardon,” he said in a suffocated voice, and turned that Hurstmanceaux should not see his grief.
“I think you will be a man,” said Hurstmanceaux as he laid his hand on the child’s shoulder. “Don’t sob so. It will vex your friend—if he knows.”
“Yes; but will he know?” cried Jack wildly. “Will anyone tell him I remember? Oh, I loved him!” cried the boy with a piteous wail. “And she killed him; she killed him, I am sure!”
“Hush!” said Hurstmanceaux. “You are not old enough to judge of these things. I am very sorry for you, for you are too young to have so much pain. Look, Ossian, too, is sorry. He is coming up to you. Lie down on that bear-skin, and try to compose yourself. I will do all I can for you. You do not like me, I know, but I think you feel you can trust me.”
Jack made a sign of assent; his face was hidden in his hands.
“My poor boy, I am very, very sorry,” said Hurstmanceaux, whose own voice was unsteady. “Whatever Lord Brancepeth’s life may have been, its end was that of a hero. Think of that, dear, always. You cannot have better or truer consolation.”
Alberic Orme, whom Hurstmanceaux always consulted, approved the project, and Lord Augustus had found that the easiest way for his own convenience of discharging his duties to his wards was to say in a benign ecclesiastical manner: “My dear Hurstmanceaux, I have every confidence in your judgment. Whatever you decide I shall ratify, secure that in such acquiescence will lie my best provision for the welfare of my poor nephew’s children.”
Therefore he made but little difficulty in allowing Jack’s residence to be moved to Faldon, and a new tutor substituted for the learned gentleman who had on his part found the little duke insupportable. Cuckoopint went also to Faldon; and Jack, by his own wish, was instructed in the stable science of bedding, feeding, grooming and watering.