Маленький Лорд Фаунтлерой. Уровень 1 / Little Lord Fauntleroy - стр. 5
But Cedric relieved him by suddenly beginning the conversation himself.
“Do you know,” he said, “I don’t know what an earl is?”
“Don’t you?” said Mr. Havisham.
“No,” replied Ceddie. “And I think when a boy is going to be one, he need to know it. Don’t you?”
“Well-yes,” answered Mr. Havisham.
“Would you mind,” said Ceddie respectfully-“would you mind explaining it to me? What made him an earl?”
“A king or queen, in the first place,” said Mr. Havisham. “Generally, he is made an earl because he has done some service to his sovereign[32], or some great deed[33].”
“Oh!” said Cedric; “that’s like the President.”
“Is it?” said Mr. Havisham. “Is that why your presidents are elected?”
“Yes,” answered Ceddie cheerfully. “When a man is very good and knows a great deal, he is elected president. They have torch-light processions and bands, and everybody makes speeches. I used to think I might perhaps be a president, but I never thought of being an earl. I didn’t know about earls,”
“It is rather different from being a president,” said Mr. Havisham.
“Is it?” asked Cedric. “How? Are there no torch-light processions?”
Mr. Havisham crossed his own legs and put the tips of his fingers carefully together. He thought perhaps the time had come to explain matters rather more clearly.
“An earl is-is a very important person,” he began.
“So is a president!” put in Ceddie. “The torch-light processions are five miles long, and they shoot up rockets, and the band plays! Mr. Hobbs took me to see them.”
“An earl,” Mr. Havisham went on, feeling rather uncertain, “is often of very ancient lineage[34]-”
“What’s that?” asked Ceddie.
“Of very old family-extremely old.”
“Ah!” said Cedric, thrusting his hands deeper into his pockets. “I suppose that is the way with the apple-woman near the park. I dare say she is of ancient lin-lineage. She’s a hundred, I should think, and yet she is out there when it rains, even. I’m sorry for her. Billy Williams once had nearly a dollar, and I asked him to buy five cents’ worth of apples from her every day until he had spent it all. That made twenty days, and he grew tired of apples after a week; but then-it was quite fortunate-a gentleman gave me fifty cents and I bought apples from her instead. You feel sorry for anyone that’s so poor and has such ancient lin-lineage.”
Mr. Havisham felt rather at a loss as he looked at his companion’s innocent, serious little face.
“I am afraid you did not quite understand me,” he explained. “When I said ‘ancient lineage’ I did not mean old age; I meant that the name of such a family has been known in the world for a long time; perhaps for hundreds of years persons bearing that name have been known and spoken of in the history of their country.”
“Like George Washington,” said Ceddie. “I’ve heard of him ever since I was born, and he was known about, long before that. Mr. Hobbs says he will never be forgotten. That’s because of the Declaration of Independence, you know, and the Fourth of July. You see, he was a very brave man.”
“The first Earl of Dorincourt,” said Mr. Havisham solemnly, “was created an earl four hundred years ago.”