(1) "Gentlemen," says the young man, very solemn, "I will reveal it to you, for I feel I may have confidence in you. By rights I am a duke! "

    (2) Jim's eyes bugged out when he heard that; and I reckon mine did, too. Then the baldhead says: "No! you can't mean it?"

    (3) "Yes. My great-grandfather, eldest son of the Duke of Bridgewater, fled to this country about the end of the last century, to breathe the pure air of freedom; married here, and died, leaving a son, his own father dying about the same time. The second son of the late duke seized the titles and estates—the infant real duke was ignored. I am the lineal descendant of that infant—I am the rightful Duke of Bridgewater; and here am I, forlorn, torn from my high estate, hunted of men, despised by the cold world, ragged, worn, heart-broken, and degraded to the companionship of criminals on a raft! "

    (4) Jim pitied him ever so much, and so did I. We tried to comfort him, but he said it wasn't much use, he couldn't be much comforted; said if we was a mind to acknowledge him, that would do him more good than most anything else; so we said we would, if he would tell us how. He said we ought to bow, when we spoke to him, and say "Your Grace," or "My Lord," or "Your Lordship"—and he wouldn't mind it if we called him plain "Bridgewater," which, he said, was a title anyway, and not a name; and one of us ought to wait on him at dinner, and do any little thing for him he wanted done.

    (5) Well, that was all easy, so we done it. All through dinner Jim stood around and waited on him, and says, "Will yo' Grace have some o' dis or some o' dat?" and so on, and a body could see it was mighty pleasing to him.

    (6) But the old man got pretty silent by and by—didn't have much to say, and didn't look pretty comfortable over all that petting that was going on around that duke. He seemed to have something on his mind. So, along in the afternoon, he says:

    (7) "Looky here, Bilgewater," he says, "I'm nation sorry for you, but you ain't the only person that's had troubles like that."

    (8) "No?"

    (9) "No, you ain't. You ain't the only person that's been snaked down wrongfully out'n a high place."

    (10) "Alas! "

    (11) "No, you ain't the only person that's had a secret of his birth." And he begins to cry.

    (12) "Hold! What do you mean?"

    (13) "Bilgewater, kin I trust you?" says the old man, still sort of sobbing.

    (14) "To the bitter death! " He took the old man by the hand and squeezed it, and says, "That secret of your being: speak!

    (15) "Bilgewater, I am the late Dauphin! "

    (16) You bet you, Jim and me stared this time. Then the duke says:

    (17) "You are what?"

    (18) "Yes, my friend, it is too true—your eyes is lookin' at this very moment on the pore disappeared Dauphin, Looy the Seventeen, son of Looy the Sixteen and Marry Antonette."

    (19) "You! At your age! No! You mean you're the late Charlemagne; you must be six or seven hundred years old, at the very least."

    (20) "Trouble has done it, Bilgewater, trouble has done it; trouble has brung these gray hairs and this premature balditude. Yes, gentlemen, you see before you, in blue jeans and misery, the wanderin', exiled, trampled-on, and sufferin' rightful King of France."

    (21) Well, he cried and took on so that me and Jim didn't know what to do, we was so sorry—and so glad and proud we'd got him with us, too. So we set in, like we done before with the duke, and tried to comfort him. But he said it wasn't use, nothing but to be dead and done with it all could do him any good; though he said it often made him feel easier and better for a while if people treated him according to his rights, and got down on one knee to speak to him, and always called him "Your Majesty," and waited on him first at meals, and didn't set down in his presence till he asked them. So Jim and me set to majestying him, and doing this and that for him, and standing up till he told us we might set down. This done him heaps of good, and so he got cheerful and comfortable. But the duke kind of soured on him, and didn't look a bit satisfied with the way things was going; still, the king acted real friendly towards him, and said the duke's great-grandfather and all the other Dukes of Bilgewater was a good deal thought of by his father, and was allowed to come to the palace considerable; but the duke stayed huffy a good while…

    (22) It didn't take me long to make up my mind that these liars weren't kings nor dukes at all, but just low-down humbugs and frauds. But I never said anything, never let on; kept it to myself; it's the best way; then you don't have quarrels, and don't get into trouble. If they wanted us to call them kings and dukes, I had no objections, as long as it would keep peace in the family; and it was no use to tell Jim, so I didn't tell him. If I never learnt nothing else out of pap, I learnt that the best way to get along with this kind of people is to let them have their own way.  

Jim and "I" felt________when the young man told them that he was a rightful duke.

According to "the rightful Duke of Bridgewater", he was reduced to the companionship of criminals because________.

According to the passage, the following descriptions EXCEPT________are true about the old man.

It can be learned from the passage that________.