's chair, or sat on
a stool close to him, watching him and absorbing every word he uttered
with the most charmed interest. Once he stood so near the chair's arm
that his cheek touched the Earl's shoulder, and his lordship, detecting
the general smile, smiled a little himself. He knew what the lookers-on
were thinking, and he felt some secret amusement in their seeing what
good friends he was with this youngster, who might have been expected to
share the popular opinion of him.

Mr. Havisham had been expected to arrive in the afternoon, but, strange
to say, he was late. Such a thing had really never been known to happen
before during all the years in which he had been a visitor at Dorincourt
Castle. He was so late that the guests were on the point of rising to
go in to dinner when he arrived. When he approached his host, the Earl
regarded him with amazement. He looked as if he had been hurried or
agitated; his dry, keen old face was actually pale.

"I was detained," he said, in a low voice to the Earl, "by--an
extraordinary event."

It was as unlike the methodic old lawyer to be agitated by anything as
it was to be late, but it was evident that he had been disturbed. At
dinner he ate scarcely anything, and two or three times, when he was
spoken to, he started as if his thoughts were far away. At dessert,
when Fauntleroy came in, he looked at him more than once, nervously
and uneasily. Fauntleroy noted the look and wondered at it. He and Mr.
Havisham were on friendly terms, and they usually exchanged smiles. The
lawyer seemed to have forgotten to smile that evening.

The fact was, he forgot everything but the strange and painful news he
knew he must tell the Earl before the night was over--the strange news
which he knew would be so terrible a shock, and which would change the
face of everything. As he looked about at the splendid rooms and the
brilliant company,--at the people gathered together, he knew, more that
they might see the bright-haired little fellow near the Earl's chair
than for any other reason,--as he looked at the proud old man and at
little Lord Fauntleroy smiling at his side, he really felt quite shaken,
notwithstanding that he was a hardened old lawyer. What a blow it was
that he must deal them!

He did not exactly know how the long, superb dinner ended. He sat
through it as if he were in a dream, and several times he saw the Earl
glance at him in surprise.

But it was over at last, and the gentle