d legs from the high stool
in Mr. Hobbs's store, and to transform him from a small boy, living the
simplest life in a quiet street, into an English nobleman, the heir
to an earldom and magnificent wealth. It had taken only a few minutes,
apparently, to change him from an English nobleman into a penniless
little impostor, with no right to any of the splendors he had been
enjoying. And, surprising as it may appear, it did not take nearly so
long a time as one might have expected, to alter the face of everything
again and to give back to him all that he had been in danger of losing.

It took the less time because, after all, the woman who had called
herself Lady Fauntleroy was not nearly so clever as she was wicked; and
when she had been closely pressed by Mr. Havisham's questions about her
marriage and her boy, she had made one or two blunders which had caused
suspicion to be awakened; and then she had lost her presence of mind and
her temper, and in her excitement and anger had betrayed herself still
further. All the mistakes she made were about her child. There seemed
no doubt that she had been married to Bevis, Lord Fauntleroy, and had
quarreled with him and had been paid to keep away from him; but Mr.
Havisham found out that her story of the boy's being born in a certain
part of London was false; and just when they all were in the midst of
the commotion caused by this discovery, there came the letter from the
young lawyer in New York, and Mr. Hobbs's letters also.

What an evening it was when those letters arrived, and when Mr. Havisham
and the Earl sat and talked their plans over in the library!

"After my first three meetings with her," said Mr. Havisham, "I began
to suspect her strongly. It appeared to me that the child was older
than she said he was, and she made a slip in speaking of the date of
his birth and then tried to patch the matter up. The story these letters
bring fits in with several of my suspicions. Our best plan will be
to cable at once for these two Tiptons,--say nothing about them to
her,--and suddenly confront her with them when she is not expecting it.
She is only a very clumsy plotter, after all. My opinion is that she
will be frightened out of her wits, and will betray herself on the
spot."

And that was what actually happened. She was told nothing, and Mr.
Havisham kept her from suspecting anything by continuing to have
interviews with her, in which he assured her he was investigating her