him, too. Tom," he said to the little
fellow, "I'm your father; I've come to take you away. Where's your hat?"

The boy pointed to where it lay on a chair. It evidently rather pleased
him to hear that he was going away. He had been so accustomed to queer
experiences that it did not surprise him to be told by a stranger that
he was his father. He objected so much to the woman who had come a few
months before to the place where he had lived since his babyhood, and
who had suddenly announced that she was his mother, that he was quite
ready for a change. Ben took up the hat and marched to the door.

"If you want me again," he said to Mr. Havisham, "you know where to find
me."

He walked out of the room, holding the child's hand and not looking at
the woman once. She was fairly raving with fury, and the Earl was calmly
gazing at her through his eyeglasses, which he had quietly placed upon
his aristocratic, eagle nose.

"Come, come, my young woman," said Mr. Havisham. "This won't do at all.
If you don't want to be locked up, you really must behave yourself."

And there was something so very business-like in his tones that,
probably feeling that the safest thing she could do would be to get out
of the way, she gave him one savage look and dashed past him into the
next room and slammed the door.

"We shall have no more trouble with her," said Mr. Havisham.

And he was right; for that very night she left the Dorincourt Arms and
took the train to London, and was seen no more.

When the Earl left the room after the interview, he went at once to his
carriage.

"To Court Lodge," he said to Thomas.

"To Court Lodge," said Thomas to the coachman as he mounted the box;
"an' you may depend on it, things are taking a uniggspected turn."

When the carriage stopped at Court Lodge, Cedric was in the drawing-room
with his mother.

The Earl came in without being announced. He looked an inch or so
taller, and a great many years younger. His deep eyes flashed.

"Where," he said, "is Lord Fauntleroy?"

Mrs. Errol came forward, a flush rising to her cheek.

"Is it Lord Fauntleroy?" she asked. "Is it, indeed!"

The Earl put out his hand and grasped hers.

"Yes," he answered, "it is."

Then he put his other hand on Cedric's shoulder.

"Fauntleroy," he said in his unceremonious, authoritative way, "ask your
mother when she will come to us at the Castle."

Fauntleroy flung his arms around his mother's neck.

"To live with