Mrs. Errol. "It will seem
like wealth to them. I can scarcely believe that it is true."

"It is quite true," said Mr. Havisham, with his dry smile. "A great
change has taken place in your son's life, a great deal of power will
lie in his hands."

"Oh!" cried his mother. "And he is such a little boy--a very little boy.
How can I teach him to use it well? It makes me half afraid. My pretty
little Ceddie!"

The lawyer slightly cleared his throat. It touched his worldly, hard old
heart to see the tender, timid look in her brown eyes.

"I think, madam," he said, "that if I may judge from my interview with
Lord Fauntleroy this morning, the next Earl of Dorincourt will think
for others as well as for his noble self. He is only a child yet, but I
think he may be trusted."

Then his mother went for Cedric and brought him back into the parlor.
Mr. Havisham heard him talking before he entered the room.

"It's infam-natory rheumatism," he was saying, "and that's a kind of
rheumatism that's dreadful. And he thinks about the rent not being paid,
and Bridget says that makes the inf'ammation worse. And Pat could get a
place in a store if he had some clothes."

His little face looked quite anxious when he came in. He was very sorry
for Bridget.

"Dearest said you wanted me," he said to Mr. Havisham. "I've been
talking to Bridget."

Mr. Havisham looked down at him a moment. He felt a little awkward and
undecided. As Cedric's mother had said, he was a very little boy.

"The Earl of Dorincourt----" he began, and then he glanced involuntarily
at Mrs. Errol.

Little Lord Fauntleroy's mother suddenly kneeled down by him and put
both her tender arms around his childish body.

"Ceddie," she said, "the Earl is your grandpapa, your own papa's father.
He is very, very kind, and he loves you and wishes you to love him,
because the sons who were his little boys are dead. He wishes you to be
happy and to make other people happy. He is very rich, and he wishes you
to have everything you would like to have. He told Mr. Havisham so, and
gave him a great deal of money for you. You can give some to Bridget
now; enough to pay her rent and buy Michael everything. Isn't that fine,
Ceddie? Isn't he good?" And she kissed the child on his round cheek,
where the bright color suddenly flashed up in his excited amazement.

He looked from his mother to Mr. Havisham.

"Can I have it now?" he cried. "Can I give it to her this minute? She's
just goin