face, and a very tender, innocent look in her large brown eyes,--the
sorrowful look that had never quite left her face since her husband had
died. Cedric was used to seeing it there; the only times he had ever
seen it fade out had been when he was playing with her or talking to
her, and had said some old-fashioned thing, or used some long word he
had picked up out of the newspapers or in his conversations with Mr.
Hobbs. He was fond of using long words, and he was always pleased
when they made her laugh, though he could not understand why they
were laughable; they were quite serious matters with him. The lawyer's
experience taught him to read people's characters very shrewdly, and
as soon as he saw Cedric's mother he knew that the old Earl had made a
great mistake in thinking her a vulgar, mercenary woman. Mr. Havisham
had never been married, he had never even been in love, but he divined
that this pretty young creature with the sweet voice and sad eyes
had married Captain Errol only because she loved him with all her
affectionate heart, and that she had never once thought it an advantage
that he was an earl's son. And he saw he should have no trouble with
her, and he began to feel that perhaps little Lord Fauntleroy might not
be such a trial to his noble family, after all. The Captain had been a
handsome fellow, and the young mother was very pretty, and perhaps the
boy might be well enough to look at.

When he first told Mrs. Errol what he had come for, she turned very
pale.

"Oh!" she said; "will he have to be taken away from me? We love each
other so much! He is such a happiness to me! He is all I have. I have
tried to be a good mother to him." And her sweet young voice trembled,
and the tears rushed into her eyes. "You do not know what he has been to
me!" she said.