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.