pleasure and never
thought about the people who lived on his lands, they might have trouble
that he could help--and there were so many people, and it would be such
a hard thing. And I was just looking at all those houses, and thinking
how I should have to find out about the people, when I was an earl. How
did you find out about them?"

As his lordship's knowledge of his tenantry consisted in finding out
which of them paid their rent promptly, and in turning out those who
did not, this was rather a hard question. "Newick finds out for me,"
he said, and he pulled his great gray mustache, and looked at his small
questioner rather uneasily. "We will go home now," he added; "and when
you are an earl, see to it that you are a better earl than I have been!"

He was very silent as they rode home. He felt it to be almost incredible
that he who had never really loved any one in his life, should find
himself growing so fond of this little fellow,--as without doubt he
was. At first he had only been pleased and proud of Cedric's beauty and
bravery, but there was something more than pride in his feeling now. He
laughed a grim, dry laugh all to himself sometimes, when he thought how
he liked to have the boy near him, how he liked to hear his voice, and
how in secret he really wished to be liked and thought well of by his
small grandson.

"I'm an old fellow in my dotage, and I have nothing else to think of,"
he would say to himself; and yet he knew it was not that altogether.
And if he had allowed himself to admit the truth, he would perhaps have
found himself obliged to own that the very things which attracted him,
in spite of himself, were the qualities he had never possessed--the
frank, true, kindly nature, the affectionate trustfulness which could
never think evil.

It was only about a week after that ride when, after a visit to his
mother, Fauntleroy came into the library with a troubled, thoughtful
face. He sat down in that high-backed chair in which he had sat on the
evening of his arrival, and for a while he looked at the embers on the
hearth. The Earl watched him in silence, wondering what was coming. It
was evident that Cedric had something on his mind. At last he looked up.
"Does Newick know all about the people?" he asked.

"It is his business to know about them," said his lordship. "Been
neglecting it--has he?"

Contradictory as it may seem, there was nothing which entertained and
edified him more than the little fe