eagerness.
"Dearest says so. Let us--let us go and have them pulled down to-morrow.
The people will be so glad when they see you! They'll know you have come
to help them!" And his eyes shone like stars in his glowing face.

The Earl rose from his chair and put his hand on the child's shoulder.
"Let us go out and take our walk on the terrace," he said, with a short
laugh; "and we can talk it over."

And though he laughed two or three times again, as they walked to and
fro on the broad stone terrace, where they walked together almost
every fine evening, he seemed to be thinking of something which did
not displease him, and still he kept his hand on his small companion's
shoulder.

X

The truth was that Mrs. Errol had found a great many sad things in the
course of her work among the poor of the little village that appeared so
picturesque when it was seen from the moor-sides. Everything was not as
picturesque, when seen near by, as it looked from a distance. She had
found idleness and poverty and ignorance where there should have been
comfort and industry. And she had discovered, after a while, that
Erleboro was considered to be the worst village in that part of the
country. Mr. Mordaunt had told her a great many of his difficulties
and discouragements, and she had found out a great deal by herself. The
agents who had managed the property had always been chosen to please the
Earl, and had cared nothing for the degradation and wretchedness of the
poor tenants. Many things, therefore, had been neglected which should
have been attended to, and matters had gone from bad to worse.

As to Earl's Court, it was a disgrace, with its dilapidated houses and
miserable, careless, sickly people. When first Mrs. Errol went to the
place, it made her shudder. Such ugliness and slovenliness and want
seemed worse in a country place than in a city. It seemed as if there it
might be helped. And as she looked at the squalid, uncared-for children
growing up in the midst of vice and brutal indifference, she thought
of her own little boy spending his days in the great, splendid castle,
guarded and served like a young prince, having no wish ungratified, and
knowing nothing but luxury and ease and beauty. And a bold thought came
in her wise little mother-heart. Gradually she had begun to see, as had
others, that it had been her boy's good fortune to please the Earl very
much, and that he would scarcely be likely to be denied anything for