Page 177 [177]
LLIIILE LORD FAUNTLEROY. | 157
visitor at Dorincourt Castle. He was so late that the guests were
on the point of rising to go in to dinner when he arrived. When
he approached his host, the Earl regarded him with amazement.
He looked as if he had been hurried or agitated; his dry, keen old
face was actually pale.
‘tL was detamed, he said, in a low voice to the Earl, “by —an
extraordinary event.”
It was as unlike the methodic old lawyer to be agitated by any¬
thing as it was to be late, but it was evident that he had been dis¬
turbed. At dinner he ate scarcely anything, and two or three times,
when he was spoken to, he started as if his thoughts were far away.
At dessert, when Fauntleroy came in, he looked at him more than
once, nervously and uneasily. Fauntleroy noted the look and won¬
dered at it. He and Mr. Havisham were on friendly terms, and
they usually exchanged smiles. The lawyer seemed to have for¬
gotten to smile that evening.
The fact was, he forgot everything but the strange and painful
news he knew he must tell the Earl before the night was over—the
strange news which he knew would be so terrible a shock, and which
would change the face of everything. As he looked about at the
splendid rooms and the brilliant company,—at the people gath-.
ered together, he knew, more that they might see the bright-haired
little fellow near the Earl’s chair than for any other reason,—as he
looked at the proud old man and at little Lord Fauntleroy smiling at —
his side, he really felt quite shaken, notwithstanding that he was a —
hardened old lawyer. What a blow it was that he must deal them!
He did not exactly know how the long, superb dinner ended.
He sat through it as if he were in a dream, and several times he
saw the Earl glance at him in surprise.
But it was over at last, and the gentlemen joined the ladies in
the drawing-room. They found Fauntleroy sitting on the sofa with