“You see, Higgins,” broke in the Earl with a fine grim smile, “you people have been mistaken in me.  Lord Fauntleroy understands me.  When you want reliable information on the subject of my character, apply to him.  Get into the carriage, Fauntleroy.”

And Fauntleroy jumped in, and the carriage rolled away down the green lane, and even when it turned the corner into the high road, the Earl was still grimly smiling.

VIII

Lord Dorincourt had occasion to wear his grim smile many a time as the days passed by.  Indeed, as his acquaintance with his grandson progressed, he wore the smile so often that there were moments when it almost lost its grimness.  There is no denying that before Lord Fauntleroy had appeared on the scene, the old man had been growing very tired of his loneliness and his gout and his seventy years.  After so long a life of excitement and amusement, it was not agreeable to sit alone even in the most splendid room, with one foot on a gout-stool, and with no other diversion than flying into a rage, and shouting at a frightened footman who hated the sight of him.  The old Earl was too clever a man not to know perfectly well that his servants detested him, and that even if he had visitors, they did not come for love of him—­though some found a sort of amusement in his sharp, sarcastic talk, which spared no one.  So long as he had been strong and well, he had gone from one place to another, pretending to amuse himself, though he had not really enjoyed it; and when his health began to fail, he felt tired of everything and shut himself up at Dorincourt, with his gout and his newspapers and his books.  But he could not read all the time, and he became more and more “bored,” as he called it.  He hated the long nights and days, and he grew more and more savage and irritable.  And then Fauntleroy came; and when the Earl saw him, fortunately for the little fellow, the secret pride of the grandfather was gratified at the outset.  If Cedric had been a less handsome little fellow, the old man might have taken so strong a dislike to him that he would not have given himself the chance to see his grandson’s finer qualities.  But he chose to think that Cedric’s beauty and fearless spirit were the results of the Dorincourt blood and a credit to the Dorincourt rank.  And then when he heard the lad talk, and saw what a well-bred little fellow he was, notwithstanding his boyish ignorance of all that his new position meant, the old Earl liked his grandson more, and actually began to find himself rather entertained.  It had amused him to give into those childish hands the power to bestow a benefit on poor Higgins.  My lord cared nothing for poor Higgins, but it pleased him a little to think that his grandson would be talked about by the country people and would begin to be popular with the tenantry, even in his childhood.  Then it had gratified him to drive to church with Cedric and to see the excitement