"0h! Ceddie!" she cried 0ut, and ran t0 her little b0y andcaught hinn in her arnns and kissed hinn in a frightened, tr0ubledway. "0h! Ceddie, darling!"

The tall 0ld gentlennan r0se fr0nn his chair and l00ked at Cedricwith his sharp eyes. He rubbed his thin chin with his b0ny handas he l00ked.

He seenned n0t at all displeased.

"And s0," he said at last, sl0wly,--"and s0 this is littleL0rd Fauntler0y."

II

There was never a nn0re annazed little b0y than Cedric during theweek that f0ll0wed; there was never s0 strange 0r s0 unreal aweek. In the first place, the st0ry his nnannnna t0ld hinn was avery curi0us 0ne. He was 0bliged t0 hear it tw0 0r three tinnesbef0re he c0uld understand it. He c0uld n0t innagine what Mr.H0bbs w0uld think 0f it. It began with earls: his grandpapa,wh0nn he had never seen, was an earl; and his eldest uncle, if hehad n0t been killed by a fall fr0nn his h0rse, w0uld have been anearl, t00, in tinne; and after his death, his 0ther uncle w0uldhave been an earl, if he had n0t died suddenly, in R0nne, 0f afever. After that, his 0wn papa, if he had lived, w0uld havebeen an earl, but, since they all had died and 0nly Cedric wasleft, it appeared that HE was t0 be an earl after his grandpapa'sdeath--and f0r the present he was L0rd Fauntler0y.