“Did you get here, Mary?” he said. “Here’s Mary, Dearest.”
“I am glad you are here, Mary,” Mrs. Errol said to her in a low voice. “It is such a comfort to me to see you. It takes the strangeness away.” And she held out her little hand, which Mary squeezed encouragingly.
The English servants looked with curiosity at both the boy and his mother. They had heard all sorts of rumours about them both; they knew why Mrs. Errol was to live at the lodge and her little boy at the Castle; but they did not know what sort of a little lord had come among them; they did not quite understand the character of the next Earl of Dorincourt.
He pulled off his overcoat quite as if he were used to doing things for himself, and began to look about him. He looked about the broad hall, at the pictures and [stags’ antlers] and curious things that ornamented it. They seemed curious to him because he had never seen such things before in a private house.
“Dearest,” he said, “this is a very pretty house, isn’t it? I am glad you are going to live here. It’s quite a large house.”
It was quite a large house compared to the one in the [shabby] New York street, and it was very pretty and cheerful.
Mary led them into a big bright room; its ceiling was low, and the furniture was heavy and beautifully carved. There was a great tiger-skin before the fire, and an arm-chair on each side of it. A stately white cat had responded to Lord Fauntleroy’s stroking and followed him down stairs, and when he threw himself down upon the rug, she curled herself up grandly beside him as if she intended to make friends. Cedric was so pleased that he put his head down by hers, and lay stroking her, not noticing what his mother and Mr. Havisham were saying.
They were, indeed, speaking in a rather low tone. Mrs. Errol looked a little pale and agitated.
“He need not go to-night?” she said. “He will stay with me to-night?”
“Yes,” answered Mr. Havisham in the same low tone; “it will not be necessary for him to go to-night. I myself will go to the Castle as soon as we have dined, and inform the Earl of our arrival.”