all cry
as some one faltered in his lines and had his fingers rapped. Somewhere
else there were boyish voices running scales, now up, now down, without
a stop, and other voices singing harmonies, two parts and three
together, here and there a little flat from weariness.

The stairs were very dark, Nick thought, as they went up to another
floor; but the long hall they came into there was quite bright with
the sun.

At one end was a little stage, like the one at the Rose play-house, with
a small gallery for musicians above it; but everything here was painted
white and gold, and was most scrupulously clean. The rush-strewn floor
was filled with oaken benches, and there were paintings hanging upon the
wall, portraits of old head-masters and precentors. Some of them were so
dark with time that Nick wondered if they had been blackamoors.

Master Gyles closed the great door and pulled a cord that hung by the
stage. A bell jangled faintly somewhere in the wall. Nick heard the
muffled voices hush, and then a shuffling tramp of slippered feet came
up the outer stair.

"Pouf!" said the precentor, crustily. "_Tempus fugit_--that is to say,
we have no time to waste. So, marry, boy, _venite, exultemus_--in other
words, if thou canst sing, be up and at it. Come, _cantate_--sing, I bid
thee, and that instanter--if thou canst sing at all."

The under-masters and monitors were pushing the boys into their seats.
Carew pointed to the stage. "Thou'lt do thy level best!" he said in a
low, hard tone, and something clashed beneath his cloak like steel
on steel.

Nick went up the steps behind the screen. It seemed cold in the room; he
had not noticed it before. Yet there were sweat-drops upon his forehead.
He felt as if he were a jackanapes he had seen once at the Stratford
fair, which wore a crimson jerkin and a cap. The man who had the
jackanapes played upon a pipe and a tabor; and when he said, "Dance!"
the jackanapes danced, for it was sorely afraid of the man. Yet when
Nick looked around and did not see the master-player anywhere in the
hall, he felt exceedingly lonely all at once without him, though he both
feared and hated him.

There still was a shuffling of feet and a low talking; but soon it
became very quiet, and they all seemed to be waiting for him to begin.
He did not care, but supposed he might as well: what else could he do?

There was a clock somewhere ticking quickly with its sharp, metallic
ring. As he listened, lon