n pages ran through the press and came behind the
curtain where Nick and Colley stood together, still trembling with the
music not yet gone out of them, and brought them through the hall to
where the Queen sat, every one whispering, "Look!" as they passed.

On the dais they knelt together, bowing, side by side. Elizabeth, with a
kindly smile, leaning a little forward, raised them with her slender
hand. "Stand, dear lads," said she, heartily. "Be lifted up by thine own
singing, as our hearts have been uplifted by thy song. And name me the
price of that same song--'twas sweeter than the sweetest song we ever
heard before."

"Or ever shall hear again," said the Venetian ambassador, under his
breath, rubbing his forehead as if just wakening out of a dream.

"Come," said Elizabeth, tapping Colley's cheek with her fan, "what wilt
thou have of me, fair maid?"

Colley turned red, then very pale. "That I may stay in the palace
forever and sing for your Majesty," said he. His fingers shivered
in Nick's.

"Now that is right prettily asked," she cried, and was well pleased.
"Thou shalt indeed stay for a singing page in our household--a voice and
a face like thine are merry things upon a rainy Monday. And thou, Master
Lark," said she, fanning the hair back from Nick's forehead with her
perfumed fan--"thou that comest up out of the field with a song like the
angels sing--what wilt thou have: that thou mayst sing in our choir and
play on the lute for us?"

Nick looked up at the torches on the wall, drawing a deep, long breath.
When he looked down again his eyes were dazzled and he could not see
the Queen.

"What wilt thou have?" he heard her ask.

"Let me go home," said he.

There were red and green spots in the air. He tried to count them, since
he could see nothing else, and everything was very still; but they all
ran into one purple spot which came and went like a firefly's glow, and
in the middle of the purple spot he saw the Queen's face coming
and going.

"Surely, boy, that is an ill-considered speech," said she, "or thou dost
deem us very poor, or most exceeding stingy!" Nick hung his head, for
the walls seemed tapestried with staring eyes. "Or else this home of
thine must be a very famous place."

The maids of honour tittered. Further off somebody laughed. Nick looked
up, and squared his shoulders.

They had rubbed the cat the wrong way.

It is hard to be a stranger in a palace, young, country-bred, and
laugh