n the step, and the empty
passage echoed with the sound. Then the earl's man beat the door with
the pommel of his dagger-hilt, and stood with his hands upon his hips,
carelessly whistling a little tune.

Nick heard a sound of some one coming through the hall, and felt that at
last the day was done. A tired wonder wakened in his heart at how so
much had come to pass in such a little while; yet more he wondered why
it had ever come to pass at all. And what was the worth of it, anyway,
now it was over and gone?

Then the door opened, and he went in.

Master Gaston Carew himself had come to the door, walking quickly
through the hallway, with a queer, nervous twitching in his face. But
when he made out through the dusk that it was Nick, he seemed in no wise
moved, and said quite simply, as he gave the man-at-arms a penny: "Oh,
is it thou? Why, we have heard somewhat of thee; and upon my word I
thought, since thou wert grown so great, thou wouldst come home in a
coach-and-four, all blowing horns!"

Nevertheless he drew Nick quickly in, and kissed him thrice; and after
he had kissed him kept fast hold of his hand until they came together
through the hall into the great room where Cicely was sitting quite
dismally in the chimney-seat alone.

[Illustration: "SO NICK RODE HOME UPON THE BACK OF THE EARL OF ARUNDEL'S
MAN-AT-ARMS."]

"There, Nick," said he; "tell her thyself that thou hast come back. She
thought she had lost thee for good and all, and hath sung, 'Hey ho, my
heart is full of woe!' the whole twilight, and would not be comforted.
Come, Cicely, doff thy doleful willow--the proverb lies. 'Out of sight,
out of mind'--fudge! the boy's come back again! A plague take
proverbs, anyway!"

But when the children were both long since abed, and all the house was
still save for the scamper of rats in the wall, the heavy door of Nick's
room opened stealthily, with a little grating upon the uneven sill, and
Master Carew stood there, peeping in, his hand upon the bolt outside.

He held a rush-light in the other. Its glimmer fell across the bed upon
Nick's tousled hair; and when the master-player saw the boy's head upon
the pillow he started eagerly, with brightening eyes. "My soul!" he
whispered to himself, a little quaver in his tone, "I would have sworn
my own desire lied to me, and that he had not come at all! It cannot
be--yet, verily, I am not blind. _Ma foil_ it passeth understanding--a
freed skylark come back to its c