CHAPTER XXIIT
A NEW LIFE

ND now a strange, new life began for Nicholas Att-
A wood, in some things so grand and kind that he
almost hated to dislike it.

It was different in every way from the simple, pinching
round in Stratford, and full of all the comforts of richness
and plenty that make life happy—excepting home and
mother.

Master Gaston Carew would have nothing but the best,
and what he wanted, whether he needed it or not; so with
him money came like a summer rain, and went like water
out of a sieve: for he was a wild blade.

They ate their breakfast when they pleased; dined at
eleven, like the nobility ; supped at five, as was the fashion
of the court. They had wheat-bread the whole week
round, as only rich folk could afford, with fruit and berries
in their season, and honey from the Surrey bee-farms that
made one’s mouth water with the sight of it dripping
from the flaky comb; and on Fridays spitchcocked eels,
pickled herrings, and plums, with simnel-cakes, poached

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