CHAPTER XXV
THE WANING OF THE YEAR

September the Lord Admiral’s company made a tour
i the Midlands during the great English fairing-time ;
but Carew did not go with them. For, though still by
name master-player with Henslowe and Alleyn, his busi-
ness with them had come to be but little more than pocket-
ing his share of the profits; and for the rest, nothing but
to take Nick daily to and from St. Paul’s, and to draw his
wages week by week.

Of those wages Nick saw never a penny: Carew took
good care of that. Yet he gave him everything that any
boy could need, and bought him whatever he fancied the
instant he so much as expressed a wish for it: which, in
truth, was not much; for Nick had lived in only a country
town, and knew not many things to want.

But with money a-plenty thus coming so easily into his
hands,—money for dicing, for luxuries, for all his wild
sports, money for Cicely, money for keeps, money to play
chuckie-stones with if he chose,—there was no bridle to

Gaston Carew’s wild career. His boon companions were
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