244 MASTER SKYLARK

sun, laughing sortly, and said, “It is the sweetest music in
the world—morning, spring, and God’s dear sunshine; it
starteth kindness brewing in the heart, like sap in a
withered bud. What sayest, lad? Well fetch the little
maid to-day ; and then—away for Stratford town!”

But when Master Shakspere and Nicholas Attwood
came to Gaston Carew’s house, the constables had taken
charge, the servants were scattering hither and thither,
and Cicely Carew was gone.

The bandy-legged man, the butler said, had come on
Sunday in great haste, and packing up his goods, without
a word of what had befallen his master, had gone away,
no one knew whither, and had taken Cicely with him. Nor
had they questioned what he did, for they all feared the
rogue, and judged him to have authority.

Nick caught a moment at the lintel of the door. The
house was full of voices, and the sound of trampling feet
went up and down from room to room; but all he heard
was Gaston Carew’s worn voice saying, “Thou lt keep my
Cicely from harm?”