A SUDDEN RESOLVE 263

across his face. “Everything doth happen so all-at-once
—and I am na big enough, Cicely. Oh, Cicely, I would I
were a mighty king—I ’d make it all up different some-
how!”

“Perhaps thou wilt be some day, Nick,” she answered
quietly. “Thou ’ldst make a very lovely king. I could
be queen; and daddy should be Lord Admiral, and own
the finest play-house in the town.”

But Nick was staring at the tap-room door. A voice
somewhere had startled him. The guests were gone, and
none was left but the tapster’s knave leaning against the
inner wall.

“Thy mother should come to live with us, and thy
father, and all thy kin,” said Cicely, dreamily smiling ; “and
the people would love us, there would be no more war, and
we should be happy forevermore.”

But Nick was listening,—not to her,—and his face was
a little pale. He felt a strange, uneasy sense of some one
staring at his back. He whirled about—looked in at the
tap-room window. For an instant a peering face was
there; then it was gone—there was only the Dutchman’s
frowzy wig and striped woolen cap. But the voice he had
heard and the face he had seen were the voice and the
face of Gregory Goole.

“T should love to see thy mother, Nick,” said Cicely.

He got up steadily, though his heart was jolting his
very ribs. “Thou shalt right speedily!” said he.

The carts were standing in a line. The carrier came
down the steps with his stirrup-cup in hand. Nick’s heart