Carew played with his glass uneasily, and tapped his heel upon the floor. “And is that all thou hast to say—hast turned oyster? There’s no R in May—nobody will eat thee! Come, don’t make a mouth as though the honey of the world were all turned gall upon thy tongue. ’Tis the flood-tide of thy fortune, boy! Thou art to sing before the school to-morrow, so that Master Nathaniel Gyles may take thy range and worth. Now, truly, thou wilt do thy very best?” The bandy-legged man had brought water in a ewer, and poured some in a basin for Nick to wash his hands. There was a green ribbon in his ear, and the towel hung across his arm. Nick wiped his hands in silence. “Come,” said Master Carew, with an ugly sharpness in his voice, “thou’lt sing thy very best?” “There’s nothing else to do,” replied Nick, doggedly. CHAPTER XXII THE SKYLARK’S SONG Master Nathaniel Gyles, Precentor of St. Paul’s, had pipe-stem legs, and a face like an old parchment put in a box to keep. His sandy hair was thin and straggling, and his fine cloth hose wrinkled around his shrunken shanks; but his eye was sharp, and he wore about his neck a broad gold chain that marked him as no common man. For Master Nathaniel Gyles was head of the Cathedral schools of acting and of music, and he stood upon his dignity. “My duty is laid down,” said he, “in most specific terms, sir,—_lex cathedralis_,—that is to say, by the laws of the cathedral; and has been, sir, since the reign of Richard the Third. _Primus Magister Scholarum, Custos Morum, Quartus Custos Rotulorum_,—so the title stands, sir; and I know my place.” He pushed Nick into the anteroom, and turned to Carew with an irritated air. “I likewise know, sir, what is what. In plain words, Master Gaston Carew, ye have grossly misrepresented this boy to me, to the waste of much good time. Why, sir, he does not dance a step, and cannot act at all.” “Soft, Master Gyles—be not so fast!” said Carew, haughtily, drawing himself up, with his hand on his poniard; “dost mean to tell me that I have lied to thee? Marry, sir, thy tongue will run thee into a blind alley! I told thee that the boy could sing, but not that he could act or dance.” “Pouf, sir,—words! I know my place: one peg below the dean, sir, nothing less: ‘_Magister, et cetera’_—’tis so set down. And I tell thee, sir, he has no training, not a bit; can’t tell a pricksong from a bottle of hay; doesn’t know a canon from a crocodile, or a fugue from a hole in the ground!” “Oh, fol-de-riddle de fol-de-rol! What has that to do with it? I tell thee, sir, the boy can sing.” “And, sir, I say I know my place. Music does not grow like weeds.” “And fa-la-las don’t make a voice.” “What! How? Wilt thou teach me?” The master’s voice rose angrily. “Teach me, who learned descant and counterpoint in the Gallo-Belgic schools, sir; the best in all the world! Thou, who knowest not a staccato from a stick of liquorice!”