"My good youth, be careful! I happen to be a native, and not altogether
used to this sort of talk. How long have you been here? Not long, I know
myself--at least, not in the Earl of Rochester's service, or I would
have seen you."
"Right! I have not been here a month; but that month has seemed longer
than a year elsewhere. Do you know, I imagine when the world was
created, this island of yours must have been made late on Saturday
night, and then merely thrown in from the refuse to fill up a dent in
the ocean."
Sir Norman paused in his walk, and contemplated the speaker a moment in
severest silence. But Master Hubert only lifted up his saucy face and
laughing black eyes, in dauntless sang froid.
"Master Hubert," began Master Hubert's companion, in his deepest and
sternest base, "I don't know your other name, and it would be of no
consequence if I did--just listen to me a moment. If you don't want to
get run through (you perceive I carry a sword), and have an untimely
end put to your career, just keep a civil tongue in your head, and don't
slander England. Now come on!"
Hubert laughed and shrugged his shoulders: "Thought is free, however, so I can have my own opinion in spite of
everything. Will you tell me, monsieur, where I can find the lady?"
"You will have it, will you?" exclaimed Sir Norman, half drawing his
sword. "Don't ask questions, but answer them. Are you French?"
"Monsieur has guessed it."
"How long have you been with your present master?"
"Monsieur, I object to that term," said Hubert, with calm dignity.
"Master is a vulgarism that I dislike; so, in alluding to his lordship,
take the trouble to say, patron."
Sir Norman laughed.
"With all my heart! How long, then, have you been with your present
patron?"
"Not quite two weeks."
"I do not like to be impertinently inquisitive in addressing so
dignified a gentleman, but perhaps you would not consider it too great a
liberty, if I inquired how you became his page?"
"Monsieur shall ask as many questions as he pleases, and it shall not be
considered the slightest liberty," said the young gentleman, politely.
"I had been roaming at large about the city and the palace of his
majesty--whom may Heaven preserve, and grant a little more wisdom!--in
search of a situation; and among that of all nobles of the court, the
Earl of Rochester's livery struck me as being the moat becoming, and so
I concluded to patronize him."
"What an honor for his lordship! Since you dislike England so much,
however, you will probably soon throw up the situation and, patronize
the first foreign ambassador--"
"Perhaps! I rather like Whitehall, however. Old Rowlie has taken rather
a fancy to me," said the boy speaking with the same easy familiarity
of his majesty as he would of a lap-dog. "And what is better, so has
Mistress Stewart--so much so, that Heaven forefend the king should
become jealous. This, however, is strictly entre nous, and not to be
spoken of on any terms."