“For the glory of God,” Hugh repeated, gravely. “Father?”
“Ay.”
“Where wilt thou live?”
There was a silence. Then the carver turned his eyes on the boy.
“I am going on—a journey—a long journey.” Hugh shrank away a little. He began to understand and to tremble; and he dared not ask more questions. The priest came and he was sent from the room, and wandered miserably into a sort of yard with sheds at the back of the house, where the stone-cutting was going on, and journeymen and two apprentices were at work.
One of these latter—the younger—was the boy called Wat, whom Hugh had already seen. He was a large-limbed, untidy-looking, moon-faced lad, the butt of many jibes and jests from the others, careless in his work, and yet so good-natured that his master had not the heart to rate him as he deserved. The other apprentice, Roger Brewer, was sixteen, and had been for six years with Gervase, who was very proud of his talents, and foretold great things for his future. He was a grave sallow youth, noticing everything and saying little, and with a perseverance which absolutely never failed. The journeymen, of whom there were three, were stone-workers who had been Gervase’s apprentices; their seven or eight years ended, they now worked by the day, and hoped in time to become masters. They wore the dress and hood of their guild, and one, William Franklyn, had the principal direction of the apprentices. Much of the stonework of the cathedral was being executed under Gervase’s orders.
When Hugh appeared in the yard, Agrippa produced an immediate sensation, Wat and the men crowding round him, Roger alone going on with his work of carving the crockets of a delicate pinnacle. The boy’s eyes glistened as he glanced about at the fragments which were scattered here and there, while the others, on their part, were curiously examining the monkey.
“Saw you ever the like!” cried Wat, planting himself before him, all agape, with legs outspread and hands on his knees. “Why, he hath a face like a man!”
“Ay, Wat, now we know thy kin,” said one of the men, winking to the others, who answered by a loud laugh.
“Where got ye the beast?” asked William, laying his hand on Hugh’s shoulder.