He hesitated, a little confused, then
turned timidly toward the King, saying, “I may go now?”

“Go?  Surely, if thou desirest.  But why not tarry yet a little? Whither
would’st go?”

Tom dropped his eyes, and answered humbly--

“Peradventure I mistook; but I did think me free, and so was I moved
to seek again the kennel where I was born and bred to misery, yet which
harboureth my mother and my sisters, and so is home to me; whereas these
pomps and splendours whereunto I am not used--oh, please you, sir, to
let me go!”

The King was silent and thoughtful a while, and his face betrayed a
growing distress and uneasiness.