“And don’t remember the Greek Loan—eh?”
“The Greek Loan!”
“And your Excellency’s marked reception by his Majesty? By Jove though, it was the rarest piece of impudence I ever heard of; hoaxing a crowned head, quizzing one of the Lord’s anointed is un peu trop fort.”
“If you really do not wish to render me insane at once, for the love of mercy say, in plain terms, what all this means.”
“Come, come, I see you are incorrigible; but as breakfast is waiting all this time, we shall have your explanations below stairs.”
Before I had time for another question Kilkee passed his arm within mine, and led me along the corridor, pouring out, the entire time a whole rhapsody about the practical joke of my late illness, which he was pleased to say would ring from one end of Europe to the other.
Lord Callonby was alone in the breakfast-room when we entered, and the moment he perceived me called out,
“Eh, Lorrequer, you here still? Why, man, I thought you’d have been over the frontier early this morning?”
“Indeed, my lord, I am not exactly aware of any urgent reason for so rapid a flight.”
“You are not! The devil, you are not. Why, you must surely have known his majesty to be the best tempered man in his dominions then, or you would never have played off such a ruse, though I must say, there never was anything better done. Old Heldersteen, the minister for foreign affairs, is nearly deranged this morning about it—it seems that he was the first that fell into the trap; but seriously speaking, I think it would be better if you got away from this; the king, it is true, has behaved with the best possible good feeling; but—”