“Never, if I can help it,” said Frank shortly; and that night in bed he lay sleepless for hours, thinking of his companion’s words, and grasping pretty clearly that King George the First had a personage in his palace who was utterly unworthy of trust.
“And it’s such a pity,” said the boy, with a sigh. “I like Andrew Forbes, though he is a bit conceited and a dandy; but it seems as if I ought to speak to somebody about what I know. My father—my mother? There is no one else I should like to trust with such a secret. But he has left it to my honour, and I feel pulled both ways. What ought I to do?”
He fell asleep at last with that question unanswered, and when he awoke the next morning the thought repeated itself with stronger force than before, “Why, he must be at heart a traitor to the King!” and once more in dire perplexity Frank Gowan asked himself that question, “What shall I do?”
Chapter Five.
The Officer of the Guards.
It would not take much guessing to arrive at the course taken by Frank Gowan. He cudgelled his brains well, being in a kind of mental balance, which one day went down in favour of making a clean breast of all he knew to his mother; the next day up went that side, for he felt quite indignant with himself.
Here, he argued, was he, Frank Gowan, freshly appointed one of the Prince’s pages, a most honourable position for a youth of his years, and with splendid prospects before him, cut off from his old school friendships, and enjoying a new one with a handsome, well-born lad, whom, in spite of many little failings at which he laughed, he thoroughly admired for his dash, courage, and knowledge of the world embraced by the court. This lad had completely taken him under his wing, made him proud by the preference he showed for his companionship, and ready to display his warm admiration for his new friend by making him the confidant of his secret desires; and what was he, the trusted friend, about to do? Play traitor, and betray his confidence. But, then, was not Andrew Forbes seeking to play traitor to the King?
“That’s only talk and vanity,” said the boy to himself. “He has done nothing traitorous; but if I go and talk to any one, I shall have done something—something cruelly treacherous, which must end in the poor fellow being sent away from the court in disgrace, perhaps to a severe punishment.”