This was very true, but I thought that if James instead of Tom had been allowed the privilege of decorating her hair, he might have looked on it with different eyes. James, I saw, cared too little about her to be very jealous, and so I saw that there was no fear of any coolness between him and Troubridge, which was a thing to be rejoiced at, as it would have been a terrible blow on our little society, and which I feared at one time that evening would have been the case.
"Jim," said I, "I have got something to tell you. Do you know, I believe there is some mystery about Doctor Mulhaus."
"He is a walking mystery," said Jim; "but he is a noble good fellow, though unhappily a frog-eater."
"Ah! but I believe Miss Thornton knows it."
"Very like," said Jim, yawning.
"I told him all the conversation I overheard that evening."
"Are you sure she said 'the king'?" he asked.
"Quite sure," I said; "now, what do you make of it?"
"I make this of it," he said: "that it is no earthly business of ours, or we should have been informed of it; and if I were you, I wouldn't breathe a word of it to any mortal soul, or let the Doctor suspect that you overheard anything. Secrets where kings are concerned are precious sacred things, old Jeff. Good night!"