“Yes. There might have been some hitch in the gold’s coming. Besides the Mayor told him not to tell you.”
“And he never said anything about the other money he left for me—which enabled me to marry at once? Why was this?”
“Your mother said he was not to do so.”
“Bless my heart, how they have duped me all round. But why would not my mother let your father tell me? Oh yes—she was afraid I should tell the King about it, as I certainly should, when I told him all the rest.”
“Tell the King?” said I, “what have you been telling the King?”
“Everything; except about the nuggets and the sovereigns, of which I knew nothing; and I have felt myself a blackguard ever since for not telling him about these when he came up here last autumn—but I let the Mayor and my mother talk me over, as I am afraid they will do again.”
“When did you tell the King?”
Then followed all the details that I have told in the latter part of Chapter XXI. When I asked how the King took the confession, George said—
“He was so much flattered at being treated like a reasonable being, and Dr. Downie, who was chief spokesman, played his part so discreetly, without attempting to obscure even the most compromising issues, that though his Majesty made some show of displeasure at first, it was plain that he was heartily enjoying the whole story.
“Dr. Downie shewed very well. He took on himself the onus of having advised our action, and he gave me all the credit of having proposed that we should make a clean breast of everything.