was coming, and it will appear to the world, as though he
were giving it you now instead of leaving you anything."

"But it is ever so much too much!"

"It is not half enough. You and the Mayor must settle all that between
you. He and our father talked it all over, and this was what they
settled."

"And our father planned all this, without saying a word to me about it
while we were on our way up here?"

"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.

"The King, too, behaved with truly royal politeness; he was on the point
of asking why I had not taken our father to the Blue Pool at once, and
flung him into it on the Sunday afternoon, when something seemed to
strike him: he gave me a searching look, on which he said in an
undertone, 'Oh yes,' and did not go on with his question. He never
blamed me for anything, and when I begged him to accept my resignation of
the Rangership, he said--

"'No. Stay where you are till I lose confidence in you, which wil