If that dummy had never been
replaced, it was perhaps not very strange that the King could not at the
first glance tell back from front, and if he did not guess right at
first, there was little chance of his changing, for his first ideas were
apt to be his last. But he must find out more about this.
Then how about the watch? Had their views about machinery also changed?
Or was there an exception made about any machine that he had himself
carried?
Yram too. She must have been married not long after she and he had
parted. So she was now wife to the Mayor, and was evidently able to have
things pretty much her own way in Sunch'ston, as he supposed he must now
call it. Thank heaven she was prosperous! It was interesting to know
that she was at heart a sceptic, as was also her light-haired son, now
Head Ranger. And that son? Just twenty years of age! Born seven months
after marriage! Then the Mayor doubtless had light hair too; but why did
not those wretches say in which month Yram was married? If she had
married soon after he had left, this was why he had not been sent for or
written to. Pray heaven it was so. As for current gossip, people would
talk, and if the lad was well begotten, what could it matter to them
whose son he was? "But," thought my father, "I am glad I did not meet
him on my way down.
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