Anybody could.

I can't talk of my botheration without betraying myself.

What good am I among you sharp fellows in England ?" Language of this kind, by virtue of its unintelligibility, set Mr.
Herbert Fellingham's acute speculations at work.

He was obliged to lean on Van Diemen's assertion, that he had not robbed and had not murdered, to be comforted by the belief that he was not once a notorious bushranger, or a defaulting manager of mines, or any other thing that is naughtily Australian and kangarooly.
He sat at the dinner-table at Elba, eating like the rest of mankind, and looking like a starved beggarman all the while.
Annette, in pity of his bewilderment, would have had her father take him into their confidence.

She suggested it covertly, and next she spoke of it to him as a prudent measure, seeing that Mr.Fellingham might find out his exact degree of liability.