"For me? And how do you know this isn't going to be worse? For both of
us. It's generally better to be straight, and face facts, however
disagreeable. Especially when everybody knows that you've got a skeleton
in your cupboard."

"Anne didn't, and she was so afraid of skeletons."

"All the more reason why you should have hauled the horrid thing out and
let her have a good look at it. She mightn't have been afraid of it then.
Now she's convinced it's a fifty times worse skeleton than it is."

"She wouldn't have lived with it in the house, dear. She said so."

"But I thought you never told her?"

"She was talking about somebody else's skeleton, dear."

"Oh, somebody else's, that's a very different thing."

"She meant--if she'd been the woman. I was testing her, to see how she'd
take it. Do you think I was very wrong?"

"Well, frankly, dear, I cannot say you were very wise."

"I wonder----"

She lay back wondering. Doubt of her wisdom shook her through all her
tender being. She had been so sure.

"How would you have liked it," said she, "if Anne had given you up and