that time, you see, she was veracious even to months. It may
have been pleasing to the angels, but her elder sister was
not gratified. On the Woman's birthday, instead of the
opera-tickets which she had hoped for, her sister gave her a
view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is not
quite the same thing. The revenge of an elder sister may be
long in coming, but, like a South-Eastern express, it arrives
in its own good time.

The friends of the Woman tried to dissuade her from over-
indulgence in the practice, but she said she was wedded to
the truth; whereupon it was remarked that it was scarcely
logical to be so much together in public. (No really
provident woman lunches regularly with her husband if she
wishes to burst upon him as a revelation at dinner. He must
have time to forget; an afternoon is not enough.) And after
a while her friends began to thin out in patches. Her
passion for the truth was not compatible with a large
visiting-list. For instance, she told Miriam Klopstock
EXACTLY how she looked at the Ilexes' ball. Certainly Miriam
had asked for her candid opinion, but the Woman prayed in
church every Sunday for peace in our time, and it was not
consistent.

It was unfortunate, everyone agreed, that she had no family;
with a child or two in the house, there is an unconscious
check upon too free an indulgence in the truth. Children are
given us to discourage our better emotions. That is why the
stage, with all its efforts, can never be as artificial as
life; even in an Ibsen drama one must reveal to the audience