things that one would suppress before the children or
servants.

Fate may have ordained the truth-telling from the
commencement and should justly bear some of the blame; but in
having no children the Woman was guilty, at least, of
contributory negligence.

Little by little she felt she was becoming a slave to what
had once been merely an idle propensity; and one day she
knew. Every woman tells ninety per cent, of the truth to her
dressmaker; the other ten per cent, is the irreducible
minimum of deception beyond which no self-respecting client
trespasses. Madame Draga's establishment was a meeting-
ground for naked truths and overdressed fictions, and it was
here, the Woman felt, that she might make a final effort to
recall the artless mendacity of past days. Madame herself
was in an inspiring mood, with the air of a sphinx who knew
all things and preferred to forget most of them. As a War
Minister she might have been celebrated, but she was content
to be merely rich.

"If I take it in here, and--Miss Howard, one moment, if you
please--and there, and round like this--so--I really think
you will find it quite easy."

The Woman hesitated; it seemed to require such a small effort
to simply acquiesce in Madame's views. But habit had become
too strong. "I'm afraid," she faltered, "it's just the least
little bit in the world too" -