"Yes; they told me that."
"Would you mind giving me some idea of your experience?"
Mary hesitated. She had not prepared herself for this; she was neither forehanded nor wise in the ways of fraud.
"Perhaps," she managed to say. "You would like to see some references."
She tried to placate her conscience in that speech; it seemed a smaller lie than saying "my" references.
"If you please," and Aunt Caroline adjusted her spectacles.
The references came out of Mary's bag. As the mistress of the Marshall mansion took them Mary was thinking:
"Now I am a forger as well as a liar."
Aunt Caroline read the first slowly and aloud, and looked up to find her caller blushing.
"Oh, I am sure it must be honest praise, my dear. Do I confuse you by reading aloud?"