"Of what letters?" repeated Anna, looking puzzled.
"He carried all the letters he ever had in a bag," said Frau von Treumann.
"In a bag?"
"In a word, dear child, he was a postman, and she has told you untruths."
There was a silence. Anna pushed at a neighbouring footstool with the toe of her shoe. "It is not pretty," she said after a while, her eyes on the footstool, "to tell untruths."
"Certainly it is not," agreed the baroness.
"Especially in this case," said Frau von Treumann.
"Yes, especially in this case," said Anna, looking up.
"We thought you could not know the truth, and felt certain you would be shocked. Now you will understand how impossible it is for ladies of family to associate with such a person, and we are sure that you will not ask us to do so, but will send her away."
"No," said Anna, in a low voice.