“The birth and the christening and all,” said Lottie. “Oh, Fanny, I had no idea that it would be in the papers—I forgot that it would be advertised; and when mamma read this out I thought I should sink through the floor. So did you, I know.”
“I only wish that it had been possible,” said Fanny. “I could feel myself getting hot all over my body. And then you gave me that look, Lottie!”
“Could I help it?” asked Lottie. “You cannot blame me. I really thought that it was you who gave me a look, as much as to say: 'If you let the cat out of the bag I will never forgive you—no, never! '”
“Never mind! Among us we managed to get out of the difficulty very well, I think. Were we not clever, guiding the conversation away from Mr. Lowndes's shop on to the high road to Streatham?” cried Susy.
“'Twas the hash that saved us,” said Lottie. “Have you not heard dear Jim applying the sailors' expression, to make a hash of something? But we didn't make a hash of our matter, did we, Fanny?” said Susan.
“We have become adroit dissemblers, and I am growing more ashamed of it every day,” cried Fanny. “I have reached the condition of a man of whom I read in a volume of history: he had committed a crime, and the effort that it cost him to keep it hidden so preyed upon his mind that he could stand the strain no longer, so he confessed it and was relieved.”
“But he could not have been really happy until they hanged him,” said Susy. “And do you intend to confess and be hanged, Fanny? Please do not. I think it is the most exciting thing in the world to share a secret like this. I would not have missed the enjoyment for anything. Think, Fan, if you were to confess, you would draw us into it too—you would make us out to be as guilty as yourself.”
“I will not confess,” said Fanny. “No; it would not be honourable of me. But I do feel that the secret is having a bad effect upon us all. It has made us all such—such—dissemblers.”
“Psha!” said Lottie with a sniff. “That's only another way of saying that we are ladies of quality at an early age.”
Fanny shook her head. She thought that if any proof were needed of the ill effects of their treasuring their secret from their parents, this cynical pertness of Lottie supplied it. She shook her head.