"Jane, you can never twit him again with not being able to keep a secret; he kept this one sacredly for three months."
"Of course he did," said Mabel: "I always knew it."
"Why, Robert, you told me—," Clarice exclaimed, and "O no, you didn't, my dear," some one else put in, while Jane looked triumphant.
"No, I didn't know this secret, of course," Mabel admitted: "I only meant that I always knew Robert could keep a secret, if it were of very extraordinary importance, and if he were certain it would ruin everything to let it out. Poor Robert, what a hard time you have had!"
"But how did he come to overhear your conversation?" said Jane. "What business had he there?"
"It was all through his pipe. Mabel, you must never object to his pipe again."
"There now, Mabel," remarked another of the company, "you wouldn't believe that the pipe was good for my health, and now you see it has preserved the whole family."
"I don't see that," said the troublesome Jane: "what was the use of your being there intermeddling?"
"Jane," said one severely, "if you will be still, you will probably learn. How can you expect to hear anything when you keep on interrupting Clarice like this?"
"I am coming to that now, Jane. What he thus saw and heard he most patiently, and heroically, and from the noblest motives—"