"It isn't a question of what you'd rather do or not do. Now you know who they are, you cannot continue on terms of friendship with them. I don't want to force my will upon you. I only want to advise you for the best. Don't you see for yourself, without my insisting on it, that you will involve yourself in an impossible situation if you continue your friendship with them? If I were not here to point that out, surely, surely you could see it for yourself? Annette, if I were not here, if you had no one to advise you, what would you do?"
"I would tell them," said Annette. "I won't, because I've promised you not to tell anyone, but if I were——"
"Free?" suggested Mrs. Stoddart.
"Yes, if I were free, I should tell them both."
Mrs. Stoddart let her knitting fall into her lap, and stared at her companion.
"And what good, in the name of fortune, would come of that?"
"I don't know that any particular good would come of it, but I should feel happier in my mind. I never had any wish to tell the aunts. I don't know exactly why, but you don't somehow want to tell them things. But ever since I've known that Dick was Janey's brother I've wanted to tell her—her and Roger. It seems to come between me and them like a cloud. You see, they like me, and I like them. There is nothing kept back in their lives, and they think I'm the same as them. I feel as if I ought to tell them."
"But, my dear, if I know anything of people like the Manvers, especially when embedded in the country, it is that they would be terribly shocked, and the disclosure would make an estrangement at once."
"It might," Annette agreed. "I think you're right. I'm afraid it would. But I should like to tell them, all the same."