As to _why_ our subjects felt better after trying a new dentifrice, they couldn’t say because they didn’t know. It was merely that their outlook on life seemed to have become sunnier, and their personal relations more agreeable--apart from a few unfortunate domestic upsets, about which, however, the victims themselves seemed remarkably cheerful. I thought I knew why. My pet theory was working out. Though I was no psychologist, I’d always been sure that a lot of people’s mental difficulties and prevailing unhappiness was due solely to their inveterate habit of deceiving themselves. But these people who’d tried Grandma’s lie soap couldn’t even lie to themselves any more. This outcome made our brave new world look braver in prospect--as well as likelier. A couple of days later the company’s directors made the decision to go into production; and it was rumored that another of the biggest firms was already dickering for a look at the formula. We had no trouble with the Bureau of Standards. After all, we only had to satisfy them that the stuff was harmless. Presumably they tried it on mice.... To celebrate the directors’ decision, I invited Alice and her new fiancé to dinner. I was rather vague about what we were celebrating, so that they left no wiser than when they came. But they were much more candid, since I had a supply of the little white tablets on hand. I gave the leaven most of the evening to work, and at eleven o’clock called Alice’s apartment. I’d timed it correctly. She was in. In tears, too--judging by her voice. “You and he must have said some pretty nasty things to each other,” I remarked sympathetically. “Too bad about the engagement.” “Oh, it was awful! He said--he _admitted_ that if it weren’t for my b-bosom--And I told him--oh, how could I say _that_? But Oliver, how did you know?” “I saw it coming. And now you’re home all alone, and sort of wishing I was there to console you ... aren’t you?” There was one of those pauses I’d learned to recognize. Then she said strangledly, “Y-yes. I was. I am. But _Oliver_--people don’t-” “Sometimes they do,” I said. “Hold on. I’ll be right up.” When a woman has once told the truth to a man, either everything is over between them, or everything has just begun. From then on the story is mostly history. Gorley and Gorley’s new improved toothpaste with Verolin began outselling all other brands. Other companies saw that the new ingredient--for reasons nobody quite understood--was becoming more indispensable than chlorophyll had been somewhat earlier, and paid through the nose for the right to use it. G and G added a Verolin mouthwash to their line, and it was also a snowballing success. All the time, of course, Verolin was really Grandma’s lie soaр.