“Why, yes--yes, it is true; but when I thought what a stir it would make, and what a compliment it was to Hadleyburg that a stranger should trust it so--” “Oh, certainly, I know all that; but if you had only stopped to think, you would have seen that you _couldn’t_ find the right man, because he is in his grave, and hasn’t left chick nor child nor relation behind him; and as long as the money went to somebody that awfully needed it, and nobody would be hurt by it, and--and--” She broke down, crying. Her husband tried to think of some comforting thing to say, and presently came out with this: “But after all, Mary, it must be for the best--it must be; we know that. And we must remember that it was so ordered--” “Ordered! Oh, everything’s _ordered_, when a person has to find some way out when he has been stupid. Just the same, it was _ordered_ that the money should come to us in this special way, and it was you that must take it on yourself to go meddling with the designs of Providence--and who gave you the right? It was wicked, that is what it was--just blasphemous presumption, and no more becoming to a meek and humble professor of--” “But, Mary, you know how we have been trained all our lives long, like the whole village, till it is absolutely second nature to us to stop not a single moment to think when there’s an honest thing to be done--” “Oh, I know it, I know it--it’s been one everlasting training and training and training in honesty--honesty shielded, from the very cradle, against every possible temptation, and so it’s _artificial_ honesty, and weak as water when temptation comes, as we have seen this night. God knows I never had shade nor shadow of a doubt of my petrified and indestructible honesty until now--and now, under the very first big and real temptation, I--Edward, it is my belief that this town’s honesty is as rotten as mine is; as rotten as yours. It is a mean town, a hard, stingy town, and hasn’t a virtue in the world but this honesty it is so celebrated for and so conceited about; and so help me, I do believe that if ever the day comes that its honesty falls under great temptation, its grand reputation will go to ruin like a house of cards. There, now, I’ve made confession, and I feel better; I am a humbug, and I’ve been one all my life, without knowing it. Let no man call me honest again--I will not have it.” “I--Well, Mary, I feel a good deal as you do: I certainly do. It seems strange, too, so strange. I never could have believed it--never.” A long silence followed; both were sunk in thought. At last the wife looked up and said: “I know what you are thinking, Edward.” Richards had the embarrassed look of a person who is caught. “I am ashamed to confess it, Mary, but--” “It’s no matter, Edward, I was thinking the same question myself.” “I hope so. State it.” “You were thinking, if a body could only guess out _what the remark was_ that Goodson made to the stranger.”