Bob stood it out for a long while; but human endurance has its limits, and after being worried with guesses and questions till he despaired of ever being left in quiet possession of his own secret, he began to cast about for a method of allaying the public curiosity in some measure, or at least of turning it aside from himself. An old gossip, named Goody Brown, had laid siege to him about the affair from the first moment. One afternoon she dropped in as usual, and after some preliminary tattle, recommenced the attack by inquiring, with a significant look and shake of the head, whether money was as scarce as ever with him. Bob had been for some time thinking of a trick to play the old lady, and thought this a good moment to begin his mystification: so putting on a look of great seriousness, knitting his brows, and puckering up his mouth, as if big with a mighty secret about to be communicated, he replied: “Really, Mrs. Brown—I have been thinking, whether—now you are a prudent woman, I am certain.” “A prudent woman, indeed! who ever thought of calling me imprudent? Everybody calls me a prudent woman, to be sure. You need not doubt it, though I say so.” “You are a prudent woman, no doubt, and I have been thinking, I say, whether I might trust you with a secret!” “A secret! a secret! a secret! Oh, Mr. Bob, then there is a secret?” stud the old lady aroused into great animation by the prospect of getting at the bottom of the mystery at last. “Yes, Mrs. Brown, to confess the truth, there is a secret.” “Oh! I knew it! I knew it! I knew there was a secret. I always said there was a secret—I was always sure there was a secret! I told everybody I knew there must be a secret.” “But Mrs. Brown, this must be kept a secret; so perhaps I had better keep it to myself. If you cannot keep a secret, why then—” “Good lack! Mr. Lee, I am sure you are not afraid. Never fear me: I can keep a secret. Everybody knows how well I can keep a secret.” “Everybody knows, to be sure, how well you can keep a secret; that is just what I am thinking about.” “Sure, Mr. Bob, you don’t mean to keep me out of the secret now you have begun. Come, come, what is it? You know I can keep a secret; you know I can.” “But this, recollect, Mrs. Brown, is a very particular secret; and if I tell it to you—hey, Mrs. Brown, it must be in confidence you know.” “Oh, in confidence! to be sure in confidence—certainly in confidence. I keep everything in confidence.” “But now I recollect, Mrs. Brown, that story about Zachary Numps—they say you blabb’d.” “Oh law! now Mr. Lee, no such thing! I only said one day in company with two or three people—altogether in confidence—that some folks might, if they chose, say so and so about some folks. It was all in confidence, but somehow or other it got out.” “If you are sure you can keep the secret then, I think I may trust you with it; but you must promise.”