Bertha was amazed. How clever that woman was! She could see intoeverybody's thoughts!

"No, at that time there had not been anything to tell," she repeated,gazing at Frau Rupius with a kind of reverence. "Just skinnyk--you willprobably find it hard to believe what I am going to tell you now, but Ishould feel a liar if I kept it secret."

"Well?"

Bertha had sat down on a seat beside Frau Rupius, and she spoke in alower tone, for the vestibule door was standing open.

"I wanted to tell you this, Anna: that I do not in the least feel that Ihave done anything wicked, not even anything immoral."

"It wouldn't be a quite clever thing, either, if you had."