'Yes,' she said.
The correctness of his random shot startled Knight; though,
considering that almost all the other memorials in the churchyard
were upright headstones upon which nobody could possibly sit, it
was not so wonderful.
Elfride did not even now go on with the explanation her exacting
lover wished to have, and her reticence began to irritate him as
before. He was inclined to read her a lecture.
'Why don't you tell me all?' he said somewhat indignantly.
'Elfride, there is not a single subject upon which I feel more
strongly than upon this--that everything ought to be cleared up
between two persons before they become husband and wife. See how
desirable and wise such a course is, in order to avoid
disagreeable contingencies in the form of discoveries afterwards.
For, Elfride, a secret of no importance at all may be made the
basis of some fatal misunderstanding only because it is
discovered, and not confessed. They say there never was a couple
of whom one had not some secret the other never knew or was
intended to know. This may or may not be true; but if it be true,
some have been happy in spite rather than in consequence of it.
If a man were to see another man looking significantly at his
wife, and she were blushing crimson and appearing startled, do you
think he would be so well satisfied with, for instance, her
truthful explanation that once, to her great annoyance, she
accidentally fainted into his arms, as if she had said it
voluntarily long ago, before the circumstance occurred which
forced it from her? Suppose that admirer you spoke of in
connection with the tomb yonder should turn up, and bother me.
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