Part 36 (1/2)

SUSAN (_opening the window and returning to her question_)

No one would know you told me.

LEt.i.tIA

I would know. Yes, I would know that I had told somebody else's secret.

SUSAN

Whose secret is it? Please.

LEt.i.tIA

I've been living in this house for thirty-five years, Susan, and I've known the secrets of all the boys and girls from time to time.

SUSAN

You know mine, too.

LEt.i.tIA

And I've never told one of them, either.

SUSAN

Does old Mr. John ever have secrets?

LEt.i.tIA

_Old_ Mr. John! For shame!... Of course he has secrets.

SUSAN

I wish I knew some of his, Mis' Let.i.tia.

LEt.i.tIA

My dear, you never will know them. John is very quiet.

SUSAN

Who in the family didn't have any secrets at all?

LEt.i.tIA

Oh, they all had secrets when they were young. Nathaniel had _fewer_ than any of them and...

[_Her words are lost tenderly in a memory._

SUSAN