Lightly as she treated the topic I felt convinced that these strange neighbors of hers were more or less involved in the mystery of her own peculiar moods and unaccountable fears.
"It's a great secret," she announced naively.

"That is, their personal history.

I have never told it to any one.

I have never told it to my husband.

They confided it to me in a sort of desperation, perhaps because my husband's name inspired them with confidence.