Herald Of The Times

A WOMAN CAN KEEP A SECRET.—The following anecdote will prove the fallacy of the remark, that "a woman cannot keep a secret."

Some years since, a lady called at a glover's shop in the outskirts of the town and purchased a pair of gloves for her immediate wear; observing at the same time, she was on the road to Barnet—that she had left her gloves at her friend's house, where she called, and that she was apprehensive of being benighted if she went back for them. The glover fitted on the gloves; and the lady after paying for them from a purse well stocked with bank notes, stepped into her post chaise and proceeded on her journey.

She had scarcely reached Finchley Common, when a highwayman stopped the chaise, and demanded her money.—He entreated her not to be alarmed, as he had no intention upon her person—if she surrendered her property, it was all he wanted, declaring, that his distress & not his will urged him to this desperate act, and he was determined to remove his penury or perish. The lady gave her purse and the desperado rode off.—

After he was gone, and the fright had subsided, the lady imagined that in the address of the highwayman, she recognised the voice of the glover she had just before dealt with. This conceit struck her so forcibly, that she ordered the post boy to drive back to town, not choosing she said to venture further over the heath. On her arrival at the glover's she knocked and gained admittance, the glover himself opened the door. The lady desired to speak with him in private.—The glover showed her to a back parlor where she exclaimed, "I am come for my purse, of which you robbed me this evening on Finchley Common!" The glover was confounded; and the lady proceeded—"It is of no use for you to deny it; I am convinced and your life is at my mercy. Return my property and trust my humanity." The glover overcome with guilt, shame and confusion, returned the purse, confessed the crime, and pleaded his distress. The lady, after some suitable admonitions, gave him a ten pound note, bade him mend his ways of life, and keep his own counsel; adding that she would never divulge his name or place of abode. She kept her word:

and though the robbery was stated in the public papers, the discovery was omitted—and it was not until very recently, that a minute of this singular transaction was found among the papers of the lady alluded to.

Even in this private memorandum, the name and residence of the glover was omitted, and the secret, in that particular, rests with the lady in the grave.

After this tale, the truth of which may be relied on, who will say that a woman cannot keep a secret?—London Paper.