We often read in novels how a seemingly respectable person or family has some terrible
secret which has been concealed from strangers for years.The English language possesses
a vivid saying to describe this sort of situation.The terrible secret is called'a skeleton
in the cupboard'.At some dramatic moment in the story,the terrible secret becomes known and
a reputation is ruined.The reader's hair stands on end when he reads in the final pages of
the novel that the heroine,a dear old lady who had always been so kind to everybody,had,in
her youth,poisoned every one of her five husbands.
It is all very well for such things to occur in fiction.To varying degrees,we all have secrets
which we do not want even our closest friends to learn,but few of us have skeletons in the
cupboard.The only person I know who has a skeleton in the cupboard is George Carlton,and he is
very proud of the fact.George studied medicine in his youth.Instead of becoming a doctor,however,
he became a successful writer of detective stories.I once spent an uncomfortable weekend which
I shall never forget at his house.George showed me to the guest-room which,he said,was rarely
used.He told me to unpack my things and then come down to dinner.After I had stacked my shirts and
underclothes in two empty drawers,I decided to hang ome of the two suits I had brought with me
in the cupboard,I opened the cupboard door and then stood in front of it petrified,A skeleton was
dangling before my eyes.The sudden movement of the door made it sway slightly and it gave me the
impression that it was about to leap out at me:Dropping my suit,I dashed downstairs to tell George.
This was worse than 'a terrible movement secret';this was a real skeleton!But George was
unsympathetic.'Oh,that,'he said with a smile as if he were talking about an old friend.'That's
Sebastian.You forget that I was a medical student once upon a time.