If it were true, no benefit would follow from the mention of it.

You had chosen to conceal it for some reasons, and whether these reasons were true or false, it was proper to discover and remove them in the first place.
Finally, I acquiesced in the least painful supposition, trammelled as it was with perplexities, that Carwin was upright, and that, if the reasons of your silence were known, they would be found to be just.".