The story The Sphinx Without a Secret is part of the short story collection Lord Arthur Savile's The Crimes and Other Stories by Irish writer Oscar Wilde , published in 1887. It was originally titled Lady Alroy with the subtitle An Etching (also An Etching ). Also included are
In this very brief story, Lord Murchison tells an old friend about a woman he once loved and wanted to marry, but who has since passed away. She had always acted very closed and secretive, so that she aroused his suspicions. So one day he decided to go after her when she sometimes secretly left the house.
That's how he found out that she snuck into a room in a guesthouse. Since he suspected a lover behind the action, he confronted her with his discovery the next day. She confessed that she had been there, but she did not want to have met a lover there. Lord Murchison did not believe her and left her, whereupon she died shortly afterwards. When he later returned to the guesthouse, he spoke to the owner, who confirmed that the woman had rented a room in which she had always been alone, where she had only read or done nothing.
After telling the story, Lord Murchison asks his friend if he can believe that the woman's secret is really only that she doesn't have one. He answers his question in the affirmative and the short story ends with Lord Murchison's answer: "I wonder" in which he expresses his doubts.
