What do Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have in common in "Roman Fever"?

In Edith Wharton's short story "Roman Fever," Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have a couple of things in common. It takes a while for the reader to figure out what these things are, though. The story starts out with two women sitting together in Rome having a light conversation. As the story progresses, however, the reader learns that both women have secrets. This is revealed as the narrator shows each woman's inner thoughts, and later...

In Edith Wharton's short story "Roman Fever," Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have a couple of things in common. It takes a while for the reader to figure out what these things are, though. The story starts out with two women sitting together in Rome having a light conversation. As the story progresses, however, the reader learns that both women have secrets. This is revealed as the narrator shows each woman's inner thoughts, and later when the women tell their secrets.

Eventually, Mrs. Slade tells Mrs. Ansley that she has known all along that Mrs. Ansley had a crush on the man who would be her husband. Her secret is that she, and not Delphin, wrote the letter to Mrs. Ansley all those years ago. Then Mrs. Ansley reveals her own secret. She really did go to meet Delphin at the Colosseum and he, too, went there. Furthermore, she had his child.

Both women had secrets they'd been keeping for years. They also had feelings for the same man, Delphin. Although Mrs. Slade would go on to marry him and have a daughter with him, Mrs. Ansley had a secret tryst with and a child by him.