To test one´s confidence

[Johnyxxx]

Hi,

Can anybody help me to understand what exactly to test your confidence means here?

"What'sthe matter?" asked Dr. Stephen quickly. "Something's wrong with you.It's this sudden heat, or overwork. Come, man, let's go inside."
A sudden light broke upon the face of the younger man, the light of a heaven-sent inspiration. He looked into his friend's face, and told a direct lie.
"Odd,"he said, "I myself was just coming to see you. I have something of great importance to test your confidence with. But in your house,please," as Stephen urged him towards his own door—"in your house.It's only round the corner, and I—I cannot go back there—to my rooms—till I have told you.
"I'm your patient—for the moment," he added stammeringly as soon as they were seated in the privacy of the hypnotist's sanctum, "and I want—er—"

Algernon Blackwood, The Man Who Found Out, 1921.

Thank you very much.

 

[jutfrank]

It sounds like he has something to say that the other man isn't going to believe very easily. What is it?

 

[Johnyxxx]

He wants to be hypnotized and have his memory erased by Dr. Stephen so that he could not remember what happened in his own rooms several hours ago. (he found out something very terrible and he wants to forget it forever).

 

[jutfrank]

Okay. At first I thought that confidence was being used in the sense that if you have confidence in a belief, you are sure that it is true. Now I think the word relates to the confidence that a patient has with a doctor. This means that if you tell a doctor something, you can trust that the doctor will not tell other people. What you tell him/her is 'confidential'.