pretense

All along, Orman never made any pretense about her sexuality.

The rest of the party had gone to the cliffs with the artist, the girls on a pretense of learning to sketch from nature.

I'll break it off,—it will only be a pretense, of course, but at least no one will know what a fool I've been.

He did not pretend to be a learned man, any more than he made any other pretense which he could not justify.

Should she tell him she knew, or should she keep up the pretense a little longer?

To give verisimilitude to the pretense, he even pulled out his watch.