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diff --git a/4767.txt b/4767.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b87593 --- /dev/null +++ b/4767.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7801 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mayor's Wife, by Anna Katherine Green + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Mayor's Wife + +Author: Anna Katherine Green + +Release Date: December, 2003 [Etext #4767] +Posting Date: January 11, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAYOR'S WIFE *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +THE MAYOR'S WIFE + +by Anna Katherine Green + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I A SPY'S DUTY + II QUESTIONS + III IN THE GABLE WINDOW + IV LIGHTS-SOUNDS + V THE STRANGE NEIGHBORS NEXT DOOR + VI AT THE STAIR-HEAD + VII A MOVING SHADOW + VIII THE PARAGRAPH + IX SCRAPS + X A GLIMMER OF THE TRUTH + XI BESS + XII SEARCHINGS + XIII A DISCOVERY + XIV I SEEK HELP + XV HARDLY A COINCIDENCE + XVI IN THE LIBRARY + XVII THE TWO WEIRD SISTERS + XVIII THE MORNING NEWS + XIX THE CRY FROM THE STAIRS + XX EXPLANATION + XXI THE CIPHER + XXII MERCY + XXIII THE WIFE'S TALE + XXIV THE SINS OF THE FATHERS + XXV THE FINGER ON THE WALL + XXVI "BITTER AS THE GRAVE" + XXVII A CHILD'S PLAYTHINGS + XXVIII RESTITUTION + + + + +CHAPTER I. A SPY'S DUTY + + +I am not without self-control, yet when Miss Davies entered the room +with that air of importance she invariably assumes when she has an +unusually fine position to offer, I could not hide all traces of my +anxiety. + +I needed a position, needed it badly, while the others-- + +But her eyes are on our faces, she is scanning us all with that close +and calculating gaze which lets nothing escape. She has passed me by--my +heart goes down, down--when suddenly her look returns and she singles me +out. + +"Miss Saunders." Then, "I have a word to say to you." + +There is a rustle about me; five disappointed girls sink back into their +seats as I quickly rise and follow Miss Davies out. + +In the hall she faced me with these words: + +"You are discreet, and you evidently desire a position. You will find +a gentleman in my sitting-room. If you come to terms with him, well and +good. If not, I shall expect you to forget all about him and his errand +the moment you leave his presence. You understand me?" + +"I think so," I replied, meeting her steady look with one equally +composed. Part of my strength--and I think I have some strength--lies in +the fact that I am quietest when most deeply roused. "I am not to talk +whatever the outcome." + +"Not even to me," she emphasized. + +Stirred still further and therefore outwardly even more calm than +before, I stopped her as she was moving on and ventured a single query. + +"This position--involving secrecy--is it one you would advise me to +take, even if I did not stand in need of it so badly?" + +"Yes. The difficulties will not be great to a discreet person. It is a +first-class opportunity for a young woman as experienced as yourself." + +"Thank you," was my abrupt but grateful rejoinder; and, obeying her +silent gesture, I opened the door of the sitting-room and passed in. A +gentleman standing at one of the windows turned quickly at the sound +of my step and came forward. Instantly whatever doubt I may have felt +concerning the nature of the work about to be proposed to me yielded +to the certainty that, however much it might involve of the strange +and difficult, the man whose mission it was to seek my aid was one to +inspire confidence and respect. + +He was also a handsome man, or no, I will not go so far as that; he was +only one in whom the lines of form and visage were fine enough not to +interfere with the impression made by his strong nature and intense +vitality. A man to sway women and also quite capable of moving men (this +was evident at a glance); but a man under a cloud just at present,--a +very heavy cloud which both irked and perplexed him. + +Pausing in the middle of the room, he surveyed me closely for an instant +before speaking. Did I impress him as favorably as he did me? I soon had +reason to think so, for the nervous trembling of his hands ceased after +the first moment or two of silent scrutiny, and I was sure I caught the +note of hope in his voice as he courteously remarked: + +"You are seeking a place, young lady. Do you think you can fill the one +I have to offer? It has its difficulties, but it is not an onerous one. +It is that of companion to my wife." + +I bowed; possibly I smiled. I do smile sometimes when a ray of real +sunshine darts across my pathway. + +"I should be very glad to try such a situation," I replied. + +A look of relief, so vivid that it startled me, altered at once the +whole character of his countenance; and perceiving how intense was the +power and fascination underlying his quiet exterior, I asked myself who +and what this man was; no ordinary personage, I was sure, but who? Had +Miss Davies purposely withheld his name? I began to think so. + +"I have had some experience," I was proceeding-- + +But he waved this consideration aside, with a change back to his former +gloomy aspect, and a careful glance at the door which did not escape me. + +"It is not experience which is so much needed as discretion." + +Again that word. + +"The case is not a common one, or, rather,"--he caught himself up +quickly, "the circumstances are not. My wife is well, but--she is not +happy. She is very unhappy, deeply, unaccountably so, and I do not know +why." + +Anxious to watch the effect of these words, he paused a moment, then +added fervently: + +"Would to God I did! It would make a new man of me." + +The meaning, the deep meaning in his tone, if not in the adjuration +itself, was undeniable; but my old habit of self-control stood me in +good stead and I remained silent and watchful, weighing every look and +word. + +"A week ago she was the lightest hearted woman in town,--the happiest +wife, the merriest mother. To-day she is a mere wreck of her former +self, pallid, drawn, almost speechless, yet she is not ill. She will not +acknowledge to an ache or a pain; will not even admit that any change +has taken place in her. But you have only to see her. And I am as +ignorant of the cause of it all--as you are!" he burst out. + +Still I remained silent, waiting, watchful. + +"I have talked with her physician. He says there is something serious +the matter with her, but he can not help her, as it is not in any +respect physical, and advises me to find out what is on her mind. As if +that had not been my first care! I have also consulted her most intimate +friends, all who know her well, but they can give me no clue to her +distress. They see the difference in her, but can not tell the cause. +And I am obliged to go away and leave her in this state. For two weeks, +three weeks now, my movements will be very uncertain. I am at the beck +and call of the State Committee. At any other time I would try change +of scene, but she will neither consent to leave home without me nor to +interrupt my plans in order that I may accompany her." + +"Miss Davies has not told me your name," I made bold to interpolate. + +He stared, shook himself together, and quietly, remarked: + +"I am Henry Packard." + +The city's mayor! and not only that, the running candidate for governor. +I knew him well by name, even if I did not know, or rather had not +recognized his face. + +"I beg pardon," I somewhat tremulously began, but he waved the coming +apology aside as easily, as he had my first attempt at ingratiation. +In fact, he appeared to be impatient of every unnecessary word. This +I could, in a dim sort of way, understand. He was at the crisis of his +fate, and so was his party. For several years a struggle had gone on +between the two nearly matched elements in this western city, which, so +far, had resulted in securing him two terms of office--possibly because +his character appealed to men of all grades and varying convictions. But +the opposite party was strong in the state, and the question whether +he could carry his ticket against such odds, and thus give hope to his +party in the coming presidential election, was one yet to be tested. +Forceful as a speaker, he was expected to reap hundreds of votes from +the mixed elements that invariably thronged to hear him, and, ignorant +as I necessarily was of the exigencies of such a campaign, I knew that +not only his own ambition, but the hopes of his party, depended on the +speeches he had been booked to make in all parts of the state. And now, +three weeks before election, while every opposing force was coming to +the surface, this trouble had come upon him. A mystery in his home and +threatened death in his heart! For he loved his wife--that was apparent +to me from the first; loved her to idolatry, as such men sometimes do +love,--often to their own undoing. + +All this, the thought of an instant. Meanwhile he had been studying me +well. + +"You understand my position," he commented. "Wednesday night I speak in +C---, Thursday, in R---, while she--" With an effort he pulled himself +together. "Miss--" + +"Saunders," I put in. + +"Miss Saunders, I can not leave her alone in the house. Some one must be +there to guard and watch--" + +"Has she no mother?" I suggested in the pause he made. + +"She has no living relatives, and mine are uncongenial to her." + +This to save another question. I understood him perfectly. + +"I can not ask any of them to stay with her," he pursued decisively. +"She would not consent to it. Nor can I ask any of her friends. That +she does not wish, either. But I can hire a companion. To that she +has already consented. That she will regard as a kindness, if the lady +chosen should prove to be one of those rare beings who carry comfort in +their looks without obtruding their services or displaying the extent of +their interest. You know there are some situations in which the presence +of a stranger may be more grateful than that of a friend. Apparently, my +wife feels herself so placed now." + +Here his eyes again read my face, an ordeal out of which I came +triumphant; the satisfaction he evinced rightly indicated his mind. + +"Will you accept the position?" he asked. "We have one little child. You +will have no charge of her save as you may wish to make use of her in +reaching the mother." + +The hint conveyed in the last phrase gave me courage to say: + +"You wish me to reach her?" + +"With comfort," said he. + +"And if in doing so I learn her trouble?" + +"You will win my eternal gratitude by telling it to one who would give +ten years of his life to assuage it." + +My head rose. I began to feel that my next step must strike solid +ground. + +"In other words to be quite honest--you wish me to learn her trouble if +I can." + +"I believe you can be trusted to do so." + +"And then to reveal it to you?" + +"If your sense of duty permits,--which I think it will." + +I might have uttered in reply, "A spy's duty?" but the high-mindedness +of his look forbade. Whatever humiliation his wishes put upon me, there +could be no question of the uprightness of his motives regarding his +wife. + +I ventured one more question. + +"How far shall I feel myself at liberty to go in this attempt?" + +"As far as your judgment approves and circumstances seem to warrant. I +know that you will come upon nothing dishonorable to her, or detrimental +to our relations as husband and wife, in this secret which is destroying +our happiness. Her affection for me is undoubted, but something--God +knows what--has laid waste her life. To find and annihilate that +something is my first and foremost duty. It does not fit well with those +other duties pressing upon me from the political field, does it? That is +why I have called in help. That is why I have called you in." + +The emphasis was delicately but sincerely given. It struck my heart and +entered it. Perhaps he had calculated upon this. If so, it was because +he knew that a woman like myself works better when her feelings are +roused. + +Answering with a smile, I waited patiently while he talked terms and +other equally necessary details, then dropping all these considerations, +somewhat in his own grand manner, I made this remark: + +"If your wife likes me, which very possibly she may fail to do, I shall +have a few questions to ask you before I settle down to my duties. Will +you see that an opportunity is given me for doing this?" + +His assent was as frank as all the rest, and the next moment he left the +room. + +As he passed out I heard him remark to Miss Davies: + +"I expect Miss Saunders at my house before nightfall. I shall reserve +some minutes between half-past five and six in which to introduce her to +Mrs. Packard." + + + +CHAPTER II. QUESTIONS + + +I knew all the current gossip about Mrs. Packard before I had parted +with Miss Davies. Her story was a simple one. Bred in the West, she had +come, immediately after her mother's death, to live with that mother's +brother in Detroit. In doing this she had walked into a fortune. Her +uncle was a rich man and when he died, which was about a year after +her marriage with Mr. Packard and removal to C--, she found herself +the recipient of an enormous legacy. She was therefore a woman of +independent means, an advantage which, added to personal attractions of +a high order, and manners at once dignified and winning, caused her +to be universally regarded as a woman greatly to be envied by all who +appreciated a well-founded popularity. + +So much for public opinion. It differs materially from that just given +me by her husband. + +The mayor lived on Franklin Street in a quarter I had seldom visited. As +I entered this once aristocratic thoroughfare from Carlton Avenue, I was +struck as I had been before by its heterogeneous appearance. Houses of +strictly modern type neighbored those of a former period, and it was +not uncommon to see mansion and hovel confronting each other from the +opposite side of the street. Should I find the number I sought attached +to one of the crude, unmeaning dwellings I was constantly passing, or to +one of mellower aspect and possibly historic association? + +I own that I felt a decided curiosity on this point, and congratulated +myself greatly when I had left behind me a peculiarly obnoxious +monstrosity in stone, whose imposing proportions might reasonably +commend themselves to the necessities, if not to the taste of the city's +mayor. + +A little shop, one story in height and old enough for its simple wooden +walls to cry aloud for paint, stood out from the middle of a row of +cheap brick houses. Directly opposite it were two conspicuous dwellings, +neither of them new and one of them ancient as the street itself. They +stood fairly close together, with an alley running between. From the +number I had now reached it was evident that the mayor lived in one of +these. Happily it was in the fresher and more inviting one. As I noted +this, I paused in admiration of its spacious front and imposing doorway. +The latter was in the best style of Colonial architecture, and +though raised but one step from the walk, was so distinguished by the +fan-tailed light overhead and the flanking casements glazed with antique +glass, that I felt myself carried back to the days when such domiciles +were few and denoted wealth the most solid, and hospitality the most +generous. + +A light wall, painted to match the house, extended without break to +the adjoining building, a structure equal to the other in age and +dimensions, but differing in all other respects as much as neglect and +misuse could make it. Gray and forbidding, it towered in its place, a +perfect foil to the attractive dwelling whose single step I now amounted +with cheerful composure. + +What should I have thought if at that moment I had been told that +appearances were deceitful, and that there were many persons then living +who, if left to their choice, would prefer life in the dismal walls +from which I had instinctively turned, to a single night spent in the +promising house I was so eager to enter. + +An old serving-man, with a countenance which struck me pleasantly +enough at the time, opened the door in response to my ring, only to make +instant way for Mayor Packard, who advanced from some near-by room to +greet me. By this thoughtful attention I was spared the embarrassment +from which I might otherwise have suffered. + +His few words of greeting set me entirely at my ease, and I was quite +ready to follow him when a moment later he invited me to meet Mrs. +Packard. + +"I can not promise you just the reception you naturally look for," said +he, as he led me around the stairs toward an opening at their rear, "but +she's a kind woman and can not but be struck with your own kind spirit +and quiet manner." + +Happily, I was not called upon to answer, for at that moment the door +swung open and he ushered me into a room flooded brilliantly with the +last rays of the setting sun. The woman who sat in its glow made an +instant and permanent impression upon me. No one could look intently +upon her without feeling that here was a woman of individuality and +power, overshadowed at present by the deepest melancholy. As she rose +and faced us I decided instantly that her husband had not exaggerated +her state of mind. Emotion of no ordinary nature disturbed the lines of +her countenance and robbed her naturally fine figure of a goodly portion +of its dignity and grace; and though she immediately controlled herself +and assumed the imposing aspect of a highly trained woman, ready, if +not eager, to welcome an intruding guest, I could not easily forget +the drawn look about mouth and eyes which, in the first instant of our +meeting, had distorted features naturally harmonious and beautifully +serene. + +I am sure her husband had observed it also, for his voice trembled +slightly as he addressed her. + +"I have brought you a companion, Olympia, one whose business and +pleasure it will be to remain with you while I am making speeches a +hundred miles away. Do you not see reason for thanking me?" This last +question he pointed with a glance in my direction, which drew her +attention and caused her to give me a kindly look. + +I met her eyes fairly. They were large and gray and meant for smiling; +eyes that, with a happy heart behind them, would illumine her own beauty +and create joy in those upon whom they fell. But to-day, nothing but +question lived in their dark and uneasy depths, and it was for me to +face that question and give no sign of what the moment was to me. + +"I think--I am sure, that my thanks are due you," she courteously +replied, with a quick turn toward her husband, expressive of confidence, +and, as I thought, of love. "I dreaded being left alone." + +He drew a deep breath of relief; we both did; then we talked a little, +after which Mayor Packard found some excuse for taking me from the room. + +"Now for the few words you requested," said he; and, preceding me down +the hall, he led me into what he called his study. + +I noted one thing, and only one thing, on entering this place. That +was the presence of a young man who sat at a distant table reading and +making notes. But as Mayor Packard took no notice of him, knowing and +expecting him to be there, no doubt, I, with a pardonable confusion, +withdrew my eyes from the handsomest face I had ever seen, and, noting +that my employer had stopped before a type-writer's table, I took my +place at his side, without knowing very well what this move meant or +what he expected me to do there. + +I was not long left in doubt. With a gesture toward the type-writer, he +asked me if I was accustomed to its use; and when I acknowledged some +sort of acquaintance with it, he drew an unanswered letter from a pile +on the table and requested me to copy it as a sample. + +I immediately sat down before the type-writer. I was in something of a +maze, but felt that I must follow his lead. As I proceeded to insert the +paper and lay out the copy to hand, he crossed over to the young man at +the other end of the room and began a short conversation which ended in +some trivial demand that sent the young man from the room. As the door +closed behind him Mayor Packard returned to my side. + +"Keep on with your work and never mind mistakes," said he. "What I want +is to hear the questions you told me to expect from you if you stayed." + +Seemingly Mayor Packard did not wish this young man to know my position +in the house. Was it possible he did not wholly trust him? My hands +trembled from the machine and I was about to turn and give my full +thought to what I had to say. But pride checked the impulse. "No," I +muttered in quick dissuasion, to myself. "He must see that I can do two +things at once and do both well." And so I went on with the letter. + +"When," I asked, "did you first see the change in Mrs. Packard?" + +"On Tuesday afternoon at about this time." + +"What had happened on that day? Had she been out?" + +"Yes, I think she told me later that she had been out." + +"Do you know where?" + +"To some concert, I believe. I did not press her with questions, Miss +Saunders; I am a poor inquisitor." + +Click, click; the machine was working admirably. + +"Have you reason to think," I now demanded, "that she brought her +unhappiness in with her, when she returned from that concert?" + +"No; for when I returned home myself, as I did earlier than usual +that night, I heard her laughing with the child in the nursery. It was +afterward, some few minutes afterward, that I came upon her sitting in +such a daze of misery, that she did not recognize me when I spoke to +her. I thought it was a passing mood at the time; she is a sensitive +woman and she had been reading--I saw the book lying on the floor at her +side; but when, having recovered from her dejection--a dejection, mind +you, which she would neither acknowledge nor explain--she accompanied +me out to dinner, she showed even more feeling on our return, shrinking +unaccountably from leaving the carriage and showing, not only in this +way but in others, a very evident distaste to reenter her own house. +Now, whatever hold I still retain upon her is of so slight a nature that +I am afraid every day she will leave me." + +"Leave you!" + +My fingers paused; my astonishment had got the better of me. + +"Yes; it is as bad as that. I don't know what day you will send me a +telegram of three words, 'She has gone.' Yet she loves me, really and +truly loves me. That is the mystery of it. More than this, her very +heart-strings are knit up with those of our child." + +"Mayor Packard,"--I had resumed work,--"was any letter delivered to her +that day?" + +"That I can not say." + +Fact one for me to establish. + +"The wives of men like you--men much before the world, men in the +thick of strife, social and political--often receive letters of a very +threatening character." + +"She would have shown me any such, if only to put me on my guard. She is +physically a very brave woman and not at all nervous." + +"Those letters sometimes assume the shape of calumny. Your character may +have been attacked." + +"She believes in my character and would have given me an opportunity +to vindicate myself. I have every confidence in my wife's sense of +justice." + +I experienced a thrill of admiration for the appreciation he evinced in +those words. Yet I pursued the subject resolutely. + +"Have you an enemy, Mayor Packard? Any real and downright enemy capable +of a deep and serious attempt at destroying your happiness?" + +"None that I know of, Miss Saunders. I have political enemies, of course +men, who, influenced by party feeling, are not above attacking methods +and possibly my official reputation; but personal ones--wretches willing +to stab me in my home-life and affections, that I can not believe. My +life has been as an open book. I have harmed no man knowingly and, as +far as I know, no man has ever cherished a wish to injure me." + +"Who constitute your household? How many servants do you keep and how +long have they been with you?" + +"Now you exact details with which only Mrs. Packard is conversant. I +don't know anything about the servants. I do not interest myself much +in matters purely domestic, and Mrs. Packard spares me. You will have to +observe the servants yourself." + +I made another note in my mind while inquiring: + +"Who is the young man who was here just now? He has an uncommon face." + +"A handsome one, do you mean?" + +"Yes, and--well, what I should call distinctly clever." + +"He is clever. My secretary, Miss Saunders. He helps me in my increased +duties; has, in a way, charge of my campaign; reads, sorts and sometimes +answers my letters. Just now he is arranging my speeches--fitting them +to the local requirements of the several audiences I shall be called +upon to address. He knows mankind like a book. I shall never give the +wrong speech to the wrong people while he is with me." + +"Do you like him?--the man, I mean, not his work." + +"Well--yes. He is very good company, or would have been if, in the week +he has been in the house, I had been in better mood to enjoy him. He's a +capital story-teller." + +"He has been here a week?" + +"Yes, or almost." + +"Came on last Tuesday, didn't he?" + +"Yes, I believe that was the day." + +"Toward afternoon?" + +"No; he came early; soon after breakfast, in fact." + +"Does your wife like him?" + +His Honor gave a start, flushed (I can sometimes see a great deal even +while very busily occupied) and answered without anger, but with a good +deal of pride: + +"I doubt if Mrs. Packard more than knows of his presence. She does not +come to this room." + +"And he does not sit at your table?" + +"No; I must have some few minutes in the day free from the suggestion of +politics. Mr. Steele can safely be left out of our discussion. He does +not even sleep in the house." + +The note I made at this was very emphatic. "You should know," said I; +then quickly "Tuesday was the day Mrs. Packard first showed the change +you observed in her." + +"Yes, I think so; but that is a coincidence only. She takes no interest +in this young man; scarcely noticed him when I introduced him; just +bowed to him over her shoulder; she was fastening on our little one's +cap. Usually she is extremely, courteous to strangers, but she was +abstracted, positively abstracted at that moment. I wondered at it, for +he usually makes a stir wherever he goes. But my wife cares little for +beauty in a man; I doubt if she noticed his looks at all. She did not +catch his name, I remember." + +"Pardon me, what is that you say?" + +"She did not catch his name, for later she asked me what it was." + +"Tell me about that, Mr. Packard." + +"It is immaterial; but I am ready to answer all your questions. It was +while we were out dining. Chance threw us together, and to fill up +the moment she asked the name of the young man I had brought into the +library that morning. I told her and explained his position and the long +training he had had in local politics. She listened, but not as closely +as she did to the music. Oh, she takes no interest in him. I wish she +did; his stories might amuse her." + +I did not pursue the subject. Taking out the letter I had been writing, +I held it out for his inspection, with the remark: + +"More copy, please, Mayor Packard." + + + + +CHAPTER III. IN THE GABLE WINDOW + + +A few minutes later I was tripping up-stairs in the wake of a smart +young maid whom Mayor Packard had addressed as Ellen. I liked this girl +at first sight and, as I followed her up first one flight, then another, +to the room which had been chosen for me, the hurried glimpses I had of +her bright and candid face suggested that in this especial member of the +household I might hope to find a friend and helper in case friendship +and help were needed in the blind task to which I stood committed. But +I soon saw cause--or thought I did--to change this opinion. When she +turned on me at the door of my room, a small one at the extreme end of +the third floor, I had an opportunity of meeting her eyes. The interest +in her look was not the simple one to be expected. In another person +in other circumstances I should have characterized her glance as one of +inquiry and wonder. But neither inquiry nor wonder described the present +situation, and I put myself upon my guard. + +Seeing me look her way, she flushed, and, throwing wide the door, +remarked in the pleasantest of tones: + +"This is your room. Mrs. Packard says that if it is not large enough or +does not seem pleasant to you, she will find you another one to-morrow." + +"It's very pleasant and quite large enough," I confidently replied, +after a hasty look about me. "I could not be more comfortable." + +She smiled, a trifle broadly for the occasion, I thought, and patted a +pillow here and twitched a curtain there, as she remarked with a certain +emphasis: + +"I'm sure you will be comfortable. There's nobody else on this floor +but Letty and the baby, but you don't look as if you would be easily +frightened." Astonished, not so much by her words as by the furtive look +she gave me, I laughed as I repeated "Frightened? What should frighten +me?" + +"Oh, nothing." Her back was to me now, but I felt that I knew her very +look. "Nothing, of course. If you're not timid you won't mind sleeping +so far away from every one. Then, we are always within call. The attic +door is just a few steps off. We'll leave it unlocked and you can come +up if--if you feel like it at any time. We'll understand." + +Understand! I eyed her as she again looked my way, with some of her own +curiosity if not wonder. + +"Mrs. Packard must have had some very timorous guests," I observed. "Or, +perhaps, you have had experiences here which have tended to alarm +you. The house is so large and imposing for the quarter it is in I can +readily imagine it to attract burglars." + +"Burglars! It would be a brave burglar who would try to get in here. I +guess you never heard about this house." + +"No," I admitted, unpleasantly divided between a wish to draw her out +and the fear of betraying Mayor Packard's trust in me by showing the +extent of my interest. + +"Well, it's only gossip," she laughingly assured me. "You needn't think +of it, Miss. I'm sure you'll be all right. We girls have been, so far, +and Mrs. Packard--" + +Here she doubtless heard a voice outside or some summons from below, +for she made a quick start toward the door, remarking in a different and +very pleasant tone of voice: + +"Dinner at seven, Miss. There'll be no extra company to-night. I'm +coming." This to some one in the hall as she hastily passed through the +door. + +Dropping the bag I had lifted to unpack, I stared at the door which had +softly closed under her hand, then, with an odd impulse, turned to look +at my own face in the glass before which I chanced to be standing. Did I +expect to find there some evidence of the excitement which this strange +conversation might naturally produce in one already keyed up to +an expectation of the mysterious and unusual? If so, I was not +disappointed. My features certainly betrayed the effect of this +unexpected attack upon my professional equanimity. What did the girl +mean? What was she hinting at? What underlay--what could underlie her +surprising remark, "I guess you never heard about this house?" Something +worth my knowing; something which might explain Mayor Packard's fears +and Mrs. Packard's-- + +There I stopped. It was where the girl had stopped. She and not I must +round out this uncompleted sentence. + +Meanwhile I occupied myself in unpacking my two bags and making +acquaintance with the room which, I felt, was destined to be the scene +of many, anxious thoughts. Its first effect had been a cheerful one, +owing to its two large windows, one looking out on a stretch of clear +sky above a mass of low, huddled buildings, and the other on the wall of +the adjacent house which, though near enough to obstruct the view, was +not near enough to exclude all light. Another and closer scrutiny of the +room did not alter the first impression. To the advantages of light were +added those of dainty furnishing and an exceptionally pleasing color +scheme. There was no richness anywhere, but an attractive harmony +which gave one an instantaneous feeling of home. From the little +brass bedstead curtained with cretonne, to the tiny desk filled with +everything needful for immediate use, I saw evidences of the most +careful housekeeping, and was vainly asking myself what could have +come into Mrs. Packard's life to disturb so wholesome a nature, when my +attention was arrested by a picture hanging at the right of the window +overlooking the next house. + +It gave promise of being a most interesting sketch, and I crossed over +to examine it; but instead of doing so, found my eyes drawn toward +something more vital than any picture and twice as enchaining. + +It was a face, the face of an old woman staring down at me from a +semicircular opening in the gable of the adjoining house. An ordinary +circumstance in itself, but made extraordinary by the fixity of her +gaze, which was leveled straight on mine, and the uncommon expression +of breathless eagerness which gave force to her otherwise commonplace +features. So remarkable was this expression and so apparently was it +directed against myself, that I felt like throwing up my window and +asking the poor old creature what I could do for her. But her extreme +immobility deterred me. For all the intentness of her look there was +no invitation in it warranting such an advance on my part. She simply +stared down at me in unbroken anxiety, nor, though I watched her for +some minutes with an intensity equal to her own, did I detect any change +either in her attitude or expression. + +"Odd," thought I, and tested her with a friendly bow. The demonstration +failed to produce the least impression. "A most uncanny neighbor," was +my mental comment on finally turning away. Truly I was surrounded by +mysteries, but fortunately this was one with which I had no immediate +concern. It did not take me long to put away my few belongings and +prepare for dinner. When quite ready, I sat down to write a letter. This +completed, I turned to go downstairs. But before leaving the room I cast +another look up at my neighbor's attic window. The old woman was still +there. As our glances met I experienced a thrill which was hardly one of +sympathy, yet was not exactly one of fear. My impulse was to pull down +the shade between us, but I had not the heart. She was so old, so feeble +and so, evidently the prey of some strange and fixed idea. What idea? It +was not for me to say, but I found it impossible to make any move +which would seem to shut her out; so I left the shade up; but her image +followed me and I forgot it only when confronted once again with Mrs. +Packard. + +That lady was awaiting me at the dining-room door. She had succeeded +in throwing off her secret depression and smiled quite naturally as +I approached. Her easy, courteous manners became her wonderfully. I +immediately recognized how much there was to admire in our mayor's wife, +and quite understood his relief when, a few minutes later, we sat at +table and conversation began. Mrs. Packard, when free and light-hearted, +was a delightful companion and the meal passed off cheerily. When we +rose and the mayor left us for some necessary business it was with +a look of satisfaction in my direction which was the best possible +preparation for my approaching tete-a-tete with his moody and +incomprehensible wife. + +But I was not destined to undergo the contemplated ordeal this evening. +Guests were announced whom Mrs. Packard kindly invited me to meet, but +I begged to be allowed to enjoy the library. I had too much to consider +just now, to find any pleasure in society. Three questions filled my +mind. + +What was Mrs. Packard's secret trouble? + +Why were people afraid to remain in this house? + +Why did the old woman next door show such interest in the new member of +her neighbor's household? + +Would a single answer cover all? Was there but one cause for each and +every one of these peculiarities? Probably, and it was my duty to ferret +out this cause. But how should I begin? I remembered what I had read +about detectives and their methods, but the help I thus received was +small. Subtler methods were demanded here and subtler methods I must +find. Meantime, I would hope for another talk with Mayor Packard. He +might clear up some of this fog. At least, I should like to give him +the opportunity. But I saw no way of reaching him at present. Even Mrs. +Packard did not feel at liberty to disturb him in his study. I must wait +for his reappearance, and in the meantime divert myself as best I could. +I caught up a magazine, but speedily dropped it to cast a quick glance +around the room. Had I heard anything? No. The house was perfectly +still, save for the sound of conversation in the drawing-room. Yet I +found it hard to keep my eyes upon the page. Quite without my volition +they flew, first to one corner, then to another. The room was light, +there were no shadowy nooks in it, yet I felt an irresistible desire to +peer into every place not directly under my eye. I knew it to be folly, +and, after succumbing to the temptation of taking a sly look behind a +certain tall screen, I resolutely set myself to curb my restlessness +and to peruse in good earnest the article I had begun. To make sure of +myself, I articulated each word aloud, and to my exceeding satisfaction +had reached the second column when I found my voice trailing off into +silence, and every sense alarmingly alert. Yet there was nothing, +absolutely nothing in this well-lighted, cozy family-room to awaken +fear. I was sure of this the next minute, and felt correspondingly +irritated with myself and deeply humiliated. That my nerves should play +me such a trick at the very outset of my business in this house! That I +could not be left alone, with life in every part of the house, and the +sound of the piano and cheerful talking just across the hall, without +the sense of the morbid and unearthly entering my matter-of-fact brain! + +Uttering an ejaculation of contempt, I reseated myself. The impulse came +again to look behind me, but I mastered it this time without too great +an effort. I already knew every feature of the room: its old-fashioned +mantel, large round center-table, its couches and chairs, and why should +I waste my attention again upon them? + +"Is there anything you wish, Miss?" asked a voice directly over my +shoulder. + +I wheeled about with a start. I had heard no one approach; it was not +sound which had disturbed me. + +"The library bell rang," continued the voice. "Is it ice-water you +want?" + +Then I saw that it was Nixon, the butler, and shook my head in mingled +anger and perplexity; for not only had he advanced quite noiselessly, +but he was looking at me with that curious concentrated gaze which I had +met twice before since coming into this house. + +"I need nothing," said I, with all the mildness I could summon into my +voice; and did not know whether to like or not like the quiet manner in +which he sidled out of the room. + +"Why do they all look at me so closely?" I queried, in genuine +confusion. "The man had no business here. I did not ring, and I don't +believe he thought I did. He merely wanted to see what I was doing and +whether I was enjoying myself. Why this curiosity? I have never roused +it anywhere else. It is not myself they are interested in, but the cause +and purpose of my presence under this roof." I paused to wonder over the +fact that the one member of the family who might be supposed to resent +my intrusion most was the one who took it most kindly and with least +token of surprise--Mrs. Packard. + +"She accepts me easily enough," thought I. "To her I am a welcome +companion. What am I to these?" + +The answer, or rather a possible answer, came speedily. At nine o'clock +Mayor Packard entered the room from his study across the hall, and, +seeing me alone, came forward briskly. "Mrs. Packard has company and I +am on my way to the drawing-room, but I am happy to have the opportunity +of assuring you that already she looks better, and that I begin to hope +that your encouraging presence may stimulate her to throw aside her +gloom and needless apprehensions. I shall be eternally grateful to you +if it will. It is the first time in a week that she has consented to +receive visitors." I failed to feel the same elation over this possibly +temporary improvement in his wife's condition, but I carefully refrained +from betraying my doubts. On the contrary, I took advantage of the +moment to clear my mind of one of the many perplexities disturbing it. + +"And I am glad of this opportunity to ask you what may seem a foolish, +if not impertinent question. The maid, Ellen, in showing me my room, was +very careful to assure me that she slept near me and would let me into +her room in case I experienced any alarm in the night; and when I showed +surprise at her expecting me to feel alarm of any kind in a house full +of people, made the remark, 'I guess you do not know about this house.' +Will you pardon me if I ask if there is anything I don't know, and +should know, about the home your suffering wife inhabits? A problem such +as you have given me to solve demands a thorough understanding of every +cause capable of creating disturbance in a sensitive mind." + +The mayor's short laugh failed to hide his annoyance. "You will find +nothing in this direction," said he, "to account for the condition I +have mentioned to you. Mrs. Packard is utterly devoid of superstition. +That I made sure of before signing the lease of this old house. But I +forgot; you are doubtless ignorant of its reputation. It has, or rather +has had, the name of being haunted. Ridiculous, of course, but a fact +with which Mrs. Packard has had to contend in"--he gave me a quick +glance--"in hiring servants." + +It was now my turn to smile, but somehow I did not. A vision had risen +in my mind of that blank and staring face in the attic window next door, +and I felt--well, I don't know how I felt, but I did not smile. + +Another short laugh escaped him. + +"We have not been favored by any manifestations from the spiritual +world. This has proved a very matter-of-fact sort of home for us. I had +almost forgotten that it was burdened with such an uncanny reputation, +and I'm sure that Mrs. Packard would have shared my indifference if it +had not been for the domestic difficulty I have mentioned. It took us +two weeks to secure help of any kind." + +"Indeed! and how long have you been in the house? I judge that you rent +it?" + +"Yes, we rent it and we have been here two months. It was the only house +I could get in a locality convenient for me; besides, the old place +suits me. It would take more than an obsolete ghost or so to scare me +away from what I like." + +"But Mrs. Packard? She may not be a superstitious woman, yet--" + +"Don't be fanciful, Miss Saunders. You will have to look deeper than +that for the spell which has been cast over my wife. Olympia afraid of +creaks and groans? Olympia seeing sights? She's much too practical +by nature, Miss Saunders, to say nothing of the fact that she would +certainly have confided her trouble to me, had her imagination been +stirred in this way. Little things have invariably been discussed +between us. I repeat that this possibility should not give you a +moment's thought." + +A burst of sweet singing came from the drawing-room. + +"That's her voice," he cried. "Whatever her trouble may be she has +forgotten it for the moment. Excuse me if I join her. It is such +pleasure to have her at all like herself again." + +I longed to detain him, longed to put some of the numberless questions +my awakened curiosity demanded, but his impatience was too marked and I +let him depart without another word. + +But I was not satisfied. Inwardly I determined to see him again as soon +as possible and gain a more definite insight into the mysteries of his +home. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. LIGHTS--SOUNDS + + +I am by nature a thoroughly practical woman. If I had not been, the many +misfortunes of my life would have made me so. Yet, when the library door +closed behind the mayor and I found myself again alone in a spot where I +had not felt comfortable from the first, I experienced an odd sensation +not unlike fear. It left me almost immediately and my full reasoning +powers reasserted themselves; but the experience had been mine and I +could not smile it away. + +The result was a conviction, which even reason could not dispel, +that whatever secret tragedy or wrong had signalized this house, its +perpetration had taken place in this very room. It was a fancy, but it +held, and under its compelling if irrational influence, I made a second +and still more minute survey of the room to which this conviction had +imparted so definite an interest. + +I found it just as ordinary and unsuggestive as before; an +old-fashioned, square apartment renovated and redecorated to suit modern +tastes. Its furnishings I have already described; they were such as may +be seen in any comfortable abode. I did not linger over them a moment; +besides, they were the property of the present tenant, and wholly +disconnected with the past I was insensibly considering. Only the four +walls and what they held, doors, windows and mantel-piece, remained to +speak of those old days. Of the doors there were two, one opening +into the main hall under the stairs, the other into a cross corridor +separating the library from the dining-room. It was through the +dining-room door Nixon had come when he so startled me by speaking +unexpectedly over my shoulder! The two windows faced the main door, +as did the ancient, heavily carved mantel. I could easily imagine the +old-fashioned shutters hidden behind the modern curtains, and, being +anxious to test the truth of my imaginings, rose and pulled aside one of +these curtains only to see, just as I expected, the blank surface of +a series of unslatted shutters, tightly fitting one to another with +old-time exactitude. A flat hook and staple fastened them. Gently +raising the window, and lifting one, I pulled the shutter open and +looked out. The prospect was just what I had been led to expect from the +location of the room--the long, bare wall of the neighboring house. +I was curious about that house, more curious at this moment than ever +before; for though it stood a good ten feet away from the one I was now +in, great pains had been taken by its occupants to close every opening +which might invite the glances of a prying eye. A door which had once +opened on the alley running between the two houses had been removed and +its place boarded up. So with a window higher up; the half-circle window +near the roof, I could not see from my present point of view. + +Drawing back, I reclosed the shutter, lowered the window and started for +my own room. As I passed the first stair-head, I heard a baby's laugh, +followed by a merry shout, which, ringing through the house, seemed to +dispel all its shadows. + +I had touched reality again. Remembering Mayor Packard's suggestion that +I might through the child find a means of reaching the mother, I paid +a short visit to the nursery where I found a baby whose sweetness must +certainly have won its mother's deepest love. Letty, the nurse, was of a +useful but commonplace type, a conscientious nurse, that was all. + +But I was to have a further taste of the unusual that night and to +experience another thrill before I slept. My room was dark when I +entered it, and, recognizing a condition favorable to the gratification +of my growing curiosity in regard to the neighboring house, I approached +the window and stole a quick look at the gable-end where, earlier in the +evening I had seen peering out at me an old woman's face. Conceive my +astonishment at finding the spot still lighted and a face looking out, +but not the same face, a countenance as old, one as intent, but +of different conformation and of a much more intellectual type. I +considered myself the victim of an illusion; I tried to persuade myself +that it was the same woman, only in another garb and under a different +state of feeling; but the features were much too dissimilar for such +an hypothesis to hold. The eagerness, the unswerving attitude were +the same, but the first woman had had a weak round face with pinched +features, while this one showed a virile head and long heavy cheeks +and chin, which once must have been full of character, though they now +showed only heaviness of heart and the dull apathy of a fixed idea. + +Two women, total strangers to me, united in an unceasing watch upon me +in my room! I own that the sense of mystery which this discovery brought +struck me at the moment as being fully as uncanny and as unsettling +to contemplate as the idea of a spirit haunting walls in which I was +destined for a while to live, breathe and sleep. However, as soon as I +had drawn the shade and lighted the gas, I forgot the whole thing, and +not till I was quite ready for bed, and my light again turned low, did +I feel the least desire to take another peep at that mysterious window. +The face was still there, peering at me through a flood of moonlight. +The effect was ghastly, and for hours I could not sleep, imagining that +face still staring down upon me, illuminated with the unnatural light +and worn with a profitless and unmeaning vigil. + +That there was something to fear in this house was evident from the +halting step with which the servants, one and all, passed my door on +their way up to their own beds. I now knew, or thought I knew, what +was in their minds; but the comfort brought by this understanding was +scarcely sufficient to act as antidote to the keen strain to which +my faculties had been brought. Yet nothing happened, and when a clock +somewhere in the house had assured me by its own clear stroke that the +dreaded midnight hour had passed I rose and stole again to the window. +This time both moonlight and face were gone. Contentment came with the +discovery. I crept back to bed with lightened heart and soon was asleep. + +Next morning, however, the first face was again at the window, as I at +once saw on raising the blind. I breakfasted alone. Mrs. Packard was not +yet down and the mayor had already left to fulfil an early appointment +down-town. Old Nixon waited on me. As he, like every other member of the +family, with the possible exception of the mayor, was still an unknown +quantity in the problem given me to solve, I allowed a few stray glances +to follow him as he moved decorously about the board anticipating my +wants and showing himself an adept in his appointed task. Once I caught +his eye and I half expected him to speak, but he was too well-trained +for that, and the meal proceeded in the same silence in which it had +begun. But this short interchange of looks had given me an idea. He +showed an eager interest in me quite apart from his duty to me as +waiter. He was nearer sixty, than fifty, but it was not his age which +made his hand tremble as he laid down a plate before me or served me +with coffee and bread. Whether this interest was malevolent or kindly +I found it impossible to judge. He had a stoic's face with but one +eloquent feature--his eyes; and these he kept studiously lowered after +that one quick glance. Would it help matters for me to address him? +Possibly, but I decided not to risk it. Whatever my immediate loss I +must on no account rouse the least distrust in this evidently watchful +household. If knowledge came naturally, well and good; I must not seem +to seek it. + +The result proved my discretion. As I was rising from the table Nixon +himself made this remark: + +"Mrs. Packard will be glad to see you in her room up-stairs any time +after ten o'clock. Ellen will show you where." Then, as I was framing +a reply, he added in a less formal tone: "I hope you were not disturbed +last night. I told the girls not to be so noisy." + +Now they had been very quiet, so I perceived that he simply wanted to +open conversation. + +"I slept beautifully," I assured him. "Indeed, I'm not easily kept +awake. I don't believe I could keep awake if I knew that a ghost would +stalk through my room at midnight." + +His eyes opened, and he did just what I had intended him to do,--met my +glance directly. + +"Ghosts!" he repeated, edging uneasily forward, perhaps with the +intention of making audible his whisper: "Do you believe in ghosts?" + +I laughed easily and with a ringing merriment, like the light-hearted +girl I should be and am not. + +"No," said I, "why should I? But I should like to. I really should enjoy +the experience of coming face to face with a wholly shadowless being." + +He stared and now his eyes told nothing. Mechanically I moved to go, +mechanically he stepped aside to give me place. But his curiosity or his +interest would not allow him to see me pass out without making another +attempt to understand me. Stammering in his effort to seem indifferent, +he dropped this quiet observation just as I reached the door. + +"Some people say, or at least I have heard it whispered in the +neighborhood, that this house is haunted. I've never seen anything, +myself." + +I forced myself to give a tragic start (I was half ashamed of my arts), +and, coming back, turned a purposely excited countenance toward him. + +"This house!" I cried. "Oh, how lovely! I never thought I should have +the good fortune of passing the night in a house that is really haunted. +What are folks supposed to see? I don't know much about ghosts out of +books." + +This nonplussed him. He was entirely out of his element. He glanced +nervously at the door and tried to seem at his ease; perhaps tried to +copy my own manner as he mumbled these words: + +"I've not given much attention to the matter, Miss. It's not long since +we came here and Mrs. Packard don't approve of our gossiping with +the neighbors. But I think the people have mostly been driven away by +strange noises and by lights which no one could explain, flickering +up over the ceilings from the halls below. I don't want to scare you, +Miss--" + +"Oh, you won't scare me." + +"Mrs. Packard wouldn't like me to do that. She never listens to a +word from us about these things, and we don't believe the half of it +ourselves; but the house does have a bad name, and it's the wonder of +everybody that the mayor will live in it." + +"Sounds?" I repeated. "Lights?"--and laughed again. "I don't think I +shall bother myself about them!" I went gaily out. + +It did seem very puerile to me, save as it might possibly account in +some remote way for Mrs. Packard's peculiar mental condition. + +Up-stairs I found Ellen. She was in a talkative mood, and this time I +humored her till she had told me all she knew about the house and its +ghostly traditions. This all had come from a servant, a nurse who had +lived in the house before. Ellen herself, like the butler, Nixon, had +had no personal experiences to relate, though the amount of extra wages +she received had quite prepared her for them. Her story, or rather the +nurse's story, was to the following effect. + +The house had been built and afterward inhabited for a term of years +by one of the city fathers, a well-known and still widely remembered +merchant. No unusual manifestations had marked it during his occupancy. +Not till it had run to seed and been the home of decaying gentility, and +later of actual poverty, did it acquire a name which made it difficult +to rent, though the neighborhood was a growing one and the house itself +well-enough built to make it a desirable residence. Those who had been +induced to try living within its spacious walls invariably left at +the end of the month. Why, they hesitated to say; yet if pressed would +acknowledge that the rooms were full of terrible sights and sounds which +they could not account for; that a presence other than their own was +felt in the house; and that once (every tenant seemed to be able to +cite one instance) a hand had touched them or a breath had brushed +their cheek which had no visible human source, and could be traced to +no mortal presence. Not much in all this, but it served after a while to +keep the house empty, while its reputation for mystery did not lie idle. +Sounds were heard to issue from it. At times lights were seen glimmering +through this or that chink or rift in the window curtain, but by the +time the door was unlocked and people were able to rush in, the interior +was still and dark and seemingly untouched. Finally the police took +a hand in the matter. They were on the scent just then of a party of +counterfeiters and were suspicious of the sounds and lights in this +apparently unoccupied dwelling. But they watched and waited in vain. One +of them got a scare and that was all. The mystery went unsolved and the +sign "To Let" remained indefinitely on the house-front. + +At last a family from the West decided to risk the terrors of this +domicile. The nurse, whose story I was listening to, came with them +and entered upon her duties without prejudice or any sort of belief in +ghosts, general or particular. She held this belief just two weeks. Then +her incredulity began to waver. In fact, she saw the light; almost saw +the ghost, certainly saw the ghost's penumbra. It was one night, or +rather very early, one morning. She had been sitting up with the baby, +who had been suffering from a severe attack of croup. Hot water was +wanted, and she started for the kitchen for the purpose of making a fire +and putting on the kettle. The gas had not been lit in the hall--they +had all been too busy, and she was feeling her way down the front +stairs with a box of matches in her hand, when suddenly she heard from +somewhere below a sound which she could never describe, and at the same +moment saw a light which spread itself through all the lower hall so +that every object stood out distinctly. + +She did not think of the ghost at first, her thoughts were so full of +the child; but when a board creaked in the hall floor, a board that +always creaked when stepped on, she remembered the reputation and what +had been told her about a creaking board and a light that came and went +without human agency. Frightened for a minute, she stood stock-still, +then she rushed down. Whatever it was, natural or supernatural, she went +to see it; but the light vanished before she passed the lower stair, and +only a long-drawn sigh not far from her ear warned her that the space +between her and the real hall was not the solitude she was anxious to +consider it. A sigh! That meant a person. Striking a match, she looked +eagerly down the hall. Something was moving between the two walls. +But when she tried to determine its character, it was swallowed up in +darkness,--the match had gone out. Anxious for the child and determined +to go her way to the kitchen, she now felt about for the gas-fixture and +succeeded in lighting up. The whole hall again burst into view but the +thing was no longer there; the space was absolutely empty. And so were +the other rooms, for she went into every one, lighting the gas as she +went; and so was the cellar when she reached it. For she had to go to +its extreme length for wood and wait about the kitchen till the water +boiled, during which time she searched every nook and cranny. Oh, she +was a brave woman, but she did have this thought as she went upstairs: +If the child died she would know that she had seen a spirit; if the +child got well, that she had been the victim of her own excitement. + +And did the child die? + +"No, it got well, but the family moved out as soon as it was safe to +leave the house. Her employees did not feel as easy about the matter as +she did." + + + +CHAPTER V. THE STRANGE NEIGHBORS NEXT DOOR + +When I joined Mrs. Packard I found her cheerful and in all respects +quite unlike the brooding woman she had seemed when I first met her. +From the toys scattered about her feet I judged that the child had been +with her, and certainly the light in her eyes had the beaming quality we +associate with the happy mother. She was beautiful thus and my hopes of +her restoration to happiness rose. + +"I have had a good night," were her first words as she welcomed me to a +seat in her own little nook. "I'm feeling very well this morning. That +is why I have brought out this big piece of work." She held up a baby's +coat she was embroidering. "I can not do it when I am nervous. Are you +ever nervous?" + +Delighted to enter into conversation with her, I answered in a way to +lead her to talk about herself, then, seeing she was in a favorable mood +for gossip, was on the point of venturing all in a leading question, +when she suddenly forestalled me by putting one to me. + +"Were you ever the prey of an idea?" she asked; "one which you could not +shake off by any ordinary means, one which clung to you night and day +till nothing else seemed real or would rouse the slightest interest? I +mean a religious idea," she stammered with anxious attempt of to hide +her real thought. "One of those doubts which come to you in the full +swing of life to--to frighten and unsettle you." + +"Yes," I answered, as naturally and quietly as I knew how; "I have had +such ideas--such doubts." + +"And were you able to throw them off?--by your will, I mean." + +She was leaning forward, her eyes fixed eagerly on mine. How unexpected +the privilege! I felt that in another moment her secret would be mine. + +"In time, yes," I smiled back. "Everything yields to time and persistent +conscientious work." + +"But if you can not wait for time, if you must be relieved at once, can +the will be made to suffice, when the day is dark and one is alone and +not too busy?" + +"The will can do much," I insisted. "Dark thoughts can be kept down by +sheer determination. But it is better to fill the mind so full with what +is pleasant that no room is left for gloom. There is so much to enjoy it +must take a real sorrow to disturb a heart resolved to be happy." + +"Yes, resolved to be happy. I am resolved to be happy." And she laughed +merrily for a moment. "Nothing else pays. I will not dwell on anything +but the pleasures which surround me." Here she took up her work again. +"I will forget--I will--" She stopped and her eyes left her work to +flash a rapid and involuntary glance over her shoulder. Had she heard +a step? I had not. Or had she felt a draft of which I in my bounding +health was unconscious? + +"Are you cold?" I asked, as her glance stole back to mine. "You are +shivering--" + +"Oh, no," she answered coldly, almost proudly. "I'm perfectly warm. I +don't feel slight changes. I thought some one was behind me. I felt--Is +Ellen in the adjoining room?" + +I jumped up and moved toward the door she indicated. It was slightly +ajar, but Ellen was not behind it. + +"There's no one here," said I. + +She did not answer. She was bending again over her work, and gave no +indication of speaking again on that or the more serious topic we had +previously been discussing. + +Naturally I felt disappointed. I had hoped much from the conversation, +and now these hopes bade fair to fail me. How could I restore matters to +their former basis? Idly I glanced out of the side window I was +passing, and the view of the adjoining house I thus gained acted like +an inspiration. I would test her on a new topic, in the hope of +reintroducing the old. The glimpse I had gained into Mrs. Packard's mind +must not be lost quite as soon as this. + +"You asked me a moment ago if I were ever nervous," I began, as I +regained my seat at her side. "I replied, 'Sometimes'; but I might have +said if I had not feared being too abrupt, 'Never till I came into this +house.'" + +Her surprise partook more of curiosity than I expected. + +"You are nervous here," she repeated. "What is the reason of that, pray? +Has Ellen been chattering to you? I thought she knew enough not to do +that. There's nothing to fear here, Miss Saunders; absolutely nothing +for you to fear. I should not have allowed you to remain here a night if +there had been. No ghost will visit you." + +"No, I hear they never wander above the second story," I laughed. "If +they did I should hardly anticipate the honor of a visit. It is not +ghosts I fear; it is something quite different which affects +me,--living eyes, living passions, the old ladies next door," I finished +falteringly, for Mrs. Packard was looking at me with a show of startling +alarm. "They stare into my room night and day. I never look out but I +encounter the uncanny glance of one or the other of them. Are they live +women or embodied memories of the past? They don't seem to belong to the +present. I own that they frighten me." + +I had exaggerated my feelings in order to mark their effect upon her. +The result disappointed me; she was not afraid of these two poor old +women. Far from it. + +"Draw your curtains," she laughed. "The poor things are crazy and not +really accountable. Their odd ways and manners troubled me at first, but +I soon got over it. I have even been in to see them. That was to keep +them from coming here. I think if you were to call upon them they would +leave you alone after that. They are very fond of being called on. They +are persons of the highest gentility, you know. They owned this house +a few years ago, as well as the one they are now living in, but +misfortunes overtook them and this one was sold for debt. I am very +sorry for them myself. Sometimes I think they have not enough to eat." + +"Tell me about them," I urged. Lightly as she treated the topic I +felt convinced that these strange neighbors of hers were more or less +involved in the mystery of her own peculiar moods and unaccountable +fears. + +"It's a great secret," she announced naively. "That is, their personal +history. I have never told it to any one. I have never told it to +my husband. They confided it to me in a sort of desperation, perhaps +because my husband's name inspired them with confidence. Immediately +after, I could see that they regretted the impulse, and so I have +remained silent. But I feel like telling you; feel as if it would divert +me to do so--keep me from thinking of other things. You won't want to +talk about it and the story will cure your nervousness." + +"Do you want me to promise not to talk about it?" I inquired in some +anxiety. + +"No. You have a good, true face; a face which immediately inspires +confidence. I shall exact no promises. I can rely on your judgment." + +I thanked her. I was glad not to be obliged to promise secrecy. It might +become my imperative duty to disregard such a promise. + +"You have seen both of their faces?" she asked. + +I nodded. + +"Then you must have observed the difference between them. There is the +same difference in their minds, though both are clouded. One is weak +almost to the point of idiocy, though strong enough where her one +settled idea is concerned. The other was once a notable character, but +her fine traits have almost vanished under the spell which has been laid +upon them by the immense disappointment which has wrecked both their +lives. I heard it all from Miss Thankful the day after we entered this +house. Miss Thankful is the older and more intellectual one. I had known +very little about them before; no more, in fact, than I have already +told you. I was consequently much astonished when they called, for I had +supposed them to be veritable recluses, but I was still more astonished +when I noted their manner and the agitated and strangely penetrating +looks they cast about them as I ushered them into the library, which +was the only room I had had time to arrange. A few minutes' further +observation of them showed me that neither of them was quite right. +Instead of entering into conversation with me they continued to cast +restless glances at the walls, ceilings, and even at the floor of +the room in which we sat, and when, in the hope of attracting their +attention to myself, I addressed them on some topic which I thought +would be interesting to them, they not only failed to listen, but turned +upon each other with slowly wagging heads, which not only revealed their +condition but awakened me to its probable cause. They were between walls +rendered dear by old associations. Till their first agitation was over I +could not hope for their attention. + +"But their agitation gave no signs of diminishing and I soon saw that +their visit was far from being a ceremonial one; that it was one of +definite purpose. Preparing myself for I knew not what, I regarded them +with such open interest that before I knew it, and quite before I was +ready for any such exhibition, they were both on their knees before me, +holding up their meager arms with beseeching and babbling words which I +did not understand till later. + +"I was shocked, as you may believe, and quickly raised them, at which +Miss Thankful told me their story, which I will now tell you. + +"There were four of them originally, three sisters and one brother. +The brother early went West and disappeared out of their lives, and the +third sister married. This was years and years ago, when they were all +young. From this marriage sprang all their misfortune. The nephew which +this marriage introduced to their family became their bane as well +as their delight. From being a careless spendthrift boy he became a +reckless, scheming man, adding extravagance to extravagance, till, to +support him and meet his debts, these poor aunts gave up first their +luxuries, then their home and finally their very livelihood. Not that +they acknowledged this. The feeling they both cherished for him was +more akin to infatuation than to ordinary family love. They did not miss +their luxuries, they did not mourn their home, they did not even mourn +their privations; but they were broken-hearted and had been so for a +long time, because they could no longer do for him as of old. Shabby +themselves, and evidently ill-nourished, they grieved not over their own +changed lot, but over his. They could not be reconciled to his lack of +luxuries, much less to the difficulties in which he frequently found +himself, who was made to ruffle it with the best and be the pride of +their lives as he was the darling of their hearts. All this the poor +old things made apparent to me, but their story did not become really +interesting till they began to speak of this house we are in, and of +certain events which followed their removal to the ramshackle dwelling +next door. The sale of this portion of the property had relieved them +from their debts, but they were otherwise penniless, and were just +planning the renting of their rooms at prices which would barely serve +to provide them with a scanty living, when there came a letter from +their graceless nephew, asking for a large amount of money to save him +from complete disgrace. They had no money, and were in the midst of +their sorrow and perplexity, when a carriage drove up to the door of +this house and from it issued an old and very sick man, their long +absent and almost forgotten brother. He had come home to die, and when +told his sisters' circumstances, and how soon the house next door would +be filled with lodgers, insisted upon having this place of his birth, +which was empty at the time, opened for his use. The owner, after long +continued entreaties from the poor old sisters, finally consented to the +arrangement. A bed was made up in the library, and the old man laid on +it." + +Mrs. Packard's voice fell, and I cast her a humorous look. + +"Were there ghosts in those days?" I lightly asked. + +Her answer was calm enough. "Not yet, but the place must have been +desolate enough for one. I have sometimes tried to imagine the scene +surrounding that broken-down old man. There was no furniture in the +room, save what was indispensable to his bare comfort. Miss Thankful +expressly said there was no carpet,--you will presently see why. Even +the windows had no other protection than the bare shutters. But he was +in his old home, and seemed content till Miss Charity fell sick, and +they had to call in a nurse to assist Miss Thankful, who by this time +had a dozen lodgers to look after. Then he grew very restless. Miss +Thankful said he seemed to be afraid of this nurse, and always had a +fever after having been left alone with her; but he gave no reason for +his fears, and she herself was too straitened in means and in too much +trouble otherwise to be affected by such mere whims, and went on doing +her best, sitting with him whenever the opportunity offered, and making +every effort to conceal the anxiety she felt for her poor nephew from +her equally poor brother. The disease under which the brother labored +was a fatal one, and he had not many days to live. She was startled when +one day her brother greeted her appearance, with an earnest entreaty for +the nurse to be sent out for a little while, as this was his last day, +and he had something of great importance to communicate to her before he +died. + +"She had not dreamed of his being so low as this, but when she came to +look at him, she saw, that he had not misstated his case, and that he +was really very near death. She was in a flurry and wanted to call in +the neighbors and rout her sister up from her own sick bed to care for +him. But he wanted nothing and nobody, only to be left alone with her. + +"So she sent the nurse out and sat down on the side of the bed to hear +what he had to say to her, for he looked very eager and was smiling in a +way to make her heart ache. + +"You must remember," continued Mrs. Packard, "that at the time Miss +Thankful was telling this story we were in the very room where it had +all happened. As she reached this part of her narration, she pointed +to the wall partitioning off the corridor, and explained that this was +where the bed stood,--an old wooden one brought down from her own attic. + +"'It creaked when I sat down on it,' said she, 'and I remember that I +felt ashamed of its shabby mattress and the poor sheets. But we had no +better,' she moaned, 'and he did not seem to mind.' I tell you this that +you may understand what must have taken place in her heart when, a few +minutes later, he seized her hand in his and said that he had a great +secret to communicate to her. Though he had seemed the indifferent +brother for years, his heart had always been with his home and his +people, and he was going to prove it to her now; he had made money, +and this money was to be hers and Charity's. He had saved it for them, +brought it to them from the far West; a pile of money all honestly +earned, which he hoped would buy back their old house and make them +happy again in the old way. He said nothing of his nephew. They had not +mentioned him, and possibly he did not even know of his existence. All +was to be for them and the old house, this old house. This was perhaps +why he was content to lie in the midst of its desolation. He foresaw +better days for those he loved, and warmed his heart at his precious +secret. + +"But his sister sat aghast. Money! and so little done for his comfort! +That was her first thought. The next, oh, the wonder and the hope of it! +Now the boy could be saved; now he could have his luxuries. If only it +might be enough! Five thousand, ten thousand. But no, it could not be +so much. Her brother was daft to think she could restore the old home on +what he had been able to save. She said something to show her doubt, at +which he laughed; and, peering slowly and painfully about him, drew +her hands toward his left side. 'Feel,' said he, 'I have it all here. I +would trust nobody. Fifty, thousand dollars.' + +"Fifty thousand dollars! Miss Thankful sprang to her feet, then sat +again, overcome by her delight. Placing her hand on the wallet he held +tied about his body, she whispered, 'Here?' + +"He nodded and bade her look. She told me she did so; that she opened +the wallet under his eye and took out five bonds each for ten thousand +dollars. She remembers them well; there was no mistake in the figures. +She held fifty thousand dollars in her hands for the space of half a +minute; then he bade her put them back, with an injunction to watch +over him well and not to let that woman nurse come near him till she had +taken away the wallet immediately after his death. He could not bear to +part with it while alive. + +"She promised. She was in a delirium of joy. In one minute her life of +poverty had changed to one of ecstatic hope. She caressed her brother. +He smiled contentedly, and sank into coma or heavy sleep. She remained +a few minutes watching him. Picture after picture of future contentment +passed before her eyes; phantasmagoria of joy which held her enthralled +till chance drew her eyes towards the window, and she found herself +looking out upon what for the moment seemed the continuation of her +dream. This was the figure of her nephew, standing in the doorway of the +adjoining house. This entrance into the alley is closed up now, but in +those days it was a constant source of communication between the two +houses, and, being directly opposite the left-hand library window, +would naturally fall under her eye as she looked up from her brother's +bedside. Her nephew! the one person of whom she was dreaming, for whom +she was planning, older by many years than when she saw him last, but +recognizable at once, as the best, the handsomest--but I will spare you +her ravings. She was certainly in her dotage as concerned this man. + +"He was not alone. At his side stood her sister, eagerly pointing +across the alley to herself. It was the appearance of the sister which +presently convinced her that what she saw was reality and no dream. +Charity had risen from her bed to greet the newcomer, and her hasty +toilet was not one which could have been easily imagine, even by her +sister. The long-absent one had returned. He was there, and he did not +know what these last five minutes had done for them all. The joy of +what she had to tell him was too much for her discretion. Noting how +profoundly her brother slept, she slipped out of the room to the side +door and ran across the alley to her own house. Her nephew was no longer +in the doorway where she had seen him, but he had left the door ajar and +she rushed in to find him. He was in the parlor with Miss Charity, and +no sooner did her eyes fall on them both than her full heart overflowed, +and she blurted out their good fortune. Their wonder was immense and in +the conversation which ensued unnoted minutes passed. Not till the clock +struck did she realize that she had left her brother alone for a good +half-hour: This was not right and she went hurrying back, the happiest +woman in town. But it was a short-lived happiness. As she reentered the +sick-room she realized that something was amiss. Her brother had moved +from where she had left him, and now lay stretched across the foot of +the bed, where he had evidently fallen from a standing position. He was +still breathing, but in great gasps which shook the bed. When she bent +over him in anxious questioning, he answered her with a ghastly stare, +and that was all. Otherwise, everything looked the same. + +"'What has happened? What have you done?' she persisted, trying to draw +him up on the pillow. He made a motion. It was in the direction of the +front door. 'Don't let her in,' he muttered. 'I don't trust her, I don't +trust her. Let me die in peace.' Then, as Miss Thankful became conscious +of a stir at the front door, and caught the sound of a key turning in +the lock, which could only betoken the return of the nurse, he raised +himself a little and she saw the wallet hanging out of his dressing +gown. 'I have hidden it,' he whispered, with a nervous look toward the +door: 'I was afraid she might come and take it from me, so I put it +in--' He never said where. His eyes, open and staring straight before +him, took on a look of horror, then slowly glazed under the terrified +glance of Miss Thankful. Death had cut short that vital sentence, and +simultaneously with the entrance of the nurse, whose return he had so +much feared, he uttered his last gasp and sank back lifeless on his +pillow. With a cry Miss Thankful pounced on the wallet. It opened out +flat in her hand, as empty as her life seemed at that minute. But she +was a brave woman and in another instant her courage had revived. The +money could not be far away; she would find it at the first search. +Turning on the nurse, she looked her full in the face. The woman was +gazing at the empty wallet. 'You know what was in that?' queried Miss +Thankful. A fierce look answered her. 'A thousand dollars!' announced +Miss Thankful. The nurse's lip curled. 'Oh, you knew that it was five,' +was Miss Thankful's next outburst. Still no answer, but a look which +seemed to devour the empty wallet. This look had its effect. Miss +Thankful dropped her accusatory tone, and attempted cajolery. 'It was +his legacy to us,' she explained. 'He gave it to me just before he died. +You shall be paid out of it. Now will you call my sister? She's up and +with my nephew, who came an hour ago. Call them both; I am not afraid to +remain here for a few moments with my brother's body.' This appeal, +or perhaps the promise, had its effect. The nurse disappeared, after +another careful look at her patient, and Miss Thankful bounded to her +feet and began a hurried search for the missing bonds. They could not +be far away. They must be in the room, and the room was so nearly empty +that it would take but a moment to penetrate every hiding-place. But +alas! the matter was not so simple as she thought. She looked here, she +looked there; in the bed, in the washstand drawer, under the cushions +of the only chair, even in the grate and up the chimney; but she found +nothing--nothing! She was standing stark and open-mouthed in the middle +of the floor, when the others entered, but recovered herself at sight +of their surprise, and, explaining what had happened, set them all to +search, sister, nephew, even the nurse, though she was careful to keep +close by the latter with a watchfulness that let no movement escape her. +But it was all fruitless. The bonds were not to be found, either in +that room or in any place near. They ransacked, they rummaged; they went +upstairs, they went down; they searched every likely and every unlikely +place of concealment, but without avail. They failed to come upon the +place where he had hidden them; nor did Miss Thankful or her sister ever +see them again from that day to this." + +"Oh!" I exclaimed; "and the nephew? the nurse?" + +"Both went away disappointed; he to face his disgrace about which his +aunts were very reticent, and she to seek work which was all the more +necessary to her, since she had lost her pay, with the disappearance of +these bonds, whose value I have no doubt she knew and calculated on." + +"And the aunts, the two poor old creatures who stare all day out of +their upper window at these walls, still believe that money to be here," +I cried. + +"Yes, that is their mania. Several tenants have occupied these +premises--tenants who have not stayed long, but who certainly filled +all the rooms, and must have penetrated every secret spot the house +contains, but it has made no difference to them. They believe the bonds +to be still lying in some out-of-the-way place in these old walls, and +are jealous of any one who comes in here. This you can understand better +when I tell you that one feature of their mania is this: they have lost +all sense of time. It is two years since their brother died, yet to them +it is an affair of yesterday. They showed this when they talked to me. +What they wanted was for me to give up these bonds to them as soon as +I found them. They seemed to think that I might run across them in +settling, and made me promise to wake them day or night if I came across +them unexpectedly." + +"How pathetic!" I exclaimed. "Do you suppose they have appealed in the +same way to every one who has come in here?" + +"No, or some whisper of this lost money would have become current in +the neighborhood. And it never has. The traditions associated with the +house," here her manner changed a little, "are of quite another nature. +I suppose the old gentleman has walked--looking, possibly, for his lost +bonds." + +"That would be only natural," I smiled, for her mood was far from +serious. "But," I quietly pursued, "how much of this old woman's story +do you believe? Can not she have been deceived as to what she saw? +You say she is more or less demented. Perhaps there never was any old +wallet, and possibly never any money." + +"I have seen the wallet. They brought it in to show me. Not that that +proves anything; but somehow I do believe in the money, and, what is +more, that it is still in this house. You will think me as demented as +they." + +"No, no," I smiled, "for I am inclined to think the same; it lends such +an interest to the place. I wouldn't disbelieve it now for anything." + +"Nor I," she cried, taking up her work. "But we shall never find it. The +house was all redecorated when we came in. Not one of the workmen has +become suddenly wealthy." + +"I shall no longer begrudge these poor old souls their silent watch over +these walls that hold their treasure," I now remarked. + +"Then you have lost your nervousness?" + +"Quite." + +"So have I," laughed Mrs. Packard, showing me for the first time a face +of complete complacency and contentment. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. AT THE STAIR-HEAD + + +I spent the evening alone. Mrs. Packard went to the theater with friends +and Mayor Packard attended a conference of politicians. I felt my +loneliness, but busied myself trying to sift the impressions made upon +me by the different members of the household. + +It consisted, as far as my present observation went, of seven persons, +the three principals and four servants. Of the servants I had seen +three, the old butler, the nurse, and the housemaid, Ellen. I now liked +Ellen; she appeared equally alive and trustworthy; of the butler I +could not say as much. He struck me as secretive. Also, he had begun to +manifest a certain antagonism to myself. Whence sprang this antagonism? +Did it have its source in my temperament, or in his? A question possibly +not worth answering and yet it very well might be. Who could know? + +Pondering this and other subjects, I remained in my cozy little room +up-stairs, till the clock verging on to twelve told me that it was +nearly time for Mrs. Packard's return. + +Hardly knowing my duties as yet, or what she might expect of me, I kept +my door open, meaning to speak to her when she came in. The thought had +crossed my mind that she might not return at all, but remain away with +her friends. Some fear of this kind had been in Mr. Packard's mind and +naturally found lodgment in mine. I was therefore much relieved when, +sharp on the stroke of midnight, I heard the front door-bell ring, +followed by the sound of her voice speaking to the old butler. I thought +its tone more cheerful than before she went out. At all events, her face +had a natural look when, after a few minutes' delay, she came upstairs +and stepped into the nursery--a room on the same floor as mine, but +nearer the stair-head. + +From what impulse did I put out my light? I think now, on looking back, +that I hoped to catch a better glimpse of her face when she came out +again, and so be in a position to judge whether her anxiety or secret +distress was in any special way connected with her child. But I forgot +the child and any motive of this kind which I may have had; for when +Mrs. Packard did reappear in the hall, there rang up from some place +below a laugh, so loud and derisive and of so raucous and threatening a +tone that Mrs. Packard reeled with the shock and I myself was surprised +in spite of my pride and usual impassibility. This, had it been all, +would not be worth the comment. But it was not all. Mrs. Packard did +not recover from the shock as I expected her to. Her fine figure +straightened itself, it is true, but only to sink again lower and lower, +till she clung crouching to the stair-rail at which she had caught for +support, while her eyes, turning slowly in her head, moved till they met +mine with that unseeing and glassy stare which speaks of a soul-piercing +terror--not fear in any ordinary sense, but terror which lays bare the +soul and allows one to see into depths which-- + +But here my compassion drove me to action. Advancing quietly, I caught +at her wrap which was falling from her shoulders. She grasped my hand as +I did so. + +"Did you hear that laugh?" she panted. "Whose was it? Who is +down-stairs?" + +I thought, "Is this one of the unaccountable occurrences which have +given the house its blighted reputation?" but I said: "Nixon let you in. +I don't know whether any one else is below. Mayor Packard has not yet +come home." + +"I know; Nixon told me. Would you--would you mind,"--how hard she strove +to show only the indignant curiosity natural to the situation--"do you +object, I mean, to going down and seeing?" + +"Not at all," I cheerfully answered, glad enough of this chance to +settle my own doubts. And with a last glance at her face, which was far +too white and drawn to please me, I hastened below. + +The lights had not yet been put out in the halls, though I saw none in +the drawing-room or library. Indeed, I ran upon Nixon coming from the +library, where he had evidently been attending to his final duties of +fastening windows and extinguishing lights. Alive to the advantage of +this opportune meeting, I addressed him with as little aggressiveness as +possible. + +"Mrs. Packard has sent me down to see who laughed just now so loudly. +Was it you?" + +Strong and unmistakable dislike showed in his eyes, but his voice was +restrained and apparently respectful as he replied: "No, Miss. I didn't +laugh. There was nothing to laugh at." + +"You heard the laugh? It seemed to come from somewhere here. I was on +the third floor and I heard it plainly." + +His face twitched--a habit of his when under excitement, as I have since +learned--as with a shrug of his old shoulders he curtly answered: + +"You were listening; I was not. If any one laughed down here I didn't +hear 'em." + +Confident that he was lying, I turned quietly away and proceeded down +the hall toward Mayor Packard's study. + +"I wish to speak to the mayor," I explained. + +"He's not there." The man had eagerly followed me. "He's not come home +yet, Miss." + +"But the gas is burning brightly inside and the door ajar. Some one is +there." + +"It is Mr. Steele. He came in an hour ago. He often works here till +after midnight." + +I had heard what I wanted to know, but, being by this time at the very +threshold, I could not forbear giving the door a slight push, so as to +catch at least a momentary glimpse of the man he spoke of. + +He was sitting at his post, and as he neither looked up nor stirred at +my intrusion, I had an excellent opportunity for observing again the +clear-cut profile which had roused my admiration the day before. + +Certainly, seen as I saw it now, in the concentrated glow of a lamp +shaded from every other corner of the room, it was a face well worth +looking at. Seldom, perhaps never, had I beheld one cast in a more +faultless mold. Smooth-shaven, with every harmonious line open to +view, it struck the eye with the force and beauty of a cameo; masculine +strength and feminine grace equally expressed in the expansive forehead +and the perfectly modeled features. Its effect upon the observer was +instantaneous, but the heart was not warmed nor the imagination awakened +by it. In spite of the perfection of the features, or possibly because +of this perfection, the whole countenance had a cold look, as cold as +the sculpture it suggested; and, though incomparable in pure physical +attraction, it lacked the indefinable something which gives life and +meaning to such faces as Mayor Packard's, for instance. Yet it was not +devoid of expression, nor did it fail to possess a meaning of its own. +Indeed, it was the meaning in it which held my attention. Abstracted as +the man appeared to be, even to the point of not perceiving my intruding +figure in the open doorway, the thoughts which held him were not +common thoughts, nor were they such as could be easily read, even by an +accustomed eye. Having noted this, I softly withdrew, not finding any +excuse for breaking in upon a man so occupied. + +The butler stood awaiting me not three feet from the door. But taking +a lesson from the gentleman I had just left, I ignored his presence +completely, and, tripping lightly up-stairs, found Mrs. Packard awaiting +me at the head of the first flight instead of the second. + +Her fears, or whatever it was which moved her, had not diminished in +my absence. She stood erect, but it was by the help of her grasp on the +balustrade; and though her diamonds shone and her whole appearance +in her sweeping dinner-dress was almost regal, there was mortal +apprehension in her eye and a passion of inquiry in her whole attitude +which I was glad her husband was not there to see. + +I made haste to answer that inquiry by immediately observing: + +"I saw Nixon. He was just coming out of the library. He says that he +heard no laugh. The only other person I came upon down-stairs was Mr. +Steele. He was busy over some papers and I did not like to interrupt +him; but he did not look as if a laugh of any sort had come from him." + +"Thank you." + +The words were hoarsely uttered and the tone unnatural, though she tried +to carry it off with an indifferent gesture and a quick movement toward +her room. I admired her self-control, for it was self-control, and was +contrasting the stateliness of her present bearing with the cringing +attitude of a few minutes before--when, without warning or any +premonitory sound, all that beauty and pride and splendor collapsed +before my eyes, and she fell at my feet, senseless. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. A MOVING SHADOW + + +I bent to lift the prostrate form of the unhappy woman who had been +placed in my care. As I did so I heard something like a snarl over +my shoulder, and, turning, saw Nixon stretching eager arms toward his +mistress, whose fall he had doubtless heard. + +"Let me! let me!" he cried, his old form trembling almost to the point +of incapacity. + +"We will lift her together," I rejoined; and though his eyes sparkled +irefully, he accepted my help and together we carried her into her own +room and laid her on a lounge. I have had some training as a nurse +and, perceiving that Mrs. Packard had simply fainted, I was not at all +alarmed, but simply made an effort to restore her with a calmness that +for some reason greatly irritated the old man. + +"Shall I call Ellen? Shall I call Letty?" he kept crying, shifting from +one foot to another in a frightened and fussy way that exasperated me +almost beyond endurance. "She doesn't breathe; she is white, white! Oh, +what will the mayor say? I will call Letty." + +But I managed to keep him under control and finally succeeded +in restoring Mrs. Packard--a double task demanding not a little +self-control and discretion. When the flutter of her eyelids showed that +she would soon be conscious, I pointed out these signs of life to my +uneasy companion and hinted very broadly that the fewer people Mrs. +Packard found about her on coming to herself, the better she would be +pleased. His aspect grew quite ferocious at this, and for a moment I +almost feared him; but as I continued to urge the necessity of avoiding +any fresh cause of agitation in one so weak, he gradually shrank +back from my side where he had kept a jealous watch until now, and +reluctantly withdrew into the hall. + +Another moment and Mrs. Packard had started to rise; but, on seeing +me and me only standing before her, she fell wearily back, crying in a +subdued way, which nevertheless was very intense: + +"Don't, don't let him come in--see me--or know. I must be by myself; I +must be! Don't you see that I am frightened?" + +The words came out with such force I was startled. Leaning over her, +with the natural sympathy her condition called for, I asked quietly but +firmly: + +"Whom do you mean by him? There is only one person in the hall, and that +is your butler." + +"Hasn't Mr. Packard returned?" + +"No, Madam." + +"But I thought I saw him looking at me." + +Her eyes were wild, her body shaking with irrepressible agitation. + +"You were mistaken. Mayor Packard has not yet come home." + +At this double assurance, she sank back satisfied, but still trembling +and very white. + +"It is Mr. Packard I meant," she whispered presently. "Stay with me +and, when he comes in, tell him what will keep him from looking in or +speaking to me. Promise!" She was growing wild again. "Promise, if you +would be of any use to me." + +"I do promise." At which I felt her hand grasp mine with grateful +pressure. "Don't you wish some assistance from me? Your dress--I tried +to loosen it, but failed to find the end of the cord. Shall I try +again?" + +"No, no; that is, I will do it myself." + +I did not see how she could, for her waist was laced up the back, but +I saw that she was too eager to have me go to remember this, and +recognizing the undesirability of irritating her afresh, I simply asked +if she wished me to remain within call. + +But even this was more than she wanted. + +"No. I am better now. I shall be better yet when quite alone." Then +suddenly: "Who knows of this--this folly of mine?" + +"Only Nixon and myself. The girls have gone to bed." + +"Nixon I can trust not to speak of it. Tell him to go. You, I know, will +remember only long enough to do for me what I have just asked." + +"Mrs. Packard, you may trust me." The earnest, confiding look, which for +a moment disturbed the melancholy of her large eyes, touched me closely +as I shut the door between us. + +"Now what is the meaning of this mystery?" I asked myself after I had +seen Nixon go downstairs, shaking his head and casting every now +and then a suspicious glance behind him. "It is not as trivial as it +appears. That laugh was tragedy to her, not comedy." And when I paused +to recollect its tone I did not wonder at its effect upon her mind, +strained as it undoubtedly was by some secret sorrow or perplexity. + +And from whose lips had that laugh sprung? Not from ghostly ones. Such +an explanation I could not accept, and how could Mrs. Packard? From +whose, then? If I could settle this fact I might perhaps determine to +what extent its effect was dependent upon its source. The butler denied +having even heard it. Was this to be believed? Did not this very denial +prove that it was he and no other who had thus shocked the proprieties +of this orderly household? It certainly seemed so; yet where all was +strange, this strange and incomprehensible denial of a self-evident fact +by the vindictive Nixon might have its source in some motive unsuggested +by the circumstances. Certainly, Nixon's mistress appeared to have a +great deal of confidence in him. + +I wished that more had been told me about the handsome secretary. I +wished that fate would give me another opportunity for seeing that +gentleman and putting the same direct question to him I had put to +Nixon. + +Scarcely had this thought crossed my mind before a loud ring at the +telephone disturbed the quiet below and I heard the secretary's voice in +reply. A minute after he appeared at the foot of the stairs. His aspect +was one of embarrassment, and he peered aloft in a hesitating way, as if +he hardly knew how to proceed. + +Taking advantage of this hesitation, I ran softly down to meet him. + +"Any message for Mrs. Packard?" I asked. + +He looked relieved. + +"Yes, from his Honor. The mayor is unavoidably detained and may not be +home till morning." + +"I will tell her." Then, as he reached for his overcoat, I risked all on +one venture, and enlarging a little on the facts, said: + +"Excuse me, but was it you we heard laughing down-stairs a few minutes +ago? Mrs. Packard feared it might be some follower of the girls'." + +Pausing in the act of putting on his coat, he met my look with an air of +some surprise. + +"I am not given to laughing," he remarked; "certainly not when alone." + +"But you heard this laugh?" + +He shook his head. His manner was perfectly courteous, almost cordial. + +"If I did, it made no impression on my mind. I am extremely busy just +now, working up the mayor's next speech." And with a smile and bow in +every way suited to his fine appearance, he took his hat from the rack +and left the house. + +I drew back more mystified than ever. Which of these two men had told me +a lie? One, both, or neither? Impossible to determine. As I try never +to waste gray matter, I resolved to spend no further energy on this +question, but simply to await the next development. + +It came unexpectedly and was of an entirely different nature from any I +had anticipated. + +I had not retired, not knowing at what moment the mayor might return +or what I might be called upon to do when he did. It will be remembered +that one of my windows looked out upon the next house. I approached it +to see if my ever watchful neighbors had retired. Their window was +dark, but I observed what was of much more vital interest to me at that +moment. It was that I was not the only one awake and stirring in our +house. The light from a room diagonally below me poured in a stream on +the opposite wall, and it took but a moment's consideration for me to +decide that the shadow I saw crossing and recrossing this brilliant +square was cast by Mrs. Packard. + +My first impulse was to draw back--(that was the lady's impulse not +quite crushed out of me by the occupation circumstances had compelled +me to take up)--my next, to put out my own light and seat myself at the +post of observation thus afforded me. The excuse I gave myself for this +was plausible enough. Mrs. Packard had been placed in my charge and, if +all was not right with her, it was my business to know it. + +Accordingly I sat and watched each movement of my mysterious charge as +it was outlined on the telltale wall before me, and saw enough in one +half-hour to convince me that something very vigorous and purposeful was +going on in the room so determinedly closed against every one, even her +own husband. + +What? + +The moving silhouette of her figure, which was all that I could see, was +not perfect enough in detail for me to determine. She was busy at some +occupation which took her from one end of the room to the other; but +after watching her shadow for an hour I was no surer than at first as to +what that occupation was. It was a serious one, I saw, and now and +then the movements I watched gave evidence of frantic haste, but their +character stood unrevealed till suddenly the thought came: + +"She is rummaging bureau-drawers and emptying boxes,--in other words, +packing a bag or trunk." + +Should I be witness to a flight? I thought it very likely, especially +when I heard the faint sound of a door opening below, followed by the +swish of silken skirts. I recalled Mayor Packard's fears and began to +suspect that they were not groundless. + +This called for action, and I was about to open my door and rush out +when I was deterred by the surprising discovery that the steps I heard +were coming up rather than going down, and that in another moment +she would be in the hall outside, possibly on her way to the nursery, +possibly with the intention of coming to my own room. + +Greatly taken aback, I stood with my ear to the door, listening +intently. Yes, she has reached the top of the stairs and is stopping no, +she passes the nursery door, she is coming my way. What shall I say to +her,--how account for my comfortable wrapper and the fact that I have +not yet been abed? Had I but locked my door! Could I but lock it now, +unseen and unheard before the nearing step should pause! But the very +attempt were folly; no, I must stand my ground and--Ah! the step +has paused, but not at my door. There is a third one on this hall, +communicating, as I knew, with a covered staircase leading to the attic. +It was at this she stopped and it was up this staircase she went as +warily and softly as its creaking boards would allow; and while I +marveled as to what had taken her aloft so late, I heard her steps over +my head and knew that she had entered the room directly above mine. + +Striking a match, I consulted my watch. It was just ten minutes to +three. Hardly knowing what my duty was in the circumstances, I blew out +the match and stood listening while the woman who was such a mystery +to all her friends moved about overhead in much the same quick and +purposeful way as had put life into her shadow while she was in her own +room. + +"Packing! Nothing less and nothing more," was my now definite decision. +"That is a trunk she is dragging forward. What a hurry she is in, and +how little she cares whether anybody hears her!" + +So little did she care that during the next few minutes of acute +attention I distinguished the flinging down of article after article +on to the floor, as well as many other movements betraying haste or +irritation. + +Suddenly I heard her give a bound, then the sound of a heavy lid falling +and then, after a minute or two of complete silence, the soft pat-pat of +her slippered feet descending the stair. + +Half-past three. + +Waiting till she was well down the second flight, I pushed my door ajar +and, flying down the hall, peered over the balustrade in time to see +her entering her room. She held a lighted candle in her hand and by its +small flame I caught a full glimpse of her figure. To my astonishment +and even to my dismay she was still in the gown she had refused to have +me unlace,--a rich yellow satin in which she must have shone resplendent +a few hours before. She had not even removed the jewels from her neck. +Whatever had occupied her, whatever had taken her hither and thither +through the house, moving furniture out of her way, lifting heavy boxes, +opening dust-covered trunks, had been of such moment to her as to +make her entirely oblivious of the rich and delicate apparel she thus +wantonly sacrificed. But it was not this alone which attracted my +attention. In her hand she held a paper, and the sight of that paper and +the way she clutched it rather disturbed my late conclusions. Had her +errand been one of search rather than of arrangement? and was this +crumpled letter the sole result of a half-hour's ransacking in an attic +room at the dead of night? I was fain to think so, for in the course of +another half-hour her light went out. Relieved that she had not left the +house, I was still anxious as to the cause of her strange conduct. + +Mayor Packard did not come in till daybreak. He found me waiting for him +in the lower hall. + +"Well?" he eagerly inquired. + +"Mrs. Packard is asleep, I hope. A shrill laugh, ringing through the +house shortly after her return, gave her a nervous shock and she begged +that she might be left undisturbed till morning." + +He turned from hanging up his overcoat, and gave me a short stare. + +"A laugh!" he repeated. "Who could have laughed like that? We are not a +very jolly crowd here." + +"I don't know, sir. I thought it must have been either Mr. Steele or +Nixon, the butler, but each denied it. There was no one else in this +part of the house." + +"Mrs. Packard is very sensitive just now," he remarked. Then as he +turned away toward the library door: "I will throw myself on a lounge. I +have but an hour or two before me, as I have my preparations to make +for leaving town on the early morning train. I shall have some final +instructions to give you." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE PARAGRAPH + + +I was up betimes. Would Mrs. Packard appear at breakfast? I hardly +thought so. Yet who knows? Such women have great recuperative powers, +and from one so mysteriously affected anything might be expected. +Ready at eight, I hastened down to the second floor to find the lady, +concerning whom I had had these doubts, awaiting me on the threshold of +her room. She was carefully dressed and looked pale enough to have been +up for hours. An envelope was in her hand, and the smile which hailed my +approach was cold and constrained. + +"Good morning," said she. "Let us go down. Let us go down together. I +slept wretchedly and do not feel very strong. When did Mr. Packard come +in?" + +"Late. He went directly to the library. He said that he had but a short +time in which to rest, and would take what sleep he could get on the +lounge, when I told him of your very natural nervous attack." + +She sighed--a sigh which came from no inconsiderable depths--then with a +proud and resolute gesture preceded me down-stairs. + +Her husband was already in the breakfast-room. I could hear his voice as +we turned at the foot of the stairs. Mrs. Packard, hearing it, too, +drew herself up still more firmly and was passing bravely forward, when +Nixon's gray head protruded from the doorway and I heard him say: + +"There's company for breakfast, ma'am. His Honor could not spare Mr. +Steele and asked me to set a place for him." + +I noted a momentary hesitation on Mrs. Packard's part, then she silently +acquiesced and we both passed on. In another instant we were receiving +the greetings and apologies of the gentlemen. If Mr. Steele had expected +that his employer's wife would offer him her hand, he was disappointed. + +"I am happy to welcome one who has proved so useful to my husband," she +remarked with cool though careful courtesy as we all sat down at the +table; and, without waiting for an answer, she proceeded to pour the +coffee with a proud grace which gave no hint of the extreme feeling by +which I had seen her moved the night before. + +Had I known her better I might have found something extremely unnatural +in her manner and the very evident restraint she put upon herself +through the whole meal; but not having any acquaintance with her +ordinary bearing under conditions purely social, I was thrown out of my +calculations by the cold ease with which she presided at her end of the +table, and the set smile with which she greeted all remarks, whether +volunteered by her husband or by his respectful but affable secretary. I +noticed, however, that she ate little. + +Nixon, whom I dared not watch, did not serve with his usual +precision,--this I perceived from the surprised look cast at him by +Mayor Packard on at least two occasions. Though to the ordinary eye a +commonplace meal, it had elements of tragedy in it which made the least +movement on the part of those engaged in it of real moment to me. I was +about to leave the table unenlightened, however, when Mrs. Packard rose +and, drawing a letter from under the tray before which she sat, let +her glances pass from one gentleman to the other with a look of decided +inquiry. I drew in my breath and by dropping my handkerchief sought an +excuse for lingering in the room an instant longer. + +"Will--may I ask one of you," she stammered with her first show of +embarrassment during the meal, "to--to post this letter for me?" + +Both gentlemen were standing and both gentlemen reached for it; but it +was into the secretary's hand she put it, though her husband's was +much the nearer. As Mr. Steele received it he gave it the casual glance +natural under the circumstances,--a glance which instantly, however, +took on an air of surprise that ended in a smile. + +"Have you not made some mistake?" he asked. + +"This does not look like a letter." And he handed her back the paper she +had given him. With an involuntary ingathering of her breath, she seemed +to wake out of some dream and, looking down at the envelope she held, +she crushed it in her hand with a little laugh in which I heard the note +of real gaiety for the first time. + +"Pardon me," she exclaimed; and, meeting his amused gaze with one +equally expressive, she carelessly added: "I certainly brought a letter +down with me." + +Bowing pleasantly, but with that indefinable air of respect which +bespeaks the stranger, he waited while she hastened back to the tray and +drew from under it a second paper. + +"Pardon my carelessness," she said. "I must have caught up a scrawl of +the baby's in taking this from my desk." + +She brought forward a letter and ended the whole remarkable episode by +handing it now to her husband, who, with an apologetic glance at the +other, put it in his pocket. + +I say remarkable; for in the folded slip which had passed back and forth +between her and the secretary, I saw, or thought I saw, a likeness to +the paper she had brought the night before out of the attic. + +If Mayor Packard saw anything unusual in his wife's action he made no +mention of it when I went into his study at nine o'clock. And it was +so much of an enigma to me that I was not ready to venture a question +regarding it. + +Her increased spirits and more natural conduct were the theme of the few +sentences he addressed me, and while he urged precaution and a continued +watch upon his wife, he expressed the fondest hope that he should find +her fully restored on his return at the end of two weeks. + +I encouraged his hopes, and possibly shared them; but I changed my mind, +as he probably did his, when a few minutes later we met her in the hall +hurrying toward us with a newspaper in her hand and a ghastly look on +her face. "See! see! what they have dared to print!" she cried, with a +look, full of anguish, into his bewildered face. + +He took the sheet, read, and flushed, then suddenly grew white. +"Outrageous!" he exclaimed. Then tenderly, "My poor darling! that they +should dare to drag your name into this abominable campaign!" + +"And for no reason," she faltered; "there is nothing wrong with me. You +believe that; you are sure of that," she cried. I saw the article later. +It ran something like this: + +"Rumor has it that not even our genial mayor's closet is free from the +proverbial skeleton. Mrs. Packard's health is not what it was,--and some +say that the causes are not purely physical." + +He tried to dissimulate. Putting his arm about her, he kissed her fondly +and protested with mingled energy and feeling: + +"I believe you to be all you should be--a true woman and true wife." + +Her face lighted and she clung for a moment in passionate delight to his +breast; then she caught his look, which was tender but not altogether +open, and the shadows fell again as she murmured: + +"You are not satisfied. Oh, what do you see, what do others see, that I +should be the subject of doubt? Tell me! I can never right myself till I +know." + +"I see a troubled face when I should see a happy one," he answered +lightly; then, as she still clung in very evident question to his arm, +he observed gravely: "Two weeks ago you were the life of this house, and +of every other house into which your duties carried you. Why shouldn't +you be the same to-day? Answer me that, dear, and all my doubts will +vanish, I assure you." + +"Henry,"--drooping her head and lacing her fingers in and out with +nervous hesitation,--"you will think me very foolish,--I know that it +will sound foolish, childish even, and utterly ridiculous; but I can +explain myself no other way. I have had a frightful experience--here--in +my own house--on the spot where I have been so happy, so unthinkingly +happy. Henry--do not laugh--it is real, very real, to me. The specter +which is said to haunt these walls has revealed itself to me. I have +seen the ghost." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. SCRAPS + + +We did not laugh; we did not even question her sanity; at least I did +not; there was too much meaning in her manner. + +"A specter," her husband repeated with a suggestive glance at the +brilliant sunshine in which we all stood. + +"Yes." The tone was one of utter conviction. "I had never believed in +such things--never thought about them, but--it was a week ago--in the +library--I have not seen a happy moment since--" + +"My darling!" + +"Yes, yes, I know; but imagine! I was sitting reading. I had just come +from the nursery, and the memory of Laura's good-night kiss was more in +my mind than the story I was finishing when--oh, I can not think of it +without a shudder!--the page before me seemed to recede and the words +fade away in a blue mist; glancing up I beheld the outlines of a +form between me and the lamp, which a moment before had been burning +brightly. Outlines, Henry,--I was conscious of no substance, and the +eyes which met mine from that shadowy, blood-curdling Something were +those of the grave and meant a grave for you or for me. Oh, I know what +I say! There was no mistaking their look. As it burned into and through +me, everything which had given reality to my life faded and seemed as +far away and as unsubstantial as a dream. Nor has its power over me gone +yet. I go about amongst you, I eat, I sleep, or try to; I greet men, +talk with women, but it is all unreal, all phantasmagoric, even yourself +and your love and, O God, my baby! What is real and distinctive, an +absolute part of me and my life, is that shape from the dead, with its +threatening eyes which pierce--pierce--" + +She was losing her self-control. Her husband, with a soothing touch on +her arm, brought her back to the present. + +"You speak of a form," he said, "a shadowy outline. The form of what? A +man or a woman?" + +"A man! a man!" With the exclamation she seemed to shrink into herself +and her eyes, just now deprecating and appealing, took on a hollow +stare, as if the vision she described had risen again before her. + +In spite of himself and the sympathy he undoubtedly felt for her, an +ejaculation of impatience left her husband's lips. Obligations very far +removed from the fantasies of a disturbed mind made these unsubstantial +fears of hers seem puerile enough to this virile, outspoken man. No +doubt she heard it, and to stop the matter-of-fact protest on his lips +added quickly: + +"Not the form, face and eyes of a man, as they usually appear. Hell was +in his gaze and the message he gave, if it was a message, was one of +disaster, if not death. Do you wonder that my happiness vanished before +it? That I can not be myself since that dreadful day?" + +The mayor was a practical man; he kept close to the subject. + +"You saw this form between you and the lighted lamp. How long did it +stay there and what became of it?" + +"I can not tell you. One moment it was there and the next it was gone, +and I found myself staring into vacancy. I seem to be staring there +still, waiting for the blow destined to shatter this household." + +"Nonsense! give me a kiss and fix your thoughts on something more +substantial. What we have to fear and all we have to fear is that I may +lose my election. And that won't kill me, whatever effect it may have on +the party." + +"Henry,"--her voice had changed to one more natural, also her manner. +The confidence expressed in this outburst, the vitality, the masculine +attitude he took were producing their effect. "You don't believe in what +I saw or in my fears. Perhaps you are right. I am ready to acknowledge +this; I will try to look upon it all as a freak of my imagination if you +will promise to forget these dreadful days, and if people, other people, +will leave me alone and not print such things about me." + +"I am ready to do my part," was his glad reply, "and as for the other +people you mention, we shall soon bring them to book." Raising his +voice, he called out his secretary's name. As it rang loud and cheery +down the hall, the joy and renewed life which had been visible in her +manner lost some of their brightness. + +"What are you going to do?" she gasped, with the quickness of doubt and +strong if reasonless apprehension. "Give an order," he explained; +then, as the secretary appeared at our end of the hall, he held out the +journal which he had taken from his wife and indicating the offensive +paragraph, said: + +"Find out who did that." + +Mr. Steele with a surprised look ran his eyes over the paragraph, +knitting his brows as he did. + +"It is calumny," fell from Mrs. Packard's lips as she watched him. + +"Most certainly," he assented, with an energy which brought a flush of +pleasure to the humiliated woman's cheek. "It will detain me two days +or more to follow up this matter," he remarked, with a look of inquiry +directed at Mayor Packard. + +"Never mind. Two days or a week, it is all one. I would rather lose +votes than pass over such an insult. Pin me down the man who has dared +attack me through my wife, and you will do me the greatest favor one man +can show another." + +Mr. Steele bowed. "I can not forego the final consultation we had +planned to hold on the train. May I ride down with you to the station?" + +"Certainly; most happy." + +Mr. Steele withdrew, after casting a glance of entirely respectful +sympathy at the woman who up to this hour had faced the world without a +shadow between her and it; and, marking the lingering nature of the look +with which the mayor now turned on his wife, I followed the secretary's +example and left them to enjoy their few last words alone. + +Verily the pendulum of events swung wide and fast in this house. + +This conclusion was brought back to me with fresh insistence a few +minutes later, when, on hearing the front door shut, I stepped to the +balustrade and looked over to see if Mrs. Packard was coming up. She +was not, for I saw her go into the library; but plainly on the marble +pavement below, just where we had all been standing, in fact, I +perceived the piece of paper she had brought with her from the +dining-room and had doubtless dropped in the course of the foregoing +conversation. + +Running down in great haste, I picked it up. This scrap of I knew not +what, but which had been the occasion of the enigmatic scene I had +witnessed at the breakfast-table, necessarily interested me very much +and I could not help giving it a look. I saw that it was inscribed with +Hebraic-looking characters as unlike as possible to the scrawl of a +little child. + +With no means of knowing whether they were legible or not, these +characters made a surprising impression upon me, one, indeed, that was +almost photographic. + +I also noted that these shapes or characters, of which there were just +seven, were written on the face of an empty envelope. This decided any +doubts I may have had as to its identity with the paper she had brought +down from the attic. That had been a square sheet, which even if folded +would fail to enter this long and narrow envelope. The interest which +I had felt when I thought the two identical was a false interest. Yet +I could not but believe that this scrap had a value of its own equal to +the one with which, under this misapprehension, I had invested it. + +Carrying it back to Mrs. Packard, I handed it over with the remark that +I had found it lying in the hall. She cast a quick look at it, gave me +another look and tossed the paper into the grate. As it caught fire and +flared up, the characters started vividly into view. + +This second glimpse of them, added to the one already given me, fixed +the whole indelibly in my mind. This is the way they looked. + + +[]; V; [];.>; V; [-]; <; + + +While I watched these cabalistic marks pass from red to black and +finally vanish in a wild leap up the chimney, Mrs. Packard remarked: + +"I wish I could destroy the memory of all my mistakes as completely as I +can that old envelope." + +I did not answer; I was watching the weary droop of her hand over the +arm of her chair. + +"You are tired, Mrs. Packard," was my sympathetic observation. "Will you +not take a nap? I will gladly sit by you and read you to sleep." + +"No, no," she cried, at once alert and active; "no sleep. Look at that +pile of correspondence, half of it on charitable matters. Now that +I feel better, now that I have relieved my mind, I must look over my +letters and try to take up the old threads again." + +"Can I help you?" I asked. + +"Possibly. If you will go to my room up-stairs, I will join you after I +have sorted and read my mail." + +I was glad to obey this order. I had a curiosity about her room. It had +been the scene of much I did not understand the night before. Should +I find any traces there of that search which had finally ended over my +head in the attic? + +I was met at the door by Ellen. She wore a look of dismay which I felt +fully accounted for when I looked inside. Disorder reigned from one end +of the room to the other, transcending any picture I may have formed in +my own mind concerning its probable condition. Mrs. Packard must have +forgotten all this disarray, or at least had supposed it to have yielded +to the efforts of the maid, when she proposed my awaiting her there. +There were bureau-drawers with their contents half on the floor, boxes +with their covers off, cupboard-doors ajar and even the closet shelves +showing every mark of a frenzied search among them. Her rich gown, +soiled to the width of half a foot around the bottom, lay with cut laces +and its trimmings in rags under a chair which had been knocked over +and left where it fell. Even her jewels had not been put away, but lay +scattered on the dresser. Ellen looked ashamed and, when I retired +to the one bare place I saw in the bay of the window, muttered as she +plunged to lift one of the great boxes: + +"It's as bad as the attic room up-stairs. All the trunks have been +emptied on to the floor and one held her best summer dresses. What shall +I do? I have a whole morning's work before me." + +"Let me help you," I proposed, rising with sudden alacrity. My eyes had +just fallen on a small desk at my right, also on the floor beneath and +around it. Here, there and everywhere above and below lay scraps of +torn-up paper; and on many, if not on all of them, could be seen the +broken squares and inverted angles which had marked so curiously the +surface of the envelope she had handed to Mr. Steele, and which I had +afterward seen her burn. + +"A baby can make a deal of mess," I remarked, hurriedly collecting these +scraps and making a motion of throwing them into the waste-paper basket, +but hiding them in my blouse instead. + +"The baby! Oh, the baby never did that. She's too young." + +"Oh, I didn't know. I haven't seen much of the child though I heard her +cry once in the nursery. How old is she?" + +"Twenty months and such a darling! You never saw such curls or such +eyes. Why, look at this!" + +"What?" I demanded, hurrying to the closet, where Ellen stood bending +over something invisible to me. "Oh, nothing," she answered, coming +quickly out. But in another moment, her tongue getting the better of her +discretion, she blurted out: "Do you suppose Mrs. Packard had any +idea of going with the mayor? Her bag is in there almost packed. I was +wondering where all her toilet articles were. That accounts--" Stopping, +she cast a glance around the room, ending with a shake of the head and +a shrug. "She needn't have pulled out all her things," she sharply +complained. "Certain, she is a mysterious lady;--as queer as she is +kind." + + + + +CHAPTER X. A GLIMMER OF THE TRUTH + + +This was a sentiment I could thoroughly indorse. Mrs. Packard was +certainly an enigma to me. Leaving Ellen to finish her work, I went +upstairs to my own room, and, taking out the scraps of paper I had so +carefully collected, spread them out before me on the lid of the desk. + +They were absolutely unintelligible to me--marks and nothing more. +Useless to waste time over such unmeaning scrawls when I had other and +more tangible subjects to consider. But I should not destroy them. There +might come a time when I should be glad to give them the attention which +my present excitement forbade. Putting them back in my desk, I settled +myself into a serious contemplation of the one fact which seemed to +give a partial if not wholly satisfactory explanation of Mrs. Packard's +peculiar conduct during the last two weeks--her belief that she had been +visited by a specter of an unholy, threatening aspect. + +That it was a belief and nothing more seemed sufficiently clear to me in +the cold-blooded analysis to which I now subjected the whole matter. + +Phantoms have no place in the economy of nature. That Mrs. Packard +thought herself the victim of one was simply a proof of how deeply, +though perhaps unconsciously, she had been affected by the traditions +of the house. Such sensitiveness in a mind naturally firm and uncommonly +well poised, called for attention. Yet a physician had asserted that +he could do nothing for her. Granting that he was mistaken, would an +interference of so direct and unmistakable a character be wise in the +present highly strung condition of her nerves? I doubted it. It would +show too plainly the light in which we regarded her. I dared not +undertake the responsibility of such a course in Mayor Packard's +absence. Some other way must be found to quiet her apprehensions and +bring her into harmony again with her surroundings. I knew of only one +course. If the influence of the house had brought on this hallucination, +then the influence of the house must be destroyed. She must be made +to see that, despite its unfortunate reputation, no specter had ever +visited it; that some purely natural cause was at the bottom of the +various manifestations which had successively driven away all previous +tenants. + +Could I hope to effect this? It was an undertaking of no small moment. +Had I the necessary judgment? I doubted it, but my ambition was roused. +While Mr. Steele was devoting himself to the discovery of Mayor and +Mrs. Packard's political enemy, I would essay the more difficult task +of penetrating the mystery threatening their domestic peace. I could but +fail; a few inquiries would assure me of the folly or the wisdom of my +course. + +Having reached this point and satisfied myself as to my real duty, I +rose to leave my room for another word or two with Ellen. As I did so +my eyes fell on the shade still drawn between me and the next house. The +impulse to raise it was irresistible. I must see if either of the two +old faces still occupied that gable window. It was not likely. It was +not in ordinary human nature to keep up so unremitting a watch. Yet as +the shade flew up at my touch I realized that my astonishment would +have been great and my expectations altogether disappointed if I had +not encountered the fixed countenance and the set stare with which I +had come to connect this solitary window. Miss Charity was there, and, +though I now knew what underlay her senile, if not utterly mad watch, +the impression made upon me by her hopeless countenance was as keen as +it had ever been, and lent point and impetus to the task I had just set +for myself. + +It was apparent that Mrs. Packard had forgotten or changed her mind +about joining me in her own room, but nevertheless I went out, +to discover what possible duties she might have laid out for me. +Ascertaining from Ellen that Mrs. Packard had engagements which would +take her out at noon, I waited for that hour to pass, then excused +myself and went out also. + +The owner of the house whose shaded history I was now determined to +learn was John Searles, a real estate agent. To his office in Main +Street I at once proceeded, not without doubts and much inward +trepidation, but buoyed up by the assurance of Mayor Packard's approval +of any attempt, however far-fetched or unpromising, which held out the +least possibility of relieving Mrs. Packard from her superstitious fears +and restoring the peace and happiness of the household. If only Mr. +Searles should prove to be an approachable man! + +I had never seen him or heard him spoken of, or I should not have +encouraged myself with this hope. At my first glimpse of his tall, gaunt +figure, hard features, and brisk impatient movements, I knew that my wit +and equanimity would be put to their full test in the interview. + +He was engaged, at my entrance, in some harsh dispute with a couple of +other men, but came forward quickly enough when he saw me. Recognizing +at once that any attempt at ingratiation would fail with this man, I +entered at once upon my errand by asking a question direct enough to +command his attention, if it did not insure the desired reply. + +"Mr. Searles, when you purchased the house on Franklin Street, did +you know enough about it to have an answer ready for any one who might +declare it haunted?" + +The abruptness of the attack produced its effect. Annoyance swept every +hint of patience from face and manner, and he exclaimed in a tone which +conveyed, only too openly, how disagreeable the subject was to him. + +"Again!" + +I smiled. It would not do to show how much I felt the total lack of +sympathy in his manner. + +"You will have trouble," said I, "until it is proved that the +occurrences which have provoked this report have a very natural and +quite human source." + +He stopped in his nervous fidgeting and gave me a quick hard look. + +"Who are you?" he asked, "and why has Mrs. Packard made you her +messenger instead of coming herself?" + +"I am her companion, engaged by Mayor Packard to stay with her during +his contemplated absence. I am here instead of Mrs. Packard because +it is she herself who is the present sufferer from the disagreeable +experiences which attend life in the Franklin Street house." + +"Mrs. Packard?" His tone betrayed a complete incredulity. "Mrs. Packard? +a woman of such strong good sense! I think you must have been misled by +some foolish attempt at humor on her part. Does she know that you have +come to me with this complaint?" + +"She does not. She is not in a condition to be consulted on the subject. +I am Mayor Packard's emissary. He is very anxious about his wife." Then +as Mr. Searles continued unmoved, I added in a straightforward manner, +and with all the earnestness I felt: "Mrs. Packard believes herself to +have come face to face with an undoubted specter in the library of the +house they have rented from you. She related the circumstances to her +husband and to myself this very morning. It occurred, according to her +story, several days ago; meantime her manner and appearance have shown a +great change. Mayor Packard is not the only one who has noticed it. The +whole household has been struck by her condition, though no one knew its +cause until to-day. Of course, we do not believe in the specter; that +was pure hallucination on her part. This we no more doubt than you do." + +"Then what do you want here?" he asked, after a moment of harsh +scrutiny. + +"Proof which will convince her that it was an hallucination and without +the least basis in any spiritual fact," I returned. "If you will give +me a few minutes of your time, I will explain just what I mean and also +make known to you my wishes. I can wait till you have finished your +business with the gentlemen I see over there." + +He honored me with a look, which for the first time showed any +appreciation of my feelings, and pushing open a door near by, called out +to some one within: + +"Here, Robinson, talk with this lady. Her business is not in my line." +Then, turning to me with a quick, "Step in, Madam," he left me with the +greatest abruptness and hurried back to the gentlemen awaiting him on +the other side of the room. + +I was considerably taken aback by this move, but knew no other course +than to enter the room he had pointed out and pursue my conversation +with whomever I should find there. + +Alas! the gentleman who rose at my entrance was also one of the tall, +thin and nervous type. But he was not without heart, like the other, as +was soon made apparent to me. Very few human faces are plainer than the +one I now searched for the encouragement of which I stood in such +sore need, but also very few faces, handsome or otherwise, have the +attraction of so pleasant a smile. Its affable greeting was followed by +the hasty pushing forward of a chair and a kind inquiry as to what he +could do for me. + +My answer woke an immediate interest. "My name is Saunders," I said. "I +am at present an inmate of Mayor Packard's house--a house belonging to +Mr. Searles, and one which has its drawbacks." + +The meaning look with which I uttered the last sentence called forth an +answering one. A flash of excitement broke over his features and he +cast a quick glance at the door which fortunately had swung to at my +entrance. + +"Has--have they--has anything of a disagreeable nature happened to any +one in this house?" he asked with ill-concealed perturbation. "I did not +expect it during their tenantry, but if such has occurred, I am obliged +to Mrs. Packard for letting me know. She promised to, you see, and--" + +"She promised!" I cried. + +"Yes; in joke no doubt, being at the time in a very incredulous state +of mind. She vowed that she would let me know the very day she saw the +lights or encountered anything in the house, which could be construed +into a spiritual visitation. Has such a manifestation occurred?" he +eagerly inquired. "Has it? has it? Am I to add her name to the list of +those who have found the house uninhabitable?" + +"That I am not ready to say," was my cautious response. "Mrs. Packard, +during the period of her husband's candidacy, would scarcely wish to +draw public attention to herself or these supernatural happenings by +any such move. I hope that what I say to you on this subject will go no +further." + +"You may rest assured that it will never become public property," he +assured me. "One person I am bound to tell; but that is all. That person +is too much interested in the house's good name to spread so damaging a +story. An experience, more or less disagreeable, must have occurred to +some member of the family," continued Mr. Robinson. "Your presence here +assures me of that. What kind of experience? The--manifestations have +not always been of the same nature." + +"No; and that is what so engages my attention. These experiences differ +so much in their character. Do you happen to know the exact nature of +each? I have a theory which I long to substantiate. May I trust you with +it?" + +"You certainly may, Miss. No one has thought over this matter more +earnestly than I have. Not because of any superstitious tendency on my +part; rather from the lack of it. I don't believe in spirits. I don't +believe in supernatural agencies of any kind; yet strange things do +happen in that house, things which we find it hard to explain." + +"Mrs. Packard's experience was this. She believes herself to have +encountered in the library the specter of a man; a specter with a gaze +so terrifying that it impressed itself upon her as an omen of death, or +some other dire disaster. What have your other tenants seen?" + +"Shadows mostly; but not always. Sometimes the outline of an arm +projecting out of darkness; sometimes, the trace of steps on the hall +floors, or the discovery in the morning of an open door which had been +carefully closed at bedtime. Once it was the trailing of ghostly fingers +across the sleeper's face, and once a succession of groans rising from +the lower halls and drawing the whole family from their beds, to find +no one but themselves within the whole four walls. A clearly outlined +phantom has been scarce. But Mrs. Packard has seen one, you say." + +"Thinks she has seen one," I corrected. "Mayor Packard and myself both +look upon the occurrence as a wholly imaginary one, caused by her secret +brooding over the very manifestations you mention. If she could be +convinced that these manifestations had a physical origin, she would +immediately question the reality of the specter she now believes herself +to have seen. To bring her to this point I am ready to exert myself to +the utmost. Are you willing to do the same? If so, I can assure you of +Mayor Packard's appreciation." + +"How? What? You believe the whole thing a fraud? That all these +tenants coming from various quarters manufactured all these stories and +submitted to endless inconvenience to perpetuate a senseless lie?" + +"No, I don't think that. The tenants were honest enough, but who owned +the house before Mr. Searles?" I was resolved to give no hint of the +information imparted to me by Mrs. Packard. + +"The Misses Quinlan, the two maiden ladies who live next door to Mayor +Packard." + +"I don't know them," said I truthfully. + +"Very worthy women," Mr. Robinson assured me. "They are as much +disturbed and as completely puzzled as the rest of us over the +mysterious visitations which have lessened the value of their former +property. They have asked me more than once for an explanation of its +marked unpopularity. I felt foolish to say ghosts, but finally I found +myself forced to do so, much to my lasting regret." + +"How? Why?" I asked, with all the force of a very rapidly increasing +curiosity. + +"Because its effect upon them has been so disastrous. They were women of +intelligence previous to this, one of them quite markedly so, but from +that day they have given evidence of mental weakness which can only be +attributed to their continual brooding over this mysterious topic. The +house, whose peculiarities we are now discussing, was once their +family homestead, and they shrink from the reproach of its unfortunate +reputation. What! you don't think so?" he impetuously asked, moved, +perhaps, by my suggestive silence. "You are suspicious of these two poor +old women? What reason have you for that, Miss Saunders? What motive +could they have for depreciating the value of what was once their own +property?" + +So he knew nothing of the lost bonds! Mrs. Packard had made no mistake +when she assured me of the secrecy with which they had endured their +misfortune. It gave me great relief; I could work more safely with this +secret unshared. But the situation called for dissimulation. It was with +anything but real openness that I declared: + +"You can not calculate the impulses of an affected mind. Jealousy of the +past may influence these unfortunate women. They possibly hate to see +strangers in the rooms made sacred by old associations." + +"That is possible, but how could they, shut up in a house, separated +from yours by a distance of several feet, be held accountable for the +phenomena observed in 393? There are no means of communication between +the two buildings; even the doors, which once faced each other across +the dividing alley, have been closed up. Interference from them is +impossible." + +"No more impossible than from any other outside source. Is it a fact +that the doors and windows of this strangely haunted house were always +found securely locked after each occurrence of the phenomena you have +mentioned?" + +"So I have been told by every tenant I have questioned, and I was +careful to question them, I assure you." + +"That settles the matter in my mind," I asserted. "These women know of +some means of entrance that has escaped general discovery. Cunning is a +common attribute of the unsettled brain." + +"And they are very cunning. Miss Saunders, you have put a totally new +idea into my head. I do not place much stress upon the motive you have +attributed to them, nor do I see how the appearances noted could have +been produced by these two antiquated women; but the interest they have +displayed in the effect these have had upon others has been of the most +decided nature. They have called here after the departure of every +fresh tenant, and it was all that I could do to answer their persistent +inquiries. It is to them and not to Mr. Searles I feel bound to report +the apparition seen by Mrs. Packard." + +"To them!" I ejaculated in amazement. "Why to them? They no longer have +a proprietary interest in the house." + +"Very true, but they long ago exacted a promise from me to keep a strict +account of such complaints as were raised against the house. They, in +short, paid me to do so. From time to time they have come here to +read this account. It annoys Mr. Searles, but I have had considerable +patience with them for reasons which your kind heart will instantly +suggest." + +I thought of the real pathos of the situation, and how much I might +increase his interest by giving him the full details of their pitiful +history, and the maddening hopes it engendered of a possible discovery +of the treasure they still believed to be hidden in the house. What I +said, however, was this: + +"You have kept an account, you say, of the varied phenomena seen in this +house? You have that account now?" + +"Yes, Miss Saunders." + +"Let us look it over together. Let us see if it does not give us some +clue to the mystery puzzling us." + +He eyed me doubtfully, or as much so as his great nature would allow. +Meantime, I gauged my man. Was he to be thoroughly and unequivocally +trusted? His very hesitation in face of his undoubted sympathy with me +seemed to insure that he was. At all events, the occasion warranted some +risk on my part. At least I persuaded myself that it did; so without +waiting for his reply, I earnestly remarked: + +"The matter is more serious than you suppose. If the mayor were not +unavoidably called away by his political obligations, he would add his +entreaties to mine for a complete sifting of this whole affair. +The Misses Quinlan may very well be innocent of inciting these +manifestations; if so, we can do them no harm by a little confidential +consideration of the affair from the standpoint I have given you. If +they are not, then Mr. Searles and Mayor Packard should know it." + +It appeared to convince him. His homely face shone with the fire of +sudden interest and resolve, and, reaching for a small drawer at the +right of his desk, he opened it and drew forth a folded paper which he +proceeded to open before me with the remark: + +"Here is a report that I have kept for my own satisfaction. I do not +feel that in showing it to you I am violating any trust reposed in me by +the Misses Quinlan. I never promised secrecy in the matter." + +I glanced at the paper, all eagerness. He smiled and pushed it toward +me. This is what I read: + + + First tenant, Mr. Hugh Dennison and family. + + Night 1: Heard and saw nothing. + Night 2: The entire household wakened by a scream seemingly + coming from below. This was twice repeated before Mr. Dennison + could reach the hall; the last time in far distant and smothered + tones. Investigation revealed nothing. No person and no trace + of any persons, save themselves, could be found anywhere in the + house. Uncomfortable feelings, but no alarm as yet. + Night 3: No screams, but a sound of groaning in the library. + The tall clock standing near the drawing-room door stopped at + twelve, and a door was found open which Mr. Dennison is sure he + shut tight on retiring. A second unavailing search. One servant + left the next morning. + Night 4: Footfalls on the stairs. The library door, locked by Mr. + Dennison's own hand, is heard to unclose. The timepiece on the + library mantel-shelf strikes twelve; but it is slightly fast, and + Mr. and Mrs. Dennison, who have crept from their room to the + stair-head, listen breathlessly for the deep boom of the great + hall clock--the one which had stopped the night before. No light + is burning anywhere, and the hall below is a pit of darkness, when + suddenly Mrs. Dennison seizes her husband's arm and, gasping out, + "The clock, the clock!" falls fainting to the floor. He bends to + look and faintly, in the heart of the shadows, he catches in dim + outline the face of the clock, and reaching up to it a spectral + hand. Nothing else--and in another moment that, too, disappears; + but the silence is something awful--the great clock has stopped. + With a shout he stumbles downward, lights up the hall, lights up + the rooms, but finds nothing, and no one. Next morning the second + servant leaves, but her place is soon supplied by an applicant we + will call Bess. + Night 5: Mrs. Dennison sleeps at a hotel with the children. Mr. + Dennison, revolver in hand, keeps watch on the haunted stairway. + He has fastened up every door and shutter with his own hand, and + with equal care extinguished all lights. As the hour of twelve + approaches, he listens breathlessly. There is certainly a stir + somewhere, but he can not locate it, not quite satisfy himself + whether it is a footfall or a rustle that he hears. The clock + in the library strikes twelve, then the one in the hall gives one + great boom, and stops. Instantly he raises his revolver and + shoots directly at its face. No sound from human lips answers + the discharge of the weapon. In the flash which for a moment has + lighted up the whole place, he catches one glimpse of the broken + dial with its two hands pointing directly at twelve, but nothing + more. Then all is dark again, and he goes slowly back to his own + room. + The next day he threw up his lease. + + Second tenant: Mrs. Crispin. + + Stayed but one night. Would never tell us what she saw. + + Third tenant: Mrs. Southwick. Hires Bess for maid-of-all-work, the + only girl she could get. + + Night 1: Unearthly lights shining up through the house, waking + the family. Disappeared as one and all came creeping out into the + hall. + Night 2: The same, followed by deep groans. Children waked and + shrieked. + Night 3: Nothing. + Night 4: Lights, groans and strange shadows on the walls and + ceilings of the various hallways. Family give notice the next day, + but do not leave for a week, owing to sickness. No manifestations + while doctor and nurses are in the house. + + House stands vacant for three months. Bess offers to remain in it + as caretaker, but her offer is refused. + + Police investigate. + + An amusing farce. + One of them saw something and could not be laughed out of it by his + fellows. But the general report was unsatisfactory. The mistake + was the employment of Irishmen in a task involving superstition. + + Fourth tenant: Mr. Weston and family. + + Remain three weeks. Leaves suddenly because the nurse encountered + something moving about in the lower hall one night when she went + down to the kitchen to procure hot water for a sick child. Bess + again offered her services, but the family would not stay under any + circumstances. + + Another long period without tenant. + + Mr. Searles tries a night in the empty house. Sits and dozes in + library till two. Wakes suddenly. Door he has tightly shut is + standing open. He feels the draft. Turns on light from dark + lantern. Something is there--a shape--he can not otherwise + describe it. As he stares at it, it vanishes through doorway. He + rushes for it; finds nothing. The hall is empty; so is the whole + house. + +This finished the report. + +"So Mr. Searles has had his own experiences of these Mysteries!" I +exclaimed. + +"As you see. Perhaps that is why he is so touchy on the subject." + +"Did he ever give you any fuller account of his experience than is +detailed here?" + +"No; he won't talk about it." + +"He tried to let the house, however." + +"Yes, but he did not succeed for a long time. Finally the mayor took +it." + +Refolding the paper, I handed it back to Mr. Robinson. I had its +contents well in mind. + +"There is one fact to which I should like to call your attention," said +I. "The manifestations, as here recorded, have all taken place in the +lower part of the house. I should have had more faith in them, if they +had occurred above stairs. There are no outlets through the roof." + +"Nor any visible ones below. At least no visible one was ever found +open." + +"What about the woman, Bess?" I asked. "How do you account for her +persistency in clinging to a place her employers invariably fled from? +She seems to have been always on hand with an offer of her services." + +"Bess is not a young woman, but she is a worker of uncommon ability, +very rigid and very stoical. She herself accounts for her willingness to +work in this house by her utter disbelief in spirits, and the fact that +it is the one place in the world which connects her with her wandering +and worthless husband. Their final parting occurred during Mr. +Dennison's tenancy, and as she had given the wanderer the Franklin +Street address, you could not reason her out of the belief that on his +return he would expect to find here there. That is what she explained to +Mr. Searles." + +"You interest me, Mr. Robinson. Is she a plain woman? Such a one as a +man would not be likely to return to?" + +"No, she is a very good-looking woman, refined and full of character, +but odd, very odd,--in fact, baffling." + +"How baffling?" + +"I never knew her to look any one directly in the eye. Her manner is +abstracted and inspires distrust. There is also a marked incongruity +between her employment and her general appearance. She looks out of +place in her working apron, yet she is not what you would call a lady." + +"Did her husband come back?" + +"No, not to my knowledge." + +"And where is she now?" + +"Very near you, Miss Saunders, when you are at your home in Franklin +Street. Not being able to obtain a situation in the house itself, she +has rented the little shop opposite, where you can find her any day +selling needles and thread." + +"I have noticed that shop," I admitted, not knowing whether to give more +or less weight to my suspicions in thus finding the mayor's house under +the continued gaze of another watchful eye. + +"You will find two women there," the amiable Mr. Robinson hastened to +explain. "The one with a dark red spot just under her hair is Bess. But +perhaps she doesn't interest you. She always has me. If it had not been +for one fact, I should have suspected her of having been in some way +connected with the strange doings we have just been considering. She was +not a member of the household during the occupancy of Mrs. Crispin and +the Westons, yet these unusual manifestations went on just the same." + +"Yes, I noted that." + +"So her connivance is eliminated." + +"Undoubtedly. I am still disposed to credit the Misses Quinlan with the +whole ridiculous business. They could not bear to see strangers in the +house they had once called their own, and took the only means suggested +to their crazy old minds to rid the place of them." + +Mr. Robinson shook his head, evidently unconvinced. The temptation was +great to strengthen my side of the argument by a revelation of their +real motive. Once acquainted with the story of the missing bonds he +could not fail to see the extreme probability that the two sisters, +afflicted as they were with dementia, should wish to protect the wealth +which was once so near their grasp, from the possibility of discovery by +a stranger. But I dared not take him quite yet into my full confidence. +Indeed, the situation did not demand it. I had learned from him what I +was most anxious to know, and was now in a position to forward my own +projects without further aid from him. Almost as if he had read my +thoughts, Mr. Robinson now hastened to remark: + +"I find it difficult to credit these poor old souls with any such +elaborate plan to empty the house, even had they possessed the most +direct means of doing so, for no better reason than this one you state. +Had money been somehow involved, or had they even thought so, it would +be different. They are a little touched in the head on the subject of +money; which isn't very strange considering their present straits. They +even show an interest in other people's money. They have asked me more +than once if any of their former neighbors have seemed to grow more +prosperous since leaving Franklin Street." + +"I see; touched, touched!" I laughed, rising in my anxiety to hide any +show of feeling at the directness of this purely accidental attack. But +the item struck me as an important one. Mr. Robinson gave me a keen look +as I uttered the usual commonplaces and prepared to take my leave. + +"May I ask your intentions in this matter?" said he. + +"I wish I knew them myself," was my perfectly candid answer. "It strikes +me now that my first step should be to ascertain whether there exists +any secret connection between the two houses which would enable the +Misses Quinlan or their emissaries to gain access to their old home, +without ready detection. I know of none, and--" + +"There is none," broke in its now emphatic agent. "A half-dozen tenants, +to say nothing of Mr. Searles himself, have looked it carefully over. +All the walls are intact; there is absolutely no opening anywhere for +surreptitious access." + +"Possibly not. You certainly discourage me very much. I had hoped much +from my theory. But we are not done with the matter. Mrs. Packard's mind +must be cleared of its fancies, if it is in my power to do it. You will +hear from me again, Mr. Robinson. Meanwhile, I may be sure of your good +will?" + +"Certainly, certainly, and of my cooperation also, if you want it." + +"Thank you," said I, and left the office. + +His last look was one of interest not untinged by compassion. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. BESS + + +On my way back I took the opposite side of the street from that I +usually approached. When I reached the little shop I paused. First +glancing at the various petty articles exposed in the window, I quietly +stepped in. A contracted and very low room met my eyes, faintly lighted +by a row of panes in the upper half of the door and not at all by the +window, which was hung on the inside with a heavy curtain. Against two +sides of this room were arranged shelves filled with boxes labeled in +the usual way to indicate their contents. These did not strike me as +being very varied or of a very high order. There was no counter in +front, only some tables on which lay strewn fancy boxes of thread and +other useless knick-knacks to which certain shopkeepers appear to cling +though they can seldom find customers for them. A woman stood at one of +these tables untangling a skein of red yarn. Behind her I saw another +leaning in an abstracted way over a counter which ran from wall to wall +across the extreme end of the shop. This I took to be Bess. She had +made no move at my entrance and she made no move now. The woman with +the skein appeared, on the contrary, as eager to see as the other seemed +indifferent. I had to buy something and I did so in as matter-of-fact +a way as possible, considering that my attention was more given to the +woman in the rear than to the articles I was purchasing. + +"You have a very convenient place here," I casually remarked, as I +handed out my money. With this I turned squarely about and looked +directly at her whom I believed to be Bess. + +A voluble answer from the woman at my side, but not the wink of an eye +from the one whose attention I had endeavored to attract. + +"I live in the house opposite," I carelessly went on, taking in every +detail of the strange being I was secretly addressing. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed in startled tones, roused into speech at last. "You +live opposite; in Mayor Packard's house?" + +I approached her, smiling. She had dropped her hands from her chin and +seemed very eager now, more eager than the other woman, to interest me +in what she had about her and so hold me to the shop. + +"Look at this," she cried, holding up an article of such cheap +workmanship that I wondered so sensible an appearing woman would cumber +her shelves with it. "I am glad you live over there," for I had nodded +to her question. "I'm greatly interested in that house. I've worked +there as cook and waitress several times." + +I met her look; it was sharp and very intelligent. + +"Then you know its reputation," I laughingly suggested. + +She made a contemptuous gesture. The woman was really very good-looking, +but baffling in her manner, as Mr. Robinson had said, and very hard to +classify. "That isn't what interests me," she protested. "I've other +reasons. You're not a relative of the family, are you?" she asked +impetuously, leaning over the table to get a nearer view of my face. + +"No, nor even a friend. I am in their employ just now as a companion to +Mrs. Packard. Her health is not very good, and the mayor is away a great +deal." + +"I thought you didn't belong there. I know all who belong there. I've +little else to do but stare across the street," she added apologetically +and with a deep flush. "Business is very poor in this shop." + +I was standing directly in front of her. Turning quickly about, I looked +through the narrow panes of the door, and found that my eyes naturally +rested on the stoop of the opposite house. Indeed, this stoop was about +all that could be seen from the spot where this woman stood. + +"Another eve bent in constant watchfulness upon us," I inwardly +commented. "We are quite surrounded. The house should certainly hold +treasure to warrant all this interest. But what could this one-time +domestic know of the missing bonds?" + +"An old-fashioned doorway," I remarked. "It is the only one of the kind +on the whole street. It makes the house conspicuous, but in a way I +like. I don't wonder you enjoy looking at it. To me such a house and +such a doorway suggest mystery and a romantic past. If the place is not +haunted--and only a fool believes in ghosts--something strange must +have happened there or I should never have the nervous feeling I have in +going about the halls and up and down the stairways. Did you never have +that feeling?" + +"Never. I'm not given to feelings. I live one day after another and just +wait." + +Not given to feelings! With such eyes in such a face! You should have +looked down when you said that, Bess; I might have believed you then. + +"Wait?" I softly repeated. "Wait for what? For fortune to enter your +little shop-door?" + +"No, for my husband to come back," was her unexpected answer, uttered +grimly enough to have frightened that husband away again, had he been +fortunate or unfortunate enough to hear her. "I'm a married woman, Miss, +and shouldn't be working like this. And I won't be always; my man'll +come back and make a lady of me again. It's that I'm waiting for." + +Here a customer came in. Naturally I drew back, for our faces were +nearly touching. + +"Don't go," she pleaded, catching me by the sleeve and turning +astonishingly pale for one ordinarily so ruddy. "I want to ask a favor +of you. Come into my little room behind. You won't regret it." This last +in an emphatic whisper. + +Amazed at the turn which the conversation had taken and congratulating +myself greatly upon my success in insuring her immediate confidence, I +slipped through the opening she made for me between the tables serving +for a counter and followed her into a room at the rear, which from its +appearance answered the triple purpose of sleeping-room, parlor and +kitchen. + +"Pardon my impertinence," said she, as she carefully closed the door +behind us. "It's not my habit to make friends with strangers, but +I've taken a fancy to you and think you can be trusted. Will--" she +hesitated, then burst out, "will you do something for me?" + +"If I can," I smiled. + +"How long do you expect to stay over there?" + +"Oh, that I can't say." + +"A month? a week?" + +"Probably a week." + +"Then you can do what I want. Miss--" + +"Saunders," I put in. + +"There is something in that house which belongs to me." + +I started; this was hardly what I expected her to say. + +"Something of great importance to me; something which I must have and +have very soon. I don't want to go there for it myself. I hid it in a +very safe place one day when my future looked doubtful, and I didn't +know where I might be going or what might happen to me. Mrs. Packard +would think it strange if she saw where, and might make it very +uncomfortable for me. But you can get what I want without trouble if you +are not afraid of going about the house at night. It's a little box with +my name on it; and it is hidden--" + +"Where?" + +"Behind a brick I loosened in the cellar wall. I can describe the very +place. Oh, you think I am asking too much of you--a stranger and a +lady." + +"No, I'm willing to do what I can for you. But I think you ought to tell +me what's in the box, so that I shall know exactly what I am doing." + +"I can't tell; I do not dare to tell till I have it again in my own +hand. Then we will look it over together. Do you hesitate? You needn't; +no inconvenience will follow to any one, if you are careful to rely on +yourself and not let any other person see or handle this box." + +"How large is it?" I asked, quite as breathless as herself, as I +realized the possibilities underlying this remarkable request. + +"It is so small that you can conceal it under an apron or in the pocket +of your coat. In exchange for it, I will give you all I can afford--ten +dollars." + +"No more than that?" I asked, testing her. + +"No more at first. Afterward--if it brings me what it ought to, I will +give you whatever you think it is worth. Does that satisfy you? Are you +willing to risk an encounter with the ghost, for just ten dollars and a +promise?" + +The smile with which she said this was indescribable. I think it gave +me a more thrilling consciousness of human terror in face of the +supernatural than anything which I had yet heard in this connection. +Surely her motive for remaining in the haunted house had been +extraordinarily strong. + +"You are afraid," she declared. "You will shrink, when the time comes, +from going into that cellar at night." + +I shook my head; I had already regained both my will-power and the +resolution to carry out this adventure to the end. + + "I will go," said I. + +"And get me my box?" + +"Yes!" + +"And bring it to me here as early the next day as you can leave Mrs. +Packard?" + +"Yes." + +"Oh, you don't know what this means to me." + +I had a suspicion, but held my peace and let her rhapsodize. + +"No one in all my life has ever shown me so much kindness! Are you sure +you won't be tempted to tell any one what you mean to do?" + +"Quite sure." + +"And will go down into the cellar and get this box for me, all by +yourself?" + +"Yes, if you demand it." + +"I do; you will see why some day." + +"Very well, you can trust me. Now tell me where I am to find the brick +you designate." + +"It's in the cellar wall, about half-way down on the right-hand side. +You will see nothing but stone for a foot or two above the floor, but +after that comes the brick wall. On one of these bricks you will detect +a cross scratched. That's the one. It will look as well cemented as the +rest, but if you throw water against it, you will find that in a little +while you will be able to pry it out. Take something to do this with, a +knife or a pair of scissors. When the brick falls out, feel behind with +your hand and you will find the box." + +"A questionable task. What if I should be seen at it?" + +"The ghost will protect you!" + +Again that smile of mingled sarcasm and innuendo. It was no common +servant girl's smile, any more than her language was that of the +ignorant domestic. + +"I believe the ghost fails to walk since the present tenants came into +the house," I remarked. + +"But its reputation remains; you'll not be disturbed." + +"Possibly not; a good reason why you might safely undertake the business +yourself. I can find some way of letting you in." + +"No, no. I shall never again cross that threshold!" Her whole attitude +showed revolt and bitter determination. + +"Yet you have never been frightened by anything there?" + +"I know; but I have suffered; that is, for one who has no feelings. The +box will have to remain in its place undisturbed if you won't get it for +me." + +"Positively?" + +"Yes, Miss; nothing would induce me even to cross the street. But I want +the box." + +"You shall have it," said I. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. SEARCHINGS + + +I seemed bound to be the prey of a divided duty. As I crossed the +street, I asked myself which of the two experiments I had in mind should +occupy my attention first. Should I proceed at once with that close +study and detailed examination of the house, which I contemplated in my +eagerness to establish my theory of a secret passage between it and the +one now inhabited by the Misses Quinlan, or should I wait to do this +until I had recovered the box, which might hold still greater secrets? + +I could not decide, so I resolved to be guided by circumstances. If Mrs. +Packard were still out, I did not think I could sit down till I had a +complete plan of the house as a start in the inquiry which interested me +most. + +Mrs. Packard was still out,--so much Nixon deigned to tell me in answer +to my question. Whether the fact displeased him or not I could not say, +but he was looking very sour and seemed to resent the trouble he had +been to in opening the door for me. Should I notice this, even by an +attempt to conciliate him? I decided not. A natural manner was best; he +was too keen not to notice and give his own interpretation to uncalled +for smiles or words which contrasted too strongly with his own marked +reticence. I therefore said nothing as he pottered slowly back into +his own quarters in the rear, but lingered about down-stairs till I was +quite sure he was out of sight and hearing. Then I came back and took up +my point of view on the spot where the big hall clock had stood in the +days of Mr. Dennison. Later, I made a drawing of this floor as it must +have looked at that time. You will find it on the opposite page. + + + [transcriber's note: The plan shows the house to have two + rows of rooms with a hall between. In the front each room + ends in a bow window. On the right the drawing-room has two + doors opening into the hall, equally spaced near the front + and rear of the room. Across the hall are two rooms of + apparently equal size; a reception room in front and the + library behind it, both rooms having windows facing on the + alley. There is a stairway in the hall just behind the door + to the reception room. The study is behind the drawing-room. + Opposite this is a side hall and the dining-room. The + library and dining-room both open off this hall with the + dining room also having doors to the main hall and kitchen. + The side hall ends with a stoop in the alley. A small room + labeled kitchen, etc. lies behind the dining-room and the + hall extends beyond the study beside the kitchen with the + cellar stairs on the kitchen side. There is a small + rectangle in the hall about two-thirds of the way down the + side of the drawing-room which is labeled A.] + + +Near the place where I stood (marked A on the plan), had occurred most +of the phenomena, which could be located at all. Here the spectral hand +had been seen stopping the clock. Here the shape had passed encountered +by Mr. Weston's cook, and just a few steps beyond where the library door +opened under the stairs Mr. Searles had seen the flitting figure which +had shut his mouth on the subject of his tenants' universal folly. +From the front then toward the back these manifestations had invariably +peeped to disappear--where? That was what I was to determine; what I +am sure Mayor Packard would wish me to determine if he knew the whole +situation as I knew it from his wife's story and the record I had just +read at the agent's office. + +Alas! there were many points of exit from this portion of the hall. The +drawing-room opened near; so did Mayor Packard's study; then there was +the kitchen with its various offices, ending as I knew in the cellar +stairs. Nearer I could see the door leading into the dining-room and, +opening closer yet, the short side hall running down to what had once +been the shallow vestibule of a small side entrance, but which, as I had +noted many times in passing to and from the dining-room, was now used as +a recess or alcove to hold a cabinet of Indian curios. In which of these +directions should I carry my inquiry? All looked equally unpromising, +unless it was Mayor Packard's study, and that no one with the exception +of Mr. Steele ever entered save by his invitation, not even his wife. +I could not hope to cross that threshold, nor did I greatly desire to +invade the kitchen, especially while Nixon was there. Should I have +to wait till the mayor's return for the cooperation my task certainly +demanded? It looked that way. But before yielding to the discouragement +following this thought, I glanced about me again and suddenly +remembered, first the creaking board, which had once answered to the +so-called spirit's flight, and secondly the fact which common sense +should have suggested before, that if my theory were true and the secret +presence, whose coming and going I had been considering, had fled by +some secret passage leading to the neighboring house, then by all laws +of convenience and natural propriety that passage should open from +the side facing the Quinlan domicile, and not from that holding Mayor +Packard's study and the remote drawing-room. + +This considerably narrowed my field of inquiry, and made me immediately +anxious to find that creaking board which promised to narrow it further +yet. + +Where should I seek it? In these rear halls, of course, but I hated to +be caught pacing them at this hour. Nixon's step had not roused it or +I should have noticed it, for I was, in a way, listening for this very +sound. It was not in the direct path then from the front door to the +kitchen. Was it on one side or in the space about the dining-room door +or where the transverse corridor met the main hall? All these floors +were covered in the old-fashioned way with carpet, which would seem to +show that no new boards had been laid and that the creaking one should +still be here. + +I ventured to go as far as the transverse hall,--I was at full liberty +to enter the library. But no result followed this experiment; my +footsteps had never fallen more noiselessly. Where could the board be? +In aimless uncertainty I stepped into the corridor and instantly a creak +woke under my foot. I had located the direction in which one of the +so-called phantoms had fled. It was down this transverse hall. + +Flushed with apparent success, I looked up at the walls on either side +of me. They were gray with paint and presented one unbroken surface from +base-board to ceiling, save where the two doorways opened, one into the +library, the other into the dining-room. Had the flying presence escaped +by either of these two rooms? I knew the dining-room well. I had had +several opportunities for studying its details. I thought I knew the +library; besides, Mr. Searles had been in the library when the shape +advanced upon him from the hall,--a fact eliminating that room as a +possible source of approach! What then was left? The recess which had +once served as an old-time entrance. Ah, that gave promise of something. +It projected directly toward where the adjacent walls had once held two +doors, between which any sort of mischief might take place. Say that the +Misses Quinlan had retained certain keys. What easier than for one of +them to enter the outer door, strike a light, open the inner one and +flash this light up through the house till steps or voices warned her of +an aroused family, when she had only to reclose the inside door, put out +the light and escape by the outer one. + +But alas! at this point I remembered that this, as well as all other +outside doors, had invariably been protected by bolt, and that these +bolts had never been found disturbed. Veritably I was busying myself for +nothing over this old vestibule. Yet before I left it I gave it another +glance; satisfied myself that its walls were solid; in fact, built of +brick like the house. This on two sides; the door occupied the third and +showed the same unbroken coat of thick, old paint, its surface barely +hidden by the cabinet placed at right angles to it. Enough of it, +however, remained exposed to view to give me an opportunity of admiring +its sturdy panels and its old-fashioned lock. The door was further +secured by heavy pivoted bars extending from jamb to jamb. An +egg-and-dart molding extended all around the casing, where the inner +door had once hung. All solid, all very old-fashioned, but totally +unsuggestive of any reasonable solution of the mystery I had vaguely +hoped it to explain. Was I mistaken in my theory, and must I look +elsewhere for what I still honestly expected to find? Undoubtedly; and +with this decision I turned to leave the recess, when a sensation, of +too peculiar a nature for me readily to understand it, caused me to stop +short, and look down at my feet in an inquiring way and afterward to +lift the rug on which I had been standing and take a look at the floor +underneath. It was covered with carpet, like the rest of the hall, +but this did not disguise the fact that it sloped a trifle toward the +outside wall. Had not the idea been preposterous, I should have said +that the weight of the cabinet had been too much for it, causing it to +sag quite perceptibly at the base-board. But this seemed too improbable +to consider. Old as the house was, it was not old enough for its beams +to have rolled. Yet the floor was certainly uneven, and, what was +stranger yet, had, in sagging, failed to carry the base-board with it. +This I could see by peering around the side of the cabinet. Was it an +important enough fact to call for explanation? Possibly not; yet when +I had taken a short leap up and come down on what was certainly an +unstable floor, I decided that I should never be satisfied till I had +seen that cabinet removed and the floor under it rigidly examined. + +Yet when I came to take a look at this projection from the library +window and saw that this floor, like that of the many entrances, was +only the height of one step from the ground, I felt the folly into +which my inquiring spirit had led me, and would have dismissed the whole +subject from my mind if my eyes had not detected at that moment on +one of the tables an unusually thin paper-knife. This gave me an idea. +Carrying it back with me into the recess, I got down on my knees, and +first taking the precaution to toss a little stick-pin of mine under +the cabinet to be reached after in case I was detected there by Nixon, +I insinuated the cutter between the base-board and the floor and found +that I could not only push it in an inch or more before striking the +brick, but run it quite freely around from one corner of the recess to +the other. This was surely surprising. The exterior of this vestibule +must be considerably larger than the interior would denote. What +occupied the space between? I went upstairs full of thought. Sometime, +and that before long, I would have that cabinet removed. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. A DISCOVERY + + +Mrs. Packard came in very soon after this. She was accompanied by two +friends and I could hear them talking and laughing in her room upstairs +all the afternoon. It gave me leisure, but leisure was not what I stood +in need of, just now. I desired much more an opportunity to pursue my +inquiries, for I knew why she had brought these friends home with her +and lent herself to a merriment that was not natural to her. She wished +to forestall thought; to keep down dread; to fill the house so full of +cheer that no whisper should reach her from that spirit-world she had +come to fear. She had seen--or believed that she had seen--a specter, +and she had certainly heard a laugh that had come from no explicable +human source. + +The brightness of the sunshiny day aided her unconsciously in this +endeavor. But I foresaw the moment when this brightness would disappear +and her friends say good-by. Then the shadows must fall again more +heavily than ever, because of their transient lifting. I almost wished +she had indeed gone with her husband, and found myself wondering why he +had not asked her to do so when he found what it was that depressed her. +Perhaps he had, and it was she who had held back. She may have made +up her mind to conquer this weakness, and to conquer it where it had +originated and necessarily held the strongest sway. At all events, he +was gone and she was here, and I had done nothing as yet to relieve that +insidious dread with which she must anticipate a night in this house +without his presence. + +I wondered if it would be any relief to her to have Mr. Steele remain +upon the premises. I had heard him come in about three o'clock and go +into the study, and when the time came for her friends to take their +leave, and their voices in merry chatter came up to my ear from the open +boudoir door, I stole down to ask her if I could suggest it to him. But +I was too late. Just as I reached the head of the stairs on the second +floor he came out of the study below and passed, hat in hand, toward the +front door. + +"What a handsome man!" came in an audible whisper from one of the +ladies, who now stood in the lower hall. + +"Who is he?" asked the other. + +I thought he held the door open one minute longer than was necessary to +catch her reply. It was a very cold and unenthusiastic one. + +"That is Mr. Packard's secretary," said she. "He will join the mayor +just as soon as he has finished certain preparations intrusted to him." + +"Oh!" was their quiet rejoinder, but a note of disappointment rang in +both voices as the door shut behind him. + +"One does not often see a perfectly handsome man." + +I stepped down to meet her when she in turn had shut the door upon them. + +But I stopped half-way. She was standing with her head turned away from +me and the knob still in her hand. I saw that she was thinking or was +the prey of some rapidly growing resolve. + +Suddenly she seized the key and turned it. + +"The house is closed for the night," she announced as she looked up and +met my astonished gaze. "No one goes out or comes in here again till +morning. I have seen all the visitors I have strength for." + +And though she did not know I saw it, she withdrew the key and slipped +it into her pocket. "This is Nixon's night out," she murmured, as she +led the way to the library. "Ellen will wait on us and we'll have the +baby down and play games and be as merry as ever we can be,--to keep +the ghosts away," she cried in fresh, defiant tones that had just the +faintest suggestion of hysteria in them. "We shall succeed; I don't mean +to think of it again. I'm right in that, am I not? You look as if you +thought so. Ah, Mr. Packard was kind to secure me such a companion. +I must prove my gratitude to him by keeping you close to me. It was a +mistake to have those light-headed women visit me to-day. They tired +more than they comforted me." + +I smiled, and put the question which concerned me most nearly. + +"Does Nixon stay late when he goes out?" + +She threw herself into a chair and took up her embroidery. + +"He will to-night," was her answer. "A little grandniece of his is +coming on a late train from Pittsburgh. I don't think the train is due +till midnight, and after that he's got to take her to his daughter's on +Carey Street. It will be one o'clock at least before he can be back." + +I hid my satisfaction. Fate was truly auspicious. I would make good use +of his absence. There was nobody else in the house whose surveillance I +feared. + +"Pray send for the baby now," I exclaimed. "I am eager to begin our +merry evening." + +She smiled and rang the bell for Letty, the nurse. + +Late that night I left my room and stole softly down-stairs. Mrs. +Packard had ordered a bed made up for herself in the nursery and had +retired early. So had Ellen and Letty. The house was therefore clear +below stairs, and after I had passed the second story I felt myself +removed from all human presence as though I were all alone in the house. + +This was a relief to me, yet the experience was not a happy one. Ellen +had asked permission to leave the light burning in the hall during the +mayor's absence, so the way was plain enough before me; but no parlor +floor looks inviting after twelve o'clock at night, and this one held +a secret as yet unsolved, which did not add to its comfort or take +the mysterious threat from the shadows lurking in corners and under +stairways which I had to pass. As I hurried past the place where the +clock had once stood, I thought of the nurses' story and of the many +frightened hearts which had throbbed on the stairway I had just left and +between the walls I was fast approaching; but I did not turn back. That +would have been an acknowledgment of the truth of what I was at this +very time exerting my full faculties to disprove. + +I knew little about the rear of the house and nothing about the cellar. +But when I had found my way into the kitchen and lit the candle I had +brought from my room, I had no difficulty in deciding which of the +many doors led below. There is something about a cellar door which is +unmistakable, but it took me a minute to summon up courage to open it +after I had laid my hand on its old-fashioned latch. Why do we so hate +darkness and the chill of unknown regions, even when we know they are +empty of all that can hurt or really frighten us? I was as safe there +as in my bed up-stairs, yet I had to force myself to consider more than +once the importance of my errand and the positive result it might have +in allaying the disturbance in more than one mind, before I could +lift that latch and set my foot on the short flight which led into the +yawning blackness beneath me. + +But once on my way I took courage. I pictured to myself the collection +of useful articles with which the spaces before me were naturally +filled, and thought how harmless were the sources of the grotesque +shadows which bowed to me from every side and even from the cement floor +toward the one spot where the stones of the foundation showed themselves +clear of all encumbering objects. As I saw how numerous these articles +were, and how small a portion of the wall itself was really visible, I +had my first practical fear, and a practical fear soon puts imaginary +ones to flight. What if some huge box or case of bottles should have +been piled up in front of the marked brick I was seeking? I am strong, +but I could not move such an object alone, and this search was a +solitary one; I had been forbidden to seek help. + +The anxiety this possibility involved nerved me to instant action. I +leaped forward to the one clear spot singled out for me by chance and +began a hurried scrutiny of the short strip of wall which was all that +was revealed to me on the right-hand side. Did it hold the marked brick? +My little candle shook with eagerness and it was with difficulty I +could see the face of the brick close enough to determine. But fortune +favored, and presently my eye fell on one whose surface showed a ruder, +scratched cross. It was in the lowest row and well within reach of my +hand. If I could move it the box would soon be in my possession--and +what might that box not contain! + +Looking about, I found the furnace and soon the gas-jet which made +attendance upon it possible. This lit, I could set my candle down, and +yet see plainly enough to work. I had shears in my pocket. I have had a +man's training in the handling of tools and felt quite confident that I +could pry this brick out if it was as easily loosened as Bess had given +me to understand. My first thrust at the dusty cement inclosing it +encouraged me greatly. It was very friable and so shallow that my +scissors'-point picked it at once. In five minutes' time the brick was +clear, so that I easily lifted it out and set it on the floor. The small +black hole which was left was large enough to admit my hand. I wasted no +time thrusting it in, expecting to feel the box at once and draw it out. +But it was farther back than I expected, and while I was feeling about +something gave way and fell with a slight, rustling noise down out of my +reach. Was it the box? No, for in another instant I had come in contact +with its broken edges and had drawn it out; the falling object must +have been some extra mortar, and it had gone where? I did not stop to +consider then. The object in my hand was too alluring; the size, the +shape too suggestive of a package of folded bonds for me to think +of anything but the satisfaction of my curiosity and the consequent +clearing of a very serious mystery. + +Just at this moment, one of intense excitement, I heard, or thought I +heard, a stealthy step behind me. Forcing myself to calmness, however, I +turned and, holding the candle high convinced myself that I was alone in +the cellar. + +Carrying the box nearer the light, I pulled off its already loosened +string and lifted the cover. In doing this I suffered from no qualms +of conscience. My duty seemed very clear to me, and the end, a totally +impersonal one, more than justified the means. + +A folded paper met my eyes--one--not of the kind I expected; then some +letters whose address I caught at a glance. "Elizabeth Brainard"--a +discovery which might have stayed my hand at another time, but nothing +could stay it now. I opened the paper and looked at it. Alas! it was +only her marriage certificate; I had taken all this trouble and all +this risk, only to rescue for her the proof of her union with one John +Silverthorn Brainard. The same name was on her letters. Why had Bess +so strongly insisted on a secret search, and why had she concealed her +license in so strange a place? + +Greatly sobered, I restored the paper to its place in the box, +slipped on the string and prepared to leave the cellar with it. Then I +remembered the brick on the floor and the open hole where it had been, +and afterward the something which had fallen over within and what this +space might mean in a seemingly solid wall. + +More excited now even than I had been at any time before, I thrust +my hand in again and tried to sound the depth of this unexpected +far-reaching hole; but the size of my arm stood in the way of my +experiment, and, drawing out my hand, I looked about for a stick and +finding one, plunged that in. To my surprise and growing satisfaction +it went in its full length--about three feet. There was a cavity on the +other side of this wall of very sizable dimensions. Had I struck the +suspected passage? I had great hope of it. Nothing else would account +for so large a space on the other side of a wall which gave every +indication of being one with the foundation. Catching up my stick I made +a rude estimate of its location, after which I replaced the brick, put +out the gas, and caught up Bess' box. Trembling, and more frightened now +than at my descent at my own footfall and tremulous pursuing shadow, I +went up-stairs. + +As I passed the corridor leading to the converted vestibule which had +so excited my interest in the afternoon, I paused and made a hurried +calculation. If the stick had been three feet long, as I judged, and my +stride was thirty inches, then the place of that hole in the wall below +was directly in a line with where I now stood,--in other words, under +the vestibule floor, as I had already, suspected. + +How was I to verify this without disturbing Mrs. Packard? That was a +question to sleep on. But it took me a long time to get to sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. I SEEK HELP + + +A bad night, a very bad night, but for all that I was down early the +next morning. Bess must have her box and I a breath of fresh air before +breakfast, to freshen me up a bit and clear my mind for the decisive +act, since my broken rest had failed to refresh me. + +As I reached the parlor floor Nixon came out of the reception-room. + +"Oh, Miss!" he exclaimed, "going out?" surprised, doubtless, to see me +in my hat and jacket. + +"A few steps," I answered, and then stopped, not a little disturbed; for +in moving to open the door he had discovered that the key was not in it +and was showing his amazement somewhat conspicuously. + +"Mrs. Packard took the key up to her room," I explained, thinking that +some sort of explanation was in order. "She is nervous, you know, and +probably felt safer with it there." + +The slow shake of his head had a tinge of self-reproach in it. + +"I was sorry to go out," he muttered. "I was very sorry to go out,"--but +the look which he turned upon me the next minute was of a very different +sort. "I don't see how you can go out yet," said he, "unless you go by +the back way. That leads into Stanton Street; but perhaps you had just +as lief go into Stanton Street." + +There was impertinence in his voice as well as aggressiveness in his +eye, but I smiled easily enough and was turning toward the back with +every expectation of going by way of Stanton Street, when Letty came +running down the stairs with the key in her hand. I don't think he was +pleased, but he opened the door civilly enough and I gladly went out, +taking with me, however, a remembrance of the furtive look with which he +had noted the small package in my hand. I pass over the joy with which +Bess received the box and its desired contents. I had lost all interest +in the matter, which was so entirely personal to herself, and, declining +the ten dollars which I knew she could ill afford, made my visit so +short that I was able to take a brisk walk down the street and yet be +back in time for breakfast. + +This, like that of the preceding day, I took alone. Mrs. Packard was +well but preferred to eat up-stairs. I did not fret at this; I +was really glad, for now I could think and plan my action quite +unembarrassed by her presence. The opening under the vestibule floor +was to be sounded, and sounded this very morning, but on what pretext? I +could not take Mrs. Packard into my counsel, for that would be to lessen +the force of the discovery with which I yet hoped to dissipate at +one blow the superstitious fears I saw it was otherwise impossible to +combat. I might interest Ellen, and I was quite certain that I could +interest the cook; but this meant Nixon, also, who was always around and +whose animosity to myself was too mysteriously founded for me to trust +him with any of my secrets or to afford him any inkling of my real +reason for being in the house. + +Yet help I must have and very efficient help, too. Should I telegraph to +Mayor Packard for some sort of order which would lead to the tearing +up of this end of the house? I could not do this without fuller +explanations than I could give in a telegram. Besides, he was under +sufficient pressure just now for me to spare him the consideration of so +disturbing a matter, especially as he had left a substitute behind +whose business it was, not only to relieve Mrs. Packard in regard to the +libelous paragraph, but in all other directions to which his attention +might be called. I would see Mr. Steele; he would surely be able to +think up some scheme by which that aperture might be investigated +without creating too much disturbance in the house. + +An opportunity for doing this was not long in presenting itself. Mr. +Steele came in about nine o'clock and passed at once into the study. The +next moment I was knocking at his door, my heart in any mouth, but my +determination strung up to the point of daring anything and everything +for the end I had in view. + +Fortunately he came to the door; I could never have entered without his +encouragement. As I met his eye I was ashamed of the color my cheeks +undoubtedly showed, but felt reconciled the next minute, for he was not +quite disembarrassed himself, though he betrayed it by a little extra +paleness rather than by a flush, such as had so disturbed myself. +Both of us were quite natural in a moment, however, and answering his +courteous gesture I stepped in and at once opened up my business. + +"You must pardon me," said I, "for this infringement upon the usual +rules of this office. I have something very serious to say about Mrs. +Packard--oh, she's quite well; it has to do with a matter I shall +presently explain--and I wish to make a request." + +"Thank you for the honor," he said, drawing up a chair for me. + +But I did not sit, neither did I speak for a moment. I was contemplating +his features and thinking how faultless they were. + +"I hardly know where to begin," I ventured at last. "I am burdened with +a secret, and it may all appear puerile to you. I don't know whether +to remind you first of Mayor Packard's intense desire to see his wife's +former cheerfulness restored--a task in which I have been engaged to +assist--or to plunge at once into my discoveries, which are a little +peculiar and possibly important, in spite of my short acquaintance with +the people under this roof and the nature of my position here." + +"You excite me," were his few quick but sharply accentuated words. "What +secret? What discoveries? I didn't know that the house held any that +were worth the attention of sensible persons like ourselves." + +I had not been looking at him directly, but I looked up at this and was +astonished to find that his interest in what I had said was greater than +appeared from his tone or even from his manner. + +"You know the cause of Mrs. Packard's present uneasiness?" I asked. + +"Mayor Packard told me--the paragraph which appeared in yesterday +morning's paper. I have tried to find out its author, but I have failed +so far." + +"That is a trifle," I said. "The real cause--no, I prefer to stand," I +put in, for he was again urging me by a gesture to seat myself. + +"The real cause--" he repeated. + +"--is one you will smile at, but which you must nevertheless respect. +She thinks--she has confided to us, in fact--that she has seen, within +these walls, what many others profess to have seen. You understand me, +Mr. Steele?" + +"I don't know that I do, Miss Saunders." + +"I find it hard to speak it; you have heard, of course, the common +gossip about this house." + +"That it is haunted?" he smiled, somewhat disdainfully. + +"Yes. Well, Mrs. Packard believes that she has seen what--what gives +this name to the house." + +"A ghost?" + +"Yes, a ghost--in the library one night." + +"Ah!" + +The ejaculation was eloquent. I did not altogether understand it, but +its chief expression seemed to be contempt. I began to fear he would not +have sufficient sympathy with such an unreasoning state of mind to give +me the attention and assistance I desired. He saw the effect it had upon +me and hastened to say: + +"The impression Mrs. Packard has made upon me was of a common-sense +woman. I'm sorry to hear that she is the victim of an hallucination. +What do you propose to do about it?--for I see that you have some +project in mind." + +Then I told him as much of my story as seemed necessary to obtain his +advice and to secure his cooperation. I confided to him my theory of the +unexplainable sights and sounds which had so unfortunately aroused Mrs. +Packard's imagination, and what I had done so far to substantiate it. I +did not mention the bonds, nor tell him of Bess and her box, but led +him to think that my experiments in the cellar had been the result of my +discoveries in the side entrance. + +He listened gravely--I hardly feel justified in saying with a surprise +that was complimentary. I am not sure that it was. Such men are +difficult to understand. When I had finished, he remarked with a smile: + +"So you conclude that the floor of this place is movable and that +the antiquated ladies you mention have stretched their old limbs in a +difficult climb, just for the game of frightening out tenants they did +not desire for neighbors?" + +"I know that it sounds ridiculous," I admitted, refraining still, in +spite of the great temptation, from mentioning the treasure which it was +the one wish of their lives to protect from the discovery of others. "If +they were quite sane I should perhaps not have the courage to suggest +this explanation of what has been heard and seen here. But they are not +quite sane; a glance at their faces is enough to convince one of this, +and from minds touched with insanity anything can be expected. Will you +go with me to this side entrance and examine the floor for yourself? +The condition of things under it I will ask you to take my word for; you +will hardly wish to visit the cellar on an exploring expedition till you +are reasonably assured of its necessity." + +His eye, which had grown curiously cold and unresponsive through this, +turned from me toward the desk before which he had been sitting. It +was heaped high with a batch of unopened letters, and I could readily +understand what was in his mind. + +"You will be helping the mayor more by listening to me," I continued +earnestly, "than by anything you can do here. Believe me, Mr. Steele, I +am no foolish, unadvised girl. I know what I am talking about." + +He suppressed an impatient sigh and endeavored to show a proper +appreciation of my own estimate of myself and the value of my +communication. + +"I am at your service," said he. + +I wished he had been a little more enthusiastic, but, careful not to +show my disappointment, I added, as I led the way to the door: + +"I wish we could think of some way of securing ourselves from +interruption. Nixon does not like me, and will be sure to interest +himself in our movements if he sees us go down that hall together." + +"Is there any harm in that?" + +"There might be. He is suspicious of me, which makes it impossible for +one to count upon his conduct. If he saw us meddling with the cabinet, +he would be very apt to rush with his complaints to Mrs. Packard, and +I am not ready yet to take her into our confidence. I want first to be +sure that my surmises are correct." + +"You are quite right." If any sarcasm tinged this admission, he +successfully hid it. "I think I can dispose of Nixon for a short time," +he went on. "You are bent upon meddling with that vestibule floor?" + +"Yes." + +"Even if I should advise not?" + +"Yes, Mr. Steele; even if you roused the household and called Mrs. +Packard down to witness my folly. But I should prefer to make my +experiments quickly and without any other witness than yourself. I am +not without some pride to counterbalance my presumption." + +We had come to a stand before the door as I said this. As I finished, he +laid his hand on the knob, saying kindly: + +"Your wishes shall be considered. Take a seat in the library, Miss +Saunders, and in a few moments I will join you. I have a task for Nixon +which will keep him employed for some time." + +At this he opened the door and I glided out. Making my way to the +library I hastened in and threw myself into one of its great chairs. +In another minute I heard Mr. Steele summon Nixon, and in the short +interview which followed between them heard enough to comprehend that +he was loading the old butler's arms with a large mass of documents and +papers for immediate consumption in the furnace. Nixon was not to leave +till they were all safely consumed. The grumble which followed from the +old fellow's lips was not the most cheerful sound in the world, but he +went back with his pile. Presently I heard the furnace door rattle and +caught the smell, which I was careful to explain to Ellen as she went +by the library door on her way up-stairs, lest Mrs. Packard should be +alarmed and come running down to see what was the matter. + +The next moment Mr. Steele appeared in the doorway. + +"Now what are we to do?" said he. + +I led the way to what I have sometimes called "the recess" for lack of a +better name. + +"This is the place," I cried, adding a few explanations as I saw the +curiosity with which he now surveyed its various features. "Don't you +see now that cabinet leans to the left? I declare it leans more than it +did yesterday; the floor certainly dips at that point." + +He cast a glance where I pointed and instinctively put out his hand, but +let it fall as I remarked: + +"The cabinet is not so very heavy. If I take out a few of those big +pieces of pottery, don't you think we could lift it away from this +corner?" + +"And what would you do then?" + +"Tear up the carpet and see what is the matter with this part of the +floor. Perhaps we shall find not only that, but something else of a +still more interesting nature." + +He was standing on the sill of what had been the inner doorway. As I +said these words he fell back in careless grace against the panel and +remained leaning there in an easy attitude, assumed possibly just to +show me with what incredulity, and yet with what kindly forbearance he +regarded my childish enthusiasm. + +"I don't understand," said he. "What do you expect to find?" + +"Some spring or button by which this floor is made to serve the purpose +of a trap. I'm sure that there is an opening underneath--a large +opening. Won't you help me--" + +I forgot to finish. In my eagerness to impress him I had turned in +his direction, and was staring straight at his easy figure and faintly +smiling features, when the molding against which he leaned caught my +eye. With a total absence of every other thought than the idea which had +suddenly come to me, I sprang forward and pressed with my whole weight +against one of the edges of the molding which had a darker hue about it +than the rest. I felt it give, felt the floor start from under me at the +same moment, and in another heard the clatter and felt the force of the +toppling cabinet on my shoulder as it and I went shooting down into +the hole I had been so anxious to penetrate, though not in just this +startling fashion. + +The cry, uttered by Mr. Steele as I disappeared from before his eyes, +was my first conscious realization of what had happened after I had +struck the ground below. + +"Are you hurt?" he cried, with real commiseration, as he leaned over +to look for me in the hollow at his feet. "Wait and I will drop down to +you," he went on, swinging himself into a position to leap. + +I was trembling with the shock and probably somewhat bruised, but not +hurt enough to prevent myself from scrambling to my feet, as he slid +down to my side and offered me his arm for support. + +"What did you do?" he asked. "Was it you who made this trap give way? +I see that it is a trap now,"--and he pointed to the square boarding +hampered by its carpet which hung at one side. + +"I pressed one of those round knobs in the molding," I explained, +laughing to hide the tears of excitement in my eyes. "It had a loose +look. I did it without thinking,--that is, without thinking enough of +what I was doing to be sure that I was in a safe enough position for +such an experiment. But I'm all right, and so is the cabinet. See!" I +pointed to where it stood, still upright, its contents well shaken up +but itself in tolerably good condition. + +"You are fortunate," said he. "Shall I help you up out of this? Your +curiosity must be amply satisfied." + +"Not yet, not yet," I cried. "Oh! it is as I thought," I now exclaimed, +peering around the corner of the cabinet into a place of total darkness. +"The passage is here, running directly under the alley-way. Help me, +help me, I must follow it to the end. I'm sure it communicates with the +house next door." + +He had to humor me. I already had one hand on the cabinet's edge, and +should have pushed it aside by my own strength if he had not interfered. +The space we were in was so small, some four feet square, I should +judge, that the utmost we could do was to shove one corner of it +slightly aside, so as to make a narrow passage into the space beyond. +Through this I slipped and should have stepped recklessly on if he had +not caught me back and suggested that he go first into what might have +its own pitfalls and dangers. + +I did not fear these, but was glad, nevertheless, to yield to his +suggestion and allow him to pass me. As he did so, he took out a match +from his pocket and in another moment had lit and held it out. A long, +narrow vaulting met our eyes, very rude and propped up with beams in an +irregular way. It was empty save for a wooden stool or some such object +which stood near our feet. Though the small flame was insufficient to +allow us to see very far, I was sure that I caught the outlines of +a roughly made door at the extreme end and was making for this door, +careless of his judgment and detaining hand, when a quick, strong light +suddenly struck me in the face. In the square hollow made by the opening +of this door, I saw the figure of Miss Charity with a lighted lantern in +her hand. She was coming my way, the secret of the ghostly visitations +which had deceived so many people was revealed. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. HARDLY A COINCIDENCE + + +The old lady's eyes met ours without purpose or intelligence. It was +plain that she did not see us; also plain that she was held back in her +advance by some doubt in her beclouded brain. We could see her hover, as +it were, at her end of the dark passage, while I held my breath and +Mr. Steele panted audibly. Then gradually she drew back and disappeared +behind the door, which she forgot to shut, as we could tell from the +gradually receding light and the faint fall of her footsteps after the +last dim flicker had faded away. + +When she was quite gone, Mr. Steele spoke: + +"You must be satisfied now," he said. "Do you still wish to go on, or +shall we return and explain this accident to the girls whose voices I +certainly hear in the hall overhead?" + +"We must go back," I reluctantly consented. A wild idea had crossed my +brain of following out my first impulse and of charging Miss Charity in +her own house with the visits which had from time to time depopulated +this house. + +"I shall leave you to make the necessary explanations," said he. "I +am really rushed with business and should be down-town on the mayor's +affairs at this very moment." + +"I am quite ready," said I. Then as I squeezed my way through between +the corner of the cabinet and the foundation wall, I could not help +asking him how he thought it possible for these old ladies to mount to +the halls above from the bottom of the four-foot hole in which we now +stood. + +"The same way in which I now propose that you should," he replied, +lifting into view the object we had seen at one side of the passage, and +which now showed itself to be a pair of folding steps. "Canny enough +to discover or perhaps to open this passage, they were canny enough to +provide themselves with means of getting out of it. Shall I help you?" + +"In a minute," I said. "I am so curious. How do you suppose they worked +this trap from here? They did not press the spring in the molding." + +He pointed to one side of the opening, where part of the supporting +mechanism was now visible. + +"They worked that. It is all simple enough on this side of the trap; +the puzzle is about the other. How did they manage to have all this +mechanism put in without rousing any one's attention? And why so much +trouble?" + +"Some time I will tell you," I replied, putting my foot on the step. +"O girls!" I exclaimed, as two screams rang out above and two agitated +faces peered down upon us. "I've had an accident and a great adventure, +but I've solved the mystery of the ghost. It was just one of the two +poor old ladies next door. They used to come up through this trap. Where +is Mrs. Packard?" + +They were too speechless with wonder to answer me. I had to reach up my +arms twice before either of them would lend me a helping hand. But when +I was once up and Mr. Steele after me, the questions they asked came so +thick and fast that I almost choked in my endeavor to answer them and to +get away. Nixon appeared in the middle of it, and, congratulating myself +that Mr. Steele had been able to slip away to the study while I was +talking to the girls, I went over the whole story again for his benefit, +after which I stopped abruptly and asked again where Mrs. Packard was. + +Nixon, with a face as black as the passage from which I had just +escaped, muttered some words about queer doings for respectable people, +but said nothing about his mistress unless the few words he added to his +final lament about the cabinet contained some allusion to her fondness +for the articles it held. We could all see that they had suffered +greatly from their fall. Annoyed at his manner, which was that of a man +personally aggrieved, I turned to Ellen. "You have just been up-stairs," +I said. "Is Mrs. Packard still in the nursery?" + +"She was, but not more than five minutes ago she slipped down-stairs and +went out. It was just before the noise you made falling down into this +hole." + +Out! I was sorry; I wanted to disburden myself at once. + +"Well, leave everything as it is," I commanded, despite the rebellion +in Nixon's eye. "I will wait in the reception-room till she returns and +then tell her at once. She can blame nobody but me, if she is displeased +at what she sees." + +Nixon grumbled something and moved off. The girls, full of talk, ran +up-stairs to have it out in the nursery with Letty, and I went toward +the front. How long I should have to stay there before Mrs. Packard's +return I did not know. She might stay away an hour and she might stay +away all day. I could simply wait. But it was a happy waiting. I should +see a renewal of joy in her and a bounding hope for the future when once +I told any tale. It was enough to keep me quiet for the three long hours +I sat there with my face to the window, watching for the first sight of +her figure on the crossing leading into our street. + +When it came, it was already lunch-time, but there was no evidence of +hurry in her manner; there was, rather, an almost painful hesitation. As +she drew nearer, she raised her eyes to the house-front and I saw with +what dread she approached it, and what courage it took for her to enter +it at all. + +The sight of my face at the window altered her expression, however, and +she came quite cheerfully up the steps. Careful to forestall Nixon in +his duty, I opened the front door, and, drawing her into the room where +I had been waiting, I blurted out my whole story before she could remove +her hat. + +"O Mrs. Packard," I cried, "I have such good news for you. The thing +you feared hasn't any meaning. The house was never haunted; the shadows +which have been seen here were the shadows of real beings. There is a +secret entrance to this house, and through it the old ladies next door, +have come from time to time in search of their missing bonds, or else to +frighten off all other people from the chance of finding them. Shall I +show you where the place is?" + +Her face, when I began, had shown such changes I was startled; but by +the time I had finished a sort of apathy had fallen across it and her +voice sounded hollow as she cried: "What are you telling me? A secret +entrance we knew nothing about and the Misses Quinlan using it to hunt +about these halls at night! Romantic, to be sure. Yes, let me see the +place. It is very interesting and very inconvenient. Will you tell +Nixon, please, to have this passage closed?" + +I felt a chill. If it was interest she felt it was a very forced one. +She even paused to take off her hat. But when I had drawn her through +the library into the side hall, and shown her the great gap where the +cabinet had stood, I thought she brightened a little and showed some of +the curiosity I expected. But it was very easily appeased, and before +I could have made the thing clear to her she was back in the library, +fingering her hat and listening, as it seemed to me, to everything but +my voice. + +I did not understand it. + +Making one more effort I came up close to her and impetuously cried out: + +"Don't you see what this does to the phantasm you professed to have seen +yourself once in this very spot? It proves it a myth, a product of your +own imagination, something which it must certainly be impossible for +you ever to fear again. That is why I made the search which has ended +in this discovery. I wanted to rid you of your forebodings. Do assure me +that I have. It will be such a comfort to me--and how much more to the +mayor!" + +Her lack-luster eyes fell; her fingers closed on the hat whose feathers +she had been trifling with, and, lifting it, she moved softly into the +reception-room and from there into the hall and up the front stairs. I +stood aghast; she had not even heard what I had been saying. + +By the time I had recovered my equanimity enough to follow, she +had disappeared into her own room. It could not have been in a very +comfortable condition, for there were evidences about the hall that +it was being thoroughly swept. As I endeavored to pass the door, I +inadvertently struck the edge of a little taboret standing in my way. It +toppled and a little book lying on it slid to the floor; as I stooped +to pick it up my already greatly disconcerted mind was still further +affected by the glimpse which was given me of its title. It was this: + + THE ECCENTRICITIES OF GHOSTS AND COINCIDENCES + SUGGESTING SPIRITUAL INTERFERENCE + +Struck forcibly by a coincidence suggesting something quite different +from spiritual interference, I allowed the book to open in my hand, +which it did at this evidently frequently conned passage: + + + A book was in my hand and a strong light was shining on it and + on me from a lamp on a near-by table. The story was interesting + and I was following the adventures it was relating, with eager + interest, when suddenly the character of the light changed, a + mist seemed to pass before my eyes and, on my looking up, I saw + standing between me and the lamp the figure of a man, which + vanished as I looked, leaving in my breast an unutterable dread + and in my memory the glare of two unearthly eyes whose menace + could mean but one thing--death. + + The next day I received news of a fatal accident to my husband. + + +I closed the little volume with very strange thoughts. If Mayor Packard +had believed himself to have received an explanation of his wife's +strange condition in the confession she had made of having seen an +apparition such as this in her library, or if I had believed myself to +have touched the bottom of the mystery absorbing this unhappy household +in my futile discoveries of the human and practical character of the +visitants who had haunted this house, then Mayor Packard and I had made +a grave mistake. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. IN THE LIBRARY + + +I was still in Mrs. Packard's room, brooding over the enigma offered by +the similarity between the account I had just read and the explanation +she had given of the mysterious event which had thrown such a cloud over +her life, when, moved by some unaccountable influence, I glanced up +and saw Nixon standing in the open doorway, gazing at me with an uneasy +curiosity I was sorry enough to have inspired. + +"Mrs. Packard wants you," he declared with short ceremony. "She's in +the library." And, turning on his heel, he took his deliberate way +down-stairs. + +I followed hard after him, and, being brisk in my movements, was at his +back before he was half-way to the bottom. He seemed to resent this, +for he turned a baleful look back at me and purposely delayed his steps +without giving me the right of way. + +"Is Mrs. Packard in a hurry?" I asked. "If so, you had better let me +pass." + +He gave no appearance of having heard me; his attention had been caught +by something going on at the rear of the hall we were now approaching. +Following his anxious glance, I saw the door of the mayor's study open +and Mrs. Packard come out. As we reached the lower step, she passed us +on her way to the library. Wondering what errand had taken her to the +study, which she was supposed not to visit, I turned to join her and +caught a glimpse of the old man's face. It was more puckered, scowling +and malignant of aspect than usual. I was surprised that Mrs. Packard +had not noticed it. Surely it was not the countenance of a mere +disgruntled servant. Something not to be seen on the surface was +disturbing this old man; and, moving in the shadows as I was, I +questioned whether it would not conduce to some explanation between +Mrs. Packard and myself if I addressed her on the subject of this old +serving-man's peculiar ways. + +But the opportunity for doing this did not come that morning. On +entering the library I was met by Mrs. Packard with the remark: + +"Have you any interest in politics? Do you know anything about the +subject?" + +"I have an interest in Mayor Packard's election," I smilingly assured +her; "and I know that in this I represent a great number of people in +this town if not in the state." + +"You want to see him governor? You desired this before you came to this +house? You believe him to be a good man--the right man for the place?" + +"I certainly do, Mrs. Packard." + +"And you represent a large class who feel the same?" + +"I think so, Mrs. Packard." + +"I am so glad!" Her tone was almost hysterical. "My heart is set on +this election," she ardently explained. "It means so much this year. My +husband is very ambitious. So am I--for him. I would give--" there she +paused, caught back, it would seem, by some warning thought. I took +advantage of her preoccupation to scrutinize her features more closely +than I had dared to do while she was directly addressing me. I found +them set in the stern mold of profound feeling--womanly feeling, no +doubt, but one actuated by causes far greater than the subject, serious +as it was, apparently called for. She would give-- + +What lay beyond that give? + +I never knew, for she never finished her sentence. + +Observing the breathless interest her manner evoked, or possibly +realizing how nearly she had come to an unnecessary if not unwise +self-betrayal, she suddenly smoothed her brow and, catching up a piece +of embroidery from the table, sat down with it in her hand. + +"A wife is naturally heart and soul with her husband," she observed, +with an assumption of composure which restored some sort of naturalness +to the conversation. "You are a thinking person, I see, and what is +more, a conscientious one. There are many, many such in town; many +amongst the men as well as amongst the women. Do you think I am in +earnest about this--that Mr. Packard's chances could be affected by--by +anything that might be said about me? You saw, or heard us say, at +least, that my name had been mentioned in the morning paper in a way not +altogether agreeable to us. It was false, of course, but--" She started, +and her work fell from her hands. The door-bell had rung and we could +hear Nixon in the hall hastening to answer it. + +"Miss Saunders," she hurriedly interposed with a great effort to speak +naturally, "I have told Nixon that I wish to see Mr. Steele if he comes +in this morning. I wish to speak to him about the commission intrusted +to him by my husband. I confess Mr. Steele has not inspired me with the +confidence that Mr. Packard feels in him and I rather shrink from this +interview. Will you be good enough--rather will you show me the great +kindness of sitting on that low divan by the fireplace where you will +not be visible--see, you may have my work to busy yourself with--and +if--he may not, you know--if he should show the slightest disposition to +transgress in any way, rise and show yourself?" + +I was conscious of flushing slightly, but she was not looking my way, +and the betrayal cost me only a passing uneasiness. She had, quite +without realizing it, offered me the one opportunity I most desired. +In my search for a new explanation of Mrs. Packard's rapidly changing +moods, I had returned to my first suspicion--the attraction and possibly +the passion of the handsome secretary for herself. I had very little +reason for entertaining such a possibility. I had seen nothing on his +part to justify it and but little on hers. + +Yet in the absence of every other convincing cause of trouble I allowed +myself to dwell on this one, and congratulated myself upon the chance +she now offered me of seeing and hearing how he would comport himself +when he thought that he was alone with her. Assured by the sounds in the +hall that Mr. Steele was approaching, I signified my acquiescence with +her wishes, and, taking the embroidery from her hand, sat down in the +place she had pointed out. + +I heard the deep breath she drew, forgot in an instant my purpose of +questioning her concerning Nixon, and settled myself to listen, not only +to such words as must inevitably pass between them, but to their tones, +to the unconscious sigh, to whatever might betray his feeling toward her +or hers toward him, convinced as I now was that feeling of some kind +lay back of an interview which she feared to hold without the support of +another's secret presence. + +The calm even tones of the gentleman himself, modulated to an expression +of utmost deference, were the first to break the silence. + +"You wish to see me, Mrs. Packard?" + +"Yes." The tremble in this ordinary monosyllable was slight but quite +perceptible. "Mr. Packard has given you a task, concerning the necessity +of which I should be glad to learn your opinion. Do you think it wise +to--to probe into such matters? Not that I mean to deter you. You are +under Mr. Packard's orders, but a word from so experienced a man would +be welcome, if only to reconcile me to an effort which must lead to +the indiscriminate use of my name in quarters where it hurts a woman to +imagine it used at all." + +This, with her eyes on his face, of this I felt sure. Her tone was much +too level for her not to be looking directly at him. To any response +he might give of the same nature I had no clue, but his tone when he +answered was as cool and deferentially polite as was to be expected from +a man chosen by Mayor Packard for his private secretary. "Mrs. Packard, +your fears are very natural. A woman shrinks from such inquiries, even +when sustained by the consciousness that nothing can rob her name of its +deserved honor. But if we let one innuendo pass, how can we prevent a +second? The man who did this thing should be punished. In this I agree +with Mayor Packard." + +She stirred impulsively. I could hear the rustle of her dress as she +moved, probably to lessen the distance between them. "You are honest +with me?" she urged. "You do agree with Mr. Packard in this?" + +His answer was firm, straightforward, and, as far as I could judge, +free from any objectionable feature. "I certainly do, Mrs. Packard. +The hesitation I expressed when he first spoke was caused by the one +consideration mentioned,--my fear lest something might go amiss in C---- +to-night if I busied myself otherwise than with the necessities of the +speech with which he is about to open his campaign." + +"I see. You are very desirous that Mr. Packard should win in this +election?" + +"I am his secretary, and was largely instrumental in securing his +nomination for governor," was the simple reply. There was a pause--how +filled, I would have given half my expected salary to know. Then I heard +her ask him the very question she had asked me. + +"Do you think that in the event of your not succeeding in forcing an +apology from the man who inserted that objectionable paragraph against +myself--that--that such hints of something being wrong with me will in +any way affect Mr. Packard's chances--lose him votes, I mean? Will the +husband suffer because of some imagined lack in his wife?" + +"One can not say." Thus appealed to, the man seemed to weigh his words +carefully, out of consideration for her, I thought. "No real admirer of +the mayor's would go over to the enemy from any such cause as that. +Only the doubtful--the half-hearted--those who are ready to grasp at any +excuse for voting with the other party, would allow a consideration of +the mayor's domestic relations to interfere with their confidence in him +as a public officer." + +"But these--" How I wish I could have seen her face! "These half-hearted +voters, their easily stifled convictions are what make majorities," she +stammered. Mr. Steele may have bowed; he probably did, for she went on +confidently and with a certain authority not observable in the tone of +her previous remarks. "You are right. The paragraph reflecting on me +must be traced to its source. The lie must be met and grappled with. I +was not well last week and showed it, but I am perfectly well to-day and +am resolved to show that, too. No skeleton hangs in the Packard closet. +I am a happy wife and a happy mother. Let them come here and see. This +morning I shall issue invitations for a dinner to be given the first +night you can assure me Mr. Packard will be at home. Do you know of any +such night?" + +"On Friday week he has no speech to make." Mrs. Packard seemed to +consider. Finally she said: "When you see him, tell him to leave that +evening free. And, Mr. Steele, if you will be so good, give me the names +of some of those halfhearted ones--critical people who have to see in +order to believe. I shall have them at my table--I shall let them see +that the shadow which enveloped me was ephemeral; that a woman can rise +above all weakness in the support of a husband she loves and honors as I +do Mr. Packard." + +She must have looked majestic. Her voice thrilling with anticipated +triumph rang through the room, awaking echoes which surely must have +touched the heart of this man if, as I had sometimes thought, he +cherished an unwelcome admiration for her. + +But when he answered, there was no hint in his finely modulated tones of +any chord having been touched in his breast, save the legitimate one of +respectful appreciation of a woman who fulfilled the expectation of one +alive to what is admirable in her sex. + +"Your idea is a happy one," said he. "I can give you three names now. +Those of Judge Whittaker, Mr. Dumont, the lawyer, and the two Mowries, +father and son." + +"Thank you. I am indebted to you, Mr. Steele, for the patience with +which you have met and answered my doubts." + +He made some reply, added something about not seeing her again till he +returned with the mayor, then I heard the door open and quietly shut. +The interview was over, without my having felt called upon to show +myself. An interval of silence, and then I heard her voice. She had +thrown herself down at the piano and was singing gaily, ecstatically. + +Approaching her in undisguised wonder at this new mood, I stood at +her back and listened. I do not suppose she had what is called a great +voice, but the feeling back of it at this moment of reaction gave it +a great quality. The piece--some operatic aria--was sung in a way to +thrill the soul. Opening with a burst, it ended with low notes of an +intense sweetness like sobs, not of grief, but happiness. In their midst +and while the tones sank deepest, a child's voice rose in the hall and +we heard, uttered at the very door: + +"Mama busy; mama sing." + +With a cry she sprang from the piano and, bounding to the door, flung it +open and caught her child in her arms. + +"Darling! darling! my darling!" she exclaimed in a burst of +mother-rapture, crushing the child to her breast and kissing it +repeatedly. + +Then she began to dance, holding the baby in her arms and humming a +waltz. As I stood on one side in my own mood of excited sympathy, I +caught fleeting glimpses of their two faces, as she went whirling about. +Hers was beautiful in her new relief--if it was a relief--the child's +dimpled with delight at the rapid movement--a lovely picture. Letty, +who stood waiting in the doorway, showed a countenance full of surprise. +Mrs. Packard was the first to feel tired. Stopping her dance, she peered +round at the baby's face and laughed. + +"Was that good?" she asked. "Are you glad to have mama merry again? I am +going to be merry all the time now. With such a dear, dear dearie of a +baby, how can I help it?" And whirling about in my direction, she held +up the child for inspection, crying: "Isn't she a darling! Do you wonder +at my happiness?" + +Indeed I did not; the sweet baby-face full of glee was irresistible; so +was the pat-pat of the two dimpled hands on her mother's shoulders. With +a longing all women can understand, I held out my own arms. + +"I wonder if she will come to me?" said I. + +But though I got a smile, the little hands closed still more tightly +round the mother's neck. + +"Mama dear!" she cried, "mama dear!" and the tender emphasis on the +endearing word completed the charm. Tears sprang to Mrs. Packard's eyes, +and it was with difficulty that she passed the clinging child over to +the nurse waiting to take her out. + +"That was the happiest moment of my life!" fell unconsciously from Mrs. +Packard's lips as the two disappeared; but presently, meeting my eyes, +she blushed and made haste to remark: + +"I certainly did Mr. Steele an arrant injustice. He was very respectful; +I wonder how I ever got the idea he could be anything else." + +Anxious myself about this very fact, I attempted to reply, but she gave +me no opportunity. + +"And now for those dinner invitations!" she gaily suggested. "While I +feel like it I must busy myself in making out my list. It will give me +something new to think about." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. THE TWO WEIRD SISTERS + + +Ellen seemed to understand my anxiety about Mrs. Packard and to +sympathize with it. That afternoon as I passed her in the hall she +whispered softly: + +"I have just been unpacking that bag and putting everything back into +place. She told me she had packed it in readiness to go with Mr. Packard +if he desired it at the last minute." + +I doubted this final statement, but the fact that the bag had been +unpacked gave me great relief. I began to look forward with much +pleasure to a night of unbroken rest. + +Alas! rest was not for me yet. Relieved as to Mrs. Packard, I found my +mind immediately reverting to the topic which had before engrossed it, +though always before in her connection. The mystery of the so-called +ghosts had been explained, but not the loss of the bonds, which had +driven my poor neighbors mad. This was still a fruitful subject of +thought, though I knew that such well-balanced and practical minds as +Mayor Packard's or Mr. Steele's would have but little sympathy with +the theory ever recurring to me. Could this money be still in the +house?--the possibility of such a fact worked and worked upon my +imagination till I grew as restless as I had been over the mystery of +the ghosts and presently quite as ready for action. + +Possibly the hurried glimpse I had got of Miss Thankful's countenance a +little while before, in the momentary visit she paid to the attic +window at which I had been accustomed to see either her or her sister +constantly sit, inspired me with my present interest in this old and +wearing trouble of theirs and the condition into which it had thrown +their minds. I thought of their nights of broken rest while they were +ransacking the rooms below and testing over and over the same boards, +the same panels for the secret hiding-place of their lost treasure, +of their foolish attempts to scare away all other intruders, and the +racking of nerve and muscle which must have attended efforts so out of +keeping with their age and infirmities. + +It would be natural to regard the whole matter as an hallucination on +their part, to disbelieve in the existence of the bonds, and to regard +Miss Thankful's whole story to Mrs. Packard as the play of a diseased +imagination. + +But I could not, would not, carry my own doubts to this extent. The +bonds had been in existence; Miss Thankful had seen them; and the one +question calling for answer now was, whether they had been long ago +found and carried off, or whether they were still within the reach of +the fortunate hand capable of discovering their hiding-place. + +The nurse who, according to Miss Thankful, had wakened such dread in +the dying man's breast as to drive him to the attempt which had ended +in this complete loss of the whole treasure, appeared to me the chief +factor in the first theory. If any one had ever found these bonds, it +was she; how, it was not for me to say, in my present ignorant state +of the events following the reclosing of the house after this old man's +death and burial. But the supposition of an utter failure on the part +of this woman and of every other subsequent resident of the house to +discover this mysterious hiding-place, wakened in me no real instinct of +search. I felt absolutely and at once that any such effort in my present +blind state of mind would be totally unavailing. The secret trap and +the passage it led to, with all the opportunities they offered for the +concealment of a few folded documents, did not, strange as it may appear +at first blush, suggest the spot where these papers might be lying +hid. The manipulation of the concealed mechanism and the difficulties +attending a descent there, even on the part of a well man, struck me +as precluding all idea of any such solution to this mystery. Strong +as dying men sometimes are in the last flickering up of life in the +speedily dissolving frame, the lowering of this trap, and, above all, +the drawing of it back into place, which I instinctively felt would be +the hardest act of the two, would be beyond the utmost fire or force +conceivable in a dying man. No, even if he, as a member of the family, +knew of this subterranean retreat, he could not have made use of it. I +did not even accept the possibility sufficiently to approach the place +again with this new inquiry in mind. Yet what a delight lay in the +thought of a possible finding of this old treasure, and the new life +which would follow its restoration to the hands which had once touched +it only to lose it on the instant. + +The charm of this idea was still upon me when I woke the next morning. +At breakfast I thought of the bonds, and in the hour which followed, the +work I was doing for Mrs. Packard in the library was rendered difficult +by the constant recurrence of the one question into my mind: "What would +a man in such a position do with the money he was anxious to protect +from the woman he saw coming and secure to his sister who had just +stepped next door?" When a moment came at last in which I could really +indulge in these intruding thoughts, I leaned back in my chair and tried +to reconstruct the room according to Mrs. Packard's description of it at +that time. I even pulled my chair over to that portion of the room where +his bed had stood, and, choosing the spot where his head would naturally +lie, threw back my own on the reclining chair I had chosen, and +allowed my gaze to wander over the walls before me in a vague hope of +reproducing, in my mind, the ideas which must have passed through his +before he rose and thrust those papers into their place of concealment. +Alas! those walls were barren of all suggestion, and my eyes went +wandering through the window before me in a vague appeal, when a sudden +remembrance of his last moments struck me sharply and I bounded up with +a new thought, a new idea, which sent me in haste to my room and brought +me down again in hat and jacket. Mrs. Packard had once said that the +ladies next door were pleased to have callers, and advised me to visit +them. I would test her judgment in the matter. Early though it was, I +would present myself at the neighboring door and see what my reception +would be. The discovery I had made in my unfortunate accident in the old +entry way should be my excuse. Apologies were in order from us to them; +I would make these apologies. + +I was prepared to confront poverty in this bare and comfortless-looking +abode of decayed gentility. But I did not expect quite so many evidences +of it as met my eyes as the door swung slowly open some time after my +persistent knock, and I beheld Miss Charity's meager figure outlined +against walls and a flight of uncarpeted stairs such as I had never +seen before out of a tenement house. I may have dropped my eyes, but I +recovered myself immediately. Marking the slow awakening of pleasure +in the wan old face as she recognized me, I uttered some apology for my +early call and then waited to see if she would welcome me in. + +She not only did so, but did it with such a sudden breaking up of her +rigidity into the pliancy of a naturally hospitable nature, that my +heart was touched, and I followed her into the great bare apartment, +which must have once answered the purposes of a drawing-room, with very +different feelings from those with which I had been accustomed to look +upon her face in the old attic window. + +"I should like to see your sister, too," I said, as she hastily, but +with a certain sort of ceremony, too, pushed forward one of the ancient +chairs which stood at long intervals about the room. "I have not been +your neighbor very long, but I should like to pay my respects to both of +you." + +I had purposely spoken with the formal precision she had been accustomed +to in her earlier days, and I could see how perceptibly her self-respect +returned at this echo of the past, giving her a sudden dignity which +made me forget for the moment her neglected appearance. + +"I will summon my sister," she returned, disappearing quietly from the +room. + +I waited fifteen minutes, then Miss Thankful entered, dressed in her +very best, followed by my first acquaintance in her same gown, but with +a little cap on her head. The cap, despite its faded ribbons carefully +pressed out but with too cold an iron, gave her an old-time fashionable +air which for the moment created the impression that she might have been +a beauty and a belle in her early days, which I afterward discovered to +be true. + +It was Miss Thankful, however, who had the personal presence, and it was +she who now expressed their sense of the honor, pushing forward another +chair than that from which I had risen, with the remark: + +"Take this, I pray. Many an honored guest has occupied this seat. Let us +see you in it." + +I could detect no difference between the one she offered and the one in +which I had just sat, but I at once stepped forward and took the chair +she proffered. She bowed and Miss Charity bowed, and then they seated +themselves side by side on the hair-cloth sofa, which was the only other +article of furniture in the room. + +"We are--we are preparing to move," stammered Miss Charity, a faint +flush tingeing her faded cheeks, as she caught the involuntary glance I +had cast about me. + +Miss Thankful bridled and gave her sister a look of open rebuke. She +had, as one could instantly see from her strong features and purposeful +ways, been a woman of decided parts and of strict, upright character. +Weakened as she was, the shadow of an untruth disturbed her. Her pride +ran in a different groove from that of her once over-complimented, +over-fostered sister. She was going to add a protest in words to that +expressed by her gesture, but I hastily prevented this by coming at once +to the point of my errand. + +"My excuse for this early call," I said, this time addressing Miss +Thankful, "lies in an adventure which occurred to me yesterday in the +adjoining house." It was painful to see how they both started, and how +they instinctively caught each at the other's hand as they sat side +by side on the sofa, as if only thus they could bear the shock of what +might be coming next. I had to nerve myself to proceed. "You know, or +rather I gather from your kind greetings that you know that I am at +present staying with Mrs. Packard. She is very kind and we spend many +pleasant hours together; but of course some of the time I have to be +alone, and then I try to amuse myself by looking about at the various +interesting things which are scattered through the house." + +A gasp from Miss Charity, a look still more expressive from Miss +Thankful. I hastened to cut their suspense short. + +"You know the little cabinet they have placed in the old entrance +pointing this way? Well, I was looking at that when the whim seized +me--I hardly know how--to press one of the knobs in the molding which +runs about the doorway, when instantly everything gave way under me +and I fell into a deep hole which had been scooped out of the +alley-way--nobody knows for what." + +A cry and they were on their feet, still holding hands and endeavoring +to show nothing but concern for my disaster. + +"Oh, I wasn't hurt," I smiled. "I was frightened, of course, but not +so much as to lose my curiosity. When I got to my feet again, I looked +about in this surprising hole--" + +"It was our uncle's way of reaching his winecellar," Miss Thankful +explained with great dignity as she and her sister sank back into their +seats. "He had some remarkable old wine, and, as he was covetous of it, +he conceived this way of securing it from everybody's knowledge but +his own. It was a strange way, but he was a little touched," she added, +laying a slow impressive finger on her forehead, "just a little touched +here." + +The short, significant glance she cast at Charity as she said this, +and the little smile she gave were to give me to understand that this +weakness had descended in the family. I felt my heart contract; my +self-imposed task was a harder one than I had anticipated, but I could +not shirk it now. "Did this wine-cellar you mention run all the way to +this house?" I lightly inquired. "I stumbled on a passage leading +here, which I thought you ought to know is now open to any one in Mayor +Packard's house. Of course, it will be closed soon," I hastened to add +as Miss Charity hurriedly rose at her sister's quick look and anxiously +left the room. "Mrs. Packard will see to that." + +"Yes, yes, I have no doubt; she's a very good woman, a very fair woman, +don't you think so, Miss--" + +"My name is Saunders." + +"A very good name. I knew a fine family of that name when I was younger. +There was one of them--his name was Robert--" Here she rambled on for +several minutes as if this topic and no other filled her whole mind; +then, as if suddenly brought back to what started it, she uttered in +sudden anxiety, "You think well of Mrs. Packard? You have confidence in +her?" + +I allowed myself to speak with all the enthusiasm she so greedily +desired. + +"Indeed I have," I cried. "I think she can be absolutely depended on +to do the right thing every time. You are fortunate in having such good +neighbors at the time of this mishap." + +At this minute Miss Charity reentered. Her panting condition, as well as +the unsettled position of the cap on her head, told very plainly where +she had been. Reseating herself, she looked at Miss Thankful and Miss +Thankful looked at her, but no word passed. They evidently understood +each other. + +"I'm obliged to Mrs. Packard," now fell from Miss Thankful's lips, "and +to you, too, young lady, for acquainting us with this accident. The +passage we extended ourselves after taking up our abode in this house. +We--we did not see why we should not profit by our ancestor's old and +undiscovered wine-cellar to secure certain things which were valuable to +us." + +Her hesitation in uttering this final sentence--a sentence all the more +marked because naturally, she was a very straightforward person--awoke +my doubt and caused me to ask myself what she meant by this word +"secure." Did she mean, as circumstances went to show and as I had +hitherto believed, that they had opened up this passage for the purpose +of a private search in their old home for the lost valuables they +believed to be concealed there? Or had they, under some temporary +suggestion of their disorganized brains, themselves hidden away among +the rafters of this unexplored spot the treasure they believed lost and +now constantly bewailed? + +The doubt thus temporarily raised in my mind made me very uneasy for a +moment, but I soon dismissed it and dropping this subject for the nonce, +began to speak of the houses as they now looked and of the changes which +had evidently been made in them since they had left the one and entered +the other. + +"I understand," I ventured at last, "that in those days this house also +had a door opening on the alley-way. Where did it lead--do you mind +my asking?--into a room or into a hallway? I am so interested in old +houses." + +They did not resent this overt act of curiosity; I had expected Miss +Thankful to, but she didn't. Some recollection connected with the name +of Saunders had softened her heart toward me and made her regard with +indulgence an interest which she might otherwise have looked upon as +intrusive. + +"We long ago boarded up that door," she answered. "It was of very little +use to us from our old library." + +"It looked into one of the rooms then?" I persisted, but with a wary +gentleness which I felt could not offend. + +"No; there is no room there, only a passageway. But it has closets in +it, and we did not like to be seen going to them any time of day. The +door had glass panes in it, you know, just like a window. It made the +relations so intimate with people only a few feet away." + +"Naturally," I cried, "I don't wonder you wanted to shut them off if you +could." Then with a sudden access of interest which I vainly tried to +hide, I thought of the closets and said with a smile, "The closets were +for china, I suppose; old families have so much china." + +Miss Charity nodded, complacency in every feature; but Miss Thankful +thought it more decorous to seem to be indifferent in this matter. + +"Yes, china; old pieces, not very valuable. We gave what we had of worth +to our sister when she married. We keep other things there, too, but +they are not important. We seldom go to those closets now, so we don't +mind the darkness." + +"I--I dote on old china," I exclaimed, carefully restraining myself from +appearing unduly curious. "Won't you let me look at it? I know that it +is more valuable than you think. It will make me happy for the whole +day, if you will let me see these old pieces. They may not look +beautiful to you, you are so accustomed to them; but to me every one +must have a history, or a history my imagination will supply." + +Miss Charity looked gently but perceptibly frightened. She shook her +head, saying in her weak, fond tones: + +"They are too dusty; we are not such housekeepers as we used to be; I am +ashamed--" + +But Miss Thankful's peremptory tones cut her short. + +"Miss Saunders will excuse a little dust. We are so occupied," she +explained, with her eye fixed upon me in almost a challenging way, "that +we can afford little time for unnecessary housework. If she wants to see +these old relics of a former day, let her. You, Charity, lead the way." + +I was trembling with gratitude and the hopes I had suppressed, but I +managed to follow the apologetic figure of the humiliated old lady with +a very good grace. As we quitted the room we were in, through a door +at the end leading into the dark passageway, I thought of the day when, +according to Mrs. Packard's story, Miss Thankful had come running across +the alley and through this very place to astound her sister and nephew +in the drawing-room with the news of the large legacy destined so soon +to be theirs. That was two years ago, and to-day--I proceeded no further +with what was in my mind, for my interest was centered in the closet +whose door Miss Charity had just flung open. + +"You see," murmured that lady, "that we haven't anything of +extraordinary interest to show you. Do you want me to hand some of them +down? I don't believe that it will pay you." + +I cast a look at the shelves and felt a real disappointment. Not that +the china was of too ordinary a nature to attract, but that the pieces I +saw, and indeed the full contents of the shelves, failed to include what +I was vaguely in search of and had almost brought my mind into condition +to expect. + +"Haven't you another closet here?" I faltered. "These pieces are pretty, +but I am sure you have some that are larger and with the pattern more +dispersed--a platter or a vegetable dish." + +"No, no," murmured Miss Charity, drawing back as she let the door slip +from her hand. "Really, Thankful,"--this to her sister who was +pulling open another door,--"the look of those shelves is positively +disreputable--all the old things we have had in the house for years. +Don't--" + +"Oh, do let me see that old tureen up on the top shelf," I put in. "I +like that." + +Miss Thankful's long arm went up, and, despite Miss Charity's complaint +that it was too badly cracked to handle, it was soon down and placed in +my hands. I muttered my thanks, gave utterance to sundry outbursts of +enthusiasm, then with a sudden stopping of my heart-beats, I lifted the +cover and-- + +"Let me set it down," I gasped, hurriedly replacing the cover. I was +really afraid I should drop it. Miss Thankful took it from me and rested +it on the edge of the lower shelf. + +"Why, how you tremble, child!" she cried. "Do you like old Colonial blue +ware as well as that? If you do, you shall have this piece. Charity, +bring a duster, or, better, a damp cloth. You shall have it, yes, you +shall have it." + +"Wait!" I could hardly speak. "Don't get a cloth yet. Come with me back +into the parlor, and bring the tureen. I want to see it in full light." + +They looked amazed, but they followed me as I made a dash for the +drawing-room, Miss Thankful with the tureen in her hands. I was quite +Mistress of myself before I faced them again, and, sitting down, took +the tureen on my lap, greatly to Miss Charity's concern as to the injury +it might do my frock. + +"There is something I must tell you about myself before I can accept +your gift," I said. + +"What can you have to tell us about yourself that could make us hesitate +to bestow upon you such an insignificant piece of old cracked china?" +Miss Thankful asked as I sat looking up at them with moist eyes and +wildly beating heart. + +"Only this," I answered. "I know what perhaps you had rather have had me +ignorant of. Mrs. Packard told me about the bonds you lost, and how you +thought them still in the house where your brother died, though no one +has ever been able to find them there. Oh, sit down," I entreated, as +they both turned very pale and looked at each other in affright. "I +don't wonder that you have felt their loss keenly; I don't wonder that +you have done your utmost to recover them, but what I do wonder at is +that you were so sure they were concealed in the room where he lay that +you never thought of looking elsewhere. Do you remember, Miss Quinlan, +where his eyes were fixed at the moment of death?" + +"On the window directly facing his bed." + +"Gazing at what?" + +"Sky--no, the walls of our house." + +"Be more definite; at the old side door through which he could see the +closet shelves where this old tureen stood. During the time you had been +gone, he had realized his sinking condition, and, afraid of the nurse he +saw advancing down the street, summoned all his strength and rushed with +his treasure across the alley-way and put it in the first hiding-place +his poor old eyes fell on. He may have been going to give it to you; but +you had company, you remember, in here, and he may have heard voices. +Anyhow, we know that he put it in the tureen because--" here I lifted +the lid--"because--" I was almost as excited and trembling and beside +myself as they were--"because it is here now." + +They looked, then gazed in each other's face and bowed their heads. +Silence alone could express the emotion of that moment. Then with +a burst of inarticulate cries, Miss Charity rose and solemnly began +dancing up and down the great room. Her sister looked on with grave +disapproval till the actual nature of the find made its way into her +bewildered mind, then she reached over and plunged her hand into the +tureen and drew out the five bonds which she clutched first to her +breast and then began proudly to unfold. + +"Fifty thousand dollars!" she exclaimed. "We are rich women from +to-day," and as she said it I saw the shrewdness creep beck into her +eyes and the long powerful features take on the expressive character +which they had so pitifully lacked up to the moment. I realized that +I had been the witness of a miracle. The reason, shattered, or, let us +say, disturbed by one shock, had been restored by another. The real Miss +Thankful stood before me. Meanwhile the weaker sister, dancing still, +was uttering jubilant murmurs to which her feet kept time with almost +startling precision. But as the other let the words I have recorded here +leave her lips, she came to a sudden standstill and approaching her lips +to Miss Thankful's ear said joyfully: + +"We must tell--oh," she hastily interpolated as she caught her sister's +eyes and followed the direction of her pointing finger, "we have not +thanked our little friend, our good little friend who has done us such +an inestimable service." I felt her quivering arms fall round my neck, +as Miss Thankful removed the tureen and in words both reasonable and +kind expressed the unbounded gratitude which she herself felt. + +"How came you to think? How came you to care enough to think?" fell from +her lips as she kissed me on the forehead. "You are a jewel, little Miss +Saunders, and some day--" + +But I need not relate all that she said or all the extravagant things +Miss Charity did, or even my own delight, so much greater even than any +I had anticipated, when I first saw this possible ending of my suddenly +inspired idea. However, Miss Thankful's words as we parted at the door +struck me as strange, showing that it would be a little while yet before +the full balance of her mind was restored. + +"Tell everybody," she cried; "tell Mrs. Packard and all who live in the +house; but keep it secret from the woman who keeps that little shop. +We are afraid of her; she haunts this neighborhood to get at these very +bonds. She was the nurse who cared for my brother, and it was to escape +her greed that he hid this money. If she knew that we had found these +our lives wouldn't be safe. Wait till we have them in the bank." + +"Assuredly. I shall tell no one." + +"But you must tell those at home," she smiled; and the beaming light in +her kindled eye followed me the few steps I had to take, and even into +the door. + +So Bess had been the old man's nurse'! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. THE MORNING NEWS + + +That evening I was made a heroine of by Mrs. Packard and all the other +members of the household. Even Nixon thawed and showed me his genial +side. I had to repeat my story above stairs--and below, and relate just +what the old ladies had done and said, and how they bore their joy, and +whatever I thought they would do with their money now they had it. When +I at last reached my room, my first act was to pull aside my shade and +take a peep at the old attic window. Miss Charity's face was there, +but so smiling and gay I hardly knew it. She kissed her hand to me as I +nodded my head, and then turned away with her light as if to show me she +had only been waiting to give me this joyous good night. + +This was a much better picture to sleep on than the former one had been. + +Next day I settled back into my old groove. Mrs. Packard busied herself +with her embroidery and I read to her or played on the piano. Happier +days seemed approaching, nay, had come. We enjoyed two days of it, then +trouble settled down on us once more. + +It began on Friday afternoon. Mrs. Packard and I had been out making +some arrangements for the projected dinner-party and I had stopped for a +minute in the library before going up-stairs. + +A pile of mail lay on the table. Running this over with a rapid hand, +she singled out several letters which she began to open. Their contents +seemed far from satisfactory. Exclamation after exclamation left her +lips, her agitation increasing with each one she read, and her haste, +too, till finally it seemed sufficient for her just to glance at the +unfolded sheet before letting it drop. When the last one had left her +hand, she turned and, encountering my anxious look, bitterly remarked: + +"We need not have made those arrangements this morning. Seven regrets in +this mail and two in the early one. Nine regrets in all! and I sent out +only ten invitations. What is the meaning of it? I begin to feel myself +ostracized." + +I did not understand it any more than she did. + +"Invite others," I suggested, and was sorry for my presumption the next +minute. + +Her poor lip trembled. + +"I do not dare," she whispered. "Oh, what will Mr. Packard say! Some one +or something is working against us. We have enemies--enemies, and Mr. +Packard will never get his election." + +Her trouble was natural and so was her expression of it. Feeling for +her, and all the more that the cause of this concerted action against +her was as much a mystery to me as it was to herself, I made some +attempt to comfort her, which was futile enough, God knows. She heard my +voice, no doubt, but she gave no evidence of noting what I said. When I +had finished--that is, when she no longer heard me speaking--she let her +head droop and presently I heard her murmur: + +"It seems to me that if for any reason he fails to get his election I +shall wish to die." + +She was in this state of dejection, with the echo of this sad sentence +in both our ears, when a light tap at the door was followed by +the entrance of Letty, the nurse-maid. She wore an unusual look of +embarrassment and held something crushed in her hand. Mrs. Packard +advanced hurriedly to meet her. + +"What is it?" she interrogated sharply, like one expectant of evil +tidings. + +"Nothing! that is, not much," stammered the frightened girl, attempting +to thrust her hand behind her back. + +But Mrs. Packard was too quick for her. + +"You have something there! What is it? Let me see." + +The girl's hand moved forward reluctantly. "A paper which I found pinned +to the baby's coat when I took her out of the carriage," she faltered. +"I--I don't know what it means." + +Mrs. Packard's eyes opened wide with horror. She seized the paper and +staggered with it to one of the windows. While she looked at it, I cast +a glance at Letty. She was crying, from what looked like pure fear; but +it was the fear of ignorance rather than duplicity; she appeared as much +mystified as ourselves. + +Meanwhile I felt, rather than saw, the old shadow settling fast upon +the head of her who an hour before had been so bright. She had chosen a +place where her form could not fail of being more or less concealed by +the curtain, and though I heard the paper rattle I could not see it +or the hand which held it. But the time she spent over it seemed +interminable before I heard her utter a sharp cry and saw the curtains +shake as she clutched them. + +It seemed the proper moment to proffer help, but before either Letty or +I could start forward, her command rang out in smothered but peremptory +tones: + +"Keep back! I want no one here!" and we stopped, each looking at the +other in very natural consternation. And when, after another seemingly +interminable interval, she finally stepped forth, I noted a haggard +change in her face, and that her coat had been torn open and even the +front of her dress wrenched apart as if she felt herself suffocating, +or as if--but this alternative only suggested itself to me later and I +shall refrain from mentioning it now. + +Crossing the floor with a stumbling step, with the paper which had +roused all this indignation still in her hand, she paused before the now +seriously alarmed Letty, and demanded in great excitement: + +"Who pinned that paper on my child? You know; you saw it done. Was it a +man or--" + +"Oh no, ma'am, no, ma'am," protested the girl. "No man came near her. It +was a woman--a nice-looking woman." + +"A woman!" + +Mrs. Packard's tone was incredulous. But the girl insisted. + +"Yes, ma'am; there was no man there at all. I was on one of the park +benches resting, with the baby in my arms, and this woman passed by +and saw us. She smiled at the baby's ways, and then stopped and took +to talking about her,--how pretty she was and how little afraid of +strangers. I saw no harm in the woman, ma'am, and let her sit down on +the same bench with me for a few minutes. She must have pinned the +paper on the baby's coat then, for it was the only time anybody was near +enough to do it." + +Mrs. Packard, with an irrepressible gesture of anger or dismay, turned +and walked back to the window. The movement was a natural one. Certainly +she was excusable for wishing to hide from the girl the full extent of +the agitation into which this misadventure had thrown her. + +"You may go." The words came after a moment of silent suspense. "Give +the baby her supper--I know that you will never let any one else come so +near her again." + +Letty probably did not catch the secret anguish hidden in her tone, but +I did, and after the nurse-maid was gone, I waited anxiously for what +Mrs. Packard would say. + +It came from the window and conveyed nothing. Would I do so and so? I +forget what her requests were, only that they necessitated my leaving +the room. There seemed no alternative but to obey, yet I felt loath to +leave her and was hesitating near the doorway when a new interruption +occurred. Nixon brought in a telegram, and, as Mrs. Packard advanced +to take it, she threw on the table the slip of paper which she had been +poring over behind the curtains. + +As I stepped back at Nixon's entrance I was near the table and the +single glance I gave this paper as it fell showed me that it was covered +with the same Hebrew-like characters of which I already possessed more +than one example. The surprise was acute, but the opportunity which came +with it was one I could not let slip. Meeting her eye as the door closed +on Nixon, I pointed at the scrawl she had thrown down, and wonderingly +asked her if that was what Letty had found pinned to the baby's coat. + +With a surprised start, she paused in her act of opening the telegram +and made a motion as if to repossess herself of this, but seeming to +think better of it she confined herself to giving me a sharp look. + +"Yes," was her curt assent. + +I summoned up all my courage, possibly all my powers of acting. + +"Why, what is there in unreadable characters like these to alarm you?" + +She forgot her telegram, she forgot everything but that here was a +question she must answer in a way to disarm all suspicion. + +"The fact," she accentuated gravely, "that they are unreadable. What +menace may they not contain? I am afraid of them, as I am of all obscure +and mystifying things." + +In a flash, at the utterance of these words, I saw, my way to the +fulfillment of the wish which had actuated me from the instant my eyes +had fallen on this paper. + +"Do you think it a cipher?" I asked. + +"A cipher?" + +"I have always been good at puzzles. I wish you would let me see what +I can make out of these rows of broken squares and topsy-turvy angles. +Perhaps I can prove to you that they contain nothing to alarm you." + +The gleam of something almost ferocious sprang into this gentle woman's +eyes. Her lips moved and I expected an angry denial, but fear kept her +back. She did not dare to appear to understand this paper any better +than I did. Besides, she was doubtless conscious that its secret was not +one to yield to any mere puzzle-reader. She could safely trust it to my +curiosity. All this I detected in her changing expression, before she +made the slightest gesture which allowed me to secure what I felt to be +the most valuable acquisition in the present exigency. + +Then she turned to her telegram. It was from her husband, and I was not +prepared for the cry of dismay which left her lips as she read it, nor +for the increased excitement into which she was thrown by its few and +seemingly simple words. + +With apparent forgetfulness of what had just occurred--a forgetfulness +which insensibly carried her back to the moment when she had given me +some order which involved my departure from the room--she impetuously +called out over her shoulder which she had turned on opening her +telegram: + +"Miss Saunders! Miss Saunders! are you there? Bring me the morning +papers; bring me the morning papers!" + +Instantly I remembered that we had not read the papers. Contrary to our +usual habit we had gone about a pressing piece of work without a glance +at any of the three dailies laid to hand in their usual place on the +library table. "They are here on the table," I replied, wondering as +much at the hectic flush which now enlivened her features as at the +extreme paleness that had marked them the moment before. + +"Search them! There is something new in them about me. There must be. +Read Mr. Packard's message." + +I took it from her hand; only eight words in all. + +Here they are--the marks of separation being mine: + + I am coming--libel I know--where is S. + Henry. + +"Search the columns," she repeated, as I laid the telegram down. +"Search! Search!" + +I hastily obeyed. But it took me some time to find the paragraph I +sought. The certainty that others in the house had read these papers, +if we had not, disturbed me. I recalled certain glances which I had seen +pass between the servants behind Mrs. Packard's back,--glances which +I had barely noted at the time, but which returned to my mind now with +forceful meaning; and if these busy girls had read, all the town had +read--what? Suddenly I found it. She saw my eyes stop in their hurried +scanning and my fingers clutch the sheet more firmly, and, drawing up +behind me, she attempted to follow with her eyes the words I reluctantly +read out. Here they are, just as they left my trembling lips that +day--words that only the most rabid of opponents could have instigated: + + + Apropos of the late disgraceful discoveries, by which a woman + of apparent means and unsullied honor has been precipitated from + her proud preeminence as a leader of fashion, how many women, + known and admired to-day, could stand the test of such an inquiry + as she was subjected to? We know one at least, high in position + and aiming at a higher, who, if the merciful veil were withdrawn + which protects the secrets of the heart, would show such a dark + spot in her life, that even the aegis of the greatest power in + the state would be powerless to shield her from the indignation + of those who now speak loudest in her praise. + + +"A lie!" burst in vehement protest from Mrs. Packard, as I finished. "A +lie like the rest! But oh, the shame of it! a shame that will kill me." +Then suddenly and with a kind of cold horror: "It is this which +has destroyed my social prestige in town. I understand those nine +declinations now. Henry! my poor Henry!" + +There was little comfort to offer, but I tried to divert her mind to the +practical aspect of the case by saying: + +"What can Mr. Steele be doing? He does not seem to be very successful +in his attempts to carry out the mayor's orders. See! your husband asks +where he is. He can mean no other by the words 'Where is S--?' He knew +that your mind would supply the name." + +"Yes." + +Her eyes had become fixed; her whole face betrayed a settled despair. +Quickly, violently, she rang the bell. + +Nixon appeared. + +She advanced hurriedly to meet him. + +"Nixon, you have Mr. Steele's address?" + +"Yes, Mrs. Packard." + +"Then go to it at once. Find Mr. Steele if you can, but if that is not +possible, learn where he has gone and come right back and tell me. Mr. +Packard telegraphs to know where he is. He has not joined the mayor in +C---." + +"Yes, Mrs. Packard; the house is not far. I shall be back in fifteen +minutes." + +The words were respectful, but the sly glint in his blinking eyes as +he hastened out fixed my thoughts again on this man and the uncommon +attitude he maintained toward the mistress whose behests he nevertheless +flew to obey. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. THE CRY FROM THE STAIRS + + +I was alone in the library when Nixon returned. He must have seen Mrs. +Packard go up before he left, for he passed by without stopping, and the +next moment I heard his foot on the stairs. + +Some impulse made me step into the hall and cast a glance at his +ascending figure. I could see only his back, but there was something +which I did not like in the curve of that back and the slide of his hand +as it moved along the stair-rail. + +His was not an open nature at the best. I almost forgot the importance +of his errand in watching the man himself. Had he not been a +servant--but he was, and an old and foolishly fussy one. I would not +imagine follies, only I wished I could follow him into Mrs. Packard's +presence. + +His stay, however, was too short for much to have been gained thereby. +Almost immediately he reappeared, shaking his head and looking very +much disturbed, and I was watching his pottering descent when he was +startled, and I was startled, by two cries which rang out simultaneously +from above, one of pain and distress from the room he had just left, +and one expressive of the utmost glee from the lips of the baby whom the +nursemaid was bringing down from the upper hall. + +Appalled by the anguish expressed in the mother's cry, I was bounding +up-stairs when my course was stopped by one of the most poignant sights +it has ever been my lot to witness. Mrs. Packard had heard her child's +laugh, and flying from her room had met the little one on the threshold +of her door and now, crying and sobbing, was kneeling with the child +in her arms in the open space at the top of the stairs. Her paroxysm of +grief, wild and unconstrained as it was, gave less hint of madness than +of intolerable suffering. + +Wondering at an abandonment which bespoke a grief too great for all +further concealment, I glanced again at Nixon. He had paused in the +middle of the staircase and was looking back in a dubious way denoting +hesitation. But as the full force of the tragic scene above made itself +felt in his slow mind, he showed a disposition to escape and tremblingly +continued his descent. He was nearly upon me when he caught my eye. +A glare awoke in his, and seeing his right arm rise threateningly, I +thought he would certainly strike me. But he slid by without doing so. + +What did it mean? Oh, what did it all mean? + + + + +CHAPTER XX. EXPLANATION + + +Determined to know the cause of Mrs. Packard's anguish, if not of +Nixon's unprovoked anger against myself, I caught him back as he was +passing me and peremptorily demanded: + +"What message did you carry to Mrs. Packard to throw her into such a +state as this? Answer! I am in this house to protect her against all +such disturbances. What did you tell her?" + +"Nothing." + +Sullenness itself in the tone. + +"Nothing? and you were sent on an errand? Didn't you fulfil it?" + +"Yes." + +"And didn't tell her what you learned?" + +"No." + +"Why?" + +"She didn't give me the chance." + +"Oh!" + +"I know it sounds queer, Miss, but it's true. She didn't give me a +chance to talk." + +He muttered the final sentence. Indeed, all that we had said until now +had been in a subdued tone, but now my voice unconsciously rose. + +"You found Mr. Steele?" + +"No, Miss, he was not at home." + +"But they told you where to look for him?" + +"No. His landlady thinks he is dead. He has queer spells, and some one +had sent her word about a man, handsome like him, who was found dead at +Hudson Three Corners last night. Mr. Steele told her he was going over +to Hudson Three Corners. She has sent to see if the dead man is he." + +"The dead man!" + +Who spoke? Not Mrs. Packard! Surely that voice was another's. Yet we +both looked up to see: + +The sight which met our eyes was astonishing, appalling. She had let her +baby slip to the floor and had advanced to the stairs, where she stood, +clutching at the rail, looking down upon us, with a joy in her face +matching the unholy elation we could still hear ringing in that word +"dead." + +Such a look might have leaped to life in the eyes of the Medusa when she +turned her beauty upon her foredoomed victims. + +"Dead!" came again in ringing repetition from Mrs. Packard's lips, every +fiber in her tense form quivering and the gleam of hope shining brighter +and brighter in her countenance. "No, not dead!" Then while Nixon +trembled and succumbed inwardly to this spectacle of a gentle-hearted +woman transformed by some secret and overwhelming emotion into an image +of vindictive delight, her hands left the stair-rail and flew straight +up over her head in the transcendent gesture which only the greatest +crises in life call forth, and she exclaimed with awe-inspiring +emphasis: "God could not have been so merciful!" + +It is not often, perhaps it is only once in a lifetime, that it is given +us to look straight into the innermost recesses of the human soul. Never +before had such an opportunity come to me, and possibly never would +it come again, yet my first conscious impulse was one of fright at the +appalling self-revelation she had made, not only in my hearing, but in +that of nearly her whole household. I could see, over her shoulders, +Letty's eyes staring wide in ingenuous dismay, while from the hall below +rose the sound of hurrying feet as the girls came running in from the +kitchen. Something must be done, and immediately, to recall her to +herself, and, if possible, to reinstate her in the eyes of her servants. + +Bounding upward to where she still stood forgetful and self-absorbed, I +laid my hands softly but firmly on hers, which had fallen back upon the +rail, and quietly said: + +"You have some very strong reason, I see, for looking upon Mr. Steele as +your husband's enemy rather than friend." + +The appeal was timely. With a start she woke to the realization of her +position and of the suggestive words she had just uttered, and with a +glance behind her at Letty and another at Nixon and the maids, who by +this time had pushed their way to the foot of the stairs, she gathered +herself up with a determination born of the necessity of the moment and +emphatically replied: + +"No; I do not know Mr. Steele well enough for that. My emotion at the +unexpected tidings of his possible death springs from another cause." +Here the help, the explanation for which she had been searching, came. +"Girls," she went on, addressing them with an emphasis which drew all +eyes, "I am ashamed to tell you what has so deeply disturbed me these +last few days. I should blame any one of you for being affected as I +was. The great love I bear my husband and child is my excuse--a poor +one, I know, but one you will understand. A week ago something happened +to me in the library which frightened me very much. I saw--or thought +I saw--what some would call an apparition, but what you would call a +ghost. Don't shriek!" (The two girls behind me had begun to scream and +make as if to run away.) "It was all imagination, of course--there can +not really be any such thing. Ghosts in these days? Pshaw! But I was +very, nervous that night and could not help feeling that the mere fact +of my thinking of anything so dreadful meant misfortune to some one in +this house. Wait!" Her voice was imperious; and the shivering, terrified +girls, superstitious to the backbone, stopped in spite of themselves. +"You must hear it all, and you, too, Miss Saunders, who have only heard +half. I was badly frightened then, especially as the ghost, spirit-man, +or whatever it was, wore a look, in the one short moment I stood face +to face with it, full of threat and warning. Next day Mr. Packard +introduced his new secretary. Girls, he had the face of the Something I +had seen, without the threatening look, which had so alarmed me." + +"Bad 'cess to him!" rang in vigorous denunciation from the cook. "Why +didn't ye send him 'mejitly about his business? It's trouble he'll bring +to us all and no mistake!" + +"That was what I feared," assented her now thoroughly composed mistress. +"So when Nixon said just now that Mr. Steele was dead, had fallen in a +fit at Hudson Three Corners or something like that--I felt such wicked +relief at finding that my experience had not meant danger to ourselves, +but to him--wicked, because it was so selfish--that I forgot myself +and cried out in the way you all heard. Blame me if you will, but don't +frighten yourselves by talking about it. If Mr. Steele is indeed dead, +we have enough to trouble us without that." + +And with a last glance at me, which ended in a wavering half-deprecatory +smile, she stepped back and passed into her own room. + +The mood in which I proceeded to my own quarters was as thoughtful as +any I had ever experienced. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. THE CIPHER + + +Hitherto I had mainly admired Mrs. Packard's person and the extreme +charm of manner which never deserted her, no matter how she felt. Now I +found myself compelled to admire the force and quality of her mind, her +readiness to meet emergencies and the tact with which she had availed +herself of the superstition latent in the Irish temperament. For I had +no more faith in the explanation she had seen fit to give these ignorant +girls than I had in the apparition itself. Emotion such as she had shown +called for a more matter-of-fact basis than the one she had ascribed +to it. No unreal and purely superstitious reason would account for +the extreme joy and self-abandonment with which she had hailed the +possibility of Mr. Steele's death. The "no" she had given me when I +asked if she considered this man her husband's enemy had been a lying +no. To her, for some cause as yet unexplained, the secretary was a +dangerous ally to the man she loved; an ally so near and so dangerous +that the mere rumor of his death was capable of lifting her from the +depths of despondency into a state of abnormal exhilaration and hope. +Now why? What reason had she for this belief, and how was it in my power +to solve the mystery which I felt to be at the bottom of all the rest? + +But one means suggested itself. I was now assured that Mrs. Packard +would never take me into her actual confidence, any more than she had +taken her husband. What I learned must be in spite of her precautions. +The cipher of which I had several specimens might, if properly read, +give me the clue I sought. I had a free hour before me. Why not +employ it in an endeavor to pick out the meaning of those odd Hebraic +characters? I had in a way received her sanction to do so--if I could; +and if I should succeed, what shadows might it not clear from the path +of the good man whose interests it was my chief duty to consult? + +Ciphers have always possessed a fascination for me. This one, from the +variety of its symbols, offered a study of unusual interest. Collecting +the stray specimens which I had picked up, I sat down in my cozy little +room and laid them all out before me, with the following result: + +__________________________ + +[transcriber's note: the symbols cannot be converted to ASCII so I have +shown them as follows:] + +[] is a Square + +[-] is sides and bottom of a square, + +C is top, bottom and left side of a square, + +L is left side and bottom of a square,, + +V is two lines forming a V shape + +. appearing before a symbol should be inside the symbol + +) appearing before a symbol means the mirror image of that symbol + +^ appearing before a symbol means the inverted symbol + +? is a curve inside the symbol + +all other preceding symbols are my best approximation for shapes shown +inside that symbol. + +; is used to separate each symbol __________________________ + + +1. []; V; [];.>; V; [-]; <; + +2. []; V; [];.>; V; [-]; <; L; ).L; <; )7;.7; + +3. []; V; [];.>; V; [-]; <; ).L;.C;[];.L; >;,C; [];.<; ^[-]; ^[-];.<; + +4. []; V; [];.>; V; [-]; <; <; L; >; ^V; L; V; []; )L; ^V; [-]; []; V; +).C; ^[-]; >; )C; ),C; V; <; C; ^V; ^[-];.>; [-]; <; + +5. *>; []; V; []; *V; []; ~7; )C;.>; ^[o]; )L; ^V; []; Lo; ^V; )C; )7*; +V; )C?; L; )L; 7;.>;.^[-]; )L; >; <;:[-], [-]; Lo;.<;?[-]; )7; [-]; )C; +[];.C; [-]; *7; L;.7; ^V; )o7; *>; C; ^V;.C;.<; [-]; []; 7;.C; )L;:7; +[-]; )*L; C; ^V;.L;.>; ^[%]; C; 7; *L; 7; ):L; )7; ^.V; []; [-];.L;[-] + + +No. 1: My copy of the characters, as I remember seeing them on the +envelope which Mrs. Packard had offered to Mr. Steele and afterward +thrown into the fire. + +Nos. 2, 3 and 4: The discarded scraps I had taken from the waste-basket +in her room. + +No. 5: The lengthy communication in another hand, which Mrs. Packard had +found pinned on the baby's cloak, and at my intercession had handed over +to me. + +A goodly array, if the latter was a specimen of the same cipher as +the first, a fact which its general appearance seemed to establish, +notwithstanding the few added complexities observable in it, and one +which a remembrance of her extreme agitation on opening it would have +settled in my mind, even if these complexities had been greater and +the differences even more pronounced than they were. Lines entirely +unsuggestive of meaning to her might have aroused her wonder and +possibly her anger, but not her fear; and the emotion which I chiefly +observed in her at that moment had been fear. + +So! out of these one hundred and fifty characters, many of them mere +repetitions, it remained for me to discover a key whereby their meaning +might be rendered intelligible. + +To begin, then, what peculiarities were first observable in them? + +Several. + +First: The symbols followed one after the other without breaks, whether +the communication was limited to one word or to many. + +Second: Nos. 2, 3 and 4 started with the identical characters which made +up No. 1. + +Third: While certain lines in Nos. 2, 3 and 4 were heavier than others, +no such distinction was observable in the characters forming No. 1. + +Fourth: This distinction was even more marked in the longer specimen +written by another hand, viz.: No. 5. + +Fifth: This distinction, which we will call shading, occurred +intermittently, sometimes in two consecutive characters, but never in +three. + +Sixth: This shading was to be seen now on one limb of the character it +apparently emphasized and now on another. + +Seventh: In the three specimens of the seven similar characters +commencing Nos. 2, 3 and 4, the exact part shaded was not always the +same as for instance, it was the left arm of the second character in No. +2 which showed the heavy line, while the shading was on the right-hand +arm of the corresponding character in No. 3. + +Eighth: These variations of emphasis in No. 4 coincided sometimes with +those seen in No. 2 and again with those in No. 3. + +Ninth: Each one of these specimens, saving the first, ended in a shaded +character. + +Tenth: While some of the characters were squares or parts of a square, +others were in the shape of a Y turned now this way and now that. + +Eleventh: These characters were varied by the introduction of dots, and, +in some cases, by the insertion of minute sketches of animals, birds, +arrows, signs of the zodiac, etc., with here and there one of a +humorous, possibly sarcastic, nature. + +Twelfth: Dots and dots only were to be found in the specimen emanating +from Mrs. Packard's hand; birds, arrows, skipping boys and hanging men, +etc., being confined to No. 5, the product of another brain and hand, at +present unknown. + +Now what conclusions could I draw from these? I shall give them to you +as they came to me that night. Others with wits superior to my own may +draw additional and more suggestive ones: + +First: Division into words was not considered necessary or was made in +some other way than by breaks. + +Second: The fact of the shading being omitted from No. 1 meant +nothing--that specimen being my own memory of lines, the shading or +non-shading of which would hardly have attracted my attention. + +Third: The similarity observable in the seven opening characters of the +first four specimens being taken as a proof of their standing for the +same word or phrase, it was safe to consider this word or phrase as a +complete one to which she had tried to fit others, and always to her +dissatisfaction, till she had finally rejected all but the simple one +with which she had started. + +Fourth: No. 1, short as it was, was, therefore, a communication in +itself. + +Fifth: The shading of a character was in some way essential to its +proper understanding, but not the exact place where that shading fell. + +Sixth: The dots were necessarily modifications, but not their shape or +nature. + +Seventh: This shading might indicate the end of a word. + +Eighth: If so, the shading of two contiguous characters would show the +first one to be a word of one letter. There are but two words in the +English language of one letter--a and i--and in the specimens before +me but one character, that of [], which shows shading, next to another +shaded character. + +Ninth: [] was therefore a or i + +A decided start. + +All this, of course, was simply preliminary. + +The real task still lay before me. It was to solve the meaning of +those first seven characters, which, if my theory were correct, was a +communication in itself, and one of such importance that, once mastered, +it would give the key to the whole situation. + +[]; V; [];.>; V; [-]; <; + +or with the shading (same in bold - transcriber) + +[]; V; [];.>; V; [-]; <; + +You have all read The Gold Bug, and know something of the method by +which a solution is obtained by that simplest of all ciphers, where a +fixed character takes the place of each letter in the alphabet. + +Let us see if it applies to this one. + +There are twenty-six letters in the English alphabet. Are there +twenty-six or nearly twenty-six different characters, in the one hundred +and one I find inscribed on the various slips spread out before me? + +No, there are but fourteen. A check to begin with. + +But wait; the dots make a difference. Let us increase the list by +assuming that angles or squares thus marked are different letters from +those of the same shape in which no dots or sketches occur, and we bring +the list up to twenty. That is better. + +The dotted or otherwise marked squares or angles are separate +characters. + +Now, which one of these appears most frequently? The square, which we +have already decided must be either a or i. In the one short word or +phrase we are at present considering, it occurs twice. Now supposing +that this square stands for a, which according to Poe's theory it +should, a coming before s in the frequency in which it occurs in +ordinary English sentences, how would the phrase look (still according +to Poe) with dashes taking the place of the remaining unknown letters? + +Thus + +A-a ---- if the whole is a single word. + +A- a- -- if the whole is a phrase. That it was a phrase I was convinced, +possibly because one clings to so neat a theory as the one which makes +the shading, so marked a feature in all the specimens before us, the +sign of division into words. Let us take these seven characters as a +phrase then and not as a word. What follows? + +The dashes following the two a's stand for letters, each of which should +make a word when joined to a. What are these letters? Run over the +alphabet and see. The only letters making sense when joined with a are +h, m, n, s, t or x. Discarding the first and the last, we have these +four words, am, an, as, at. Is it possible to start any intelligible +phrase with any two of these arranged in any conceivable way? No. Then +[] can not stand for a. Let us see if it does for i. The words of two +letters headed by i we find to be if, in, is and it. A more promising +collection than the first. One could easily start a phrase with any of +these, even with any two of them such as If it, Is in, Is it, It is. [] +is then the symbol of i, and some one of the above named combinations +forms the beginning of the short phrase ending with a word of three +letters symbolized by V [-].< + +What word? + +If my reasoning is correct up to this point, it should not be hard to +determine. + +First, one of these three symbols, the V, is a repetition of one of +those we have already shown to be s, t, f, or n. Of the remaining two, +[-] <, one must be a vowel, that is, it must be either u, e, o, u, or y; +i being already determined upon. Now how many [-]'s and <'s do we find +in the collection before us? Ten or more of the first, and six, or about +six, of the latter. Recalling the table made out by Poe--a table I once +learned as a necessary part of my schooling as a cipher interpreter--I +ran over it thus: e is the one letter most in use in English. Afterward +the succession runs thus a, o, i d, h, n, r, etc. There being then ten +[-]'s to six <'s [-] must be a vowel, and in all probability the vowel +e, as no other character in the whole collection, save the plentiful +squares, is repeated so often. + +I am a patient woman usually, but I was nervous that night, and, +perhaps, too deeply interested in the outcome to do myself justice. I +could think of no word with a for one of its three letters which would +make sense when added on to It is, Is it, I f it, Is in. + +Conscious of no mistake, yet always alive to the possibility of one, I +dropped the isolated scrap I was working upon and took up the longer and +fuller ones, and with them a fresh line of reasoning. If my argument +so far had been trustworthy, I should find, in these other specimens, a +double [-][-] standing for the double e so frequently found in English. +Did I find such? No. Another shock to my theory. + +Should I, then, give it up? Not while another means of verification +remained. The word the should occur more than once in a collection of +words as long as the one before me. If U is really e, I should find +it at the end of the supposed thes. Do I so find it? There are several +words scattered through the whole, of only three letters. Are any of +them terminated by U? Not one. My theory is false, then, and I must +begin all over. + +Discarding every previous conclusion save this, that the shading of a +line designated the termination of a word, I hunted first for the +thes. Making a list of the words containing only three letters, I was +confronted by the following: + + V [-] < + + )L )C C + + < L > + + ^V L V. < C ^V. .>.[-]) )L. .V ).C L. + + .<.[-] )7 + + ^V C 7 + + )L.L > + + +No two alike. Astonishing! Thirty-two words of English and only one the +in the whole? Could it be that the cipher was in a foreign language? +The preponderance of i's so out of proportion to the other vowels had +already given me this fear, but the lack of thes seemed positively to +indicate it. Yet I must dig deeper before accepting defeat. + +Th is a combination of letters which Poe says occurs so often in our +language that they can easily be picked out in a cipher of this length. +How many times can a conjunction of two similar characters be found in +the lines before us..>.[-] occurs three times, which is often enough, +perhaps, to establish the fact that they stand for th. Do I find them +joined with a third character in the list of possible thes? Yes..> [-] +which would seem to fix both the th and the e. + +But I have grown wary and must make myself sure. Do I find a word in +which this combination of. >.[-] occurs twice, as sometimes happens with +the th we are considering? No, but I find two other instances in which +like contiguous symbols do appear twice in one word; the.<.[-] in No. 3 +and the.V.)C in No. 4--a discovery the most embarrassing of all, since +in both cases the symbols which begin the word are reversed at its end, +as witness:.V.)C - - - )C .V --.<.[-] - - -.[-].<. For, if.V )C stands +for th, and the whole word showed in letters th- - -ht, which to any eye +suggests the word thought, what does.<.[-] stand for, concerning which +the same conditions are observable? + +I could not answer. I had run on a snag. + +Rules which applied to one part of the cipher failed in another. Could +it be that a key was necessary to its proper solution? I began to think +so, and, moreover, that Mrs. Packard had made use of some such help as +I watched her puzzling in the window over these symbols. I recalled her +movements, the length of time which elapsed before the cry of miserable +understanding escaped her lips, the fact that her dress was torn apart +at the throat when she came out, and decided that she had not only drawn +some paper from her bosom helpful to the elucidation of these symbols, +but that this paper was the one which had been the object of her frantic +search the night I watched her shadow on the wall. + +So convinced was I by these thoughts that any further attempt to solve +the cryptogram without such aid as I have mentioned would end by leaving +me where I was at present,--that is, in the fog,--that I allowed the +lateness of the hour to influence me; and, putting aside my papers, I +went to bed. If I had sat over them another hour, should I have been +more fortunate? Make the attempt yourself and see. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. MERCY + + +"Where is my wife?" + +"Sleeping, sir, after a day of exhausting emotion." + +"She didn't wire me?" + +"No, sir." + +"Perhaps she wasn't able?" + +"She was not, Mayor Packard." + +"I must see her. I came as soon as I could. Left Warner to fill my place +on the platform, and it is the night of nights, too. Why, what's the +matter?" + +He had caught me staring over his shoulder at the form drawn up in the +doorway. + +"Nothing; I thought you had come alone." + +"No, Mr. Steele is with me. He joined me at noon, just after I had +telegraphed home. He has come back to finish the work I assigned him. +He has at last discovered--or thinks he has--the real author of those +libels. You have something special to say to me?" he whispered, as I +followed him upstairs. + +"Yes, and I think, if I were you, that I should say nothing to Mrs. +Packard about Mr. Steele's having returned." And I rapidly detailed the +occurrence of the afternoon, ending with Mrs. Packard's explanation to +her servants. + +The mayor showed impatience. "Oh, I can not bother with such nonsense as +that," he declared; "the situation is too serious." + +I thought so, too, when in another moment his wife's door opened and she +stepped out upon the landing to meet him. Her eyes fell on Mr. Steele, +standing at the foot of the stairs, before they encountered her husband; +and though she uttered no cry and hardly paused in her approach toward +the mayor, I saw the heart within her die as suddenly and surely as the +flame goes out in a gust of wind. + +"You!" There was hysteria in the cry. Pray God that the wild note in it +was not that of incipient insanity! "How good of you to give up making +your great speech to-night, just to see how I have borne this last +outrage! You do see, don't you?" Here she drew her form to its full +height. "My husband believes in me, and it gives me courage to face the +whole world. Ah! is that Mr. Steele I see below there? Pardon me, Mr. +Steele, if I show surprise. We heard a false report of your illness this +afternoon. Henry, hadn't Mr. Steele better come up-stairs? I presume you +are here to talk over this last dreadful paragraph with me." + +"It is not necessary for Mr. Steele to join us if you do not wish him +to," I heard the mayor whisper in his wife's ear. + +"Oh, I do not mind," she returned with an indifference whose reality I +probably gauged more accurately than he did. + +"That is good." And he called Mr. Steele up. "You see she is reasonable +enough," he muttered in my ear as he motioned me to follow them into the +up-stairs sitting-room to which she had led the way. "The more heads the +better in a discussion of this kind," was the excuse he gave his wife +and Mr. Steele as he ushered me in. + +As neither answered, I considered my presence accepted and sat down +in as remote a corner as offered. Verily the fates were active in my +behalf. + +Mayor Packard was about to close the door, when Mrs. Packard suddenly +leaped by him with the cry: + +"There's the baby! She must have heard your voice." And rushing into +the hall she came back with the child whom she immediately placed in its +father's arms. Then she slowly seated herself. Not until she had done so +did she turn to Mr. Steele. + +"Sit," said she, with a look and gesture her husband would have marveled +at had he not been momentarily occupied with the prattling child. + +The secretary bowed and complied. Surely men of such great personal +attractions are few. Instantly the light, shaded though it seemingly +was in all directions, settled on his face, making him, to my astonished +gaze, the leading personality in the group. Was this on account of +the distinction inherent in extreme beauty or because of a new and +dominating expression which had insensibly crept into his features? + +The mayor, and the mayor only, seemed oblivious to the fact. Glancing up +from the child, he opened the conference by saying: "Tell Mrs. Packard, +Steele, what you have just told me." + +With a quiet shifting of his figure which brought him into a better line +with the woman he was asked to address, the secretary opened his lips to +reply when she, starting, reached out one hand and drew toward herself +the little innocent figure of her child, which she at once placed +between herself and him. Seeing this, I recalled the scraps of cipher +left in my room above and wished I had succeeded in determining their +meaning, if only to understand the present enigmatical situation. + +Meanwhile Mr. Steele was saying in the mellow tone of a man accustomed +to tune his voice to suit all occasions: "Mrs. Packard will excuse me +if I seem abrupt. In obedience to commands laid upon me by his Honor, +I spent both Tuesday and Wednesday in inquiries as to the origin of +the offensive paragraph which appeared in Monday's issue of the Leader. +Names were given me, but too many of them. It took me two days to sift +these down to one, and when I had succeeded in doing this, it was only +to find that the man I sought was ninety miles away. Madam, I journeyed +those ninety miles to learn that meanwhile he had returned to this city. +While I was covering those miles for the second time, to-day's paragraph +appeared. I hastened to accuse its author of libel, but the result was +hardly what I expected. Perhaps you know what he said." + +"No," she harshly returned, "I do not." And with the instinctive gesture +of one awaiting attack she raised her now sleepy and nodding child in +front of her laboring breast, with a look in her eyes which I see yet. + +"He said--pardon me, your Honor, pardon me, Madam--that I was at liberty +to point out what was false in it." + +With a leap she was on her feet, towering above us all in her +indignation and overpowering revolt against the man who was the +conscious instrument of this insult. The child, loosened so suddenly +from her arms, tottered and would have fallen, had not Mr. Steele leaned +forward and drawn the little one across to himself. Mr. Packard, who, we +must remember, had been more or less prepared for what his secretary had +to say, cast a glance at his wife, teeming with varied emotions. + +"And what did you reply to that?" were the words she hurled at the +unabashed secretary. + +"Nothing," was his grave reply. "I did not know myself what was false in +it." + +With sudden faltering, Mrs. Packard reseated herself, while the mayor, +outraged by what was evidently a very unexpected answer, leaned forward +in great anger, crying: + +"That was not the account you gave me of this wretched interview. +Explain yourself, Mr. Steele. Don't you see that your silence at such +a moment, to say nothing of the attitude you at present assume, is an +insult to Mrs. Packard?" + +The smile he met in reply was deprecatory enough; so were the words his +outburst had called forth. + +"I did not mean, and do not mean to insult Mrs. Packard. I am merely +showing you how hampered a man is, whatever his feelings, when it +comes to a question of facts known only to a lady with whom he has not +exchanged fifty words since he came into her house. If Mrs. Packard will +be good enough to inform me just how much and how little is true in the +paragraph we are considering, I shall see this rascally reporter again +and give him a better answer." + +Mayor Packard looked unappeased. This was not the way to soothe a woman +whom he believed to be greatly maligned. With an exclamation indicative +of his feelings, he was about to address some hasty words to the +composed, almost smiling, man who confronted him, when Mrs. Packard +herself spoke with unexpected self-control, if not disdain. + +"You are a very honest man, Mr. Steele. I commend the nicety of your +scruples and am quite ready to trust myself to them. I own to no blot, +in my past or present life, calling for public arraignment. If my +statement of the fact is not enough, I here swear on the head of my +child--" + +"No, no," he quickly interpolated, "don't frighten the baby. Swearing +is not necessary; I am bound to believe your word, Mrs. Packard." And +lifting a sheet of paper from a pile lying on the table before him, he +took a pencil from his pocket and began making lines to amuse the child +dancing on his knee. + +Mrs. Packard's eyes opened in wonder mingled with some emotion deeper +than distaste, but she said nothing, only watched in a fascinated way +his moving fingers. The mayor, mollified possibly by his secretary's +last words, sank back again in his chair with the remark: + +"You have heard Mrs. Packard's distinct denial. You are consequently +armed for battle. See that you fight well. It is all a part of the +scheme to break me up. One more paragraph of that kind and I shall be a +wreck, even if my campaign is not." + +"There will not be any more." + +"Ah! you can assure me of that?" + +"Positively." + +"What are you playing there?" It was Mrs. Packard who spoke. She was +pointing at the scribble he was making on the paper. + +"Tit-tat-to," he smiled, "to amuse the baby." + +Did she hate to see him so occupied, or was her own restlessness of a +nature demanding a like outlet? Tearing her eyes away from him and the +child, she looked about her in a wild way, till she came upon a box of +matches standing on the large center-table around which they were all +grouped. Taking some in her hand, she commenced to lay them out on the +table before her, possibly in an attempt to attract the baby's attention +to herself. Puerile business, but it struck me forcibly, possibly from +the effect it appeared to have upon the mayor. Looking from one to the +other in an astonishment which was not without its hint of some new and +overmastering feeling on his own part, he remarked: + +"Isn't it time for the baby to go to bed? Surely, our talk is too +serious to be interrupted by games to please a child." + +Without a word Mr. Steele rose and put the protesting child in the +mother's arms. She, rising, carried it to the door, and, coming slowly +back, reseated herself before the table and began to push the matches +about again with fingers that trembled beyond her control. The mayor +proceeded as if no time had elapsed since his last words. + +"You had some words then with this Brainard--I think you called him +Brainard--exacted some promise from him?" + +"Yes, your Honor," was the only reply. + +Did not Mrs. Packard speak, too? We all seemed to think so, for we +turned toward her; but she gave no evidence of having said anything, +though an increased nervousness was visible in her fingers as she pushed +the matches about. + +"I thought I was warranted in doing so much," continued Mr. Steele. "I +could not buy the man with money, so I used threats." + +"Right! anything to squelch him," exclaimed the mayor, but not with the +vigor I expected from him. Some doubt, some dread--caught perhaps from +his wife's attitude or expression--seemed to interpose between his +indignation and the object of it. "You are our good friend, Steele, in +spite of the shock you gave us a moment ago." + +As no answer was made to this beyond a smile too subtle and too fine to +be understood by his openhearted chief, the mayor proceeded to declare: + +"Then that matter is at an end. I pray that it may have done us no real +harm. I do not think it has. People resent attacks on women, especially, +on one whose reputation has never known a shadow, as girl, wife, or +mother." + +"Yes," came in slow assent from the lips which had just smiled, and he +glanced at Mrs. Packard whose own lips seemed suddenly to become dry, +for I saw her try to moisten them as her right hand groped about for +something on the tabletop and finally settled on a small paper-weight +which she set down amongst her matches. Was it then or afterward that +I began to have my first real doubt whether some shadow had not fallen +across her apparently unsullied life? + +"Yes, you are right," repeated Mr. Steele more energetically. "People +do resent such insinuations against a woman, though I remember one case +where the opposite effect was produced. It was when Collins ran for +supervisor in Cleveland. He was a good fellow himself, and he had a wife +who was all that was beautiful and charming, but who had once risked +her reputation in an act which did call for public arraignment. +Unfortunately, there was a man who knew of this act and he published it +right and left and--" + +"Olympia!" Mayor Packard was on his feet, pointing in sudden fury and +suspicion at the table where the matches lay about in odd and, as I now +saw, seemingly set figures. "You are doing something besides playing +with those matches. I know Mr. Steele's famous cipher; he showed it to +me a week ago; and so, evidently, do you, in spite of the fact that you +have had barely fifty words with him since he came to the house. Let me +read--ah!--give over that piece of paper you have there, Steele, if you +would not have me think you as great a dastard as we know that Brainard +to be!" + +And while his wife drooped before his eyes and a cynical smile crept +about the secretary's fine mouth, he caught up the sheet on which Steele +had been playing tit-tat-to with the child, and glanced from the table +to it and back again to the table on which the matches lay in the +following device, the paper-weight answering for the dot: + +7; L;.)7; [-]; ^V. "M," suddenly left the mayor's writhing lips; then +slowly, letter by letter, "E-R-C-Y. Mercy!" he vociferated. "Why does +my wife appeal for mercy to you--a stranger--and in your own cipher! +Miserable woman! What secret's here? Either you are--" + +"Hush! some one's at the door!" admonished the secretary. + +Mr. Packard turned quickly, and, smoothing his face rapidly, as such men +must, started for the door. Mrs. Packard, flinging her whole soul into +a look, met the secretary's eyes for a moment and then let her head +sink forward on her hands above those telltale matches, from whose +arrangement she had reaped despair in place of hope. + +Mr. Steele smiled again, his fine, false smile, but after her head had +fallen; not before. Indeed, he had vouchsafed no reply to her eloquent +look. It was as if it had met marble till her eyes were bidden; then-- + +But Nixon was in the open doorway and Nixon was speaking: + +"A telegram, your Honor." + +The old man spoke briskly, even a little crisply--perhaps he always did +when he addressed the mayor. But his eyes roamed eagerly and changed +to a burning, red color when they fell upon the dejected figure of his +mistress. I fancied that, had he dared, he would have leaped into +the room and taken his own part--and who could rightly gage what that +was?--in the scene which may have been far more comprehensive to him +than to me. But he did not dare, and my eyes passed from him to the +mayor. + +"From Haines," that gentleman announced, forgetting the suggestive +discovery he had just made in the great and absorbing interest of his +campaign. "'Speech good--great applause becoming thunderous at flash of +your picture. All right so far if--'" he read out, ceasing abruptly at +the "if" which, as I afterward understood, really ended the message. +"No answer," he explained to Nixon as he hurriedly, dismissed him. "That +'if' concerns you," he now declared, coming back to his wife and to his +troubles at the same instant. "Explain the mystery which seems likely +to undo me. Why do you sit there bowed under my accusations? Why should +Henry Packard's wife cry for mercy, to any man? Because those damnable +accusations are true? Because you have a secret in your past and this +man knows it?" + +Slowly she rose, slowly she met his eyes, and even he started back at +her pallor and the drawn misery in her face. But she did not speak. +Instead of that she simply reached out and laid her hand on Mr. Steele's +arm, drooping almost to the ground as she did so. "Mercy!" she suddenly +wailed, but this time to the man who had so relentlessly accused her. +The effect was appalling. The mayor reeled, then sprang forward with his +hand outstretched for his secretary's throat. But his words were for his +wife. "What does this mean? Why do you take your stand by the side of +another man than myself? What have I done or what have you done that I +should live to face such an abomination as this?" + +It was Steele who answered, with a lift of his head as full of assertion +as it was of triumph. + +"You? nothing; she? everything. You do not know this woman, Mayor +Packard; for instance, you do not know her name." + +"Not know her name? My wife's?" + +"Not in the least. This lady's name is Brainard. So is mine. Though she +has lived with you several years in ignorance of my continued existence, +no doubt, she is my wife and not yours. We were married in Boone, +Minnesota, six years ago." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. THE WIFE'S TALE + + +Ten minutes later this woman was pleading her cause. She had left the +side of the man who had just assumed the greatest of all rights over her +and was standing in a frenzy of appeal before him she loved so deeply +and yet had apparently wronged. + +Mayor Packard was sitting with his head in his hands in the chair into +which he had dropped when the blow fell which laid waste his home, his +life, the future of his child and possibly the career which was as much, +perhaps more, to him than all these. He had not uttered a word since +that dreadful moment. To all appearance her moans of contrition fell +upon deaf ears, and she had reached the crisis of her misery without +knowing the extent of the condemnation hidden in his persistent silence. +Collapse seemed inevitable, but I did not know the woman or the really +wonderful grip she held on herself. Seeing that he was moved by nothing +she had said, she suddenly paused, and presently I heard her observe in +quite a different tone: + +"There is one thing you must know--which I thought you would know +without my telling you. I have never lived with this man, and I believed +him dead when I gave my hand to you." + +The mayor's fingers twitched. She had touched him at last. "Speak! tell +me," he murmured hoarsely. "I do not want to do you any injustice." + +"I shall have to begin far, far back; tell about my early life and all +its temptations," she faltered, "or you will never understand." + +"Speak." + +Sensible at this point of the extreme impropriety of my presence, +I rose, with an apology, to leave. But she shook her head quickly, +determinedly, saying that as I had heard so much I must hear more. Then +she went on with her story. + +"I have committed a great fault," said she, "but one not so deep or +inexcusable as now appears, whatever that man may say," she added with a +slow turn toward the silent secretary. + +Did she expect to provoke a reply from the man who, after the first +triumphant assertion of his claim, had held himself as removed from +her and as unresponsive to her anguish as had he whom she directly +addressed? If so, she must have found her disappointment bitter, for he +did not respond with so much as a look. He may have smiled, but if +so, it was not a helpful smile; for she turned away with a shudder and +henceforth faced and addressed the mayor only. + +"My mother married against the wishes of all her family and they never +forgave her. My father died early--he had never got on in the world--and +before I was fifteen I became the sole support of my invalid mother as +well as of myself. We lived in Boone, Minnesota. + +"You can imagine what sort of support it was, as I had no special +talent, no training and only the opportunity given by a crude western +town of two or three hundred inhabitants. I washed dishes in the hotel +kitchen--I who had a millionaire uncle in Detroit and had been fed on +tales of wealth and culture by a mother who remembered her own youth +and was too ignorant of my real nature to see the harm she was doing. +I washed dishes and ate my own heart out in shame and longing--bitter +shame and frenzied longing, which you must rate at their full force if +you would know my story and how I became linked to this man. + +"I was sixteen when we first met. He was not then what he is now, but he +was handsome enough to create an excitement in town and to lift the girl +he singled out into an enviable prominence. Unfortunately, I was that +girl. I say unfortunately, because his good looks failed to arouse in +me more than a passing admiration; and in accepting his attentions, +I consulted my necessities and pride rather than the instincts of my +better nature. When he asked me to marry him I recoiled. I did not know +why then, nor did I know why later; but know why now. However, I let +this premonition pass and engaged myself to him, and the one happy +moment I knew was when I told my mother what I had done, and saw her joy +and heard the hope with which she impulsively cried: 'It is something I +can write your uncle. Who knows? Perhaps he may forgive me my marriage +when he hears that my child is going to do so well!' Poor mother! she +had felt the glamour of my lover's good looks and cleverness much more +than I had. She saw from indications to which I was blind that I was +going to marry a man of mark, and was much more interested in the +possible reply she might receive to the letter with which she had broken +the silence of years between herself and her family than in the marriage +itself. + +"But days passed, a week, and no answer came. My uncle--the only +relative remaining in which we could hope to awaken any interest, or +rather, the only one whose interest would be worth awakening, he being a +millionaire and unmarried--declined, it appeared, any communication with +one so entirely removed from his sympathies; and the disappointment of +it broke my mother's heart. Before my wedding-day came she was lying in +the bare cemetery I had passed so often with a cold dread in my young +and bounding heart. + +"With her loss the one true and unselfish bond which held me to my lover +was severed, and, unknown to him--(perhaps he hears it now for the first +time)--I had many hours of secret hesitation which might have ended in a +positive refusal to marry him if I had not been afraid of his anger +and the consequences of an open break. With all his protestations of +affection and the very ardent love he made me, he had not succeeded in +rousing my affections, but he had my fears. I knew that to tell him to +his face I would not marry him would mean death to him and possibly to +myself. Such intuition, young as I was, did I have of his character, +though I comprehended so little the real range of his mind and the +unswerving trend of his ambitious nature. + +"So my, wedding-day came and we were united in the very hotel where I +had so long served in a menial capacity. The social distinctions in such +a place being small and my birth and breeding really placing me on a +par with my employer and his family, I was given the parlor for this +celebration and never, never, shall I forget its mean and bare look, +even to my untutored eyes; or how lonely those far hills looked, through +the small-paned window I faced; or what a shadow seemed to fall across +them as the parson uttered those fateful words, so terrible to one +whose heart is not in them: What God hath joined together let no man put +asunder. Death and not life awaited me on that bleak hillside, or so I +thought, though the bridegroom at my side was the handsomest man I had +ever seen and had rather exceeded than failed in his devotion to me as a +lover. + +"The ceremony over, I went up-stairs to make my final preparations for +departure. No bridesmaids or real friends had lent joy to the occasion; +and when I closed that parlor door upon my bridegroom and the two or +three neighbors and boon companions with whom he was making merry, I +found myself alone with my dead heart and a most unwelcome future. I +remember, as the lock clicked and the rude hall, ruder even than the +wretched half-furnished room I had just left, opened before me, a +sensation of terror at leaving even this homely refuge and a half-formed +wish that I was going back to my dish-washing in the kitchen. It was +therefore with a shock, which makes my brain reel yet, that I saw, lying +on a little table which I had to pass, a letter directed to myself, +bearing the postmark, Detroit. What might there not be in it? What? +What? + +"Gasping as much with fear as delight, I caught up the letter, and, +rushing with it to my room, locked myself in and tore open the envelope. +A single sheet fell out; it was signed with the name I had heard +whispered in my ear from early childhood, and always in connection with +riches and splendor and pleasures,--it was rapture to dream of. This was +an agitation in itself, but the words--the words! I have never told them +to mortal being, but I must tell them now; I remember them as I remember +the look of my child's face when she was first put in my arms, the +child--" + +She had underrated her strength. She broke into a storm of weeping which +shook to the very soul one of the two men who listened to her, though he +made no move to comfort her or allay it. The alienation thus expressed +produced its effect, and, stricken deeper than the fount of tears, she +suddenly choked back every sob and took up the thread of her narrative +with the calmness born of despair, + +"These were the words, these and no others: + +"'If my niece will break all ties and come to me completely unhampered, +she may hope to find a permanent home in my house and a close hold upon +my affections. + + IRA T. HOUGHTALING.' + +"Unhampered! with the marriage-vow scarcely cold on my lips! Without +tie! and a husband waiting below to take me to his home on the +hillside--a hillside so bare and bleak that the sight of it had sent a +shudder to my heart as the wedding ring touched my finger. The irony +of the situation was more than I could endure, and alone, with my eyes +fixed on the comfortless heavens, showing gray and cold through the +narrow panes of my windows, I sank to the floor insensible. + +"When I came to myself I was still alone, and the twilight a little +more pronounced than when my misery had turned it to blackest midnight. +Rising, I read that letter again, and, plainly as the acknowledgment +betrays the selfishness lying at the basis of my character, the +temptation which thereupon seized me had never an instant of relenting +or one conscientious scruple to combat it. I simply, at that stage in my +life and experience, could not do otherwise than I did. Saying to myself +that vows, as empty of heart as mine, were void before God and man, +I sat down and wrote a few words to the man whose step on the stair I +dreaded above everything else in the world; and, leaving the note on the +table, unlocked my door and looked out. The hall connecting with my +room was empty, but not so the lower one. There I could hear voices and +laughter, Mr. Brainard's loud above all the rest,--a fatal sound to me, +cutting off all escape in that direction. But another way offered and +that one near at hand. Communicating with the very hall in which I stood +was an outside staircase running down to the road--a means of entering +and leaving a house which I never see now wherever I may encounter it, +without a gush of inward shame and terror, so instinctive and so sharp +that I have never been able to hide it from any one whose eye might +chance to be upon me at the moment. But that night I was conscious of no +shame, barely of any terror, only of the necessity for haste. The train +on which I was determined to fly was due in a little less than an hour +at a station two miles down the road. + +"That I should be followed farther than the turbulent stream which +crossed the road only a quarter of a mile from the hotel, I did not +fear. For in the hurried note I had left behind me, I had bidden them to +look for me there, saying that I had been precipitate in marrying one +I did not really love, and, overcome by a sense of my mistake, I was +resolved on death. + +"A lie! but what was a lie to me then, who saw in my life with this man +an amelioration of my present state, but an amelioration only, while in +the prospects held out to me by my uncle I foresaw not only release +from a hated union, but every delight which my soul had craved since my +mother could talk to me of wealth and splendor. + +"Behold me, then, stealing down the side of the house in a darkness +which during the last few minutes had become impenetrable. A shadow, +where all was shadowy, I made for the woods and succeeded in reaching +their shelter just as there rose in the distance behind me that most +terrible of all sounds to a woman's ear, a man's loud cry of anguish and +rage." + +She was not looking at that man now, but I was. As these words left her +lips, Mr. Steele's hand crept up and closed over his heart, though his +face was like that of a marble image set in immovable lines. I feared +him, I admired him, and found myself still looking at him as she went +gaspingly on: + +"Reckless of the dangers of the road, fearing nothing but what pressed +upon me from behind, I flew straight for the stream, on whose verge +I meant then to stop, and, having by some marvel of good luck or +Providence reached it without a mishap, I tore the cloak from my +shoulders, and, affixing one end to the broken edge of the bridge, flung +the other into the water. Then with one loud ear-piercing shriek thrown +back on the wind--see! I tell all--I leave out nothing--I fled away in +the direction of the station. + +"For some reason I had great confidence in the success of this feint and +soon was conscious of but one fear, and that was being recognized by the +station-master, who knew my face and figure even if he did not know my +new city-made dress. So when I had made sure by the clock visible +from the end window that I was in ample time for the expected train, I +decided to remain in the dark at the end of the platform till the cars +were about starting, and then to jump on and buy my ticket from the +conductor. + +"But I never expected such an interminable wait. Minute after minute +went by without a hint of preparation for the advancing train. The hour +for leaving arrived, passed, and not a man had shown himself on the +platform. Had a change been made in the time-table? If so, what a +prospect lay before me! Autumn nights are chill in Minnesota, and, my +cloak having been sacrificed, I found poor protection in my neat but far +from warm serge dress. However, I did not fully realize my position till +another passenger arrived late and panting, and I heard some one shout +out to him from the open door that an accident had occurred below +and that it would be five hours at least before the train would come +through. + +"Five hours! and no shelter in sight save the impossible one of the +station itself. How could I pass away that time! How endure the cold and +fatigue? By pacing to and fro in the road? I tried it, resolutely tried +it, for an hour, then a new terror, a new suspense, gripped me, and I +discovered that I could never live through the hours; never, in fact, +take the train when it came without knowing what had happened in Boone +and whether the feint on which I relied had achieved its purpose. There +was time to steal back, time to see and hear what would satisfy me of +my own safety; and then to have some purpose in my movement! How much +better than this miserable pacing back and forth just to start the +stagnating blood and make the lagging moments endurable! + +"So I turned again toward Boone. I was not in the mood to fear darkness +or any encounter save one, and experienced hesitation only when I found +myself reapproaching the bridge. Shadows which had protected me until +now failed me there, and it was with caution I finally advanced and +emerged upon the open spot where the road crossed the river. But even +this was not needed. In the wide stretch before me cut by the inky +stream, I saw no signs of life, and it was not till I was on the bridge +itself that I discerned in the black hollows below the glint of a +lantern, lighting up the bending forms of two or three men who were +dragging at something which heaved under their hands with the pull of +the stream. + +"It was a sight which has never left me, but one which gave wings to my +feet that night and sent me flying on till a fork in the road brought +me to a standstill. To the left lay the hotel. I could see its windows +glimmering with faint lights, while, away to the right, there broke upon +me from the hillside a solitary sparkle; but this sparkle came from the +house where, but for the letter hidden in my heart, I should be sitting +at this moment before my own fireside. + +"What moved me? God knows. It may have been duty; it may have been +curiosity; it may have been only dread to know the worst and know it +at once; but seeing that single gleam I began to move toward it, and, +before I was aware, I had reached the house, edged up to its unshaded +window and taken a frightened look within. + +"I was prepared and yet unprepared for what I saw. Within, standing +alone, with garments dripping, gazing in frenzy at a slip of paper which +clung wet about his hand, stood my husband. My words to him! I could see +it in his eyes and the desperation which lit up all his features. + +"Drawing back in terror from the road, I watched him fling that letter +of from his fingers as he would a biting snake, and, striding to a +cupboard high up on the wall, take down something I could not see and +did not guess at till the sharp sound of a pistol-shot cleft my ear, +and I beheld him fall face downward on the carpet of fresh autumn leaves +with which he had hidden the bare floor in expectation of his bride. + +"The shriek which involuntarily went up from my lips must have rung far +and wide, but only the groaning of the night-wind answered me. Driven by +my fears to do something to save him if he was not yet dead, I tried the +door, but it was locked; so was the window. Yet I might have battered my +way in at that moment had I not heard two men coming down the road, one +of whom was shouting to the other: 'I did not like his face. I shan't +sleep till I've seen him again.' + +"Somewhat relieved, I drew back from the road, but did not quit the +spot till those men, seeing through the window what had happened, worked +their way in and lifted him up in their arms. The look with which they +let him fall back again was eloquent, and convinced me that it was death +I saw. I started again upon my shuddering flight from Boone, secure in +the belief that while my future would surely hold remorse for me, it +would nevermore burden me with a hindrance in the shape of an unloved +husband." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. THE SINS OF THE FATHERS + + +The suspense which had held us tense and speechless was for the moment +relieved and Mr. Steele allowed himself the following explanation: + +"My hand trembled and the bullet penetrated an inch too high." + +Then he relapsed again into silence. + +Mrs. Packard shuddered and went on: + +"It may seem incredible to you, it seems incredible now to myself, but +I completed my journey, entered my uncle's house, was made welcome +there and started upon my new life without letting my eyes fall for one +instant on the columns of a newspaper. I did not dare to see what they +contained. That short but bitter episode of my sixteenth year was a +nightmare of horror, to be buried with my old name and all that could +interfere with the delights of the cultured existence which my uncle's +means and affection opened before me. Two years and I hardly remembered; +three years and it came to me only in dreams; four and even dreams +failed to suggest it; the present, the glorious present was all. I had +met you, Henry, and we had loved and married. + +"Did any doubts come to disturb my joy? Very few. I had never received +a word from Minnesota. I was as dead to every one there as they all were +to me. I believed myself free and that the only wrong I did was in not +taking you into my confidence. But this, the very nature of my secret +forbade. How could I tell you what would inevitably alienate your +affections? That act of my early girlhood by which I had gained an +undeserved freedom had been too base; sooner than let you know this blot +on my life, I was content to risk the possibility--the inconceivable +possibility--of Mr. Brainard's having survived the attack he had made +upon his own life. Can you understand such temerity? I can not, now that +I see its results before me. + +"So the die was cast and I became a wife instead of the mere shadow of +one. You were prosperous, and not a sorrow came to disturb my sense of +complete security till that day two weeks ago, when, looking up in my +own library, I saw, gleaming between me and the evening lamp, a face, +which, different as it was in many respects, tore my dead past out of +the grave and sent my thoughts reeling back to a lonely road on a black +hillside with a lighted window in view, and behind that window the +outstretched form of a man with his head among leaves not redder than +his blood. + +"I have said to you, I have said to others, that a specter rose upon me +that day in the library. It was such to me,--an apparition and nothing +else. Perhaps he meant to impress himself as such, for I had heard no +footfall and only looked up because of the constraining force of the +look which awaited me. I knew afterward that it was a man whom I had +seen, a man whom you yourself had introduced into the house; but at the +instant I thought it a phantom of my forgotten past sent to shock and +destroy me; and, struck speechless with the horror of it, I lost +that opportunity of mutual explanation which might have saved me an +unnecessary and cruel experience. For this man, who recognized me more +surely than I did him, who perhaps knew who I was before he ever entered +my house, has sported for two weeks with my fears and hopes as a tiger +with his prey. Maintaining his attitude of stranger--you have been +witness to his manner in my presence--he led me slowly but surely to +believe myself deceived by an extraordinary resemblance; a resemblance, +moreover, which did not hold at all times, and which frequently vanished +altogether, as I recalled the straight-featured but often uncouth aspect +of the man who had awakened the admiration of Boone. Memory had been +awakened and my sleep filled with dreams, but the unendurable had been +spared me and I was thanking God with my whole heart, when suddenly one +night, when an evening spent with friends in the old way had made me +feel safe, my love safe, my husband and my child safe, there came to my +ears from below the sound of a laugh, loud, coarse and deriding,--such +a laugh as could spring from no member of my own household, such a laugh +as I heard but once before and that in the by-gone years when some one +asked Mr. Brainard if he meant to live always in Boone. The shock was +terrible, and when I learned that the secretary, and the secretary only, +was below, I knew who that secretary was and yielded to the blow. + +"Yet hope dies hard with the happy. I knew, but it was not enough to +know,--I must be sure. There was a way--it came to me with my first +fluttering breath as I recovered from my faint. In those old days when +I was thrown much with this man, he had shown me a curious cipher and +taught me how to use it. It was original with himself, he said, and some +day we might be glad of a method of communication which would render our +correspondence inviolable. I could not see why he considered this likely +ever to be desirable, but I took the description of it which he gave me +and promised that I would never let it leave my person. I even allowed +him to solder about my neck the chain which held the locket in which he +had placed it. Consequently I had it with me when I fled from Boone, and +for the first few weeks after arriving at my uncle's house in Detroit. +Then, wishing to banish every reminder of days I was so anxious to +forget, I broke that chain, destroyed the locket and hid away from every +one's sight the now useless and despised cipher. Why I retained the +cipher I can not explain. Now, that cipher must prove my salvation. If I +could find it again I was sure that the shock of receiving from my hand +certain words written in the symbols he had himself taught me would call +from him an involuntary revelation. I should know what I had to fear. +But so many changes had taken place and so long a time elapsed since I +hid this slip of paper away that I was not even sure I still retained +it; but after spending a good share of the night in searching for it, I +finally came across it in one of my old trunks. + +"The next morning I made my test. Perhaps, Henry, you remember my +handing Mr. Steele an empty envelope to mail which he returned with an +air of surprise so natural and seemingly unfeigned that he again forced +me to believe that he was the stranger he appeared. Though he must have +recognized at a glance--for he was an adept in this cipher once--the +seven simple symbols in which I had expressed the great cry of my soul +'Is it you?' he acted the innocent secretary so perfectly that all my +old hopes returned and I experienced one hour of perfect joy. Then came +another reaction. Letty brought in the baby with a paper pinned to her +coat. She declared to us that a woman had been the instrument of +this outrage, though the marks inside, suggesting the cipher but with +characteristic variations bespeaking malice, could only have been made +by one hand. + +"How I managed to maintain sufficient hold upon my mind to drag the key +from my breast and by its means to pick out the meaning of the first +three words--words which once read suggested all the rest--I can not now +imagine. Death was in my heart and the misery of it all more than +human strength could bear; yet I compared paper with paper carefully, +intelligently, till these words from the prayer-book with all their +threatening meaning to me and mine started into life before me: +'Visiting the sins--' Henry, you know the words 'Visiting the sins of +the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.' +Upon the children! Henry, he meant Laura! our little Laura! I had +wakened vengeance in a fiend. The man who had calmly smiled in my face +as he handed me back that empty envelope inscribed with the wild appeal, +'Is it you?' was the man I had once driven to the verge of the grave and +who had come back now to destroy us all. + +"Yet, such is the reaching out of the drowning for straws, I did not +utterly despair till Nixon brought me from this man's lodging-house, +where I had sent him, a specimen of his handwriting. + +"Nixon is the only confidant I have had. Nixon knew me as a girl when he +worked in my uncle's home, and has always had the most unbounded, I may +say jealous, affection for me. To him I had dared impart that I did not +trust your new secretary; that he looked like a man I once knew who +was a determined opponent of the party now trying to elect you; that a +specimen of his writing would make me quite sure, and begged him to get +it. I thought he might pick up such in the little office below, but he +was never able to do so--Mr. Steele has taken care not to leave a line +written in this house--but he did find a few lines signed with his name +in his own room at the boarding-house, and these he showed me before he +told me the result of his errand. They settled all doubts. What is to be +my fate? Surely this man has no real claim on me, after all these +years, when I thought myself your true and honest wife. He may ruin your +campaign, defeat your hopes, overwhelm me with calumny and a loss of +repute, but surely, surely he can not separate us. The law will not +uphold him in that; will it, Henry? Say that it will not, say--oh, say +that--it--will not--do--that, or we shall live to curse the day, not +when we were born; but when our little innocent child came to us!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. THE FINGER ON THE WALL. At this appeal the mayor rose and +faced his secretary and the spectacle was afforded me of seeing two +strong men drawn up in conflict over a woman both had cherished above +all else. And it was characteristic of the forceful men, as well as +the extreme nature of the conflict, that both were quiet in manner +and speech--perhaps the mayor the more so, as he began the struggle by +saying: + +"Is what Mrs. Packard says of your playing with her fears during these +two weeks true, Mr. Steele?" + +Without a droop of his eye, or a tremor in his voice, the answer came +short, sharp and emphatic: + +"Yes." + +"Then, you are a villain! and I shall not feel myself called upon to +show you any consideration beyond what justice demands. Have you +any plea to urge beyond the natural one of her seemingly unprovoked +desertion of you? Has not my wife--" the nobility with which he +emphasized those two words made my heart swell--"spoken the truth?" + +Ah! then the mask of disdainful serenity with which the other had +hitherto veiled the burning anguish of his soul fell in one burst of +irresistible passion. + +"True! yes, it is true. But what does that truth involve for me? Not +two weeks, but seven years of torture, five of them devoted to grief for +her, loss, and two to rage and bitter revulsion against her whole +sex when I found her alive, and myself the despised victim of her +deception." + +"She wronged you--she acknowledges that--but it was the wrong of an +unthinking child--not of a realizing woman. Would you, a realizing man, +tear her now from home, from her child, from her place in the community +and my heart--make her despicable as well as unhappy, just to feed your +revenge?" + +"Yes, I would do that." + +"Jeopardize interests you have so often professed in my hearing to be +far above personal consideration--the success of your party, the triumph +of your political principles?" + +"My political principles!" Oh, the irony of his voice, the triumph +in his laugh! "And what do you know of them? What I have said. Mayor +Packard, your education as a politician has yet to be completed before +you will be fit for the governorship of a state. I am an adept at +the glorification of the party, of the man that it suits my present +exigencies to promote, but it is a faculty which should have made you +pause before you trusted me with the furtherance and final success of a +campaign which may outlast those exigencies. I have not always been of +your party; I am not so now at heart." + +The mayor, outraged in every sentiment of honor as well as in the most +cherished feelings of his heart, lowered upon his unmoved secretary with +a wrath which would have borne down any other man before it. + +"Do you mean to say, you, that your work is a traitor's work? That the +glorification you speak of is false? That you may talk in my favor, but +that when you come to the issue, you will vote according to your heart; +that is, for Stanton?" + +"I have succeeded in making myself intelligible." + +The mayor flushed; indignation gave him vehemence. + +"Then," he cried, "I take back the word by which I qualified you a +moment ago. You are not a villain, you are a dastard." + +Mr. Steele bowed in a way which turned the opprobrium into a seeming +compliment. + +"I have suffered so many wrongs at your hands that I can not wonder at +suffering this one more." + +Then slowly and with a short look at her: "The woman who has queened it +so long in C---- society can not wish to undergo the charge of bigamy?" + +"You will bring such a charge?" + +"Certainly, if she does not voluntarily quit her false position, and, +accepting the protection of the man whose name is really hers, go from +this house at once." + +At this alternative, uttered with icy deliberation, Mrs. Packard +recoiled with a sharp cry; but the mayor thrust a sudden sarcastic query +at his opponent: + +"Which name? Steele or Brainard? You acknowledged both." + +"My real name is Brainard; therefore, it is also hers. But I shall be +content if she will take my present one of Steele. More than that, I +shall be content if she will honestly accept from my hands a place of +refuge where I swear she shall remain unmolested by me till this matter +can be legally settled. I do not wish to make myself hateful to her, for +I anticipate the day when she will be my wife in heart as she is now in +law." + +"Never!" + +The word rang out in true womanly revolt. "I will die before that day +ever comes to separate me from the man I love and the child who calls +me mother. You may force me from this house, you may plunge me into +poverty, into contumely, but you shall never make me look upon myself as +other than the wife of this good man, whom I have wronged but will never +disgrace." + +"Madam," declared the inflexible secretary with a derisive appreciation +which bowed her once proud head upon her shamed breast, "you are all I +thought you when I took you from Crabbe's back-pantry in Boone to make +you the honor and glory of a life which I knew then, as well as I do +now, would not long run in obscure channels." + +It was a sarcasm calculated to madden the proud man who, only a few +minutes before, had designated the object of it by the sacred name of +wife. But beyond a hasty glance at the woman it had bowed almost to +the ground, the mayor gave no evidence of feeling either its force or +assumption. Other thoughts were in his mind than those roused by jealous +anger. "How old were you then?" he demanded with alarming incongruity. +The secretary started. He answered, however, calmly enough: + +"I? Seven years ago I was twenty-five. I am thirty-two now." + +"So I have heard you say. A man of twenty-five is old enough to have +made a record, Mr. Steele--" The mayor's tone hardened, so did his +manner; and I saw why he had been such a power in the courts before +he took up politics and an office. "Mr. Steele, I do not mean you to +disturb my house or to rob me of my wife. What was your life before you +met Olympia Brewster?" + +A pause, the slightest in the world,--but the keen eye of the astute +lawyer noted it, and his tone grew in severity and assurance. "You have +known for two years that this woman whom you called yours was within +your reach, if not under your very eye, and you forbore to claim her. +Has this delay had anything to do with the record of those years to +which I have just alluded?" + +Had the random shot told? The secretary's eye did not falter, nor his +figure lose an inch of its height, yet the impression made by his look +and attitude were not the same; the fire had gone out of them; a blight +had struck his soul--the flush of his triumph was gone. + +Mayor Packard was merciless. + +"Only two considerations could hold back a man like you from urging a +claim he regarded as a sacred right; the fact of a former marriage or +the remembrance of a forfeited citizenship--pardon me, we can not mince +matters in a strait like this--which would delegalize whatever contract +you may have entered into." + +Still the secretary's eye did not swerve, though he involuntarily +stretched forth his hand toward the table as if afraid of betraying a +tremor in his rigidly drawn-up figure. + +"Was there the impediment of a former marriage?" + +No answer from the sternly set lips. + +"Or was it that you once served a term--a very short term, cut short by +a successful attempt at escape in a Minnesota prison?" + +"Insults!" broke from those set lips and nothing more. + +"Mr. Steele, I practised law in that state for a period of three years. +All the records of the office and of the prison register are open to me. +Over which of them should I waste my time?" + +Then the tiger broke loose in the man who from the aggressor had become +the attacked, and he cried: + +"I shall never answer; the devil has whispered his own suggestions in +your ear; the devil and nothing else." + +But the mayor, satisfied that he made his point, smiled calmly, saying: + +"No, not the devil, but yourself. You, even the you of seven years back, +would not have lived in any country town if necessity, or let us +say, safety, had not demanded it. You, with your looks and your +ambitions,--to marry at twenty-five a girl from the kitchen! any girl, +even if she had the making of an Olympia Packard, if you did not know +that it was in your power to shake her off when you got ready to assert +yourself, or better prospects offered? The cipher and the desirability +you expressed of a means of communication unreadable save by you +two,--all this was enough to start the suspicion; your own manner has +done the rest. Mr. Steele, you are both a villain and a bastard, and +have no right in law to this woman. Contradict me if you dare." + +"I dare, but will not," was the violent reply. "I shall not give you +even that satisfaction. This woman who has gone through the ceremony +of marriage with both of us shall never know to which of us she is the +legal wife. Perhaps it is as good a revenge as the other. It certainly +will interfere as much with her peace." + +"Oh, oh, not that! I can not bear that!" leaped in anguish from her +lips. "I am a pure woman, let no such torture be inflicted upon me. +Speak! tell the truth as you are the son of a woman you would have us +believe honest." + +A smile then, cold but alive with gloating triumph, altered the straight +line of his lips for an instant as he advanced toward the door. "A woman +over the possession of whom it is an honor to quarrel!" were his words +as he passed the mayor with a bow. + +I looked to see the mayor spring and grasp him by the throat, but that +was left for another hand. As the secretary bent to touch the door it +suddenly flew violently open and Nixon, quivering in every limb and with +his face afire, sprang in and seized upon the other with a violence of +passion which would have been deadly had there been any strength behind +it. + +It was but child's play for so strong a man as Mr. Steele to shake off +so futile a grasp, and he did so with a rasping laugh. But the next +moment he was tottering, blanched and helpless, and while struggling +to right himself and escape, yielded more and more to a sudden weakness +sapping his life-vigor, till he fell prone and apparently lifeless on +the lounge toward which, with a final effort, he had thrown himself. + +"Good! Good!" rang thrilling through the room, as the old man reeled +back from the wall against which he had been cast. "God has finished +what these old arms had only strength enough to begin. He is dead this +time, and it's a mercy! Thank God, Miss Olympia! thank God as I do now +on my knees!" But here catching the mayor's eye, he faltered to his feet +again, saying humbly as he crept away: + +"I couldn't help it, your Honor. I shouldn't have been listening at the +door; but I have loved Miss Olympia, as we used to call her, more than +anything in the world ever since she came to make my old master's house +a place of sunshine, and all I'm sorry for is that God had to do the +finishing which twenty years ago I could have done myself." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. "BITTER AS THE GRAVE" + +But Nixon was wrong. Mr. Steele did not die--not this time. Cared for +by the physician who had been hastily summoned, he slowly but surely +revived and by midnight was able to leave the house. As he passed the +mayor on his way out, I heard Mr. Packard say: + +"I shall leave the house myself in a few minutes. I do not mean that +your disaffection shall ruin my campaign any more than I mean to leave +a stone unturned to substantiate my accusation that you had no right to +marry and possess legal claims over the woman whose happiness you have +endeavored to wreck. If you are wise you will put no further hindrance +in my way." + +I heard no answer, for at that instant a figure appeared in the open +door which distracted all our attention. Miss Thankful, never an early +sleeper and much given, as we know, to looking out of her window, had +evidently caught the note of disaster from the coming and going of the +doctor. She had run in from next door and now stood panting in the open +doorway face to face with Mr. Steele, with her two hands held out, in +one of which, remarkable as it seems to relate, I saw the package of +bonds which I had been fortunate enough to find for her. + +The meeting seemed to paralyze both; her face which had been full of +tremulous feeling blanched and hardened, while he, stopped in some +speech or final effort he was about to make, yielded to the natural +brutality which underlay his polished exterior, and, in an access of +rage which almost laid him prostrate again, lifted his arm and struck +her out of his path. As she reeled to one side the bonds flew from her +hand and lay at his feet; but he saw nothing; he was already half-way +down the walk and in another moment the bang of his carriage door +announced his departure. + +The old lady, muttering words I could not hear, stared mute and stricken +at the bonds which the mayor had hastened to lift and place in her +hands. + +Pitying her and anxious to relieve him from the embarrassment of her +presence when his own mind and heart were full of misery, I rushed +down to her side and endeavored to lead her away. She yielded patiently +enough to my efforts, but, as she turned away, she cast one look at +the mayor and with the tears rolling down her long and hollow cheeks +murmured in horror and amaze: + +"He struck me!" + +The flash in Mayor Packard's eye showed sympathy, but the demands of the +moment were too great for him to give to those pathetic words the full +significance which I suddenly suspected them to hold. As I led her +tottering figure down the step and turned toward her door I said gently: + +"Who was the man? Who was it that struck you?" + +She answered quickly and with broken-hearted emphasis "My nephew! my +sister's son, and I had come to give him all our money. We have waited +three days for him to come to us. We thought he would when he knew the +bonds had been found, but he never came near, never gave us a chance to +enrich him; and when I heard he was ill and saw the carriage which had +come to take him away, we could not stand it another minute and so I ran +out and--and he struck me! looked in my face and struck me!" + +I folded her in my arms, there and then at the foot of her own doorstep, +and when I felt her heart beating on mine, I whispered: + +"Bless God for it! He has a hard and cruel heart, and would make no good +use of this money. Live to spend it as your brother desired, to make +over the old house and reinstate the old name. He would not have wished +it wasted on one who must have done you cruel wrong, since he has lived +so many days beside you without showing his interest in you or even +acknowledging your relationship." + +"There were reasons," she protested, gently withdrawing herself, but +holding me for a minute to her side. "He has had great fortune--is a man +of importance now--we did not wish to interfere with his career. It was +only after the money was found that we felt he should come. We should +not have asked him to take back his old name, we should simply have +given him what he thought best to take and been so happy and proud +to see him. He is so handsome and fortunate that we should not have +begrudged it, if he had taken it all. But he struck me! he struck me! He +will never get a dollar now." + +Relieved, for the natural good sense of the woman was reasserting +itself, I gave her hands a squeeze and quickly ran back to where the +mayor was holding the door for me. + +"She is all right now," I remarked, as I slid by him upstairs; and that +was all I said. The rest must wait a more auspicious moment--the moment +when he really would have time to take up the gage which Mr. Steele had +thrown down to him in his final words. + +I was not a witness to the parting interview between Mayor Packard and +his wife; I had stolen into the nursery, for a look at the little one. +I found her sleeping sweetly, with one chubby hand under her rounded +cheek. Thus had she lain and thus had she slept during all those +dreadful minutes, when her future hung, trembling in the balance. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. A CHILD'S PLAYTHINGS + + +I was too much overwhelmed by all these events to close my eyes that +night. The revelation of Mr. Steele's further duplicity, coming so +immediately upon the first, roused fresh surmises and awakened +thoughts which soon set my wits working in a direction as new as it was +unexpected. I had believed my work over in this house, but as I recalled +all the occurrences of the evening and turned the situation, as it now +confronted me, over and over in my mind, I felt that it had just begun. +There must be something in this latest development to help us in the +struggle which lay before us. The rage which sprang up in him as he +confronted his old aunt at this moment of his triumphant revenge argued +a weakness in his armor which it might yet be my part to discover and +reveal. I knew Mrs. Packard well enough to realize that the serenity +into which she had fallen was a fictitious serenity, and must remain so +as long as any doubt remained of the legality of the tie uniting her to +this handsome fiend. Were the means suggested by the mayor of promising +enough character to accomplish the looked-for end? + +I remembered the man's eyes as the mayor let fall his word of powerful +threat, and doubted it. Once recovered from the indisposition which now +weakened him, he would find means to thwart any attempts made by Mayor +Packard to undermine the position he had taken as the legal husband of +Olympia--sufficiently so, at least, to hinder happiness between the pair +whose wedded life he not only envied but was determined to break +up, unless some flaw in his past could be discovered through Miss +Quinlan--the aunt whose goodness he had slighted and who now seemed to +be in a frame of mind to help our cause if its pitiful aspects were once +presented to her. I resolved to present the case without delay. Morning +came at last, and I refreshed myself as well as I could, and, after a +short visit to Mrs. Packard's bedside during which my purpose grew with +every moment I gazed down on her brave but pitiful face, put on my hat +and jacket and went next door. + +I found the two old ladies seated in their state apartment making +calculations. At sight of my face they both rose and the "O my dear" +from Miss Charity and the "God bless you, child," from Miss Thankful +showed that both hearts were yet warm. Gradually I introduced the +topic of their nephew; gradually I approached the vital question of the +disgrace. + +The result upset all my growing hopes. He had never told them just what +the disgrace was. They really knew nothing about his life after his +early boyhood. He had come home that one time when fortune so suddenly +smiled upon them and they thought then that he would tell them +something; but the disappointment which had followed effectually closed +his lips, and he went away after a few days of fruitless search, not +to approach them again till just before he took up the position of +secretary to their great neighbor. Then he paid them one short and +peremptory visit, during which he was able to impress upon them his +importance, his reasons for changing his name, which they could not now +remember, and the great necessity which this made for them not to come +near him as their nephew. They had tried to do what he asked, but it +had been hard. "Charity," Miss Thankful proceeded to bewail with a +forgetfulness of her own share in the matter, "had not been able to +keep her eyes long off the house which held, as she supposed, our double +treasure." So this was all! Nothing to aid me; nothing to aid Mayor +Packard. Rising in my disappointment, I prepared to leave. I had +sufficient self-control and I hope good feeling not to add to their +distress at this time by any unnecessary revelations of a past they were +ignorant of, or the part this unhappy nephew of theirs had played and +still promised to play in the lives of their immediate neighbors. + +Miss Thankful squeezed my hand and Miss Charity gave me a kiss; then as +she saw her sister looking aside, whispered in my ear "I want to show +you something, all of Johnnie's little toys and the keepsakes he sent us +when he was a good boy and loved his aunts. You will not think so badly +of him then." + +I let Miss Charity lead me away. A drawer held all these treasures. I +looked and felt to a degree the pathos of the scene; but did not give +special attention to what she thrust under my eyes till she gave me a +little old letter to read, soiled and torn with the handling of many +years and signed John Silverthorn Brainard. Then something in me woke +and I stared at this signature, growing more and more excited as I +realized that this was not the first time I had seen it, that somewhere +and in circumstances which brought a nameless thrill I had looked upon +it before and that--it was not one remembrance but many which came to +me. What the spoken name had not recalled came at the sight of this +written one. Bess! there was her long and continued watch over the house +once entered by her on any and every pretext, but now shunned by her +with a secret terror which could not disguise her longing and its +secret attraction; her certificate of marriage; the name on this +certificate--the very one I was now staring at--John Silverthorn +Brainard! Had I struck an invaluable clue? Had I, through the weakness +and doting fondness of this poor woman, come upon the one link which +would yet lead us to identify this hollow-hearted, false and most +vindictive man of great affairs with the wandering and worthless husband +of the nondescript Bess, whose hand I had touched and whose errand I had +done, little realizing its purport or the influence it would have upon +our lives? I dared not believe myself so fortunate; it was much too like +a fairy dream for me to rely on it for a moment; yet the possibility +was enough to rouse me to renewed effort. After we had returned to +Miss Thankful's side, I asked her, with an apology for my inexhaustible +curiosity, if she still felt afraid of the thread and needle woman +across the way. + +The answer was a little sharp. + +"It is Charity who is afraid of her," said she. She had evidently +forgotten her own extravagant words to me on this subject. "Charity is +timid; she thinks because this woman once hung over our brother, night +and day, that she knew about this money and had persuaded herself that +she has some right to it. Charity is sometimes mistaken, but she has +some reason, if it is inadequate, for this notion of hers. That woman, +since her dismissal after my brother's death, has never really quit this +neighborhood. She worked next door in any capacity she could, whenever +any of the tenants would take her; and when they would not, sewed or +served in the houses near by till finally she set up a shop directly +opposite its very door. But she'll never get these bonds; we shall pay +her what is her due, but she'll never get any more." + +"That would make her out a thief," I cried, "or--" but I thought better +of uttering what was in my mind. Instead I asked how they first came to +hear of her. + +Miss Charity showed some flustration at this and cast her sister +an appealing look; but Miss Thankful, eying her with some severity, +answered me with becoming candor: + +"She was a lodger in this house. We kept a few lodgers in those days--be +still, Charity! Just thank God those days are over." + +"A lodger?" I repeated. "Did she ever tell you where she came from?" + +"Yes, she mentioned the place,--it was some town farther west. That was +when we were in such trouble about our brother and how we should care +for him. She could nurse him, she said, and indeed seemed very eager to +do so, and we were glad to let her,--very glad, till my brother showed +such fear of her and of what she might do if she once got hold of his +wallet." + +"You possibly did her injustice," I said. "A sick man's fancies are not +always to be relied on. What did your nephew think of her? Did he share +your distrust of her?" + +"John? Oh, yes, I believe so. Why do we always come back to the subject +of John? I want to forget him; I mean to forget him; I mean that Charity +shall forget him." + +"Let us begin then from this moment," I smiled; then quickly: "You knew +that Bess was a married woman." + +"No, we knew nothing about her." + +"Not even the name she went by?" + +"Oh, that was Brown." + +"Brown," I muttered, turning for a second time to go. "You must think +me inquisitive, but if I had not been," I added with a merry laugh, "I +should never have found your bonds for you." Pressing both their hands +in mine I ran hastily out of the room. + +At once I crossed the street to Bess' little shop. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. RESTITUTION + + +"Bess, why are you so white? What has happened to you in the last +twenty-four hours? Have you heard from him?" + +"No, no; I'm all right." But her eyes, hunted and wandering, belied her +words. + +I drew her hands down into mine across the table lying between us. + +"I want to help you," I whispered; "I think I can. Something has +happened which gives me great hope; only do me a favor first; show me, +as you promised, the papers which I dug out for you." + +A smile, more bitter than any tear, made her face look very hard for an +instant, then she quietly led the way into the small room at the back. +When we were quite alone, she faced me again and putting her hand to her +breast took out the much creased, much crumpled bit of paper which was +her only link to youth, to her life, and to her love. + +"This is all that will interest you," said she, her eyes brimming in +spite of herself. "It is my marriage certificate. The one thing that +proves me an honest woman and the equal of--" she paused, biting back +her words and saying instead--"of any one I see. My husband was a +gentleman." + +It was with trembling hands I unfolded the worn sheet. Somehow the +tragedy of the lives my own had touched so nearly for the last few days +had become an essential part of me. + +"John Silverthorn Brainard," I read, the name identical with the one I +had just seen as the early signature of the man who claimed a husband's +rights over Mrs. Packard. The date with what anxiety I looked at +it!--preceded by two years that of the time he united himself to Olympia +Brewster. No proof of the utter falsity of his dishonorable claim could +be more complete. As I folded up the paper and handed it back, Bess +noted the change which had come to me. Panting with excitement she +cried: + +"You look happy, happy! You know something you have not told me. What? +what? I'm suffocating, mad to know; speak--speak--" + +"Your husband is a man not unknown to any of us. You have seen him +constantly. He is--" + +"Yes, yes; did he tell you himself? Has he done me so much justice? Oh, +say that his heart has softened at last; that he is ready to recognize +me; that I have not got to find those bonds--but you do not know about +the bonds--nobody does. I shouldn't have spoken; he would be angry if +he knew. Angry? and I have suffered so much from his anger! He is not a +gentle man." + +How differently she said this from the gentleman of a few minutes back! + +"But he doesn't know that I am here," she burst out in another instant, +as I hunted for some word to say. "He would kill me if he did; he once +swore that he would kill me if I ever approached him or put in any claim +to him till he was ready to own me for his wife and give me the place +that is due me. Don't tell me that I have betrayed myself, I've been so +careful; kept myself so entirely out of his eyes, even last night when +I saw the doctor go in and felt that it was for him, and pictured him +to myself as dying without a word from me or a look to help me bear the +pain. He was ill, wasn't he?--but he got better. I saw him come out, +very feeble and uncertain. Not like himself, not like the strong +and too, too handsome man who has wrung my heart in his hand of +steel,--wrung it and thrown it away." + +Sobs shook her and she stopped from lack of power to utter either her +terror or her grief. But she looked the questions she could no longer +put, and compassionating her misery, I gently said: + +"Your love has been fixed upon a very unstable heart; but you have +rights which must yet insure you his support. There is some one who will +protect these rights and protect you in your efforts to substantiate +them." + +"His aunt," she put in, shaking her head. "She can do nothing, unless--" +Her excitement became abnormal. "Have they found the money?" she +shrieked; "have they--have they found the money?" + +I could not deceive her; she had seen it in my eye. + +"And they will--" + +"Hardly," I whispered. "He has displeased them; they can not be generous +to him now." + +Her hopes sank as if the very basis of her life had been taken away. + +"It was my only hope," she murmured. "With that money in my hand--some, +any of it, I could have dared his frown and won in a little while his +good will, but now--I can only anticipate rebuff. There is nothing for +me to hope for now. I must continue to be Bess, the thread and needle +woman." + +"I did not say that the one to reinstate you was Miss Quinlan." + +"Who then? who then?" + +"Mayor Packard." + +And then I had to tell her. + +We all know the results of the election by which Governor Packard holds +his seat, but few persons outside of those mentioned in this history +know why the event of his homecoming from a trip he made to Minnesota +brought a brighter and more lasting light into his wife's eyes than the +news of his astonishing political triumph. + +He had substantiated facts by which Mr. Steele's claims upon Mrs. +Packard were annulled and Bess restored to her rights, if not to her +false husband's heart and affections. There are times, though, when I +do not even despair of the latter; constant illness is producing a +perceptible change in the man, and it seemed to me, from what Mrs. John +Brainard told me one day after she had been able, through the kindness +of the Misses Quinlan, to place the amount of one of the bonds in his +hands, that his eyes were beginning to learn their true lesson and that +he would yet find charm in his long neglected wife. It was not to be +wondered at, for with hope and the advantages of dress with which the +Misses Quinlan now took pleasure in supplying her, she was gradually +becoming an unusually fine woman. + +I remained with Mrs. Packard till they left town for the capital; +remained to enjoy to the full the joy of these reunited hearts, and to +receive the substantial reward which they insisted on bestowing upon +me. One of the tasks with which I whiled away the many hours in which +I found myself alone was the understanding and proper mastery of the +cipher which had played such a part in the evolution of the life-drama +enacted before my eyes. + +It was very simple. With the following diagram as a key and a single +hint as to its management, you will at once comprehend its apparent +intricacies: + + AB | CD | EF \ST/ + ___|____|___ UV\/WX + GH | IJ | KL /\ + ___|____|___ /YZ\ + MN | OP | QR + +The dot designated that the letter used was the second in the indicated +division. + +The hint to which I allude is this. With every other word the paper is +turned in the hands toward the left. This alters the shape and direction +of the angle or part of square symbolizing the several letters, and +creates the confusion which interfered with my solution of its mysteries +the night I subjected it, with such unsatisfactory results, to the tests +which had elucidated the cryptogram in The Gold Bug. + + +THE END + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Mayor's Wife, by Anna Katherine Green + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAYOR'S WIFE *** + +***** This file should be named 4767.txt or 4767.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/7/6/4767/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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