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diff --git a/old/mrswf10.txt b/old/mrswf10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..704f9be --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mrswf10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8299 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Mayor's Wife, by Anna Katherine Green +#7 in our series by Anna Katherine Green + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Mayor's Wife + +Author: Anna Katherine Green + +Release Date: December, 2003 [Etext #4767] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 15, 2002] +[Date last updated: October 15, 2005] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT THE MAYOR'S WIFE *** + + + + + + + + + +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 XVIII + +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 THE PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT THE MAYOR'S WIFE *** + +This file should be named mrswf10.txt or mrswf10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, mrswf11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, mrswf10a.txt + + + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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