The Mayors Wife | Page 5

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 slid 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