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.