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.