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.