The Mayor's Wife

tion her sanity; at least I did not; t

ith a suggestive glance at the bril

ieved in such things-never thought about them, but-it was a w

darl

oment 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 a

husband, with a soothing touch on her

d, "a shadowy outline. The fo

elf and her eyes, just now deprecating and appealing, took on a hol

ligations very far removed from the fantasies of a disturbed mind made these unsubstantial fears of hers seem puerile enou

he message he gave, if it was a message, was one of disaster, if not death. Do you wonder

tical man; he kept c

the lighted lamp. How long did it

ne, and I found myself staring into vacancy. I seem to be staring t

ial. What we have to fear and all we have to fear is that I may lose my el

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

bring them to book." Raising his voice, he called out his secretary's name. As it rang loud and cheery d

hension. "Give an order," he explained; then, as the secretary appeared at our end of the hall, he

t who di

k ran his eyes over the paragra

from Mrs. Packard's li

to the humiliated woman's cheek. "It will detain me two days or more to follow

an pass over such an insult. Pin me down the man who has dared attack me thr

consultation we had planned to hold on the t

ly; most

aced the world without a shadow between her and it; and, marking the lingering nature of the look with which the m

f events swung wide a

er 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 sta

atic scene I had witnessed at the breakfast-table, necessarily interested me very much and I could not help giving it a

r not, these characters made a surprising impression

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 th

ing in the hall. She cast a quick look at it, gave me another look and tossed the paper i

ne already given me, fixed the whole indeli

];.}; V;

from red to black and finally vanish in a wi

ry of all my mistakes as complet

ing the weary droop of her ha

etic observation. "Will you not take a nap? I

pondence, half of it on charitable matters. Now that I feel better, now that I have r

elp you?

om up-stairs, I will join you afte

the scene of much I did not understand the night before. Should I find any

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

been emptied on to the floor and one held her best summer dres

nd 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

cting these scraps and making a motion of throwing them into

baby never did that

ch of the child though I heard her cr

ng! You never saw such curls or

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,