told him of your very natural nervous attack."

She sighed--a sigh which came from no inconsiderable depths--then with a
proud and resolute gesture preceded me down-stairs.

Her husband was already in the breakfast-room. I could hear his voice as
we turned at the foot of the stairs. Mrs. Packard, hearing it, too,
drew herself up still more firmly and was passing bravely forward, when
Nixon's gray head protruded from the doorway and I heard him say:

"There's company for breakfast, ma'am. His Honor could not spare Mr.
Steele and asked me to set a place for him."

I noted a momentary hesitation on Mrs. Packard's part, then she silently
acquiesced and we both passed on. In another instant we were receiving
the greetings and apologies of the gentlemen. If Mr. Steele had expected
that his employer's wife would offer him her hand, he was disappointed.

"I am happy to welcome one who has proved so useful to my husband," she
remarked with cool though careful courtesy as we all sat down at the
table; and, without waiting for an answer, she proceeded to pour the
coffee with a proud grace which gave no hint of the extreme feeling by
which I had seen her moved the night before.

Had I known her better I might have found something extremely unnatural
in her manner and the very evident restraint she put upon herself
through the whole meal; but not having any acquaintance with her
ordinary bearing under conditions purely social, I was thrown out of my
calculations by the cold ease with which she presided at her end of the
table, and the set smile with which she greeted all remarks, whether
volunteered by her husband or by his respectful but affable secretary. I
noticed, however, that she ate little.

Nixon, whom I dared not watch, did not serve with his usual
precision,--this I perceived from the surprised look cast at him by
Mayor Packard on at least two occasions. Though to the ordinary eye a
commonplace meal, it had elements of tragedy in it which made the least
movement on the part of those engaged in it of real moment to me. I was
about to leave the table unenlightened, however, when Mrs. Packard rose
and, drawing a letter from under the tray before which she sat, let
her glances pass from one gentleman to the other with a look of decided
inquiry. I drew in my breath and by dropping my handkerchief sought an
excuse for lingering in the room an instant longer.

"Will--may I ask one of you," she stammered with her first show