enced a man would
be welcome, if only to reconcile me to an effort which must lead to
the indiscriminate use of my name in quarters where it hurts a woman to
imagine it used at all."

This, with her eyes on his face, of this I felt sure. Her tone was much
too level for her not to be looking directly at him. To any response
he might give of the same nature I had no clue, but his tone when he
answered was as cool and deferentially polite as was to be expected from
a man chosen by Mayor Packard for his private secretary. "Mrs. Packard,
your fears are very natural. A woman shrinks from such inquiries, even
when sustained by the consciousness that nothing can rob her name of its
deserved honor. But if we let one innuendo pass, how can we prevent a
second? The man who did this thing should be punished. In this I agree
with Mayor Packard."

She stirred impulsively. I could hear the rustle of her dress as she
moved, probably to lessen the distance between them. "You are honest
with me?" she urged. "You do agree with Mr. Packard in this?"

His answer was firm, straightforward, and, as far as I could judge,
free from any objectionable feature. "I certainly do, Mrs. Packard.
The hesitation I expressed when he first spoke was caused by the one
consideration mentioned,--my fear lest something might go amiss in C----
to-night if I busied myself otherwise than with the necessities of the
speech with which he is about to open his campaign."

"I see. You are very desirous that Mr. Packard should win in this
election?"

"I am his secretary, and was largely instrumental in securing his
nomination for governor," was the simple reply. There was a pause--how
filled, I would have given half my expected salary to know. Then I heard
her ask him the very question she had asked me.

"Do you think that in the event of your not succeeding in forcing an
apology from the man who inserted that objectionable paragraph against
myself--that--that such hints of something being wrong with me will in
any way affect Mr. Packard's chances--lose him votes, I mean? Will the
husband suffer because of some imagined lack in his wife?"

"One can not say." Thus appealed to, the man seemed to weigh his words
carefully, out of consideration for her, I thought. "No real admirer of
the mayor's would go over to the enemy from any such cause as that.
Only the doubtful--the half-hearted--those who are ready to grasp at any
excuse for voting with the other party, wo