lever. My secretary, Miss Saunders. He helps me in my increased
duties; has, in a way, charge of my campaign; reads, sorts and sometimes
answers my letters. Just now he is arranging my speeches--fitting them
to the local requirements of the several audiences I shall be called
upon to address. He knows mankind like a book. I shall never give the
wrong speech to the wrong people while he is with me."

"Do you like him?--the man, I mean, not his work."

"Well--yes. He is very good company, or would have been if, in the week
he has been in the house, I had been in better mood to enjoy him. He's a
capital story-teller."

"He has been here a week?"

"Yes, or almost."

"Came on last Tuesday, didn't he?"

"Yes, I believe that was the day."

"Toward afternoon?"

"No; he came early; soon after breakfast, in fact."

"Does your wife like him?"

His Honor gave a start, flushed (I can sometimes see a great deal even
while very busily occupied) and answered without anger, but with a good
deal of pride:

"I doubt if Mrs. Packard more than knows of his presence. She does not
come to this room."

"And he does not sit at your table?"

"No; I must have some few minutes in the day free from the suggestion of
politics. Mr. Steele can safely be left out of our discussion. He does
not even sleep in the house."

The note I made at this was very emphatic. "You should know," said I;
then quickly "Tuesday was the day Mrs. Packard first showed the change
you observed in her."

"Yes, I think so; but that is a coincidence only. She takes no interest
in this young man; scarcely noticed him when I introduced him; just
bowed to him over her shoulder; she was fastening on our little one's
cap. Usually she is extremely, courteous to strangers, but she was
abstracted, positively abstracted at that moment. I wondered at it, for
he usually makes a stir wherever he goes. But my wife cares little for
beauty in a man; I doubt if she noticed his looks at all. She did not
catch his name, I remember."

"Pardon me, what is that you say?"

"She did not catch his name, for later she asked me what it was."

"Tell me about that, Mr. Packard."

"It is immaterial; but I am ready to answer all your questions. It was
while we were out dining. Chance threw us together, and to fill up
the moment she asked the name of the young man I had brought into the
library that morning. I told her and explained his position and the long
training he had had in l