feel like it at any time. We'll understand."

Understand! I eyed her as she again looked my way, with some of her own
curiosity if not wonder.

"Mrs. Packard must have had some very timorous guests," I observed. "Or,
perhaps, you have had experiences here which have tended to alarm
you. The house is so large and imposing for the quarter it is in I can
readily imagine it to attract burglars."

"Burglars! It would be a brave burglar who would try to get in here. I
guess you never heard about this house."

"No," I admitted, unpleasantly divided between a wish to draw her out
and the fear of betraying Mayor Packard's trust in me by showing the
extent of my interest.

"Well, it's only gossip," she laughingly assured me. "You needn't think
of it, Miss. I'm sure you'll be all right. We girls have been, so far,
and Mrs. Packard--"

Here she doubtless heard a voice outside or some summons from below,
for she made a quick start toward the door, remarking in a different and
very pleasant tone of voice:

"Dinner at seven, Miss. There'll be no extra company to-night. I'm
coming." This to some one in the hall as she hastily passed through the
door.

Dropping the bag I had lifted to unpack, I stared at the door which had
softly closed under her hand, then, with an odd impulse, turned to look
at my own face in the glass before which I chanced to be standing. Did I
expect to find there some evidence of the excitement which this strange
conversation might naturally produce in one already keyed up to
an expectation of the mysterious and unusual? If so, I was not
disappointed. My features certainly betrayed the effect of this
unexpected attack upon my professional equanimity. What did the girl
mean? What was she hinting at? What underlay--what could underlie her
surprising remark, "I guess you never heard about this house?" Something
worth my knowing; something which might explain Mayor Packard's fears
and Mrs. Packard's--

There I stopped. It was where the girl had stopped. She and not I must
round out this uncompleted sentence.

Meanwhile I occupied myself in unpacking my two bags and making
acquaintance with the room which, I felt, was destined to be the scene
of many, anxious thoughts. Its first effect had been a cheerful one,
owing to its two large windows, one looking out on a stretch of clear
sky above a mass of low, huddled buildings, and the other on the wall of
the adjacent house which, though near enough to obstruct