l there, peering at me through a flood of moonlight.
The effect was ghastly, and for hours I could not sleep, imagining that
face still staring down upon me, illuminated with the unnatural light
and worn with a profitless and unmeaning vigil.

That there was something to fear in this house was evident from the
halting step with which the servants, one and all, passed my door on
their way up to their own beds. I now knew, or thought I knew, what
was in their minds; but the comfort brought by this understanding was
scarcely sufficient to act as antidote to the keen strain to which
my faculties had been brought. Yet nothing happened, and when a clock
somewhere in the house had assured me by its own clear stroke that the
dreaded midnight hour had passed I rose and stole again to the window.
This time both moonlight and face were gone. Contentment came with the
discovery. I crept back to bed with lightened heart and soon was asleep.

Next morning, however, the first face was again at the window, as I at
once saw on raising the blind. I breakfasted alone. Mrs. Packard was not
yet down and the mayor had already left to fulfil an early appointment
down-town. Old Nixon waited on me. As he, like every other member of the
family, with the possible exception of the mayor, was still an unknown
quantity in the problem given me to solve, I allowed a few stray glances
to follow him as he moved decorously about the board anticipating my
wants and showing himself an adept in his appointed task. Once I caught
his eye and I half expected him to speak, but he was too well-trained
for that, and the meal proceeded in the same silence in which it had
begun. But this short interchange of looks had given me an idea. He
showed an eager interest in me quite apart from his duty to me as
waiter. He was nearer sixty, than fifty, but it was not his age which
made his hand tremble as he laid down a plate before me or served me
with coffee and bread. Whether this interest was malevolent or kindly
I found it impossible to judge. He had a stoic's face with but one
eloquent feature--his eyes; and these he kept studiously lowered after
that one quick glance. Would it help matters for me to address him?
Possibly, but I decided not to risk it. Whatever my immediate loss I
must on no account rouse the least distrust in this evidently watchful
household. If knowledge came naturally, well and good; I must not seem
to seek it.

The result proved my discretion.