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Page 16
CHAPTER V
THE STRANGE NEIGHBORS NEXT DOOR
When I joined Mrs. Packard I found her cheerful and in all respects
quite unlike the brooding woman she had seemed when I first met
her. From the toys scattered about her feet I judged that the
child had been with her, and certainly the light in her eyes had
the beaming quality we associate with the happy mother. She was
beautiful thus and my hopes of her restoration to happiness rose.
"I have had a good night," were her first words as she welcomed me
to a seat in her own little nook. "I'm feeling very well this
morning. That is why I have brought out this big piece of work."
She held up a baby's coat she was embroidering. "I can not do it
when I am nervous. Are you ever nervous?"
Delighted to enter into conversation with her, I answered in a way
to lead her to talk about herself, then, seeing she was in a
favorable mood for gossip, was on the point of venturing all in a
leading question, when she suddenly forestalled me by putting one
to me.
"Were you ever the prey of an idea?" she asked; "one which you
could not shake off by any ordinary means, one which clung to you
night and day till nothing else seemed real or would rouse the
slightest interest? I mean a religious idea," she stammered with
anxious attempt of to hide her real thought. "One of those doubts
which come to you in the full swing of life to--to frighten and
unsettle you."
"Yes," I answered, as naturally and quietly as I knew how; "I have
had such ideas--such doubts."
"And were you able to throw them off?--by your will, I mean."
She was leaning forward, her eyes fixed eagerly on mine. How
unexpected the privilege! I felt that in another moment her secret
would be mine.
"In time, yes," I smiled back. "Everything yields to time and
persistent conscientious work."
"But if you can not wait for time, if you must be relieved at once,
can the will be made to suffice, when the day is dark and one is
alone and not too busy?"
"The will can do much," I insisted. "Dark thoughts can be kept
down by sheer determination. But it is better to fill the mind so
full with what is pleasant that no room is left for gloom. There
is so much to enjoy it must take a real sorrow to disturb a heart
resolved to be happy."
"Yes, resolved to be happy. I am resolved to be happy." And she
laughed merrily for a moment. "Nothing else pays. I will not
dwell on anything but the pleasures which surround me." Here she
took up her work again. "I will forget--I will--" She stopped and
her eyes left her work to flash a rapid and involuntary glance over
her shoulder. Had she heard a step? I had not. Or had she felt
a draft of which I in my bounding health was unconscious?
"Are you cold?" I asked, as her glance stole back to mine. "You
are shivering--"
"Oh, no," she answered coldly, almost proudly. "I'm perfectly
warm. I don't feel slight changes. I thought some one was behind
me. I felt--Is Ellen in the adjoining room?"
I jumped up and moved toward the door she indicated. It was
slightly ajar, but Ellen was not behind it.
"There's no one here," said I.
She did not answer. She was bending again over her work, and gave
no indication of speaking again on that or the more serious topic
we had previously been discussing.
Naturally I felt disappointed. I had hoped much from the
conversation, and now these hopes bade fair to fail me. How could
I restore matters to their former basis? Idly I glanced out of the
side window I was passing, and the view of the adjoining house I
thus gained acted like an inspiration. I would test her on a new
topic, in the hope of reintroducing the old. The glimpse I had
gained into Mrs. Packard's mind must not be lost quite as soon as
this.
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