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Page 25
Taking advantage of this hesitation, I ran softly down to meet him.
"Any message for Mrs. Packard?" I asked.
He looked relieved.
"Yes, from his Honor. The mayor is unavoidably detained and may
not be home till morning."
"I will tell her." Then, as he reached for his overcoat, I risked
all on one venture, and enlarging a little on the facts, said:
"Excuse me, but was it you we heard laughing down-stairs a few
minutes ago? Mrs. Packard feared it might be some follower of the
girls'."
Pausing in the act of putting on his coat, he met my look with an
air of some surprise.
"I am not given to laughing," he remarked; "certainly not when
alone."
"But you heard this laugh?"
He shook his head. His manner was perfectly courteous, almost
cordial.
"If I did, it made no impression on my mind. I am extremely busy
just now, working up the mayor's next speech." And with a smile
and bow in every way suited to his fine appearance, he took his hat
from the rack and left the house.
I drew back more mystified than ever. Which of these two men had
told me a lie? One, both, or neither? Impossible to determine.
As I try never to waste gray matter, I resolved to spend no further
energy on this question, but simply to await the next development.
It came unexpectedly and was of an entirely different nature from
any I had anticipated.
I had not retired, not knowing at what moment the mayor might
return or what I might be called upon to do when he did. It will
be remembered that one of my windows looked out upon the next
house. I approached it to see if my ever watchful neighbors had
retired. Their window was dark, but I observed what was of much
more vital interest to me at that moment. It was that I was not
the only one awake and stirring in our house. The light from a
room diagonally below me poured in a stream on the opposite wall,
and it took but a moment's consideration for me to decide that the
shadow I saw crossing and recrossing this brilliant square was cast
by Mrs. Packard.
My first impulse was to draw back--(that was the lady's impulse not
quite crushed out of me by the occupation circumstances had
compelled me to take up)--my next, to put out my own light and seat
myself at the post of observation thus afforded me. The excuse I
gave myself for this was plausible enough. Mrs. Packard had been
placed in my charge and, if all was not right with her, it was my
business to know it.
Accordingly I sat and watched each movement of my mysterious charge
as it was outlined on the telltale wall before me, and saw enough
in one half-hour to convince me that something very vigorous and
purposeful was going on in the room so determinedly closed against
every one, even her own husband.
What?
The moving silhouette of her figure, which was all that I could see,
was not perfect enough in detail for me to determine. She was busy at
some occupation which took her from one end of the room to the other;
but after watching her shadow for an hour I was no surer than at
first as to what that occupation was. It was a serious one, I saw,
and now and then the movements I watched gave evidence of frantic
haste, but their character stood unrevealed till suddenly the thought
came:
"She is rummaging bureau-drawers and emptying boxes,--in other
words, packing a bag or trunk."
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