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Page 7
"She believes in my character and would have given me an
opportunity to vindicate myself. I have every confidence in my
wife's sense of justice."
I experienced a thrill of admiration for the appreciation he
evinced in those words. Yet I pursued the subject resolutely.
"Have you an enemy, Mayor Packard? Any real and downright enemy
capable of a deep and serious attempt at destroying your
happiness?"
"None that I know of, Miss Saunders. I have political enemies,
of course men, who, influenced by party feeling, are not above
attacking methods and possibly my official reputation; but
personal ones--wretches willing to stab me in my home-life and
affections, that I can not believe. My life has been as an open
book. I have harmed no man knowingly and, as far as I know, no
man has ever cherished a wish to injure me."
"Who constitute your household? How many servants do you keep
and how long have they been with you?"
"Now you exact details with which only Mrs. Packard is
conversant. I don't know anything about the servants. I do not
interest myself much in matters purely domestic, and Mrs. Packard
spares me. You will have to observe the servants yourself."
I made another note in my mind while inquiring:
"Who is the young man who was here just now? He has an uncommon
face."
"A handsome one, do you mean?"
"Yes, and--well, what I should call distinctly clever."
"He is clever. 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."
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