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 the view, was not near enough to exclude all light.  Another and closer scrutiny of the room did not alter the first impression.  To the advantages of light were added those of dainty furnishing and an exceptionally pleasing color scheme.  There was no richness anywhere, but an attractive harmony which gave one an instantaneous feeling of home.  From the little brass bedstead curtained with cretonne, to the tiny desk filled with everything needful for immediate use, I saw evidences of the most careful housekeeping, and was vainly asking myself what could have come into Mrs. Packard’s life to disturb so wholesome a nature, when my attention was arrested by a picture hanging at the right of the window overlooking the next house.