Then I saw that it was Nixon, the butler, and shook my head in mingled anger and perplexity; for not only had he advanced quite noiselessly, but he was looking at me with that curious concentrated gaze which I had met twice before since coming into this house.

“I need nothing,” said I, with all the mildness I could summon into my voice; and did not know whether to like or not like the quiet manner in which he sidled out of the room.

“Why do they all look at me so closely?” I queried, in genuine confusion.  “The man had no business here.  I did not ring, and I don’t believe he thought I did.  He merely wanted to see what I was doing and whether I was enjoying myself.  Why this curiosity?  I have never roused it anywhere else.  It is not myself they are interested in, but the cause and purpose of my presence under this roof.”  I paused to wonder over the fact that the one member of the family who might be supposed to resent my intrusion most was the one who took it most kindly and with least token of surprise—­Mrs. Packard.

“She accepts me easily enough,” thought I.  “To her I am a welcome companion.  What am I to these?”

The answer, or rather a possible answer, came speedily.  At nine o’clock Mayor Packard entered the room from his study across the hall, and, seeing me alone, came forward briskly.  “Mrs. Packard has company and I am on my way to the drawing-room, but I am happy to have the opportunity of assuring you that already she looks better, and that I begin to hope that your encouraging presence may stimulate her to throw aside her gloom and needless apprehensions.  I shall be eternally grateful to you if it will.  It is the first time in a week that she has consented to receive visitors.”  I failed to feel the same elation over this possibly temporary improvement in his wife’s condition, but I carefully refrained from betraying my doubts.  On the contrary, I took advantage of the moment to clear my mind of one of the many perplexities disturbing it.

“And I am glad of this opportunity to ask you what may seem a foolish, if not impertinent question.  The maid, Ellen, in showing me my room, was very careful to assure me that she slept near me and would let me into her room in case I experienced any alarm in the night; and when I showed surprise at her expecting me to feel alarm of any kind in a house full of people, made the remark, ‘I guess you do not know about this house.’  Will you pardon me if I ask if there is anything I don’t know, and should know, about the home your suffering wife inhabits?  A problem such as you have given me to solve demands a thorough understanding of every cause capable of creating disturbance in a sensitive mind.”

The mayor’s short laugh failed to hide his annoyance.  “You will find nothing in this direction,” said he, “to account for the condition I have mentioned to you.  Mrs. Packard is utterly devoid of superstition.  That I made sure of before signing the lease of this old house.  But I forgot; you are doubtless ignorant of its reputation.  It has, or rather has had, the name of being haunted.  Ridiculous, of course, but a fact with which Mrs. Packard has had to contend in”—­he gave me a quick glance —­“in hiring servants.”