“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.”

“Yes, I think so; but that is a coincidence only.  She takes no interest in this young man; scarcely noticed him when I introduced him; just bowed to him over her shoulder; she was fastening on our little one’s cap.  Usually she is extremely, courteous to strangers, but she was abstracted, positively abstracted at that moment.  I wondered at it, for he usually makes a stir wherever he goes.  But my wife cares little for beauty in a man; I doubt if she noticed his looks at all.  She did not catch his name, I remember.”

“Pardon me, what is that you say?”

“She did not catch his name, for later she asked me what it was.”

“Tell me about that, Mr. Packard.”