uld allow a consideration of
the mayor's domestic relations to interfere with their confidence in him
as a public officer."

"But these--" How I wish I could have seen her face! "These half-hearted
voters, their easily stifled convictions are what make majorities," she
stammered. Mr. Steele may have bowed; he probably did, for she went on
confidently and with a certain authority not observable in the tone of
her previous remarks. "You are right. The paragraph reflecting on me
must be traced to its source. The lie must be met and grappled with. I
was not well last week and showed it, but I am perfectly well to-day and
am resolved to show that, too. No skeleton hangs in the Packard closet.
I am a happy wife and a happy mother. Let them come here and see. This
morning I shall issue invitations for a dinner to be given the first
night you can assure me Mr. Packard will be at home. Do you know of any
such night?"

"On Friday week he has no speech to make." Mrs. Packard seemed to
consider. Finally she said: "When you see him, tell him to leave that
evening free. And, Mr. Steele, if you will be so good, give me the names
of some of those halfhearted ones--critical people who have to see in
order to believe. I shall have them at my table--I shall let them see
that the shadow which enveloped me was ephemeral; that a woman can rise
above all weakness in the support of a husband she loves and honors as I
do Mr. Packard."

She must have looked majestic. Her voice thrilling with anticipated
triumph rang through the room, awaking echoes which surely must have
touched the heart of this man if, as I had sometimes thought, he
cherished an unwelcome admiration for her.

But when he answered, there was no hint in his finely modulated tones of
any chord having been touched in his breast, save the legitimate one of
respectful appreciation of a woman who fulfilled the expectation of one
alive to what is admirable in her sex.

"Your idea is a happy one," said he. "I can give you three names now.
Those of Judge Whittaker, Mr. Dumont, the lawyer, and the two Mowries,
father and son."

"Thank you. I am indebted to you, Mr. Steele, for the patience with
which you have met and answered my doubts."

He made some reply, added something about not seeing her again till he
returned with the mayor, then I heard the door open and quietly shut.
The interview was over, without my having felt called upon to show
myself. An interval of silence, and