kness had descended in the family. I felt my heart contract; my
self-imposed task was a harder one than I had anticipated, but I could
not shirk it now. "Did this wine-cellar you mention run all the way to
this house?" I lightly inquired. "I stumbled on a passage leading
here, which I thought you ought to know is now open to any one in Mayor
Packard's house. Of course, it will be closed soon," I hastened to add
as Miss Charity hurriedly rose at her sister's quick look and anxiously
left the room. "Mrs. Packard will see to that."

"Yes, yes, I have no doubt; she's a very good woman, a very fair woman,
don't you think so, Miss--"

"My name is Saunders."

"A very good name. I knew a fine family of that name when I was younger.
There was one of them--his name was Robert--" Here she rambled on for
several minutes as if this topic and no other filled her whole mind;
then, as if suddenly brought back to what started it, she uttered in
sudden anxiety, "You think well of Mrs. Packard? You have confidence in
her?"

I allowed myself to speak with all the enthusiasm she so greedily
desired.

"Indeed I have," I cried. "I think she can be absolutely depended on
to do the right thing every time. You are fortunate in having such good
neighbors at the time of this mishap."

At this minute Miss Charity reentered. Her panting condition, as well as
the unsettled position of the cap on her head, told very plainly where
she had been. Reseating herself, she looked at Miss Thankful and Miss
Thankful looked at her, but no word passed. They evidently understood
each other.

"I'm obliged to Mrs. Packard," now fell from Miss Thankful's lips, "and
to you, too, young lady, for acquainting us with this accident. The
passage we extended ourselves after taking up our abode in this house.
We--we did not see why we should not profit by our ancestor's old and
undiscovered wine-cellar to secure certain things which were valuable to
us."

Her hesitation in uttering this final sentence--a sentence all the more
marked because naturally, she was a very straightforward person--awoke
my doubt and caused me to ask myself what she meant by this word
"secure." Did she mean, as circumstances went to show and as I had
hitherto believed, that they had opened up this passage for the purpose
of a private search in their old home for the lost valuables they
believed to be concealed there? Or had they, under some temporary
suggestion of their disorganized brain