He joined me at noon, just after I had telegraphed home.

He has come back to finish the work I assigned him.
He has at last discovered--or thinks he has--the real author of those libels.

You have something special to say to me ?" he whispered, as I followed him upstairs.
"Yes, and I think, if I were you, that I should say nothing to Mrs.
Packard about Mr.Steele's having returned." And I rapidly detailed the occurrence of the afternoon, ending with Mrs.Packard's explanation to her servants.
The mayor showed impatience.

"Oh, I can not bother with such nonsense as that," he declared; "the situation is too serious." I thought so, too, when in another moment his wife's door opened and she stepped out upon the landing to meet him.

Her eyes fell on Mr.Steele, standing at the foot of the stairs, before they encountered her husband; and though she uttered no cry and hardly paused in her approach toward the mayor, I saw the heart within her die as suddenly and surely as the flame goes out in a gust of wind.
"You!" There was hysteria in the cry.