We'll leave it unlocked and you can come up if--if you feel like it at any time.

We'll understand." Understand! I eyed her as she again looked my way, with some of her own curiosity if not wonder.
"Mrs.Packard must have had some very timorous guests," I observed.

"Or, perhaps, you have had experiences here which have tended to alarm you.

The house is so large and imposing for the quarter it is in I can readily imagine it to attract burglars." "Burglars! It would be a brave burglar who would try to get in here.

I guess you never heard about this house." "No," I admitted, unpleasantly divided between a wish to draw her out and the fear of betraying Mayor Packard's trust in me by showing the extent of my interest.
"Well, it's only gossip," she laughingly assured me.