"It is not as trivial as it appears.

That laugh was tragedy to her, not comedy." And when I paused to recollect its tone I did not wonder at its effect upon her mind, strained as it undoubtedly was by some secret sorrow or perplexity.
And from whose lips had that laugh sprung?
Not from ghostly ones.

Such an explanation I could not accept, and how could Mrs.Packard?
From whose, then?
If I could settle this fact I might perhaps determine to what extent its effect was dependent upon its source.

The butler denied having even heard it.

Was this to be believed?
Did not this very denial prove that it was he and no other who had thus shocked the proprieties of this orderly household?
It certainly seemed so; yet where all was strange, this strange and incomprehensible denial of a self-evident fact by the vindictive Nixon might have its source in some motive unsuggested by the circumstances.