Mrs.De Peyster sought to gain some clue to this mysterious change by listening for the talk of Mary and Jack and Mr.Pyecroft as they passed her door.

But whereas the trio had heretofore spoken freely and often in liveliest tones, they now were either wordless or their voices were solemnly hushed.
What did it mean?
Days passed--the solemn gloom continued unabated--and this question grew an ever more puzzling mystery to Mrs.
De Peyster.

What could it possibly, _possibly_, mean?
But there was no way in which she could find out.

Her only source of information was Matilda, and Matilda was gone for a month; and even if Matilda, by any chance, should know what was the matter, she would not dare write; and even if she wrote, the letter, of course, would never be delivered, but would doubtless be forwarded to the pretended Mrs.
De Peyster in Europe.

Mrs.De Peyster could only wonder--and read--and gaze furtively out of the little peep-holes of her prison--and eat--and stack the empty cans yet higher in her bathroom--and wait, impatiently wait, while the mystery grew daily and hourly in magnitude.
Among the details that added to the mystery's bulk was the sound of another new but familiar voice--the voice of the competent Miss Gardner, her discharged secretary.