"I have come to learn my future."
"Then you must unveil; I can tell you nothing until I see your face," said Lucille.
Mrs. Thayer slowly removed her veil and sat motionless, regarding the fortune-teller as a frightened bird watches a snake.
"You wish to know your destiny, do you?" asked Lucille, gently. "Well, I can tell it, if the stars are propitious; but I must first look at your hand."
She paused and waved her wand with several mysterious gestures over Mrs. Thayer's head; then she swept forward and took her hand.
"Tell me the day and hour of your birth," continued Lucille.
"I was born about daybreak on the eighteenth of October, 1816," replied Mrs. Thayer; "I cannot tell you the exact hour."
"That will be sufficiently accurate for the present," said Lucille; "though it may cause me much trouble in casting your horoscope."
Lucille continued to examine the lines of the hand, and presently commenced speaking in a low, but clear voice:
"Your parents are dead, and also one brother; your father passed through great dangers safely—ah! I see, he was a sailor. You have been surrounded by other sea-faring people; still, I cannot certainly tell what relationship they bore to you. I shall learn all when I cast your horoscope. Your father acquired moderate wealth, of which you have received your share; but you desire more, and you are not too scrupulous as to how you get it. Why, what means this?" she exclaimed, starting back and fixing a piercing glance on the cowering woman before her. "You are in danger! Yes; there is danger all about you, but it is impossible to tell now how it will end. There is a man in your trouble, who claims to love you; and there is a woman who comes between you. Ah! what is she doing!" she suddenly demanded in tragical tones, starting back with a look of terror in her eyes.