And they mounted the steps together.
"It's like going up to the altar, isn't it?" giggled the woman to her companion.
"More like going up to the gallows," growled the man.
The Showman rattled the coins as he pocketed them, and flinging aside the canvas admitted them to the booth.
The interior was enveloped in a dim obscurity; hardly deep enough to be counted as darkness, but oppressive enough to slow the pulses of both. There was, however, at one end of the booth a large disc projected on the obscurity: a pale, empty, weirdly-lighted circle, which they stared at dumbly, with wonder in their eyes.
"Is this some darned fool's joke?" growled the man.
"Hush!" said the woman, "the entertainment has commenced."
And, true enough, the disc at which they had been staring had already a stirring, as of life, across its surface.
They were aware of a couple of enthralling faces fronting them side by side on the disc.
One was a woman's face, exquisitely beautiful, with soft blue eyes, full of the most charming gaiety, and with lips as sweetly winsome as a child's: the other was a man's face, proud and handsome, the mouth set firmly, the eyes full of thought.