"I tried to explain the plight in which I found myself, but he interrupted me at once, telling me that he knew everything.
"'I am aware that you have been forsaken by a cruel-hearted man,' said he, 'but henceforth I shall be everything to you.'
"I summoned my courage, I spoke to him of my child.
"'The child that was born on Christmas night?'
"'Yes,' I answered below my breath.
"'It is my own spiritual child,' said he.
"I looked at him astonished.
"'I know all about it,' he continued. 'On that night I saw you in a vision, just as it had been predicted to me; I saw you just as I see you now. That very night I had, moreover, a vision. I was married to you, and—— but never mind about that dream. I have seen you after that—first in this magic ring; then I saw you materialised at Vienna, and again in Venice. Of course, it was not you, but your double, for you were at that time here in Paris, quite unconscious, quietly asleep, having, perhaps, a dream of what your other self was seeing.'
"Then he began to speak of materialisation, of the influence of planets, in fact, of many chaotic and uninteresting things to which I, apparently at least, listened with the greatest attention. I was well repaid for my trouble, for a few weeks afterwards we were married."
"And your former husband?"