"And—and then she demanded me.... I had no belief in such things.... I went into that curtained corner, never for one moment dreaming that what she might say would matter anything to me.... In ten minutes she had me scared and trembling like a leaf.... I didn't want to stay;[237] I wanted to go. I—couldn't, somehow. My limbs were stiff—I couldn't control them—I couldn't get up! All my will power—was—was paralysed!"
The girl's colour had fled; she looked at Green with wide eyes dark with the memory of fear.
"She told me to come to her for an hour's crystal gazing the following afternoon. I—I didn't want to go. But I couldn't seem to keep away.
"Then a terrible thing happened. I—I looked into that crystal and I saw there—saw with my own eyes—myself being married to a—a perfectly strange man! I saw myself as clearly as in a looking glass;—but I could see only his back. He—he wore an overcoat—like that one I gave to you to send back. Think of it! Married to a man who was wearing an overcoat!
"And there was a clergyman who looked sleepy, and—and two strangers as witnesses—and there was I—I!—getting married to this man.... And the terrible thing about it was that I looked at him as though I—I l-loved him——"
Her emotions overcame her for a moment, but she swallowed desperately, lifted her head, and forced herself to continue:
"Then the Princess Zimbamzim began to laugh, very horridly: and I asked her, furiously, who that[238] man was. And she said: 'His name seems to be George Z. Green; he is a banker and broker; and he lives at 1008-1/2 Fifth Avenue.'
"'Am I marrying him?' I cried. 'Am I marrying a strange broker who wears an overcoat at the ceremony?'
"And she laughed her horrid laugh again and said: 'You certainly are, Miss Wiltz. You can not escape it. It is your destiny.'
"'When am I to do it?' I demanded, trembling with fright and indignation. And she told me that it was certain to occur within either three months or three days.... And—can you imagine my n-natural feelings of horror—and repugnance? Can you not now understand the panic that seized me—when there, all the time in the crystal, I could actually see myself doing what that dreadful woman prophesied?"