She was still asking herself this question when she joined Florence for lunch two hours later.
“How could you know?” she demanded.
“Very simple,” Florence replied in high glee. “I told her all that over the phone.”
“But why?” Jeanne stared.
“Can’t you see?” Florence replied, “I was testing her system which, after all, is a very simple one. The first time you visited her she, on a very simple pretext, got the name and address of someone who knows you. On still another pretext she called me on the phone to ask about you, thinking me your hair-dresser, and I told her things that were entirely untrue.”
“And if they had been true,” Jeanne exclaimed, “if I had known nothing of the phone call, how astonished I should have been to find that she could get so much of my past from the cards and the crystal ball!”
“To be sure. And, quite naturally, you would have had great faith in her prophecies for the future.”
“Florence!” Jeanne cried, “she is a fraud!”
“Yes,” Florence agreed. “But not a very great fraud.
“Tillie, Fronie and Dick will have ice cream and cake for dinner,” she said softly.