"I knew it," replied Miss Latouche calmly and without a trace of embarrassment.
Sensible girl! I breathed freely once more and proceeded with my investigations.
"Why wouldn't you tell my fortune this morning? Why am I alone excluded?"
"Do you really wish to know?" she said very quietly.
"Of course, or I shouldn't ask!"
"Well then, the reason that I declined to tamper with your destiny is that I should be irresistibly compelled to tell you the truth!"
"Are you serious, or only—?"
"Am I serious?" she cried, with a wild laugh; "you ask this? The time has at last come for an explanation. I would willingly have spared you, but it is in vain that we seek to avoid our fate! Rest here!" and seizing my wrist, she dragged me down on the fallen trunk of a tree that lay half hidden by the tall grass at the side of the path. Immediately behind us was a gloomy wood, choked with rank autumnal growths. A more dank, unwholesome situation for a seat on a wet day it would be impossible to conceive. But I preferred running the risk of rheumatic fever to contradicting Miss Latouche in her present mood. Only I hoped the explanation would be exceedingly brief.
"You pretend that you never saw me before the other evening?" she began, feverishly.
"Certainly!" I answered, with great astonishment. "It was undoubtedly our first meeting. I am sure—"