"I dare not let you go away without giving you a warning. Your two fates
are closely intertwined. Do not leave Paris for awhile, especially do not
leave Paris together. I see you both running into terrible danger! If you
do go away--and I greatly fear that you will do so--then I advise you,
together and separately, to return to Paris as soon as possible."

"One question I must ask of you," said Anna Wolsky urgently. "How goes my
luck? You know what I mean? I play!"

"It is not your luck that is threatened," replied the fortune-teller,
solemnly; "on the contrary, I see wonderful luck; packets of bank-notes
and rouleaux of gold! It is not your luck--it is something far, far more
important that is in peril. Something which means far more to you even
than your luck!"

The Polish woman smiled rather sadly.

"I wonder what that can be?" she exclaimed.

"It is your life!"

"My life?" echoed Anna. "I do not know that I value my life as much as
you think I do."

"The English have a proverb, Madame, which says: 'A short life and a
merry one.'"

"Can you predict that I shall have, if a short life, then a merry one?"

"Yes," said Madame Cagliostra, "that I can promise you." But there was no