smile on her pale face. "And more, I can predict--if you will only follow
my advice, if you do not leave Paris for, say"--she hesitated a moment,
as if making a silent calculation--"twelve weeks, I can predict you, if
not so happy a life, then a long life and a fairly merry one. Will you
take my advice, Madame?" she went on, almost threateningly. "Believe me,
I do not often offer advice to my clients. It is not my business to do
so. But I should have been a wicked woman had I not done so this time.
That is why I called you back."

"Is it because of something you have seen in the cards that you tender us
this advice?" asked Anna curiously.

But Madame Cagliostra again looked strangely frightened.

"No, no!" she said hastily. "I repeat that the cards told me nothing.
The cards were a blank. I could see nothing in them. But, of course, we
do not only tell fortunes by cards"--she spoke very quickly and rather
confusedly. "There is such a thing as a premonition."

She waited a moment, and then, in a business-like tone, added, "And now
I leave the question of the fee to the generosity of these ladies!"

Madame Wolsky smiled a little grimly, and pulled out a twenty-franc
piece.

The woman bowed, and murmured her thanks.

When they were out again into the roughly paved little street, Anna
suddenly began to laugh.