Voison, midwife," stole quickly into a passage, the door of which was
unfastened, and in which there was just so much light as enabled persons
passing in or out to find their way along the narrow winding stair that
led from the ground floor to the fifth story.

The two strangers, one of whom appeared to be of far higher rank than the
other, did not stop, as might have been expected, at the door
corresponding with the inscription that had guided them, but, on the
contrary, went on to the next floor.

Here, upon the landing, was a kind of dwarf, oddly dressed after the
fashion of sixteenth-century Venetian buffoons, who, when he saw the two
women coming, stretched out a wand, as though to prevent them from going
farther, and asked what they wanted.

"To consult the spirit," replied the woman of the sweet and tremulous
voice.

"Come in and wait," returned the dwarf, lifting a panel of tapestry and
ushering the two women into a waiting-room.

The women obeyed, and remained for about half an hour, seeing and hearing
nothing. At last a door, concealed by the tapestry, was suddenly opened;
a voice uttered the word "Enter," and the two women were introduced into
a second room, hung with black, and lighted solely by a three-branched
lamp that hung from the ceiling. The door closed behind them, and the
clients found themselves face to face with the sibyl.

She was a woman of about twenty-five or twenty-six, who, unlike other
women, evidently desired to appear older than she was. She was dressed