to be a boy. A good month ahead! An'
when she saw it was true she had no peace o' mind till she heard the
priest say the words over the poor child an' saw that the sprinkle o'
holy water didn't bubble off him like yuh'd sprinkled it on a hot
stove." Mrs. Cregan's vacant regard had slowly gathered a gleam of
startled intelligence. "An' if I was yerself, Mrs. Cregan--not knowin'
where I was to go to, ner how I was to live--I'd go an' have a talk with
her before I went further, d'yuh see?"

"God forbid! 'Tis a mortal sin."

"'Tis not. When I told Father Dumphy what I'd done, he called me an ol'
fool an' gave me an extry litany fer penance. What's a litany!"

"I'd be scared o' me life!"

"Yuh w'd not. Come along with me. I was goin'. I got troubles o' me own.
Never mind that. There's nothin' to be scared of. Nothin' at all. No
one'll see us. I been there meself, many's the time, an' no one knows
it."

III

Mrs. Byrne entered the "reception rooms" of Madame Wampa, "clairvoyant,
palmist, and card-reader," with the propitiatory smile of the woman who
knows she is doing wrong but is prepared to argue that there is "no
great harm into it." She was followed by Mrs. Cregan, as guiltily
reverential as if she were an altar boy who had been persuaded to join
in some mischievous trespass on the "sanctuary." Madame Wampa received
them, professionally insolent in her indifference. Mrs. Byrne explained
that she wanted only a "small card reading" for twenty-five cents.
Madame Wampa said curtly: "Sit down!"

They sat down.

She had been a music-hall singer when her husband was a sleight-of-hand
artist, "The Great Malino, the Wizard of Milan." Her voice had long
since left her; she had nothing of her beauty but its yellow ruins; and
her life was made up of the consideration of two great grievances:
first, that her husband was always idle, and second, that her landlord
overcharged her for her rooms on account of the nature of her
"business."

[Illustration: MADAME WAMPA]

She saw nothing in Mrs. Byrne and Mrs. Cregan but their inability to
help her pay her rent. She said: "I give a full trance readin' with
names, dates, and all questions answered, for a dollar, or a full card
readin' for fifty cents. It's impossible to tell much for a quarter."

Mrs. Byrne shook her head.

Madame Wampa said "Very well," in a tone of haughty resignation. She
turned to a booth that had been made of turkey-red chintz in one corner
of the room