ue painted over in
dull colors with a barbaric design.

She was said to be a clairvoyant. Rumor had it that she had foreseen
her husband's murder by Lenin's Mongolians, and that, since her arrival
in America, she had predicted accurately some sensational events,
including a nearly fatal accident in the polo field.

Now, turning her sharp, dead-white profile to right and left,
encountering everywhere a frivolous eagerness, Madame Zanidov protested:

"Really, I ask you if this is the proper atmosphere!"

She explained that she regarded very seriously "this gift" of hers,
which had astonished people even in her childhood. She agreed that it
was inexplicable, unless by the theory that the future, if it did not
already exist, was at least somehow prefigured. Yet she believed that
this prearrangement of events was not so rigid as to exclude a certain
amount of free will. In other words, one who had been forewarned of a
special result, if a special course were pursued, might escape the
result by pursuing another course. "For as you know," she added,
looking round her at the women who were losing their smiles, "the
impression that I receive is often far from amusing. How can one tell
beforehand? So I consent to do this only because, if what I see is
unpleasant, my warning may possibly help one to evade it."

A lady objected that prophecy frequently had just the opposite effect.
She referred to the attractive power of anticipation. Then she cited
instances where persons had made every effort to realize even the most
unfortunate predictions, as if hypnotized by their dread into a feeling
that the tragic outcome was inevitable. Of course, on the other hand,
she admitted, a happy prediction might have a tonic effect, heartening
one to pluck victory from apparent failure. Or else, just by setting
in action the magnetic power of expectancy, it might even draw
mysteriously into one's life a wealth or a fame that had seemed
unattainable, a love that had appeared to be impossible.

When she had voiced this last opinion, the other ladies' faces were
softened by a gentle acquiescence. Their necklaces flashed with the
rising of their bosoms; their heads leaned forward in thought; and the
mingled odors of their perfumes were like exhalations from the
innermost recesses of their hearts.

By this time, apparently, the proper atmosphere had been established.
Madame Zanidov consented to display her powers.

All the women dre