oor 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
in black; her hair hung in plaits; her neck, arms, and feet were bare;
the belt at her waist was clasped by a large garnet which threw out
sombre fires. In her hand she held a wand, and she was raised on a sort
of platform which stood for the tripod of the ancients, and from which
came acrid and penetrating fumes; she was, moreover, fairly handsome,
although her features were common, the eyes only excepted, and these, by
some trick of the toilet, no doubt, looked inordinately large, and, like
the garnet in her belt, emitted strange lights.

When the two visitors came in, they found the soothsayer leaning her
forehead on her hand, as though absorbed in thought. Fearing to rouse
her from her ecstasy, they waited in silence until it should please her
to change her position. At the end of ten minutes she raised her head,
and seemed only now to become aware that two persons were standing
before her.

"What is wanted of me again?" she asked, "and shall I have rest only in
the grave?"

"Forgive me, madame," said the sweet-voiced unknown, "but I am wishing
to know----"

"Silence!" said the sibyl, in a solemn voice. "I will not know your
affairs. It is to the spirit that you must address yourself; he is a
jealous spirit, who forbids his secrets to be shared; I can but pray to
him for you, and obey his will."

At these words, she left her tripod, passed into an adjoining room,
and soon returned, looking even paler and more anxious than before, and
carrying in one hand a burning chafing dish, in the other a red paper.
The three flames of the lamp grew fainter at the same moment, and the
room was left lighted up only by the chafing dish; every object now
assumed a fantastic air that did not fail to disquiet the two visitors,
but it was too late to draw back.

The soothsayer placed the chafing dish in the middle of the room,
presented the paper to the young woman who had spoken, and said to her--

"Write down what you wish to know."

The woman took the paper with a steadier hand than might have been
expected, seated herself at a table, and wrote:--

"Am I young? Am I beautiful? Am I maid, wife, or widow? This is for the
past.

"Shall I marry, or marry again? Shall I live long, or shall I die you