d on the
hint; and deciding not to ask her, as I felt inclined, to come to the
upper room lest we should be interrupted, I went down the remaining five
or six high steps, and got out my purse under a long, straight rod of
gray light.

There were only a few francs left, but I would have beggared myself to
buy this adventure, and thought it cheap at the price she named. I found
a two-franc piece--a bright new one, worthy of its destiny--and looking
up as I shut my purse, I saw the old woman's eyes fixed on me, and sharp
as gimlets. Used to the dusk now, I could see her dark face distinctly,
and so like a hungry crow did she look that I was startled. But it was
only for a second that I felt a little uncomfortable. She was so old and
weak, I was so young and strong, that even if she were an evil creature
who wanted to do me harm, I could shake her off and run away as easily
as a bird could escape from a tied cat.

"Make a cross with the silver piece on my palm," she said.

I did as she told me, and it was a dark and dirty palm, in the hollow of
which seemed to lie a tiny pool of shadow. Her eyes darted to the
bracelet-watch as my wrist slipped out of the protecting sleeve, and I
drew back my hand quickly. She plucked the coin from my fingers, and
then told me to give her my left hand.

"You can't see the lines," I said. "It's too dark."

"I see with my night eyes," she answered, as a witch might have
answered. "And I feel. I have the quick touch of the blind. I can feel
the pores in a flower-petal."

Impressed, I let her hold my hand in one of her lean claws while she
lightly passed the spread fingers of the other down the length of mine
from the tips to the joining with the palm, and then along the palm
itself, up and down and across. It was like having a feather drawn over
my hand.

"You have foreign blood in your veins," she said. "You are not all
French. But you have the charm of the Latin girl. You can make men love
you. You make them love you whether you wish or not, and whether _they_
wish or not. Sometimes that is a great trouble to you. You are anxious
now, for many reasons. One of the reasons is a man, but there is more
than one who loves you. You make one of them unhappy, and yourself
unhappy, too. The man you ought to love is young and handsome, and
dark--very dark. Do not think ever of marrying a fair man. You are on a
journey now. Something very unexpected will happen to you at the
end--something to d