I will test the truth of what you
promise."

She took it into hers, and after examining the lines for a few seconds
said, "The lines in your hand, sir, are very legible--so much so that I
can read your name in it--and it's a name which very few in this country
know."

The stranger started with astonishment, and was about to speak, but she
signed to him to be silent.

"You are in love," she continued, "and your sweetheart loves you dearly.
You saw her this morning, and you would give a trifle to know where
she will be to-morrow. You traveled with her last night and didn't know
it--and the business that brought you to town will prosper."

"You say you know my name," replied the stranger, "if so, write it on a
slip of paper."

She hesitated a moment.

"Will it do," she asked, "if I give you the initials?"

"No," he replied, "the name in full--and I think you are fairly caught."

She gave no reply, but having got a slip of paper and a pen, went to the
wall and knocked three times, repeating some unintelligible words
with an appearance of great solemnity and mystery. Having knocked, she
applied her ear to the wall three times also, after which she seemed
satisfied.

The stranger of course imputed all this to imposture; but when he
reflected upon what she had already told him, he felt perfectly
confounded with amazement. The prophetess then went to her father's
counter and wrote something upon a small fragment of paper, which she
handed to him. No earthly language could now express his astonishment,
not from any belief he entertained that she possessed supernatural
power, but from the almost incredible fact that she could have known so
much of a man's affairs who was an utter stranger to her, and to whom
she was herself unknown.

"Well, it is odd enough," he added; "but this knocking on the wall
and listening was useless jugglery. Did you not say, when first you
inspected my hand, that you could read my name in the lines of it? then,
of course you knew it before you knocked at the wall--the knocking,
therefore, was imposture."

"I knew the name," she replied, "the moment I looked into your hand, but
I was obliged to ask permission to reveal it. Your observation, however,
was very natural. It may, in the meantime, be a consolation for you to
know that I'm not at liberty to mention it to any one but yourself and
one other person."

"A man or woman?"

"A woman--she you saw this morning."

"Whether that be tru