idly polite. "May I inquire to what am I indebted for the honour
of this visit?"

The fat lady sniffed contemptuously and sat down.

"I think it's the sign 'Furnished Rooms' that can claim the honour,"
she said simply.

"Sit down, Jenny, and stop fidgeting," Miss Husted snapped out,
ignoring the fat lady's attempt at smartness.

"I want a room if you have one vacant. My name is Mangenborn."

"Top floor?" inquired Miss Husted.

"I suppose you think a lady of my avoirdupois ought to live on the top
floor so as to have plenty of exercise, eh?" inquired Mrs. Mangenborn
with an attempt at humour. Then, without waiting for a reply, she went
on:

"Well, you've just guessed right! What kind of people do you have in
this house?"

"My guests are artists and gentlemen."

"Which?" inquired the stout lady, and laughed; she saw the joke if Miss
Husted didn't and was good natured enough to laugh even if it were her
own. "Well, I'm an artist," she said after a pause.

"Indeed?" said Miss Husted, and there was a slight inflection of
sarcasm in that lady's voice.

Mrs. Mangenborn was either deaf or did not notice it, for she went on
unconsciously:

"Yes, I am an artist--a second-sight artist."

"Second-sight?"

"Yes; I tell fortunes, read the future----"

"Oh?" said Miss Husted, and that one word was enough to have driven an
ordinary person out of the front door, convinced of being insulted, but
Mrs. Mangenborn was not sensitive.

"I should like a cup of tea," she said simply. "It's a very hot day."

The magnificent coolness of this request fairly caught Miss Husted.
This woman spoke like one accustomed to command; and much to Jenny's
astonishment (she had been listening attentively) her aunt sent her to
order tea for two.

Given a person who can tell fortunes, and another person on the lookout
for one, a person who has infinite hope in the future, whose whole life
indeed is in the future, and it doesn't take long to establish an
_entente cordiale_. When Jenny came back a few minutes later, to her
utter astonishment she saw the mysterious fat lady dealing cards to her
aunt and talking of events past, present, and future; and her aunt
chatting as pleasantly as if she had known the woman all her life.

"However can you tell that?" asked Miss Husted as she sipped her tea
and cut the cards for the ninetieth time.

"Don't you see the king? That means a visitor!"

"Yes; but how did you know that my best firs