e
_Chinese Ruling Planet Charm_ would save him, and no less than
$50 worth of that. So the smiling Madame returned to the charge.
"If you will take my advice as a friend, take the charm; it is
for your sake only that I say this, for I make nothing by it--but
I feel an interest in you, and I wish you would buy the charm for
my sake as well as your own, for I want to see its effect on a
fortune so bad as yours. If you don't buy it, and all kinds of
ill-fortune befalls you, don't say I didn't warn you, and don't
call Madame Clifton a humbug; but if you do buy it, you may be
sure that you will ever bless the day you saw Madame Clifton."

It is, perhaps, needless to state that the Individual didn't have
with him the fifty dollars to pay for the charm, but intimated
that he would call again, after he got his year's salary.

She then said: "If you happen to call when I am engaged, tell the
girl to say that you want to see me about _medicine_, and I will
see you, for I never put off anybody who wants _medicine_, no
matter who is with me, say _medicine_, and I will see you
instantly." Here she softly showed her visitor to the door, and
smiled on him until he stood on the outside steps. He then
departed, secretly wondering what kind of "medicine" she was
prepared to furnish in case any unlooked for occasion should
suggest a second call. Her last remark suggested that Madame
Clifton derives a larger profit from the peculiar kinds of
"_medicine_" she deals in, than from all her other witchery.

CHAPTER XVI.

Details the particulars of a morning call on Madame Harris, of
No. 80 West 19th Street, and how she covered up her beautiful
head in a black bag.

CHAPTER XVI.

MADAME HARRIS, No. 80 WEST 19TH STREET, NEAR SIXTH AVENUE.

Madame Harris is one of the most ignorant and filthy of all the
witches of New York. She does not depend entirely on her
"astrology" for her subsistence, but relies on it merely to bring
in a few dollars in the spare hours not occupied in the practice
of the other dirty trades by which she picks up a dishonest
living. She has a good many customers, and in one way and another
she contrives to get a good deal of money from the gullible
public. She has been engaged in business a number of years, and
has thriven much better than she probably would, had she been
employed in an honester avocation.

The "Individual" paid her a visit, and carefully noted down all
her valuable communications;