power of reading not only the minds, but
even the emotional memories, of those who came to consult her.... Yes,
it was true; his last parting with his mother had been out of doors, in
the garden of their own family house on the shores of Lake Champlain.

As he looked fixedly at the crystal-gazer's downcast eyes, his own
emotions seemed to become reflected in her countenance. She grasped his
hand with a firmer, a more convulsive pressure.

"I see you again," she exclaimed, "and again with a woman! This vision
is very clear; it evokes the immediate past--almost the present. The
woman is young; her hair is fair, and in a cloud about her head. You are
together on a journey. It is night----"

Madame d'Elphis stopped speaking abruptly; she looked up at Vanderlyn,
and he saw that her dark eyes were brimming with tears, her mouth
quivering.

"Do you wish me to describe what I see?" she asked, in an almost
inaudible voice.

"No," said Vanderlyn, hoarsely,--he seemed to feel Peggy's arms about
his neck, her soft lips brushing his cheek.

The soothsayer bent down till her face was within a few inches of the
polished surface into which she was gazing.

"Now she is lying down," she whispered. "Her face is turned away. Is she
asleep? No, she is dead!--dead!"

"Can you see her now?" asked Vanderlyn. "For God's sake tell me where
she is! Can I hope to see her again--once more?"

Madame d'Elphis withdrew her hand from that of Vanderlyn.

"You will only see her face," she answered, slowly, "through the
coffin-lid. That you will see. As to where she is now--I see her
clearly, and yet,"--she went on, as if to herself, "nay, but that's
impossible! I see her," she went on, raising her voice, "laid out for
burial under a shed in a beautiful garden. The garden is that of Dr.
Fortoul's house at Orange. At the head of the pallet on which she lies
there are two blessed candles; a nun kneels on the ground. Stay,--who is
that coming in from the garden? It is the wife of the doctor, it is
Madame Fortoul,"--again there came a note of wavering doubt into the
voice of the crystal-gazer. "She is whispering to the nun, and I hear
her words; she says, 'Poor child, she is young, too young to have died
like this, alone. I am having a mass said for her soul to-morrow
morning.'"

Madame d'Elphis looked up. Her large eyes, of which the lids were
slightly reddened, rested on Vanderlyn's pale, drawn face.

"Monsieur," she said, in a low, reluctant