.
O'er hill and dale, and rill and vale
It slowly leads them on.

"On till they reach the valley,
A valley grim and drear,
Where lurid things with fibrous arms
Their course through darkness steer.

"And on the travellers palsied
In frenzied crowd they pour.
And those who view their faces,
Are heard but seen no more."

"Do you mean to say she dreamed all that?" Gladys exclaimed.

"Yes," the Vicar's wife said. "She told me so and I have no reason to
doubt her. She doesn't romance as a rule, and is certainly not the
least bit in the world poetical--on the contrary she is most practical
and matter-of-fact. Her only hobby, as far as I know, is flowers."

"Mine, too!" Gladys interrupted. "Were you able to explain the
verses?"

"No, I can't interpret dreams. I'm intensely interested in them; as I
am in all things psychic. I was at a lecture given by Mrs. Annie
Besant last night! She--"

"Do you know any one who does interpret dreams?" Gladys asked.

"Why, yes! A firm, claiming to do all sorts of wonderful things--to
tell dreams, solve tricks, divine the presence of metals and water,
and so on, has just set up in Cockspur Street. I read a short notice
about them in this morning's paper. I will get it for you."

She left the room and in a few moments returned.

"Here it is," she said. And under the heading of "Sorcery Revived"
Gladys read as follows:--

"There is really no end to the devices to which people resort nowadays
to make money, but for sheer novelty, nothing, we think, beats this.
Three Americans, Messrs. Hamar, Kelson and Curtis, fresh from San
Francisco, California, have just bought premises in Cockspur Street,
S.W., and set up there as Sorcerers!

"They style themselves 'The Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.,' and profess
to interpret dreams, read people's thoughts, tell their pasts, solve
all manner of tricks and detect the presence of metals and water. One
wonders what next!"

"This paper evidently has its doubts," Gladys commented. "They are
frauds, of course."

"I dare say they are," the Vicar's wife replied, "though I believe in
thought-reading and other things they say they can do. I advised Miss
Rosenberg to see them about her dream. She went in by the nine o'clock
train. Had you come a few minutes earlier you would have seen her."

"Well, thanks awfully," Gladys said, "for telling me about these
people. Very probably I'll go in to Town some time during