the back of the little head firmly in his hand, pressed the
face tightly on his shoulder.
"Her cheek--yes. You must not look into her eyes."
As Mrs. Markham lifted her face from Annette's cheek, the tears showed
under her lids.
"But, oh, Annette," she whispered, "I ask you to believe that I am
real--that once I was all real--but I fell like the rest."
For the first time Annette spoke coherently.
"Oh, Aunt Paula--it breaks my heart--but I will try to remember only
how kind you were."
And now Rosalie had wrapped her for the street; and now the door closed
between Mrs. Markham and her biggest operation.
* * * * *
Rosalie was first to quit the automobile--she had asked Norcross to
drive her to a woman's hotel.
"Good-night, people," she said cheerily at the curb, "I hope it ain't
good-by to any of you. Doctor, I'd like to be invited to the weddin',
however private--that's my tip. When I git settled again, I'll send you
my card an' address. Good-night, Mr. Norcross, I'm real pleased to have
met you. I had a cousin who was a conductor on one of your roads an' he
always spoke nicely of the way he was treated. An', oh, yes! Don't you
worry about _me_ givin' any of this away. I'm a medium, all right, but
I ain't in that kind of work. I ain't recommendin' myself, of course,
Mr. Norcross, but if you git over this--they generally do--an' want
some good, straight clairvoyant work done, write Mme. Rosalie Le
Grange, care the _Spirit Truth Bulletin_, an' I'll recommend you to
them that are strangers to graft. Good-night."
After they drove on, Blake, brazenly patting and caressing Annette
toward calm and a right mind, furtively noticed Norcross as the bands
of city light flashed his figure into view. He was huddled in a corner
of the cushioned seat; he looked again the pitiful, broken,
disappointed old man. But when he parted from the lovers at the curb of
an old house in Lexington Avenue, his voice came out of him with
certainty and ring.
"If I can do anything more for you in this matter, I am at your
service," Blake had said.
"I will attend to the rest myself, thank you!" answered Norcross.
"It has occurred to me," continued Blake, "that Mrs. Markham will
communicate at once with whatever confederates she had in this
business. I hope you don't mind my mentioning it."
"Probably," responded Norcross, "she's at the telephone now. That's my
part of it. Good-night."
X
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