"Two persons desirous of testing your skill," answered Cuthbert
boldly. "It is told me that you can read the future; I would ask if
you can also look back into the past?"

He felt the snake-like glance bent fixedly upon him. There was a
subtle fascination in those eyes, and he looked into them fixedly
whether he would or no. As his eyes became used to the dimness in
which the old woman sat, he saw that her face was brown and
wrinkled like a fragment of ancient parchment, that her features
were very sharp and wasted, and that there was something weird and
witch-like in her whole aspect. He felt as though he had seen
before some face that that withered one faintly resembled, but in
the confusion of the moment he could put no name to it. He wanted
to keep his head, and to retain his firmness and acuteness, but he
was conscious of a strange whirling in his brain as the old woman
continued to gaze and gaze upon him as though she would never be
satisfied with her inspection.

At last she spoke again.

"And who art thou that comest so boldly to pry into the dead
secrets of the past?"

"I am one Cuthbert Trevlyn, son of a house that has suffered sore
vicissitudes. I come to ask the skill of the wise woman in
discovering a secret long hidden from our family."

He stopped suddenly, for the woman held up her hand as if to stop
him, and her voice took a strange hissing tone.

"Silence! Enough--thou hast spoken enough. Let me now tell thee the
rest. I will tell thee what thou hast come to seek for. Silence! I
will consult the spirits; they will tell me all."

Drawing nearer to her the crystal bowl, the old woman bent her head
over it, and whispered incantations, as it seemed, over its
contents. For a while there was deep silence in the room, and
Cherry felt chill with excitement and wonder. This was very
different from the reception she and her cousin Rachel had met.
They had but been bidden to show their hands, and had then seen
some cabalistic characters formed by the wise woman, from which she
had told them all they wished to know. But there had been nothing
half so mysterious as this, and the girl felt certain that the wise
woman regarded Cuthbert and his questions with far greater interest
than any she had bestowed upon the fortunes or the ailments of
Rachel.

Presently there arose, as if in the far, far distance, a sound of
voices faint and confused. Cherry clung to Cuthbert's arm, and
looked about her with a pale,