y troubles seemed to be at an end," said
Celia, with a smile.

Within a fortnight Mme. Dauvray confided to Celia that there was a new
fortune-teller come to Paris, who, by looking into a crystal, could
tell the most wonderful things about the future. The old woman's eyes
kindled as she spoke. She took Celia to the fortune-teller's rooms next
day, and the girl quickly understood the ruling passion of the woman
who had befriended her. It took very little time then for Celia to
notice how easily Mme. Dauvray was duped, how perpetually she was
robbed. Celia turned the problem over in her mind.

"Madame had been very good to me. She was kind and simple," said Celia,
with a very genuine affection in her voice. "The people whom we knew
laughed at her, and were ungenerous. But there are many women whom the
world respects who are worse than ever was poor Mme. Dauvray. I was
very fond of her, so I proposed to her that we should hold a seance,
and I would bring people from the spirit world I knew that I could
amuse her with something much more clever and more interesting than the
fortune-tellers. And at the same time I could save her from being
plundered. That was all I thought about."

That was all she thought about, yes. She left Helene Vauquier out of
her calculations, and she did not foresee the effect of her stances
upon Mme. Dauvray. Celia had no suspicions of Helene Vauquier. She
would have laughed if any one had told her that this respectable and
respectful middle-aged woman, who was so attentive, so neat, so
grateful for any kindness, was really nursing a rancorous hatred
against her. Celia had sprung from Montmartre suddenly; therefore
Helene Vauquier despised her. Celia had taken her place in Mme.
Dauvray's confidence, had deposed her unwittingly, had turned the
confidential friend into a mere servant; therefore Helene Vauquier
hated her. And her hatred reached out beyond the girl, and embraced the
old, superstitious, foolish woman, whom a young and pretty face could
so easily beguile. Helene Vauquier despised them both, hated them both,
and yet must nurse her rancour in silence and futility. Then came the
seances, and at once, to add fuel to her hatred, she found herself
stripped of those gifts and commissions which she had exacted from the
herd of common tricksters who had been wont to make their harvest out
of Mme. Dauvray. Helene Vauquier was avaricious and greedy, like so
many of her class. Her hatred of Celia,