vice."

"What is it you want, Sara?" asked Helen again, as the girls seated
themselves by the cozy, tiled fireplace, and looked round admiringly.

Sara hesitated. "I had planned to break it to you gently," she began,
"but as you are going out there is no time to lead up to the subject
gradually. I hope you'll not be shocked, but there is a clairvoyant at
the Metropole this week. Some of the girls have been there, and they
say it is simply wonderful how she can tell fortunes. She charges only
fifty cents. Olive and I are wild to go, and we thought maybe you
might take us Saturday afternoon."

Helen buttoned her gloves as if considering. "Do you think it would
make you any happier, little sister, to know what the future holds for
you?"

"Oh, yes!" answered Sara, decidedly. "The clairvoyant told Addie
Roberts things in her past life that positively nobody but Addie knew
had happened. Then she told her that a large fortune is coming to her
soon, and she has a long journey ahead of her. She is to fall in love
with a young man whom her parents will oppose her marrying, but 'love
will find out a way,' and all will end happily."

"Does Addie believe all that the clairvoyant told her?" asked Helen.

"I don't know," answered Sara, but Olive put in eagerly, "I am sure
she does, for she talks so much about it, and says if the woman could
tell her past so accurately, she cannot help thinking that there must
be some truth in her predictions for the future."

"Sara," said Helen, gravely, "suppose that woman were to tell you that
sometime you will quarrel with your family, and be driven from home,
and finally die in a poorhouse. Wouldn't it make you miserable every
time you thought of it?"

"No, indeed, sister," answered the girl, indignantly. "I hope I am not
quite so weak-minded as to believe all that. I'd simply think that she
had made a mistake. Imagine me quarrelling with my family!"

"But clairvoyants often tell people things that seem just as
improbable. What is the use of wasting half a dollar to hear
predictions that you might not be able to believe, or if you could
believe them, would make you utterly miserable?"

"Oh, it is just for the fun of it, Helen," urged Sara. "Please take
us. All the girls are going, and we have never had our fortunes told
in our lives."

Before there was time for a reply, Jane came to the door. "The
carriage is waiting, Miss Helen," she said. For a moment Helen stood
irresolutely besid