_

"'A reference to what, Miss Gayland?' asked Miss Hill, in her most
frigid tones.

"'To palmistry,' answered Elsie, calmly. 'A subject which I have been
investigating for some time.'

"With that Miss Hill sent Tim back to her seat, and read us a lecture
on the folly of such things, and the harm of allowing them to absorb
our valuable time. Elsie was cross at some of the things she said, for
she firmly believes in chiromancy. 'There can't be anything wrong in
it,' she declared to us afterward, 'for papa would not have given me
this big, expensive book about it, with all these fine plates. See!
Here is an impression of Gladstone's hand, and lots of celebrated
people. Miss Hill has no right to class all believers in palmistry
with mountebanks and gypsies, and she certainly betrays her ignorance
of a noble science when she mixes it up with clairvoyance and common
fortune-telling.'

"Still, Miss Hill's remarks made some change in Elsie's plans, for
when we gathered in her room at the appointed time, it looked just as
usual, although she had intended to have it darkened and hung with
black curtains.

"After we had all taken our seats, Elsie retired behind a heavy screen
in the corner. She had previously cut two slits in it, through which
we were to thrust our hands. She made us take off our rings, so that
she could not recognise us by them, and commanded absolute silence.
The light was on her side of the screen, and the semi-darkness in
which we sat, added to the breathless silence, made us unnaturally
solemn. The girls motioned me to put my hands through the screen
first; and I wish you could have seen the pantomime they went through
as she enumerated my familiar traits of character. They nodded their
heads in emphatic agreement, each one growing more eager every moment
for her turn, as all recognised the truth of Elsie's reading. Some of
us found that we had very odd propensities, but it was Timoroso who
made the sensation of the evening. When her turn came I could see that
she had become almost frightened at Elsie's remarkable power of
discernment, and was much wrought upon by the impressive silence of
the dimly lighted room.

"After a moment of careful examination Elsie began: 'This is a psychic
hand which shows a delicate constitution, great sensitiveness, and
abnormal nervousness. The life line is very short, the head line good,
but running too far down into the mount of Luna. That may indicate
only unusual i