before ever I was born, my mother
she went to see a gypsy fortune-teller that was exhibited in a tent on
the Battery with the green-headed lady, though her father warned her
not to--and what you s'pose she told her? Why, she told her these very
words--says she: 'Your next child'll be a girl with jet-black curls, and
she'll suffer from spasms.'"

"Mercy!" murmured Ann Eliza, a ripple of sympathy running down her
spine.

"D'you ever have spasms before, Miss Mellins?" Evelina asked.

"Yes, ma'am," the dress-maker declared. "And where'd you suppose I had
'em? Why, at my cousin Emma McIntyre's wedding, her that married the
apothecary over in Jersey City, though her mother appeared to her in a
dream and told her she'd rue the day she done it, but as Emma said,
she got more advice than she wanted from the living, and if she was to
listen to spectres too she'd never be sure what she'd ought to do and
what she'd oughtn't; but I will say her husband took to drink, and she
never was the same woman after her fust baby--well, they had an elegant
church wedding, and what you s'pose I saw as I was walkin' up the aisle
with the wedding percession?"

"Well?" Ann Eliza whispered, forgetting to thread her needle.

"Why, a coffin, to be sure, right on the top step of the chancel--Emma's
folks is 'piscopalians and she would have a church wedding, though HIS
mother raised a terrible rumpus over it--well, there it set, right in
front of where the minister stood that was going to marry 'em, a coffin
covered with a black velvet pall with a gold fringe, and a 'Gates Ajar'
in white camellias atop of it."

"Goodness," said Evelina, starting, "there's a knock!"

"Who can it be?" shuddered Ann Eliza, still under the spell of Miss
Mellins's hallucination.

Evelina rose and lit a candle to guide her through the shop. They heard
her turn the key of the outer door, and a gust of night air stirred the
close atmosphere of the back room; then there was a sound of vivacious
exclamations, and Evelina returned with Mr. Ramy.

Ann Eliza's heart rocked like a boat in a heavy sea, and the
dress-maker's eyes, distended with curiosity, sprang eagerly from face
to face.

"I just thought I'd call in again," said Mr. Ramy, evidently somewhat
disconcerted by the presence of Miss Mellins. "Just to see how the
clock's behaving," he added with his hollow-cheeked smile.

"Oh, she's behaving beautiful," said Ann Eliza; "but we're real glad to
see you all the