; but... Sebastian is at St. Nathaniel's--and I want to
be near Sebastian."

"Professor Sebastian!" I cried, my face lighting up with a gleam of
enthusiasm at our great teacher's name. "Ah, if it is to be under
Sebastian that you, desire, I can see you mean business. I know now you
are in earnest."

"In earnest?" she echoed, that strange deeper shade coming over her face
as she spoke, while her tone altered. "Yes, I think I am in earnest! It
is my object in life to be near Sebastian--to watch him and observe him.
I mean to succeed.... But I have given you my confidence, perhaps too
hastily, and I must implore you not to mention my wish to him."

"You may trust me implicitly," I answered.

"Oh, yes; I saw that," she put in, with a quick gesture. "Of course, I
saw by your face you were a man of honour--a man one could trust or I
would not have spoken to you. But--you promise me?"

"I promise you," I replied, naturally flattered. She was delicately
pretty, and her quaint, oracular air, so incongruous with the dainty
face and the fluffy brown hair, piqued me not a little. That special
mysterious commodity of CHARM seemed to pervade all she did and said.
So I added: "And I will mention to Sebastian that you wish for a
nurse's place at Nathaniel's. As you have had experience, and can be
recommended, I suppose, by Le Geyt's sister," with whom she had come,
"no doubt you can secure an early vacancy."

"Thanks so much," she answered, with that delicious smile. It had an
infantile simplicity about it which contrasted most piquantly with her
prophetic manner.

"Only," I went on, assuming a confidential tone, "you really MUST
tell me why you said that just now about Hugo Le Geyt. Recollect, your
Delphian utterances have gravely astonished and disquieted me. Hugo is
one of my oldest and dearest friends; and I want to know why you have
formed this sudden bad opinion of him."

"Not of HIM, but of HER," she answered, to my surprise, taking a small
Norwegian dagger from the what-not and playing with it to distract
attention.

"Come, come, now," I cried, drawing back. "You are trying to mystify me.
This is deliberate seer-mongery. You are presuming on your powers. But I
am not the sort of man to be caught by horoscopes. I decline to believe
it."

She turned on me with a meaning glance. Those truthful eyes fixed me. "I
am going from here straight to my hospital," she murmured, with a quiet
air of knowledge--talking, I mean to