ere all my life. I should like--" but he was interrupted by John
Martin. "Come, it's time we were off," the latter called out
brusquely, "time and trains wait for no man!"

"A young ass!" John Martin whispered in Gladys' ear, as the trio
passed through the entrance of the railway station on to the platform,
"not a bit of good to me. Don't encourage him, whatever you do!"

"Encourage him!" Gladys retorted indignantly, seeing that Shiel, who
had his ticket to get, was out of hearing. "Do I encourage any one?
All the same," she added defiantly, "I rather like him. It isn't every
one's good fortune to be as smart as you, John Martin. Quick--hurry
up! That's your train--and the guard's about to blow his whistle."

With a vigorous push she hustled her father into the first compartment
they came to, and Shiel sprang in after him as the train moved out of
the station.

An hour later Gladys, looking extremely demure and proper, was rapping
with a daintily gloved hand at the inquiry office in the great stone
lobby of the Modern Sorcery Company's building in Cockspur Street.

"Have you an appointment, madam?" the commissionaire, in a bright blue
uniform, asked.

"No," Gladys replied. "Is it necessary?

"The firm are unusually busy," the man explained, "and unless you have
made an appointment with them some days beforehand, it is doubtful
whether they will be able to see you. However, if you will step into
the waiting room and fill in one of the forms you see on the table, I
will take it to them. Which member of the firm have you come to
consult?"

"I haven't the slightest idea," Gladys said. "I want to have a dream
interpreted."

"Then, that will be Mr. Kelson," the man observed "he does all that
kind of thing--tells dreams, characters, pasts, and reads thoughts.
Mr. Curtis solves all manner of puzzles and tricks; and Mr. Hamar
divines the presence of metals and water. There is a lady in the
waiting-room now, come to have a dream interpreted. She's been there
nearly an hour. This way, madam!"--and he escorted, rather than
ushered, Gladys into a large, elaborately furnished room, in which a
dozen or so well dressed people--of both sexes--were waiting, looking
over the leaves of magazines and journals, and trying in vain to hide
their only too obvious excitement.

Having filled in the necessary form, and given it to the
commissionaire, Gladys looked round for a seat, and espying one, next
to a strikingly handsome girl,