of this, coming upon the heels of her trouble with Brandon,
made her most wretched indeed. For the first time in her life she
began to feel suffering; that great broadener, in fact, maker, of
human character.

Above all, there was an alarming sense of uncertainty in everything.
She could hardly bring herself to believe that Brandon would really go
to New Spain, and that she would actually lose him, although she did
not want him, as yet; that is, as a prospective husband. Flashes of
all sorts of wild schemes had begun to shoot through her anger and
grief when she stared in the face the prospect of her double
separation from him--her marriage to another, and the countless miles
of fathomless sea that would be between them. She could endure
anything better than uncertainty. A menacing future is the keenest of
all tortures for any of us to bear, but especially for a girl like
Mary. Death itself is not so terrible as the fear of it.

Now about this time there lived over in Billingsgate Ward--the worst
part of London--a Jewish soothsayer named Grouche. He was also an
astrologer, and had of late grown into great fame as prophet of the
future--a fortune-teller.

His fame rested on several remarkable predictions which had been
fulfilled to the letter, and I really think the man had some wonderful
powers. They said he was half Jew, half gypsy, and, if there is
alchemy in the mixing of blood, that combination should surely produce
something peculiar. The city folk were said to have visited him in
great numbers, and, notwithstanding the priests and bishops all
condemned him as an imp of Satan and a follower of witchcraft, many
fine people, including some court ladies, continued to go there by
stealth in order to take a dangerous, inquisitive peep into the
future. I say by stealth; because his ostensible occupation of
soothsaying and fortune-telling was not his only business. His house
was really a place of illicit meeting, and the soothsaying was often
but an excuse for going there. Lacking this ostensible occupation, he
would not have been allowed to keep his house within the wall, but
would have been relegated to his proper place--Bridge Ward Without.

Mary had long wanted to see this Grouche, at first out of mere
curiosity; but Henry, who was very moral--with other people's
consciences--would not think of permitting it. Two ladies, Lady
Chesterfield and Lady Ormond, both good and virtuous women, had been
detected in such a