nicated the news to Mrs. Warne at once,
instructing her to make the best possible use of it in her coming
interview with Mrs. Thayer.

Shortly before ten o'clock the next morning, I took my place behind the
curtain. In a few minutes Mrs. Thayer and Miss Seaton arrived, and Mrs.
Thayer was promptly admitted to Lucille's presence. She removed her veil
and sank into the visitor's chair with an expression half of longing and
half of dread. Again Lucille waved her snaky wand, and, as before, the
room was filled with the fumes of burning incense. Lucille looked at
Mrs. Thayer's face intently, and said:

"My child, I am pleased to see you; I have worked at your horoscope
unremittingly, but it is not completed to my satisfaction. There is
some peculiar influence about you which prevents a clear reading of your
future. Even your past, though much of it is easily determined, seems
obscured by strange inconsistencies--not to say impossibilities. Some of
the results were so startling as to make it necessary for me to refuse
to reveal them, until, by a second test, I can decide whether there was
no mistake in the solution of certain calculations. To-night, therefore,
I shall do what rarely is necessary in reading the horoscope of ordinary
humans--I must invoke the aid of my progenitor and master, Hermes. It is
a dreadful task; one for which I must nerve myself to meet the greatest
dangers and the most frightful scenes; but I never shrink from the path
of duty, and I have confidence that the sanctity of my mission will give
me safe conduct, even through the hosts of demons who must be met before
I can come face to face with the great Egyptian king."

Lucille spoke with a weird earnestness, and a far-away look in her eyes,
as if she actually realized the presence of ghouls and goblins. Mrs.
Thayer fairly shivered with terror, but said nothing, and Lucille
continued:

"I wish I dared read the whole of the horoscope as it was divulged to me
in the lone watches of last night; but I have decided to omit all those
portions where there is a possibility that the malign spirits around you
have misinterpreted your past and future. When you were younger, you
passed your days in happiness; you were very handsome, and you could
charm the hearts of men without difficulty. There has been with you
frequently, during your past years, a man some years older than
yourself. He appears to have been a sailor; and, though often away from
you, he has al