"Beware," said Lauriane, smiling, "he will predict only unpleasant things for you; everyone knows that, in the matter of horoscopes, you only get what you pay for." "Do not think that; destiny is my master," said La Flèche, putting the money into a box, and suddenly affecting to speak simply and with a fatalistic air. He turned his indescribable hat, which seemed to threaten heaven like an insolent castle tower, pulled it over his eyes like an extinguisher, made several wry faces, pronounced divers unmeaning words supposed to be cabalistic formulas, and, having turned his back in order to wipe off the coarse paint unseen, showed his face made pale by prophetic inspiration. Then he traced upon the gravel the great _asphère_ of ignorant necromancers, with all the symbols of street-corner astrology; he placed a stone in the centre and threw the box at it, which broke and distributed the contents over the symbols drawn in the different compartments. Thereupon D'Alvimar stooped to pick up his pebble. "No, no!" cried the gypsy, darting into the circle with the agility of a monkey, and placing his foot on D'Alvimar's token, without effacing any of the signs that surrounded it; "no, messire, you cannot interfere with destiny. It is above you as it is above me!" "Certainly not," said Lauriane, putting her little cane between D'Alvimar and La Flèche. "The magician is master in his magic circle, and by disarranging your destiny, you may disarrange ours too." D'Alvimar submitted; but his face betrayed an extraordinary agitation which he instantly suppressed. XXII La Flèche began with the token nearest the central stone, which he called Sinai. It was Lucilio's; the gypsy pretended to measure angles and make computations, then said in rhyming prose: "Homme sans langue et de grand cœur, Savoir de misere est vainqueur."[18] "You see," whispered Bois-Doré to D'Alvimar, "the rascal has divined our musician's melancholy plight." "That was not very difficult," rejoined D'Alvimar contemptuously. "For a quarter of an hour past the mute has been talking to you by signs." "So you have no faith at all in divination?" replied Bois-Doré, while La Flèche continued his calculations with a preoccupied air, but with his ears open to all that was going on about him. "Why, do you believe in it yourself, messire, I would ask?" said D'Alvimar, pretending to be surprised at the seriousness with which the marquis asked the question. "I? Why--yes, more or less, like everybody else!" "No one believes in this nonsense nowadays!" "Oh! yes; I believe in it quite seriously," said Lauriane. "I beg you, sorcerer, if my destiny is unfavorable, either to leave me a little hope, or to find in your learning some means of averting it." "Illustrious queen of hearts," replied La Flèche, "I obey your commands. You are threatened by a great danger; but if, during three days from the present moment,