"That is all," continued the wild girl. "All the rest are insignificant or impossible, except--no, here is one who promises to 'call names.' Now if there is any thing in the world that I don't like except when I do it myself, it is 'calling names.' And now see Madame Boutell. There is nothing of the petty or the insignificant about _her_. She has the 'stars' at command, and is about to open the 'unknown world.' She is _the_ woman, of course! Knows all about the 'great events' of life. Can't be humbugged, and keeps a secret as a steel-trap holds a rat. And now, will you go with us, and protect us, and--Mr. Harding said you were a newspaper man,--will you take down a full, true and circumstantial account of all that occurs? That is what I have been trying to get at for this quarter of an hour. Will you go with us?" "You are going to-day, then?" asked Leslie. "Miss Harris insisted upon my accompanying her, and I half consented to do so," said Miss Bell Crawford, apologetically. "Fiddlestick!" said the merry riddle. "Don't try to beg out of it, Miss Bell! She sent her carriage home, Mr. Leslie, so that we need not be seen going there with it; and there we were going, two lovely and unprotected females, when providence raised up a champion in the person of our new friend." "Who hopes yet to be an _old_ friend, and who will go with you, with the greatest pleasure," said Leslie. "At the same time"--reflecting a moment--"at the same time I must be as prudent about myself, for certain reasons, which I will explain some day if you wish it--as Miss Crawford has been about her carriage. Oblige me by remaining at the table here and trifling with some creams, chocolate and a few bon-bons, while I leave you for a few minutes--not more than fifteen or twenty. At the end of that time I shall be ready to accompany you." Giving the necessary orders and throwing a bill to the waiter, Tom Leslie passed rapidly out into the street and walked quite as rapidly up Broadway, until he turned again down Broome Street, which he had quitted with Harding but a little while before. Had he _more_ to do with the Police? CHAPTER XII. FORTUNE-TELLING AND OTHER SUPERSTITIONS--THE EVERY-DAY OMENS THAT WE HALF BELIEVE--ORIGINS OF THIS WEAKNESS--FORTUNE-TELLERS OF NEW YORK, BOSTON AND WASHINGTON. While Tom Leslie has gone around to Broome Street on his undeclared errand, and while the ladies are making an excuse to while away the time until his return, in the discussion of the after-dinner provocatives to indigestion recommended, let us enter a little more closely upon a subject merely indicated in the foregoing chapter, and then sneered at by at least one of the conversationists--that of the fortune-telling imposition which so largely prevails, especially in the great cities, and the general course of human superstition in connection with it.