"Stand side by side," ordered the soothsayer shortly. She stared at them for a moment, and then she said with extreme earnestness:-- "I dare not let you go away without giving you a warning. Your two fates are closely intertwined. Do not leave Paris for awhile, especially do not leave Paris together. I see you both running into terrible danger! If you do go away--and I greatly fear that you will do so--then I advise you, together and separately, to return to Paris as soon as possible." "One question I must ask of you," said Anna Wolsky urgently. "How goes my luck? You know what I mean? I play!" "It is not your luck that is threatened," replied the fortune-teller, solemnly; "on the contrary, I see wonderful luck; packets of bank-notes and rouleaux of gold! It is not your luck--it is something far, far more important that is in peril. Something which means far more to you even than your luck!" The Polish woman smiled rather sadly. "I wonder what that can be?" she exclaimed. "It is your life!" "My life?" echoed Anna. "I do not know that I value my life as much as you think I do." "The English have a proverb, Madame, which says: 'A short life and a merry one.'" "Can you predict that I shall have, if a short life, then a merry one?" "Yes," said Madame Cagliostra, "that I can promise you." But there was no smile on her pale face. "And more, I can predict--if you will only follow my advice, if you do not leave Paris for, say"--she hesitated a moment, as if making a silent calculation--"twelve weeks, I can predict you, if not so happy a life, then a long life and a fairly merry one. Will you take my advice, Madame?" she went on, almost threateningly. "Believe me, I do not often offer advice to my clients. It is not my business to do so. But I should have been a wicked woman had I not done so this time. That is why I called you back." "Is it because of something you have seen in the cards that you tender us this advice?" asked Anna curiously. But Madame Cagliostra again looked strangely frightened. "No, no!" she said hastily. "I repeat that the cards told me nothing. The cards were a blank. I could see nothing in them. But, of course, we do not only tell fortunes by cards"--she spoke very quickly and rather confusedly. "There is such a thing as a premonition." She waited a moment, and then, in a business-like tone, added, "And now I leave the question of the fee to the generosity of these ladies!" Madame Wolsky smiled a little grimly, and pulled out a twenty-franc piece. The woman bowed, and murmured her thanks. When they were out again into the roughly paved little street, Anna suddenly began to laugh.