Vixley smiled and rubbed his hands. "Go in and win, Gert. I guess I’ll take a nap here on the lounge while I’m waitin’ for you, and see if the Doc doesn’t come in." "All right," she replied; then marched up-stairs and went into action. The upper parlor, where she received her patrons for private sittings, was a large room separated from the back part of the house by black walnut double doors. Upon the high-studded walls were draperies of striped oriental stuffs, caught up with tacks and enlivened by colored casts of turbaned Turks’ heads, most of which were chipped on cheek and on chin, showing irregular patches of white plaster. Upon the mantel chaos reigned, embodied in a mass of minor decorations of all sorts, such as are affected by those who deem that space is only something to be as closely filled as possible. The furniture was cheaply elaborate and formally arranged, running chiefly to purple stamped plush and heavy woolen fringe. The silk curtains in the windows were severely arranged in multitudinous little pleats, fan shaped, drawn in with a pink ribbon at the center. There was scarcely a thing in the room, from the fret-sawed walnut whatnot in the corner to the painted tapestry Romeo upon the double doors, that an artist would not writhe at and turn backward. A little ineffective bamboo table in the center was made a feature of the place, but supported its function with triviality. Mr. Payson had just entered, cold and blue from the harsh air outside. He bowed to the seeress. She began with the weather, referring to it in obvious commonplaces, eliciting his condemnation of the temperature. She offered to light the gas-log and succeeded, during the conversational skirmish, in drawing from him the fact that he suffered from rheumatism, especially when the wind was north. Madam Spoll allowed the ghost of a smile to haunt her face for a brief moment. "Lucky you ain’t got my weight, it gets to you something terrible when you’re fat. I ain’t quite so slim as I used to be." She looked up from the grate coquettishly, marking the effect of her words. "Now let’s set down and get ready," she said, going over to the frail table and pressing her hands to her forehead. "I ain’t in proper condition to-day; I’ve been working hard and my magnetism’s about wore out. But I’ll see what I can do." He took a seat opposite her and waited. His attitude was benignly judicial; his eyes were fixed upon her, through his gold-bowed spectacles.