The Heart Line: A Drama of San FranciscoBurgess, Gelett
General
The Heart Line: A Drama of San Francisco
Burgess, Gelett
Bohemianism -- Fiction; Fortune-tellers -- Fiction; San Francisco (Calif.) -- Fiction
The medium became normal. "No, I guess that’s about all I can do for
you to-day. I think you got some good tests, specially when you
consider it was the first time. When you come again I expect we can do
better, and I’m sure we can find that little boy you was interested in."
Mr. Payson rose and stood before her, sedate, dignified, and said, in
his impressive platform-manner:
"I don’t mind saying that I consider this very remarkable, Madam Spoll,
very remarkable. I shall certainly call again sometime next week. I am
much interested. Now, what is the charge, please?"
"Oh, we’ll only call this three dollars. My price is generally five,
but I’m sort of interested in your case and I want you to be perfectly
satisfied. You can just ring me up any time and make an appointment
with me."
She bowed him out with a calm, pleasant smile.
Down-stairs, Professor Vixley was awaiting her. With him was a
shrewd-eyed, bald-headed, old man, with iron spectacles, his forehead
wrinkled in horizontal lines, as if it had been scratched with a sharp
comb. He had a three days’ growth of red beard on his chin and cheeks,
and his teeth, showing in a rift between narrow, bloodless lips, were
almost black. He wore a greasy, plaid waistcoat, a celluloid collar
much in need of the laundry and a ready-made butterfly bow.
"Why, how d’you do, Doctor Masterson?" said Madam Spoll. "I was hoping
you would get around to-day, so’s we could talk business. I suppose you
put him wise about Payson, Vixley?"
"Certainly," said the Professor. "We’re goin’ to share and share alike,
and work him together as long as it lasts. How did you get on with him
to-day?"
"Oh, elegant," was the answer, as she took a seat on the couch and put
up her feet. "I don’t believe we’re going to be able to use Flora,
though."
Professor Vixley’s black eyes glistened and he grinned sensuously.
"Why, couldn’t you get a rise out of him?"
Madam Spoll shook her huge head decidedly. "No, that sort of game won’t
work on him. He ain’t that kind. I went as far as I dared and give him
a good chance, but he wouldn’t stand for it."
"That’s all right, Gert," said Vixley, "I ain’t sayin’ but what you’re a
fine figure of a woman, but he’s sixty and he might prefer somebody
younger. You know how they go. Now, Flora, she’s a peach. She’d catch
any man, sure! She knows the ropes, too, and she can deliver the goods
all right. Look at the way she worked Bennett. Why, he was dead stuck
on her the first time he seen her. She put it all over Fancy at the
first rattle out of the box."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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