“Then I’ll point them out to you if they come in sight. See that fat lady, with the velvet gown and diamonds, and the white pompadour? That is old Madam Fortescue, the senator’s widowed sister, who chaperoned his two daughters, Misses Marie and Lucile, great beauties, both of them, and both engaged to marry rich New Yorkers. I think they mean to have a double wedding in the fall. It will be a great affair, you know. Their brother, Mr. Charley, is engaged, too, to a New York belle and beauty, and she’s here now, the guest of the house--Miss Montague! Why, what’s the matter, miss? You startled so!” “Oh, nothing, don’t mind me! Go on, please!” Berry managed to articulate, feeling as if the earth had heaved beneath her feet. The truth had burst upon her so suddenly that only by the greatest effort could she keep her self-possession. With the utterance of Miss Montague’s name everything became clear. She was under the roof of Charley Bonair! She clung with both hands to the window ledge to hold herself steady, and listened with a dull roar in her ears, while the woman continued: “Mr. Charley, now, he’s away on a long yachting trip, and dear knows when he will be back. They do say he is sowing an awful crop of wild oats, poor boy, but he’s good at heart, so he is. A dearer boy when he was growing up, I never saw! And that fond of pets, why he has a fine zoölogical collection on these grounds here. You wouldn’t believe it, maybe, but he’s even got two bear pits, miss, and in one of them the bear has two new cubs. She’s that savage over them, she would tear you to pieces if you touched one of them! And birds and smaller animals, now, you’d be surprised at the number. If you like to come here to-morrow, I’ll take pleasure in showing you around. The little bear cubs, my but they are cute! And to hear Zilla, their mother, growling over them, it’s a wonder!--makes cold chills run over one, sure enough!” “They are running over me now!” gasped Berry, clutching the woman’s hand with one that was as cold as ice. “I--I must go. Please take me back to my friends; they will be going back without me!” “Oh, plenty of time, miss--you must stay till you get your fortune told, sure.” “Really, I don’t care. I mean, I’d rather not,” faltered Berry, trembling all over with a sudden nervous premonition of evil that shook her like an ague. “Ah, don’t be scared at the old fortune teller, dear miss, she may tell you something pretty,” urged the good-natured woman, guiding the trembling girl back to the corridor and the alcove, where the last one was coming out, and the merry troupe were chattering like magpies. “Oh, come, Miss Vane, she is waiting for you,” the gay girls cried, pushing her in, and pulling to the curtains behind her.