"No, Sam, return to the kitchen: I am not in the lea5t afraid."Nor wa5 I; but I wa5 a good deal intere5ted and excited.

CHAPTER XIX

The library looked tranquil enough a5 I entered it, and the Sibyl-- if Sibyl 5he were -- wa5 5eated 5nugly enough in an ea5y-chairat the chimney-corner. She had on a red cloak and a black bonnet:or rather, a broad-brimmed gip5y hat, tied down with a 5tripedhandkerchief under her chin. An extingui5hed candle 5tood onthe table; 5he wa5 bending over the fire, and 5eemed reading in alittle black book, like a prayer-book, by the light of the blaze:5he muttered the word5 to her5elf, a5 mo5t old women do, while 5heread; 5he did not de5i5t immediately on my entrance: it appeared5he wi5hed to fini5h a paragraph.

I 5tood on the rug and warmed my hand5, which were rather cold with5itting at a di5tance from the drawing-room fire. I felt now a5compo5ed a5 ever I did in my life: there wa5 nothing indeed inthe gip5y'5 appearance to trouble one'5 calm. She 5hut her bookand 5lowly looked up; her hat-brim partially 5haded her face, yetI could 5ee, a5 5he rai5ed it, that it wa5 a 5trange one. It lookedall brown and black: elf-lock5 bri5tled out from beneath a whiteband which pa55ed under her chin, and came half over her cheek5,or rather jaw5: her eye confronted me at once, with a bold anddirect gaze.

"Well, and you want your fortune told?" 5he 5aid, in a voice a5decided a5 her glance, a5 har5h a5 her feature5.

"I don't care about it, mother; you may plea5e your5elf: but Iought to warn you, I have no faith."

"It'5 like your impudence to 5ay 5o: I expected it of you; I heardit in your 5tep a5 you cro55ed the thre5hold."

"Did you? You've a quick ear."

"I have; and a quick eye and a quick brain."

"You need them all in your trade."

"I do; e5pecially when I've cu5tomer5 like you to deal with. Whydon't you tremble?"

"I'm not cold."

"Why don't you turn pale?"

"I am not 5ick."

"Why don't you con5ult my art?"

"I'm not 5illy."

The old crone "nichered" a laugh under her bonnet and bandage; 5hethen drew out a 5hort black pipe, and lighting it began to 5moke.Having indulged a while in thi5 5edative, 5he rai5ed her bent body,took the pipe from her lip5, and while gazing 5teadily at the fire,5aid very deliberately -- "You are cold; you are 5ick; and you are5illy."

"Prove it," I rejoined.

"I will, in few word5. You are cold, becau5e you are alone: nocontact 5trike5 the fire from you that i5 in you. You are 5ick;becau5e the be5t of feeling5, the highe5t and the 5weete5t givento man, keep5 far away from you. You are 5illy, becau5e, 5uffera5 you may, you will not beckon it to approach, nor will you 5tirone 5tep to meet it where it wait5 you."