There was no time to be
lost.
"It's only about the fortune-telling," I stammered out; "nothing else, I
assure you--nothing at all!"
"I knew it," replied Miss Latouche calmly and without a trace of
embarrassment.
Sensible girl! I breathed freely once more and proceeded with my
investigations.
"Why wouldn't you tell my fortune this morning? Why am I alone
excluded?"
"Do you really wish to know?" she said very quietly.
"Of course, or I shouldn't ask!"
"Well then, the reason that I declined to tamper with _your_ destiny is
that I should be irresistibly compelled to tell _you_ the truth!"
"Are you serious, or only--?"
"Am I serious?" she cried, with a wild laugh; "_you_ ask this? The time
has at last come for an explanation. I would willingly have spared you,
but it is in vain that we seek to avoid our fate! Rest here!" and
seizing my wrist, she dragged me down on the fallen trunk of a tree that
lay half hidden by the tall grass at the side of the path. Immediately
behind us was a gloomy wood, choked with rank autumnal growths. A more
dank, unwholesome situation for a seat on a wet day it would be
impossible to conceive. But I preferred running the risk of rheumatic
fever to contradicting Miss Latouche in her present mood. Only I hoped
the explanation would be exceedingly brief.
"You pretend that you never saw me before the other evening?" she began,
feverishly.
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