"have you an appointment, madam?" asked the elderly woman who opened the door of madame veno's flat for juliet.
she was a person of almost oppressively respectable appearance, with grey hair parted in the middle, gold-rimmed pince nez resting on a thin nose, and a neat body clad in black silk. if madame veno needed a chaperon, her door opener was ideal!
juliet had run upstairs so fast that she was breathing hard. passing the office of the inner circle had disgusted her. she felt contaminated, almost ill; but the sight of this woman was like a dash of cool water on a hot forehead.
"i have no appointment," she answered. "but—i came because of a message. i'm the duchess of claremanagh."
"please to walk in, madam," said the woman, without any evidence of being impressed. "i will give you a private room to wait in."
they stood in a hall, white-panelled, carpeted with red. the spruce black silk figure threw open a door, and juliet entered a tiny room, hardly more than a closet. the only furnishing consisted of a luxurious easy chair, a table on which were magazines and a box of cigarettes, and on the wall a mirror. this mirror was opposite the chair; and behind the chair was a second door. any one opening that door would see a reflected image of the sitter in the chair.
as juliet sank into chintz-covered depths the murmur of voices reached her. she thought, in fact, that she heard sounds from two rooms, one on each side of the tiny cubicle in which she had been put to wait.
"this little hole is for special visitors," she told herself. "probably that woman was ordered to bring me here if i came. madame veno's room must be on the right of this, and it's her voice i hear on that side, talking to a client. on the left, i suppose, it's the ordinary waiting room, full of people—jabbering to each other about madame veno and the wonderful things they've heard about her from their friends! or else it's a room where they keep up the practice by manicuring clients' nails. but i'm sure she means to sneak me in ahead of them."
juliet was right. in less than ten minutes there was the click of a latch, and the door opposite the mirror opened. in the long glass her eyes met the smiling ones of a pale, dark woman with a clever, somewhat common face. there was nothing mystic about her appearance, but on the other hand there was nothing meretricious, no attempt at eastern allurements. juliet had already guessed from the ordinary furnishing of the flat that madame veno's metier was clean, straightforward frankness, as opposed to the cult of dim rooms, purple curtains, and incense. now this impression was confirmed. the one false note was a heavy perfume such as some women adore and are unable to resist.
"i'm glad to see you, duchess," said the woman. "i hoped you would call, and i'm going to slip you in before the others who are waiting their turn. they won't know, so no harm's done! will you come into my room?"
she spoke cheerfully, briskly, rather more like an englishwoman than an american, and juliet wondered if she were an english jewess.
the door led into an alcove of a fair-sized room decorated in green. it was as little as possible like the mysterious sanctum of an ordinary "fortune teller" or crystal gazer. juliet had seen two or three of these in several countries. they had always been egyptian, or at least reminiscent of leon bakst. this might have been any woman's boudoir: but when madame veno had drawn the thin green curtains, the place seemed to fill with an emerald dusk, like the dusk of dreams, or the green dimness under sea.
"i suppose you think i'm not very 'psychic'," the mistress of the room remarked, placing a chair for her visitor at a table covered with a square of green velvet. "people do think that! then, when they've consulted me, they're surprised sometimes. they get better results than from those who go in for what i call 'scenery'. you know what i mean?"
"yes," said juliet, "i suppose i do know."
"all i want to put me in the right frame of mind is green," explained madame veno, "this kind of green twilight."
she switched away the velvet covering from the table. underneath was a cushion, and a crystal which reflected the prevailing colour. then she sat down opposite the duchess.
"the countess told you what happened when i was looking into the crystal for her?" she asked.
"madame de saintville said that you saw something which concerned me. but how did you know it concerned me?"
"your face came into the crystal. i'd seen your photograph, and recognized you. besides, i felt—i felt that you were in great trouble."
"what else did you see in the crystal?"
"let me look again, now you are here, and see if the same thing comes." as she spoke, madame veno bent forward and gazed closely into the transparent ball on a black base.
some moments passed in dead silence. juliet watched the woman's features, which became fixed and masklike. suddenly madame veno started slightly and began to speak.
"i see—a handsome young man—very charming. it is your husband, duchess. he is lying ill in a poor room. it seems to be a kind of cellar. he tosses about. he is delirious. he calls for you. i know that, because at the same time i see the picture i hear his voice. the name is 'juliet!' i think he has had an accident. but i can't see what it was, i only know that he has hurt his head. i feel the pain myself. and i feel what he is thinking about: you—and something else. ah, a rope of pearls! now i get a whisper! it comes to me from his thoughts. he went in search of something that was lost—a thing of great value. yes, the pearls!"
"did he get them?" juliet asked, mechanically. she had little if any faith in the woman, but a faint thrill ran through her. she could not help being slightly impressed by the seeress's change of manner, and the hypnotized look in her eyes.
"he got them—and then they were taken away. but they are in the house where he is. it is not a good house. it is a house of thieves. ah, i must find out where it is, or i can do you no good. or else—if i cannot find the house i must will the man who has got the pearls to communicate with me. i see him plainly."
"why shouldn't he communicate with me?" asked juliet.
"will power doesn't act like that," exclaimed madame veno. "i could create a cord between another intelligence and my own, not between two outside intelligences. ah, the picture has faded from the crystal! but it will come again. and for the moment we've seen enough. i have the man's face clearly before my eyes. i will concentrate upon him as i have never concentrated before! i feel sure of the power to draw him to me."
"how?" juliet enquired.
"i can't tell yet. he may be impelled to consult me about his future, to have his 'luck' foretold. that's the line i will work on, in exerting influence. i shall remember his face from the crystal. i can't make a mistake! once i get him here i shan't hesitate to use hypnotism. if that succeeds, i'll 'phone you to come round at once."
"with a detective," said juliet.
madame veno's face changed, flushing slightly over its sallowness. "oh, no, duchess!" she exclaimed, emphatically. "that wouldn't do at all. women in my profession can't encourage detectives to come spying into their methods. so far i've never had any trouble. but i've had to be very careful. detectives are the enemy! i shall be very sorry indeed to be disobliging, but i'm afraid i must let this business drop unless you give me your word not to bring a detective into it. indeed, i think i must ask you not to bring in any third party. if you promise this, i don't think i'm conceited in saying i can positively make you an important promise in return. by my will power i will do for you what no detective on this earth could do. i'll draw into your circle the man who has got your husband lying helpless in his house—and who has got your pearls. do you believe i am able to do this, or do you not?"
"i—can't say i quite believe," juliet confessed. she might have been more definite, yet not have gone beyond the truth. she might have said, "what i think is, that you're a trickster. if there's anything in this at all beyond mere nonsense, you know where my husband is, and you're playing a deep game for money." but something warned the girl not to say this. she was afraid to say it—afraid to make the seeress afraid!
if pat had been kidnapped, and this woman were a catspaw of those who wanted a ransom, juliet was willing to pay. if only pat were true—if only he hadn't left her of his own free will for love of lyda, she would give every penny she had in the world to get him back, and not grudge it!
she reflected hastily that, if madame veno took her for a fool, it would be better to let it go at that rather than risk losing a chance—possibly the only chance—of saving pat. as for telling jack and sanders secretly, this course must be decided later. there was surely no more harm in deceiving such a woman than in tricking a dangerous animal, so far as moral principles were concerned. the one question was, could madame veno safely be deceived, or would she find a way of forcing a promise to be kept?
that question was answered at once.
"i don't blame you," said madame, with a good-natured smile. "these great forces of nature are beyond belief to those who haven't tested them. but i know by experience what i can do. i know also what i can't do. i can do nothing if the people whose interests i serve work against me consciously or unconsciously. now, i read your mind as i read the crystal. i see you're thinking whether or not to make a mental reservation about that promise! well, i don't want to control you, duchess, though i could do so. but if you bring any one into this, the whole effort will be vain. i might get the man we want here. i might hypnotize him to the point of speaking out. i might 'phone you. and yet, if you weren't alone, or if someone were spying outside, my power over him would break like—that!" she snapped her fingers together, her black eyes holding juliet's. "now," she went on when she'd got her effect, "i'm going to give you a proof of good faith. my fee for a consultation—just an ordinary one, not a special like this—is twenty-five dollars. no, don't take out your purse, duchess! i won't accept a cent unless i bring off the stunt. the rest—is up to you."
"very well," said juliet on a sudden resolution. "let it be so. i'll promise what you ask, and—i'll keep my promise. if you send for me, i'll come alone. and i'll tell nobody. but—i'm not a child. i must protect myself in some way. when i start for your place next time, i shall leave a letter for my cousin, captain manners, to be delivered by hand if i'm not back in two hours after leaving home. in the letter i shall tell him everything. but it won't be sent if all goes right. so if you play fair you've nothing to dread."
"unless the letter should be sent to your cousin by mistake."
"my maid is a very intelligent woman," said juliet. "she doesn't make mistakes."
"oh, you'll leave the letter with your maid!" echoed madame veno.
"yes. do you agree to the arrangement?"
"i do," returned madame.
juliet rose to go. she was feeling intensely excited, if not really hopeful. even if there were a plot, it seemed as if this might be the best way of setting to work, and she saw herself beating sanders as a detective. so far he had made only trifling discoveries: fingerprints on the safe which told nothing, since they were pat's and lyda pavoya's; there were no clues which might solve the mystery of pat's disappearance, or lead to finding the lost pearls.
as for jack, he was lyda's man now! he believed the story which explained the fingerprints. she, juliet, might soon show these two men that alone she had accomplished more than either in solving the double mystery.
