Marquise de Ganges | Page 4

lackey at once got down to open the carriage door;
but a sweet, though rather tremulous voice stopped him, saying, "Wait,
while I see whether this is the place."

Then a head, muffled so closely in a black satin mantle that no feature
could be distinguished, was thrust from one of the carriage windows,
and looking around, seemed to seek for some decisive sign on the
house front. The unknown lady appeared to be satisfied by her
inspection, for she turned back to her companion.
"It is here," said she. "There is the sign."
As a result of this certainty, the carriage door was opened, the two
women alighted, and after having once more raised their eyes to a strip
of wood, some six or eight feet long by two broad, which was nailed
above the windows of the second storey, and bore the inscription,
"Madame Voison, midwife," stole quickly into a passage, the door of
which was unfastened, and in which there was just so much light as
enabled persons passing in or out to find their way along the narrow
winding stair that led from the ground floor to the fifth storey. The two
strangers, one of whom appeared to be of far higher rank than the other,
did not stop, as might have been expected, at the door corresponding
with the inscription that had guided them, but, on the contrary, went on
to the next floor.
Here, upon the landing, was a kind of dwarf, oddly dressed after the
fashion of sixteenth-century Venetian buffoons, who, when he saw the
two women coming, stretched out a wand, as though to prevent them
from going farther, and asked what they wanted.
"To consult the spirit," replied the woman of the sweet and tremulous
voice.
"Come in and wait," returned the dwarf, lifting a panel of tapestry and
ushering the two women into a waiting-room.
The women obeyed, and remained for about half an hour, seeing and
hearing nothing. At last a door, concealed by the tapestry, was suddenly
opened; a voice uttered the word "Enter," and the two women were
introduced into a second room, hung with black, and lighted solely by a
three-branched lamp that hung from the ceiling. The door closed behind
them, and the clients found themselves face to face with the sibyl.
She was a woman of about twenty-five or twenty-six, who, unlike other
women, evidently desired to appear older than she was. She was
dressed in black; her hair hung in plaits; her neck, arms, and feet were
bare; the belt at her waist was clasped by a large garnet which threw
out sombre fires. In her hand she held a wand, and she was raised on a

sort of platform which stood for the tripod of the ancients, and from
which came acrid and penetrating fumes; she was, moreover, fairly
handsome, although her features were common, the eyes only excepted,
and these, by some trick of the toilet, no doubt, looked inordinately
large, and, like the garnet in her belt, emitted strange lights.
When the two visitors came in, they found the soothsayer leaning her
forehead on her hand, as though absorbed in thought. Fearing to rouse
her from her ecstasy, they waited in silence until it should please her to
change her position. At the end of ten minutes she raised her head, and
seemed only now to become aware that two persons were standing
before her.
"What is wanted of me again?" she asked, "and shall I have rest only in
the grave?"
"Forgive me, madame," said the sweet-voiced unknown, "but I am
wishing to know----"
"Silence!" said the sibyl, in a solemn voice. "I will not know your
affairs. It is to the spirit that you must address yourself; he is a jealous
spirit, who forbids his secrets to be shared; I can but pray to him for
you, and obey his will."
At these words, she left her tripod, passed into an adjoining room, and
soon returned, looking even paler and more anxious than before, and
carrying in one hand a burning chafing dish, in the other a red paper.
The three flames of the lamp grew fainter at the same moment, and the
room was left lighted up only by the chafing dish; every object now
assumed a fantastic air that did not fail to disquiet the two visitors, but
it was too late to draw back.
The soothsayer placed the chafing dish in the middle of the room,
presented the paper to the young woman who had spoken, and said to
her--
"Write down what you wish to know."
The woman took the paper with a steadier hand than might have been
expected, seated herself at a table, and wrote:--
"Am I young? Am I beautiful? Am I maid,