The Crowned Skull | Page 5

disappear down the short avenue, at the foot of which, presumably, waited the dog-cart of Penrith, wherein he proposed to drive Miss Stretton over the moorland to his mother's place. She then walked about amongst the visitors, exchanging a few words, and making herself agreeable. Chance brought her in front of the Tent of Mystery, and from it there issued Bowring, looking somewhat white, followed by the governess.
'You don't believe me?' asked Miss Warry severely--that is, as severely as her mildness would permit.
'No,' said Bowring harshly, 'you talk nonsense.'
'Yet you seem to be upset,' said Dericka suddenly, and looking at him in a curious, puzzled way.
Bowring wiped the perspiration from his high, bald forehead.
'I have had a turn,' he said gruffly, 'but from nothing that woman told me.'
The governess had again retired into the tent, and Dericka, thinking that the fortune-telling was at an end, was about to conduct the millionaire to the refreshment stall, when Miss Warry again appeared, holding an envelope in her hand. 'Mr. Bowring,' she called, and some people turned at the sound of the name.
'What is it?' he asked gruffly.
'In this envelope I have written a prophecy which I read in your hand. It will be fulfilled before to-morrow. The envelope is sealed, and if what I have written here occurs, then the truth of my art will be made manifest.'
Bowring took the sealed envelope and thrust it into his pocket. 'I shall look at it to-morrow night.'
'It may be too late!' said the sibyl solemnly, and vanished into the tent.
Chapter II
The Prophecy Fulfilled
'What does she mean by that?' asked Bowring sharply, when the governess had disappeared to foretell the futures of fresh dupes.
'I do not know,' said Dericka. Then she pointed to the pocket into which the millionaire had slipped the sealed letter. 'You can learn, if you read what is written.'
Bowring took the letter out and twisted it in his gnarled, lean hands in a thoughtful manner. 'No,' he said abruptly, and after some meditation. 'If it is good, it can wait; if evil, I must meet it blindly, as it is best that the future should be hidden from our eyes.'
'Yet you went in there to inquire?'
'Because I wanted to give my guinea to the chapel. I give nothing for nothing. In that way I made my money. It is all rubbish, this fortune telling,' he added, looking keenly at Dericka. 'Has Miss Warry ever told your fortune?'
'Yes. By the cards and by the hand, and by looking into the crystal.'
'And you believe what she said?'
Dericka blushed, and looked away in the distance to where Oswald Forde appeared, sauntering idly in search of her, with a cigarette.
'I should like to believe,' she said softly.
Bowring's eyes followed her, and he also saw the handsome young fellow. The sight appeared to annoy him, and he frowned.
'You are foolish, girl,' he said roughly. 'We make our own fortunes, good or bad, and it needs no palmistry to tell that as we sow, so shall we reap.'
Dericka, her eyes still fastened on her lover, who paused to talk with a pretty girl, defended what Miss Warry called 'her art'. In a musing voice she replied. 'To some natures,' she said, 'the veil between the seen and the unseen is very thin. Such natures may have a premonition which turns out true, or they may read by the present the doubtful future. I have known several of Sophia's prophecies come true in the end.'
'Sophia?'
'Miss Warry. She is my governess, and has been for many a long day, but shortly she is leaving us, as the success of her fortune-telling has made her desirous to earn money in that way.'
'If she sets up in London,' said Bowring grimly, 'she will be haled before the magistrates as a swindler, and quite right too. The woman's a fool.'
'She is a very good, kind woman, Mr. Bowring.'
'Well,'--the millionaire shrugged his large shoulders--'she certainly has a strong advocate in you, Miss Trevick. Where is your father?'
'Somewhere about,' said Dericka, looking round. 'Do you wish to see him again?'
'Not at once; though I would like to see him before five o'clock, when I must leave. It is a long drive to Trevick Grange, but my motor is swift, and I'll get home very rapidly. I want to have a chat to you before I go away.'
'With me?' Dericka looked surprised. There was little in common between this old man and herself.
'Yes.'
He led the way towards a secluded corner where there was a garden seat, and nodded that she should follow, with the air of a man who is accustomed to be obeyed.
'Your father and I have been talking about you,' he said abruptly, when Dericka was seated.
'Yes?' Dericka replied coldly, and fastened her brilliant blue eyes on the rugged face. She was not