The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-04-26

! And, you remember 1 hadn't money
| enough to hire models"
| II know-poor Phil what blue-deviled
| little chap you were. And yet, l wanted
- She smiled at this.
And yet l wanted-'the morbid maiden
| with white fire laden whom mortaIs cali
| the moon--remember that one? Absurd
| Tor man without money to want the
| moon! l know somebody offered me $50
for that little picture-the maiden with
white fire laden-you-and 1 wouldn't sell
1t. needed the money. too"
Il remember scolding you about 1t. Poor
Phil, you never could be practical and [
| -I-Hked you for It. But yet IL you had
been, or if
Now, Josephine!
She was really too bad. 1 put down the
| cup of tea which was bad, too. by the
way, and made some excuse about a for
gotten appointment.
'Oh, never mind your appointment 1
was going to tell you something's
thing rather queer. That Is, | wouldn't
tell you If you believed in such things
Il don't; go on. What is it?"
We'll, don't, either-not really, you
know"
Exactly like the man who didn't be-
| lieve in ghosts, but was afraid of them.
Well?"
'Well-promise not to laugh, now. 1t was
something that happened on the steamer
when mother and / were coming home"
Josephine turned her head away from
me and stared at the piano while she told
| the story
yhere was fortune teller on board-a
| Welshwoman, q second cabin passenger.
One Of the ships officers had her brought
up one evening into the cabin, and she
read our hands. 1t certainly was ex-
traordinary. She told me how long had
been abroad, and that was coming home
ha m mr. cLa
you, Phil, exactly. She seemed to have
got 1t into her head that l was going to
! marry YOU"
| I'm sorry she wasn't better prophet"
! I said to fill up a pause
Well then she said" Josephine went
! on, that should be a widow in a year
that my husband would be killed in some
| sort of an accident"
''Cheerful-but she evidently meant that
should die within year, as she de-
scribed-"
mo, she didn't~ cried Josephine an
grily. ''She said my husband"
well" I said slowly, Sin that case
suggest that you marry me. Then you
needn't worry about Ashenden, and I'll
promise to die within the year, as per
prophecy, and then you
Josephine laughed at this, twisting her
engagement ring round her finger.
But that isn't ALL" she went on.
L
| that some gypsy up in Canada, where
! he'd been canoeing, read his palm and
| told him that he would die suddenly with
| in a year
At this Josephine turned her head sharp
/ ly and looked at me.
| Curious coincidence" I admitted
"And then the mirror-you know that's
| a sign of-of death, to break mirror"
She pulled a lace handkerchief out of
| her sleeve and began twisting it round
her wrist.
still shouldn't worry" I said. 'But.
of course, If you do, there's the plan
| suggested"
1 stopped in the middle of my sentence.
| Josephine, too, was smiling, but saw she
was not considering my suggestion
Somehow a possibility occurred to me-
which perhaps-which perhaps was what
she was smiling at
| Absurd. isn't it?" she said. 'T suppose
/ some people I'm my place would be super
| stitious, but I'm not-not bit-no more
| than you are
mo more than [ am,'' I echoed, and
| then l became conscious that Josephine
was laughing noiseiessly-at me. There
| was endless malice In her long gray eyes.
! / got up to go. And then she came up to
| me- smiling still, but sweet. infinitely
| troublante, as she was in the old days
| when I fell in love with her forever That
| was six years since. and she had never
| let me go. Even now. with her wedding
day two weeks Off, She"
What are you laughing at now?" ask
| ed Josephine.
'T was thinking" I said frankly chow
! beautifully prehensiIe women are. How
! they hate to lose anything-any rubbIshy
old thing that may come handy some
| time"
Josephine turned her head with that
| long, proud, peacock-IiIke curve of the
| throat
There's Jack she said. softly
The maid was opening the outer door
| to him. 1 went out through the library
where the wedding presents were laid out
! and where the broken mirror was.
Somehow I felt less than ever like seeing
him just then.