The daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1904-1905, 1904-04-21
IContinued.)

nave 10 mystic power TO READ the
mind or the heart of another, but l
perceived clearly enough that Mr..
Burnham was in love with Miss
Vaughn and that she did not find her
self able to respond. To settle this
point l ventured to say that l had
heard she was quite pretty.
"Prettyv' echoed Burnham. "Well,
that's hardly the word. IL happen to
have portrait of her"
And he pretended to forget which
pocket it was in. 1t was an ordinary
cabinet photograph, but it showed
most extraordinary face, a dainty COM
posite of womanly and childish quail
ties. would not have been able to de-
eide from this picture whether Miss
Vaughn was fifteen years old or TWEEN
ty-fve, and after my first glance look
ed up at Burnham and asked, How
old is she?"
He laughed.
you'd be as much puzzled if you
saw the original" he said, and this
proved to be no exaggeration. 1.-THE
youth, / think, is in the lower part Of
the face. What a pretty mouth and
chin! Did you ever see such pretty
mouth and chin? There's all the dim
| pied sweetness, all the quick sensitive
ness of girlhOOd, and yet no weakness.
But there's a calmness in the forehead
| and eyes-the eyes bit long, as you
notice, with very delicately marked
brows. The eyes are deep blue and all
the coloring exquisite. Her hair is
| H,,1,;
bad taste for me to run on like this, "
he added suddenly, but Miss Vaughn s
| beauty is such a simple and natural
thing that one feels no hesitation in
speaking of it. Why, even in her pres
ence 1 sometimes find myself-howev-
er, that's neither here nor there. You
asked how old she was. She'll be
eighteen next week"
IF the young lady's peculiar powers
are of interest to science" said l. "it
would seem as if some financial ar
rangement might be made Whereby
"We've suggested that, but she won't
listen to it," he interrupted. 1.-THE
queer part of it is that Miss Vaughn
insists that she has no powers which
are not shared by all our species. She
has, though"
We had reached Burnham's lodgings
by this time, and there we conversed
for an hour or more upon the subject
Of the experiments which had been
| made in the case of Miss Vaughn
| They seemed to me to possess the
vague and unsatisfactory character
which l had learned to associate with
common fraudulent practices. The
young lady answered questions con
corning matters of which she was sup.
posed to have no knowledge, peculiar.
tiles of persons whom she had not
seen, incidents in the lives of the ques
TONERS or of their friends. 1t was not
able that she passed into no state OF
trance or meSmeric sleep. She remain
ed entirely normal, not even exhibiting
the excessive fatigue which usually
follows such manifestations. She die
show repuGnance, however, and was
always more pleased when she failed
than when she succeeded. After a Sc
ries of failures she would laugh almost
Historically and display childish re
lief and delight. Her successes de
pressed her. The best of them, so fal
but there were some that were hard tt
explain upon any natural hypothesis
and they must have been extremely
startling to the inquirers.
AS Burnham continued to speak be
came less hopeful of Miss Vaughn as {
possible subject of investigation, les
interested in her as a psychic, but IA
more interested in her as woman
Somehow the words of this fiery blu
hopeless lover. this poor little. thin
dark. ugly faced fellow, who had nj
right to crave beautiful woman-ex
cept that he couldn't help it-built vi
before my minds eye very charmin.
personality.
talked the matter over with Hack
EFT, and we agreed that Miss Vaughn
was undoubtedly worthy of substantial
assistance, if it could be rendered with
out offense. Her situation was Ger
tainly most lamentable and involve,
no fault of her own. Having heard o
this case, we could hardly pass b.
on the other side" as Hackett eX
pressed it. The fact is that my part
ner had been playing the role of tn
good Samaritan in many towns that w
had visited, and mostly to the unde
serving, am afraid.
We decided that I should call upo
Miss Vaughn, and so 1 asked Burnhan
to secure her permission; but he toll
me very promptly that he did not car
to undertake the errand.
II couldn't lie to her." said he. "She'
: have to know the object of your Wis
here, and then she wouldn't see you"
incidentally learned during th1
conversation that Miss Vaughn was a
: intellectual prodigy, having been tn