Athalie flushed and shook her head. Mrs. Bellmore lighted another
cigarette from the smouldering remnant of the previous one, and flung
the gilt-tipped remains through the window.
"Ten to one it hits a crook if it hits anybody," she remarked. "This
is a fierce neighbourhood,--all sorts of joints, and then some. But I
like my rooms. I don't guess you'll be bothered. A girl is more likely
to get spoken to in the swell part of town. Well,--" she struggled to
her fat feet--"I'll be going. If you're lonely, drop in during the
evening. I'm at the office all day except Sundays and holidays."
They stood, confronted, looking at each other for a moment. Then,
impulsively the fat woman offered her hand: "Don't be afraid of me," she said. "I may look crooked, but I'm not.
Your mother wouldn't mind my knowing you."
She held Athalie's narrow hand for a moment, and the girl looked into
the faded eyes.
"Thank you for coming," she said. "I was lonely."
"Good girls usually are. It's a hell of an alternative, isn't it? I
don't mean to be profane; hell is the word. It's hell either way for a
girl alone."
Athalie nodded silently. Mrs. Bellmore looked at her, then glanced
around the room, curiously.
"Hello," she said abruptly, "what's that?"
Athalie's eyes followed hers: "Do you mean the crystal?"
"Yes.... Say--" she turned to Athalie, nodding profound emphasis on
every word she uttered:--"Say, I thought there was something else
to you--something I couldn't quite get next to. Now I know what's been
bothering me about you. You're clairvoyant!"
Athalie's cheeks grew warm: "I am not a medium," she said. "That
crystal is not my own."
"That may be. Maybe you don't think you are a medium. But you are,
Miss Greensleeve. I know. I'm a little that way, too,--just a very
little. Oh, I could go into the business and fake it of course,--like
all the others--or most of them. But you are the real thing. Why," she
exclaimed in vexation, "didn't I know it as soon as I laid eyes on
you? I certainly was subconscious of something. Why you could do
anything you pleased with the power you have if you'd care to learn
the business. There's money in it--take it from me!"
Athalie said, after a few moments of silence: "I don't think I
understand. Is there a way of--of developing clear vision?"