The explanation of her motives was given so na�vely, so simply and unaffectedly, that it was impossible to take exception to it.

“Where’s the crystal?” I inquired.

“It is here,” she said, and she rolled a glass ball with the suddenness that had the appearance of magic from the dark portion of the table’s surface into the oval of light. And it was so exactly spherical, and the table top was so smooth that it would not stay where it was put, and she had to hold it there with her ringed hand.

“So that’s it,” I remarked.

“Carl,” she said, “it is only right I should warn you. Some weeks ago I saw in the crystal the face of a man whom I did not know. I saw it again and again —