Page:Braddon--The Trail of the Serpent.djvu/124

120 Raymond. "No doubt Monsieur Don Giovanni admires blondes, having himself the southern beauty."

"The fair woman is always with the king of spades," says the fortune-teller. "There is here no falsehood—nothing but devotion. The king of spades can be true; he is true to this diamond woman; but for the queen of spades he has nothing but treachery."

"Is there anything more on the cards?" asks Raymond.

"Yes! A priest—a marriage—money. Ah! this king of spades imagines that he is within reach of a great fortune."

"Does he deceive himself?"

"Yes! Now the treachery changes sides. The queen of spades is in it nowBut stay—the traitor, the real traitor is here; this fair man—the knave of diamonds"

Raymond Marolles lays his white hand suddenly upon the card to which Blurosset is pointing, and says, hurriedly,—

"Bah! You have told us all about yesterday; now tell us of to-morrow." And then he adds, in a whisper, in the ear of Monsieur Blurosset,—

"Fool! have you forgotten your lesson?"

"They will speak the truth," mutters the fortune-teller. "I was carried away by them. I will be more careful."

This whispered dialogue is unheard by Valerie, who sits immovable, awaiting the sentence of the oracle, as if the monotonous voice of Monsieur Blurosset were the voice of Nemesis.

"Now then for the future," says Raymond. "It is possible to tell what has happened. We wish to pass the confines of the possible: tell us, then, what is going to happen."

Monsieur Blurosset collects the cards, shuffles them, and rearranges them in groups, as before. Again the blue spectacles wander. From three to nine; from nine to seven; from seven to five; Valerie following them with bright and hollow eyes. Presently the fortune-teller says, in his old mechanical way—

"The queen of spades is very proud."

"Yes," mutters Raymond in Valerie's ear. "Heaven help the king who injures such a queen!"

She does not take her eyes from the blue spectacles of Monsieur Blurosset; but there is a tightening of her determined mouth which seems like an assent to this remark.

"She can hate as well as love. The king of spades is in danger," says the fortune-teller.

There is, for a few minutes, dead silence, while the blue spectacles shift from group to group of cards; Valerie intently watcning them, Raymond intently watching her.

This time there seems to be something difficult in the calculation of the numbers. The spectacles shift hither and thither,