"Let us first see what has brought you here. The gentleman has just received a severe shock and is in great fear ..."
Camillo, astonished, nodded affirmatively.
"And he wishes to know," she continued, "whether anything will happen to him or not ..."
"To me and to her," he explained, excitedly.
The fortune-teller did not smile; she simply told him to wait. She took the cards hastily once more and shuffled them with her long tapering fingers whose nails were so long and unclean from neglect; she shuffled them well, once, twice, thrice; then she began to lay them out. Camillo's eyes were riveted upon her in anxious curiosity.
Camillo leaned forward to drink in her words one by one. Then she told him to fear nothing. Nothing would happen to him or to the other. He, the third, was aware of nought. Nevertheless, great caution was indispensable; envy and rivalry were at work. She spoke to him of the love that bound them, of Rita's beauty ... Camillo was bewildered. The fortune-teller stopped talking, gathered the cards and locked them in the drawer.
"The lady has restored peace to my spirit," he said, offering her his hand across the table and pressing that of the card-reader.
"Go," she said. "Go, _ragazzo innamorato_ ..."[4]
[4] Italian for "love-sick boy," "young lover," etc.
And arising, she touched his head with her index finger. Camillo shuddered, as if it were the hand of one of the original sybils, and he, too, arose. The fortune-teller went to the bureau, upon which lay a plate of raisins, took a cluster of them and commenced to eat them, showing two rows of teeth that were as white as her nails were black. Even in this common action the woman possessed an air all her own. Camillo, anxious to leave, was at a loss how much to pay; he did not know her fee.
"Raisins cost money," he said, at length, taking out his pocket-book. "How much do you want to send for?"
Camillo took out a note for ten milreis'[5] and gave it to her. The eyes of the card-reader sparkled. Her usual fee was two milreis.
[5] In United States money ten Brazilian milreis are equivalent to about $5.50.
"I can see easily that the gentleman loves his lady very much ... And well he may. For she loves the gentleman very deeply, too. Go, go in peace, with your mind at ease. And take care as you descend the staircase,--it's dark. Don't forget your hat ..."