“As if she was in absolute agony; and Momma and the four other ladies nearly fainted off their form, they were so perfectly terrified.”
“There was a scream more piercing than any of the others.”
“The clouds of incense became so thick that you couldn’t see your hand.”
“The Occult Operatives sang more loudly and less in tune than ever, and the crystal ball kept on jumping up and down. Then the clouds of smoke cleared away, and the lights went up, and——” The Duchess paused provokingly.
“And the Subject got out of the bath.... And she had been ugly and scarred when she went in, but now she was young and pretty!”
“It was the same woman to all appearances, but changed—wonderfully changed. The same pretty brown hair, the same eyes, gray, with long curly black lashes, and the same strange malformation of one finger of the left hand. But no cicatrices, none of the seams and marks that made the other frightful.”
“Then I guess I let the cat out of the bag.”
“No, goosey! One woman younger than the other, and looking exactly like her, as _she_ looked before the injury to her face.”
“Managed with a false bottom and trap exit. The sort of trick one sees exposed at the Egyptian Hall.”
“And the daughter took the mother’s place?”
“Under cover of the incense—and the singing. The tent held _two_, you understand.”
“Momma and the other ladies—once the thing had been proved genuine—were only too anxious to plank down their money and hop into the wonderful bath. So they went up to the Theologa, and she blessed them and laid the five money-bags on the altar, and then——”
“Then all the lights went out,” said the Duchess, “and there was a kind of stampede, and Momma and the four other ladies found themselves alone in the temple. The Theologa and the Subject and the hundred members of the Community who’d sat round on the seats and helped with the hymns were gone—and the dollar bags had vanished. The doors of the temple were locked, and Momma and the four other victims had to stop there until the morning. An express man heard their cries for help, broke in the door, and took them to an hotel in his wagon. Dear, I’m going to toddle to by-by!”
“It was an awful—awful swindle,” said Lady Sidonia, as she and the Duchess kissed good-night.