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.
She arose, laughing.
"Go," she said. "Go, ragazzo innamorato . . ." [1]
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?"
- ↑ Italian for "love-sick boy," "young lover," etc.
