that, for a certain gratification, which of course was not an
inconsiderable one, Doctor Baptista Damiotti could tell the fate
of the absent, and even show his visitors the personal form of
their absent friends, and the action in which they were engaged
at the moment. This rumour came to the ears of Lady Forester,
who had reached that pitch of mental agony in which the sufferer
will do anything, or endure anything, that suspense may be
converted into certainty.

Gentle and timid in most cases, her state of mind made her
equally obstinate and reckless, and it was with no small surprise
and alarm that her sister, Lady Bothwell, heard her express a
resolution to visit this man of art, and learn from him the fate
of her husband. Lady Bothwell remonstrated on the improbability
that such pretensions as those of this foreigner could be founded
in anything but imposture.

"I care not," said the deserted wife, "what degree of ridicule I
may incur; if there be any one chance out of a hundred that I may
obtain some certainty of my husband's fate, I would not miss that
chance for whatever else the world can offer me."

Lady Bothwell next urged the unlawfulness of resorting to such
sources of forbidden knowledge.

"Sister," replied the sufferer, "he who is dying of thirst cannot
refrain from drinking even poisoned water. She who suffers under
suspense must seek information, even were the powers which offer
it unhallowed and infernal. I go to learn my fate alone, and
this very evening will I know it; the sun that rises to-morrow