"Poor old Princess," murmured the girl. "She detests moving."
"All frauds do," remarked Duane.
"She isn't a fraud," said Athalie quietly.
Our silence indicated our surprise. After a few moments the girl added:
"Whatever else she may be she is not a fraud in her profession. I think
I had better give you an example of her professional probity. It
interested me considerably as I followed it in my crystal. She knew all
the while that I was watching her as well as the very people she herself
was watching; and once or twice she looked up at me out of my crystal
and grinned."
"Can she see us now?" I inquired uneasily.
"No."
"Why not?" asked Duane.
"I shall not tell you why."
"Not that I care whether she sees me or not," he added.
"Do you care, Harry, whether I see you occasionally in my crystal?"
smiled Athalie.
Duane flushed brightly and reminded her that she was too honourable to
follow the movements of her personal friends unless requested to do so
by them.
"That is quite true," rejoined the girl, simply. "But once I saw you
when I did not mean to."
"Well?" he demanded, redder still.
"You were merely asleep in your own bed," she said, laughing and
accepting a lighted match from me. Then as the fragrant thread of smoke
twisted in ghostly ringlets across her smooth young cheeks she settled
back among her cushions.