"I don"t think so," said Athalie with increasing diffidence.
"Well, maybe you wouldn"t, not being in the profession. The managers all know me. I run an Emergency Agency on Broadway."
"I don"t think I understand," said the girl.
"No? Then it"s like this: a show gets stuck and needs a quick study.
They call me up and I throw them what they want at an hour"s notice.
They can always count on me for anything from wardrobe mistress to prima donna. That"s how I get mine," she concluded with a jolly laugh.
Athalie, feeling a little more confidence in her visitor, smiled at her.
"Say--you"re a beauty!" exclaimed Mrs. Bellmore, gazing at her.
"You"re all there, too. I could place you easy if you ever need it.
You don"t sing, do you?"
"No."
"Ever had your voice tried?"
"No."
"Dance?"
"I dance--whatever is being danced--rather easily."
"No stage experience?"
"No."
"Well--what do you say, Miss Greensleeve?"
Athalie coloured and laughed: "Thank you, but I had rather work at stenography."
Mrs. Bellmore said: "I certainly hate to admit it, and knock my own profession, but any good stenographer in a year makes more than many a star you read about.... Unless there"s men putting up for her."
Athalie nodded gravely.
"All the same you"d make a peach of a show-girl," added Mrs. Bellmore regretfully. And, after a rather intent interval of silent scrutiny: "You"re a _good_ girl, too.... Say, you _do_ get pretty lonely sometimes, don"t you, dear?"
Athalie flushed and shook her head. Mrs. Bellmore lighted another cigarette from the smouldering remnant of the previous one, and flung the gilt-tipped remains through the window.
"Ten to one it hits a crook if it hits anybody," she remarked. "This is a fierce neighbourhood,--all sorts of joints, and then some. But I like my rooms. I don"t guess you"ll be bothered. A girl is more likely to get spoken to in the swell part of town. Well,--" she struggled to her fat feet--"I"ll be going. If you"re lonely, drop in during the evening. I"m at the office all day except Sundays and holidays."
They stood, confronted, looking at each other for a moment. Then, impulsively the fat woman offered her hand:
"Don"t be afraid of me," she said. "I may look crooked, but I"m not.
Your mother wouldn"t mind my knowing you."
She held Athalie"s narrow hand for a moment, and the girl looked into the faded eyes.
"Thank you for coming," she said. "I _was_ lonely."
"Good girls usually are. It"s a h.e.l.l of an alternative, isn"t it? I don"t mean to be profane; h.e.l.l is the word. It"s h.e.l.l either way for a girl alone."
Athalie nodded silently. Mrs. Bellmore looked at her, then glanced around the room, curiously.
"h.e.l.lo," she said abruptly, "what"s that?"
Athalie"s eyes followed hers: "Do you mean the crystal?"
"Yes.... Say--" she turned to Athalie, nodding profound emphasis on every word she uttered:--"Say, I _thought_ there was something else to you--something I couldn"t quite get next to. Now I know what"s been bothering me about you. You"re clairvoyant!"
Athalie"s cheeks grew warm: "I am not a medium," she said. "That crystal is not my own."
"That may be. Maybe you don"t think you are a medium. But you are, Miss Greensleeve. _I_ know. I"m a little that way, too,--just a very little. Oh, I could go into the business and fake it of course,--like all the others--or most of them. But you are the real thing. Why," she exclaimed in vexation, "didn"t I know it as soon as I laid eyes on you? I certainly was subconscious of something. Why you could do anything you pleased with the power you have if you"d care to learn the business. There"s money in it--take it from me!"
Athalie said, after a few moments of silence: "I don"t think I understand. Is there a way of--of developing clear vision?"
"Haven"t you ever tried?"
"Never.... Except when a little while ago I went over to the crystal and--and tried to find--somebody."
"Did you find--that person?"
"No."
Mrs. Bellmore shook her fat head: "You needn"t tell me any more. You can"t ever do yourself any good by crystal gazing--you poor child."
Athalie"s head dropped.
"No, it"s no use," said the other. "If you go into the business and play square you can sometimes help others. But I guess the crystal is mostly fake. Mrs. Del Garmo had one like yours. She admitted to me that she never saw anything in it until she hypnotised herself. And she could do that by looking steadily at a bra.s.s k.n.o.b on a bed-post; and see as much in it as in her crystal."
The fat woman lighted another cigarette and blew a contemplative whiff toward the crystal: "No: at best the game is a crooked one, even for the few who have really any occult power."
"Why?" asked the girl, surprised.
"Because they are usually clever, nimble-witted, full of intuition.
Deduction is an instinct with them. And it is very easy to elaborate from a basis of truth;--it"s more than a temptation to intelligence to complete a story desired and already paid for by a client. Because almost invariably the client is as stupid as the medium is intelligent. And, take it from me, it"s impossible not to use your intelligence when a partly finished business deal requires it."
Athalie was silent.
"_I"d_ do it," laughed Mrs. Bellmore.
Athalie said nothing.
"Say, on the level," said the older woman, "do you see a lot that we others can"t see, Miss Greensleeve?"
"I have seen--some things."