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We were to send down some great expert and a seasoned old prospector or two who could positively smell ore on the rocks. "I sent out my little messages in the shape of the jeweled butterflies, and Ydo, who had not been in this country for several years, decided to tell fortunes under the name of The Veiled Mariposa, and to carry out the idea in her disguise.
"You have been on the ground then?" he asked. "Ah, yes, with prospectors. But," with a shrug of the shoulders, "we were not so lucky as you." "The interview for the afternoon is of course off," he said, rising heavily and stretching out his hand for his hat. "I suppose so," conceded Ydo. She smiled and sighed. "The pretty little coup I had planned is smashed.
Ydo glanced at her from under her eyes, a slow, audacious smile forming about her lips, "I mean to have a set," she said composedly, "but I want mine copied from one Mr. Hayden has in his collection." Marcia turned surprised eyes on Hayden. "I did not know that you were a collector of butterflies," she said. "Oh, he is so modest!"
"Of course I am," agreed Kitty, "only I should have put it less bluntly." "Wait! I have an inspiration." Ydo thought a moment. "I will not come to the dinner. We can make it much more effective than that. Ah, listen!" waving her hands to quell their protests. "Let me appear, later in the evening, in my professional capacity and tell the past, present and future of your guests.
Now, what I came to find out is what you want with Wilfred, if indeed you want him at all." "You flatter me," said Ydo. "More, you interest me. Now, just why do you wish to know?" "Are you going to marry him?" "It is evidently cards on the table with us." Ydo had recovered her good spirits. "Truly, I have not decided. You see, madame, your Wilfred is a big, good-natured fellow.
"Forgive me, instead," said Ydo, with charming penitence. "But I was the Gipsy to-night in heart and feeling. I had to put on these. Oh," throwing herself into a chair, "I have suffered to-day. It has been coming on for days. Ennui. Do you know it, pretty lady? And the longing for mine own people." "Your people are not in this country, are they?" asked Kitty politely.
It was Sunday, a day on which she received no clients, and the maid showed him into neither the consulting- nor reception-rooms, but in a small library beyond them which was evidently a part of her private suite. In coloring the room suggested the soft wood tones that Ydo loved, greens and browns and russets harmoniously blended.
Hayden, I do not know. I can not throw any light on the subject. I remember though when we were school-girls, Marcia used to spin some fascinating yarns about the sayings and doings of her friend Ydo; but since the lady has made her spectacular appearance as a fortune-teller, the Veiled Mariposa, and become such a social fad, why, it is simply impossible to get any information out of Marcia.
Ames was surveying her unexpectedly distinguished guest with a respectful surprise of which Robert would never have dreamed her capable. "Why have you never mentioned it to me?" cried Marcia, and there was reproach in her tone. Hayden, annoyed at first, determined to out-match Ydo in her audacity, "But I have," he cried, his eyes alight with fun, "only I called it by a different name."
"Then I will find out now if she will come, if you will allow me to use your telephone." He was lucky enough to find Ydo at home; but when he informed her that he was giving a dinner for a few friends on Tuesday, ten days away, and that he earnestly desired her presence, she demurred. "What are you doing this evening?" he asked. "Nothing," she answered, "and I am bored."
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