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siii^

Townsend
 Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2018 with funding from
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https://archive.org/details/worldsgreatestmaOOOOtown
WORLDS GREATEST
* MAGIC TRICKS
WORLD'S GREATEST
MAGIC TRICKS

CHARLES BARRY
TOWNSEND

Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

New York
 This book is dedicated to my son Mark for his perseverance and
hard work in graduating from the University of Washington.
Were all mighty proud of you.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Townsend, Charles Barry.

World’s greatest magic tricks / by Charles Barry Townsend,
p. cm.
Sequel to: World’s best magic tricks. 1992.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8069-0580-8
1. Conjuring. 2. Tricks. I. Title.
GV1547.T66 1994
793.8—dc20 94-12463
CIP

>987654321

Published in 2005 by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016
© 1994 by Charles barry Townsend
Distributed in Canada by Sterling Publishing
c/o Canadian Manda Group, 165 Dufferin Street,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6K 3H6
Distributed in Great Britain and Europe by Chris Lloyd at Orca Book
Services, Stanley House, Fleets Lane, Poole BH15 3AJ, England
Distributed in Australia by Capricorn Link (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
P.O. Box 704, Windsor, NSW 2756, Australia

Manufactured in the United States of America

All rights reserved

Sterling ISBN 1-4027-2545-0

For information about custom editions, special sales, premium and

corporate purchases, please contact Sterling Special Sales
Department at 800-805-5489 or specialsales@sterlingpub.com.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.7
SILK MAGIC
An Impossible Penetration.8

TABLE MAGIC
The Magnetic Paper Clips.11
The Floating Salt Shaker.15
A Paper and Pencil Game.18
An Easy Number Trick.19

PARLOR MAGIC
The Block Off the Ribbon Feat .21
The Wonderful Production Box .25
A Daylight Spirit Seance.2.
A Mind-Over-Matter Exhibition .34

MENTAL MAGIC
The Great Calendar Mystery.37
Another Great Calendar Mystery .40
The Amazing License Plate Prediction.43
Mind Reading Made Easy .50
A Demonstration of Extrasensory Perception .... 53
The Master Mentalist’s Memory Demonstration ... 57

PAPER MAGIC
The Paper Bird of Japan .62
The Puzzling Paper Puff Ball .67
Tintinnabulation .69
ROPE MAGIC
The Great Cut-and-Restored Rope Trick.72
How to Stretch a Piece of Rope.78

MONEY MAGIC
An Inflationary Lesson.82
The Big Money Giveaway Trick.85
The Impossible Coin Vanish .87

CARD MAGIC
The Red-and-Black-Card Mystery .89
A Devilish Game of Poker .92
Another Poker Deal Setup.94
The Under-and-Up Card Mystery .96
The Three-Card Monte Trick .98
A Clever Coincidence?.101
The Travelling Cards .104
The Famous Four Aces Trick .106
A New Age Mind-Reading Mystery.110
Finding the Reversed Card.113
An Old-Time Card Trick .115
The Twenty-Card Trick.118
The Spectator Finds His Card.120
A Surprising Revelation .122

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
A Folding Magic Table .124

INDEX .128

6
 INTRODUCTION

Hello again! It’s great to be back with my second book

devoted exclusively to magic. I hope you are among the
numerous readers who found merit in The World's Best Magic
Tricks. In that book I provided you with 48 of the very best
tricks that have entertained magic lovers for over 100 years.
Now, you are about to learn an additional 37 mysteries that
you can add to your performing repertoire.
I’ve divided this book into eight sections: Silk Magic,
Table Magic, Parlor Magic, Mental Magic, Paper Magic,
Rope Magic, Money Magic, and Card Magic. Over 90 illus¬
trations will help you to take the guesswork out of perform¬
ing these masterpieces. You’ll find that subtle secrets are the
rule here. The emphasis is on presentation, not on sleight
of hand.
Magic is one of the oldest forms of entertainment. De¬
scriptions of conjuring performances in ancient Egypt date
back to 3766 B.C. Every age has had its share of conjurers
and men of mystery. Today, magic is thriving as never before.
From causing railroad cars to disappear to flying into the
theater and onto the stage, contemporary wizards are
stretching the limits of credulity. You too can join their ranks
by mastering the feats that are detailed within the pages of
this book. Work hard and guard the secrets well! They are
your key to becoming a Master of Mystery!

Charles Barry Townsend

7
 Silk Magic
AN IMPOSSIBLE PENETRATION

Effect
You start this effect by picking up and displaying an ordi¬
nary clear drinking glass. Holding it mouth-upward in your
right hand, you push a bright red silk handkerchief down
into it. You then take a plain white handkerchief and drape it
over the top of the glass, hiding the glass from sight com¬
pletely. Next, snap a rubber band around both the glass and
the white handkerchief. The red handkerchief is thus safely
sealed within the glass. You now reach underneath the white
handkerchief and immediately bring your hand back out
holding the red handkerchief. The rubber band and white
handkerchief are then removed, revealing an empty glass.
All items can immediately be passed around for examina¬
tion. Once again, the impossible is proved to be common¬
place in the hands of the master magician!

Materials needed
One clear, straight-sided drinking glass • a white hand¬
kerchief • a red silk handkerchief • a rubber band.

Presentation
Pick up the glass and hold it mouth-upward about chest-
high. Then pick up the red handkerchief in your left hand
and push it down into the glass (Fig. 1). Next, pick up the
white handkerchief and bring it up in front of the glass. As
you start to cover the glass, the right hand allows the glass to
rotate downwards so that it is bottom-upward when covered
by the handkerchief (Figs. 2 & 3). You now snap the rubber
band around the top of the glass. To all appearances the red
silk is now firmly imprisoned within the glass. Although the
8
open end of the glass is facing downwards, the straight sides
of it help to keep the red silk from falling out.
You now reach under the handkerchief, take hold of the
red silk, and pull it straight down, giving the illusion that you

are pulling it through the bottom of the glass (Fig. 4). You
then drop the red silk onto the table and take hold of the
white handkerchief above the rubber band. Your other hand
goes back under the handkerchief and takes hold of the
mouth of the glass. When the rubber band comes free of the
glass, let the glass rotate on your fingertips. This action will,
of course, be masked by the handkerchief until the glass is
mouth-upward. The handkerchief is then removed and you
can now pass the glass around for examination.
This is really a very startling trick, one that is straight¬
forward, using simple, ordinary items. When well done, it
has all the attributes of a minor miracle.
10
 Table Magic
THE MAGNETIC PAPER CLIPS

Effect
Display two jumbo paper clips, one in each hand, and say,
“Static electricity is a remarkable force.” “When properly
understood it can endow any object with a positive or nega¬
tive charge. As an example, if I rub the paper clip in my left
hand against the cloth of my right sleeve I will impart a
positive charge to the clip. In turn, if I rub the paper clip in
my right hand against the cloth of my left sleeve I will impart
a negative charge to the clip. This can easily be proved, since
unlike charges attract. Watch this. I place the clip in my left
hand down on the table. If I now touch it with the clip in my
right hand the two should cling together if they have truly
been charged. Yes, look at that! When I raise my right hand
the two clips are stuck together. Amazing! Here are the
paper clips. Let’s see if you can magnetize them the way I
did!”
At this point, open your hands and let the clips drop to the
table. Your hands are empty. Try as they may, the onlookers
will find it is impossible for them to turn the clips into
magnets.

Materials needed
Two jumbo paper clips • a safety pin • a two-foot length of
elastic cord • a small bar magnet about one inch long • some
sticky tape.

Preparation
The secret to performing this trick is the use of a special
gimmick. (A gimmick is an aid to performing a trick that
your audience knows nothing about.) To make the gimmick
11
you will need a short length of elastic cord. Fasten the bar
magnet to one end of the cord with cellophane tape. Attach a
safety pin to the other end of the cord (Fig. 1). Next, take the

cord and insert it, magnet-end first, down the right sleeve of
your jacket until the magnet is about two inches from the end
of the sleeve (Fig. 2). Take the safety pin on the other end of

the cord and attach it to the inside of your jacket at the point
where it enters the sleeve. Put the jacket on and you’re ready
to perform this neat little mystery.

Presentation
At some point in your presentation, when the attention of
your audience is directed elsewhere, drop your hands below
the tabletop and reach into your right sleeve with your left
hand and pull the bar magnet down into your right hand

12
 Fig. 3

(Fig. 3). Now, place your right hand, palm down, on top of
the table while you reach into your side pocket with your left
hand and bring forth the two jumbo paper clips. Drop one of
them on the table and place the other clip into your right
hand so that the end of the clip is up against the end of the
magnet (Fig. 4). The clip is now magnetized and can be used

to pick up the paper clip on the table. Hold the clips above
the table for a few moments and then work the magnet away
from touching the paper clip. The attracted paper clip will
fall to the table. While all eyes are following this clip, the
Fingers of the right hand release their hold on the magnet,
causing it to be drawn up into the sleeve and out of sight. Try
as they may, your audience will fail to duplicate your electrify¬
ing feat.
This trick is a great lead-in to that classic stumper “The
Linking Paper Clip Puzzle.” Borrow a dollar bill from a
member of your audience and say, “I’ll wager this dollar that
I can toss these two paper clips into the air and cause them to
become linked together before they land on top of the table.
Do I have any takers?”
The solution to this problem is simple. All you have to do is
13
to take the dollar bill, fold it into thirds and insert the paper
clips in the positions shown in Fig. 5. Now, grasp the bill by
both ends and smartly snap it apart. The paper clips will fly
into the air and land on the table firmly linked together.
Another wager won!

14
 THE FLOATING SALT SHAKER

Effect
The following dinner-table effect, when properly done, has
all the power of a minor miracle. After the main course has
been completed and everyone is relaxing for a few minutes
before the onslaught of dessert, bring up the subject of
levitation as performed by the great magicians of the theater.
Mention that your grandfather learned the secret of this
trick from the great Houdini and that he passed it on to you
when you were a young sprout. By way of illustration you
stand up and place the glass salt shaker on the table in front
of you. Extending the fingers of your right hand, lower them
until the tips touch the top of the shaker (see Fig. 1). Now,

Fig A

very slowly, raise your hand about four or five inches. Mirac¬
ulously, the salt shaker clings to your fingers and rises with
them. Spread your fingers apart until the shaker is seen to be
touching only your middle f inger (see Fig. 2). Still it doesn’t
15
fall. After a few seconds, lower your hand until the shaker is
once more resting on the table. Now open your hand and
turn it around so that your audience can see it is empty. The
shaker can immediately be examined.

Materials needed
One salt shaker • a wooden toothpick • some sticky tape • a
length of elastic cord.

Preparation
This trick is performed with the aid of a clever gimmick that
is unknown to your audience. Using the sticky tape, attach
one end of the elastic to the toothpick. The toothpick should
be of the round type that is pointed at both ends. The elastic
should be about two feet long and have a safety pin attached
to the other end. (This gimmick is similar to the one de¬
scribed in the previous trick, “The Magnetic Paper Clips.”)
Lower the toothpick end of the elastic down the right sleeve
of your jacket until the toothpick is within one inch of the
cuff. With the safety pin, attach the other end to the inside of
your coat.
16
Presentation
Before starting this trick you must secretly pull the toothpick
out of your sleeve and hold it against your middle finger with
your right thumb. You are now ready to start the mystery
Begin by talking about the many great magicians of history
who performed the famous “floating lady” illusion. Reach
forward, pick up the salt shaker, and place it in front of you
on the table. It’s best to be seated at the head of the table so
that you will not have anyone at your sides who might
glimpse the gimmick in your right hand. Stand up and bring
your right hand forward with the back of it towards your
audience. Bring the tips of your fingers down until they
touch the top of the salt shaker as shown in Figure 1. At this
point push the tip of the toothpick down into one of the holes
in the middle of the metal cap until it’s wedged in tightly. You
are now ready to perform the trick described above.
At the end of the levitation, when the salt shaker is again
resting on the table, wiggle the toothpick free from the metal
cap and let the elastic pull it up into your sleeve. Show your
hand back and front and give the shaker out for inspection.
In the impromptu version of this trick the magician dis¬
penses with the elastic, tape, and safety pin and uses only the
toothpick. At the end of the presentation he has to palm the
toothpick and get rid of it while passing the shaker for
examination. I think the method that employs the gimmick
is the cleaner of the two versions.

17
 A PAPER AND PENGIL GAME
Effect
This effect is designed to reinforce the perception of your
mastery of numbers. It’s a game which you can’t lose, re¬
gardless of whether your opponent goes first or you do.
During play, each of the two players writes down a number
from 1 to 10. That number is added to the previous total of
numbers as you go along. The players take turns writing
down the numbers. The goal is to be the one who causes the
total to reach exactly 100.
For example, let’s say you go first and write down 5. The
other player now writes a 9 under it and adds it up, giving a
running total of 14. Now it’s your turn again. You write a 9
under the 14, draw a line under it, and write down the new
total of 23. Play continues in this fashion until someone
writes down a number which brings the new total to exactly
100. When you know the secret to this mental exercise you
will be unbeatable.

Materials needed
Pencil and paper.

Presentation
The secret lies in memorizing a group of key numbers. They
are: 12, 23, 34, 45, 56, 67, 78, and 89. Please note that each
number is 11 greater than the previous number. During play,
you must cause the total to be one of these key numbers.
Once you’ve done that you’re assured of winning. From that
point on always make sure that your number plus the pre¬
vious number put down by your opponent add up to 11. This
will ensure that every time you add a number to the previous
total the new total will be one of the key numbers mentioned
above.
When you get to the last key number, 89, you are a sure
winner.
Another coup for the master mentalist!
18
 AN EASY NUMBER TRIGIC

Effect
Hand a spectator a small pad and pencil. Request the specta¬
tor to write down any five-digit number that has five differ¬
ent numbers. Then ask your spectator to reverse the number
and subtract the smaller of the two numbers from the larger.
Once this is done, have the spectator reverse the result and
add this new number to it. Instruct the spectator to concen¬
trate on this number while you attempt to read his mind.
After a moment or two, claim to be getting some faint im¬
pressions of the calculated number. “Yes, it’s all becoming
quite clear now. The number you are thinking of is
109,890! Is that correct? It is! You have a very strong mind.
Your thoughts came through loud and clear!”

Materials needed
A pad and pencil.

Preparation
None.

Presentation
Just follow the description of the effect and it will work itself.
The answer will almost always be 109,890. Suppose the first
number written down by the spectator was 5 9 3 7 1. Revers¬
ing that gives 1 7 3 9 5. Subtracting the smaller number from
the larger gives:

5 9 3 7 1
- 1 7 3 9 5
4 19 7 6

19
 Reversing this number and adding the new number to
it gives:

4 19 7 6
+ 6 7 9 1 4
1 0 9 8 9 0

This works almost every time. On occasion, however, the

result will turn out to be 99,099. If it ever happens that the
number is not 109,890, pretend that you must have inter¬
cepted someone else’s thoughts. Tell your spectator to con¬
centrate again on the number. Wait a moment and then
announce that the number is 99,099.

20
 Parlor Magic
THE BLOCK OFF THE RIBBON
FEAT

Effect
Show the audience a solid block of wood with a hole drilled
through the center. In the other hand display a small wooden
frame into which you slide the block. The frame has two
matching holes on opposite sides that line up with the hole in
the block. Pick up a long knitting needle that has a five-foot
length of brightly colored ribbon attached to it. Using the
needle, thread the ribbon through the frame and the block.
After pulling the ribbon backward and forward a few times
to show that the block is securely trapped within the wooden
frame, hand the ends of the ribbon to two people from the
audience to hold (Fig. 1). Now take the block and frame in
your hands and, in full view of the audience, pull the block
free of the restraining ribbon. All the items can immediately
be passed around for examination.

Materials needed
One solid wooden cube • one wooden frame • a five-foot
length of colored three-quarter-inch ribbon • a spool of
heavy black thread • beeswax or other soft wax • a knitting
needle.
21
Preparation
The wooden cube should measure around three inches to
the side. A three-quarter-inch hole is drilled through the
center of the cube. The frame is made of 5/s-inch stock and is
three inches wide. The interior of the frame should be
slightly larger than the cube. The insides and outsides of the
frame should be painted black. The front and back edges of
the frame can be painted red. The cube is either varnished
or painted a bright contrasting color.
While the cube, ribbon, and frame are all perfectly genu¬
ine, the secret of the trick is in the use of a piece of black
thread. Tie a large loop in the end of the thread and attach it
to the inside of the frame. This loop goes around one of the
holes in the frame, and the thread continues down along the
side, across the bottom, up the other side, and out the oppo¬
site hole. The thread is kept in place with tiny bits of wax
(Fig. 2). The rest of the thread, about five feet or so, hangs
down. The end of this thread is attached to the floor or to the
front edge of a heavy table.

Fig. 2 Thread

Presentation
Let’s say you’re using a heavy table to hold your parapher¬
nalia and the black thread is attached to the right front side
22
of the table. Pick up and display the cube and frame. Slip the
cube into the frame and show that the hole in the cube lines
up with the holes in the frame. Now thread the ribbon
through the frame, securely locking the cube within. Re¬
move the needle from the ribbon and slide the ribbon back
and forth through the frame and block a few times. While
doing this, hold the frame and block in your right hand.
Hold them in such a way that one of the holes in the frame
faces the audience with the ribbon hanging out. With your
left hand reach in front of the frame, grip the ribbon, and
pull it down a few feet. Then reach in the back of the frame,
grip the ribbon there, and pull it back down on that side. The
second time you do this, with the end of the ribbon in the
back of the frame, press down on the strip of ribbon in front
of the frame so it is held tightly against the frame. Do this
with your right middle finger. With your left hand lightly
take hold of the ribbon in the back of the frame (Fig. 3). Just

23
as you’re about to pull the ribbon down with this hand, move
your body forward and away from the table. This action will
cause the loop of thread inside the frame to take hold of the
ribbon and pull the end of it (that part that is in back of the
frame) back through the hole in the block and then to go
around between the block and the frame and finally come
back out the hole again into your left hand (see Fig. 4). The

left hand immediately pulls the ribbon down in back. You

then pull the front part of the ribbon down for the last time,
bringing the two ends of the ribbon together. At this point
the loop of thread will have fallen to the floor where it will go
unnoticed.
You are now ready to have the members of the audience
take hold of the ends of the ribbon prior to the climactic
conclusion of the trick. The success of this mystery is wholly
dependent on the smooth execution of the move where the
thread pulls the ribbon around the block and out the back of
the frame. It should look as though you are merely pulling
the ribbon back and forth a few times to show that everything
is nice and secure. The movement of your body away from
the table, along with your arm and hand movements, should
effectively hide the secret from the audience during the split
second of execution. Practise this move. Once mastered, it is
a very perplexing illusion to add to your act.
24
 THE WONDERFUL
PRODUCTION BOX

Effect
Call attention to a brightly decorated box sitting on a small
table. Remove the lid and, after showing it on both sides,
place it on the table next to the box. Picking up the box, bring
it forward so the audience can see that it is quite empty and
that nothing is attached to the sides and bottom. Pick up the
lid, put the box back on the table, and then replace the lid on
it. Now the action begins. After rolling up your sleeves and
making a few mystic passes over and around the box, pro¬
ceed to remove a great number of articles that have suddenly
and mysteriously materialized within its confines. Produce a
large number of flags and silks, hundreds of paper flowers,
and even a live bird or two. The box proves to be a veritable
cornucopia of colorful and unusual items. Let’s see how it’s
done!

Materials needed
A plywood box with lid • a special bag for holding the items to
be produced from the box • the production items (flags,
scarves, paper flowers, birds, etc.)

Preparation
Both the box and the lid should be made of plywood and
should be brightly decorated. The inside of the box should
be a light color so the audience can easily see that it is empty
when shown the inside (Fig. 1).
The bag, which is to contain the items for the production,
should be about eight inches in diameter. The top of it should
have a series of eyelets sewn into the cloth around the top of
the opening so the bag can be closed with a drawstring.
Attach a short wire handle with a ring at the end to the top of
the bag. The ring should be large enough for your middle
Finger to slide into easily. Just below this ring is a smaller ring
25
 Fig. 1

that fits over a nail that supports the bag in the back of the
table (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2

There should be a ten-inch drape running around the

four sides of the table. This is so the audience cannot see the
bag when it is hanging down in the back of the table (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3

26
Presentation
Stand behind the table and remove the lid from the box.
Show all sides of it and then, taking it in your right hand, pick
up the box with your left hand and place the lid down on the
back of the table so the edge of the lid hangs over for about
three-quarters of an inch. The wire ring from the bag should
be centered on the back edge of the lid.
Tilt the opening of the box towards the audience so every¬
one can see that the box is empty. Turning back to the table
reach down with your right hand and pick up the lid. In
doing so insert your right middle finger into the wire loop
attached to the bag and pick it up with the lid (Fig. 4). The lid

Fig. 4

will conceal the bag from the view of the audience. Make sure
the outside top of the lid is perpendicular to the floor.
Replace the box on the table, fake hold of the bottom of
the lid with your left hand and bring the lid over and to the
front of the box. Place the bottom of the lid over the front
27
edge of the box and tilt the lid back and down until it fits
snugly over the box (Fig. 5). During this action the bag will
be lowered into the box and the wire hanger will slip off your
finger.

Audience

From your point of view the trick is over. All you need to
do now is utter the magic words and start producing the
items concealed in the bag.

28
 A DAYLIGHT SPIRIT SEANCE

Effect
The following effect can either be played straight or for
laughs. State that you recently attended an auction where
you bought the contents of a box, sight unseen. When you
opened it up you found that it contained a book detailing a
spirit seance that had been conducted in 1783 by the infa¬
mous charlatan, the Count Alessandro di Cagliostro, master
of the occult and of all things dark and nefarious. Also
included in the box were a pair of white gloves reputedly
worn by the count during the seance. Then state that you
intend to recreate the seance here and now. Bring forward a
tall stool on which is placed a serving tray. Scattered about on
the tray are several objects including a tambourine, a large
bell, a candle holder with a candle, and a heavy chain.
Explain to the audience: “I will now slip on the gloves worn
by Cagliostro in the hope that they will help in summoning
the spirits from beyond. The items arrayed on this tray are
the normal articles that are associated with seances. Let us
hope that the spirits can let their presence be known through
the use of these items. Since the spirits are known to be on
the shy side, we must hide the articles from your sight if we
are to have any hope of success.”
Suiting your actions to these words, pick up a large black
velvet banner and hold it out in front of the stool (Fig. 1).
After asking for quiet, call on the spirits to appear. After a
moment or two something bumps against the back of the
velvet banner. Then the bell is heard to ring, followed by the
sound of the playing of the tambourine. Suddenly the chain
comes flying over the top of the banner. Slowly the lighted
candle rises from behind the banner, moves back and forth
across the top, and then descends from view. The bell starts
ringing ferociously and drops to the floor followed by the
tambourine (Fig. 2).
“The power is gone,” you cry out. “The spirits have left.”

29
Roll up the banner and put it aside, saying, “I hope you
enjoyed this brief demonstration of spirit manifestations. I
know the count did!”

Fig.l

Materials needed
One tall, four-legged stool • a large serving tray • a tambou¬
rine, bell, candle and candlestick, and a large chain • two
pairs of white gloves • a two-foot-long dowel rod • a piece of
velvet 24 inches square • cotton and glue.

Preparation
The secret to this mystery is in the construction of the
banner. Lay out a 24-inch black velvet square. Fold the top
30
edge over about an inch and sew a hem all the way across.
This should create a pocket large enough to slide the dowel
rod all the way through. A couple of staples through the cloth
into the wood will keep the rod from sliding out.
Next, take the right-hand glove from one of the two pairs
and stuff the fingers and palm with cotton. Sew the opening
in the glove closed so the cotton can’t come out. Now, sew the
glove to the top of the banner on the right side (Fig. 3). The
fingers should be at the front of the banner. You might also
put some spooky design on the front like the one in the
drawing.
31
 Fig 3
•

Presentation
Prior to the start of the performance, place the banner on the
table with the rod edge along the back edge of the table. The
front of the banner is folded back and over the stuffed glove
in such a way that it completely hides it from view. The tray,
with the bell and other items, sits on the table along with a
pair of white gloves.
During the presentation move the stool to the center of the
stage, in front and to the side of the table. Next, place the tray
on the stool and call attention to the various items upon it. At
this time light the candle. Now put on the gloves and move
back behind the table, where you take hold of the banner’s
rod with your left hand. Put your right hand in back and
under the right side of the banner and lift the banner up
sharply with your left hand. The banner falls away from the
dummy gloved hand that is attached to the rod. Your right
hand follows along behind the banner and below the dummy
hand, where it will be concealed from the audience. From the
front it appears that the banner is being held up by both
hands, while in reality only your left hand is holding it
(Fig. 1). Move forward and drop the banner in front of the
tray on the stool. From this point on, your free right hand
will create all the effects that were mentioned earlier—the
32
ringing bell and the various objects tossed over the top of the
banner.
At the conclusion of the performance turn to your right to
place the banner back on the table, and turn the banner rod
inward and down in such a manner that the banner furls
itself around the dummy hand. Drop your gloved right hand
and catch the right-bottom corner of the banner and con¬
tinue this furling action. When done smoothly it will appear
that you took your right hand off of the rod and used it to
furl the banner around the rod.
You will probably want to elaborate on the presentation
given here. Dimming the lights and playing ghostly music
would certainly add to the performance. You might want to
play this seance for comedy, giving away the secret at the end
by putting your gloved right hand on the center of the rod,
thus showing three hands holding up the banner. This se¬
ance can be extremely entertaining, so practise it well and
include it in your next show.

33
 A MIND-OVER-MATTER
EXHIBITION

Effect
State that you are about to give a conclusive exhibition of the
very real powers of the mind. After commenting on the
science of psychokinesis, the ability to move objects with
thought alone, offer to duplicate some of the claims that have
been reported. Say that you will need the help of members of
the audience. Bring forward a heavy table and place several
chairs around it. Four or five members of the audience are
invited to come forward and sit around the table with you.
Line up three bottles across the center of the table (Fig. 1).
The bottles are each a different size and each is corked. A
hole has been drilled through the center of each cork and

Fig.l
34
cords run through into the bottles. At the end of each cord is
a lead fishing weight. These weights act as pendulums within
the bottles and can swing back and forth freely. The other
ends of the cords are knotted at the tops of the corks. The
bottles are numbered 1,2, and 3.
Sit down in a chair facing the three bottles and place your
hands on top of the table with your fingertips resting on it.
Ask for complete silence in the room and instruct the specta¬
tors, seated around the table, to concentrate on making the
weight in the middle jar swing. Slowly, at first, and then more
rapidly, the weight begins to move. Although no movement
on the performer’s part is observed, the weight swings wider
and wider while the weights in the other two bottles remain
motionless.
After a few seconds, instruct the spectators to shift their
thoughts from the weight in the middle bottle to the weight
in bottle one. Slowly the middle weight stops its swinging
motion and then the weight in bottle one begins to move.
After a few moments, call on the people at the table to shift
their concentration to bottle three, where the same results
are obtained.
To prove that the manifestations just witnessed were not
the work of trickery, ask one of the spectators to take your
place at the table. Once again the same results are obtained.
First one weight is set in motion, then another, and so on.
The spectators will be amazed as they each take their turn
and find that they too are able to concentrate the powers of
the assembled minds over the inert objects in the bottles.

Materials needed
Three bottles of different sizes • three corks, string, and
fishing weights (the weights should be of different sizes) • a
firm table • five or six chairs.

Presentation
Place numbered cards in front of the bottles. Drill a hole
through the top of each cork and then thread each with a
35
string. Triple-knot the ends of the cords so they will not slide
through the holes. Attach a lead weight to the end of each
cord. Make sure that when each weight is lowered into a
bottle, and the cork is driven home, the weight hangs about
two or three inches from the bottom of the bottle. Each
weight must be able to swing about freely inside the bottle.

Presentation
There are no tricks associated with the workings of this
mystery. Precede as described above until you come to the
placing of the fingertips on the tabletop. The weights are
made to move by applying pressure to the table with the tips
of your fingers. All that it takes is a subtle pressing and
relaxing of the fingers in time with the swing weight. How¬
ever, this action must be so slight that it is not perceivable to
those who are watching you. To do this you must relax and
concentrate completely on one weight at a time. Because
each is a different weight, only one at a time will respond to
your controlled pressures on the table. Just stare at the
weight and will it to move. Your body will pick up the tempo
and do the rest.
To stop a moving weight, just concentrate on stopping it.
When it slows down, switch your thoughts to another bottle
and make that weight start to move. Practise this first with
one bottle until you’re able to control it completely. When one
of the spectators takes your place at the table, guide him
along with suggestions on how to concentrate on one weight
at a time and how to lightly, but firmly, place his fingertips
upon the table. Practise this aspect of the performance with
your family and friends until you’ve developed the knack of
getting successful results from strangers trying this experi¬
ment for the first time.
This is a formidable demonstration of supposed mental
abilities and lends itself to all kinds of story and plot lines. It’s
up to you to sell this feat as good, interesting pseudo¬
scientific entertainment.

36
 Mental Magic
THE GREAT CALENDAR MYSTERY

Effect
Announce that you, the Mental Marvel, can, under certain
test conditions, demonstrate the gift of second sight. A mem¬
ber of the audience is called forward to assist you. Show four
large pages from the current year’s calendar and request the
assistant to choose one and place it on an easel. Turn your
back to the easel and request the assistant to blindfold you.
Explain that you want the volunteer to circle one day in each
of the five weeks of the selected calendar month. To make
sure the selection of days is perfectly random, request that
members of the audience shout out days of the week. As each
day is shouted, the assistant circles a date under it on the
calendar. Different dates for the same day of the week can be
circled, but only one date per week is circled. As the last date
is circled, dramatically announce that you see a number in
your mind that represents the total of the five numbers just
selected. After saying the number, remove the blindfold and
instruct the volunteer to write the five numbers on the side
of the board and add them up. The total will, of course,
match the one you give. An impressive test of mental ability!

Materials
One large easel • four pages from a current calendar (they
must be months that contain five Wednesdays) • four large,
clear plastic sheets to cover the calendar pages • a magic
marker.

Preparation
First, find the largest size calendar available and remove all
the months that contain five Wednesdays. Depending on the

37
year, there will be either three or four such months. Mount
each of these on a large sheet of bristol board. The bristol
board should be six inches wider than the calendar sheets so
a section on the right side of each board can be reserved for
writing down the five dates for summing.
You have two options about how to mark the calendars.
You can cover a calendar with a plastic sheet and write on it
with erasable magic marker. Or, you can give the volunteer a
pad of “sticky” note pads, the type that have pages that are
easily removable from whatever they are attached to. This
way, the numbers are duly noted on the calendar and you
don’t have to mess around with clear overlays and magic
markers. You will, however, have to affix a fresh strip of
paper down the right side of the bristol board every time you
perform this trick so the numbers can be added up.

Presentation
And now for the modus operandi of this interesting example
of second sight. The secret lies in knowing a key number
associated with each month used in the experiment. The key
number is arrived at by adding up the five dates in the
Wednesday column of the calendar month and memorizing
these numbers. In Figure 1 the total is 85. The key numbers
for the months used in 1994 are: March = 80; June = 75;
August = 85; November = 80. In 1995, they are: March =
75; May = 75; August = 80; November = 75. You must also
memorize the numerical values that are assigned to each day
of the week. Sunday equals — 3, Monday equals — 2, Tuesday
equals — 1, Wednesday equals 0, Thursday equals 1, Friday
equals 2, and Saturday equals 3.
Once this information has been memorized, it becomes an
easy matter to calculate the sum of the dates mentally. Using
the key value of the selected month as a starting point (85 in
our example), simply add the value for each day to it as the
days are shouted out. In our case when Monday was called,
two was subtracted from 85, giving 83; when Tuesday was
called, one was subtracted from 83, giving 82; when Wednes-
38
 1994 AUQUST
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day was called, nothing was subtracted; when Thursday was

selected, one was added to 82, giving 83; and finally, when
Saturday was called out, three was added to 83, giving 86. At
this point, announce that the total of the five dates is 86 and
request the volunteer to confirm this by writing down the
five dates on the side of the board and adding them up.
This is an excellent mental feat for stage or parlor. You can
also perform this close up. Get a small calendar, remove the
months needed to perform the feat, and glue them to a sheet
of typing paper. Photocopy a few sheets and you’re ready to
present this mental gem at the table. Hand the sheet to
someone and turn your back while the person selects any five
dates from one of the months. This presentation is basically
the same as the stage version.
39
 ANOTHER GREAT CALENDAR
MYSTERY

Effect
In this test you, the Mental Marvel, demonstrate your abili¬
ties as a lightning calculator. Pass out a small yearly calendar
to anyone sitting in the first row. Instruct this person to tear
out a sheet for any month and then to pass the calendar to
the next two people in the row, who should also select any
month and remove the pages from the calendar. Request the
first person to circle any box of nine days in the month he
selected. The box must contain three days across and three
days down (Fig. 1, left). Tell this person to add up the num¬
bers in the four corner squares of the box and to state what
the total is. (In our example the sum is 80.) Then tell the first
person to concentrate on the number in the middle of the
square. After a brief pause, announce that the number in the
square is 20.
Request the second member of the audience to make a box
from any three vertical days on the calendar month (Fig. 1,
middle). Instruct this individual to sum up the three dates
circled and give you the total. Upon hearing the number,
instantly tell the spectator what three numbers were picked.
Tell the third person to circle any four days on the calen¬
dar month to form a square, two days across and two days
down (Fig. 1, right), and to add up all four numbers in the
square and tell you the total. As soon as you hear what the
total is, name the four selected numbers. Three for three,
the master of mystery is batting a thousand!

Materials needed
One desk-sized calendar, say four inches by six inches • three
pencils.

40
1994 JWNE
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1 2 5 4

5 6 7 8 9* 10 11

12 13 14 15 16* 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30 »

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Fig- 1

Presentation
There is no setup for this trick. Just pass out the calendar and
the pencils and you’re ready to go. The three spectators can
choose any of the twelve months on the calendar. Let’s start
with the first problem: using nine numbers. In the example
shown in Figure 1, the sum of the four corner squares is 80.
All that is needed to calculate the value of the center square
is to divide this sum by 4, which gives us 20, the number we
are looking for.
Another effect that you can do with a block of nine num¬
bers is to ask the value of the lowest number in the block.

41
When the person tells you, immediately say what the total is
for all nine numbers in the block. Do this by adding 8 to the
number and then multiplying the result by 9. The fastest way
to do this in your head is to multiply the result by 10 and then
subtract the number multiplied from the result. For exam¬
ple, the lowest number is 12. Add 8 to it, to get 20. Multiply
this by 10, to get 200, and subtract 20 (the number multi¬
plied), to get the correct answer, 180.
Now, let’s move on to the second problem. In this example
the spectator adds three numbers, in this case, 16, 23, and
30, and tells you the total is 69. You divide this number by 3,
giving you 23, the middle number of the three. Subtract 7,
giving you 16, the top number. Finally, add 7 to the 23, giving
you 30, the bottom number.
The solution to the four-number puzzle is similar to the
last one. In the example, the total of the four numbers is 28.
To Find the f irst of these numbers, divide the total by 4 and
then subtract 4 from the result. Divide 28 by 4, giving 7, and
then subtract 4, to arrive at 3, the first, and the lowest, of the
four numbers. Add 1, to get 4, the second number. Next, add
6, to get 10, the third number. Finally, add 1, to get 11, the
fourth number.
This is a neat exercise in mental gymnastics that you can
perform anywhere when called upon to show an example of
your mental powers.

42
 THE AMAZING LIGENSE PLATE
PREDICTION

Effect
Point to the back of the stage, where a ribbon stretches from
one side to the other. Suspended from the center of the
ribbon is a large, brown business envelope. The envelope
hangs about eight feet above the floor. State that the enve¬
lope contains a prediction you made before the show began
concerning the experiment in precognition that you are
about to conduct with the help of the audience. “The first
thing we have to do is to create a license plate number. I’m
going to toss this Ping-Pong ball out into the audience and
the person who catches it will choose the state.” When the
state has been selected, write the two-letter abbreviation for
it on the blackboard.
“Now that we have the state, let’s add four digits to it. Will
the person who caught the Ping-Pong ball please toss it into
the air so another person can pick the first number?” The
person who catches the ball picks a number from zero to nine
and you write it next to the state abbreviation on the board.
The ball is then tossed to another part of the audience. In
this manner three more numbers are chosen at random and
written down.
When this is done, point to the board and state, “Here we
have our license plate. It was created using the selections of
five randomly chosen people in our audience. For me to have
known, in advance, what the outcome of this experiment
would be is patently an impossibility. And yet . . . stranger
things have happened. Let’s see what I wrote down and
sealed in the envelope that has been in full sight of all of you
good people since tonight’s entertainment began.” (Figure 1
shows the blackboard with the prediction hanging in the
background and an example of the type of license plate
number that the audience will create.)
Place a chair under the ribbon, step up on it, and cut the

43
ribbon on both sides of the envelope. Step down and walk
towards the front of the stage, where you snip off one end of

Fig.l

44
the envelope, reach inside, and remove a second sealed
envelope. You immediately hand this envelope to a member
of the audience to open. Inside is found a folded sheet of
paper that, when opened up, has a picture of a license plate
drawn on it with the same state abbreviation and four num¬
bers that were selected by the various members of the audi¬
ence under seemingly test conditions.
Is this an example of genuine precognition? Read on and
find out.

Materials needed
A large brown envelope, say about 11 inches by 8 inches • a
brown business-size envelope • a long length of one-inch¬
wide red ribbon • a large sheet of white paper • a sturdy chair
• an envelope holder to be attached to the back of the chair • a
Ping-Pong ball • a black felt-tipped marking pen • a chalk¬
board or other type of large free-standing easel to write on.

Preparation
Before your performance begins you must seal the large
brown envelope and attach it to the center of the length of
ribbon. You then fasten the ends of the ribbon to the curtains
on both sides of the stage. The envelope should hang about
eight feet above the stage and to the back of it. It should,
however, be well away from the rear curtain.
The chair used when cutting down the envelope should be
quite sturdy. Although the back of the chair should be open,
the top rail must be quite deep, say around eight to ten
inches. This is to hide the small prediction envelope that is
contained in the envelope holder that is fastened to the back
of the chair with strips of adhesive tape (Fig. 2). The holder
is made with thick pieces of cardboard and bristol board.
The envelope should fit loosely inside the holder.
The chair is placed well to the side of the stage. The back
of the chair must be hidden from the view of the audience.

45
Fig. 2

Presentation
There is one other item you need in order to perform this
feat: a hidden assistant, who doesn’t even have to be hidden,
just out of sight for a minute or two. The floor plan illustrates
the stage layout (Fig. 3). The brown prediction envelope is

Fig. 3

46
hanging to the rear of the stage, the magician is front and
center by his blackboard, the chair is to the left partially
hidden, and in back of it, completely hidden, is the assistant.
The presentation follows along the lines previously stated. As
each element of the license plate number is created, you
write it down on the board; the assistant is also writing the
same information with the black felt-tipped marking pen on
a pre-folded sheet of white paper. As soon as the last digit has
been called out, the assistant writes it down, folds up the
sheet, and seals it in the small brown envelope. He then slips
the envelope into the envelope holder on the back of the
chair.
While the assistant is doing this, you have been summing
up your actions to this point and have once again drawn the
audience’s attention to the large brown envelope hanging
from the ribbon. Now either move the chair yourself, or
request your assistant to come forward and position the chair
under the hanging envelope. Step up onto the chair, remove
a pair of scissors from your pocket, and cut the envelope free
from the ribbon. Now comes the critical move. As you step
down from the chair, place your right hand, which is holding
the envelope, on the top rail of the chair to steady yourself.
In doing so, hold the envelope tightly with the thumb and
first finger of your hand. The envelope should be in front of
the rail, in plain sight of the audience. The heel of your right
hand is on the top of the rail and takes the weight of the
descent. Meanwhile, the third, fourth, and fifth fingers of
the right hand are behind the rail. At this moment the third
and fourth fingers are clipping the top edge of the small
brown envelope in the holder (Fig. 4). The envelope should
be about half an inch below the top of the rail and should be
leaning away from the rail about three-quarters of an inch.
As you complete your descent from the chair remove your
hand from the top rail, carrying the small envelope away,
hidden behind the large envelope.
As you walk to the front of the stage shift the two envelopes
as one to your left hand. Removing the scissors from your

47
 Fig. 5
48
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 Thea was dodging behind Emmie’s shoulder, trying to see if she
had tied her blue sash properly over her airy white mull dress. She
gave a gasp of surprise.
“Oh, you needn’t pretend you didn’t!” Emmie continued, angrily,
her cheeks as red as the roses she was pinning on her corsage.
“Who says I did?” Thea asked, quickly.
“No matter; I happen to know that you asked Frank,” snapped
Emmie. “I should think you’d know Maude Fitz wouldn’t like it, and
he as good as engaged to her. Why, before you came from school
they went everywhere together. Now you keep him running after you
all the time, the same as if he were your beau.”
“Frank is the same as my brother. Maude knows that I didn’t
think she’d care,” Thea said, flushing, and keeping back two started
tears that wanted to fall.
Emmie had never scolded her before.
“I suppose Tom is the same as your brother, too, but he didn’t
think so this afternoon when he was asking you to marry him,”
snapped Emmie.
She moved aside from the mirror, but Thea did not want it now.
She had forgotten about the sash.
“Did Tom tell you that?” she asked, in a low voice.
“No; I heard it. I was in the sitting-room window.”
“Well, what of it? Are you mad about that, Emmie?” in
astonishment.
“No, I’m glad,” Emmie burst out, longing to punish the pretty,
careless thing. “You don’t think I’d want my brother Tom to marry a
girl so poor that she hadn’t any name nor any relations, but just
seems to have ‘growed’ sort of like Topsy! No, indeed! I hope and
pray my brothers may marry their equals in life.”
 Thea stood like a statue. Never before in her bright, careless life
had any reproach been flung at her for her misfortunes. She had
held herself as high as these Hintons with whom she had been
raised. She had never dreamed that she was not the equal of any
one. Emmie’s barbed thrust pierced deep.
She stood still, facing angry, jealous Emmie, the sweet, gay smile
fading like magic from the rosy lips, the rose-leaf bloom from the
dimpled cheeks, the sparkle from the deep-blue eyes. Not a word
came from her. She was catching her breath hard as if some one had
struck her a blow.
Suddenly, while Emmie stared at her, angry still, yet half
ashamed of her ignoble outburst, the girl turned swiftly and rushed
from the room. She flew down-stairs to the parlor, and Emmie
followed her as far as the hall.
 CHAPTER XXVI.
Frank Hinton was walking up and down the pretty cottage parlor,
all ready for the dancing-party. He was a handsome young fellow,
not small and fair like his older brother, but tall and broad-
shouldered, with brown eyes and hair like Emmie, and a pretty silky
mustache outlining his upper lip. Frank was studying medicine, and
expected soon to add M. D. to his name.
As he walked up and down the small parlor’s length with his
hands under his coat-tails, Frank was indulging, like Hamlet, in a
soliloquy:
“Deuce take it! I wonder if Maude feels cut up over this? I’m
afraid I certainly gave her cause to think I was serious in that
quarter. Well, I was, too, or thought I was. But Thea wasn’t grown
then. The minute I saw her when she got back from school, I knew
it was all up with Maude. Dear Little Sweetheart! I almost think it
was mutual, too. How plainly she shows her preference for me. And
how furious it makes Tom. He’s dead gone on her, I know, but it’s no
use. He can have Maude if he likes. Sweetheart’s mine, and I haven’t
made myself a calf over her like Tom and some other fellows either. I
— What’s that?”
There was a rush of feet down the slippery oil-cloth of the
stairway, the door was pushed violently open, and Thea West
bounced into the room.
When she saw Frank standing there alone in the room, so
handsome and smiling, in his black evening-dress, with a rose in his
button-hole, her blue eyes flashed with returning fire. She ran up
and laid her slim, ringless white hand impetuously on his arm,
demanding, breathlessly:
 “Frank Hinton, have you gone crazy like the rest, or can you
listen to what I’ve come to say?”
He saw at once that something had gone wrong, but he
answered, lightly:
“Say on, Sweetheart.”
“It is only this,” said Thea. “I release you from your promise to
take me to the dance. You can go with Maude Fitz.”
“Up—on—my—word!” ejaculated the astonished young man.
“I—I—was only joking, Frank, when I asked you to go with me,”
pursued Thea. “You—you—didn’t think I was in earnest, did you,
Frank?” eagerly.
“Of course I thought so. You were, too. You don’t think you can
throw me over at this late hour, do you?” Frank laughed, and clasped
his hand over the slim one on his arm with quite an air of
possession.
Thea flushed slightly. She made a feint of drawing the hand
away.
“I’m not going with you. I—I—didn’t mean to go at first. It was
only fun. You know Maude wouldn’t like it. She mightn’t think I was
just like a sister to you, Frank.”
Frank Hinton flushed and held tight to her hand.
“What are you driving at, my dear?” he asked, a little roughly.
“Of course Maude won’t think you’re like my sister. She knows better.
What has she got to do with you and me, anyhow?”
“You’re as good as engaged to her, aren’t you, Frank?” a little
wistfully.
“Good heavens, no! I never thought of such a thing.”
“But Emmie says you are. And so maybe Maude might get
jealous of me; that’s all, Frank, only I’m in earnest; you can’t take
me to the dance,” nodding her bright head decidedly, and trying in
earnest now to pull away the hand he held so tightly.
But Frank tried to draw her closer to him, while he said,
indignantly:
“I wish Emmie’d mind her own business, and look after Charley
McVey instead of me. I think he needs watching. I’m not engaged to
Maude Fitz, and never will be engaged to anybody unless it’s you,
Little Sweetheart.”
“Quit your joking; I don’t admire it,” Thea answered, a little
shortly; “and let go my hand, Frank Hinton. It don’t belong to you.”
“But mayn’t I have it, darling—say, mayn’t I have it?” whispered
the young man, eagerly, his eyes gleaming with sudden passion, his
voice vibrant with emotion that made her draw back further with a
sort of dawning terror, and exclaim in a scared voice:
“Let me go at once, I tell you. I’m not in the mood for fun. I can’t
bear it.”
Her face was deathly white, her blue eyes flashing, but he would
not let her go.
“This is no fun, but earnest,” he said, with sudden gravity.
“Listen, darling—I love you. Of course you know that already, but
will you love me in return—will you promise to be Frank’s little wife?”
The honest, manly tone left no room for doubt. Thea stared at
him in angry disgust.
“You are crazy, too—as crazy as Tom!” she cried, indignantly.
“And to think how I fooled myself! I loved you like a brother, and all
the while you had this foolishness in your mind. Why, Frank Hinton, I
wouldn’t marry a king—there now!”
“I know; but maybe you will marry me,” said the young fellow,
pleadingly. “I love you so dearly, Sweetheart, and I certainly thought
you encouraged me. You made so much of me—you seemed to
enjoy being with me so much, and—”
 “Oh, hush!” she interrupted, eagerly. “I am sorry, Frank; indeed,
I am sorry, for now I see that you have deceived yourself. I am fond
of you—just as Emmie is, you know—that kind of a love; but if I
loved you that other way,” trippingly, “I—I—don’t think I should
make so much of you. I mean, I—I—don’t think I’d want you to
guess my—my—feelings,” blushing as if with some subtle perception
of the master-passion her innocent heart had never known.
“Go away, you miserable little flirt! I feel like I hated you!” Frank
cried, flinging the white hand roughly from him, and turning away in
bitter anger.
 CHAPTER XXVII.
Thea did not wait for a second bidding from her indignant lover.
She ran hurriedly out of the open door, and in her haste almost fell
over Emmie, who had been listening outside. They both paused, and
Thea cried out, scornfully:
“So you’ve been listening again!”
“Anybody could hear that chose. You left the door open so that
every one could hear you triumph in rejecting another one of my
brothers,” Emmie answered, sulkily.
Frank came hastily to the door.
“Emmie, were you listening?” he asked, in surprise.
“The door was open; I couldn’t help hearing.”
“You might have coughed.”
“Yes; but she didn’t want to!” Thea cried, furiously. “She doesn’t
think it any disgrace to eavesdrop. She listened to-day when Tom
asked me—asked me—the same thing. Boo-hoo! oh, boo-hoo!”
breaking into a sudden storm of sobs.
“Don’t cry, dear; you’ll spoil your eyes for the dance,” Frank said,
kindly.
“You needn’t care if she cries them out!” snapped his sister.
“But I do,” said the young man. “And so Tom asked you, too,
Thea?” he said, with a short, mirthless laugh. “Well, did you tell him
‘No’?”
“Of course—the ungrateful little flirt! After all the Hintons had
done for her, too! Not that I think she’s half good enough for either
of my brothers, but—”
 “Hush, Emmie! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!” Frank said,
severely; and Thea, who was drying her eyes on a tiny lace
handkerchief, chimed in, reproachfully:
“I don’t think you ought to be mad, Emmie. I can’t see that I’ve
done anything wrong. Why, I thought Tom and Frank were my
brothers—or just as good—and I’d as soon thought of marrying my
grandmother!”
“You never had any grandmother that anybody knows of, and it
was an honor to you for either of my brothers to offer to give you a
name, as you never had one of your own!” stormed resentful
Emmie; but Frank put his hand sternly over her mouth.
“Oh, for shame, Emmie! I would not have believed this of you!”
he said, sharply. “But I can see through it, and so can Thea, no
doubt. It’s not for Tom and me you’re taking up so angrily, it’s
because you’re jealous over Charley McVey! You think maybe she’ll
cut you out with him to-night.”
“I don’t—I—” Emmie began to splutter furiously, but a slight
tinkle at the door-bell made her start, then rush wildly upstairs.
She knew that Charley had come, according to his promise, to
accompany her to the dance.
Frank opened the door, holding a fold of Thea’s dress so that she
should not follow Emmie, lest the quarrel be renewed.
“Come in, Charley; walk into the parlor; Emmie’ll be down in a
minute,” he said; and as the young man disappeared he whispered,
hurriedly:
“Go and bathe your face, Thea, and come along with me to the
dance. There’s no one else to go with you now. Emmie,” laughing a
little, “would tear your eyes out before she’d let you go with her and
Charley.”
The bright face dimpled into a faint smile.
 “I don’t want to. You needn’t tell her that he asked me first; but
he did,” she whispered, roguishly; then turning to the stairway, “I’m
going alone. It’s moonlight, and I’m not the least afraid.”
“You sha’n’t!”
“I will!”
“I’ll walk behind you!”
“You won’t!”
“Wait and see, that’s all,” said Frank Hinton, resolutely; and this,
after all, was the manner of their going.
After the first couple had got a square ahead, Thea darted out
alone, and after walking a few rods with her head high, glanced
furtively behind her; Frank was coming out of the gate.
Thea began to run. Then Frank ran a little, too. She slackened
her pace for fear of overtaking Emmie, and he slackened his too. At
no time did he approach her, but he kept her all the time within
sight, and when they reached the illuminated building where the
party was to come off, he chose to enter by her side. Afterward he
left her severely alone, as he saw that she desired him to do.
Tom was already there, looking “killing,” so some of the girls said,
in his elegant evening attire, with a tuberose in his button-hole. He
was a consummate little dandy, and a favorite with most of the girls,
who spent many a dollar that might have been saved, for the sake of
leaning over the counter of Brocade & Bromley and chatting with the
agreeable head clerk.
Tom frowned when beautiful Thea came in looking so charming
in her white mull and blue sash, with a string of white wax beads
around her bare, white neck, her exquisitely molded arms guiltless
of all adornment, save the narrow lace that edged the short sleeves.
He devoted himself assiduously to the other girls, and did not speak
to Thea the whole evening, a spiteful procedure which was copied
by his sister, so that by and by it began to be whispered among the
guests that “all the Hintons seemed to be mad with Thea West.”
 Thea did not seem to mind it in the least. She was as gay as
usual, perhaps more so. She danced all the time and she talked
incessantly. Her blue eyes sparkled, her pink cheek glowed with
excitement. She flirted this time if never before, and she had a little
group of admirers about her all the time. Her one thought was to
spite Emmie Hinton for her unkindness, and when Charley McVey
joined the group about her she threw him some of her sweetest
smiles and glances.
“Just to punish Emmie,” she said to herself. “Not the equal of the
Hintons, indeed! I’ll show her whether Charley thinks so or not.”
She knew very well that Charley had been longing to desert
Emmie’s standard and come over to hers for a week past, but for
Emmie’s sake she had held him at arm’s-length.
But now Thea was struggling with a hot and bitter resentment
against the girl she had heretofore loved so dearly. Emmie had
wounded her cruelly, and the impetuous girl vowed to herself that
she would pay her back.
So it was that Emmie saw with alarmed eyes her beloved join the
train of Thea’s admirers. She saw him dance with Thea three times,
and when they went into supper Thea was hanging on his arm.
In a perfect fury of secret anger and jealousy, Emmie managed
to get quite near them at the table. She was wild to hear what they
were talking about.
“Thea will be making up some dreadful story about me, of
course,” she thought, for, having entertained the young man on the
way to the dance with a recital of Thea’s shortcomings, she
supposed the girl would retaliate on the first opportunity.
But she was mistaken. Thea was only looking pretty and
interested, and stuffing her rosy mouth with goodies, which she
seemed to enjoy like a child. It was fickle, faithless Charley who was
doing the talking—telling Thea all about the base-ball game, and
even offering to take her to the next one.
 Naughty Thea! She knew quite well that Emmie was very close,
and that she was eagerly “swallowing every word,” as she said to
herself, and there was no need of raising her voice ever so slightly;
but she did, so that several others beside Emmie heard the sweet
girlish voice reply:
“Oh, thank you, Mr. McVey! I always enjoy seeing the game so
much, and I would be glad to go with you, but the truth is, I have
another engagement. Besides, I’m quite sure that Emmie expects
you to take her to see it. She has as good as told me so.”

“And, mamma, it was all I could do to keep from catching hold of

her then and there and giving her a shaking!” cried Emmie, pouring
her sorrows into her mother’s ear a few hours later, when she had
come home with Tom from the dance, having had high words with
faithless Charley before she left.
“I told him at the door when he followed me out to see me home
that I did not desire the company of one who had taken me to the
party and then neglected me all the evening for the most outrageous
flirt in the world! So I pushed away his arm and called Tom to come
with me home,” she said, angrily, between her bitter sobs, for
rankling jealousy had stirred poor Emmie’s nature to its deepest
depths of pain.
Mrs. Hinton had been confined to her bed several days with a
sprained ankle, and her husband being away from home, Emmie
shared her mother’s room at night, so she took advantage of her
opportunity to relate the whole story of Thea West’s transgressions.
“And there is this thing about it, mamma,” she added, as she
undid the rich masses of her thick brown hair and let it fall loosely
about her plump white shoulders, “either Thea West has got to leave
this house or I will leave it!”
 “Oh, dear, oh, dear, I only wish your father was here to advise
me!” cried her mother, weakly.
“I told Tom the same thing as we were coming home, and he
declared I was quite right. He did not blame me for being so
determined about it,” pursued Emmie, who always domineered over
her weak little mother.
“But, my dear, where is Thea to go, I should like for you to tell
me?” she said, with feeble remonstrance.
“To the De Veres, of course; the people papa got her from,”
answered Emmie, recklessly. “I’ll bet that man knows all about her,
anyway, for papa says, you remember, that Thea took to him the
minute she opened her eyes on the train that day, and of course if
she had not known him already she would have been timid and
huffish as she was with the others.”
 CHAPTER XXVIII.
Verelands was looking its fairest that October morning when
George Hinton’s letter to Norman de Vere came into it like a thunder-
clap falling from a seemingly clear sky.
It was almost thirteen years ago that the De Veres had quitted
their beautiful home, with something almost akin to the sorrow of
Adam and Eve in leaving Eden, so dear was the old ancestral home
to their hearts. Leaving Sweetheart with the Hintons, they had
journeyed northward, the young man seeking a career in life, and
the mother only wishing to be near her son.
A wealthy tenant was soon found for Verelands, and the rent was
forwarded yearly to Camille’s lawyer to liquidate the amount she had
spent in improving the estate immediately following her marriage
with Norman.
At first there had come letters of protest from the banished wife,
but Norman had returned them to her without comment, and the
rent continued to be forwarded to her lawyer.
Now and then, too, as he began to prosper in the profession of
journalism, which he had chosen, he found means to add to the
amount sent to Camille, for the weight of his indebtedness to her
weighed sorely on his proud spirit.
“I shall never return to my old home until it is freed from that
hateful debt,” he had said many times to his mother, and she, with a
sigh, acquiesced. She had almost given up the hope now that
Norman would ever be reconciled to his wife, he turned so
impatiently from all her entreaties that he would pardon Camille, and
more than once he had mystified her with the strange answer:
“Mother, you see only upon the surface. It is most unfortunate
for both you and me. I see that you do not understand, and yet I
can never explain.”
Mrs. de Vere brooded half her time over those strange words, but
she could never see any reason in them.
“It is very true that I do not understand his hardness of heart
toward Camille. No one could,” she often said to herself, impatiently,
for it seemed to her that Camille had been sufficiently punished for
her thoughtless flirtation. “No one could ever make me believe that
there was any guilt in it. Camille was a pure woman,” she had said
more than once to her son, but he always answered firmly:
“I will not argue the point with you, mother.” If she persisted he
always left the room.
He did not know how often she was spurred on to fresh effort by
the frequent letters she received from her banished daughter-in-law
—letters whose passionate, piteous appeals brought tears into her
kind eyes. She forgot Camille’s faults, her caprices, her jealousies,
her arrogance of wealth, her thirst for admiration, in pity for her
genuine despair at the separation from her husband. At first she
begged Norman to read these letters. She thought they must surely
soften his heart.
He refused her request. He expressed a stern displeasure at the
correspondence.
“If you persist in keeping up communication with that wicked
woman, be good enough not to force the fact upon my notice,
mother,” he said, bitterly.
Camille stayed abroad three years with Finette, but to the
amazement of the wily maid, her plot did not succeed. The indignant
boy-husband did not relent, Camille remained unforgiven.
“There must be more than she confessed to me, or that foolish
boy would have made it up with her long ago. I will watch closely.
She has deceived me; she has not told me the whole truth,” she
decided; but her keenest scrutiny, her most artful speeches, failed to
make her acquainted with more than she knew already. Camille
faithfully kept up the rôle of the true wife and wronged woman.
 CHAPTER XXIX.
“I can not bear this any longer! I shall die if I do not see my
husband soon! I am going back to America!” Camille cried,
passionately, at last.
Finette encouraged her in the resolve. She began to feel alarmed
for her mistress. She could not understand how Norman held out so
long.
“He loved her so well. I can not make it out why he is so
stubborn,” she thought, wonderingly. “Perhaps dere is some oder
woman in the case. Boys are feeckle always, and what is it dat the
American poet say:

“‘A boy’s will is the wind’s will.’”

Decidedly it was the best to go back, thought the maid—that

was, if her mistress still had her heart set on that silly boy. For
herself, she thought it all folly; she would not have given a snap of
her fingers for Norman de Vere.
“A penniless, smooth-faced boy!” she thought, contemptuously.
“Pah! why did not madame make him turn out a mustache? How
could she bear to kiss him? There could be no more flavor to it than
a girl’s or a baby’s kiss!”
But madame was going to make her rich when by her help she
became reconciled to her angry husband, so Finette swallowed her
disgust and set her crafty brain to work.
“To leave Paree and go back to dat hateful America—it is hard,
but ‘needs must when the devil drives,’” she sighed; so they set their
faces homeward.
 They went to New York and settled down quietly in a flat, taking
care to keep their presence a secret from Norman de Vere; but his
mother was duly informed, and by collusion with her, Camille had
many opportunities of seeing her beloved, herself unseen, and every
furtive glance at the pale, stern, yet darkly handsome face only
deepened Camille’s passion for her husband. She would have given
all her wealth now—all the world, if it had been hers to bestow—for
the love she had prized so lightly when it was all her own.

“For just one kiss that your lips have given

In the lost and beautiful past to me,
I would gladly barter my hopes of heaven
And all the bliss of eternity.”

Poor, guilty soul! It seemed to her that she could have forgiven
her husband a sin as terrible as her own had been. She could not
understand the absolute horror with which he shrunk from her, the
abhorrence of her guilt that filled his soul. She could not believe that
his love was dead.
“I will throw myself in his way—I will make him remember me.
Perhaps the embers of the old love will leap into flame again,” she
thought with a passionate yearning; and she resolved to throw off all
disguise and let him know that she was near him.
He was living with his mother in a small flat where they played at
keeping house in a sort of doll fashion. He came home one winter
afternoon tired and cold from one of the great newspaper offices to
his tea, and found her there in the tiny parlor, a great basket of hot-
house flowers on the cozy tea-table, and behind it her face.
Camille’s face—colorless, yet dazzling as ever, with the feverish
fire of hope shining in the wine-dark eyes, the red mouth trembling
with a smile of hope and love, about her the sheen of silk and velvet
and lace, the glitter of diamonds, the seductive breath of some rare
perfume. She was all alone, and when he entered, she flung herself
wildly at his feet.
 “Oh, my beloved! my beloved! I could not stay away from you
any longer. Forgive me, take me back!” she pleaded, wildly.
The young man grew pale as death, but he drew back from her;
he pushed away the white, jeweled hands that would have clung to
him.
“Do not touch me! There is blood on your hands!” he said.
Camille started and looked down at her hands.
“Oh, Norman, how you frightened me. I—I—thought—” she
wailed, then paused abruptly.
“What madness is this? Why have you come here?” he
demanded, bitterly.
“I could not stay away, Norman. Oh, I shall die if you do not take
me back! I am your wife—your wife!” she cried, passionately.
He stood with his hand upon the door-knob, looking at her. She
knew that if she came a step nearer to him he would go out.
“Oh, Norman, do not be so cruelly hard. Do you remember how
you used to love me? Is it all dead now? Have you found a new
love?” she asked, pathetically; and he shook his head.
“I have found no other love. I have no faith in women. I shun
them with the single exception of my mother,” he said, sternly. “But
the old love is dead, Camille. You murdered it that day by the river.
You can never resurrect it from its bloody grave.”
She shuddered.
“Oh, Norman, you were mistaken. I had lost my ring. It was that
I was talking of—only that,” she cried, beseechingly.
“Does my mother know you are here, Camille?”
“Yes. I am here by her consent. She pities me, she sympathizes
with me. She longs for you to forgive me, Norman.”
He stood in silence a moment, but there was no relenting on his
stern, white face, only trouble and disgust.
 “I am sorry this has happened,” he said, slowly and sadly at last.
“I have tried to forget you, Camille, as the greatest kindness I could
show to you, for my thoughts of you are always mixed with
shuddering horror and disgust. Remember, I know you as my mother
does not know you, as the world does not know you. How can you
think to move my heart toward you again? I pity you, I pray often
that Heaven will make you repent and grant you pardon for your
terrible crime, but to love you, to trust you again you must be mad
to dream of it!”
She stood looking at him despairingly, rebelling passionately
against her fate.
“You will at least let me live under the same roof with you,
Norman? I will not trouble you; I will not even speak to you unless
you wish me! But do not drive me to despair. Let me stay where I
can at least see you daily,” she implored.
He comprehended the hope that buoyed her up. She would not
accept her fate.
“It is useless,” he said, sternly. “The same roof can never shelter
us both, Camille. You can never be anything to me again, and you
must go away and leave me in peace.”
“I will not go!” she exclaimed, shrilly, flying into one of the old
gusts of passion he remembered so well. “I am your wife, and I
have a right to stay here. I will not leave you!”
“It is I then who must go,” he answered, gravely and firmly.
“I will follow you,” she retorted, furiously, stung by his
indifference, and he answered:
“Then I must still flee.”
“I will haunt you!” she shrieked, throwing her arms above her
head in a tempest of fury. “You shall not escape me! Wherever you
go I shall pursue you. You shall learn that there is no escape from
love like mine!”
 An expression of intense pity, mixed with disgust, crossed the
young man’s face; but he made no attempt to reply to the beautiful
fury. With a long, deep sigh he turned from her, left the room and
left the house, without seeing his mother, to whom, an hour later,
there came a brief, stern note:
“By your conspiracy with Camille you have driven me
from you. Within an hour I leave New York. I will write
you through my employers, and they will forward to me
your letters.
“Norman.”
 CHAPTER XXX.
It was no empty boast that Camille uttered when she threatened
to haunt her husband. She meant it, and in the years that followed
she made him realize her vindictive purpose many times.
It was with bitter regret that the young man had deserted his
mother, but he knew that only this determined move on his part
could break up the intimacy that Camille kept up with her for the
selfish purpose of having her husband always under surveillance.
But, although the unhappy mother herself had no clew to her
son’s whereabouts, and could only communicate with him through
the medium of his employers—a great newspaper firm—Camille was
more successful. Perhaps she employed a detective. Certain it was
that she pursued Norman from city to city, as she had vowed she
would. Whenever he believed that he had finally escaped her she
turned up brilliantly beautiful as ever, defiant or humble by turns, as
seemed to serve her purpose best. She found him wherever he
chose to hide himself. She took possession of his apartments very
often by coming in his absence and proclaiming herself his wife. She
created lively scandals sometimes by her inveterate habit of falling
into hysterics when Norman left her, as he invariably did, in the first
moment of their meeting.
The young man was driven to despair.
He was not rich like Camille, and his small stock of money began
to give out under the stress of these untoward circumstances. He
could not keep his position on the New York paper which had kindly
made him one of its traveling correspondents.
Camille’s persecutions began to make him a marked man. She
did not suffer him to remain long enough in one place to cull
satisfactory material for his journalistic letters. Disappointed love,
and the fierce longing to punish Norman for his scorn, had turned
beautiful Camille into a restless fiend.

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

It was this struggle for existence under adverse circumstances

that first turned the thoughts of the young man to authorship.
“I shall have to give up my position on the paper; I shall have to
find work that I can do on the wing, as it were,” he thought,
drearily; and his first clever sketch was penned en route to a distant
western city, Camille being left behind until such time as her well-
paid detective should hunt him down.
This time his escape and his disguise were so cleverly planned
that his fair foe was baffled several years. In the meantime, a
publisher was found in the editor of a first-class magazine. The
public was pleased with the firstling of his eager pen. He achieved
success and a flattering offer—all under a nom de plume. At last he
had found his vocation.
The unhappy mother, parted now for three long years from her
exiled son, heard with delight the news of her idol’s success. She
had broken with Camille long ago. Indeed, the heartless woman had
coolly dropped her when there was no more comfort to be had out
of her. So Norman wrote:
“Mother you must forgive me for deserting you so
long. Indeed, there was no other way. I shall try now to
make a little home where you can come to me and we can
be peaceful, if not happy, after our old fashion. You and I
have both had so bitter a lesson that I do not believe you
will ever betray me again to Camille.”
Mrs. de Vere was quite sure of that. However much she might
pity Camille and feel sorry for her, she resolved that she would not
interfere again between the unhappy pair. Within a short time she
journeyed West to a simple little home where her son was essaying
his first ambitious work—a serial for the magazine which had
published his sketches for a year past.

Meanwhile, Camille’s detective had been thrown off the track by

a clever little ruse of Norman, and he reported to his employer that
her husband had sailed for Europe. Thither went Camille and her
maid by the next steamer. She remained several years, and strangely
enough on her return to America the man she sought had only very
recently gone abroad with his mother. Fate seemed to be playing at
cross-purposes with the imperious beauty. For five years she had not
looked on the face of the man she now loved and hated almost
equally in her resentful wrath, for Norman did not return for two
years, and eleven years had now passed since the dark days of her
terrible sin, when sentence of doom had been passed upon her by
her outraged husband.
“Eleven years! My God! only to think of it, Finette! Kept at bay,
scorned, despised for eleven years by the man I once had at my
feet! And I am an old woman now. Old in spite of the fire that burns
in my veins—old in spite of this passionate heart!”
“Non, non, miladi—you look as young as you did ten years ago.
Dat artiste in Paree she is one clever mistress of her art. Your skin is
smooth and fine as a baby’s; the gray is gone out of your hair—”
“And it is as red as ever!” her mistress interrupted, impatiently.
“Don’t try to flatter me, Finette. I am not vain, whatever other faults
I may possess. I know my hair is red, my mouth too wide, my skin
too pale. I know, too, that I always had some fascinations for men,
despite my lack of beauty. But what matter! I am despised by the
only man I wish to charm. As for you, Finette, you are a wicked
fraud! You promised I should have him back. You lied. It is eleven
years, and I am no nearer him than when he cast me off,” she raved,
passionately.
 Finette raised sullen, defiant eyes to the angry face.
“It is your own fault that I deceived you. You did not tell me all—
you kept back things far worse than you confessed, else he could
not have held out against all your devotion and—persecution,” she
said, boldly.
“How dare you!” her mistress cried; but she quailed as with
terror. “I told you everything,” she said, after a minute, defiantly.
“I do not believe you,” Finette muttered, sulkily; and for some
minutes the war of words raged fiercely between them, for in their
long years together their respective positions were often forgotten or
ignored.
The day came when to her joy Camille found out her husband’s
hiding-place. It was in New York where he had settled again with his
mother on their return from abroad. She knew that he must be
prospering, because only a few weeks ago her lawyer had made to
her the last payment due to her on the improvements at Verelands.
“Why, it was ten thousand dollars! He must be rich,” Camille
cried.
She and Finette consulted again, and the result was a plan more
daring than any that had gone before.
There came a night when Norman de Vere awakened from a kind
of nightmare dream and struggled for breath in the clasp of warm,
round arms with passionate lips clinging tight to his.
At first he thought it was a dream, for once such dreams had
visited his pillow, but soon he realized that it was fact. Struggling
from the clasp that would have held him, but was too weak, he
lighted the gas and saw with a shudder, the Nemesis of his life.
“My God, again!” he cried, hoarsely.
“My place is here. You shall not drive me from you again,” the
beautiful creature cried, half pleadingly, half stormily; but she shrunk
and cowered at last before his lightning glance of scorn.
 “Have you no shame?” he cried. “Can you force your presence
thus on a man who loathes you? Listen, then: I will bear this
persecution no longer. I threatened you with divorce once, but you
begged to be spared this disgrace; you preferred, you said, to go
quietly away and fade out of my life. You have broken your promise.
That absolves me from mine. To-morrow I shall institute proceedings
for a divorce. I will obtain it, even if to gain the suit I have to betray
my full knowledge of your wickedness—your foul murder of the man
who held some guilty secret in your past life!”
“Hush, for Heaven’s sake! You may be overheard!” she faltered,
cowering down beside the bed in her white robes, with a look of
guilty terror in her burning eyes; but he gazed at her unmoved.
“What does it matter?” he said, hoarsely. “Every one must know
it when the case goes to court, for I swear I will dally no longer. I
will free my life from your claim, despite the bitter cost.”
“It will be a bitter contest, then, for I will fight you to the last
gasp! You have earned my hate and you shall know its power!” she
cried malevolently; but he stayed to hear no more. Bowing coldly, he
quitted the room, and a little later two disguised women glided
stealthily down the stairway, and emerging into the street, lost
themselves in the lights and windows of the great city. They were
Finette and her baffled mistress.
“He has threatened me again with divorce, Finette. I can not
bear it. Think of some plan to stave it off. My God! I can not live
under such humiliation!” Camille breathed hoarsely, and Finette saw
that she was on the verge of hysteria. She began to reassure her at
once, promising that she would think of some plan by to-morrow by
which to thwart Norman de Vere’s purpose.
Three days later Finette Du Val made her appearance in Norman
de Vere’s study with a pale, grief-stricken countenance, and
announced that her mistress had committed suicide.
“She threatened yesterday that she would do it rather than bear
the shame and grief of a divorce, but I did not believe her. Poor
thing, she had said it so often before I thought it was nothing but
talk. But when I went to call her this morning, she lay dead, with the
bottle of poison by her side,” was the plausible story she told.
Norman de Vere was shocked at the awful closing of Camille’s
guilty life. He went with Finette to look at the corpse, and spent
some solemn moments gazing into the cold white face of the woman
he had loved so well before he found her out in her terrible sin. She
was changed and altered very much from the effects of the poison,
but the beautiful, wavy red hair was the same, and no suspicion
came to Norman that he had been made the victim of a clever trick
by the crafty maid. The corpse was buried quietly in Greenwood, but
with all due attention. Norman and his mother going as chief
mourners; and very soon a tasteful monument marked the last
resting-place of the dead woman.
“She promised to leave me all her money, I hope you will see her
lawyer for me, sir, as soon as possible,” Finette said; and Norman,
touched by the grief she had displayed, went at once to the lawyer.
He was told that Mrs. de Vere had withdrawn all her property from
his hands. She had told him that she meant to convert everything
into money, with which she would purchase unset diamonds,
thinking them a safe investment.
Finette protested that she did not know where her mistress had
deposited the gems for safe-keeping. She wept because she did not
have money enough to carry her home to her beloved Paris, and
Norman handed her the requisite amount, and gave her possession
of all the dead woman’s effects.
He went away then with a heavy heart, hoping he had seen the
last of the French woman, whom he had always despised in secret.
Mrs. de Vere grieved very sincerely for poor Camille, as she called
her in her thoughts. She thought that Norman had been
unnecessarily hard with his wife, and that he must of necessity
suffer the pangs of remorse over her tragic death. But she was too
wise to utter such thoughts aloud. Camille’s name was never uttered
between them any more after the rainy day when they stood side by
side and saw the clods falling on the new-made grave in Greenwood,
where the dead woman had been laid to rest. That her memory
saddened them for many days after was evident by the pale, grave
faces they wore so long, but to either heart had come an unowned
sense of relief that the restless, unhappy creature was dead.
 CHAPTER XXXI.
Camille had been dead more than two years now, and the shock
of her death had worn off some from the minds of Norman de Vere
and his devoted mother. They had gone back to Verelands and
settled down to a quiet, passively contented life, he with his books
and writing, she with her birds and flowers and the old associations
that were so dear to her tender heart.
In their troubles they had almost forgotten Little Sweetheart, the
child they had given into George Hinton’s care. Mrs. de Vere sent
annually out of her slender income the requisite sum for the girl’s
maintenance and education, and there always came back a letter of
thanks from him, giving an account of his stewardship. They knew
that the girl was well and happy, and in the last letter they received
they learned that she had graduated with the honors of her class,
and was at home now for good. Mrs. de Vere said timidly then that it
would be pleasant to have a daughter to brighten up the quiet old
house, but her son had answered, gravely:
“We do quite well as we are, mother.”
She knew then that she must strangle the faint yearning she felt
for the child she had been so fond of long ago. Norman had
forgotten, perhaps, how he had coveted her for a little sister. He had
changed so much in these thirteen years that he was not much like
the ardent, impulsive boy who had married the mature woman, and
then repented his folly at such bitter cost. Kind and gentle as ever to
his adoring mother, he seemed to have hardened to the rest of the
world.
He shut himself up long hours each day in the library, evolving
from his busy brain the clever novels that brought in such solid
returns in the shape of useless gold—useless because it brought no
happiness to the stern, grave man, who found in ceaseless labor the
only antidote for wearying retrospections.
He cared nothing for the world—nothing for society. It chafed
him to know, as he did, that people judged him severely; that it was
whispered that he had wronged his beautiful wife by jealous,
causeless suspicions; that he had driven her to madness and to
suicide by his cruelty. He knew it was the world’s verdict; he read it
even in the faces of those who looked most kindly upon him. He
could not explain—he could not betray Camille, even in her grave,
where no harm could reach her, save the scorn of men. He had
punished her as lightly as lay in his power; he had been merciful to
her to the verge of wronging others, but, though he was suffering a
most bitter penalty for his clemency, and though Robert Lacy’s blood
seemed to cry aloud from the ground for vengeance, he would not
speak. But it hardened the man, this unjust verdict of a world
against which he would not defend himself, and he held himself
coldly aloof from it.
Yet his heart had sometimes throbbed a little faster at thought of
the child whose life he had saved, and whose future, in all its
helplessness and beauty, had been thrown upon his hands. He had
done his best, he knew, yet he had always been haunted by a secret
regret that a cruel scandal had obliged him to put away from his
heart the coveted pleasure and comfort of a sweet little azure-eyed
sister.
On this fair October morning, as he dallied over his coffee and
inspected his mail, he had come upon a letter from George Hinton—
an unexpected letter, for they only heard once a year from Virginia.
“That is George Hinton’s writing. I hope poor little Thea West is
not ill,” said his mother, curiously; but he did not answer. His eyes
were traveling eagerly down the closely written pages.
She waited most impatiently till he had finished, and then he
looked across the table with a troubled light in his grave, dark eyes.
“Mother, this is most distressing news,” he said.
 “Oh, dear! I hope dear Little Sweetheart isn’t dead, Norman?”
she uttered, nervously.
“Oh, no, no!” he said, and smiled; then the smile gave place to
vexation. “Thea has dreadfully disappointed the Hintons—ungrateful,
and all that. Really, it is too bad.”
“But, Norman, what has she done—eloped?” anxiously.
“She has grown up into a beautiful, heartless little flirt, who
delights in breaking hearts for pastime. She has jilted both George
Hinton’s sons, taken away his daughter’s lover, and played universal
havoc with the youths of Louisa, and now she has run away from
her guardian’s and sought work in a milliner’s shop,” he replied,
displeasedly.