“Then all I can say is that she’s an unnatural old lady,” cried Madame, with obvious temper, tossing her head and kicking out the kid boots, as if seized with the sudden desire to use them upon a human football.  “And there’s not many like her.”

“There is no one like her, no one at all,” said the Prophet with fervour.

“So I should suppose,” cried Madame, forgetting the other questions as to the day of marriage, etc., in the vexation of the moment.  “She must certainly be the bird of whom Phoenix wrote that rose from ashes in the days of the classics. Rarum avis indeed!  Eh, Jupiter?”

“Very rarum, my dear, very indeed!” responded her husband, with imitative sarcasm.  “An avis indeed, not a doubt of it.”

“De Queechy should have known her,” continued Madame.  “He always loved everything out of the common.  Well, and now for the prophecy.  What is all this, Mr. Vivian?”

“The result of last night’s observation,” said the Prophet.

“Do you call that a cycloidal curve?” asked Madame, with a contralto laugh that shook the library.  “Look, Jupiter!”

Mr. Sagittarius glanced over his wife’s heaving shoulder.

“Very poor, my dear, very irregular indeed.”

“It’s the best I could do,” said the Prophet, still politely.

“I daresay,” replied Mr. Sagittarius.  “I daresay.  Where’s your star-map?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know,” answered the Prophet.  “I left it in the pomade.”

“The pomade!”

“Yes, the butler’s own special pomade, and it seems to have disappeared.”

“Very careless, very careless indeed.  Let’s see—­prophecy first, then how arrived at.  ’Grandmother apparently threatened with some danger at night in immediate future.  Great turmoil in the house during dark hours.’  H’m!  ’Some stranger, or strangers, coming into her life and causing great trouble and confusion, almost resulting in despair, and perhaps actually inducing illness.’  H’m!  H’m!  We didn’t arrive at any of this by our observations, did we, Sophronia?”

“Decidedly not,” snapped Madame, haughtily.

“And now let’s see how arrived at.  H’m!  H’m!  Grandmother—­ingress of Crab—­conjunction of Scorpio with Serpens—­moon in eleventh house.  Yes, that’s so.  Jupiter in trine with Saturn—­What’s this?  ’Crab dressed implies danger—­undressed Crab much safer—­attempted intervention failure—­she’s in a nice state now—­it tried to keep her from it, but she was drawn right to it.’  Right to what?”

“The Crab?”

“Of course she was drawn to it.  She depends on the Crab these nights.  But what does the rest mean?”

“The Crab was dressed.”

“Dressed—­what in?”

“I don’t know,” said the Prophet.  “It didn’t tell me.”

Mr. Sagittarius and Madame exchanged glances.

“Explain yourself, Mr. Vivian, I beg,” cried Madame in a somewhat excited manner.  “How could the Crab be dressed?”