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the servants in those households viewed her with suspicion as a possible spy from their employers.
    But, from the moment she stepped into the O’Farrell house, everything was different. B eatrice O’Rourke, who could remember Annie’s birth in that very same house, treated her like a long lost child. Kathleen, not more than a child herself, was a cheerful confiding soul who seemed to find it delightful to work with a mistress who was willing to roll up her sleeves and polish the furniture alongside her. Esther simply treated her like a favorite niece, and her willingness to descend to the kitchen in the evenings when her husband was out of town reinforced the lack of barriers between upstairs and downstairs.
    No, the last thing Annie wanted to do was set a cat among the pigeons with her speculation on the political motivations behind the funding of city hall, so she said, “Oh, Esther, this is just an impression I got from a number of editorials on the subject. It won’t cost Voss anything but time to get a bid ready, so I felt comfortable making the recommendation. I am more nervous about the suggestions I am going to make on Monday when he comes in for his second consult ation.”
    “He’s coming back that soon?” asked Kathleen.
    “Yes, and I spent all of today combing through the back issues of the local and state newspapers to come up with something that I think will provide substantial proof of the effectiveness of Madam Sibyl’s advice. First, I am going to tell him to buy some shares in a particular silver mining stock that hasn’t been doing very well because I believe it is going to go through a brief boom. However, I am afraid it is going to be difficult to sell him on my last recommendation. Esther, if you think that Voss wouldn’t have any interest in flax, imagine how he is going to react when I tell him he should invest in cement!”
    *****
    Only a month had passed since Annie met with her first client as Madam Sibyl, and Mr. Stein’s suggested remedy for her financial difficulties was already a success. Who would have thought that there would be such demand for a new clairvoyant in a city where there were already at least a dozen plying that trade? She suspected that people who believed in such things kept shopping around, hoping to get better results. The same way some people went from doctor to doctor, hoping to get a diagnosis better to their liking. Whatever the reason, every day she got a letter from someone new, wishing to make an appointment for a consultation. Already today she’d consulted with a young woman who wanted to know which of two suitors she should encourage, a notions salesman who wanted to start his own company, and Mr. Porter, Herman Stein’s friend, who wanted to know if she thought the prices of wheat would go up or down because of the severe flooding in the Sacramento Valley.
    For each new client, she did a reading of their palms to get some sense of who they were and what they wanted and asked for the time and date of their birth so that she could cast their hor oscopes for their next consultations. Thank goodness for the battered copy of James Wilson’s Complete Set of Astrological Tables she’d brought with her from Boston. Stuffing this and the other books on palmistry into her trunk was a last-minute decision. She’d been able to hold onto so little from her life before her husband’s financial ruin and death, she just wasn’t willing to let go of anything more. Wilson made it easy for her to work up a client’s star chart, which evidently was enough to convince most of them of the accuracy of her advice, even though it was all just a bit of “hocus pocus,” as Matthew Voss would say. 
    This past week, she brought in thirty-five dollars and as a result was able to order enough wood for the next two months. She’d seriously underestimated what it would cost to address the needs for seven boarders for heat in their rooms and hot water for bathing, much less