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Some
two
hours
later
Madame
Alexandra
Vesant
pushed
herself
back
from
her
work
table
and
sighed
.
She
had
had
her
secretary
cancel
all
appointments
and
she
really
had
tried
;
several
sheets
of
paper
,
covered
with
diagrams
and
figures
,
and
a
dog
-
eared
nautical
almanac
were
in
front
of
her
and
testified
to
her
efforts
.
Alexandra
Vesant
differed
from
some
other
practicing
astrologers
in
that
she
really
did
attempt
to
calculate
the
"
influences
"
of
the
heavenly
bodies
,
using
a
paper
-
backed
book
titled
The
Arcane
Science
of
Judicial
Astrology
and
Key
to
Solomon
’
s
Stone
which
had
been
given
to
her
by
her
late
husband
,
Professor
Simon
Magus
,
the
well
known
mentalist
,
stage
hypnotist
and
illusionist
,
and
student
of
the
secret
arts
.
She
trusted
the
book
as
she
had
trusted
him
;
there
was
no
one
who
could
cast
a
horoscope
like
Simon
,
when
he
was
sober
–
half
the
time
he
had
not
even
needed
to
refer
to
the
book
,
he
knew
it
so
well
.
She
knew
that
she
would
never
have
that
degree
of
skill
,
so
she
always
referred
to
the
almanac
and
to
the
manual
.
Her
calculations
were
sometimes
a
little
fuzzy
,
for
the
same
reason
that
her
checkbook
sometimes
did
not
balance
;
Becky
Vesey
(
as
she
had
been
known
as
a
child
)
had
never
really
mastered
the
multiplication
tables
and
she
was
inclined
to
confuse
sevens
with
nines
.
Nevertheless
her
horoscopes
were
eminently
satisfactory
;
Mrs
.
Douglas
was
not
her
only
distinguished
client
.
But
this
time
she
had
been
a
touch
panicky
when
the
wife
of
the
Secretary
General
demanded
that
she
cast
a
horoscope
for
the
Man
from
Mars
.
She
had
felt
the
way
she
used
to
feel
when
some
officious
idiot
from
the
audience
committee
had
insisted
on
retying
her
blindfold
just
before
the
Professor
was
to
ask
her
questions
.
But
she
had
discovered
way
back
then
,
as
a
mere
child
,
that
she
had
natural
stage
presence
and
inner
talent
for
the
right
answer
;
she
had
suppressed
her
panic
and
gone
on
with
the
show
.
Now
she
had
demanded
of
Agnes
the
exact
hour
,
date
,
and
place
of
birth
of
the
Man
from
Mars
,
being
fairly
sure
that
the
data
could
not
be
supplied
.
But
the
information
had
been
supplied
,
and
most
precisely
,
after
a
short
delay
,
from
the
log
of
the
Envoy
.
By
then
she
was
no
longer
panicky
,
had
simply
accepted
the
information
and
promised
to
call
back
as
soon
as
the
horoscopes
were
ready
.
But
now
,
after
two
hours
of
painful
arithmetic
,
although
she
had
completed
new
findings
for
Mr
.
and
Mrs
.
Douglas
,
she
was
no
farther
ahead
with
Smith
than
when
she
had
started
.
The
trouble
was
very
simple
–
and
insuperable
.
Smith
had
not
been
born
on
Earth
.
Her
astrological
bible
did
not
include
the
idea
of
human
beings
born
anywhere
else
;
its
anonymous
author
had
lived
and
died
before
even
the
first
rocket
to
the
Moon
.
She
had
tried
very
hard
to
find
a
logical
way
out
of
the
dilemma
,
on
the
assumption
that
all
the
principles
were
included
in
her
manual
and
that
what
she
must
do
was
to
find
a
way
to
correct
for
the
lateral
displacement
.
But
she
found
herself
lost
in
a
mass
of
unfamiliar
relationships
;
when
it
came
right
down
to
it
she
was
not
even
sure
whether
or
not
the
signs
of
the
Zodiac
were
the
same
when
seen
from
Mars
and
what
could
one
possibly
do
without
the
signs
of
the
Zodiac
?
