You’ll catch pneumonia, Mumma said.

Maybe so, I could hear Mildred say, but she’ll die happy.

What about Egypt? you ask. What has any of this to do with Egypt?

Well, I’m getting to that, but you have to know all about Mildred to understand why I went to the séance. You see, Mildred and Mumma began to argue on my way home, and they never seemed to stop. Every time my mother rebuked me for that spending spree or anything else, for that matter, Mildred’s voice would come to my defense.

What would she be like if you’d let her make the most of herself instead of the least? Mildred demanded, bold as brass. You always acted like her life was over before it got started.

But a silk charmeuse dress! A waste of money if ever there was one. It’ll sit in the closet forever.

Not necessarily … Why, it’s perfect for a cruise! It’s the very sort of dress ladies wear when they eat at the captain’s table on a cruise.

And what would you know about such things?

More than you would! I have lots of customers who go on cruises. Anyway, Agnes should get out more, see more things, said Mildred. Say! A change of scenery would be just the thing! She might meet someone on a cruise.

Meet someone? Why, the very idea!

And why shouldn’t she?

She’s nearly forty!

She doesn’t look it, not when she’s all dolled up.

It went on like that for a week. Nothing seemed to quiet the dispute I heard inside me. And it was in that state of mental instability that I found the courage to do something else completely out of character. I visited a medium.