The widow Mrs. Howard T. Cassan came to the circus in her flimsey** pink dress and her low shoes and went direct to the fortuneteller's tent. She paid her mite*** and sat down to hear her future. Apollonius warned her she was going to be disappointed.
*an old single woman, **light, ***little sum of money.
" and see Apollonius of Tyana: he sees all, tells all...Nothing but the truth. It's the chance of a lifetime, ladies and gentlemen, a jar of mysteries unfolded. A step right up. Only 15 cents. (...) a step right up, only 15 cents! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!"
"Oh, you've frightened me!", exclaims Mrs. Cassan.
"You wish your future told?", asked the fortune teller.
"You look like Howard, my poor dear (...) husband".
"You know he did not die?", asked the fortune teller. " He simply walked out of your life years ago".
"Yes. You know everything, don't you? If you know my past so well, let see if you can really tell my future!"
"Be seated." said the seer. "5 cents, please".
"Oh god. Shall I ask questions?"
"If you wish".
"Oh, this is so exciting!...Let me see now... I know... How soon will I extract oil on that 20 acres of mine?" said Mrs. Cassan.
"Never," said the seer [who is blind in the film].
"But I paid a fortune for that land" gasps Mrs. Cassan.
"You wasted your money. Next question," said the seer.
"I can't hear you."
"You must listen".
(...) "It's just a game after all! All right. You naughty man! You see..what I really want to know is... when shall I be married again? "
"Never," said the seer.
"Well, what sort of man will next come into my life? Let's put it that way."
"There will be no more men in your life," said the seer.
"Oh really? really?, what is the use of my living then, if I'm not going to be rich, not going to be married again, no more men for heavens' sake?"
"I only read futures. I don't evaluate them."
"That's utter nonsense," barked Mrs. Cassan.
"The future is always nonsense, until it becomes the past," replied the seer.
"Oh go on! Do your job!.I paid you. Read my future," commanded Mrs. Cassan.
"Tomorrow will be like today, and day after tomorrow will be like the day before yesterday," said Apollonius. "I see your remaining days as a tedious collection of hours full of youthless vanities. . You will think no new thoughts. You will forgetg what little you have known. Older you will become but not wiser. Stiffer but not more dignified. Childless you are, and childless you will remain. Of that suppleness you once commanded in your youth, of that strange simplicity which once attracted men to you, neither endures, nor shall you recapture any of them," the prophet predicted.
"Ugly, ugly man!" snapped Mrs. Cassan.
"Mirrors are often ugly and mean. When you die, you will be buried and forgotten. And that is all. And for all the good or evil, creation or destruction your living might have accomplished, you might just as well never lived at all. I am sorry. You see, it is my curse to tell the absolute truth."
Mrs. Cassan ran away sobbing.
