'I strongly advise you,' said he, 'to attempt to make them out, and
also to take moderate exercise, and to see after your concerns.' I
followed his advice; every morning I studied the marks on the
teapot, and in the course of the day took moderate exercise, and
attended to little domestic matters, as became the master of a
house.
"I subsequently learned that the surgeon, in advising me to study
the marks, and endeavour to make out their meaning, merely hoped
that by means of them my mind might by degrees be diverted from the
mournful idea on which I had so long brooded. He was a man well
skilled in his profession, but had read and thought very little on
matters unconnected with it. He had no idea that the marks had any
particular signification, or were anything else but common and
fortuitous ones. That I became at all acquainted with their nature
was owing to a ludicrous circumstance which I will now relate.
"One day, chancing to be at a neighbouring town, I was struck with
the appearance of a shop recently established. It had an immense
bow-window, and every part of it, to which a brush could be
applied, was painted in a gaudy flaming style. Large bowls of
green and black tea were placed upon certain chests, which stood at
the window. I stopped to look at them, such a display, whatever it
may be at the present time, being, at the period of which I am
speaking, quite uncommon in a country town.
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