I could not resist. She held up her
slim oriental hand.
'Yes, I'll hear my fortune,' I said, returning the sibyl's smile
instinctively.
'Give me some money, Mary Quince. No, _not_ that,' I said, rejecting the
thrifty sixpence she tendered, for I had heard that the revelations of
this weird sisterhood were bright in proportion to the kindness of their
clients, and was resolved to approach Bartram with cheerful auguries. 'That
five-shilling piece,' I insisted; and honest Mary reluctantly surrendered
the coin.
So the feline beauty took it, with courtesies and 'thankees,' smiling
still, and hid it away as if she stole it, and looked on my open palm still
smiling; and told me, to my surprise, that there was _somebody_ I liked
very much, and I was almost afraid she would name Captain Oakley; that he
would grow very rich, and that I should marry him; that I should move about
from place to place a great deal for a good while to come. That I had some
enemies, who should be sometimes so near as to be in the same room with me,
and yet they should not be able to hurt me. That I should see blood spilt
and yet not my own, and finally be very happy and splendid, like the
heroine of a fairy tale.
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