IN THE TEA CUP.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2273, 15 July 1881, Page 4

IN THE TEA CUP.

By S. J. One evening at tea I saw my wife give her tea cup a whirl, and attentively regard the grounds in it, ‘ What’s that, my dear ?’ I said, ‘ Not telling yonr fortune in a tea-onp ?’ Mrs Jones looked confused for a moment. But when I began to laugh she bridled up. * You men think yourselves very wise,’ she said, ‘and laugh at such things. But for all that, I have known many a fo< tune told in a tea cup. In fact,’ here she hesitated and blushed again ; but then went on quickly, ‘ fact, I first knew I was to marry you by consulting a tea oup. • Indeed I’ cried I, my scepticism quite staggered. ‘ How was it, my dear ?’ ‘ Just like you men,’ she answered, triumphantly, ‘ full of curiosity, though yon say we women have it all, ’ And with these words she composedly lifted the tea-pot, filled her cup and went on tantalizing with her meal in silence. ‘ Now, my dear,’ I began coaxingly. ‘Now, Mr Curiosity,’ she retorted archly. As the children bad been put to bed at dusk, according to enstom, and there was no ooe else by, 1 rose from my seat, crossed over to Mrs Jones, put my arm round her neck, and kissed her.

‘Well, well,’she said crimsoning like a young girl, and evidently gratified, ‘ you are a tease, Smith ; [ suppose I must ; so sit down and behave yourself.’ And she arranged her collar with considerable display.

‘Yon remember when I lived with Uncle Joshua and Aunt Sarah,’ she began at last, after this was finished

‘Of course, my love,’ I replied, ‘who could forget your uncle’s venerable pigtail ? No offence, I hope. Yon must own that he was rather an odd-looking fish.

‘He was a good uncle to me, ’ said my wife, with a touch of sadness in her rebuking voice. ‘He took me when I was an orphan and maintained me till I married you.’

I made my peace again by a kiss. I am afraid my young lady readers will think me very rude for it; but, nevertheless, truth must be told. And now my wife proceeded ;

‘Well, the very night after the great sleighing party, on which I was introduced to you, and when, if you remember, you would dance with me so often, even to the neglect of Patty Walker, yonr partner. Cousin Jane was joking me about it, as we washed up the tea things. Uncle was sitting by the fire, and aunt beside him, so that wa thought no one heard us; but all at once aunt, who had ears like a oat, rose and came toward us. ‘ What’s that I hear,’ she said ; ‘ Sary Ann got a new beau ? Well, I declare, there never was such a girl; she has twenty sweethearts where I had one.” You know. Smith, how jealous you used to be V

‘ Pshaw,’ said I, * how you women Imagine things I’

‘ Jane up and told her all about it,’ con* tinned my wife, a little crestfallen; ‘ and, when she had concluded, Aunt Sarah took one of the cups, and said—“l’ll tell you your fortune, Bary Ann, in the good, oldfashioned way; there’s nothing like teagrounds—they’re sov’rin my child.” With that she whirled the cup around, and when she had done, held it to the candle, all three of ns looking in. “ See them leaves close together, she said; “ that means that danger is near. It’s the danger of your driving your lover away by flirting, my dear,” she continued. “But here’s a clear path, winding through a dark wood, with no stalks to cross it—that promises fair! And a ring too, which means a marriage.” And with these words she pushed her spectacles up from her nose, and looking at me, said, “It’s clear as daylight, Bary Ann, you’re to marry this pew beau, and be both happy and rich, unless you prove your own enemy by flirting with other sweethearts. That flirting’s the danger that is threatened. If it is safely got over, all the rest’s fortune.’ She raised her voice at these words, which woke up uncle, who bad been taking a nap. He 'growled out : * Kow, wife don’t be making a fool of yourself and the girls by tolling fortunes ; I declare you women are dunces anyhow, or you wouldn’t believe in such stuff.’ So we had no more that night. But you know, Smith, I did marry you; and you know that, once or twice, what you called my flirting had nearly broken everything between us ; and so I have good reason to believe in telling fortunes with teacups, haven’t I ?’

V hat should I say ? Should I outrage the affectionate creature by telling her that I doubted her conclusions though I fuily admitted her preminos ? ‘ And besides,’ she added, with a look that reminded mo of our days of courtship, ‘I have been both rich and happy ever sinoo. Richer than I ever expected to be in my most romantic momenta, for uncle and aunt were poor, as well as old fashioned and living way off in the country as they did, neither Jane nor I had always what others considered merely necsssary comforts. However, uncle and aunt did for us all they could,’ she added, a tear coming into her eye.

* They wore excellent people,’ I said, drawing closer to my wife, and ashamed of myself for having ever laughed at the guene of the one or the cap of the other. ‘I love them for your sake” A grateful look was my reply, and hiding her head on my breast my wife proceeded : ‘ And then, as aunt prophesied, I have been as happy, too. You bear with my faults so kindly, Smith ; and besides, I am not strong and cost you a great deal of money; you might, perhaps, have been happier if you had married a healthier, better wife—’

Her tears were now flowing fast. But they were tears of joy more than of sorrow. I kissed her forehead fondly, resolving never again to find fault, even in my own heart with her. I should be a sad dog, I thought, if I did.

I am not convinced, even to this day, that fortunes can be read in the dregs of a tea cup. I should be very sorry, too, if my friends know that Mrs Jones thinks so, for they would consider it a weakness But I, who know her better must make allowances. She is an excellent creature in spite of her tinge of fatalism.