An Amateur Fortuneteller.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 933, 17 January 1890, Page 4

An Amateur Fortuneteller.

'You will marry a tall, fair man. He will propoße to you soon, perhaps before Easter. He will give you a large house. Your life wi!l be filled with happiness, and you will have very few tears to shed.' A party of five young women were gathered around a table, behind which sat a seeress, young as her youngest querist, with a shrewd look in her keen grey eyes and a slight wrinkle on her brow that betokened the interest she took in the outspread cards before her. This was not in the darkened parlour of a professional fortune-teller. On the contrary, it was in as light and cheery a drawing-room as can be found on Madison Avenue between the Bquare and the park. I was one of a few invited guests (says a writer in the New York Sun) at a Lenten entertainment, which, though subdued enough in its conduct to meet all the requirements of the penitential season, was still possessed of sufficient interest to drive dull care over the Brooklyn Bridge or down the bay. Fortune-feelling by cards is one of the few diversions that come within the Lenten rules, and it is rapidly growing in popular favour.

* Why didn’t you tell me such nice things about myself ?’ ruefully remonstrated a pretty girl who had received a far less glowing glimpse of the future.

* Because your cards did not tell it,’ gravely responded the little witch. • Carrie’s life is going to be happy, because the king of dia-

monds came up first. That means a tall, fair man. Next was the ten of hearts. That shows that he is going to propose to her soon. The ace of hearts means a large house, and the six and eight of hearts mean friends and pleasure, while the seven of diamonds means money. Don't you see ? Now, your cards were all black. That means bad luck and lots of it. Of course,’ she continued, ‘ I don’t make the fortunes. I only interpret what the cards say.’

‘I don’t believe in it, any way,’ said the disappointed young fortune-seeker, 1 Oh, 1 fie !’ was the rejoinder. ‘ Last month didn’t Mary have a black hand, and the very next day didn’t some one steal her pug, and the next week didn’t her sister come down with the measles, so that she has not been able to go out at all. Of course it’s true, and yon have my sympathy.’ In this parlour fortune-telling the red cards foretell good fortune and the black cards the reverse. The two, three, four, five, and six of spades are the most unfortunate of all. They mean disappointment, anger, drunkenness, insanity, sickness, sorrow, and tbe grave. Queer notion, isn’t it ? And yet it is so popular that one publisher has issued two new books of rules since tbe first of the year. <