"Ah!" said her husband, with a confirmatory nod. "Wonderful is no name
for it. I 'ad my fortune told once when I was a boy, and she told me I
should marry the prettiest, and the nicest, and the sweetest-tempered gal
in Poplar."

Mr. Foss, with a triumphant smile, barely waited for him to finish.
"There you--" he began, and stopped suddenly.

[Illustration: "I just came in to tell you a joke."]

"What was you about to remark?" inquired Mrs. Dowson, icily.

"I was going to say," replied Mr. Foss--"I was going to say--I 'ad just
got it on the tip o' my tongue to say, 'There you--you--you 'ad all the
luck, Mr. Dowson.'"

He edged his chair a little nearer to Flora; but there was a chilliness
in the atmosphere against which his high spirits strove in vain. Mr.
Dowson remembered other predictions which had come true, notably the case
of one man who, learning that he was to come in for a legacy, gave up a
two-pound-a-week job, and did actually come in for twenty pounds and a
bird-cage seven years afterwards.

[Illustration: "He edged his chair a little nearer to Flora."]

"It's all nonsense," protested Mr. Foss; "she only said all that because
I made fun of her. You don't believe it, do you, Flora?"

"I don't see anything to laugh at," returned Miss Dowson. "Fancy five