exhibited a surprising faculty of accompaniment to Mr. Rice's tenor, in
which both the girls joined.

Then a game of cards with partners followed, into which the rival
parties introduced such delightful and shameless obviousness of
cheating, and displayed such fascinating and exaggerated partisanship
that the game resolved itself into a hilarious melee, to which peace was
restored only by an exhibition of tricks of legerdemain with the
cards by the young surveyor. All of which Mr. Harkutt supervised
patronizingly, with occasional fits of abstraction, from his
rocking-chair; and later Mrs. Harkutt from her kitchen threshold, wiping
her arms on her apron and commiseratingly observing that she "declared,
the young folks looked better already."

But it was here a more dangerous element of mystery and suggestion was
added by Mr. Lawrence Grant in the telling of Miss Euphemia's fortune
from the cards before him, and that young lady, pink with excitement,
fluttered her little hands not unlike timid birds over the cards to be
drawn, taking them from him with an audible twitter of anxiety and
great doubts whether a certain "fair-haired gentleman" was in hearts or
diamonds.

"Here are two strangers," said Mr. Grant, with extraordinary gravity
laying down the cards, "and here is a 'journey;' this is 'unexpected
news,' and this ten of diamonds means 'great wealth' to you, which you
see follows the advent of the two strangers and is some way connected
with them."

"Oh, indeed," said the young lady with great pertness and a toss of her
head. "I suppose they've got the money with them."