Part 5 (1/2)

”No, I didn't. At least I mustn't tell just yet. I'm going to read the last one now.

”TO PRISSIE

”I am not sentimental, please, I cannot write in rhyme, I beg you'll all ecstatics leave Until another time.

”But if I'm lacking in romance, At least my heart is true, And in its own prosaic way, It only beats for you.

”'Mong damsels all I think you are The nicest little Missie, And beg to have for Valentine That sweetest maid, Miss Prissie.”

”Author! Author!” cried Prissie. ”It's Lilias, I do believe!”

”Guessing's been horribly wrong!” said Gowan. ”Only about one of you was right. Shall I read the list?

”To Phillida by Dulcie.

To Lilias by Noreen.

To Gowan by myself.

To Bertha by Phillida.

To Noreen by Prissie.

To Dulcie by Bertha.

To Edith by Lilias.

To Prissie by Edith.”

”So you wrote your own, Gowan! What a humbug you are! You quite put us off the scent!”

”Well, I drew my own name, you see. I had to write something! Bertha ought to have a prize for guessing right, only we've nothing to give her. Shall we play something else?”

”Prissie's brought a pack of cards, and she says she'll tell our fortunes,” proclaimed Edith.

”I learnt how in the holidays,” confessed Prissie. ”A girl was staying with us who had a book about it. We used to have ripping fun every evening over it. Whose fortune shall I tell first? Oh, don't all speak at once! Look here, you'd better each cut, and the lowest shall win.”

Dulcie, who turned up an ace, was the lucky one, and was therefore elected as the first to consult the oracle. By Prissie's orders she shuffled the cards, then handed them back to the sorceress, who laid them out face upward in rows, and after a few moments' meditation began her prophecies.

”You're fair, and therefore the Queen of Diamonds is your representative card--all the luck's behind you instead of facing you. I see a disappointment and great changes. A dark woman is coming into your life.

She's connected somehow with money, but there are hearts behind her.

You'll take a journey by land, and find trouble and perplexity.”

”Haven't you anything nicer to tell me than that?” pouted Dulcie. ”Who's the dark woman?”

”She seems to be a relation, by the way the cards are placed.”

”I haven't any dark relations. They're all as fair as fair--the whole family.”

”It's silly nonsense! I don't believe in it!” declared Lilias emphatically.

”I dare say it is, but it's fun, all the same. Do tell mine now, Prissie!” urged Noreen, gathering up the cards and reshuffling them.

Before the fates could be further consulted, however, the big bell clanged for preparation, and the magician was obliged to pocket her cards, hurry downstairs, get out her lesson books, and write a piece of French translation, while the inquirers into her mysteries also separated, some to practise piano or violin, and some to study.