''Good news, miss, is it?'' I said; since I thought I ought to.
She hesitated. Then: ''Very good,'' she answered, ''—for my uncle, I mean. It is from Mr Rivers, in London; and what do you think?'' She smiled. ''He is coming back to Briar, tomorrow!''
The smile stayed on her lips all day, like paint; and in the afternoon, when she came from her uncle, she wouldn''t sit sewing, or go for a walk, would not even play at cards, but paced about the room, and sometimes stood before the glass, smoothing her brows, touching her plump mouth—hardly speaking to me, hardly seeing me at all.┆┆思┆┆兔┆┆網┆┆
I got the cards out anyway, and played by myself. I thought of Gentleman, laying out the kings and queens in the Lant Street kitchen while he told us all his plot. Then I thought of Dainty. Her mother—that had ended up drowned—had been able to tell fortunes from a pack of cards. I had seen her do it, many times.
I looked at Maud, standing dreaming at the mirror. I said,
''Should you like to know your future, miss? Did you know that you can read it, from how the cards fall?''
That made her turn from looking at her own face, to look at mine. She said after a moment,
''I thought it was only gipsy women could do that.''
''Well, but don''t tell Margaret or Mrs Stiles,'' I said. ''My grandmother, you know, was a gipsy-princess.''
A