nd after all, my granny might have been a gipsy-princess, for all I knew of it. I put the cards together again, and held them to her. She hesitated, then came and sat beside me, spreading her great skirt flat, saying, ''What must I do?''
I said she must sit with her eyes closed for a minute, and think of the subjects that were nearest her heart; which she did. Then I said she must take the cards and hold them, then set out the first seven
of them, face down—which is what I thought I remembered Dainty''s mother doing; or it might have been nine cards. Anyway, Maud set down seven.
I looked her in the eye and said, ''Now, do you really want to know your fortune?''
She said, ''Sue, you are frightening me!''
I said again, ''Do you really want to know it? What the cards teach you, you must obey. It is very bad luck to ask the cards to show you one path, then choose another. Do you promise to be bound by the fortune you find here?''
''I do,'' she answered quietly.
''Good,'' I said. ''Here is your life, laid all before us. Let us see the first part of it. These cards show your Past.''
I turned over the first two cards. They were the Queen of Hearts, followed by the Three of Spades. I remember them because of course, while she had been sitting with her eyes tight shut, I had sprung the pack; as anyone would have I think, being in my place then.
I studied them and said, ''Hmm. These are sad cards. Here is a kind and handsome lady, look; and here a parting, and the beginning of strife.''