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When а man has been out of work for more than three months, his mind isnt troubled much with thinking of women light or dark. I was thinking of the grooms place at the great house, and I tried to say so. My aunt Chance wouldnt listen. She treated my interpretation with contempt. Hoot-toot! theres the caird in your hand! If yere no thinking of her the day, yell be thinking of her the morrow. Wheres the harm of thinking of а dairk woman! I was ance а dairk woman myself, before my hair was gray. Haud yer peace, Francie, and watch the cairds.
I watched the cards as I was told. There were seven left on the table. My aunt removed two from one end of the row and two from the other, and desired me to call the two outermost of the three cards now left on the table. I called the Ace of Clubs and the Ten of Diamonds. My aunt Chance lifted her eyes to the ceiling with а look of devout gratitude which sorely tried my mothers patience. The Ace of Clubs and the Ten of Diamonds, taken together, signified first, good news (evidently the news of the grooms place); secondly, а journey that lay before me (pointing plainly to my journey to-morrow!); thirdly and lastly, а sum of money (probably the grooms wages!) waiting to find its way into my pockets. Having told my fortune in these encouraging terms, my aunt declined to carry the experiment any further. Eh, lad! its а clean tempting o Proavidence to ask mair o the cairds than the cairds have tauld us noo. Gae yer ways to-morrow to the great hoose. А dairk woman will meet ye at the gate; and shell have а hand in getting ye the grooms place, wi a the gratifications and pairquisites appertaining to the same. And, mebbe, when yer poakets full o money, yell no be forgetting yer aunt Chance, maintaining her ain unblemished widowhood wi Proavidence assisting on thratty punds а year!
I promised to remember my aunt Chance (who had the defect, by the way, of being а terribly greedy person after money) on the next happy occasion when my poor empty pockets were to be filled at last. This done, I looked at my mother. She had agreed to take her sister for umpire between us, and her sister had given it in my favor. She raised no more objections. Silently, she got on her feet, and kissed me, and sighed bitterly and so left the room. My aunt Chance shook her head. I doubt, Francie, yer puir mither has but а heathen notion of the vairtue of the cairds!
By daylight the next morning I set forth on my journey. I looked back at the cottage as I opened the garden gate. At one window was my mother, with her handkerchief to her eyes. At the other stood my aunt Chance, holding up the Queen of Spades by way of encouraging me at starting. I waved my hands to both of them in token of farewell, and stepped out briskly into the road. It was then the last day of February. Be pleased to remember, in connection with this, that the first of March was the day and two oclock in the morning the hour of my birth.
V
Now you know how I came to leave home. The next thing to tell is, what happened on the journey.
I reached the great house in reasonably good time considering the distance. At the very first trial of it, the prophecy of the cards turned out to be wrong. The person who met me at the lodge gate was not а dark woman in fact, not а woman at all but а boy. He directed me on the way to the servants offices; and there again the cards were all wrong. I encountered, not one woman, but three and not one of the three was dark. I have stated that I am not superstitious, and I have told the truth. But I must own that I did feel а certain fluttering at the heart when I made my bow to the steward, and told him what business had brought me to the house. His answer completed the discomfiture of aunt Chances fortune-telling. My ill-luck still pursued me. That very morning another man had applied for the grooms place, and had got it.
I swallowed my disappointment as well as I could, and thanked the steward, and went to the inn in the village to get the rest and food which I sorely needed by this time.
Before starting on my homeward walk I made some inquiries at the inn, and ascertained that I might save а few miles, on my return, by following а new road. Furnished with full instructions, several times repeated, as to the various turnings I was to take, I set forth, and walked on till the evening with only one stoppage for bread and cheese. Just as it was getting toward dark, the rain came on and the wind began to rise; and I found myself, to make matters worse, in а part of the country with which I was entirely unacquainted, though I guessed myself to be some fifteen miles from home. The first house I found to inquire at, was а lonely roadside inn, standing on the outskirts of а thick wood. Solitary as the place looked, it was welcome to а lost man who was also hungry, thirsty, footsore, and wet. The landlord was civil and respectable-looking; and the price he asked for а bed was reasonable enough. I was grieved to disappoint my mother. But there was no conveyance to be had, and I could go no farther afoot that night. My weariness fairly forced me to stop at the inn.