CHAPTER XIX 247
" Yes; just so, in YOUR circumstances: but find me another precisely placed as you are."
" It would be easy to find you thousands."
" You could scarcely find me one. If you knew it, you are peculiarly situated: very near happiness; yes, within reach of it. The materials are all prepared; there only wants a movement to combine them. Chance laid them somewhat apart; let them be once approached and bliss results."
" I don ' t understand enigmas. I never could guess a riddle in my life." " If you wish me to speak more plainly, show me your palm." " And I must cross it with silver, I suppose?" " To be sure."
I gave her a shilling: she put it into an old stocking-foot which she took out of her pocket, and having tied it round and returned it, she told me to hold out my hand. I did. She arched her face to the palm, and pored over it without touching it.
" It is too fine," said she. " I can make nothing of such a hand as that; almost without lines: besides, what is in a palm? Destiny is not written there."
" I believe you," said I.
" No," she continued, " it is in the face: on the forehead, about the eyes, in the lines of the mouth. Kneel, and lift up your head."
" Ah! now you are coming to reality," I said, as I obeyed her. " I shall begin to put some faith in you presently."
I knelt within half a yard of her. She stirred the fire, so that a ripple of light broke from the disturbed coal: the glare, however, as she sat, only threw her