diamonds); they will be married before the expiration of a
twelvemonth.'

Such is the scheme of fortune-telling by cards, as propounded in
the learned disquisitions of the adepts, and Betty, or Martha, or
her mistress can consult them by themselves according to the
established method--without exposing themselves to the
extortionate cunning of the wandering gipsies or the permanent
crone of the city or village. They may just as well believe what
comes out according to their own manipulation as by that of the
heartless cheats in question. Your ordinary fortune-tellers are
not over-particular, being only anxious to tell you exactly what
you want to know. So if a black court card gets in juxta-
position with and looking towards a red court card, the fair
consulter's representative, then it is evident that some 'dark
gentleman' is 'after her;' and vice versa; and if a wife,
suspecting her husband's fidelity, consults the cards, the
probability is that her SUSPICIONS will receive 'confirmation
strong' from the fact that 'some dark woman,' that is, a black
queen, 'is after her husband;' or vice versa, if a husband
consults the card-woman respecting the suspicions he may have
reason to entertain with regard to his 'weaker rib' or his
'intended.'

It need scarcely be observed that fortune-tellers in any place
are 'posted up' in all information or gossip in the
neighbourhood; and therefore they readily turn their knowledge to
account in the answers they give to anxious inquirers.

Apart from this, however, the interpretations are so elaborately