The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-08-25
F0RTUNE.TELLING BY CARDS.
I.-CLUBs AND SPADES.

-Nbbl1S AND SHADES.
Reinette Pillsbury was in trouble, and
trouble for her was an entirely new ex.
perience. A crisis had come in which
she herself must decide, and, in which
ever way the decision was made, it must
prove disagreeable to two persons-to
her mother and the Duke of Brunswick,
or to De Witt Bruce and herself. OF
course his name was not really the Duke
of Brunswick; that was nickname that
Dewitt had given little Mr. Goodenough
on account of the diamonds in which he
delighted to array himself. The Duke
was an honorable gentleman, something
past fifty-tive, with no 0finire du c8ur in
all those years, except the half-regretful,
half-romantic remembrance of first
love who looked liked Reinette, and who
died long, long ago.
The fortune on whose search he had
started out for love Of her he had gone
on piling up mechanically, for something
else to interest him, but the old love lay
in his heart like pressed rose in an old
letter, faded and dead, but filling the
place with a perfume faint but sweet
and suggestive. He had come to see
them ever since she could remember,
this odd, quiet little man, with his dia
mond studs, diamond ring, diamond
sleeve-buttons, and piercing, diamond
like eyes, and Reinette accepted all his
quaint little courtesies, and loved him as
though he were a favorite uncle And
De Witt had come upon the stage, and
they had grown up in matter-of-fact
way too; at school, at play, as children,
they were inseparable, never the least
spice of Irritation between them, but al
ways the most natural and frankest of
intercourse.
Relnette had often wondered how it
would seem to have a lover, and wished
that she might know; and now that
sudden revelation had come she said to
herself, in real perplexity and pain, that
to have two lovers was the most dread
full thing that could happen to a girl.
Tonight there would be the usual little
weekly card party, and the Duke and
De Witt would come and play euchre
with her mother and herself, as they had
done every Thursday evening for more
than year past. 1t was the only socie-
ty accomplishment which the Duke had,
and they loved to make him feel at home,
and brighten his dull week with one
cheerful evening. De Witt did not care
especially for cards, but there never was
an occasion when he was not ready to
oblge. 1t seemed to Reinette that De
Witt was always the friend in need;
it was he VINO arranged the shadow
pantomimes, and called off the quad
rifles, and led the German, intro
ducing such elegant figures, and was
always on hand to carry the baskets at
picnic and put up the swing; he always
escorted home the young lady who lived
the farthest off, and took the homeliest
down to dinner. He could converse,
too-a rare accomplishment among the
young men with whom Reinette was ac-
quainted-and was often set to entertain
very literary and understandable persons.
He had been invited to their Thursday
evenings just to make up the game, and
seemed only too happy to come on any
terms. They had been very pleasant
evenings, and Reinette had never before
looked>forward to one with of them with
the dread and unhappiness which she did
to this. Unknown to each other, De
Witt and the Duke had both told their
story to Reinette since the last card party,
and had asked her to give her decision
on this evening, and, even now that the
morning had come, Reinette was not de-
cided. Thoroughly miserable, she wan
dered into the garden and sat down in a
little rustic arbor, with novel in her
lap that she was not reading, and some
crochet work, which, as she played with
it, became more hopelessly tangled than
the thread of her own destiny.
Mike, the gardener, was taking up the
azaleas and putting them into tubs to be
carried into the greenhouse for the win
ter He was singing snatches of a comic
Irish song at his work, and Reinette s lit
tie brother Phil followed him, much in
terested. Over the door of the little
Toulouse Mike had tackled the ace of
clubs
"What have you got that card up
there for, Mike?" asked Phil. Il know
they say lrishmen are fond of the shila-
lah, but never saw you use club, and
/ should think you would rather have 8
spade instead"
AS for shpades, there's enough O tho
loikes O. them inside the house, sure, re
piled Mike.
"That's why I'd have one on the door
you see. You are q regular king Of
spades yourself, Mike"
King of spades, is it?" said Mike, re
flectively, leaning, as he spoke, upon hi
own. "Sure | can't be afther denying
that I've done as purity a lot of worl
with that same as his honor your father
maybe; and it's many time it's mysel
has said there niver was a man bette
named or more of an honor to his per
feshun, as one might say, than he--Doc
ther PiIlS-bury, is it? Sure, from first t,
last, think my shpade would be afthe
holding its own with any of his pills. l
was startin' in life that l was in tn
cheerful okkypashun of grave-digge
in the ould country, in the parish of Xii