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 o'clock
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 a dark
woman--in fact, not a woman at all--but a 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 a 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 Chance's
fortune-telling. My ill-luck still pursued me. That very morning another
man had applied for the groom's 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 a few miles, on my return, by following a
new road.
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