In the Summer time of the year, the Wheel of Fortune turned the right way
for me at last. I was smoking my pipe one day, near an old stone quarry at
the entrance to our village, when a carriage accident happened, which gave
a new turn, as it were, to my lot in life. It was an accident of the
commonest kind--not worth mentioning at any length. A lady driving
herself; a runaway horse; a cowardly man-servant in attendance, frightened
out of his wits; and the stone quarry too near to be agreeable--that is
what I saw, all in a few moments, between two whiffs of my pipe. I stopped
the horse at the edge of the quarry, and got myself a little hurt by the
shaft of the chaise. But that didn't matter. The lady declared I had saved
her life; and her husband, coming with her to our cottage the next day,
took me into his service then and there. The lady happened to be of a dark
complexion; and it may amuse you to hear that my aunt Chance instantly
pitched on that circumstance as a means of saving the credit of the cards.
Here was the promise of the Queen of Spades performed to the very letter,
by means of "a dark woman," just as my aunt had told me. "In the time to
come, Francis, beware o' pettin' yer ain blinded intairpretation on the
cairds. Ye're ower ready, I trow, to murmur under dispensation of
Proavidence that ye canna fathom--like the Eesraelites of auld.
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