"My dear, you've got lovely hair. You'll set off the jewels and satins you'll wear by and by," said the woman, apparently lost in admiration of the girl as she seated herself at the other side of the table, and prepared to listen to the further unfoldment of her "fortune."
"Now you want to know what secrets the stars have disclosed since I saw you last," went on Mrs. Stanley. "Well, my dear, it's all summed up in one word—travel. You've got to travel—to go right away from this dull out of the way misfortuned place; for I can see plain enough that the malefic stars rule over this town, and the sooner you're out of it the better."
"But how am I to go?" asked Lizzie in some anxiety. "My mother and father and all my friends live here, and I don't know where else to go."
The woman crossed her arms and looked at Lizzie. "Ain't there nobody as knows you anywhere—not in London or some other big city?" she said.
The girl shook her head dolefully. "I haven't got a friend in the world outside of this town," she said.
"Well, now, that is unfortunate. And worth your weight in gold you'll be by and by," said her visitor, as if in great perplexity.
"Could—could you help me to get away, do you think?" asked the girl with some hesitation in her tone.
It was just what the woman had been waiting for, but she would not appear eager about it. "Well, suppose we talk it over a bit," she said in apparent reluctance. "Are you quite sure you ain't got no friends outside this town?"
"Yes, quite sure; and I haven't a penny in the world unless my mistress pays me my month's wages to-morrow," said Lizzie with tears in her eyes.
"Well, perhaps she'll pay you; and then you can go by yourself and seek your fortune," said Mrs. Stanley.