"I was eighteen about six months ago," said Dick.
"It is as I thought. You were threatened with a sudden and violent death through the position of Saturn in the sky at the moment you entered that house in the city; and but for other planetary influences in your favor you would have fared badly."
"How can you tell all that without even looking at my hand?"
"I recall much that your hand told me, and the circumstances you have related to me enables me to make those deductions."
"Hand-reading and astrology seem to be more or less alike."
"They must agree, or there would be nothing in either. Cartomancy, which means the reading of the past, present or future through cards, also coincides with the other two, reaching the same results. Why, I can tell your character and all your characteristics by merely studying your physical appearance. You have a compact body, well-developed chest, and other traits that show at a glance the influence of the Sun and Jupiter at your birth, and indicate to an ordinary observer that you are endowed with good health and a resistance against disease. The color of your eyes, and hair, the size and shape of your hands, your ears, your eyebrows, all tell their story as clearly as if described in print. The very flush that you bear upon your cheeks shows beyond a doubt that you were born in the cycle of the Sun."
"You gypsies are a great people in your way, I am bound to say," said Dick, regarding Miriam with increased respect.
"Our ancestors came from Egypt. We are an old race."
"Well, I've got to be going," said Dick.
"You are bound back to the city—soon?"