Providence provides them with many opportunities for the practice of philosophy.

I was present at a "high tea" given last winter by charitable folk to a party of char-women.

After the tables were cleared we sought to amuse them.

One young lady, who was proud of herself as a palmist, set out to study their "lines." At sight of the first toil-worn hand she took hold of her sympathetic face grew sad.
"There is a great trouble coming to you," she informed the ancient dame.
The placid-featured dame looked up and smiled: "What, only one, my dear ?" "Yes, only one," asserted the kind fortune-teller, much pleased, "after that all goes smoothly." "Ah," murmured the old dame, quite cheerfully, "we was all of us a short- lived family." Our skins harden to the blows of Fate.

I was lunching one Wednesday with a friend in the country.