Mary Ann.  I hope I should be willing to give up a mere whim for the pleasure of those I love so well.  But this is not a whim; it is a serious conviction of duty.

Sophronia.  Well, I thought you always pretended to be very obliging.

Mary Ann.  I have no right to be obliging at the expense of what I deem duty.  Our own inclinations we should often sacrifice, our prejudices always, but our sense of duty never.

Eveline.  I think, girls, we have done wrong to urge Mary Ann to go, after she had told us her reasons.

Sophronia.  Well, then, don’t spend any more time in urging her to go, against her will.  You know the old proverb “The least said is soonest mended.”

Eveline.  Well, do not let us go away angry or ill-natured.  You asked Mary Ann to say why she thought it was wrong, and we should receive her reasons kindly.

Sarah.  So I think; but I wish she would tell us what harm she thinks it would do to go.

Mary Ann.  Well, girls, I think, by trying to look into the future, we are apt to grow discontented and restless, and to forget that we have duties to perform in the present.  Then, if we do not believe in it, it is a waste of time and money, which might be better employed in relieving the suffering of the poor around us.  But the greatest evil of all is, that we should believe even a part; she would of course tell us many little circumstances which would be true of any one; thus we might be led to believe all she said; the prediction would probably work out its own fulfilment, and perhaps render us miserable for life.

Sophronia.  Oh, fudge!  Mary Ann.  This is altogether too bad and ungenerous in you.  In the first place, the few cents we give, bestowed as they are on a poor old widow woman, are not wasted, in my opinion, but well spent;—­and if I spend an evening, granted to me by my father and mother for recreation, in listening to Old Kate, it is no more wasted than if I spend it with the girls in any other social way.  And when you connect fortune-telling and our duties in the present, you make it too serious an affair. Remember, this is all for sport.

Mary Ann.  It may be so with you, Sophronia; but there are those who seriously believe every word of a fortune-teller, and actually live more in the unseen but expected events of the future, than in faithfully performing their duties in the present.  This is true, Sophronia.  The contentment and peace of many young minds have been utterly lost, sold for the absurd jabbering of old, ignorant, low-bred women, who pretend to read the future. [In a livelier tone of voice.] But just say, girls, do you believe there is any connection between tea-leaves and your future lives?

Eveline, Sarah, Sophronia.  Why, no!

Mary Ann.  Do you believe God has marked the fortunes of thousands of his creatures on the face of cards?