spoken words when I
read her lips. I like this varied emphasis better than the monotonous
pound of unmodulated people who hammer their meaning into my palm.

Some hands, when they clasp yours, beam and bubble over with gladness.
They throb and expand with life. Strangers have clasped my hand like
that of a long-lost sister. Other people shake hands with me as if with
the fear that I may do them mischief. Such persons hold out civil
finger-tips which they permit you to touch, and in the moment of
contract they retreat, and inwardly you hope that you will not be called
upon again to take that hand of "dormouse valour." It betokens a prudish
mind, ungracious pride, and not seldom mistrust. It is the antipode to
the hand of those who have large, lovable natures.

The handshake of some people makes you think of accident and sudden
death. Contrast this ill-boding hand with the quick, skilful, quiet hand
of a nurse whom I remember with affection because she took the best
care of my teacher. I have clasped the hands of some rich people that
spin not and toil not, and yet are not beautiful. Beneath their soft,
smooth roundness what a chaos of undeveloped character!

I am sure there is no hand comparable to the physician's in patient
skill, merciful gentleness and splendid certainty. No wonder that Ruskin
finds in the sure strokes of the surgeon the perfection of control and
delicate precision for the artist to emulate. If the physician is a man
of great nature, there will be healing for the spirit in his touch. This
magic touch of well-being was in the hand of a dear friend of mine who
was our doctor in sickness and health. His happy cordial spirit did his
patients good whether they needed medicine or not.

As there are many beauties of the face, so the beauties of the hand are
many. Touch has its ecstasies. The hands of people of strong
individuality and sensitiveness are wonderfully mobile. In a glance of
their finger-tips they express many shades of thought. Now and again I
touch a fine, graceful, supple-wristed hand which spells with the same
beauty and distinction that you must see in the handwriting of some
highly cultivated people. I wish you could see how prettily little
children spell in my hand. They are wild flowers of humanity, and their
finger motions wild flowers of speech.

All this is my private science of palmistry, and when I tell your
fortune it is by no mysterious intuition or gipsy witchcraft, but by
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