since the death of my
beloved. As I lay awake that night I occasionally thought of the marks,
and in my sleep methought I saw them upon the teapot vividly before me.
On the morrow I examined the marks again. How singular they looked!
Surely they must mean something, and if so, what could they mean? and at
last I thought within myself whether it would be possible for me to make
out what they meant. That day I felt more relief than on the preceding
day, and towards night I walked a little about.

'In about a week's time I received a visit from my friend the surgeon.
After a little discourse, he told me that he perceived I was better than
when he had last seen me, and asked me what I had been about. I told him
that I had been principally occupied in considering certain marks which I
had found on a teapot, and wondering what they could mean. He smiled at
first, but instantly assuming a serious look, he asked to see the teapot.
I produced it, and after having surveyed the marks with attention, he
observed that they were highly curious, and also wondered what they
meant. "I strongly advise you," said he, "to attempt to make them out,
and also to take moderate exercise, and to see after your concerns." I
followed his advice. Every morning I studied the marks on the teapot,
and in the course of the day took moderate exercise, and attended to
little domestic matters, as became the master of a house.

'I subsequently learned that the surgeon, in advising me to study the
marks, and endeavour to make out their meaning, merely hoped that by
means of them my mind might by degrees be diverted from the mournful idea
on which it had so long brooded. He was a man well skilled in his
profession, but had read and thought very little on matters unconnected
with it. He had no idea that the marks had any particular signification,
or were anything else but common and fortuitous ones. That I became at
all acquainted with their nature was owing to a ludicrous circumstance
which I will now relate.

'One day, chancing to be at a neighbouring town, I was struck with the
appearance of a shop recently established. It had an immense bow-window,
and every part of it to which a brush could be applied was painted in a
gaudy flaming style. Large bowls of green and black tea were placed upon
certain chests, which stood at the window. I stopped to look at them;
such a display, whatever it may be at the present time, being, at the
period of w