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368 The Book of Indoor and Outdoor Games |
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the features peculiar to the occasion; the sandwiches cut heart-shaped, the cakes iced in rose colour, pink peppermints, or other bonbons in the form of hearts.
The caterers have moulds for ices in the shape of cupids, wedding-bells, hearts, and doves in pairs kissing each other. A dish of the little meringues called "kisses" would not be forgotten.
After supper the fun is apt to flag a little, and to prevent this it may be intimated that something very interesting is to follow.
Fate
When all have returned to the drawing-room, the hostess may appear dressed all in black, a bandage over her eyes, a black veil over her head—which should fall over her forehead. She makes the announcement that she is fate, blind, as they see, and therefore "no respecter of persons." She claims that with unerring certainty she can give to every man present the name of his future wife—admitting that she is not yet sufficiently proficient to tell the names of the future husbands, with precision. The men are then asked to come forward and receive at the hands of the King of Hearts a card for each man present, inscribed with the name of the wife whom Fate assigns him. She then draws from some receptacle under her veil an envelope, which she hands to St. Valentine, who passes it to the man to whom it is addressed—with the injunction that it is not to be opened until a signal is given for all to read their fate. When every one has received his card, the hostess raises her hands solemnly to her head, palms down, elbows extended, then stretching her arms outward as if in blessing, with bent head, mutters the incantation said to have been used by the great Cagliostro: |
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