the mind > mental capacity > expectation > foresight, foreknowledge > prediction, foretelling > an omen, sign, portent > [noun] > portending a visitor or letter (2)
A spark in the wick of candle popularly supposed to presage the arrival of a letter or visitor. Chiefly in letter in the candle. Now rare.
Any of the things which are popularly imagined to forebode the coming of an unexpected visitor, e.g. a floating tea-leaf in the cup; an excrescence…