Meanings of read characters in English

I had read characters aright, and so on.

Young man, though I may seem careless, I read characters, when I please it, pretty quickly.

Oh, she thought, he can't read characters.

You know, I read characters and fortunes.

Well, it seems that even minor pleasures have dangers, and that I do not always read characters rightly.

Who taught you to read characters?

He could read characters with wonderful quickness, rapidly taking stock, as he called it, of those with whom he came in contact.

You know I can read characters, and though you never summed George up to me, his sayings and doings reveal him to me.

Waggit was teaching the boys to "read ." Not to read characters or runes upon a parchment, but to read gestures and body language-to"read" people.

And I, who talked of reading characters!

He possessed the happy faculty of reading characters, and adapting his conversation to the minds of his listeners.

Reading characters by feet.

"Women have wonderful intuition in reading characters."