o feel for me.

I took hold of the hand. No words passed; none were needed. Never had
I known friendship before. After a short time I said,

'What shall we do, Sinfi?'

'I shall wait a bit, till the stars are out,' said she. 'I know
they're a-comin' out by the feel o' the wind. Then I shall walk up a
path as Winnie knows. The sun'll be up ready for me by the time I get
to the part I wants to go to. You know, young man, I _must_ find her.
She'll never come back to the cottage no more, now she's been skeared
away from it.'

'But I must accompany you,' I said.

'No, no, you mustn't do that,' said the Gypsy; 'she might take fright
and fall and be killed. Besides,' said she, 'Winifred Wynne's under
a cuss; it's bad luck to follow up anybody under a cuss.'

'But you are following her,' I said.

'Ah, but that's different. "Gorgio cuss never touched Romany," as my
mammy, as had the seein' eye, used to say.'

'But,' I exclaimed vehemently, 'I _want_ to be cursed with her. I
have followed her to be cursed with her. I mean to go with you.'

'Young man,' said she, 'are there many o' your sort among the
Gorgios?'

'I don't know and I don't care,' said I.

''Cause,' said she, 'that sayin' o' yourn is a fine sight liker a
Romany chi's nor a Romany chal's. It's the chies as sticks to the
dials, cuss or no cuss. I wish the chals 'ud stick as close to the
chies.'

After much persuasion, however, I induced the Gypsy to let me
accompany her, promising to abide implicitly by her instructions.

Even while we were talking the rain had ceased, and patches of stars
were shining brilliantly. These patches got rapidly larger. Sinfi
Lovell proposed that we should go to the cottage, dry our clothes,
and furnish ourselves with a day's provisions, which she said a
certain cupboard in the cottage would supply, and also with her
crwth, which she appeared to consider essential to the success of the
enterprise.

'She's fond o' the crwth,' she said. 'She allus wanted Mrs. Davies to
larn her to play it, but her aunt never would, 'cause when it's
played by a maid on the hills to the Welsh dukkerin' gillie,
[Footnote 1] the spirits o' Snowdon and the livin' mullos
[Footnote 2] o' them as she's fond on will sometimes come and show
themselves, and she said Winnie wasn't at all the sort o' gal to feel
comfable with spirits moving round her. She larnt me it, though. It's
only when the crwth is played by a maid on the hills that the spirits
ca