e
know'd you. I always heerd his friends call him Cyril, and so I used
to call him Mr. Cyril.'

'But, Lady Sinfi, my Helen of Little Egypt,' said Cyril, 'suppose
that in my encounter with my patrician cousin--an encounter which
would have been entirely got up in honour of you--suppose it had
happened that I had made your brother's bed for him?'

'You make _his_ bed!' exclaimed Sinfi, laughing.

'Dordi! how you would ha' went down afore the Swimmin' Rei!'
[Footnote]

[Footnote: By the Welsh Gypsies, but few of whom can swim, I was
called 'the Swimmin' Rei,' a name which would have been far more
appropriately given to Percy Aylwin (Rhona Boswell's lover), one of
the strongest swimmers in England; but he was simply called the
Tarno Rye (the young gentleman).]

'But suppose that, on the contrary, he had gone down before me,' said
Cyril; 'suppose I had been the death of your Swimming Rei, I should
have been tried for the wilful murder of a prince of Little Egypt,
the son of a Romany duke. Why, Helen of Troy was not half so
mischievous a beauty as you.'

'You was safe enough, no fear,' said Sinfi. 'It 'ud take six o' you
to settle the Swimmin' Rei.'

I found that Cyril and his strange companion were staying at 'The
Royal Oak,' at Bettws y Coed. They asked me to join them, but when I
told them I 'could not leave my people, who were encamped about two
miles off,' Cyril again looked at me with an expression of deepest
enjoyment, and exclaimed 'delightful creature.'

Turning to Sinfi, he said: 'Then we'll go with you and call upon the
noble father of the twins, my old friend King Panuel.'

'He ain't a king,' said Sinfi modestly; 'he's only a duke.'

'You'll give us some tea, Lady Sinfi?' said Cyril.

'No tea equal to Gypsy tea.'

'Romany tea, Mr. Cyril,' replied Sinfi, with perfect dignity and
grace. 'My daddy, the duke, will be pleased to welcome you.'

We all strolled towards the tents. I offered to carry an umbrella and
a camp-stool. Cyril walked briskly away with Sinfi, leaving me to get
on with Wilderspin as best I could. Before the other two were out of
earshot, however, I heard Cyril say,

'You shouldn't have taken so seriously my chaff about the soap,
Sinfi. You ought to know me better by this time than to think that I
would really insult you.'

'How you would ha' went down afore the Swimmin' Rei!' replied Sinfi
regretfully.

III

Between my new companion, Wilderspin, and myself there was an aw