the jewel, and know also of my father's wishes. If it was unsafe
in the tomb when only Winnie's father knew of it, it would be a
thousandfold more unsafe now.'

'P'raps that's all the better for her an' you: the new thief takes
the cuss.'

'This is all folly,' I replied, with the anger of one struggling
against an unwelcome half-belief that refuses to be dismissed. 'It is
all moonshine-madness. I'll never do it,--not at least while I retain
my reason. It was no doubt partly for safety as well as for the other
reason that my father wished the cross to be placed in the tomb. It
will be far safer now in a cabinet than anywhere else.'

'Reia,' said Sinfi, 'you told me wonst as your great-grandmother
was a Romany named Fenella Stanley. I have axed the Scollard
about her, and what do you think he says? He says that she wur my
great-grandmother too, for she married a Lovell as died.'

'Good heavens, Sinfi! Well, I'm proud of my kinswoman.'

'And he says that Fenella Stanley know'd more about the true
dukkerin, the dukkerin of the Romanies, than anybody as were ever
heerd on.'

'She seems to have been pretty superstitious,' I said, 'by all
accounts. But what has that to do with the cross?'

'You'll put it in the tomb again.'

'Never!'

'Fenella Stanley will see arter that.'

'Fenella Stanley! Why, she's dead and dust.'

'That's what I mean; that's why she can make you do it, and will.'

'Well, well! I did not come to talk about the cross; I want to have
a quiet word with you about another matter.'

She sprang away as if in terror or else in anger. Then recovering
herself she took the kettle from the prop. I followed her to the
tent, which, save that it was made of brown blanket, looked more like
a tent on a lawn than a Gypsy-tent. All its comfort seemed, however,
to give no great delight to Videy, the cashier and female
financier-general of the Lovell family, who, in a state of absorbed
untidiness, sitting at the end of the tent upon a palliasse covered
with a counterpane of quilted cloth of every hue, was evidently
occupied in calculating her father's profits and losses at the recent
horse-fair. The moment Videy saw us she hurriedly threw the coin into
the silver tea-pot by her side, and put it beneath the counterpane,
with that instinctive and unnecessary secrecy which characterised
her, and made her such an amazing contrast both to her sister Sinfi
and to Rhona Boswell.

After Panuel had received me in his