ins
having left his famous bungalow and gone to Japan? Why, it was
actually copied into the little penny weekly thing that Mrs. Titwing
takes in, and it was there that I read it.'

'This shows the folly of ignoring the papers,' I said. 'I did
undoubtedly say in some letters to friends that I proposed going to
Japan; but my loss of you, my grief, my misery, paralysed every
faculty of mine. My strength of purpose was all gone. I delayed and
delayed starting, and never left Wales at all, as you see.'

'Two things,' continued Winnie, 'prevented my leaving Hurstcote--my
promise to Mr. D'Arcy to sit to him for his picture of Zenelophon,
and the prosaic fact that I had not money in my pocket to travel
with; for it was part of the delicate method of Mr. D'Arcy to furnish
me with everything money could buy, but to give me no money. His
extravagant expenditure upon me in the way of dress, trinkets, and
every kind of luxury that could be placed in my room by Mrs. Titwing
appalled me. Mrs. Titwing's own bearing, when I spoke to her about
them, would have made one almost suppose that they grew there like
mushrooms; and if I mentioned them to Mr. D'Arcy he would tell me
that Mrs. Titwing was answerable for all that; he knew nothing about
such matters.

'What I should in the end have done as to leaving Hurstcote or
remaining there I don't know; but after a while something occurred to
remove my difficulties. One morning, when I was giving Mr. D'Arcy a
long sitting for his picture, a Gypsy friend of Sinfi's, belonging to
a family of Lees encamped two or three miles off, called to see her.
It was a man, Sinfi told me, whom I did not know, and he had gone
away without my seeing him.

'In the afternoon, when Sinfi and I were in the punt fishing
together, I could not help noticing that she was much absorbed in
thought.

'"This 'ere fishin' brings back old Wales, don't it?" she said.

'"Yes," I said, "and I should love to see the old places again."

'"You would?" she said; and her excitement was so great that she
dropped her fishing-rod in the river. "Jake Lee has been tellin' me
that our people are there, all camped in the old place by Bettws y
Coed. I told him to write to my daddy--Jake can write--and tell him
that I'm goin' to see him."

'"But you already knew they were there, Sinfi; you told me. What
makes you so suddenly want to go?"

'"That's nuther here nor there. I do want to go. Why can't you go
with me?"

'"I should