ouse, which bore the sign of the
"Silent Woman," where we stopped to refresh our cattle and ourselves; and
as we sat over our bread and ale, it came to pass that Mr. Petulengro
asked me various questions, and amongst others, how I intended to dispose
of myself. I told him that I did not know; whereupon, with considerable
frankness, he invited me to his camp, and told me that if I chose to
settle down amongst them, and become a Rommany chal, {61} I should have
his wife's sister, Ursula, who was still unmarried, and occasionally
talked of me.

I declined his offer, assigning as a reason the recent death of Mrs.
Herne, of which I was the cause, although innocent. "A pretty life I
should lead with those two," said I, "when they came to know it." "Pooh,"
said Mr. Petulengro, "they will never know it. I shan't blab, and as for
Leonora, that girl has a head on her shoulder's." "Unlike the woman in
the sign," said I, "whose head is cut off. You speak nonsense, Mr.
Petulengro: as long as a woman has a head on her shoulders she'll
talk,--but, leaving women out of the case, it is impossible to keep
anything a secret; an old master of mine told me so long ago. I have
moreover another reason for declining your offer. I am at present not
disposed for society. I am become fond of solitude. I wish I could find
some quiet place to which I could retire to hold communion with my own
thoughts, and practise, if I thought fit, either of my trades." "What
trades?" said Mr. Petulengro. "Why, the one which I have lately been
engaged in, or my original one, which I confess I should like better,
that of a kaulomescro." {62} "Ah, I have frequently heard you talk of
making horseshoes," said Mr. Petulengro. "I, however, never saw you make
one, and no one else that I am aware, I don't believe. Come, brother,
don't be angry,--it's quite possible that you may have done things which
neither I nor any one else has seen you do, and that such things may some
day or other come to light, as you say nothing can be kept secret. Be
that, however, as it may, pay the reckoning, and let us be going. I
think I can advise you to just such a kind of place as you seem to want."

"And how do you know that I have got wherewithal to pay the reckoning?" I
demanded. "Brother," said Mr. Petulengro, "I was just now looking in
your face, which exhibited the very look of a person conscious of the
possession of property; there was nothing hungry or sneaking in