eclare, it is my _puro pal_, my old
friend, W."

And we drew near the tent and greeted its owner, who was equally
astonished and delighted at seeing such distinguished Romany _tani
ranis_, or gypsy young ladies, and brought forth his wife and three
really beautiful children to do the honors. W. was a good specimen of an
American-born gypsy, strong, healthy, clean, and temperate, none the
worse for wear in out-of-dooring, through tropical summers and terrible
winters. Like all American Romanys, he was more straightforward than
most of his race in Europe. All Romanys are polite, but many of the
European kind are most uncomfortably and unconsciously naive. Strange
that the most innocent people should be those who most offend morality.
I knew a lady once--Heaven grant that I may never meet with such
another!--who had been perfectly educated in entire purity of soul. And
I never knew any _devergondee_ who could so shock, shame, and pain decent
people as this Agnes did in her sweet ignorance.

"I shall never forget the first day you came to my camp," said W. to
Britannia. "Ah, you astonished me then. You might have knocked me down
with a feather. And I didn't know what to say. You came in a carriage
with two other ladies. And you jumped out first, and walked up to me,
and cried, '_Sa'shan_!' That stunned me, but I answered, '_Sa'shan_.'
Then I didn't speak Romanes to you, for I didn't know but what you kept
it a secret from the other two ladies, and I didn't wish to betray you.
And when you began to talk it as deep as any old Romany I ever heard, and
pronounced it so rich and beautiful, I thought I'd never heard the like.
I thought you must be a witch."

"_Awer me shom chovihani_" (but I am a witch), cried the lady. "_Mukka
men ja adre o tan_." (Let us go into the tent.) So we entered, and sat
round the fire, and asked news of all the wanderers of the roads, and the
young ladies, having filled their pockets with sweets, produced them for
the children, and we were as much at home as we had ever been in any
salon; for it was a familiar scene to us all, though it would, perhaps,
have been a strange one to the reader, had he by chance, walking that
lonely way in the twilight, looked into the tent and asked his way, and
there found two young ladies--_bien mises_--with their escort, all very
much at their ease, and talking Romany as if they had never known any
other tongue from the cradle.

"What is the charm of a