'She turns round sharp,' said the Gypsy; 'she looks at me as skeared
as the eyes of a hotchiwitchi [Footnote] as knows he's a-bein'
uncurled for the knife. "_Father!_" she cries, and away she bolts
like a greyhound; and I know'd at oust as she wur under a cuss. Now,
you see, Mr. Blyth, that upset me, _that_ did, for Winnie Wynne was
the only one on 'em, Gorgio or Gorgie, ever I liked. No offence, Mr.
Blyth, it isn't your fault you was born one; but,' continued the
girl, holding up the foaming tankard and admiring the froth as it
dropped from the rim upon her slender brown hand on its way to the
floor, 'Winnie Wynne was the only one on 'em, Gorgio or Gorgie, ever
I liked, and that upset me, _that_ did, to see that 'ere beautiful
cretur a-grinnin' and jabberin' under a cuss. The Romanies is gittin'
too fond by half o' the Gorgios, and will soon be jist like mumply
Gorgios themselves, speckable and silly; but Gorgio or Gorgie, she
was the only one on 'em ever I liked, was Winnie Wynne; and when she
turned round on me like _that_, with them kind eyes o' hern (such
kind eyes _I_ never seed afore) lookin' like _that_ at me (and I
know'd she was under a cuss)--I tell you,' she said, still addressing
the beer, 'that it's made me fret ever since--that's what it's done!'
[Footnote: Hedgehog.]
About the truth of this last statement there could be no doubt, for
her face was twitching violently in her efforts to keep down her
emotion.
'And did you follow her?' said the landlord.
'Not I; what was the good?'
'But what did you do, Sinfi?'
'What did I do? Well, don't you mind me comin' here one night and
buyin' a couple of blankets off you, and some bread and meat and
things?'
'In course I do, Sinfi, and you said you wanted them for the vans.'
The Gypsy smiled and said, 'I knowed she was bound to come back, so
I pulls up the window and in I gets, and then opens the door and off
I comes to you, as bein' the nearest neighbour, for the blankets and
things, and I puts 'em in the house, and I leaves the door uncatched,
and I hides myself behind the house, and, sure enough, back she
comes, poor thing! I hears her kick, kick, kickin' at the door, and
then I hears her go in when she finds it give way. So I waits a good
while, till I thinks she's eat some o' the vittles and gone to sleep
maybe, and then round the house I creeps, and in the door I peeps,
and soon I hears her breathin' soft, and then I shuts the door and
goes away to the place.' [Footnote]
[Footnote: Camping-place.]
'But why didn't you tell _us_ all this, Sinfi?' asked the landlord.
'My wife would ha' went and seen arter her, and we wouldn't ha'
touched a farthin' for they blankets and things, not we, Sinfi, not
we.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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