'Winnie does not know about it,' I said, 'but I do. I know that in
order to save her life--in order to save us both--you allowed her
illness to pass on to you, at your own peril. But you mustn't talk of
its being a curse, Sinfi. It was just an illness like any other
illness, and the doctor passed it on to you in the same way that
doctors sometimes do pass on such illnesses. Doctors can't cure
curses, you know. You will soon be quite well again, and then you
will forget all about what you call the curse.'
'I'm well enough now, brother; but see, Winnie has packed the things,
and she's waiting to go up.'
We then began the ascent.
Ah, that ascent! I wish I had time and space to describe it. Up the
same path we went which Sinfi and I had followed on that memorable
morning when my heart was as sad as it was buoyant now.
Reaching the top, we sat down in the hut and made our simple
luncheon. Winnie was a great favourite with the people there, and
she could not get away from them for a long time. We went down to
Bwlch Glas, and there we stood gazing at the path that leads to
Llanberis.
I had not observed, but Winnie evidently had, that Sinfi wanted to
speak to me alone; for she wandered away pretending to be looking
for a certain landmark which she remembered; and Sinfi and I were
left together.
'Brother,' said Sinfi, 'I ain't a-goin' to Llanberis an' Carnarvon
with you two. You take that path; I take this.'
She pointed to the two downward paths.
'Surely you are not going to leave us at a moment like this?' I said.
'That's jist what I am a-goin' to do,' she said. 'This is the very
time an' this is the very place where I am a-goin' to leave you an'
all Gorgios.'
'Part on Snowdon, Sinfi!' I exclaimed.
'That's what we're a-goin' to do, brother. What I sez to myself when
I made up my mind to take the cuss on me wur this: "I'll make her
dukkeripen come true; I'll take her to him in Wales, and then we'll
part. We'll part on Snowdon, an' I'll go one way an' they'll go
another, jist like them two streams as start from Gorphwysfa an' go
runnin' down till one on 'em takes the sea at Carnarvon, and t'other
at Tremadoc." Yis, brother, it's on Snowdon where you an' Winnie
Wynne sees the last o' Sinfi Lovell.'
Distressed as I was at her words, that inflexible look on her face I
understood only too well. 'But there is Mr. D'Arcy to consider,' I
said. 'Winnie tells me that it is the particular wish of Mr. D'Arcy
that you and she should return to him at Hurstcote Manor. He has been
wonderfully kind, and his wishes should be complied with.'
'No, brother,' said Sinfi, 'I shall never go to Hurstcote Manor no
more.'
'Surely you will, Sinfi. Winnie tells me of the deep regard that Mr.
D'Arcy has for you.'
'Never no more. Winifred's dukkeripen on Snowdon has come true, and
it wur me what made it come true. Yis, it wur Sinfi Lovell and nobody
else what made that dukkeripen come true.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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