Detective and mystery stories; England -- Fiction; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Nobility -- Fiction; Romanies -- Fiction
Lambert stopped, and faced her squarely. "I don't wish to quarrel with
you, Clara, as we are very old friends. But I warn you that I do possess
a temper, and if you wish to see it, you are going the best way to get
what you evidently want. Now, hold your tongue and talk of something
else. Here is Chaldea."
"Watching for you," muttered Miss Greeby, as the slight figure of the
gypsy girl was seen advancing swiftly. "Ha!" and she snorted
suspiciously.
"Rye!" cried Chaldea, dancing toward the artist. "Sarishan rye."
Miss Greeby didn't understand Romany, but the look in the girl's eyes
was enough to reveal the truth. If Lambert did not love his beautiful
model, it was perfectly plain that the beautiful model loved Lambert.
"O baro duvel atch' pa leste!" said Chaldea, and clapped her slim hands.
CHAPTER III.
AN UNEXPECTED RECOGNITION.
"I wish you wouldn't speak the calo jib to me, Chaldea," said Lambert,
smiling on the beautiful eager face. "You know I don't understand it."
"Nor I," put in Miss Greeby in her manly tones. "What does Oh baro devil,
and all the rest of it mean?"
"The Great God be with you," translated Chaldea swiftly, "and duvel is
not devil as you Gorgios call it."
"Only the difference of a letter," replied the Gentile lady
good-humoredly. "Show us round your camp, my good girl."
The mere fact that the speaker was in Lambert's company, let alone the
offensively patronizing tone in which she spoke, was enough to rouse the
gypsy girl's naturally hot temper. She retreated and swayed like a cat
making ready to spring, while her black eyes snapped fire in a most
unpleasant manner.
But Miss Greeby was not to be frightened by withering glances, and
merely laughed aloud, showing her white teeth. Her rough merriment and
masculine looks showed Chaldea that, as a rival, she was not to be
feared, so the angry expression on the dark face changed to a wheedling
smile.
"Avali! Avali! The Gorgios lady wants her fortune told."
For the sake of diplomacy Miss Greeby nodded and fished in her pocket.
"I'll give you half a crown to tell it."
"Not me--not me, dear lady. Mother Cockleshell is our great witch."
"Take me to her then," replied the other, and rapidly gathered into her
brain all she could of Chaldea's appearance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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