“You’d both have to have food, Dolly.  And as he couldn’t get that very easily, he’d be taking a big chance of getting caught.  No, what I really think is that he wants to see you, and try to persuade you to go with him willingly.  Then he wouldn’t be in any danger, you see.”

“Ugh!  He must be an awful fool to think he could do that!”

“Well, he’s not bad looking, Dolly.  And he’s probably vain.  The chances are that all the gypsy girls set their caps at him, because, if you remember, he was about the only good looking young man there in their camp.  Most of the men were married.  So, if he’s always been popular with the girls of his own people, he may have got the idea that he’s quite irresistible.  That all he’s got to do is to tell a girl he wants to marry her to have her fall right into his arms, like a ripe apple falling from a tree.”

“The horrid brute!  If he ever comes near me again, I’ll slap his face for him.”

“You’d better not do anything of the sort.  The best thing for you to do if you ever see him anywhere near you again is to run, just as hard as you can.  Dolly, you’ve no idea of the rage a man like that can fly into.  If you struck him you can’t tell what he might try to do.  But I hope you’ll never see him again.”

Dolly shivered a little.

“Are you sleepy, Bessie?” she asked.

“No, I think I’m too excited to be sleepy.  It was so startling to be expecting to see a deer, and then to see his face in the light.  No, I’m not sleepy.”

“Oh, Bessie!  Isn’t it possible that you were mistaken?  You know, you couldn’t have seen his face for more than a moment, if you did see it.  Weren’t you thinking so much of that gypsy that you just fancied you saw him, when you really didn’t at all?”

“No, no, I’m quite sure, Dolly.  I was perfectly certain it was a deer, and that was all I was thinking about.  And I heard him cry out, too.  That would be enough to make me certain that I was right.  A deer wouldn’t have cried out, and it wouldn’t have stood perfectly still, either.  It would have turned around and run as soon as it saw the light; any animal would have.  It would have been too terrified to do anything else.”

“But don’t you suppose he was frightened?  Why didn’t he run?”

“Were you ever so frightened that you couldn’t do a thing but just stand still?  I have been; so frightened that I couldn’t even have cried out for help, and couldn’t have moved for a minute or so, for anything in the world.

“I think he may have been frightened that way.  Men aren’t like animals, they’re more likely to be too frightened to move than to run away because they’re afraid.  And the fear that makes a man run away is a different sort, anyhow.”

“It’s getting cold, isn’t it?”

“Yes, the fire’s burning low.  We’d better get to bed, Dolly.”

“Oh, no; I couldn’t.  I don’t want to be there in the dark.  I’m sure I couldn’t sleep if I went to bed.  I’d much rather sit out here by the fire and talk, if you’re not sleepy.  And you said you weren’t.”