I did not neglect the cottage, which was now my property, but kept it in exactly the same state as that in which it had been put by Sinfi after Winnie had wandered back to Wales.

By isolating myself from all society, by surrounding myself with mementos of Winifred, memory really did at last seem to be working a miracle such as was worked for the widowed Ja’afar.

Yet not entirely had memory passed into an objective presence.  I seemed to feel Winnie near me; but that was all.  I felt that more necessary than anything else in perfecting the atmosphere of memory in which I would live was the society of her in whom alone I had found sympathy—­Sinfi Lovell.  Did I also remember the wild theories of my father and Fenella Stanley about the crwth?  To obtain the company of Sinfi had now become very difficult—­her attitude towards me had so changed.  When she allowed me to rejoin the Lovells at Kingston Vale she did so under the compulsion of my distress.  But my leaving the Gypsies of my own accord left her free from this compulsion.  She felt that she had now at last bidden me farewell for ever.

Still, opportunities of seeing her occasionally would, I knew, present themselves, and I now determined to avail myself of these.  Panuel Lovell and some of the Boswells were not unfrequently in the neighbourhood, and they were always accompanied by Sinfi and Videy.

II

On a certain occasion, when I learnt that the Lovells were in the neighbourhood, I sought them out.  Sinfi at first was extremely shy, or distant, or proud, or scared, and it was not till after one or two interviews that she relaxed.  She still was overshadowed by some mysterious feeling towards me that seemed at one moment anger, at another dread.  However, I succeeded at last.  I persuaded Panuel and his daughters to leave their friends at ‘the Place,’ and spend a few days with me at the bungalow.  Great was the gaping and wide the grinning among the tourists to see me inarching along the Capel Curig road with three Gypsies.  But to all human opinion I had become as indifferent as Wilderspin himself.

As we walked along the road, Sinfi slowly warmed into her old self, but Videy, as usual, was silent, preoccupied, and meditative.  When we got within sight of the bungalow, however, the lights flashing from the windows made the long low building look very imposing.  Pharaoh, the bantam cock which Sinfi was carrying, began to crow, but silence again fell upon Sinfi.

Panuel, when we entered the bungalow, said he was very tired and would like to go to bed.  I had perceived by the glossy appearance of his skin (which was of the colour of beeswaxed mahogany) and the benevolent dimple in his check that, although far from being intoxicated, he was ‘market-merry’; and as the two sisters also seemed tired, I took the party at once to their bedrooms.

‘Dordi! what a gran’ room,’ said Sinfi, in a hushed voice, as I opened the door of the one allotted to her.  ’Don’t you mind, Videy, when you an’ me fust slep’ like two kairengros?’ [Footnote]