Mother Cockleshell peered into the hands, although she had already made up her mind what to say.  Her faculties, sharpened by years of chicanery, told her from the look which Miss Greeby had given when Lambert followed Chaldea, that a desire to marry the man was the wish in question.  And seeing how indifferent Lambert was in the presence of the tall lady, Mother Cockleshell had no difficulty in adjusting the situation in her own artful mind.  “No, my lady,” she said, casting away the hand with quite a dramatic gesture.  “You will never gain your wish.”

Miss Greeby looked angry.  “Bah!  Your fortune-telling is all rubbish, as I have always thought,” and she moved away.

“Tell me that in six months,” screamed the old woman after her.

“Why six months?” demanded the other, pausing.

“Ah, that’s a dark saying,” scoffed the gypsy.  “Call it seven, my hopeful-for-what-you-won’t-get, like the cat after the cream, for seven’s a sacred number, and the spell is set.”

“Gypsy jargon, gypsy lies,” muttered Miss Greeby, tossing her ruddy mane.  “I don’t believe a word.  Tell me—­”

“There’s no time to say more,” interrupted Mother Cockleshell rudely, for, having secured her money, she did not think it worth while to be polite, especially in the face of her visitor’s scepticism.  “One of our tribe—­aye, and he’s a great Romany for sure—­is coming to camp with us.  Each minute he may come, and I go to get ready a stew of hedgehog, for Gentile words I must use to you, who are a Gorgio.  And so good day to you, my lady,” ended the old hag, again becoming the truly respectable pew-opener.  Then she dropped a curtsey—­whether ironical or not, Miss Greeby could not tell—­and disappeared into the tent, followed by the white cat, who haunted her footsteps like the ghost she declared it to be.

Clearly there was nothing more to be learned from Mother Cockleshell, who, in the face of her visitor’s doubts, had become hostile, so Miss Greeby, dismissing the whole episode as over and done with, turned her attention toward finding Lambert.  With her bludgeon under her arm and her hands in the pockets of her jacket, she stalked through the camp in quite a masculine fashion, not vouchsafing a single reply to the greetings which the gypsies gave her.  Shortly she saw the artist chatting with Chaldea at the beginning of the path which led to his cottage.  Beside them, on the grass, squatted a queer figure.

It was that of a little man, very much under-sized, with a hunch back and a large, dark, melancholy face covered profusely with black hair.  He wore corduroy trousers and clumsy boots—­his feet and hands were enormous—­together with a green coat and a red handkerchief which was carelessly twisted round his hairy throat.  On his tangled locks—­distressingly shaggy and unkempt—­he wore no hat, and he looked like a brownie, grotesque, though somewhat sad.  But even more did he resemble an ape—­or