’Cursed by Henry’s father!  What curse could any superstitious mystic call down upon the head of Winifred?  The heaven that would answer a call of that kind would be a heaven for zanies and tomfools!’ I shouted, in a paroxysm of rage against the entire besotted human race. ‘That for the curse!’ I cried, snapping my fingers. ’I am Henry, and I am come to share the curse, if there is one.’

‘Young man,’ interposed the landlord, ’such blas-pheemous langige as that must not be spoke here; I ain’t a-goin’ to have my good beer turned to vinegar by blasphemin’ them as owns the thunder, I can tell you.’

But the effect of my words upon the Gypsy was that of a spark in a powder-mine.

‘Henry?’ she said, ’Henry? are you the fine rei as she used to talk about?  Are you the fine cripple as she was so fond on?  Yes, Beng te tassa mandi if you ain’t Henry his very self.’

‘Don’t,’ remonstrated the landlord, ’don’t meddle with the gentleman, Sinfi.  He ain’t a cripple, as you can see.’

’Well, cripple or no cripple, he’s Henry.  I half thought it as soon as he began askin’ about her.  Now, my fine Gorgio, what do you and your fine feyther mean by cussin’ Winnie Wynne?  You’ve jist about broke her heart among ye.  If you want to cuss you’d better cuss me;’ and she sprang up in an attitude that showed me at once that she was a skilled boxer.

The male Gypsy rose and buttoned his coat over his waistcoat.  I thought he was going to attack me.  Instead of this, he said to the landlord: 

’She’s in for a set-to agin.  She’s sure to quarrel with me if I interferes, so I’ll just go on to the place and not spile sport.  Don’t let her kill the chap, though, Mr. Blyth, if you can anyways help it.  Anyhows, I ain’t a-goin’ to be called in for witness.’

With that he left the house.

The Gypsy girl looked at me from head to foot, and exclaimed,

‘Lucky for you, my fine fellow, that I’m a duke’s chavi, an’ mustn’t fight, else I’d pretty soon ask you outside and settle this off in no time.  But you’d better keep clear of Mrs. Davies’s cottage, I can tell you.  Every stick in that house is mine.’

And, forgetting in her rage to pay her score, she picked up her strange-looking musical instrument, put it into a bag, and stalked out.

‘She’s got a queer temper of her own,’ said the landlord; ’but she ain’t a bad sort for all that.  She’s clever, too:  she’s the only woman in Wales, they say, as can play on the crwth now since Mrs. Davies is dead, what larnt her to do it.’

‘The crwth?’

‘The old ancient Welsh fiddle what can draw the Sperrits o’ Snowdon when it’s played by a vargin.  I dessay you’ve often heard the sayin’ “The sperrits follow the crwth.”  She makes a sight o’ money by playin’ on that fiddle in the houses o’ the gentlefolk, and she’s as proud as the very deuce.  Ain’t a bad sort, though, for all that.’