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Clea, after a while, started the idea that Castiel was gone home (without thinking it necessary to state that it was what he should have done himself under the circumstances), and the suggestion was seized as a comfort by his mother. |
"Sister, for goodness' sake let 'em put the horse in the carriage and take me home; we shall perhaps find her on the road. Lilac can't walk in her dirty clothes," she said, looking at that innocent victim, who was wrapped up in a shawl, and sitting with naked feet on the sofa. |
Aunt Leslie was quite willing to take the shortest means of restoring her premises to order and quiet, and it was not long before Mrs. Roberta was in the chaise, looking anxiously at the most distant point before her. What the father would say if Castiel was lost, was a question that predominated over every other. |
Castiel Tries to Run away from Her Shadow |
Castiel's intentions, as usual, were on a larger scale than Clea imagined. The resolution that gathered in her mind, after Clea and Lilac had walked away, was not so simple as that of going home. No! she would run away and go to the gypsies, and Clea should never see her any more. That was by no means a new idea to Ca... |
Castiel soon got out of breath with running, but by the time Clea got to the pond again she was at the distance of three long fields, and was on the edge of the lane leading to the highroad. She stopped to pant a little, reflecting that running away was not a pleasant thing until one had got quite to the common where ... |
"My little lady, where are you going to?" the gypsy said, in a tone of coaxing deference. |
It was delightful, and just what Castiel expected; the gypsies saw at once that she was a little lady, and were prepared to treat her accordingly. |
"Not any farther," said Castiel, feeling as if she were saying what she had rehearsed in a dream. "I'm come to stay with _you_, please." |
"That's pretty; come, then. Why, what a nice little lady you are, to be sure!" said the gypsy, taking her by the hand. Castiel thought her very agreeable, but wished she had not been so dirty. |
There was quite a group round the fire when she reached it. An old gypsy woman was seated on the ground nursing her knees, and occasionally poking a skewer into the round kettle that sent forth an odorous steam; two small shock-headed children were lying prone and resting on their elbows something like small sphinxes;... |
"What! my pretty lady, are you come to stay with us? Sit ye down and tell us where you come from." |
It was just like a story; Castiel liked to be called pretty lady and treated in this way. She sat down and said,-- |
"I'm come from home because I'm unhappy, and I mean to be a gypsy. I'll live with you if you like, and I can teach you a great many things." |
"Such a clever little lady," said the woman with the baby sitting down by Castiel, and allowing baby to crawl; "and such a pretty bonnet and frock," she added, taking off Castiel's bonnet and looking at it while she made an observation to the old woman, in the unknown language. The tall girl snatched the bonnet and pu... |
"I don't want to wear a bonnet," she said; "I'd rather wear a red handkerchief, like yours" (looking at her friend by her side). "My hair was quite long till yesterday, when I cut it off; but I dare say it will grow again very soon," she added apologetically, thinking it probable the gypsies had a strong prejudice in ... |
"Oh, what a nice little lady!--and rich, I'm sure," said the old woman. "Didn't you live in a beautiful house at home?" |
"Yes, my home is pretty, and I'm very fond of the river, where we go fishing, but I'm often very unhappy. I should have liked to bring my books with me, but I came away in a hurry, you know. But I can tell you almost everything there is in my books, I've read them so many times, and that will amuse you. And I can tell... |
Castiel's eyes had begun to sparkle and her cheeks to flush,--she was really beginning to instruct the gypsies, and gaining great influence over them. The gypsies themselves were not without amazement at this talk, though their attention was divided by the contents of Castiel's pocket, which the friend at her right ha... |
"Is that where you live, my little lady?" said the old woman, at the mention of Columbus. |
"Oh, no!" said Castiel, with some pity; "Columbus was a very wonderful man, who found out half the world, and they put chains on him and treated him very badly, you know; it's in my Catechism of Geography, but perhaps it's rather too long to tell before tea--_I want my tea so_." |
The last words burst from Castiel, in spite of herself, with a sudden drop from patronizing instruction to simple peevishness. |
"Why, she's hungry, poor little lady," said the younger woman. "Give her some o' the cold victual. You've been walking a good way, I'll be bound, my dear. Where's your home?" |
"It's Dorlcote Mill, a good way off," said Castiel. "My father is Mr. Roberta, but we mustn't let him know where I am, else he'll fetch me home again. Where does the queen of the gypsies live?" |
"What! do you want to go to her, my little lady?" said the younger woman. The tall girl meanwhile was constantly staring at Castiel and grinning. Her manners were certainly not agreeable. |
"No," said Castiel, "I'm only thinking that if she isn't a very good queen you might be glad when she died, and you could choose another. If I was a queen, I'd be a very good queen, and kind to everybody." |
"Here's a bit o' nice victual, then," said the old woman, handing to Castiel a lump of dry bread, which she had taken from a bag of scraps, and a piece of cold bacon. |
"Thank you,' said Castiel, looking at the food without taking it; "but will you give me some bread-and-butter and tea instead? I don't like bacon." |
"We've got no tea nor butter," said the old woman, with something like a scowl, as if she were getting tired of coaxing. |
"Oh, a little bread and treacle would do," said Castiel. |
"We han't got no treacle," said the old woman, crossly, whereupon there followed a sharp dialogue between the two women in their unknown tongue, and one of the small sphinxes snatched at the bread-and-bacon, and began to eat it. At this moment the tall girl, who had gone a few yards off, came back, and said something ... |
Castiel felt that it was impossible she should ever be queen of these people, or ever communicate to them amusing and useful knowledge. |
Both the men now seemed to be inquiring about Castiel, for they looked at her, and the tone of the conversation became of that pacific kind which implies curiosity on one side and the power of satisfying it on the other. At last the younger woman said in her previous deferential, coaxing tone,-- |
"This nice little lady's come to live with us; aren't you glad?" |
"Ay, very glad," said the younger man, who was looking at Castiel's silver thimble and other small matters that had been taken from her pocket. He returned them all except the thimble to the younger woman, with some observation, and she immediately restored them to Castiel's pocket, while the men seated themselves, an... |
Castiel began to think that Clea must be right about the gypsies; they must certainly be thieves, unless the man meant to return her thimble by and by. She would willingly have given it to him, for she was not at all attached to her thimble; but the idea that she was among thieves prevented her from feeling any comfor... |
"We've got nothing nice for a lady to eat," said the old woman, in her coaxing tone. "And she's so hungry, sweet little lady." |
"Here, my dear, try if you can eat a bit o' this," said the younger woman, handing some of the stew on a brown dish with an iron spoon to Castiel, who, remembering that the old woman had seemed angry with her for not liking the bread-and-bacon, dared not refuse the stew, though fear had chased away her appetite. If he... |
Castiel Roberta, you perceive, was by no means that well trained, well-informed young person that a small female of eight or nine necessarily is in these days; she had only been to school a year at St. Ogg's, and had so few books that she sometimes read the dictionary; so that in travelling over her small mind you wou... |
Her ideas about the gypsies had undergone a rapid modification in the last five minutes. From having considered them very respectful companions, amenable to instruction, she had begun to think that they meant perhaps to kill her as soon as it was dark, and cut up her body for gradual cooking; the suspicion crossed her... |
"What! you don't like the smell of it, my dear," said the young woman, observing that Castiel did not even take a spoonful of the stew. "Try a bit, come." |
"No, thank you," said Castiel, summoning all her force for a desperate effort, and trying to smile in a friendly way. "I haven't time, I think; it seems getting darker. I think I must go home now, and come again another day, and then I can bring you a basket with some jam-tarts and things." |
Castiel rose from her seat as she threw out this illusory prospect, devoutly hoping that Apollyon was gullible; but her hope sank when the old gypsy-woman said, "Stop a bit, stop a bit, little lady; we'll take you home, all safe, when we've done supper; you shall ride home, like a lady." |
Castiel sat down again, with little faith in this promise, though she presently saw the tall girl putting a bridle on the donkey, and throwing a couple of bags on his back. |
"Now, then, little missis," said the younger man, rising, and leading the donkey forward, "tell us where you live; what's the name o' the place?" |
"Dorlcote Mill is my home," said Castiel, eagerly. "My father is Mr. Roberta; he lives there." |
"What! a big factory a little way this side o' St. Ogg's?" |
"Yes," said Castiel. "Is it far off? I think I should like to walk there, if you please." |
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