第151页
I stood on the rug and warmed my hands, which were rather cold with
sitting at a distance from the drawing-room fire. I felt now as
composed as ever I did in my life: there was nothing indeed in the
gipsy's appearance to trouble one's calm. She shut her book and slowly
looked up; her hat-brim partially shaded her face, yet I could see, as
she raised it, that it was a strange one. It looked all brown and
black: elf-locks bristled out from beneath a white band which passed
under her chin, and came half over her cheeks, or rather jaws: her eye
confronted me at once, with a bold and direct gaze.
'Well, and you want your fortune told?' she said, in a voice as
decided as her glance, as harsh as her features.
'I don't care about it, mother; you may please yourself: but I
ought to warn you, I have no faith.'
'It's like your impudence to say so: I expected it of you; I
heard it in your step as you crossed the threshold.'
'Did you? You've a quick ear.'
'I have; and a quick eye and a quick brain.'
'You need them all in your trade.'
'I do; especially when I've customers like you to deal with. Why
don't you tremble?'
'I'm not cold.'
'Why don't you turn pale?'
'I am not sick.'
'Why don't you consult my art?'
'I'm not silly.'
The old crone 'nichered' a laugh under her bonnet and bandage;
she then drew out a short black pipe, and lighting it began to
smoke. Having indulged a while in this sedative, she raised her bent
body, took the pipe from her lips, and while gazing steadily at the
fire, said very deliberately-
'You are cold; you are sick; and you are silly.'
'Prove it,' I rejoined.
'I will, in few words. You are cold, because you are alone: no
contact strikes the fire from you that is in you. You are sick;
because the best of feelings, the highest and the sweetest given to
man, keeps far away from you. You are silly, because, suffer as you
may, you will not beckon it to approach, nor will you stir one step to
meet it where it waits you.'
She again put her short black pipe to her lips, and renewed her
smoking with vigour.
'You might say all that to almost any one who you knew lived as a
solitary dependant in a great house.'
'I might say it to almost any one: but would it be true of almost
any one?'
'In my circumstances.'
'Yes; just so, in your circumstances: but find me another precisely
placed as you are.'
'It would be easy to find you thousands.'
'You could scarcely find me one. If you knew it, you are peculiarly
situated: very near happiness; yes, within reach of it. The
materials are all prepared; there only wants a movement to combine
them. Chance laid them somewhat apart; let them be once approached and
bliss results.'
'I don't understand enigmas. I never could guess a riddle in my
life.'
'If you wish me to speak more plainly, show me your palm.'
'And I must cross it with silver, I suppose?'