The Topeka state journal., 1897-09-08
A ROMANY WIFE.

| the only light that relieved the gathering
| gloom of winters night. The occasional
CLEANS that lit up the walls when an un-
burned branch fell amid the ruddy embers
revealed that the room was sparsely fur
nished with cheap new chairs and a table
| such as would be within the means of ptr-
chase of a laboring man who found regu-
lar employment in the farmyard and the
| fields.
The incongruity of taste displayed in
the furnishing of the room was emphasized
by the presence there of the woman her
self. A glance at her was sufficient to
| compel the conclusion that she was as OUT
| of the place in that weather worn cottage
as was the newly bought furniture, the
contiguity of which she was trying to ig-
more. There was something in the express
| sion of her face when the freight fell on
it that suggested some captive creature
| looking out through prison bars on the
| scene of it's vanished freedom. 1t was a
| swarthy face and hard one, but the dark
| eyes, with pupils scarcely contracted by.
| the dim light, we're restless and revealed
faculty for fierce pleasure and pain that
nothing else about her betrayed. A mass
of dark hair was gathered closely about
| her head without a hint of any attempt
! at adorn ment and her dress was that of a
| farm hands wife who might at times 6nd
| work in the fields, but neither her attire
| nor the fashion in which her hair was
! done could hide the fact that the woman
was of Romany blood unmixed with any
| alien strain.
1t had been stormy day, and all
! through the daylight hours the sky had
| been obscured by a murky cloud wrack
which came up from the westward and
| swept swiftly over the brown heath and
out over the gray sea. Sitting silent and
| alone, the woman could still hear the wind
| wailing through the ragged fir ridge that
| bOrdered the heath.
! She was thinking of the life she had
| abandoned, of the time when, with the
| Romany folk of, her tribe, she had en-
/ camped on the heath under the shade of
| the very frs which were now spreading
| their dusky boughs seaward before the
| storm. Some of the gypsies were camped
| there that night, but none of them had
| come to see her. They looked upon her as
! an outcast unworthy CT intercourse with
| her tribe. Only Reuben Lee" Watcher
! Lee,'' as the keepers called him-had had
| a word to say to her. Her mother had re-
| fused to open the door of her van when
| she knocked for admission-she had seen
! her close it as she crossed the heath-and
| when she had looked back as she turned
away her sister Elvira had laughed mock
ingly at her from the steps of her hus-
| bands van. Almost blind with rage and
| modification, she bad STUN bled against
| Reuben near her cottage gate, and he had
asked what allied her. Was she not happy
| with a house dwelling husband? Didn't
the gorgio treat her we'll? Was she tired
| of living the respectable life of plow
| drivers wife? Did she wish herself back
| among the rascally, rowing crew who
| cheated servant girls out of their wages
| and swindled farmers into buying worth
| less CRIES? Reuben had been in Yorkshire
| when she ran away from the camp and
| married the slow witted farmers man,
| who was smitten with her dark eyes and
| saucy looks, but her people had evidently
| told him all about her, for did he not fling
| back her very words in her teeth? But
| then he had seen how his words hurt her,
| for he had changed his tone and spoken to
| her softly, begging her to leave the life for
| which she coflld have little liking and take
up again the old free, rowing ways.
| A defiant I1ood had come upon her as
! she listened to his bitter words, but it had
| been hard to resist him hen he spoke ten
| derly and gave utterance to thoughts that
| had often of tate come to her she sat in
| the dusk alcne. Night after night the
craving for the old life had seized her.
| Each time il had gained f1ercer hold,
| and she knew what the end must be. And
1 now again she asked herself what was she
| doing among the fettered house dwellers
| of poverty stricken bamlet-she who wag
| of the pure Romany blood and to whom
| freedom to wander where she willed was
| the very breath of life. How could she
| I6b nGfBGlI D6 CHhIDS1 W UAo ASoIou SiOO va
| boorish laborer, who kept her there be-
| pause she was able to cook his food and
| mend his clothesP She had come to him
| in fit of pique after quarrel with her
| people, and he had been only too glad to
| have her for her handsome face.
Something that sounded like the tapping
] of fingers at the window at length aroused
the woman, and she opened the door and
| looked out into the night. The force of
the wind as it swept into the room drove
| her back for a moment and she was
Obliged to cling to the door for support,
| but it seemed to awaken her from her
| reverie, and she stretched out her arms and
drew in deep breaths of the chill night air.
| How good it wasl The smell of the earth
and of autumn's fallen leaves seemed to
come with it from the fields and ooverts
hey ond the heath. There was the camp
fire. too still burning under the shelter OF
| the ridge. Surely she could smell the
| smoke of the smoldering twigsl A dark
shadow obscured the pickering flames, and
she knew that one of the men was seeing
that the horses were safe for the night.
| The gypsies we're starting for the south in
| the early morning-Reuben had told her
that-and they would not return to Suffolk
| till next summer. They were free to go
| where they pleased, but She
Half an hour later the cottage door
again opened aud the woman stole quietly
out into the darkness. She paused on the
threshold and gave a glance backward
| toward the table, where her husband 9
| supper was laid and the lamp was now lit.
BY its light it could be seen that she had
| put on a dress of ruby velvet-it was the
| one she had worn when she RAJ away from
the camp-and her shoulders were wrapped
| about with bright colored shawl. She
had put on, too, a velvet trimmed hat,
such as the Romapy girls favor, and it's
! large gray feather blew about in the wind.
--I.a r..,f-
curls. She had heavy gold earrings in her
ears, and instead of the single gold ring
that had encircled her third finger she
wore three heavy rings with flashing bril-