She stood in the eastern cleft of the gorge
against the sun for fully half a minute, looking around as a stag
might look that was trying to give the hunters the slip.
'She has seen the Gypsy,' I thought, 'and been scared by her.' Then
she came down and glided along the side of the pool. At first she did
not see me, though she stood opposite and stopped, while the
opalescent vapours from the pool steamed around her, and she shone as
through a glittering veil, her eyes flashing like sapphires. The
palpitation of my heart choked me; I dared not stir, I dared not
speak; the slightest movement or the slightest sound might cause her
to start away. There was she whom I had travelled and toiled to
find--there was she, so close to me, and yet must I let her pass and
perhaps lose her after all--for ever?
Where was the Gypsy girl? I was in an agony of desire to see her or
hear her crwth, and yet her approach might frighten Winifred to her
destruction.
But Winifred, who had now seen me, did not bound away with that
heart-quelling yell of hers which I had dreaded.
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