Before I reached Wales, however, I met in the eastern part of
Cheshire, not far from Moreton Hall, some English Lees, with whom I
got into talk about the Hungarian musicians, who were here then on
another flying visit to England. Something that dropped from one of
the Lees as to the traditions and superstitions of the Hungarian
Gypsies with regard to people suffering from dementia set me
thinking; and at last I came to the conclusion that if I really
believed Winifred to have taken shelter among the Romanies, it would
be absurd not to follow up a band like these Hungarians. Accordingly
I changed my course, and followed them up. On coming upon them in a
famous English camping-place I found the Lovells and the Boswells.
Rhona, dressed in gorgeous attire, evidently purchased at some
second-hand shop, was rehearsing the shawl-dance for a great occasion
at a neighbouring fair. But no Winifred.
My health was now much impaired by sleeplessness (the inevitable
result of my anxiety), and by a narcotic, which from the commencement
of my troubles I had been in the habit of taking in ever-increasing
doses--a terrible narcotic, one of whose multitudinous effects is
that of sending all the patient's thoughts circling around one
central idea like planets round the sun.
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