hid himself from his people; because of you I was for ever wandering,
keeping the peace by lies for love of the Ry and for love of you."

His voice shook. "Since your mother died--and she was kin of mine--you
were to me the soul of the Romany people everywhere. As a barren woman
loves a child, so I loved you. I loved you for the sake of your mother.
I gave her to the Ry, who was the better man, that she might be great and
well placed. So it is I would have you be ruler over us, and I would
serve you as I served your father until I, also, fall asleep."

"It is too late," Fleda answered, and there was great emotion in her
voice now. "I am no longer a Romany. I am my father's daughter, but
I have not been a Romany since I was ill in England. I will not go back;
I shall go with the man I love, to be his wife, here, in the Gorgio
world. You believed my father when he spoke; well, believe me--I speak
the truth. It was my father's will that I should be what I am, and do
what I am now doing. Nothing can alter me."

"If it be that Jethro Fawe is still alive he is free from the Sentence of
the Patrin, and he will become the Ry of Rys," said the old man with
sudden passion.

"It may be so. I hope it is so. He is of the blood, and I pray that
Jethro has escaped the sentence which my father passed," answered Fleda.
"By the River Starzke it was ordained that he should succeed my father,
marrying me. Let him succeed."

The old man raised both hands, and made a gesture as though he would
drive her from his sight.