For all her love - and she can love - is for the Romas;
and all her hate - and who can hate like her? - is for the Busnees;
for she says that the world would be a fair world if there were no
Busnees, and if the Romamiks could heat their kettles undisturbed
at the foot of the olive-trees; and therefore she would kill them
all if she could and if she dared. She never seeks the houses of
the Busnees but for the purpose of prey; for the wild animals of
the sierra do not more abhor the sight of man than she abhors the
countenances of the Busnees. She now comes to prey upon you and to
scoff at you. Will you believe her words? Fools! do you think
that the being before ye has any sympathy for the like of you?
She is of the middle stature, neither strongly nor slightly built,
and yet her every movement denotes agility and vigour. As she
stands erect before you, she appears like a falcon about to soar,
and you are almost tempted to believe that the power of volition is
hers; and were you to stretch forth your hand to seize her, she
would spring above the house-tops like a bird. Her face is oval,
and her features are regular but somewhat hard and coarse, for she
was born amongst rocks in a thicket, and she has been wind-beaten
and sun-scorched for many a year, even like her parents before her;
there is many a speck upon her cheek, and perhaps a scar, but no
dimples of love; and her brow is wrinkled over, though she is yet
young.
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