"What brought you to Farbis, of all places?"
"There, my dear sir, you lay your finger on a mystery. Three weeks ago I was camping some considerable distance from here, in the neighbourhood of gipsies. As usual, I fraternized with them, and they urged me to go to Farbis."
"Did they give any reason?"
"None, save that it was an interesting place. Of course they could not know me, or guess the object of my wanderings. They simply suggested Farbis; and as I remembered that I had a place here which I had never seen, it occurred to me that it would be interesting to turn aside and have a look at my property. I therefore accepted the hint given by the gipsies, and came here."
"Pardon me, sir, but so far I see nothing mysterious."
"Wait a moment, Mr. Jarner. Hardly had I set foot in this place when my fortune was told to me by Mother Jericho. She said I would meet with my fate at the Gates of Dawn. I went down to the beach next morning and met Meg. Tinker Tim came here and did battle with me. He observed that none other than I should have her; and this oracular sentence, I believe, applies also to Meg. Then I visited Dr. Merle, and he makes that strange remark about Tinker Tim which included a reference to Miss Linisfarne. Now then, sir," pursued Dan, laying his forefinger in the palm of his hand, "look at all these things together--the guiding of my footsteps to this place through gipsy suggestion, the prophecy of Mother Jericho, the remark of Tim, the fear of Dr. Merle and the allusion to Miss Linisfarne. What do you make of all these things, Mr. Jarner?"
The vicar scratched his head and stared at the fire. He was gifted with unusual perspicuity, and the linking together of so many circumstances certainly seemed strange. There was ground for Dan's suspicions, and yet Jarner could not quite see how matters stood. He frowned, and spoke with marked hesitancy.
"All such things might be coincidences. I own it is strange that the gipsies should so mix themselves up in your plans; but the whole circumstances are so intangible, that I do not see what inferences you can draw from them."
"It seems to me, Mr. Jarner, that Meg is connected with the gipsies in some way, and that they wish me to marry her."
"Pooh, pooh! For what reason?"