"Will you say 'I love you, Cissy'?"
But this was more than Hugh John had bargained for. He asked time for consideration.
"It won't be till the Smoutchy boys are beaten and the castle ours for good," pleaded Cissy.
Hugh John felt that it was a great price to pay, but after all he did want dreadfully to beat the Smoutchy boys.
"Well, I'll try," he said, "but you must say, 'Hope-you'll-die and double-die,' if you ever tell!"
Again Cissy took the required oath.
"Well?" said he expectantly, his mind altogether on the campaign.
Cissy told him all about the gipsy encampment and the history of the meeting with Billy Blythe. Hugh John nodded. Of course he knew all about that, but would they join? Were they not rather on the side of the Smoutchies? They looked as if they would be.
"Oh, you can't never tell a bit beforehand," said Cissy eagerly. "They just hate the town boys; and Bill Blythe says that Nipper Donnan's father said, that when the town got the castle they would soon clear the gipsies off your common—for that goes with the castle."
Hugh John nodded again more thoughtfully. There was certainly something in that. He had heard his father say as much to his lawyer when he himself was curled up on the sofa, pretending to read Froissart's "Chronicles," but really listening as hard as ever he could.