stormy period of his career. In any
case, the renunciation of "Mr. George" in lot and part in gypsydom
was of savage sincerity. He would not tolerate the idea of his child
being left open to such influences; and, as a matter of her happy
fortune in meeting with our kind Bath antiquarian, she never
encountered them.

Recognising in his benefactor not only a generous man, but one
genuinely interested in the whole topic of gypsy life, character,
and affairs (moderately studied at the time preceding a Borrow or
a Leland), "George X--" entertained Mr. Antrobus "for hours and
dayes" in what must have been an extraordinarily free parliament.
It discussed not merely the concerns in general, but the secrets, of
Egypt. "Mr. George" bad travelled much. He bad acquired a deal
of special knowledge delightful to Antrobus. It is provoking that
Antrobus did not commit more of it to paper. But, among other
matters, Mr. Antrobus was enlightened on the secrets of looking
into _dukkeripens_ in a degree of minuteness that few gorgios
enjoy.

As part of this last confidence--the rarest from one of the Blood--
did George X-- disclose in course of certain seances the "Square of
Sevens," that most particular and potent method of prying into the
past and present and future. In it figures the wonderful
"Parallelogram," with its "Master Cards," "Influences," and so on--
which our book records. Moreover, George X-- declared that
whereas most of his race can or will use only corrupted or quite
frivolous versions of it, this statement set its real and rare self
forth with the utmost purity, value, and completeness, in a degree
"known to only a few of all the families of Egypt." As such a
weighty bit of Black Art did Mr. Antrobus make its details into a
book. As such he printed it. Doubtless he thought that a betrayed
secret may lawfully be re-betrayed as fully as possible.

Nevertheless, it was not so much of a re-betrayal. For less than
what a publisher of this day would call one fair-sized edition of
"The Square of Sevens," printed for Antrobus by the great John
Gowne, of The Mask book-shop, has ever appeared. And, to
account for the semi-privacy surrounding the little work, must be
set forth the dolesome incident of a printing-house fire burning,
"all except about a dozen or so of copies," before there had been
any "distribution of the Book" among the author's "Friends, Male
or, Female, or to the Publick." By some sudden change of his own
m