"I don't know--somehow--she reminds me of somebody," murmured the latter.
"She reminds me of that chicken-thief Tom Jonah treed on the henhouse roof," chuckled Agnes.
"Oh!" exclaimed Ruth; "all Gypsies can't be alike."
"Humph! you never heard a good word said for them," sniffed Agnes.
"But that doesn't prove there are not good ones. They are a wandering people and have no particular trade or standing in any community. Naturally they have a lot of crimes laid upon their shoulders that they never commit," said the just Ruth.
"That was one of them that tried to steal your hens, just the same," said Agnes.
"I suppose so," admitted her sister. "But surely _these_ two cannot belong to the same kind of Gypsies. See how richly they are dressed."
"I guess that doesn't make any difference," said Agnes. "They are all cut off the same piece of goods," and immediately she lost interest in the strange couple when Lucy Poole came up the aisle to speak to her.
Ruth had the gaily dressed woman and her companion on her mind a good deal. She often looked at them when they did not notice her. The woman must have been forty, but was straight, lithe, and of good figure. She sat on the outer end of the seat, having the girl between her and the window.
The latter seemed more and more familiar in appearance to Ruth as she looked, yet the Corner House girl could not say whom the girl looked like.
The latter scarcely spoke to her companion. Indeed, she kept her face toward the window for the most part, and seemed to be in a sullen mood. She had smiled once at Dot and the Alice-doll, and that was the only time Ruth had seen the dark, beautiful face with an attractive expression upon it.
The woman seemed talkative enough, but what language she jabbered to her companion the Corner House girl could not tell. She frequently leaned toward the dark girl, her bejeweled fingers seizing the sleeve of her waist, and her speech was both emphatic and loud.
The rattle of the train drowned, however, most of the woman's words. Ruth arose and went the length of the car for a drink, just for the purpose of overhearing the strange speech of the Gypsy (if such the woman was) for she was sure the language was not English.