Feeling my brain
begin to turn round, I resolved to think of something else; and
forthwith began to think of what had passed between Ursula and
myself in our discourse beneath the hedge.
I mused deeply on what she had told me as to the virtue of the
females of her race. How singular that virtue must be which was
kept pure and immaculate by the possessor, whilst indulging in
habits of falsehood and dishonesty! I had always thought the gypsy
females extraordinary beings. I had often wondered at them, their
dress, their manner of speaking, and, not least, at their names;
but, until the present day, I had been unacquainted with the most
extraordinary point connected with them. How came they possessed
of this extraordinary virtue? was it because they were thievish? I
remembered that an ancient thief-taker, who had retired from his
useful calling, and who frequently visited the office of my master
at law, the respectable S---, who had the management of his
property--I remembered to have heard this worthy, with whom I
occasionally held discourse, philosophic and profound, when he and
I chanced to be alone together in the office, say that all first-
rate thieves were sober, and of well-regulated morals, their bodily
passions being kept in abeyance by their love of gain; but this
axiom could scarcely hold good with respect to these women--however
thievish they might be, they did care for something besides gain:
they cared for their husbands.
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