GIPSY’S WARNING

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9124, 18 April 1908, Page 7

GIPSY’S WARNIN G

HOW A FORTUNE-TELLER’S PREDICTION CAME TRUE. A romantic story of a miller and a maid, in which" tho outstanding feature is said to be tho fulfilment of a. prediction made by a gipsy fortuneteller, is exciting considerable interest in the neighbourhood of Card. One sunny " morning last July a gipsy named Britannia Manley, a well-known character, knocked at the door of the house adjoining an old-fashioned mill at Norton, about a jniie from Chard. Hero resided tho .miller' Mr Walter Helliar, his two little childreu, and his maid-servant, Florrie Tyfcherlcigh. His wife, unhappily, was, and iis still, an inmate ■of an asylum. Florrie, then only 16 years old, was at the moment upstairs attending her household duties. When she came down, the gipsy succeeded in selling her some lace, and then suggested that she should tell her fortune.

Florrie at length consenting, the gipsy took her hand, bent her sunbrowned face over it for a moment or two, and then said, “Mrs Helliar is never coming home.”

The gipsy went on to say that the girl’s master, Mr Helliar, was very fond of the maid, that she (the girl) was very fond of him, and that be was to ask her to go a long journey with him. When Britannia had gone Mr Helliar came into the house and found Florrie white and trembling. He asked her what was the matter, and, in halting words, alio related what had happened. Britannia was arrested, brought before the magistrate at Ohard, and sentenced to one month’s hard labour. The hag made no attempt to conceal her chagrin. Turning to Miss Tytherleigh she said, angrily, “I will make her bad when I come out. ’ ’ That was seven mouths ago.

The sequel to the incident is that, true to the gipsy’s prediction, Mr Helliar and the maid, to the astonishment of all who know them, have gone off on a long journey together; indeed, there is every reasson to believe that they are making their way to Canada. With them are the miller’s two little children. A newspaper representative paid a visit to the girl’s home at Tafeworth, a'llttl'e over two miles from Chard. In a pretty thatched cottage he found her sorrowing mother. She said the news had come upon her as a great surprise, and what had intensified her grief was that she had had no word from .her daughter. Florrie only went into the service of Mr Helliar about two years ago as a nursemaid. With the miller was thou living his sister. After a while Florrie left to enter the service of a brother of Mr Helliar, residing at Bristol. “She got on well at Bristol, but Helliar, of Forton, wrote to her saying that his sister was going to get married, and asking her to come back. I didn’t altogether like her going to Forton, with no other woman in the house, hut thur wur the children, and I thought ’twould be all right. Florrie had been back at Forton only about a fortnight when the gipsy woman called. I know she wur frightened a good deal. Florrie told mo that the gipsy said Mr Helliar would come to worship the very ground she walked on, that she would he a lady, and that he would make her handsome presents. ’ ’ From Tatworth the representative made his way to the old mill at Forton, hidden away among fir trees.

The water-wheel was still running, though the whole place had a look of desolation. He found there a young man, one of the mill hands, who could throw little|iight on the sudden departure of his master.

“He told me on the morning he went away.” he said, ‘‘that he wur just going for a little holiday to a place near Taunton. The girl told the same thing, though I don’t know whether she knew anything different. Perhaps she didn’t know she wur going a long way. They all went away in the dogcart, and I’ve heard nothing of them since. ’ ’ He also had a talk with a brother of Mr E. Helliar, living in the adjoining village of Wiusham. “My brother told me, ’ he said, ‘‘that he was going for a short holiday to Bournemouth, where he had been before.

“He had had a lot of worry, and I thought a change would do him good. He was in fiuauical trouble. He had about £6OO ou his books which he could not get in, and he was, therefore, notable to settle up with the merchants.

“Some time after he had gone I got a letter from him written at sea. He didn’t state definitely where he was'going, but I gathered he was on his way to Canada. He said in his letter that he could not stay and see his home sold up. “As for the girl, ho said he was taking her with him to look after ibe children. ’’