"You mean well, but you are doing this poor woman a cruelty in holding
out hopes to her that cannot be realised. Sympathy is not meal and
bedclothes, and these are what she needs."
"And you who live in luxury," retorted the girl, "would send her to
the poorhouse for them. I thought better of you!"
"Tuts!" said the doctor, losing patience, "Mr. Dishart gives more than
any other man in Thrums to the poor, and he is not to be preached to
by a gypsy. We are waiting for you, Nanny."
"Ay, I'm coming," said Nanny, leaving the Egyptian. "I'll hae to gang,
lassie. Dinna greet for me."
But the Egyptian said, "No, you are not going. It is these men who are
going. Go, sirs, and leave us."
"And you will provide for Nanny?" asked the doctor contemptuously.
"Yes."
"And where is the siller to come from?"
"That is my affair, and Nanny's. Begone, both of you. She shall never
want again. See how the very mention of your going brings back life to
her face."
"I won't begone," the doctor said roughly, "till I see the colour of
your siller."
"Oh, the money," said the Egyptian scornfully. She put her hand into
her pocket confidently, as if used to well-filled purses, but could
only draw out two silver pieces.
"I had forgotten," she said aloud, though speaking to herself.
"I thought so," said the cynical doctor. "Come, Nanny."
"You presume to doubt me!" the Egyptian said, blocking his way to the
door.
"How could I presume to believe you?" he answered. "You are a beggar
by profession, and yet talk as if----pooh, nonsense."
"I would live on terrible little," Nanny whispered, "and Sanders will
be out again in August month."
"Seven shillings a week," rapped out the doctor.
"Is that all?" the Egyptian asked. "She shall have it."
"When?"
"At once. No, it is not possible to-night, but to-morrow I will bring
five pounds; no, I will send it; no, you must come for it."
"And where, O daughter of Dives, do you reside?" the doctor asked.
No doubt the Egyptian could have found a ready answer had her pity for
Nanny been less sincere; as it was, she hesitated, wanting to
propitiate the doctor, while holding her secret fast.
"I only asked," McQueen said, eyeing her curiously, "because when I
make an appointment I like to know where it is to be held. But I
suppose you are suddenly to rise out of the ground as you have done
to-day, and did six weeks ago."
"Whether I rise out of the ground or not," the gypsy said, keeping her
temper with an effort, "there will be a five-pound note in my hand.
You will meet me to-morrow about this hour at--say the Kaims of
Cushie?"
"No," said the doctor after a moment's pause; "I won't. Even if I went
to the Kaims I should not find you there. Why can you not come to
me?"
"Why do you carry a woman's hair," replied the Egyptian, "in that
locket on your chain?"
Whether she was speaking of what she knew, or this was only a chance
shot, I cannot tell, but the doctor stepped back from her hastily, and
could not help looking down at the locket.
"Yes," said the Egyptian calmly, "it is still shut; but why do you
sometimes open it at nights?"
"Lassie," the old doctor cried, "are you a witch?"
"Perhaps," she said; "but I ask for no answer to my questions. If you
have your secrets, why may I not have mine? Now will you meet me at
the Kaims?"
"No; I distrust you more than ever. Even if you came, it would be to
play with me as you have done already. How can a vagrant have five
pounds in her pocket when she does not have five shillings on her
back?"
"You are a cruel, hard man," the Egyptian said, beginning to lose
hope. "But, see," she cried, brightening, "look at this ring. Do you
know its value?"
She held up her finger, but the stone would not live in the dull
light.
"I see it is gold," the doctor said cautiously, and she smiled at the
ignorance that made him look only at the frame.
"Certainly, it is gold," said Gavin, equally stupid.
"Mercy on us!" Nanny cried; "I believe it's what they call a
diamond."
"How did you come by it?" the doctor asked suspiciously.
"I thought we had agreed not to ask each other questions," the
Egyptian answered drily. "But, see, I will give it to you to hold in
hostage. If I am not at the Kaims to get it back you can keep it."
The doctor took the ring in his hand and examined it curiously.
"There is a quirk in this," he said at last, "that I don't like. Take
back your ring, lassie. Mr. Dishart, give Nanny your arm, and I'll
carry her box to the machine."
Now all this time Gavin had been in the dire distress of a man
possessed of two minds, of which one said, "This is a true woman," and
the other, "Remember the seventeenth of October." They were at war
within him, and he knew that he must take a side, yet no sooner had he
cast one out than he invited it back. He did not answer the doctor.
"Unless," McQueen said, nettled by his hesitation, "you trust this
woman's word."
Gavin tried honestly to weigh those two minds against each other, but
could not prevent impulse jumping into one of the scales.
"You do trust me," the Egyptian said, with wet eyes; and now that he
looked on her again--
"Yes," he said firmly, "I trust you," and the words that had been so
difficult to say were the right words. He had no more doubt of it.
"Just think a moment first," the doctor warned him. "I decline to have
anything to do with this matter. You will go to the Kaims for the
siller?"
"If it is necessary," said Gavin.
"It is necessary," the Egyptian said.
"Then I will go."
Nanny took his hand timidly, and would have kissed it had he been less
than a minister.
"You dare not, man," the doctor said gruffly, "make an appointment
with this gypsy. Think of what will be said in Thrums."
I honour Gavin for the way in which he took this warning. For him, who
was watched from the rising of his congregation to their lying down,
whose every movement was expected to be a text to Thrums, it was no
small thing that he had promised. This he knew, but he only reddened
because the doctor had implied an offensive thing in a woman's
presence.
"You forget yourself, doctor," he said sharply.
"Send some one in your place," advised the doctor, who liked the
little minister.
"He must come himself and alone," said the Egyptian. "You must both
give me your promise not to mention who is Nanny's friend, and she
must promise too."
"Well," said the doctor, buttoning up his coat, "I cannot keep my
horse freezing any longer. Remember, Mr. Dishart, you take the sole
responsibility of this."
"I do," said Gavin, "and with the utmost confidence."
"Give him the ring then, lassie," said McQueen.
She handed the minister the ring, but he would not take it.
"I have your word," he said; "that is sufficient."
Then the Egyptian gave him the first look that he could think of
afterwards without misgivings.
"So be it," said the doctor. "Get the money, and I will say nothing
about it, unless I have reason to think that it has been dishonestly
come by. Don't look so frightened at me, Nanny. I hope for your sake
that her stocking-foot is full of gold."
"Surely it's worth risking," Nanny said, not very brightly, "when the
minister's on her side."
"Ay, but on whose side, Nanny?" asked the doctor. "Lassie, I bear you
no grudge; will you not tell me who you are?"
"Only a puir gypsy, your honour," said the girl, becoming mischievous
now that she had gained her point; "only a wandering hallen-shaker,
and will I tell you your fortune, my pretty gentleman?"
"No, you shan't," replied the doctor, plunging his hands so hastily
into his pockets that Gavin laughed.
"I don't need to look at your hand," said the gypsy, "I can read your
fortune in your face."
She looked at him fixedly, so that he fidgeted.
"I see you," said the Egyptian in a sepulchral voice, and speaking
slowly, "become very frail. Your eyesight has almost gone. You are
sitting alone in a cauld room, cooking your ain dinner ower a feeble
fire. The soot is falling down the lum. Your bearish manners towards
women have driven the servant lassie frae your house, and your wife
beats you."
"Ay, you spoil your prophecy there," the doctor said, considerably
relieved, "for I'm not married; my pipe's the only wife I ever had."
"You will be married by that time," continued the Egyptian, frowning
at this interruption, "for I see your wife. She is a shrew. She
marries you in your dotage. She lauchs at you in company. She doesna
allow you to smoke."
"Away with you, you jade," cried the doctor in a fury, and feeling
nervously for his pipe. "Mr. Dishart, you had better stay and arrange
this matter as you choose, but I want a word with you outside."
"And you're no angry wi' me, doctor, are you?" asked Nanny wistfully.
"You've been richt good to me, but I canna thole the thocht o' that
place. And, oh, doctor, you winna tell naebody that I was so near taen
to it?"