"If men," said the gypsy, severely, "would keep their hands in their
pockets all day, the world's affairs would be more easily managed."
"Wheesht!" cried Nanny, "if Mr. Dishart cared to set his mind to it,
he could make the kettle boil quicker than you or me. But his thochts
is on higher things."
"No higher than this," retorted the gypsy, holding her hand level with
her brow. "Confess, Mr. Dishart, that this is the exact height of what
you were thinking about. See, Nanny, he is blushing as if I meant that
he had been thinking about me. He cannot answer, Nanny: we have found
him out."
"And kindly of him it is no to answer," said Nanny, who had been
examining the gypsy's various purchases; "for what could he answer,
except that he would need to be sure o' living a thousand years afore
he could spare five minutes on you or me? Of course it would be
different if we sat under him."
"And yet," said the Egyptian, with great solemnity, "he is to drink
tea at that very table. I hope you are sensible of the honour,
Nanny."
"Am I no?" said Nanny, whose education had not included sarcasm. "I'm
trying to keep frae thinking o't till he's gone, in case I should let
the teapot fall."
"You have nothing to thank me for, Nanny," said Gavin, "but much for
which to thank this--this----"
"This haggarty-taggarty Egyptian," suggested the girl. Then, looking
at Gavin curiously, she said, "But my name is Babbie."
"That's short for Barbara," said Nanny; "but Babbie what?"
"Yes, Babbie Watt," replied the gypsy, as if one name were as good as
another.
"Weel, then, lift the lid off the kettle, Babbie," said Nanny, "for
it's boiling ower."
Gavin looked at Nanny with admiration and envy, for she had said
Babbie as coolly as if it was the name of a pepper-box.
Babbie tucked up her sleeves to wash Nanny's cups and saucers, which
even in the most prosperous days of the mud house had only been in use
once a week, and Gavin was so eager to help that he bumped his head on
the plate-rack.
"Sit there," said Babbie, authoritatively, pointing, with a cup in her
hand, to a stool, "and don't rise till I give you permission."
To Nanny's amazement, he did as he was bid.
"I got the things in the little shop you told me of," the Egyptian
continued, addressing the mistress of the house, "but the horrid man
would not give them to me until he had seen my money."
"Enoch would be suspicious o' you," Nanny explained, "you being an
Egyptian."
"Ah," said Babbie, with a side-glance at the minister, "I am only an
Egyptian. Is that why you dislike me, Mr. Dishart?"
Gavin hesitated foolishly over his answer, and the Egyptian, with a
towel round her waist, made a pretty gesture of despair.
"He neither likes you nor dislikes you," Nanny explained; "you forget
he's a minister."
"That is what I cannot endure," said Babbie, putting the towel to her
eyes, "to be neither liked nor disliked. Please hate me, Mr. Dishart,
if you cannot lo--ove me."
Her face was behind the towel, and Gavin could not decide whether it
was the face or the towel that shook with agitation. He gave Nanny a
look that asked, "Is she really crying?" and Nanny telegraphed back,
"I question it."
"Come, come," said the minister, gallantly, "I did not say that I
disliked you."
Even this desperate compliment had not the desired effect, for the
gypsy continued to sob behind her screen.
"I can honestly say," went on Gavin, as solemnly as if he were making
a statement in a court of justice, "that I like you."
Then the Egyptian let drop her towel, and replied with equal
solemnity:
"Oh, tank oo! Nanny, the minister says me is a dood 'ittle dirl."
"He didna gang that length," said Nanny, sharply, to cover Gavin's
confusion. "Set the things, Babbie, and I'll make the tea."
The Egyptian obeyed demurely, pretending to wipe her eyes every time
Gavin looked at her. He frowned at this, and then she affected to be
too overcome to go on with her work.
"Tell me, Nanny," she asked presently, "what sort of man this Enoch
is, from whom I bought the things?"
"He is not very regular, I fear," answered Gavin, who felt that he had
sat silent and self-conscious on his stool too long.
"Do you mean that he drinks?" asked Babbie.
"No, I mean regular in his attendance."
The Egyptian's face showed no enlightenment.
"His attendance at church," Gavin explained.
"He's far frae it," said Nanny, "and as a body kens, Joe Cruickshanks,
the atheist, has the wite o' that. The scoundrel telled Enoch that the
great ministers in Edinbury and London believed in no hell except sic
as your ain conscience made for you, and ever since syne Enoch has
been careless about the future state."
"Ah," said Babbie, waving the Church aside, "what I want to know is
whether he is a single man."
"He is not," Gavin replied; "but why do you want to know that?"
"Because single men are such gossips. I am sorry he is not single, as
I want him to repeat to everybody what I told him."
"Trust him to tell Susy," said Nanny, "and Susy to tell the town."
"His wife is a gossip?"
"Ay, she's aye tonguing, especially about her teeth. They're folk wi'
siller, and she has a set o' false teeth. It's fair scumfishing to
hear her blawing about thae teeth, she's so fleid we dinna ken that
they're false."
Nanny had spoken jealously, but suddenly she trembled with apprehension.
"Babbie," she cried, "you didna speak about the poorhouse to Enoch?"
The Egyptian shook her head, though of the poorhouse she had been
forced to speak, for Enoch, having seen the doctor going home alone,
insisted on knowing why.
"But I knew," the gypsy said, "that the Thrums people would be very
unhappy until they discovered where you get the money I am to give
you, and as that is a secret, I hinted to Enoch that your benefactor
is Mr. Dishart."
"You should not have said that," interposed Gavin. "I cannot foster
such a deception."
"They will foster it without your help," the Egyptian said. "Besides,
if you choose, you can say you get the money from a friend."
"Ay, you can say that," Nanny entreated with such eagerness that
Babbie remarked a little bitterly:
"There is no fear of Nanny's telling any one that the friend is a
gypsy girl."
"Na, na," agreed Nanny, again losing Babbie's sarcasm. "I winna let
on. It's so queer to be befriended by an Egyptian."
"It is scarcely respectable," Babbie said.
"It's no," answered simple Nanny.
I suppose Nanny's unintentional cruelty did hurt Babbie as much as
Gavin thought. She winced, and her face had two expressions, the one
cynical, the other pained. Her mouth curled as if to tell the minister
that gratitude was nothing to her, but her eyes had to struggle to
keep back a tear. Gavin was touched, and she saw it, and for a moment
they were two people who understood each other.
"I, at least," Gavin said in a low voice, "will know who is the
benefactress, and think none the worse of her because she is a
gypsy."
At this Babbie smiled gratefully to him, and then both laughed, for
they had heard Nanny remarking to the kettle, "But I wouldna hae been
nane angry if she had telled Enoch that the minister was to take his
tea here. Susy'll no believe't though I tell her, as tell her I
will."
To Nanny the table now presented a rich appearance, for besides the
teapot there were butter and loaf-bread and cheesies: a biscuit of
which only Thrums knows the secret.
"Draw in your chair, Mr. Dishart," she said, in suppressed excitement.
"Yes," said Babbie, "you take this chair, Mr. Dishart, and Nanny will
have that one, and I can sit humbly on the stool."
But Nanny held up her hands in horror.
"Keep us a'!" she exclaimed; "the lassie thinks her and me is to sit
down wi' the minister! We're no to gang that length, Babbie; we're
just to stand and serve him, and syne we'll sit down when he has
risen."
"Delightful!" said Babbie, clapping her hands. "Nanny, you kneel on
that side of him, and I will kneel on this. You will hold the butter
and I the biscuits."
But Gavin, as this girl was always forgetting, was a lord of
creation.
"Sit down both of you at once!" he thundered, "I command you."
[Illustration: "SIT DOWN, BOTH OF YOU, AT ONCE!"]
Then the two women fell into their seats; Nanny in terror, Babbie
affecting it.
Chapter Fifteen.