"No," he continued, in a harder voice, as if I had asked him a
question, "I will explain nothing to you. You are not my judge. If you
would do me harm, sir, you have it in your power."
It was with these cruel words that Gavin addressed me. He did not know
how cruel they were. The Egyptian, I think, must have seen that his
suspicions hurt me, for she said, softly, with a look of appeal in her
eyes--
"You are the schoolmaster in Glen Quharity? Then you will perhaps save
Mr. Dishart the trouble of coming farther by showing me the way to old
Nanny Webster's house at Windyghoul?"
"I have to pass the house at any rate," I answered eagerly, and she
came quickly to my side.
I knew, though in the darkness I could see but vaguely, that Gavin was
holding his head high and waiting for me to say my worst. I had not
told him that I dared think no evil of him, and he still suspected me.
Now I would not trust myself to speak lest I should betray Margaret,
and yet I wanted him to know that base doubts about him could never
find a shelter in me. I am a timid man who long ago lost the glory of
my life by it, and I was again timid when I sought to let Gavin see
that my faith in him was unshaken. I lifted my bonnet to the gypsy,
and asked her to take my arm. It was done clumsily, I cannot doubt,
but he read my meaning and held out his hand to me. I had not touched
it since he was three years old, and I trembled too much to give it
the grasp I owed it. He and I parted without a word, but to the
Egyptian he said, "To-morrow, dear, I will see you at Nanny's," and he
was to kiss her, but I pulled her a step farther from him, and she put
her hands over her face, crying, "No, no!"
If I asked her some questions between the hill and Windyghoul you must
not blame me, for this was my affair as well as theirs. She did not
answer me; I know now that she did not hear me. But at the mud house
she looked abruptly into my face, and said--
"You love him, too!"
I trudged to the school house with these words for company, and it was
less her discovery than her confession that tortured me. How much I
slept that night you may guess.
Chapter Twenty-Three.