The Woman Considered in Absence 101

Then Jean retired reluctantly (but leaving the
door ajar) and Gavin fell to on his porridge. He
was now so cheerful that Margaret wondered.

“If half the stories about this gypsy be true,”
she said, “she must be more than a mere
woman.”

“ Less, you mean, mother,” Gavin said, with
conviction. ‘ She is a woman, and a sinful one.”

“Did you see her, Gavin?” .

“T saw her. Mother, she flouted me!”

“ The daring tawpie!” exclaimed Margaret.

“She is all that,” said the minister.

“Was she dressed just like ar. ordinary gypsy

-body? But you don’t notice clothes much, Gavin.”

“I noticed hers,” Gavin said, slowly, “ she was
in a green and red, I think, and barefooted.”

“Ay,” shouted Jean from the kitchen, startling
both of them; “but she had a lang gray-like
cloak, too. She was seen jouking up closes
in’t.”

Gavin rose, considerably annoyed, and shut the
parlour door.

““Was she as bonny as folks say?” asked
Margaret. “Jean says they speak of her beauty
as unearthly.”

“ Beauty of her kind,” Gavin explained learn--
edly, “is neither earthly nor heavenly.” He
was seeing things as they are very clearly now.
“What,” he said, “is mere physical beauty?
Pooh !”

“ And yet,” said Margaret, “the soul surely
does speak through the face to some extent.”

“Do you really think so, mother?” Gavin
asked, a little uneasily.