186 The Little Minister

concerned, Rob had talked trash. He had seen
the holly in the minister’s hand, and, being in
drink, had mixed it up with the gossip about the
Egyptian. But that Gavin had preserved the
holly because of the donor was as obvious to
Jean as that the vase in her hand was empty.
Who could she be? No doubt all the single
ladies in Thrums were in love with him, but
that, Jean was sure, had not helped them a step
forward.

To think was to Jean a waste of time. Dis-
covering that she had been thinking, she was
dismayed. There were the wet clothes in the
basket looking reproachfully at her. She has-
tened back to Gavin’s room with the vase, but
it too had eyes, and they said, “ When the min-
ister misses his holly he will question you.”
Now Gavin had already smiled several times to
Jean, and once he had marked passages for her
in her “ Pilgrim’s Progress,” with the result that
she prized the marks more even than the pas-
sages. To lose his good opinion was terrible to
her. In her perplexity she decided to consult
wise Tammas Haggart, and hence her appeal to
Margaret.

To avoid Chirsty, the humourist’s wife, Jean
sought Haggart at his workshop window, which
was so small that an old book sufficed for its
shutter. Haggart, whom she could see distinctly
at his loom, soon guessed from her knocks and
signs (for he was strangely quick in the uptake)
that she wanted him to open the window.

“I want to speak to you confidentially,”
Jean said, in a low voice. “If you saw a grand