CHAPTER XVIII
CADDAM — LOVE LEADING TO A RUPTURE

AVIN told himself not to go near the mud
house on the following Monday; but he
went. The distance is half a mile, and the time
he took was two hours. This was owing to his
setting out due west to reach a point due north ;
yet with the intention of deceiving none save
himself. His reason had warned him to avoid
the Egyptian, and his desires had consented to be
dragged westward because they knew he had
started too soon. When the proper time came
they knocked reason on the head and carried him
straight to Caddam. Here reason came to, and
again began to state its case. Desires permitted
him to halt, as if to argue the matter out, but
were thus tolerant merely because from where he
stood he could see Nanny’s doorway. When Bab-
bie emerged from it reason seems to have made one
final effort, for Gavin quickly took that side of a
tree which is loved of squirrels at the approach of
an enemy. “He looked round the tree-trunk at
her, and then reason discarded him. The gypsy
had two empty pans in her hands. For a second
she gazed in the minister’s direction, then de-
murely leaped the ditch of leaves that separated
Nanny’s yard from Caddam, and strolled into the
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