CHAPTER XIX

CIRCUMSTANCES LEADING TO THE FIRST SERMON
IN APPROVAL OF WOMEN

YOUNG man thinks that he alone of
A mortals is impervious to love, and so the
discovery that he is in it suddenly alters his
views of his own mechanism. It is thus not
unlike a rap on the funny-bone. Did Gavin
make this discovery when the Egyptian left
him? Apparently he only came to the brink
of it and stood blind. He had driven her from
him for ever, and his sense of loss was so acute
that his soul cried out for the cure rather than for
the name of the malady.

In time he would have realised what had hap-
pened, but time was denied him, for just as he
was starting for the mud house Babbie saved his
dignity by returning to him. It was not her cus-
tom to fix her eyes on the ground as she walked,
but she was doing so now, and at the same time
swinging the empty pans. Doubtless she had
come back for more water, in the belief that
Gavin had gone. He pronounéed her name
with a sense of guilt, and she looked up sur-
prised, or seemingly surprised, to find him still
there.

“T thought you had gone away long ago,” she
said, stiffly.

204