End of the State of Indecision 219

“They never reach me,” answered Gavin, then
remembered the holly and winced.

“« Some,” persisted the relentless doctor, “ even
speak of your having been seen together; but
of course, if she is a Glasgow lady, that is a
mistake.”

“Where did they see us?” asked Gavin, with
a sudden trouble in his throat.

“You are shaking,” said the doctor, keenly,
“like a medical student at his first operation.
But as for the story that you and the lady have
been seen together, I can guess how it arose. Do
you remember that gypsy girl?”

The doctor had begun by addressing the fire,
but he suddenly wheeled round and fired his
question in the minister’s face. Gavin, however,
did not even blink.

“Why should I have forgotten her?” he
replied, coolly.

“Oh, in the stress of other occupations. But
it was your getting the money from her at the
Kaims for Nanny that I was to speak of. Ab-
surd though it seems, I think some dotard must
have seen you and her at the Kaims, and mis-
taken her for the lady.”

McQueen flung himself back in his chair to
enjoy this joke.

“Fancy mistaking that woman for a lady!”
he said to Gavin, who had not laughed with
him.

“1 think Nanny has some justification for
considering her a lady,” the minister said, firmly.

“Well, I grant that. But what made me
guffaw was a vision of the harum-scarum, devil-