238 The Little Minister

She sought to pull her hand from him, but
could not.

“How you are trembling!” he whispered.
“ Babbie,” he cried, “ something terrible has hap-
_pened to you, but do not fear. Tell me what
it is, and then,—then I will take you to my
mother: yes, I will take you now.”

The Egyptian would have given all she had in
the world to be able to fly from him then, that
he might never know her as she was, but it
could not be, and so she spoke out remorselessly.
If her voice had become hard, it was a new-born
scorn of herself that made it so.

“You are needlessly alarmed,” she said; “I
am not at all the kind of person who deserves ©
sympathy or expects it. There is nothing wrong.
I am staying with Nanny over night, and only
came to Thrums to amuse myself. I chased your
policeman down the Roods with my lantern, and
then came here to amuse myself with you. That
is alle?

“Tt was nothing but a love of mischief that
brought you here?” Gavin asked, sternly, after
an unpleasant pause.

“ Nothing,” the Egyptian answered, recklessly.

“TI could not have believed this of you,” the
minister said; “I am ashamed of you.”

“I thought,” Babbie retorted, trying to speak
lightly until she could get away from him,
“that you would be glad to see me. Your
last words in Caddam seemed to justify that
idea.”

“J am very sorry to see you,” he answered,
reproachfully.