292 The Little Minister

Margaret, ‘“‘in such a case one might have others
to consider besides himself.”

«¢ A man’s marriage,” he answered, “is his own
affair. I would have brooked no interference
from my congregation.”

I thought, “ There is some obstinacy left in
him still;” but aloud I said, “It was of your
mother I was thinking.”

“She would have taken Babbie to her heart,”
he said, with the fond conviction of a lover.

I doubted it, but I only asked, “ Your mother
knows nothing of her?”

“ Nothing,” he rejoined. “ It would be cruelty
to tell my mother of her now that she is gone.”

Gavin’s calmness had left him, and he was
striding quickly nearer to Windyghoul. I was in
dread lest he should see the Egyptian at Nanny’s
door, yet to have turned him in another direction
might have roused his suspicions. When we
were within a hundred yards of the mud house, I
knew that there was no Babbie in sight. We
halved the distance, and then I saw her at the
open window. Gavin’s eyes were on the ground,
but she saw him. I held my breath, fearing that
she would run out to him.

“*- You have never seen her since that night?”
Gavin asked me, without hope in his voice.

Had he been less hopeless, he would have
wondered why I did not reply immediately. I
was looking covertly at the mud house, of which
we were now within a few yards. Babbie’s face
had gone from the window, and the door remained
shut. That she could hear every word we uttered
now, I could not doubt. But she was hiding