CHAPTER: XE

BABBIE AND MARGARET — DEFENCE OF THE MANSE
CONTINUED

HE Egyptian was mournful in Windyghoul,
up which she had once danced and sung;
but you must not think that she still feared Dow.
I felt McKenzie’s clutch on my arm for hours
after he left me, but she was far braver than I;
indeed, dangers at which I should have shut my
eyes only made hers gleam, and I suppose it was
sheer love of them that first made her play the
coquette with Gavin. If she cried now, it was
not for herself; it was because she thought she had
destroyed him. Could I have gone to her then
and said that Gavin wanted to blot out the gypsy
wedding, that throbbing little breast would have
frozen at once, and the drooping head would have
been proud again, and she would have gone away
for ever without another tear.

What do I say? I am doing a wrong to the
love these two bore each other. Babbie would
not have taken so base a message from my lips.
He would have had to say the words to her himself
before she believed them his. What would he
want her to do now? was the only question she
asked herself. To follow him was useless, for in
that rain and darkness two people might have
searched for each other all night in a single field.

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