Part 28 (1/2)
And then it was no mocker of the Sabbath he was addressing, but a woman with a child's face, and there were tears in her eyes. ”Do you care?” she was saying, and again he answered, ”Yes, I care.” This girl's name was not Woman, but Babbie.
Now Gavin made an heroic attempt to look upon both these women at once. ”Yes, I believe in you,” he said to them, ”but henceforth you must send your money to Nanny by another messenger. You are a gypsy and I am a minister; and that must part us. I refuse to see you again.
I am not angry with you, but as a minister----”
It was not the disappearance of one of the women that clipped this argument short; it was Babbie singing--
”It fell on a day, on a bonny summer day, When the corn grew green and yellow, That there fell out a great dispute Between Argyle and Airly.
”The Duke of Montrose has written to Argyle To come in the morning early, An' lead in his men by the back o' Dunkeld To plunder the bonny house o' Airly.”
”Where are you?” cried Gavin in bewilderment.
”I am watching you from my window so high,” answered the Egyptian; and then the minister, looking up, saw her peering at him from a fir.
”How did you get up there?” he asked in amazement.
”On my broomstick,” Babbie replied, and sang on--
”The lady looked o'er her window sae high, And oh! but she looked weary, And there she espied the great Argyle Come to plunder the bonny house o' Airly.”
”What are you doing there?” Gavin said, wrathfully.
”This is my home,” she answered. ”I told you I lived in a tree.”
”Come down at once,” ordered Gavin. To which the singer responded--
”'Come down, come down, Lady Margaret,' he says; 'Come down and kiss me fairly Or before the morning clear day light I'll no leave a standing stane in Airly.'”
”If you do not come down this instant,” Gavin said in a rage, ”and give me what I was so foolish as to come for, I----”
The Egyptian broke in--
”'I wouldna kiss thee, great Argyle, I wouldna kiss thee fairly; I wouldna kiss thee, great Argyle, Gin you shouldna leave a standing stane in Airly.'”
”You have deceived Nanny,” Gavin cried, hotly, ”and you have brought me here to deride me. I will have no more to do with you.”
He walked away quickly, but she called after him, ”I am coming down. I have the money,” and next moment a s...o...b..ll hit his hat.
”That is for being cross,” she explained, appearing so unexpectedly at his elbow that he was taken aback. ”I had to come close up to you before I flung it, or it would have fallen over my shoulder. Why are you so nasty to-day? and, oh, do you know you were speaking to yourself?”
”You are mistaken,” said Gavin, severely. ”I was speaking to you.”
”You didn't see me till I began to sing, did you?”
”Nevertheless I was speaking to you, or rather, I was saying to myself what----”
”What you had decided to say to me?” said the delighted gypsy. ”Do you prepare your talk like sermons? I hope you have prepared something nice for me. If it is very nice I may give you this bunch of holly.”
She was dressed as he had seen her previously, but for a cl.u.s.ter of holly berries at her breast.
”I don't know that you will think it nice,” the minister answered, slowly, ”but my duty----”