Chapter 19

CIRCUMSTANCES LEADING TO THE FIRST SERMON IN APPROVAL OF WOMEN.

A young man thinks that he alone of mortals is impervious to love,
and so the discovery that he is in it suddenly alters his views of
his own mechanism. It is thus not unlike a rap on the funny-bone.
Did Gavin make this discovery when the Egyptian left him?
Apparently he only came to the brink of it and stood blind. He had
driven her from him for ever, and his sense of loss was so acute
that his soul cried out for the cure rather than for the name of
the malady.

In time he would have realised what had happened, but time was
denied him, for just as he was starting for the mud house Babbie
saved his dignity by returning to him. It was not her custom to
fix her eyes on the ground as she walked, but she was doing so
now, and at the same time swinging the empty pans. Doubtless she
had come back for more water, in the belief that Gavin had gone.
He pronounced her name with a sense of guilt, and she looked up
surprised, or seemingly surprised, to find him still there.

"I thought you had gone away long ago," she said stiffly.

"Otherwise," asked Gavin the dejected, "you would not have come
back to the well?"

"Certainly not."

"I am very sorry. Had you waited another moment I should have been
gone."

This was said in apology, but the wilful Egyptian chose to change
its meaning.

"You have no right to blame me for disturbing you," she declared
with warmth.

"I did not. I only--"

"You could have been a mile away by this time. Nanny wanted more
water."

Babbie scrutinised the minister sharply as she made this
statement. Surely her conscience troubled her, for on his not
answering immediately she said, "Do you presume to disbelieve me?
What could have made me return except to fill the pans again?"

"Nothing," Gavin admitted eagerly, "and I assure you--"

Babbie should have been grateful to his denseness, but it merely
set her mind at rest.

"Say anything against me you choose," she told him. "Say it as
brutally as you like, for I won't listen."

She stopped to hear his response to that, and she looked so cold
that it almost froze on Gavin's lips.

"I had no right," he said, dolefully, "to speak to you as I did."

"You had not," answered the proud Egyptian. She was looking away
from him to show that his repentance was not even interesting to
her. However, she had forgotten already not to listen.

"What business is it of mine?" asked Gavin, amazed at his late
presumption,