Chapter 20 - Page 2

already in a fury.

"Say again," he burst forth, "that I was speaking agin the
minister and I'll practise on you what I'm awid to do to her."

"Who is she?"

"Wha's wha?"

"The woman whom the minister--"

"I said nothing about a woman," said poor Rob, alarmed for Gavin.
"Doctor, I'm ready to swear afore a bailie that I never saw them
thegither at the Kaims."

"The Kaims!" exclaimed the doctor suddenly enlightened. "Pooh! you
only mean the Egyptian. Rob, make your mind easy about this. I
know why he met her there."

"Do you ken that she has bewitched him; do you ken I saw him
trying to put his arms round her; do you ken they have a trysting-
place in Caddam wood?"

This came from Rob in a rush, and he would fain have called it all
back.

"I'm drunk, doctor, roaring drunk," he said, hastily, "and it
wasna the minister I saw ava; it was another man."

Nothing more could the doctor draw from Rob, but he had heard
sufficient to smoke some pipes on. Like many who pride themselves
on being recluses, McQueen loved the gossip that came to him
uninvited; indeed, he opened his mouth to it as greedily as any
man in Thrums. He respected Gavin, however, too much to find this
new dish palatable, and so his researches to discover whether
other Auld Lichts shared Rob's fears were conducted with caution.
"Is there no word of your minister's getting a wife yet?" he asked
several, but only got for answers, "There's word o' a Glasgow
leddy's sending him baskets o' flowers," or "He has his een open,
but he's taking his time; ay, he's looking for the blade o' corn
in the stack o' chaff."

This convinced McQueen that the congregation knew nothing of the
Egyptian, but it did not satisfy him, and he made an opportunity
of inviting Gavin into the surgery. It was, to the doctor, the
cosiest nook in his house, but to me and many others a room that
smelled of hearses. On the top of the pipes and tobacco tins that
littered the table there usually lay a death certificate, placed
there deliberately by the doctor to scare his sister, who had a
passion for putting the surgery to rights.

"By the way," McQueen said, after he and Gavin had talked a little
while, "did I ever advise you to smoke?"

"It is your usual form of salutation," Gavin answered, laughing.
"But I don't think you ever supplied me with a reason."

"I daresay not. I am too experienced a doctor to cheapen my
prescriptions in that way. However, here is one good reason. I
have noticed, sir, that at