"I'll hae to gang... I'm a base woman no' to be mair thankfu' to them that is so good to me... I dinna like to prig wi' them to take a roundabout road, and I'm sair fleid a' the Roods will see me... If it could just be said to poor Sanders when he comes back that I died hurriedly, syne he would be able to haud up his head ... Oh, mither! ... I wish terrible they had come and ta'en me at nicht... It's a dog-cart, and I was praying it micht be a cart, so that they could cover me wi' straw." "This is more than I can stand," the doctor cried. Nanny rose frightened. "I've tried you, sair," she said, "but, oh, I'm grateful, and I'm ready now." They all advanced toward the door without another word, and Nanny even tried to smile. But in the middle of the floor something came over her, and she stood there. Gavin took her hand, and it was cold. She looked from one to the other, her mouth opening and shutting. "I canna help it," she said. "It's cruel hard," muttered the doctor. "I knew this woman when she was a lassie." The little minister stretched out his hands. "Have pity on her, O God!" he prayed, with the presumptuousness of youth. Nanny heard the words. "Oh, God," she cried, "you micht!" God needs no minister to tell Him what to do, but it was His will that the poorhouse should not have this woman. He made use of a strange instrument, no other than the Egyptian, who now opened the mud-house door. CHAPTER XIII. SECOND COMING OF THE EGYPTIAN WOMAN. The gypsy had been passing the house, perhaps on her way to Thrums for gossip, and it was only curiosity, born suddenly of Gavin's cry, that made her enter. On finding herself in unexpected company she retained hold of the door, and to the amazed minister she seemed for a moment to have stepped into the mud house from his garden. Her eyes danced, however, as they recognised him, and then he hardened. "This is no place for you," he was saying fiercely, when Nanny, too distraught to think, fell crying at the Egyptian's feet. "They are taking me to the poorhouse," she sobbed; "dinna let them, dinna let them." The Egyptian's arms clasped her, and the Egyptian kissed a sallow cheek that had once been as fair as yours, madam, who may read this story. No one had caressed Nanny for many years, but do you think she was too poor and old to care for these young arms around her neck? There are those who say that women cannot love each other, but it is not true. Woman is not undeveloped man, but something better, and Gavin and the doctor knew it as they saw Nanny clinging to her protector. When the gypsy turned with flashing eyes to the two men she might have been a mother guarding her child. "How dare you!" she cried, stamping her foot; and they quaked like malefactors. "You don't see--" Gavin began, but her indignation stopped him. "You coward!" she said. Even the doctor had been impressed, so that he now addressed the gypsy respectfully.