"Trust him to tell Susy," said Nanny, "and Susy to tell the town." "His wife is a gossip?" "Ay, she's aye tonguing, especially about her teeth. They're folk wi' siller, and she has a set o' false teeth. It's fair scumfishing to hear her blawing about thae teeth, she's so fleid we dinna ken that they're false." Nanny had spoken jealously, but suddenly she trembled with apprehension. "Babbie," she cried, "you didna speak about the poorhouse to Enoch?" The Egyptian shook her head, though of the poorhouse she had been forced to speak, for Enoch, having seen the doctor going home alone, insisted on knowing why. "But I knew," the gypsy said, "that the Thrums people would be very unhappy until they discovered where you get the money I am to give you, and as that is a secret, I hinted to Enoch that your benefactor is Mr. Dishart." "You should not have said that," interposed Gavin. "I cannot foster such a deception." "They will foster it without your help," the Egyptian said. "Besides, if you choose, you can say you get the money from a friend." "Ay, you can say that," Nanny entreated with such eagerness that Babbie remarked a little bitterly: "There is no fear of Nanny's telling any one that the friend is a gypsy girl." "Na, na," agreed Nanny, again losing Babbie's sarcasm. "I winna let on. It's so queer to be befriended by an Egyptian." "It is scarcely respectable," Babbie said. "It's no," answered simple Nanny. I suppose Nanny's unintentional cruelty did hurt Babbie as much as Gavin thought. She winced, and her face had two expressions, the one cynical, the other pained. Her mouth curled as if to tell the minister that gratitude was nothing to her, but her eyes had to struggle to keep back a tear. Gavin was touched, and she saw it, and for a moment they were two people who understood each other. "I, at least," Gavin said in a low voice, "will know who is the benefactress, and think none the worse of her because she is a gypsy." At this Babbie smiled gratefully to him, and then both laughed, for they had heard Nanny remarking to the kettle, "But I wouldna hae been nane angry if she had telled Enoch that the minister was to take his tea here. Susy'll no believe't though I tell her, as tell her I will." To Nanny the table now presented a rich appearance, for besides the teapot there were butter and loaf-bread and cheesies: a biscuit of which only Thrums knows the secret. "Draw in your chair, Mr. Dishart," she said, in suppressed excitement. "Yes," said Babbie, "you take this chair, Mr. Dishart, and Nanny will have that one, and I can sit humbly on the stool." But Nanny held up her hands in horror. "Keep us a'!" she exclaimed; "the lassie thinks her and me is to sit down wi' the minister! We're no to gang that length, Babbie; we're just to stand and serve him, and syne we'll sit down when he has risen."