sir. It sounds so queer!
GAVIN. I can’t help laughing myself!
(They laugh together.)
Small chance, you see, of the like of her drinking tea with the like of me. (HANDS CUP FOR MORE TEA.)
BABBIE. HOW much those English ladies miss! (AN IDEA.)
Maybe she’s kept busy drinking tea with the Captain.
GAVIN. Very likely.
NANNY. There’s a song his sojers sing about him nowadays.
GAVIN (SHOCKED). That offensive Johnny Cope song. Even my congregation sing it.
NANNY. I’ve heard it maddens him.
BABBIE. It will need a lot of tea, Nanny, to wash that song out of him! I know it.
(She sings a verse without accompaniment, hut with gay gestures and waving tea-cup.)
Our Halliwell to Caddam came To catch the wicked weaver men, But deil a weaver had he when He counted them in the morning!
(Chorus sung by babbie and nanny.)
Hey, gallant captain, have you catched her yet? Or has the gipsy beat ye yet? She led you a dance till you were gyte And your sojers laughed in the morning.
GAVIN. Enough! Enough!
NANNY. The Lord forgie me, but fine would I like to join in the second verse myself!
BABBIE. Do, Nanny, do.
(babbie signs encouragement and she and nanny sing.)
For days the English captain proud Kept glowering watch on Caddam Wood, For her that didna as she should, By nicht, nor yet by morning!
(They both sing chorus, and gavin himself, like one bewitched, joins in it babbie artfully stops, so that gavin sings the last two lines alone, nanny also stops, astonished at hearing him, rises and stands with arms round BABBIE. When finished he realises with horror what he has done.)
NANNY. Lassie, we forget that he is the Captain’s friend now. (Sits again.)
(gavin takes up tea-cup.)
BABBIE. He almost forgot himself, didn’t he? (With sudden thought) Nanny, I can guess why the little ladyship has no interest in Mr. Dishart. It is because he is a married man!
(gavin’s cup rattles in saucer.)
NANNY (laughing). A — married man! Mr. Dishart, she takes you for a married man! (Big laugh.)
(gavin tries to carry it off with awkward laugh.)
BABBIE. Is he not? I thought the lady you introduced to the soldiers that night —
(He tries to stop her by shaking a spoon at her.)
(TAKING THE SPOON.) Thank you. I hope I have said nothing unpleasant.
NANNY. Him married! But every single leddy in this countryside would jump at him like a bird at a berry. (Chuckling) Ay, and it’s the talk o’ the town that one o’ them has got him at last.
BABBIE (sharply). Oh?
NANNY. We dinna ken who she is yet, but we ‘re doing our best to find out.
GAVIN (turning away, with a groan). I am sure of that.
(babbie doesn’t like it.)
NANNY. What’s the matter wi’ the lassie?
BABBIE. Nothing! (To gavin) Is this true?
GAVIN (stoutly). It is the first I have heard of it. So you have permission to tell the tale, Mrs. Webster.
NANNY (eagerly). You’ll no be angry? (With enjoyment of the gossip.) It was about a week since — he came home wi’ a flower in his coat, a thing he was never known to do till that night. It was a red rose!
BABBIE (understanding). A red rose!
GAVIN (wanting to stop nanny). Mrs. Webster, I’d rather you didn’t —
BABBIE (turning round again). You gave her permission.
(Her manner has changed to geniality.)
NANNY. You said I could tell! For days he kept it in a glass of water on his study table — and there he would sit looking fond like at it.
GAVIN (half turning away in his chair). Nonsense! Not at all.
NANNY. Jean saw you — that’s the Manse servant. She chanced to be near the door.
GAVIN (hugging his knee). Hoots! I remember I flung the thing out of the window.
BABBIE. You did?
NANNY. Ay! he did, as if it maddened him. Andrew Soutar was sitting on the Manse dyke.
GAVIN (to babbie). There! You see!
NANNY. And then you ran out and picked it up again.
GAVIN (turning to her). How could you — ?
NANNY. Jemima Tosh was peeping through the gate.
GAVIN. Oh! It was she, was it! Mrs. Webster, I swear to you I took so little care of that rose that I don’t even know what became of it.
NANNY. But I ken.
GAVIN (with a half-groan). Oh!
BABBIE. Tell me!
NANNY. Well, when the Minister was out, Jean used to take favoured parties into the study to see the rose, and they gossiped about wha the lady could be, till Tibbie Birse and Bell Dundas got so curious that they stole the rose — it being of an uncommon kind — and now they ‘re going the round o’ all the gentry’s gardens trying to match it — so as to find out wha she is!
(GAVIN rises; BABBIE looking at him demurely.)
You’ve no finished, sir? You’ve eaten nothing.
GAVIN. Yes, I have made a very good tea, Mrs. Webster. Thank you. (Plays with spinning-wheel.)
NANNY (whispering). Rise up, lassie, he’s finished.
(Abruptly takes the cup out of babbie’s hand.) You winna tell me her name, Mr. Dishart?
GAVIN (looking at her, then at his feet, then at her again, sharply). No! (Sends spinning-wheel going quickly.)
(Exit NANNY sighing, with tray, BABBIE looks approvingly at him. He turns quickly, they catch each other’s eye. He sighs and folds his arms.)
BABBIE (faintly). I think I had better go!
(No answer, GAVIN turns wheel.)
Goodbye.
GAVIN (hoarsely). You should never have come.
BABBIE (indignantly). Oh! Goodbye for ever. (Goes to door.) Unless you apologise I will never speak to you again.
(She waits expectant; rattles door latch. He says nothing.)
Did you apologise?
GAVIN. I did not. (Fiercely turns wheel round.)
BABBIE (nonplussed). Yes, you did — I heard you. (Comes down to him quaintly.) I forgive you, Mr. Gavin Dishart!
GAVIN (meaning first to be angry and then endearingly). Babbie.
BABBIE. What?
(His arms go out lovingly. In alarm he checks himself and breathes heavily like one who has had a narrow escape.)
GAVIN. YOU ARE EVERYTHING A WOMAN OUGHT NOT TO BE.
(BABBIE hangs more and more limp with each charge he brings against her.)
As a minister I despise you for your want of seriousness; you are no respecter of the proprieties. That humility in the presence of your superiors, which so well becomes