," exclaimed McQueen, with a shudder.

"But that's not all. She came to me in her difficulty, and said that if
I didna promise her this privilege she would nurse Ballingall no more."

"Ugh! That shows at least that pity for him had not influenced her."

"No, she cared not a doit for him. I question if she's the kind that
could care for anyone. It's plain by her thrawn look when you speak to
her about her mother that she has no affection even for her. However,
there she was, prepared to leave Ballingall to his fate if I did not
grant her request, and I had to yield to her."

"You promised?"

"I did, sore against the grain, but I accept the responsibility. You are
pained, but you don't know what a good nurse means to a doctor."

"Well?"

"Well, he died after all, and the straiking is going on now. You saw her
go in."

"I think you could have been excused for breaking your word and turning
her out."

"To tell the truth," said the doctor, "I had the same idea when I saw
her enter, and I tried to shoo her to the door, but she cried, 'You
promised, you _can't_ break a promise!' and the morbid brat that she is
looked so horrified at the very notion of anybody's breaking a promise
that I slunk away as if she had right on her side."

"No wonder the little monster is unpopular," was McLean's comment. "The
children hereabout seem to take to her as little as I do, for I had to
drive away some who were molesting her. I am sorry I interfered now."

"I can tell you why they t'nead her," replied the doctor, and he
repeated the little that was known in Thrums of the Painted Lady, "And
you see the womenfolk are mad because they can find out so little about
her, where she got her money, for instance, and who are the 'gentlemen'
that are said to visit her at Double Dykes. They have tried many ways of
drawing Grizel, from heckle biscuits and parlies to a slap in the face,
but neither by coaxing nor squeezing will you get an egg out of a sweer
hen, and so they found. 'The dour little limmer,' they say, 'stalking
about wi' all her blinds down,' and they are slow to interfere when
their laddies call her names. It's a pity for herself that she's not
more communicative, for if she would just satisfy the women's curiosity
she would find them full of kindness. A terrible thing, Mr. McLean, is
curiosity. The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all
evil, but we must ask Mr. Dishart if love of money is not a misprint for
cur