me. Latterly she had persuaded her mamma to wait
for him in the old Lair, because it was less cold there, and she had got
her to do this last night. Her mamma did not seem very unwell, but she
fell asleep, and she died sleeping, and then Grizel went back to Double
Dykes for linen and straiked her.

Some say in Thrums that a spade was found in the Lair, but that is only
the growth of later years. Grizel had done all she could do, and
through the long Saturday she sat by the side of the body, helpless and
unable to cry. She knew that it could not remain there much longer, but
every time she rose to go and confess, fear of the indignities to which
the body of her darling mamma might be subjected pulled her back. The
boys had spoken idly, but hunted Grizel, who knew so much less and so
much more than any of them, believed it all.

It was she who had stood so near Gavinia in the ruined house. She had
only gone there to listen to human voices. When she discovered from the
talk of her friends that she had left a light burning at Double Dykes
and the door open, fear of the suspicions this might give rise to had
sent her to the house on the heels of the two boys, and it was she who
had stolen past them in the mist to put out the light and lock the door.
Then she had returned to her mamma's side.

The doctor was among the listeners, almost the only dry-eyed one, but he
was not dry-eyed because he felt the artless story least. Again and
again he rose from his chair restlessly, and Grizel thought he scowled
at her when he was really scowling at himself; as soon as she had
finished he cleared the room brusquely of all intruders, and then he
turned on her passionately.

"Think shame of yoursel'," he thundered, "for keeping me in the dark,"
and of course she took his words literally, though their full meaning
was, "I shall scorn myself from this hour for not having won the poor
child's confidence."

Oh, he was a hard man, Grizel thought, the hardest of them all. But she
was used to standing up to hard men, and she answered, defiantly: "I did
mean to tell you, that day you sent me with the bottle to Ballingall, I
was waiting at the surgery door to tell you, but you were cruel, you
said I was a thief, and then how could I tell you?"

This, too, struck home, and the doctor winced, but what he said was,
"You fooled me for a whole week, and the town knows it; do you think I
can forgive you for that?"

"I don't care whether you forg