ve shown
you that. But--oh, let me go away for a minute to think!" And she ran
out of the room.

Other suitors have been left for a space in Tommy's state of doubt,
but never, it may be hoped, with the same emotions. Oh, heavens! if
she should accept him! He saw Elspeth sickening and dying of the news.

His guardian angel, however, was very good to Tommy at this time; or
perhaps, like cannibals with their prisoner, the god of sentiment (who
has a tail) was fattening him for a future feast; and Mrs. Jerry's
answer was that it could never be.

Tommy bowed his head.

But she hoped he would let her be his very dear friend. It would be
the proudest recollection of her life that Mr. Sandys had entertained
such feelings for her.

Nothing could have been better, and he should have found difficulty in
concealing his delight; but this strange Tommy was really feeling his
part again. It was an unforced tear that came to his eye. Quite
naturally he looked long and wistfully at her.

"Jerry, Jerry!" he articulated huskily, and whatever the words mean in
these circumstances he really meant; then he put his lips to her hand
for the first and last time, and so was gone, broken but brave. He was
in splendid fettle for writing that evening. Wild animals sleep after
gorging, but it sent this monster, refreshed, to his work.

Nevertheless, the incident gave him some uneasy reflections. Was he,
indeed, a monster? was one that he could dodge, as yet; but suppose
Mrs. Jerry told his dear Elspeth of what had happened? She had said
that she would not, but a secret in Mrs. Jerry's breast was like her
pug in her arms, always kicking to get free. "Elspeth," said Tommy,
"what do you say to going north and having a sight of Thrums again?"

He knew what she would say. They had been talking for years of going
back; it was the great day that all her correspondence with old
friends in Thrums looked forward to.

"They made little of you, Tommy," she said, "when we left; but I'm
thinking they will all be at their windows when you go back."

"Oh," replied Thomas, "that's nothing. But I should like to shake Corp
by the hand again."

"And Aaron," said Elspeth. She was knitting stockings for Aaron at
that moment.

"And Gavinia," Tommy said, "and the Dominie."

"And Ailie."

And then came an awkward pause, for they were both thinking of that
independent girl called Grizel. She was seldom discussed. Tommy was
oddly shy about mentioning her n