izel heard of this. Probably there
never would have been any such intercourse; Grizel guarded against it
more than anyone, for reasons she never spoke of, but she resented this
veto proudly.

"Why must you not speak to my mamma?" she demanded of Tommy and Elspeth.

"Because--because she is a queer one," he said.

"She is not a queer one--she is just sweet."

He tried to evade the question by saying weakly, "We never see her to
speak to at any rate, so it will make no difference. It's no as if you
ever asked us to come to Double Dykes."

"But I ask you now," said Grizel, with flashing eyes.

"Oh, I darena!" cried Elspeth.

"Then I won't ever come into your house again," said Grizel, decisively.

"No to redd up?" asked Tommy, incredulously. "No to bake nor to iron?
You couldna help it."

"Yes I could."

"Think what you'll miss!"

Grizel might have retorted, "Think what you will miss!" but perhaps the
reply she did make had a sharper sting in it. "I shall never come
again," she said loftily, "and my reason for not coming is that--that my
mamma thinks your house is not respectable!" She flung this over her
shoulder as she stalked away, and it may be that the tears came when
there were none to see them, but hers was a resolute mind, and though
she continued to be friendly with Tommy and Elspeth out of doors she
never again crossed their threshold.

"The house is in a terrible state for want o' you," Tommy would say,
trying to wheedle her. "We hinna sanded the floor for months, and the
box-iron has fallen ahint the dresser, and my gray sark is rove up the
back, and oh, you should just see the holes in Aaron's stockings!"

Then Grizel rocked her arms in agony, but no, she would not go in.

CHAPTER XX

THE SHADOW OF SIR WALTER

Tommy was in Miss Ailie's senior class now, though by no means at the
top of it, and her mind was often disturbed about his future. On this
subject Aaron had never spoken to anyone, and the problem gave Tommy
himself so little trouble that all Elspeth knew was that he was to be
great and that she was to keep his house. So the school-mistress braved
an interview with Aaron for the sake of her favorite.

"You know he is a remarkable boy," she said.

"At his lessons, ma'am?" asked Aaron, quietly.

Not exactly at his lessons, she had to admit.

"In what way, then, ma'am?"

Really Miss Ailie could not say. There was something wonderful about
Tommy, you felt it, but you could