read of "Waverley" to Gavinia, Miss Ailie's servant, and she read so
slowly, putting her finger beneath each word, that she had not yet
reached the middle. Also, she was so enamoured of the work that she
would fight anyone who tried to take it from her.

Tommy refused "Ivanhoe," as it was not about Jacobites, but suggested
that Gavinia should be offered it in lieu of "Waverley," and told that
it was a better story.

The suggestion came too late, as Gavinia had already had a loan of
"Ivanhoe," and read it with rapture, inch by inch. However, if Tommy
would wait a month, or--

Tommy was so eager to read more about the Jacobites that he found it
trying to wait five minutes. He thought Gavin's duty was to get his
father to compel Gavinia to give the book up.

Was Tommy daft? Mr. Dishart did not know that his son possessed these
books. He did not approve of story books, and when Mrs. Dishart gave
them to Gavin on his birthday she--she had told him to keep them out of
his father's sight. (Mr. and Mrs. Dishart were very fond of each other,
but there were certain little matters that she thought it unnecessary to
trouble him about.)

So if Tommy was to get "Waverley" at once, he must discover another way.
He reflected, and then set off to Miss Ailie's (to whom he still read
sober works of an evening, but novels never), looking as if he had
found a way.

For some time Miss Ailie had been anxious about her red-armed maid, who
had never before given pain unless by excess of willingness, as when she
offered her garter to tie Miss Ailie's parcels with. Of late, however,
Gavinia had taken to blurting out disquieting questions, to the
significance of which she withheld the key, such as--

"Is there ony place nowadays, ma'am, where there's tourniements? And
could an able-bodied lassie walk to them? and what might be the charge
to win in?"

Or, "Would you no like to be so michty beautiful, ma'am, that as soon as
the men saw your bonny face they just up wi' you in their arms and ran?"

Or again, "What's the heaviest weight o' a woman a grand lusty man could
carry in his arms as if she were an infant?"

This method of conveyance seemed to have a peculiar fascination for
Gavinia, and she got herself weighed at the flesher's. On another
occasion she broke a glass candlestick, and all she said to the pieces
was, "Wha carries me, wears me."

This mystery was troubling the school-mistress sadly when Tommy arrived
with the key to i