ely, "there's just one thing for you to do.
You have money, and you maun run away afore he comes!"

She jumped up at that. "I have thought of it," she answered "I am always
thinking about it, but how can I, oh, now can I? It would not be
respectable."

"To run away?"

"To go by myself," said the poor girl, "and I do want to be respectable,
it would be sweet."

In some ways Tommy was as innocent as she, and her reasoning seemed to
him to be sound. She was looking at him woefully, and entreaty was on
her face; all at once he felt what a lonely little crittur she was, and,
in a burst of manhood,--

"But, dinna prig wi' me to go with you," he said, struggling.

"I have not!" she answered, panting, and she had not in words, but the
mute appeal was still on her face.

"Grizel," he cried, "I'll come!"

Then she seized his hand and pressed it to her breast, saying, "Oh,
Tommy, I am so fond of you!"

It was the first time she had admitted it, and his head wagged well
content, as if saying for him, "I knew you would understand me some
day." But next moment the haunting shadow that so often overtook him in
the act of soaring fell cold upon his mind, and "I maun take Elspeth!"
he announced, as if Elspeth had him by the leg.

"You sha'n't!" said Grizel's face.

"She winna let go," said Tommy's.

Grizel quivered from top to toe. "I hate Elspeth!" she cried, with
curious passion, and the more moral Tommy was ashamed of her.

"You dinna ken how fond o' her I am," he said.

"Yes, I do."

"Then you shouldna want me to leave her and go wi' you."

"That is why I want it," Grizel blurted out, and now we are all ashamed
of her. But fortunately Tommy did not see how much she had admitted in
that hasty cry, and as neither would give way to the other they parted
stiffly, his last words being "Mind, it wouldna be respectable to go by
yoursel'," and hers "I don't care, I'm going." Nevertheless it was she
who slept easily that night, and he who tossed about almost until
cockcrow. She had only one ugly dream, of herself wandering from door to
door in a strange town, asking for lodgings, but the woman who answered
her weary knocks--there were many doors but it was invariably the same
woman--always asked, suspiciously, "Is Tommy with you?" and Grizel shook
her head, and then the woman drove her away, perceiving that she was
not respectable. This woke her, and she feared the dream would come
true, but she clenched her fists in the