try to be better than we are--to
undeceive you would hurt so. It is not the book that makes me a better
woman--it is the man I see behind it."

He was too much moved to be able to reply--too much humbled. He vowed
to himself that, whether he could love or not, he would be a good
husband to this dear woman.

"Ah, Grizel," he declared, by and by, "what a delicious book you are,
and how I wish I had written you! With every word you say, something
within me is shouting, 'Am I not a wonder!' I warned you it would be
so as soon as I felt that I had done anything really big, and I have.
I have somehow made you love me. Ladies and gentlemen," he exclaimed,
addressing the river and the trees and the roses, "I have somehow made
her love me! Am I not a wonder?"

Grizel clapped her hands gaily; she was merry again. She could always
be what Tommy wanted her to be. "Ladies and gentlemen," she cried,
"how could I help it?"

David had been coming back for his fly-book, and though he did not
hear their words, he saw a light in Grizel's face that suddenly set
him thinking. For the rest of the day he paid little attention to
Elspeth; some of his answers showed her that he was not even listening
to her.

CHAPTER XVI

"HOW COULD YOU HURT YOUR GRIZEL SO!"

To concentrate on Elspeth so that he might find out what was in her
mind was, as we have seen, seldom necessary to Tommy; for he had
learned her by heart long ago. Yet a time was now come when he had to
concentrate, and even then he was doubtful of the result. So often he
had put that mind of hers to rights that it was an open box to him, or
had been until he conceived the odd notion that perhaps it contained a
secret drawer. This would have been resented by most brothers, but
Tommy's chagrin was nothing compared to the exhilaration with which he
perceived that he might be about to discover something new about
woman. He was like the digger whose hand is on the point of closing on
a diamond--a certain holiness added.

What puzzled him was the state of affairs now existing between Elspeth
and the doctor. A week had elapsed since the fishing excursion, and
David had not visited them. Too busy? Tommy knew that it is the busy
people who can find time. Could it be that David had proposed to her
at the waterside?

No, he could not read that in Elspeth's face. He knew that she would
be in distress lest her refusal should darken the doctor's life for
too long a time; but yet (