you will hurt me"; and
I know it to be the voice of Grizel, and I seem to see her, rocking
her arms as she used to rock them when excited in the days of her
innocent childhood. "Don't, don't, don't!" she cried at every cruel
word I gave him, and she, to whom it was ever such agony to weep,
dropped a tear upon each word, so that they were obliterated; and
"Surely I knew him best," she said, "and I always loved him"; and she
stood there defending him, with her hand on her heart to conceal the
gaping wound that Tommy had made.

Well, if Grizel had always loved him there was surely something fine
and rare about Tommy. But what was it, Grizel? Why did you always love
him, you who saw into him so well and demanded so much of men? When I
ask that question the spirit that hovers round my desk to protect
Tommy from me rocks her arms mournfully, as if she did not know the
answer; it is only when I seem to see her as she so often was in life,
before she got that wound and after, bending over some little child
and looking up radiant, that I think I suddenly know why she always
loved Tommy. It was because he had such need of her.

I don't know whether you remember, but there were once some children
who played at Jacobites in the Thrums Den under Tommy's leadership.
Elspeth, of course, was one of them, and there were Corp Shiach, and
Gavinia, and lastly, there was Grizel. Had Tommy's parents been alive
she would not have been allowed to join, for she was a painted lady's
child; but Tommy insisted on having her, and Grizel thought it was
just sweet of him. He also chatted with her in public places, as if
she were a respectable character; and oh, how she longed to be
respectable! but, on the other hand, he was the first to point out how
superbly he was behaving, and his ways were masterful, so the
independent girl would not be captain's wife; if he said she was
captain's wife he had to apologize, and if he merely looked it he had
to apologize just the same.

One night the Painted Lady died in the Den, and then it would have
gone hard with the lonely girl had not Dr. McQueen made her his little
housekeeper, not out of pity, he vowed (she was so anxious to be told
that), but because he was an old bachelor sorely in need of someone to
take care of him. And how she took care of him! But though she was so
happy now, she knew that she must be very careful, for there was
something in her blood that might waken and prevent her being a good