ildish of him to say it, but, like many wiser and older, he
could not keep his dignity, and took pleasure in hurting her; for there
is a pleasure sometimes in hurting a loved one, because they are loved,
and will not speak the things one wants them to say, which if said might
add to one's vanity and sense of importance. "So ye'll just be by
yoursel' the morn, unless they put Dicky Tamson owre aside you," he
added viciously.

"I dinna want Dicky Tamson aside me," she said with some heat, and a
hint of anxiety in her voice, which pleased him a little. "He's an
impudent thing," and again she relapsed into silence, just when he
thought his pleasure was going to be complete.

"Oh, they'll maybe put Aggie Lowrieson on your side o' the table," he
volunteered, glad that at last she had shown some feeling.

"They can keep Aggie Lowrieson too," she said shortly. "I dinna' want
her. I'll get on fine mysel'," and she said no more.

He talked of his new venture all the way home, and he felt more and more
hurt because she did not reply as eagerly and volubly as he wished.

"It'll be great goin' doon the pit," he said, again feeling that he was
going to be priggish. "Pickin' stanes is a' guid enough for a laddie for
a wee while, an' for women, but you're the better to gang into the pit
when you're the age. You get mair money for it. Of course, it's hard
work, but I'll be earnin' as much as twa shillin's a day in the pit, and
that'll be twelve shillin's a week."

But Mysie could not be drawn to look at his rosy prospects, and still
kept silent, so that the last few hundred yards were covered in silence.
At the end of the row where they always parted, he could not resist
adding a thrust to his usual "good-night."

"Guid nicht then, Mysie. I thocht may be ye'd be vexed, seem' that
Dickie Tamson can torment you as muckle as he likes now." And so he
went home feeling that Mysie didn't care much.

But Mysie had a sore heart that night. She knew only too well that Dick
Tamson would torment her, and would be egged on by the other women to
kiss and tease her, and they would laugh at it all. Robert had always
been her champion, and kept Dick, who was a mischievous boy, at a
distance. She was sorry that Robert was going down the pit, and it
seemed to her that she'd rather go to service now. The harsh clamor and
the dirty disagreeable work were bearable before, but it would not be
the same with Robert away. She knew that she would miss hi