“So long as I had you, Elspeth,” he said reproachfully, “was not that enough?”

“It seemed to be enough,” she answered gravely, “but even while I comforted myself with that, I knew that it should not be enough, and still I feared that if it was, the blame was mine.  Now I am no longer in the way, and I hope, so ardently, that you will fall in love, like other people.  If you never do, I shall always have the fear that I am the cause, that you lost the capacity in the days when I let you devote yourself too much to me.”

Oh, blind Elspeth!  Now is the time to tell her, Tommy, and fill her cup of happiness to the brim.

But it is she who is speaking still, almost gaily now, yet with a full heart.  “What a time you have had with me, Tommy!  I told David all about it, and what he has to look forward to, but he says he is not afraid.  And when you find someone you can love,” she continued sweetly, though she had a sigh to stifle, “I hope she will be someone quite unlike me, for oh, my dear, good brother, I know you need a change.”

Not a word said Tommy.

She said, timidly, that she had begun to hope of late that Grizel might be the woman, and still he did not speak.  He drew Elspeth closer to him, that she might not see his face and the horror of himself that surely sat on it.  To the very marrow of him he was in such cold misery that I wonder his arms did not chill her.

This poor devil of a Sentimental Tommy!  He had wakened up in the world of facts, where he thought he had been dwelling of late, to discover that he had not been here for weeks, except at meal-times.  During those weeks he had most honestly thought that he was in a passion to be married.  What do you say to pitying instead of cursing him?  It is a sudden idea of mine, and we must be quick, for joyous Grizel is drawing near, and this, you know, is the chapter in which her heart breaks.

* * * * *

It was Elspeth who opened the door to Grizel.  “Does she know?” said Elspeth to herself, before either of them spoke.

“Does she know?” It was what Grizel was saying also.

“Oh, Elspeth, I am so glad!  David has told me.”

“She does know,” Elspeth told herself, and she thought it was kind of Grizel to come so quickly.  She said so.

“She doesn’t know!” thought Grizel, and then these two kissed for the first time.  It was a kiss of thanks from each.

“But why does she not know?” Grizel wondered a little as they entered the parlour, where Tommy was; he had been standing with his teeth knit since he heard the knock.  As if in answer to the question, Elspeth said:  “I have just broken it to Tommy.  He has been in a few minutes only, and he is so surprised he can scarcely speak.”

Grizel laughed happily, for that explained it.  Tommy had not had time to tell her yet.  She laughed again at Elspeth, who had thought she had so much to tell and did not know half the story.