There was no open talk about David between the brother and sister.  Some day, Tommy presumed, she would announce that the doctor had asked her to marry him; and oh, how sorry she was; and oh, what a good man he was; and oh, Tommy knew she had never encouraged him; and oh, she could never leave Tommy!  But until that day arrived they avoided talking directly about what brought Gemmell there.  That he came to see Elspeth neither of them seemed to conceive as possible.  Did Tommy chuckle when he saw David’s eyes following her?  No; solemn as a cat blinking at the fire; noticed nothing.  The most worldly chaperon, the most loving mother, could not have done more for Elspeth.  Yet it was not done to find her a husband, but quite the reverse, as we have seen.  On reflection Tommy must smile at what he has been doing, but not while he is working the figures.  The artist never smiles at himself until afterwards.

And now he not only wondered at times how Elspeth and David were getting on, but whether she noticed how he was getting on with Grizel; for in matters relating to Tommy Elspeth was almost as sharp as he in matters that related to her, and he knew it.  When he proposed to Elspeth that they should ask Gemmell to go fishing with them on the morrow ("He has been overworked of late and it would do him good”) he wanted to add, in a careless voice, “We might invite Grizel also,” but could not; his lips suddenly went dry.  And when Elspeth said the words that were so difficult to him, he wondered, “Did she say that because she knew I wished it?” But he decided that she did not, for she was evidently looking forward to to-morrow, and he knew she would be shuddering if she thought her Tommy was slipping.

“I am so glad it was she who asked me,” Grizel said to him when he told her.  “Don’t you see what it means?  It means that she wants to get you out of the way!  You are not everything to her now as you used to be.  Are you glad, glad?”

“If I could believe it!” Tommy said.

“What else could make her want to be alone with him?”

Nothing else could have made Grizel want to be alone with him, and she must always judge others by herself.  But Tommy knew that Elspeth was different, and that a girl with some of himself in her might want to be alone with a man who admired her without wanting to marry him.

CHAPTER XV

BY PROSEN WATER

That day by the banks of Prosen Water was one of Grizel’s beautiful memories.  All the days when she thought he loved her became beautiful memories.