"But he will be away for hours at his classes."
"I'll sit at the window waiting for him," said she.
"And I'll run back quick," said Tommy.
All this time another problem had been bewildering Gavinia, and now she broke in, eagerly: "But what was it he did? I thought he was agin Mr. McLean."
"And so did I," said Corp.
"I cheated you grandly," replied Tommy with the audacity he found so useful.
"And a' the time you was pretending to be agin him," screamed Gavinia, "was you—was you bringing this about on the sly?"
Tommy looked up into Mr. McLean's face, but could get no guidance from it, so he said nothing; he only held his head higher than ever. "Oh, the clever little curse!" cried Corp, and Elspeth's delight was as ecstatic, though differently worded. Yet Gavinia stuck to her problem, "How did you do it, what was it you did?" and the cruel McLean said: "You may tell her, Tommy; you have my permission."
It would have been an awkward position for most boys, and even Tommy—but next moment he said, quite coolly: "I think you and me and Miss Ailie should keep it to oursels, Gavinia's sic a gossip."
"Oh, how thoughtful of him!" cried Miss Ailie, the deceived, and McLean said: "How very thoughtful!" but now he saw in a flash why Mr. Cathro still had hopes that Tommy might carry a bursary.