"To run away?"
"To go by myself," said the poor girl, "and I do want to be respectable, it would be sweet."
In some ways Tommy was as innocent as she, and her reasoning seemed to him to be sound. She was looking at him woefully, and entreaty was on her face; all at once he felt what a lonely little crittur she was, and, in a burst of manhood,—
"But, dinna prig wi' me to go with you," he said, struggling.
"I have not!" she answered, panting, and she had not in words, but the mute appeal was still on her face.
"Grizel," he cried, "I'll come!"
Then she seized his hand and pressed it to her breast, saying, "Oh, Tommy, I am so fond of you!"
It was the first time she had admitted it, and his head wagged well content, as if saying for him, "I knew you would understand me some day." But next moment the haunting shadow that so often overtook him in the act of soaring fell cold upon his mind, and "I maun take Elspeth!" he announced, as if Elspeth had him by the leg.
"You sha'n't!" said Grizel's face.
"She winna let go," said Tommy's.