there is no necessity for my warning you against standing in his way
again, Miss McQueen, for you are up in arms for him now."

"I admire brave men," she replied, "and he is one, is he not?"

"You'll find him reasonable," said the Dominie, drily.

But though it was thus that she defended Tommy when others hinted
doubts, she had not yet said she was proud of him to the man who
wanted most to hear it. For one brief moment Grizel had exulted on
learning that he and Captain Ure were one, and then suddenly, to all
the emotions now running within her, a voice seemed to cry, "Halt!"
and she fell to watching sharply the doer of noble deeds. Her eyes
were not wistful, nor were they contemptuous, but had Tommy been less
elated with himself he might have seen that they were puzzled and
suspicious. To mistrust him in face of such evidence seemed half a
shame; she was indignant with herself even while she did it; but she
could not help doing it, the truth about Tommy was such a vital thing
to Grizel. She had known him so well, too well, up to a minute ago,
and this was not the man she had known.

How unfair she was to Tommy while she watched! When the old lady was
on her knees thanking him, and every other lady was impressed by the
feeling he showed, it seemed to Grizel that he was again in the arms
of some such absurd sentiment as had mastered him in the Den. When he
behaved so charmingly about the gift she was almost sure he looked at
her as he had looked in the old days before striding his legs and
screaming out, "Oh, am I not a wonder? I see by your face that you
think me a wonder!" All the time he was so considerately putting those
who had misjudged him at their ease she believed he did it