"Quite right, too," Tommy said, when he heard of it. "But you can tell
him, Elspeth, that we shall allow no more of those prying women to
come in." And he really meant this, for he was a modest man that day,
was Tommy. Nevertheless, he was, perhaps, a little annoyed to find, as
the days went on, that no more ladies came to be turned away.

He heard that they had also been unable to resist the desire to shake
hands with Thomas Sandys's schoolmaster. "It must have been a pleasure
to teach him," they said to Cathro.

"Ah me, ah me!" Cathro replied enigmatically. It had so often been a
pleasure to Cathro to thrash him!

"Genius is odd," they said. "Did he ever give you any trouble?"

"We were like father and son," he assured them. With natural pride he
showed them the ink-pot into which Thomas Sandys had dipped as a boy.
They were very grateful for his interesting reminiscence that when the
pot was too full Thomas inked his fingers. He presented several of
them with the ink-pot.

Two ladies, who came together, bothered him by asking what the Hugh
Blackadder competition was. They had been advised to inquire of him
about Thomas Sandys's connection therewith by another schoolmaster, a
Mr. Ogilvy, whom they had met in one of the glens.

Mr. Cathro winced, and then explained with emphasis that the Hugh
Blackadder was a competition in which the local ministers were the
sole judges; he therefore referred the ladies to them. The ladies did
go to a local minister for enlightenment, to Mr. Dishart; but, after