In his fits of remorse, which were many, he tried to produce work that would please her.

Thus, in a heroic attempt to be practical, he wrote a political article in one of the reviews, quite in the ordinary style, but so much worse than the average of such things that they would never have printed it without his name.

He also contributed to a magazine a short tale,--he who could never write tales,--and he struck all the beautiful reflections out of it, and never referred to himself once, and the result was so imbecile that kindly people said there must be another writer of the same name.
"Show them to Grizel," Tommy wrote to Elspeth, inclosing also some of the animadversions of the press, and he meant Grizel to see that he could write in his own way only.

But she read those two efforts with delight, and said to Elspeth, "Tell him I am so proud of them." Elspeth thought it very nice of Grizel to defend the despised in this way (even Elspeth had fallen asleep over the political paper).

She did not understand that Grizel loved them because they showed Tommy trying to do without his wings.
Then another trifle by him appeared, shorter even than the others; but no man in England could have written it except T.Sandys.It has not been reprinted, and I forget everything about it except that its subject was love.