As soon as she heard that Tommy had come home vanquished, she put on the quaint blue bonnet with the white strings, in which she fondly believed she looked ever so old (her period of mourning was at an end, but she still wore her black dress) and forgetting all except that he was unhappy, she ran to a certain little house to comfort him.

But she did not go in, for through the window she saw Elspeth petting him, and that somehow annoyed her.

In the evening, however, she called on Mr.Cathro.
Perhaps you want to know why she, who at last saw Sentimental Tommy in his true light and spurned him accordingly, now exerted herself in his behalf instead of going on with the papering of the surgery.

Well, that was the reason.

She had put the question to herself before--not, indeed, before going to Monypenny but before calling on the Dominie--and decided that she wanted to send Tommy to college, because she disliked him so much that she could not endure the prospect of his remaining in Thrums.
Now, are you satisfied?
She could scarcely take time to say good-evening to Mr.Cathro before telling him the object of her visit.