We thought of a farmer near Thrums." "The farther you're frae her the better," said Aaron, uneasily, yet honestly believing what he said.
"It'll kill her," Tommy cried fiercely.

With only his own suffering to consider he would probably have nursed it into a play through which he stalked as the noble child of misfortune, but in his anxiety for Elspeth he could still forget himself.

"Fine you ken she canna do without me," he screamed.
"She maun be weaned," replied the warper, with a show of temper; he was convinced that the sooner Elspeth learned to do without Tommy the better it would be for herself in the end, but in his way of regarding the boy there was also a touch of jealousy, pathetic rather than forbidding.

To him he left the task of breaking the news to Elspeth; and Tommy, terrified lest she should swoon under it, was almost offended when she remained calm.

But, alas, the reason was that she thought she was going with him.
"Will we have to walk all the way to the Dubb of Prosen ?" she asked, quite brightly, and at that Tommy twisted about in misery.