To risk his life was something, but to disappear quietly without taking any credit for it was finer and I should say much more difficult." "I think it was sweet of him," Grizel said.
"I don't see it," said Tommy, and the silence that followed should have been unpleasant to him; but he went on calmly: "Doubtless it was a mere impulse that made him jump into the pool, and impulse is not courage." He was quoting Grizel now, you observe, and though he did not look at her, he knew her eyes were fixed on him reproachfully.
"And so," he concluded, "I suppose Captain Ure knew he had done no great thing, and preferred to avoid exaggerated applause." Even Elspeth was troubled; but she must defend her dear brother.

"He would have avoided it himself," she explained quickly.

"He dislikes praise so much that he does not understand how sweet it is to smaller people." This made Tommy wince.

He was always distressed when timid Elspeth blurted out things of this sort in company, and not the least of his merits was that he usually forbore from chiding her for it afterwards, so reluctant was he to hurt her.

In a world where there were no women except Elspeths, Tommy would have been a saint.