The readings ended at a quarter to eight now, at twenty to eight, at half-past seven, and so Tommy could loiter on the way home without arousing Elspeth's suspicion.

One evening he saw Grizel cutting her way through the Haggerty-Taggerty group, and he offered to come to her aid if she would say "Help me." But she refused.
When, however, the Haggerty-Taggertys were gone she condescended to say, "I shall never, never ask you to help me, but--if you like--you can show me how to hit without biting my tongue." "I'll learn you Shovel's curly ones," replied Tommy, cordially, and he adjourned with her to the Den for that purpose.

He said he chose the Den so that Corp Shiach and the others might not interrupt them, but it was Elspeth he was thinking of.
"You are like Miss Ailie with her cane when she is pandying," he told Grizel.

"You begin well, but you slacken just when you are going to hit." "It is because my hand opens," Grizel said.
"And then it ends in a shove," said her mentor, severely.

"You should close your fists like this, with the thumbs inside, and then play dab, this way, that way, yon way.