Chapter 7

COMIC OVERTURE TO A TRAGEDY

"Jean Myles bides in London" was the next remarkable news brought by
Tommy from Thrums Street. "And that ain't all, Magerful Tam is her man;
and that ain't all, she has a laddie called Tommy and that ain't all,
Petey and the rest has never seen her in London, but she writes letters
to Thrums folks and they writes to Petey and tells him what she said.
That ain't all neither, they canna find out what street she bides in,
but it's on the bonny side of London, and it's grand, and she wears silk
clothes, and her Tommy has velvet trousers, and they have a servant as
calls him 'sir.' Oh, I would just like to kick him! They often looks for
her in the grand streets, but they're angry at her getting on so well,
and Martha Scrymgeour said it were enough to make good women like her
stop going reg'lar to the kirk."

"Martha said that!" exclaimed his mother, highly pleased. "Heard you
anything of a woman called Esther Auld? Her man does the orra work at
the Tappit Hen public in Thrums."

"He's head man at the Tappit Hen public now," answered Tommy; "and she
wishes she could find out where Jean Myles bides, so as she could write
and tell her that she is grand too, and has six hair-bottomed chairs."

"She'll never get the satisfaction," said his mother triumphantly. "Tell
me more about her."

"She has a laddie called Francie, and he has yellow curls, and she
nearly greets because she canna tell Jean Myles that he goes to a school
for the children of gentlemen only. She is so mad when she gets a letter
from Jean Myles that she takes to her bed."

"Yea, yea!" said Mrs. Sandys cheerily.

"But they think Jean Myles has been brought low at last," continued
Tommy, "because she hasna wrote for a long time to Thrums, and Esther
Auld said that if she knowed for certain as Jean Myles had been brought
low, she would put a threepenny bit in the kirk plate."

"I'm glad you've telled me that, laddie," said Mrs. Sandys, and next
day, unknown to her children, she wrote another letter. She knew she ran
a risk of discovery, yet it was probable that Tommy would only hear her
referred to in Thrums Street by her maiden name, which he had never
heard from her, and as for her husband he had been Magerful Tam to
everyone. The risk was great, but the pleasure--

Unsuspicious Tommy soon had news of another letter from Jean Myles,
which had sent Esther Auld to bed again.

"Instead of being brought low," he announced, "Jean Myles is grander
than ever. Her Tommy has a governess."

"That would be a doush of water in Esther's