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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/23797-8.txt b/23797-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2396db1 --- /dev/null +++ b/23797-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13291 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A True Friend, by Adeline Sergeant + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A True Friend + A Novel + +Author: Adeline Sergeant + +Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23797] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRUE FRIEND *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + + + + + + + + + A TRUE FRIEND. + + A NOVEL. + + BY ADELINE SERGEANT + + _Author of "The Luck of the House," "A Life Sentence," etc., etc._ + + + + +MONTREAL: +JOHN LOVELL & SON, +23 ST. NICHOLAS STREET. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. AN UNSUITABLE FRIENDSHIP + + II. LADY CAROLINE'S TACTICS + + III. AT HELMSLEY COURT + + IV. ON THE ROAD. + + V. WYVIS BRAND + + VI. JANETTA AT HOME + + VII. NORA'S NEW ACQUAINTANCE + + VIII. FATHER AND CHILD + + IX. CONSULTATION + + X. MARGARET + + XI. JANETTA'S PROMISES + + XII. JANETTA REMONSTRATES + + XIII. SHADOWS + + XIV. JANETTA'S FAILURE + + XV. A BONE OF CONTENTION + + XVI. SIR PHILIP'S OPINION + + XVII. MARGARET'S FRIENDSHIP + + XVIII. A NEW FRIEND + + XIX. NORA'S PROCEEDINGS + + XX. AN ELDER BROTHER + + XXI. CUTHBERT'S ROMANCE + + XXII. WYVIS BRAND'S IDEAL + + XXIII. FORGET-ME-NOTS + + XXIV. LADY ASHLEY'S GARDEN PARTY + + XXV. SIR PHILIP'S DECISION + + XXVI. "FREE!" + + XXVII. A BIG BRIBE + + XXVIII. "CHANGES MUST COME." + + XXIX. MARGARET'S CONFESSION + + XXX. IN REBELLION + + XXXI. THE PLOUGHMAN'S SON + + XXXII. THE FAILURE OF MARGARET + + XXXIII. RETROSPECT + + XXXIV. FROM DISTANT LANDS + + XXXV. JULIET + + XXXVI. THE FRUITS OF A LIE + + XXXVII. NIGHT + + XXXVIII. THE LAST SCENE + + XXXIX. MAKING AMENDS + + XL. MY FAITHFUL JANET + + + + +A TRUE FRIEND + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +AN UNSUITABLE FRIENDSHIP. + + +Janetta was the music governess--a brown little thing of no particular +importance, and Margaret Adair was a beauty and an heiress, and the only +daughter of people who thought themselves very distinguished indeed; so +that the two had not, you might think, very much in common, and were not +likely to be attracted one to the other. Yet, in spite of differing +circumstances, they were close friends and allies; and had been such +ever since they were together at the same fashionable school where Miss +Adair was the petted favorite of all, and Janetta Colwyn was the +pupil-teacher in the shabbiest of frocks, who got all the snubbing and +did most of the hard work. And great offence was given in several +directions by Miss Adair's attachment to poor little Janetta. + +"It is an unsuitable friendship," Miss Polehampton, the principal of the +school, observed on more than one occasion, "and I am sure I do not know +how Lady Caroline will like it." + +Lady Caroline was, of course, Margaret Adair's mamma. + +Miss Polehampton felt her responsibility so keenly in the matter that at +last she resolved to speak "very seriously" to her dear Margaret. She +always talked of "her dear Margaret," Janetta used to say, when she was +going to make herself particularly disagreeable. For "her dear Margaret" +was the pet pupil, the show pupil of the establishment: her air of +perfect breeding gave distinction, Miss Polehampton thought, to the +whole school; and her refinement, her exemplary behavior, her industry, +and her talent formed the theme of many a lecture to less accomplished +and less decorous pupils. For, contrary to all conventional +expectations, Margaret Adair was not stupid, although she was beautiful +and well-behaved. She was an exceedingly intelligent girl; she had an +aptitude for several arts and accomplishments, and she was remarkable +for the delicacy of her taste and the exquisite discrimination of which +she sometimes showed herself capable. At the same time she was not as +clever--("not as _glaringly_ clever," a friend of hers once expressed +it)--as little Janetta Colwyn, whose nimble wits gathered knowledge as a +bee collects honey under the most unfavorable circumstances. Janetta had +to learn her lessons when the other girls had gone to bed, in a little +room under the roof; a room which was like an ice-house in winter and an +oven in summer; she was never able to be in time for her classes, and +she often missed them altogether; but, in spite of these disadvantages, +she generally proved herself the most advanced pupil in her division, +and if pupil-teachers had been allowed to take prizes, would have +carried off every first prize in the school. This, to be sure, was not +allowed. It would not have been "the thing" for the little +governess-pupil to take away the prizes from the girls whose parents +paid between two and three hundred a year for their tuition (the fees +were high, because Miss Polehampton's school was so exceedingly +fashionable); therefore, Janetta's marks were not counted, and her +exercises were put aside and did not come into competition with those of +the other girls, and it was generally understood amongst the teachers +that, if you wished to stand well with Miss Polehampton, it would be +better not to praise Miss Colwyn, but rather to put forward the merits +of some charming Lady Mary or Honorable Adeliza, and leave Janetta in +the obscurity from which (according to Miss Polehampton) she was fated +never to emerge. + +Unfortunately for the purposes of the mistress of the school, Janetta +was rather a favorite with the girls. She was not adored, like Margaret; +she was not looked up to and respected, as was the Honorable Edith Gore; +she was nobody's pet, as the little Ladies Blanche and Rose Amberley had +been ever since they set foot in the school; but she was everybody's +friend and comrade, the recipient of everybody's confidences, the sharer +in everybody's joys or woes. The fact was that Janetta had the +inestimable gift of sympathy; she understood the difficulties of people +around her better than many women of twice her age would have done; and +she was so bright and sunny-tempered and quick-witted that her very +presence in a room was enough to dispel gloom and ill-temper. She was, +therefore, deservedly popular, and did more to keep up the character of +Miss Polehampton's school for comfort and cheerfulness than Miss +Polehampton herself was ever likely to be aware. And the girl most +devoted to Janetta was Margaret Adair. + +"Remain for a few moments, Margaret; I wish to speak to you," said Miss +Polehampton, majestically, when one evening, directly after prayers, the +show pupil advanced to bid her teachers good-night. + +The girls all sat round the room on wooden chairs, and Miss Polehampton +occupied a high-backed, cushioned seat at a centre table while she read +the portion of Scripture with which the day's work concluded. Near her +sat the governesses, English, French and German, with little Janetta +bringing up the rear in the draughtiest place and the most uncomfortable +chair. After prayers, Miss Polehampton and the teachers rose, and their +pupils came to bid them good-night, offering hand and cheek to each in +turn. There was always a great deal of kissing to be got through on +these occasions. Miss Polehampton blandly insisted on kissing all her +thirty pupils every evening; it made them feel more as if they were at +home, she used to say; and her example was, of course, followed by the +teachers and the girls. + +Margaret Adair, as one of the oldest and tallest girls in the school, +generally came forward first for that evening salute. When Miss +Polehampton made the observation just recorded, she stepped back to a +position beside her teacher's chair in the demure attitude of a +well-behaved schoolgirl--hands crossed over the wrists, feet in +position, head and shoulders carefully erect, and eyes gently lowered +towards the carpet. Thus standing, she was yet perfectly well aware that +Janetta Colwyn gave her an odd, impish little look of mingled fun and +anxiety behind Miss Polehampton's back; for it was generally known that +a lecture was impending when one of the girls was detained after +prayers, and it was very unusual for Margaret to be lectured! Miss Adair +did not, however, look discomposed. A momentary smile flitted across her +face at Janetta's tiny grimace, but it was instantly succeeded by the +look of simple gravity becoming to the occasion. + +When the last of the pupils and the last also of the teachers had filed +out of the room, Miss Polehampton turned and surveyed the waiting girl +with some uncertainty. She was really fond of Margaret Adair. Not only +did she bring credit to the school, but she was a good, nice, lady-like +girl (such were Miss Polehampton's epithets), and very fair to look +upon. Margaret was tall, slender, and exceedingly graceful in her +movements; she was delicately fair, and had hair of the silkiest texture +and palest gold; her eyes, however, were not blue, as one would have +expected them to be; they were hazel brown, and veiled by long brown +lashes--eyes of melting softness and dreaminess, peculiarly sweet in +expression. Her features were a very little too long and thin for +perfect beauty; but they gave her a Madonna-like look of peace and calm +which many were ready enthusiastically to admire. And there was no want +of expression in her face; its faint rose bloom varied almost at a word, +and the thin curved lips were as sensitive to feeling as could be +desired. What was wanting in the face was what gave it its peculiar +maidenly charm--a lack of passion, a little lack, perhaps, of strength. +But at seventeen we look less for these characteristics than for the +sweetness and docility which Margaret certainly possessed. Her dress of +soft, white muslin was quite simple--the ideal dress for a young +girl--and yet it was so beautifully made, so perfectly finished in every +detail, that Miss Polehampton never looked at it without an uneasy +feeling that she was _too_ well-dressed for a schoolgirl. Others wore +muslin dresses of apparently the same cut and texture; but what the +casual eye might fail to observe, the schoolmistress was perfectly well +aware of, namely, that the tiny frills at neck and wrists were of the +costliest Mechlin lace, that the hem of the dress was bordered with the +same material, as if it had been the commonest of things; that the +embroidered white ribbons with which it was trimmed had been woven in +France especially for Miss Adair, and that the little silver buckles at +her waist and on her shoes were so ancient and beautiful as to be of +almost historic importance. The effect was that of simplicity; but it +was the costly simplicity of absolute perfection. Margaret's mother was +never content unless her child was clothed from head to foot in +materials of the softest, finest and best. It was a sort of outward +symbol of what she desired for the girl in all relations of life. + +This it was that disturbed Miss Polehampton's mind as she stood and +looked uneasily for a moment at Margaret Adair. Then she took the girl +by the hand. + +"Sit down, my dear," she said, in a kind voice, "and let me talk to you +for a few moments. I hope you are not tired with standing so long." + +"Oh, no, thank you; not at all," Margaret answered, blushing slightly as +she took a seat at Miss Polehampton's left hand. She was more +intimidated by this unwonted kindness of address than by any imaginable +severity. The schoolmistress was tall and imposing in appearance: her +manner was usually a little pompous, and it did not seem quite natural +to Margaret that she should speak so gently. + +"My dear," said Miss Polehampton, "when your dear mamma gave you into my +charge, I am sure she considered me responsible for the influences under +which you were brought, and the friendships that you made under my +roof." + +"Mamma knew that I could not be hurt by any friendship that I made +_here_," said Margaret, with the softest flattery. She was quite +sincere: it was natural to her to say "pretty things" to people. + +"Quite so," the schoolmistress admitted. "Quite so, dear Margaret, if +you keep within your own grade in society. There is no pupil in this +establishment, I am thankful to say, who is not of suitable family and +prospects to become your friend. You are young yet, and do not +understand the complications in which people sometimes involve +themselves by making friendships out of their own sphere. But _I_ +understand, and I wish to caution you." + +"I am not aware that I have made any unsuitable friendships," said +Margaret, with a rather proud look in her hazel eyes. + +"Well--no, I hope not," said Miss Polehampton with a hesitating little +cough. "You understand, my dear, that in an establishment like mine, +persons must be employed to do certain work who are not quite equal in +position to--to--ourselves. Persons of inferior birth and station, I +mean, to whom the care of the younger girls, and certain menial duties, +must be committed. These persons, my dear, with whom you must +necessarily be brought in contact, and whom I hope you will always treat +with perfect courtesy and consideration, need not, at the same time, be +made your intimate friends." + +"I have never made friends with any of the servants," said Margaret, +quietly. Miss Polehampton was somewhat irritated by this remark. + +"I do not allude to the servants," she said with momentary sharpness. "I +do not consider Miss Colwyn a servant, or I should not, of course, allow +her to sit at the same table with you. But there is a sort of +familiarity of which I do not altogether approve----" + +She paused, and Margaret drew up her head and spoke with unusual +decision. + +"Miss Colwyn is my greatest friend." + +"Yes, my dear, that is what I complain of. Could you not find a friend +in your own rank of life without making one of Miss Colwyn?" + +"She is quite as good as I am," cried Margaret, indignantly. "Quite as +good, far more so, and a great deal cleverer!" + +"She has capabilities," said the schoolmistress, with the air of one +making a concession; "and I hope that they will be useful to her in her +calling. She will probably become a nursery governess, or companion to +some lady of superior position. But I cannot believe, my dear that dear +Lady Caroline would approve of your singling her out as your especial +and particular friend." + +"I am sure mamma always likes people who are good and clever," said +Margaret. She did not fly into a rage as some girls would have done, but +her face flushed, and her breath came more quickly than usual--signs of +great excitement on her part, which Miss Polehampton was not slow to +observe. + +"She likes them in their proper station, my dear. This friendship is not +improving for you, nor for Miss Colwyn. Your positions in life are so +different that your notice of her can but cause discontent and +ill-feeling in her mind. It is exceedingly injudicious, and I cannot +think that your dear mamma would approve of it if she knew the +circumstances." + +"But Janetta's family is not at all badly connected," said Margaret, +with some eagerness. "There are cousins of hers living close to us--the +next property belongs to them----" + +"Do you know them, my dear?" + +"I know _about_ them," answered Margaret, suddenly coloring very deeply, +and looking uncomfortable, "but I don't think I have ever seen them, +they are so much away from home----" + +"I know _about_ them, too," said Miss Polehampton, grimly; "and I do not +think that you will ever advance Miss Colwyn's interests by mentioning +her connection with that family. I have heard Lady Caroline speak of +Mrs. Brand and her children. They are not people, my dear Margaret, whom +it is desirable for you to know." + +"But Janetta's own people live quite near us," said Margaret, reduced to +a very pleading tone. "I know them at home; they live at Beaminster--not +three miles off." + +"And may I ask if Lady Caroline visits them, my dear?" asked Miss +Polehampton, with mild sarcasm, which brought the color again to +Margaret's fair face. The girl could not answer; she knew well enough +that Janetta's stepmother was not at all the sort of person whom Lady +Caroline Adair would willingly speak to, and yet she did not like to say +that her acquaintance with Janetta had only been made at a Beaminster +dancing class. Probably Miss Polehampton divined the fact. "Under the +circumstances," she said, "I think I should be justified in writing to +Lady Caroline and asking her to remonstrate a little with you, my dear +Margaret. Probably she would be better able to make you understand the +impropriety of your behavior than I can do." + +The tears rose to Margaret's eyes. She was not used to being rebuked in +this manner. + +"But--I don't know, Miss Polehampton, what you want me to do," she said, +more nervously than usual. "I can't give up Janetta; I can't possibly +avoid speaking to her, you know, even if I wanted to----" + +"I desire nothing of the sort, Margaret. Be kind and polite to her, as +usual. But let me suggest that you do not make a companion of her in the +garden so constantly--that you do not try to sit beside her in class or +look over the same book. I will speak to Miss Colwyn herself about it. I +think I can make _her_ understand." + +"Oh, please do not speak to Janetta! I quite understand already," said +Margaret, growing pale with distress. "You do not know how kind and good +she has always been to me----" + +Sobs choked her utterance, rather to Miss Polehampton's alarm. She did +not like to see her girls cry--least of all, Margaret Adair. + +"My dear, you have no need to excite yourself. Janetta Colwyn has always +been treated, I hope, with justice and kindness in this house. If you +will endeavor only to make her position in life less instead of more +difficult, you will be doing her the greatest favor in your power. I do +not at all mean that I wish you to be unkind to her. A little more +reserve, a little more caution, in your demeanor, and you will be all +that I have ever wished you to be--a credit to your parents and to the +school which has educated you!" + +This sentiment was so effusive that it stopped Margaret's tears out of +sheer amazement; and when she had said good-night and gone to bed, Miss +Polehampton stood for a moment or two quite still, as if to recover from +the unwonted exertion of expressing an affectionate emotion. It was +perhaps a reaction against it that caused her almost immediately to ring +the bell a trifle sharply, and to say--still sharply--to the maid who +appeared in answer. + +"Send Miss Colwyn to me." + +Five minutes elapsed before Miss Colwyn came, however, and the +schoolmistress had had time to grow impatient. + +"Why did you not come at once when I sent for you?" she said, severely, +as soon as Janetta presented herself. + +"I was going to bed," said the girl, quickly; "and I had to dress myself +again." + +The short, decided accents grated on Miss Polehampton's ear. Miss Colwyn +did not speak half so "nicely," she said to herself, as did dear +Margaret Adair. + +"I have been talking to Miss Adair about you," said the schoolmistress, +coldly. "I have been telling her, as I now tell you, that the difference +in your positions makes your present intimacy very undesirable. I wish +you to understand, henceforward, that Miss Adair is not to walk with you +in the garden, not to sit beside you in class, not to associate with +you, as she has hitherto done, on equal terms." + +"Why should we not associate on equal terms?" said Janetta. She was a +black-browed girl, with a clear olive skin, and her eyes flashed and her +cheeks glowed with indignation as she spoke. + +"You are not equals," said Miss Polehampton, with icy displeasure in her +tone--she had spoken very differently to Margaret. "You have to work for +your bread: there is no disgrace in that, but it puts you on a different +level from that of Miss Margaret Adair, an earl's grand-daughter, and +the only child of one of the richest commoners in England. I have never +before reminded you of the difference in position between yourself and +the young ladies with whom you have hitherto been allowed to associate; +and I really think I shall have to adopt another method--unless you +conduct yourself, Miss Colwyn, with a little more modesty and +propriety." + +"May I ask what your other method would be?" asked Miss Colwyn, with +perfect self-possession. + +Miss Polehampton looked at her for a moment in silence. + +"To begin with," she said, "I could order the meals differently, and +request you to take yours with the younger children, and in other ways +cut you off from the society of the young ladies. And if this failed, I +could signify to your father that our arrangement was not satisfactory, +and that it had better end at the close of this term." + +Janetta's eyes fell and her color faded as she heard this threat. It +meant a good deal to her. She answered quickly, but with some +nervousness of tone. + +"Of course, that must be as you please, Miss Polehampton. If I do not +satisfy you, I must go." + +"You satisfy me very well except in that one respect. However, I do not +ask for any promise from you now. I shall observe your conduct during +the next few days, and be guided by what I see. I have already spoken to +Miss Adair." + +Janetta bit her lips. After a pause, she said-- + +"Is that all? May I go now?" + +"You may go," said Miss Polehampton, with majesty; and Janetta softly +and slowly retired. + +But as soon as she was outside the door her demeanor changed. She burst +into tears as she sped swiftly up the broad staircase, and her eyes were +so blinded that she did not even see a white figure hovering on the +landing until she found herself suddenly in Margaret's arms. In defiance +of all rules--disobedient for nearly the first time in her +life--Margaret had waited and watched for Janetta's coming; and now, +clasped as closely together as sisters, the two friends held a whispered +colloquy on the stairs. + +"Darling," said Margaret, "was she very unkind?" + +"She was very horrid, but I suppose she couldn't help it," said Janetta, +with a little laugh mixing itself with her sobs. "We mustn't be friends +any more, Margaret." + +"But we will be friends--always, Janetta." + +"We must not sit together or walk together----" + +"Janetta, I shall behave to you exactly as I have always done." The +gentle Margaret was in revolt. + +"She will write to your mother, Margaret, and to my father." + +"I shall write to mine, too, and explain," said Margaret with dignity. +And Janetta had not the heart to whisper to her friend that the tone in +which Miss Polehampton would write to Lady Caroline would differ very +widely from the one that she would adopt to Mr. Colwyn. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +LADY CAROLINE'S TACTICS. + + +Helmsley Court was generally considered one of the prettiest houses +about Beaminster; a place which was rich in pretty houses, being a +Cathedral town situated in one of the most beautiful southern counties +of England. The village of Helmsley was a picturesque little group of +black and white cottages, with gardens full of old-fashioned flowers +before them and meadows and woods behind. Helmsley Court was on slightly +higher ground than the village, and its windows commanded an extensive +view of lovely country bounded in the distance by a long low range of +blue hills, beyond which, in clear days, it was said, keen eyes could +catch a glimpse of the shining sea. The house itself was a very fine old +building, with a long terrace stretching before its lower windows, and +flower gardens which were the admiration of half the county. It had a +picture gallery and a magnificent hall with polished floor and stained +windows, and all the accessories of an antique and celebrated mansion; +and it had also all the comfort and luxury that modern civilization +could procure. + +It was this latter characteristic that made "the Court," as it was +commonly called, so popular. Picturesque old houses are sometimes +draughty and inconvenient, but no such defects were ever allowed to +exist at the Court. Every thing went smoothly: the servants were +perfectly trained: the latest improvements possible were always +introduced: the house was ideally luxurious. There never seemed to be +any jar or discord: no domestic worry was ever allowed to reach the ears +of the mistress of the household, no cares or troubles seemed able to +exist in that serene atmosphere. You could not even say of it that it +was dull. For the master of the Court was a hospitable man, with many +tastes and whims which he liked to indulge by having down from London +the numerous friends whose fancies matched his own, and his wife was a +little bit of a fine lady who had London friends too, as well as +neighbors, whom she liked to entertain. The house was seldom free from +visitors; and it was partly for that very reason that Lady Caroline +Adair, being in her own way a wise woman, had arranged that two or three +years of her daughter's life should be spent at Miss Polehampton's very +select boarding-school at Brighton. It would be a great drawback to +Margaret, she reflected, if her beauty were familiar to all the world +before she came out; and really, when Mr. Adair would insist on inviting +his friends constantly to the house, it was impossible to keep the girl +so mewed up in the schoolroom that she would not be seen and talked of; +and therefore it was better that she should go away for a time. Mr. +Adair did not like the arrangement; he was very fond of Margaret, and +objected to her leaving home; but Lady Caroline was gently inexorable +and got her own way--as she generally did. + +She does not look much like the mother of the tall girl whom we saw at +Brighton, as she sits at the head of her breakfast-table in the +daintiest of morning gowns--a marvelous combination of silk, muslin and +lace and pale pink ribbons--with a tiny white dog reposing in her lap. +She is a much smaller woman than Margaret, and darker in complexion: it +is from her, however, that Margaret inherits the large, appealing hazel +eyes, which look at you with an infinite sweetness, while their owner is +perhaps thinking of the _menu_ or her milliner's bill. Lady Caroline's +face is thin and pointed, but her complexion is still clear, and her +soft brown hair is very prettily arranged. As she sits with her back to +the light, with a rose-colored curtain behind her, just tinting her +delicate cheek (for Lady Caroline is always careful of appearance), she +looks quite a young woman still. + +It is Mr. Adair whom Margaret most resembles. He is a tall and +exceedingly handsome man, whose hair and moustache and pointed beard +were as golden once as Margaret's soft tresses, but are now toned down +by a little grey. He has the alert blue eyes that generally go with his +fair complexion, and his long limbs are never still for many minutes +together. His daughter's tranquillity seems to have come from her +mother; certainly it cannot be inherited from the restless Reginald +Adair. + +The third person present at the breakfast-table--and, for the time +being, the only visitor in the house--is a young man of seven or +eight-and-twenty, tall, dark, and very spare, with a coal-black beard +trimmed to a point, earnest dark eyes, and a remarkably pleasant and +intelligent expression. He is not exactly handsome, but he has a face +that attracts one; it is the face of a man who has quick perceptions, +great kindliness of heart, and a refined and cultured mind. Nobody is +more popular in that county than young Sir Philip Ashley, although his +neighbors grumble sometimes at his absorption in scientific and +philanthropic objects, and think that it would be more creditable to +them if he went out with the hounds a little oftener or were a rather +better shot. For, being shortsighted, he was never particularly fond +either of sport or of games of skill, and his interest had always +centred on intellectual pursuits to a degree that amazed the more +countrified squires of the neighborhood. + +The post-bag was brought in while breakfast was proceeding, and two or +three letters were laid before Lady Caroline, who, with a careless word +of apology, opened and read them in turn. She smiled as she put them +down and looked at her husband. + +"This is a novel experience," she said. "For the first time in our +lives, Reginald, here is a formal complaint of our Margaret." + +Sir Philip looked up somewhat eagerly, and Mr. Adair elevated his +eyebrows, stirred his coffee, and laughed aloud. + +"Wonders will never cease," he said. "It is rather refreshing to hear +that our immaculate Margaret has done something naughty. What is it, +Caroline? Is she habitually late for breakfast? A touch of unpunctuality +is the only fault I ever heard of, and that, I believe, she inherits +from me." + +"I should be sorry to think that she was immaculate," said Lady +Caroline, calmly, "it has such an uncomfortable sound. But Margaret is +generally, I must say, a very tractable child." + +"Do you mean that her schoolmistress does not find her tractable?" said +Mr. Adair, with amusement. "What has she been doing?" + +"Nothing very bad. Making friends with a governess-pupil, or something +of, that sort----" + +"Just what a generous-hearted girl would be likely to do!" exclaimed Sir +Philip, with a sudden warm lighting of his dark eyes. + +Lady Caroline smiled at him. "The schoolmistress thinks this girl an +unsuitable friend for Margaret, and wants me to interfere," she said. + +"Pray do nothing of the sort," said Mr. Adair. "I would trust my Pearl's +instinct anywhere. She would never make an unsuitable friend!" + +"Margaret has written to me herself," said Lady Caroline. "She seems +unusually excited about the matter. 'Dear mother,' she writes, 'pray +interpose to prevent Miss Polehampton from doing an unjust and +ungenerous thing. She disapproves of my friendship with dear Janetta +Colwyn, simply because Janetta is poor; and she threatens to punish +Janetta--not me--by sending her home in disgrace. Janetta is a +governess-pupil here, and it would be a great trouble to her if she were +sent away. I hope that you would rather take _me_ away than let such an +injustice be done.'" + +"My Pearl hits the nail on the head exactly," said Mr. Adair, with +complacency. He rose as he spoke, and began to walk about the room. "She +is quite old enough to come home, Caroline. It is June now, and the term +ends in July. Fetch her home, and invite the little governess too, and +you will soon see whether or no she is the right sort of friend for +Margaret." He laughed in his mellow, genial way, and leaned against the +mantel-piece, stroking his yellow moustache and glancing at his wife. + +"I am not sure that that would be advisable," said Lady Caroline, with +her pretty smile. "Janetta Colwyn: Colwyn? Did not Margaret know her +before she went to school? Are there not some Colwyns at Beaminster? The +doctor--yes, I remember him; don't you, Reginald?" + +Mr. Adair shook his head, but Sir Philip looked up hastily. + +"I know him--a struggling man with a large family. His first wife was +rather well-connected, I believe: at any rate she was related to the +Brands of Brand Hall. He married a second time after her death." + +"Do you call that being well-connected, Philip?" said Lady Caroline, +with gentle reproach; while Mr. Adair laughed and whistled, but caught +himself up immediately and apologized. + +"I beg pardon--I forgot where I was: the less any of us have to do with +the Brands of Brand Hall the better, Phil." + +"I know nothing of them," said Sir Philip, rather gravely. + +"Nor anybody else"--hastily--"they never live at home, you know. So this +girl is a connection of theirs?" + +"Perhaps not a very suitable friend: Miss Polehampton may be right," +said Lady Caroline. "I suppose I must go over to Brighton and see +Margaret." + +"Bring her back with you," said Mr. Adair, recklessly. "She has had +quite enough of school by this time: she is nearly eighteen, isn't she?" + +But Lady Caroline smilingly refused to decide anything until she had +herself interviewed Miss Polehampton. She asked her husband to order the +carriage for her at once, and retired to summon her maid and array +herself for the journey. + +"You won't go to-day, will you, Philip?" said Mr. Adair, almost +appealingly. "I shall be all alone, and my wife will not perhaps return +until to-morrow--there's no saying." + +"Thank you, I shall be most pleased to stay," answered Sir Philip, +cordially. After a moment's pause, he added, with something very like a +touch of shyness--"I have not seen--your daughter since she was twelve +years old." + +"Haven't you?" said Mr. Adair, with ready interest. "You don't say so! +Pretty little girl she was then! Didn't you think so?" + +"I thought her the loveliest child I had ever seen in all my life," said +Sir Philip, with curious devoutness of manner. + +He saw Lady Caroline just as she was starting for the train, with man +and maid in attendance, and Mr. Adair handing her into the carriage and +gallantly offering to accompany her if she liked. "Not at all +necessary," said Lady Caroline, with an indulgent smile. "I shall be +home to dinner. Take care of my husband, Philip, and don't let him be +dull." + +"If they are making Margaret unhappy, be sure you bring her back with +you," were Mr. Adair's last words. Lady Caroline gave him a kind but +inscrutable little smile and nod as she was whirled away. Sir Philip +thought to himself that she looked like a woman who would take her own +course in spite of advice or recommendation from her husband or anybody +else. + +He smiled once or twice as the day passed on at her parting injunction +to him not to let her husband be dull. He had known the Adairs for many +years, and had never known Reginald Adair dull under any circumstances. +He was too full of interests, of "fads," some people called them, ever +to be dull. He took Sir Philip round the picture-gallery, round the +stables, to the kennels, to the flower-garden, to his own studio (where +he painted in oils when he had nothing else to do) with never-flagging +energy and animation. Sir Philip's interests lay in different grooves, +but he was quite capable of sympathizing with Mr. Adair's interests, +too. The day passed pleasantly, and seemed rather short for all that the +two men wanted to pack into it; although from time to time Mr. Adair +would say, half-impatiently, "I wonder how Caroline is getting on!" or +"I hope she'll bring Margaret back with her! But I don't expect it, you +know. Carry was always a great one for education and that sort of +thing." + +"Is Miss Adair intellectual--too?" asked Sir Philip, with respect. + +Mr. Adair broke into a sudden laugh. "Intellectual? Our Daisy?--our +Pearl?" he said. "Wait until you see her, then ask the question if you +like." + +"I am afraid I don't quite understand." + +"Of course you don't. It is the partiality of a fond father that speaks, +my dear fellow. I only meant that these young, fresh, pretty girls put +such questions out of one's head." + +"She must be very pretty then," said Sir Philip, with a smile. + +He had seen a great many beautiful women, and told himself that he did +not care for beauty. Fashionable, talkative women were his abomination. +He had no sisters, but he loved his mother very dearly; and upon her he +had founded a very high ideal of womanhood. He had begun to think +vaguely, of late, that he ought to marry: duty demanded it of him, and +Sir Philip was always attentive, if not obedient, to the voice of duty. +But he was not inclined to marry a girl out of the schoolroom, or a girl +who was accustomed to the enervating luxury (as he considered it) of +Helmsley Court: he wanted an energetic, sensible, large-hearted, and +large-minded woman who would be his right hand, his first minister of +state. Sir Philip was fairly wealthy, but by no means enormously so; and +he had other uses for his wealth than the buying of pictures and keeping +up stables and kennels at an alarming expense. If Miss Adair were so +pretty, he mused, it was just as well that she was not at home, for, of +course, it was possible that he might find a lovely face an attraction: +and much as he liked Lady Caroline, he did not want particularly to +marry Lady Caroline's daughter. That she treated him with great +consideration, and that he had once overheard her speak of him as "the +most eligible _parti_ of the neighborhood," had already put him a little +on his guard. Lady Caroline was no vulgar, match-making mother, he knew +that well enough; but she was in some respects a thoroughly worldly +woman, and Philip Ashley was an essentially unworldly man. + +As he went upstairs to dress for dinner that evening, he was struck by +the fact that a door stood open that he had never seen opened before: a +door into a pretty, well-lighted, pink and white room, the ideal +apartment for a young girl. The evening was chilly, and rain had begun +to fall, so a bright little fire was burning in the steel grate, and +casting a cheerful glow over white sheepskin rugs and rose-colored +curtains. A maid seemed to be busying herself with some white +material--all gauze and lace it looked--and another servant was, as Sir +Philip passed, entering with a great white vase filled with red roses. + +"Do they expect visitors to-night?" thought the young man, who knew +enough of the house to be aware that the room was not one in general +use. "Adair said nothing about it, but perhaps some people are coming +from town." + +A budget of letters was brought to him at that moment, and in reading +and answering them he did not note the sound of carriage-wheels on the +drive, nor the bustle of an arrival in the house. Indeed, he left +himself so little time that he had to dress in extraordinary haste, and +went downstairs at last in the conviction that he was unpardonably late. + +But apparently he was wrong. + +For the drawing-room was tenanted by one figure only--that of a young +lady in evening dress. Neither Lady Caroline nor Mr. Adair had appeared +upon the scene; but on the hearthrug, by the small crackling +fire--which, in deference to the chilliness of an English June evening, +had been lighted--stood a tall, fair, slender girl, with pale +complexion, and soft, loosely-coiled masses of golden hair. She was +dressed in pure white, a soft loose gown of Indian silk, trimmed with +the most delicate lace: it was high to the milk-white throat, but showed +the rounded curves of the finely-moulded arm to the elbow. She wore no +ornaments, but a white rose was fastened into the lace frill of her +dress at her neck. As she turned her face towards the new comer, Sir +Philip suddenly felt himself abashed. It was not that she was so +beautiful--in those first few moments he scarcely thought her beautiful +at all--but that she produced on him an impression of serious, virginal +grace and innocence which was almost disconcerting. Her pure complexion, +her grave, serene eyes, her graceful way of moving as she advanced a +little to receive him stirred him to more than admiration--to something +not unlike awe. She looked young; but it was youth in perfection: there +was some marvelous finish, delicacy, polish, which one does not usually +associate with extreme youth. + +"You are Sir Philip Ashley, I think?" she said, offering him her slim +cool hand without embarrassment. + +"You do not remember me, perhaps, but I remember you perfectly well, I +am Margaret Adair." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +AT HELMSLEY COURT. + + +"Lady Caroline has brought you back, then?" said Sir Philip, after his +first pause of astonishment. + +"Yes," said Margaret, serenely. "I have been expelled." + +"Expelled! _You?_" + +"Yes, indeed, I have," said the girl, with a faintly amused little +smile. "And so has my great friend, Janetta Colwyn. Here she is: +Janetta, I am telling Sir Philip Ashley that we have been expelled, and +he will not believe me." + +Sir Philip turned in some curiosity to see the girl of whom he had heard +for the first time that morning. He had not noticed before that she was +present. He saw a brown little creature, with eyes that had been swollen +with crying until they were well-nigh invisible, small, unremarkable +features, and a mouth that was inclined to quiver. Margaret might afford +to be serene, but to this girl expulsion from school had evidently been +a sad trouble. He threw all the more kindness and gentleness into his +voice and look as he spoke to her. + +Janetta might have felt a little awkward if she had not been so entirely +absorbed by her own woes. She had never set foot before in half so grand +a house as this of Helmsley Court, nor had she ever dined late or spoken +to a gentleman in an evening coat in all her previous life. The size and +the magnificence of the room would perhaps have oppressed her if she had +been fully aware of them. But she was for the moment very much wrapped +up in her own affairs, and scarcely stopped to think of the novel +situation in which she found herself. The only thing that had startled +her was the attention paid to her dress by Margaret and Margaret's maid. +Janetta would have put on her afternoon black cashmere and little silver +brooch, and would have felt herself perfectly well dressed; but +Margaret, after a little consultation with the very grand young person +who condescended to brush Miss Colwyn's hair, had herself brought to +Janetta's room a dress of black lace over cherry-colored silk, and had +begged her to put it on. + +"You will feel so hot downstairs if you don't put on something cool," +Margaret had said. "There is a fire in the drawing-room: papa likes the +rooms warm. My dresses would not have fitted you, I am so much taller +than you; but mamma is just your height, and although you are thinner +perhaps----But I don't know: the dress fits you perfectly. Look in the +glass, Janet; you are quite splendid." + +Janetta looked and blushed a little--not because she thought herself at +all splendid, but because the dress showed her neck and arms in a way no +dress had ever done before. "Ought it to be--open--like this?" she said, +vaguely. "Do you wear your dresses like this when you are at home?" + +"Mine are high," said Margaret. "I am not 'out,' you know. But you are +older than I, and you used to teach----I think we may consider that you +_are_ 'out,'" she added, with a little laugh. "You look very nice, +Janetta: you have such pretty arms! Now I must go and dress, and I will +call for you when I am ready to go down." + +Janetta felt decidedly doubtful as to whether she were not a great deal +too grand for the occasion; but she altered her mind when she saw +Margaret's dainty silk and lace, and Lady Caroline's exquisite brocade; +and she felt herself quite unworthy to take Mr. Adair's offered arm when +dinner was announced and her host politely convoyed her to the +dining-room. She wondered whether he knew that she was only a little +governess-pupil, and whether he was not angry with her for being the +cause of his daughter's abrupt departure from school. As a matter of +fact, Mr. Adair knew her position exactly, and was very much amused by +the whole affair; also, as it had procured him the pleasure of his +daughter's return home, he had an illogical inclination to be pleased +also with Janetta. "As Margaret is so fond of her, there must be +something in her," he said to himself, with a critical glance at the +girl's delicate features and big dark eyes. "I'll draw her out at +dinner." + +He tried his best, and made himself so agreeable and amusing that +Janetta lost a good deal of her shyness, and forgot her troubles. She +had a quick tongue of her own, as everybody at Miss Polehampton's was +aware; and she soon found that she had not lost it. She was a good deal +surprised to find that not a word was said at the dinner table about the +cause of Margaret's return: in her own home it would have been the +subject of the evening; it would have been discussed from every point of +view, and she would probably have been reduced to tears before the first +hour was over. But here it was evident that the matter was not +considered of great importance. Margaret looked serene as ever, and +joined quietly in talk which was alarmingly unlike Miss Polehampton's +improving conversation: talk about county gaieties and county magnates: +gossip about neighbors--gossip of a harmless although frivolous type, +for Lady Caroline never allowed any talk at her table that was anything +but harmless, about fashions, about old china, about music and art. Mr. +Adair was passionately fond of music, and when he found that Miss Colwyn +really knew something of it he was in his element. They discoursed of +fugues, sonatas, concertos, quartettes, and trios, until even Lady +Caroline raised her eyebrows a little at the very technical nature of +the conversation; and Sir Philip exchanged a congratulatory smile with +Margaret over her friend's success. For the delight of finding a +congenial spirit had brought the crimson into Janetta's olive cheeks and +the brilliance to her dark eyes: she had looked insignificant when she +went in to dinner; she was splendidly handsome at dessert. Mr. Adair +noticed her flashing, transitory beauty, and said to himself that +Margaret's taste was unimpeachable; it was just like his own; he had +complete confidence in Margaret. + +When the ladies went back to the drawing-room, Sir Philip turned with a +look of only half-disguised curiosity to his host. "Lady Caroline +brought her back then?" he said, longing to ask questions, yet hardly +knowing how to frame them aright. + +Mr. Adair gave a great laugh. "It's been the oddest thing I ever heard +of," he said, in a tone of enjoyment. "Margaret takes a fancy to that +little black-eyed girl--a nice little thing, too, don't you think?--and +nothing must serve but that her favorite must walk with her, sit by +her, and so on--you know the romantic way girls have? The schoolmistress +interfered, said it was not proper, and so on; forbade it. Miss Colwyn +would have obeyed, it seems, but Margaret took the bit in a quiet way +between her teeth. Miss Colwyn was ordered to take her meals at a side +table: Margaret insisted on taking her meals there too. The school was +thrown into confusion. At last Miss Polehampton decided that the best +way out of the difficulty was first to complain to us, and then to send +Miss Colwyn home, straight away. She would not send _Margaret_ home, you +know!" + +"That was very hard on Miss Colwyn," said Sir Philip, gravely. + +"Yes, horribly hard. So Margaret, as you heard, appealed to her mother, +and when Lady Caroline arrived, she found that not only were Miss +Colwyn's boxes packed, but Margaret's as well; and that Margaret had +declared that if her friend was sent away for what was after all _her_ +fault, she would not stay an hour in the house. Miss Polehampton was +weeping: the girls were in revolt, the teachers in despair, so my wife +thought the best way out of the difficulty was to bring both girls away +at once, and settle it with Miss Colwyn's relations afterwards. The joke +is that Margaret insists on it that she has been 'expelled.'" + +"So she told me." + +"The schoolmistress said something of that kind, you know. Caroline says +the woman entirely lost her temper and made an exhibition of herself. +Caroline was glad to get our girl away. But, of course, it's all +nonsense about being 'expelled' as a punishment; she was leaving of her +own accord." + +"One could hardly imagine punishment in connection with her," said Sir +Philip, warmly. + +"No, she's a nice-looking girl, isn't she? and her little friend is a +good foil, poor little thing." + +"This affair may prove of some serious inconvenience to Miss Colwyn, I +suppose?" + +"Oh, you may depend upon it, she won't be the loser," said Mr. Adair, +hastily. "We'll see about that. Of course she will not suffer any injury +through my daughter's friendship for her." + +Sir Philip was not so sure about it. In spite of his intense admiration +for Margaret's beauty, it occurred to him that the romantic partisanship +of the girl with beauty, position, and wealth for her less fortunate +sister had not been attended with very brilliant results. No doubt Miss +Adair, reared in luxury and indulgence, did not in the least realize the +harm done to the poor governess-pupil's future by her summary dismissal +from Miss Polehampton's boarding-school. To Margaret, anything that the +schoolmistress chose to say or do mattered little; to Janetta Colwyn, it +might some day mean prosperity or adversity of a very serious kind. Sir +Philip did not quite believe in the compensation so easily promised by +Mr. Adair. He made a mental note of Miss Colwyn's condition and +prospects, and said to himself that he would not forget her. And this +meant a good deal from a busy man like Sir Philip Ashley. + +Meanwhile there had been another conversation going on in the +drawing-room between the three ladies. Margaret put her arm +affectionately round Janetta's waist as they stood by the hearthrug, and +looked at her mother with a smile. Lady Caroline sank into an easy-chair +on the other side of the fireplace, and contemplated the two girls. + +"This is better than Claremont House, is it not, Janet?" said Margaret. + +"Indeed it is," Janetta answered, gratefully. + +"You found the way to papa's heart by your talk about music--did she +not, mamma? And does not this dress suit her beautifully?" + +"It wants a little alteration in the sleeve," said Lady Caroline, with +the placidity which Janetta had always attributed to Margaret as a +special virtue, but which she now found was merely characteristic of the +house and family in general, "but Markham can do that to-morrow. There +are some people coming in the evening, and the sleeve will look better +shortened." + +The remark sounded a little inconsequent in Janetta's ear, but Margaret +understood and assented. It meant that Lady Caroline was on the whole +pleased with Janetta, and did not object to introducing her to her +friends. Margaret gave her mother a little smile over Janetta's head, +while that young person was gathering up her courage in two hands, so to +speak, before addressing Lady Caroline. + +"I am very much obliged to you," she said at last, with a thrill of +gratitude in her sweet voice which was very pleasant to the ear. "But--I +was thinking--what time would be the most convenient for me to go home +to-morrow?" + +"Home? To Beaminster?" said Margaret. "But you need not go, dear; you +can write a note and tell them that you are staying here." + +"Yes, my dear; I am sure Margaret cannot part with you yet," said Lady +Caroline, amiably. + +"Thank you; it is most kind of you," Janetta answered, her voice +shaking. "But I must ask my father whether I can stay--and hear what he +says; Miss Polehampton will have written to him, and----" + +"And he will be very glad that we have rescued you from her clutches," +said Margaret, with a soft triumphant little laugh. "My poor Janetta! +What we suffered at her hands!" + +Lady Caroline lying back in her easy chair, with the candle light +gleaming upon her silvery grey and white brocade with its touches of +soft pink, and the diamonds flashing on her white hands, so calmly +crossed upon the handle of her ivory fan, did not feel quite so tranquil +as she looked. It crossed her mind that Margaret was acting +inconsiderately. This little Miss Colwyn had her living to earn; it +would be no kindness to unfit her for her profession. So, when she spoke +it was with a shade more decision than usual in her tones. + +"We will drive you over to Beaminster to-morrow, my dear Miss Colwyn, +and you can then see your family, and ask your father if you may spend a +few days with Margaret. I do not think that Mr. Colwyn will refuse us," +she said, graciously. "I wonder when those men are coming, Margaret. +Suppose you open the piano and let us have a little music. You sing, do +you not?" + +"Yes, a little," said Janetta. + +"A little!" exclaimed Margaret, with contempt. "She has a delightful +voice, mamma. Come and sing at once, Janetta, darling, and astonish +mamma." + +Lady Caroline smiled. She had heard a great many singers in her day, and +did not expect to be astonished. A little governess-pupil, an +under-teacher in a boarding-school! Dear Margaret's enthusiasm certainly +carried her away. + +But when Janetta sang, Lady Caroline was, after all, rather surprised. +The girl had a remarkably sweet and rich contralto voice, and it had +been well trained; and, moreover, she sang with feeling and passion +which were somewhat unusual in one so young. It seemed as if some hidden +power, some latent characteristic came out in her singing because it +found no other way of expressing itself. Neither Lady Caroline nor +Margaret understood why Janetta's voice moved them so much; Sir Philip, +who came in with his host while the music was going on, heard and was +charmed also without quite knowing why; it was Mr. Adair alone whose +musical knowledge and experience of the world enabled him, +feather-headed as in some respects he was, to lay his finger directly on +the salient features of Janetta's singing. + +"It's not her voice altogether, you know," he said afterwards to Philip +Ashley, in a moment of confidence; "it's soul. She's got more of that +commodity than is good for a woman. It makes her singing lovely, you +know--brings tears into one's eyes, and all that sort of thing--but upon +my honor I'm thankful that Margaret hasn't got a voice like that! It's +women of that kind that are either heroines of virtue--or go to the +devil. They are always in extremes." + +"Then we may promise ourselves some excitement in watching Miss Colwyn's +career," said Sir Philip, dryly. + +After Janetta, Margaret sang; she had a sweet mezzo-soprano voice, of no +great strength or compass, but perfectly trained and very pleasing to +the ear. The sort of voice, Sir Philip thought, that would be soothing +to the nerves of a tired man in his own house. Whereas, Janetta's +singing had something impassioned in it which disturbed and excited +instead of soothing. But he was quite ready to admire when Margaret +called on him for admiration. They were sitting together on a sofa, and +Janetta, who had just finished one of her songs, was talking to, or +being talked to, by Mr. Adair. Lady Caroline had taken up a review. + +"Is not Miss Colwyn's voice perfectly lovely?" Margaret asked, with +shining eyes. + +"It is very sweet." + +"Don't you think she looks very nice?"--Margaret was hungering for +admiration of her friend. + +"She is a very pretty girl. You are very fond of each other?" + +"Oh, yes, devoted. I am so glad I succeeded!" said the girl, with a +great sigh. + +"In getting her away from the school?" + +"Yes." + +"You think it was for her good?" + +Margaret opened her lovely eyes. + +"For her good?--to come here instead of staying in that close +uncomfortable house to give music lessons, and bear Miss Polehampton's +snubs?----" It had evidently never occurred to her that the change could +be anything but beneficial to Janetta. + +"It is very pleasant for her, no doubt," said Sir Philip, smiling in +spite of his disapproval. "I only wondered whether it was a good +preparation for the life of hard work which probably lies before her." + +He saw that Margaret colored, and wondered whether she would be offended +by his suggestion. After a moment's pause, she answered, gravely, but +quite gently-- + +"I never thought of it in that way before, exactly. I want to keep her +here, so that she should never have to work hard at all." + +"Would she consent to that?" + +"Why not?" said Margaret. + +Sir Philip smiled and said no more. It was curious, he said to himself, +to see how little conception Margaret had of lives unlike and outside +her own. And Janetta's brave but sensitive little face, with its +resolute brows and lips and brilliant eyes, gave promise of a +determination and an originality which, he felt convinced, would never +allow her to become a mere plaything or appendage of a wealthy +household, as Margaret Adair seemed to expect. But his words had made an +impression. At night, when Lady Caroline and her daughter were standing +in the charming little room which had always been appropriated to +Margaret's use, she spoke, with the unconscious habit of saying frankly +anything that had occurred to her, of Sir Philip's remarks. + +"It was so odd," she said; "Sir Philip seemed to think that it would be +bad for Janetta to stay here, mamma. Why should it be bad for her, +mamma, dear?" + +"I don't think it will be at all bad for her to spend a day or two with +us, darling," said Lady Caroline, keeping somewhat careful watch on +Margaret's face as she spoke. "But perhaps it had better be by-and-bye. +You know she wants to go home to-morrow, and we must not keep her away +from her duties or her own sphere of life." + +"No," Margaret answered, "but her duties will not always keep her at +home, you know, mamma, dear." + +"I suppose not, my dearest," said Lady Caroline, vaguely, but in the +caressing tone to which Margaret was accustomed. "Go to bed, my sweetest +one, and we will talk of all these things to-morrow." + +Meanwhile Janetta was wondering at the luxury of the room which had been +allotted to her, and thinking over the events of the past day. When a +tap at the door announced Margaret's appearance to say good-night, +Janetta was standing before the long looking-glass, apparently +inspecting herself by the light of the rose-tinted wax candles in silver +sconces which were fixed on either side of the mirror. She was in her +dressing-gown, and her long and abundant hair fell over her shoulder in +a great curly mass. + +"Oh, Miss Vanity!" cried Margaret, with more gaiety of tone than was +usual with her, "are you admiring your pretty hair?" + +"I was thinking," said Janetta, with the intensity which often +characterized her speech, "that _now_ I understood you--now I know why +you were so different from other girls, so sweet, so calm and beautiful! +You have lived in this lovely place all your life! It is like a fairy +palace--a dream-house--to me; and you are the queen of it, Margaret--a +princess of dreams!" + +"I hope I shall have something more than dreams to reign over some day," +said Margaret, putting her arms round her friend's neck. "And whatever I +am queen over, you must share my queendom, Janet. You know how fond I am +of you--how I want you to stay with me always and be my friend." + +"I shall always be your friend--always, to the last day of my life!" +said Janetta, with fervor. The two made a pretty picture, reflected in +the long mirror; the tall, fair Margaret, still in her soft white silk +frock, with her arm round the smaller figure of the dark girl whose +curly masses of hair half covered her pink cotton dressing-gown, and +whose brown face was upturned so lovingly to her friend's. + +"And I am sure it will be good for you to stay with me," said Margaret, +answering an unspoken objection in her mind. + +"Good for me? It is delicious--it is lovely!" cried Janetta, +rapturously. "I have never had anything so nice in my whole life. Dear +Margaret, you are so good and so kind--if there were only anything that +I could do for you in return! Perhaps some day I shall have the chance, +and if ever I have--_then_ you shall see whether I am true to my friend +or not!" + +Margaret kissed her, with a little smile at Janetta's enthusiasm, which +was so far different from the modes of expression customary at Helmsley +Court, as to be almost amusing. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +ON THE ROAD. + + +Miss Polehampton had, of course, written to Mr. and Mrs. Colwyn when she +made up her mind that Janetta was to be removed from school; and two or +three letters had been interchanged before that eventful day on which +Margaret declared that if Janetta went she should go too. Margaret had +been purposely kept in the dark until almost the last moment, for Miss +Polehampton did not in the least wish to make a scandal, and annoyed as +she was by Miss Adair's avowed preference for Janetta, she had arranged +a neat little plan by which Miss Colwyn was to go away "for change of +air," and be transferred to a school at Worthing kept by a relation of +her own at the beginning of the following term. These plans had been +upset by a foolish and ill-judged letter from Mrs. Colwyn to her +stepdaughter, which Janetta had not been able to keep from Margaret's +eyes. This letter was full of reproaches to Janetta for giving so much +trouble to her friends; "for, of course," Mrs. Colwyn wrote, "Miss +Polehampton's concern for your health is all a blind in order to get you +away: and if it hadn't been for Miss Adair taking you up, she would have +been only too glad to keep you. But knowing Miss Adair's position, she +sees very clearly that it isn't fit for you to be friends with her, and +so she wants to send you away." + +This was in the main true, but Janetta, in the blithe confidence of +youth, would never have discovered it but for that letter. Together she +and Margaret consulted over it, for when Margaret saw Janetta crying, +she almost forced the letter from her hand; and then it was that Miss +Adair vindicated her claim to social superiority. She went straight to +Miss Polehampton and demanded that Janetta should remain; and when the +schoolmistress refused to alter her decision, she calmly replied that in +that case _she_ should go home too. Miss Polehampton was an obstinate +woman, and would not concede the point; and Lady Caroline, on learning +the state of affairs, at once perceived that it was impossible to leave +Margaret at the school where open warfare had been declared. She +accordingly brought both girls away with her, arranging to send Janetta +to her own home next morning. + +"You will stay to luncheon, dear, and I will drive you over to +Beaminster at three o'clock," she said to Janetta at breakfast. "No +doubt you are anxious to see your own people." + +Janetta looked as if she might find it difficult to reply, but Margaret +interposed a remark--as usual at the right moment. + +"We will practice our duets this morning--if Janetta likes, that is; and +we can have a walk in the garden too. Shall we have the landau, mamma?" + +"The victoria, I think, dear," said Lady Caroline, placidly. "Your +father wants you to ride with him this afternoon, so I shall have the +pleasure of Miss Colwyn's society in my drive." + +Margaret assented; but Janetta became suddenly aware, by a flash of keen +feminine intuition, that Lady Caroline had some reason for wishing to go +with her alone, and that she had purposely made the arrangement that she +spoke of. However, there was nothing to displease her in this, for Lady +Caroline had been most kind and considerate to her, so far, and she was +innocently disposed to believe in the cordiality and sincerity of every +one who behaved with common civility. + +So she spent a pleasant morning, singing with Margaret, loitering about +the garden with Mr. Adair, while Margaret and Sir Philip gathered +roses, and enjoying to the full all the sweet influences of peace, +refinement, and prosperity by which she was surrounded. + +Margaret left her in the afternoon with rather a hasty kiss, and an +assurance that she would see her again at dinner. Janetta tried to +remind her that by that time she would have left the Court, but Margaret +did not or would not hear. The tears came into the girl's eyes as her +friend disappeared. + +"Never mind, dear," said Lady Caroline, who was observing her closely, +"Margaret has forgotten at what hour you were going and I would not +remind her--it would spoil her pleasure in her ride. We will arrange for +you to come to us another day when you have seen your friends at home." + +"Thank you," said Janetta. "It was only that she did not seem to +remember that I was going--I had meant to say good-bye." + +"Exactly. She thinks that I am going to bring you back this afternoon. +We will talk about it as we go, dear. Suppose you were to put on your +hat now. The carriage will be here in ten minutes." + +Janetta prepared for her departure in a somewhat bewildered spirit. She +did not know precisely what Lady Caroline meant. She even felt a little +nervous as she took her place in the victoria and cast a last look at +the stately house in which she had spent some nineteen or twenty +pleasant hours. It was Lady Caroline who spoke first. + +"We shall miss your singing to-night," she said, amiably. "Mr. Adair was +looking forward to some more duets. Another time, perhaps----" + +"I am always pleased to sing," said Janetta, brightening at this +address. + +"Yes--ye--es," said Lady Caroline, with a doubtful little drawl. "No +doubt: one always likes to do what one can do so well; but--I confess I +am not so musical as my husband or my daughter. I must explain why dear +Margaret did not say good bye to you, Miss Colwyn. I allowed her to +remain in the belief that she was to see you again to-night, in order +that she might not be depressed during her ride by the thought of +parting with you. It is always my principle to make the lives of those +dear to me as happy as possible," said Margaret's mother, piously. + +"And if Margaret had been depressed during her ride, Mr. Adair and Sir +Philip might have suffered some depression also, and that would be a +great pity." + +"Oh, yes," said Janetta. But she felt chilled, without knowing why. + +"I must take you into my confidence," said Lady Caroline, in her softest +voice. "Mr. Adair has plans for our dear Margaret. Sir Philip Ashley's +property adjoins our own: he is of good principles, kind-hearted, and +intellectual: he is well off, nice-looking, and of a suitable age--he +admires Margaret very much. I need say no more, I am sure." + +Again she looked keenly at Janetta's face, but she read there nothing +but interest and surprise. + +"Oh--does Margaret know?" she asked. + +"She feels more than she knows," said Lady Caroline, discreetly. "She is +in the first stage of--of--emotion. I did not want the afternoon's +arrangements to be interfered with." + +"Oh, no! especially on _my_ account," said Janetta, sincerely. + +"When I go home I shall talk quietly to Margaret," pursued Lady +Caroline, "and tell her that you will come back another day, that your +duties called you home--they do, I am sure, dear Miss Colwyn--and that +you could not return with me when you were so much wanted." + +"I'm afraid I am not much wanted," said Janetta, with a sigh; "but I +daresay it is my duty to go home----" + +"I am sure it is," Lady Caroline declared; "and duty is so high and holy +a thing, dear, that you will never regret the performance of it." + +It occurred dimly to Janetta at that point that Lady Caroline's views of +duty might possibly differ from her own; but she did not venture to say +so. + +"And, of course, you will never repeat to Margaret----" + +Lady Caroline did not complete her sentence. The coachman suddenly +checked the horses' speed: for some unknown reason he actually stopped +short in the very middle of the country road between Helmsley Court and +Beaminster. His mistress uttered a little cry of alarm. + +"What is the matter, Steel?" + +The footman dismounted and touched his hat. + +"I'm afraid there has been an accident, my lady," he said, as +apologetically, as if he were responsible for the accident. + +"Oh! Nothing horrible, I hope!" said Lady Caroline, drawing out her +smelling-bottle. + +"It's a carriage accident, my lady. Leastways, a cab. The 'orse is lying +right across the road, my lady." + +"Speak to the people, Steel," said her ladyship, with great dignity. +"They must not be allowed to block up the road in this way." + +"May I get out?" said Janetta, eagerly. "There is a lady lying on the +path, and some people bathing her face. Now they are lifting her up--I +am sure they ought not to lift her up in that way--oh, please, I must go +just for one minute!" And, without waiting for a reply, she stepped, out +of the victoria and sped to the side of the woman who had been hurt. + +"Very impulsive and undisciplined," said Lady Caroline to herself, as +she leaned back and held the smelling-bottle to her own delicate nose. +"I am glad I have got her out of the house so soon. Those men were wild +about her singing. Sir Philip disapproved of her presence, but he was +charmed by her voice, I could see that; and poor, dear Reginald was +positively absurd about her voice. And dear Margaret does _not_ sing so +well--it is no use pretending that she does--and Sir Philip is trembling +on the verge--oh, yes, I am sure that I have been very wise. What is +that girl doing now?" + +The victoria moved forward a little, so that Lady Caroline could obtain +a clearer view of what was going on. The vehicle which caused the +obstruction--evidently a hired fly from an inn--was uninjured, but the +horse had fallen between the shafts and would never rise again. The +occupants of the fly--a lady, and a much younger man, perhaps her +son--had got out, and the lady had then turned faint, Lady Caroline +heard, but was not in any way hurt. Janetta was kneeling by the side of +the lady--kneeling in the dust, without any regard to the freshness of +her cotton frock, by the way--and had already placed her in the right +position, and was ordering the half-dozen people who had collected to +stand back and give her air. Lady Caroline watched her movements and +gestures with placid amusement, and went so far as to send Steel with +the offer of her smelling salts; but as this offer was rejected she +felt that nothing else could be done. So she sat and looked on +critically. + +The woman--Lady Caroline was hardly inclined to call her a lady, +although she did not exactly know why--was at present of a ghastly +paleness, but her features were finely cut, and showed traces of former +beauty. Her hair was grey, with rebellious waves in it, but her eyebrows +were still dark. She was dressed in black, with a good deal of lace +about her; and on her ungloved hand Lady Caroline's keen sight enabled +her to distinguish some very handsome diamond rings. The effect of the +costume was a little spoiled by a large gaudy fan, of violent rainbow +hues, which hung at her side; and perhaps it was this article of +adornment which decided Lady Caroline in her opinion of the woman's +social status. But about the man she was equally positive in a different +way. He _was_ a gentleman: there could be no doubt of that. She put up +her eye-glass and gazed at him with interest. She almost thought that +she had seen him somewhere before. + +A handsome man, indeed, and a gentleman; but, oh, what an ill-tempered +one, apparently! He was dark, with fine features, and black hair with a +slight inclination to wave or curl (as far at least as could be judged +when the extremely well-cropped state of his head was taken into +consideration); and from these indications Lady Caroline judged him to +be "the woman's" son. He was tall, muscular, and active looking: it was +the way in which his black eyebrows were bent above his eyes which made +the observer think him ill-tempered, for his manner and his words +expressed anxiety, not anger. But that frown, which must have been +habitual, gave him a distinctly ill-humored look. + +At last the lady opened her eyes, and drank a little water, and sat up. +Janetta rose from her knees, and turned to the young man with a smile. +"She will soon be better now," she said. "I am afraid there is nothing +else that I can do--and I think I must go on." + +"I am very much obliged to you for your kind assistance," said the +gentleman, but without any abatement of the gloom of his expression. He +gave Janetta a keen look--almost a bold look--Lady Caroline thought, and +then smiled a little, not very pleasantly. "Allow me to take you to your +carriage." + +Janetta blushed, as if she were minded to say that it was not her +carriage; but returned to the victoria, and was handed to her seat by +the young man, who then raised his hat with an elaborate flourish which +was not exactly English. Indeed, it occurred to Lady Caroline at once +that there was something French about both the travelers. The lady with +the frizzled grey hair, the black lace dress and mantel, the gaudy blue +and scarlet fan, was quite foreign in appearance; the young man with the +perfectly fitting frock-coat, the tall hat, the flower in his +button-hole, was--in spite of his perfectly English accent--foreign too. +Lady Caroline was cosmopolitan enough to feel an access of greater +interest in the pair in consequence. + +"They have sent to the nearest inn for a horse," said Janetta, as the +carriage moved on; "and I dare say they will not have long to wait." + +"Was the lady hurt?" + +"No, only shaken. She is subject to fainting fits, and the accident +quite upset her nerves, her son said." + +"Her son?" + +"The gentleman called her mother." + +"Oh! You did not hear their name, I suppose?" + +"No. There was a big B on their traveling bag." + +"B--B--?" said Lady Caroline, thoughtfully. "I don't know any one in +this neighborhood whose name begins with B, except the Bevans. They must +have been merely passing through; and yet the young man's face seemed +familiar to me." + +Janetta shook her head. "I never saw them before," she said. + +"He has a very bold and unpleasant expression," Lady Caroline remarked, +decidedly. "It spoils him entirely: otherwise he is a handsome man." + +The girl made no answer. She knew, as well as Lady Caroline, that she +had been stared at in a manner that was not quite agreeable to her, and +yet she did not like to endorse that lady's condemnation of the +stranger. For he was certainly very nice-looking--and he had been so +kind to his mother that he could not be entirely bad--and to her also +his face was vaguely familiar. Could he belong to Beaminster? + +As she sat and meditated, the tall spires of Beaminster Cathedral came +into sight, and a few minutes brought the carriage across the grey +stone bridge and down the principal street of the quaint old place which +called itself a city, but was really neither more nor less than a quiet +country town. Here Lady Caroline turned to her young guest with a +question--"You live in Gwynne Street, I believe, my dear?" + +"Yes, at number ten, Gwynne Street," said Janetta, suddenly starting and +feeling a little uncomfortable. The coachman evidently knew the address +already, for at that moment he turned the horse's heads to the left, and +the carriage rolled down a narrow side-street, where the tall red brick +houses had a mean and shabby aspect, and seemed as if constructed to +keep out sun and air as much as possible. + +Janetta always felt the closeness and the shabbiness a little when she +first came home, even from school, but when she came from Helmsley Court +they struck her with redoubled force. She had never thought before how +dull the street was, nor noticed that the railings were broken down in +front of the door with the brass-plate that bore her father's name, nor +that the window-curtains were torn and the windows sadly in need of +washing. The little flight of stone steps that led from the iron gate to +the door was also very dirty; and the servant girl, whose head appeared +against the area railings as the carriage drove up, was more untidy, +more unkempt, in appearance than ever Janetta could have expected. "We +can't be rich, but we might be _clean_!" she said to herself in a +subdued frenzy of impatience, as she fancied (quite unjustly) that she +saw a faint smile pass over Lady Caroline's delicate, impassive face. "No +wonder she thinks me an unfit friend for dear Margaret. But--oh, there +is my dear, darling father! Well, nobody can say anything against him at +any rate!" And Janetta's face beamed with sudden joy as she saw Mr. +Colwyn coming down the dirty steps to the ricketty little iron gate, and +Lady Caroline, who knew the surgeon by sight, nodded to him with +friendly condescension. + +"How are you, Mr. Colwyn?" she said, graciously. "I have brought your +daughter home, you see, and I hope you will not scold her for what has +been _my_ daughter's fault--not your's." + +"I am very glad to see Janetta, under any circumstances," said Mr. +Colwyn, gravely, as he raised his hat. He was a tall spare man, in a +shabby coat, with a careworn aspect, and kindly, melancholy eyes. +Janetta noticed with a pang that his hair was greyer than it had been +when last she went back to school. + +"We shall be glad to see her again at Helmsley Court," said Lady +Caroline. "No, I won't get out, thank you. I have to get back to tea. +Your daughter's box is in front. I was to tell you from Miss +Polehampton, Mr. Colwyn, that her friend at Worthing would be glad of +Miss Colwyn's services after the holidays." + +"I am much obliged to your ladyship," said Mr. Colwyn, with grave +formality. "I am not sure that I shall let my daughter go." + +"Won't you? Oh, but she ought to have all possible advantages! And can +you tell me, Mr. Colwyn, by any chance, _who_ are the people whom we +passed on the road to Beaminster--an oldish lady in black and a young +man with very dark hair and eyes? They had B on their luggage, I +believe." + +Mr. Colwyn looked surprised. + +"I think I can tell you," he said, quietly. "They were on their way from +Beaminster to Brand Hall. The young man was a cousin of my wife's: his +name is Wyvis Brand, and the lady in black was his mother. They have +come home after an absence of nearly four-and-twenty years." + +Lady Caroline was too polite to say what she really felt--that she was +sorry to hear it. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +WYVIS BRAND. + + +On the evening of the day on which Lady Caroline drove with Janetta +Colwyn to Beaminster, the lady who had fainted by the wayside was +sitting in a rather gloomy-looking room at Brand Hall--a room known in +the household as the Blue Drawing-room. It had not the look of a +drawing-room exactly: it was paneled in oak, which had grown black with +age, as had also the great oak beams that crossed the ceiling and the +polished floor. The furniture also was of oak, and the hangings of dark +but faded blue, while the blue velvet of the chairs and the square of +Oriental carpet, in which blue tints also preponderated, did not add +cheerfulness to the scene. One or two great blue vases set on the carved +oak mantel-piece, and some smaller blue ornaments on a sideboard, +matched the furniture in tint; but it was remarkable that on a day when +country gardens were overflowing with blossom, there was not a single +flower or green leaf in any of the vases. No smaller and lighter +ornaments, no scrap of woman's handiwork--lace or embroidery--enlivened +the place: no books were set upon the table. A fire would not have been +out of season, for the evenings were chilly, and it would have had a +cheery look; but there was no attempt at cheeriness. The woman who sat +in one of the high-backed chairs was pale and sad: her folded hands lay +listlessly clasped together on her lap, and the sombre garb that she +wore was as unrelieved by any gleam of brightness as the room itself. In +the gathering gloom of a chilly summer evening, even the rings upon her +fingers could not flash. Her white face, in its setting of rough, wavy +grey hair, over which she wore a covering of black lace, looked almost +statuesque in its profound tranquillity. But it was not the tranquillity +of comfort and prosperity that had settled on that pale, worn, +high-featured face--it was rather the tranquillity that comes of +accepted sorrow and inextinguishable despair. + +She had sat thus for fully half an hour when the door was roughly +opened, and the young man whom Mr. Colwyn had named as Wyvis Brand came +lounging into the room. He had been dining, but he was not in evening +dress, and there was something unrestful and reckless in his way of +moving round the room and throwing himself in the chair nearest his +mother's, which roused Mrs. Brand's attention. She turned slightly +towards him, and became conscious at once of the fumes of wine and +strong tobacco with which her son had made her only too familiar. She +looked at him for a moment, then clasped her hands tightly together and +resumed her former position, with her sad face turned to the window. She +may have breathed a sigh as she did so, but Wyvis Brand did not hear it, +and if he had heard it, would not perhaps have very greatly cared. + +"Why do you sit in the dark?" he said at last, in a vexed tone. + +"I will ring for lights," Mrs. Brand answered quietly. + +"Do as you like: I am not going to stay: I am going out," said the young +man. + +The hand that his mother had stretched out towards the bell fell to her +side: she was a submissive woman, used to taking her son at his word. + +"You are lonely here," she ventured to remark, after a short silence: +"you will be glad when Cuthbert comes down." + +"It's a beastly hole," said her son, gloomily. "I would advise Cuthbert +to stay in Paris. What he will do with himself here, I can't imagine." + +"He is happy anywhere," said the mother, with a stifled sigh. + +Wyvis uttered a short, harsh laugh. + +"That can't be said of us, can it?" he exclaimed, putting his hand on +his mother's knee in a rough sort of caress. "We are generally in the +shadow while Cuthbert is in the sunshine, eh? The influence of this old +place makes me poetical, you see." + +"_You_ need not be in the shadow," said Mrs. Brand. But she said it with +an effort. + +"Needn't I?" said Wyvis. He thrust his hands into his pockets and leaned +back in his chair with another laugh. "I have such a lot to make me +cheerful, haven't I?" + +His mother turned her eyes upon him with a look of yearning tenderness +which, even if the room had been less dimly lighted, he would not have +seen. He was not much in the habit of looking for sympathy in other +people's faces. + +"Is the place worse than you expected?" she asked, with a tremor in her +voice. + +"It is mouldier--and smaller," he replied, curtly. "One's childish +impressions don't go for much. And it is in a miserable state--roof out +of repair--fences falling down--drainage imperfect. It has been allowed +to go to rack and ruin while we were away." + +"Wyvis, Wyvis," said his mother, in a tone of pain, "I kept you away for +your own sake. I thought you would be happier abroad." + +"Oh--happier!" said the young man, rather scornfully. "Happiness isn't +meant for me: it isn't in my line. It makes no difference to me whether +I am here or in Paris. I should have been here long ago if I had had +any idea that things were going wrong in this way." + +"I suppose," said Mrs. Brand, carefully controlling her voice, "that you +will not have the visitors you spoke of if the house is in so bad a +state." + +"Not have visitors? Of course I shall have visitors. What else is there +for me to do with myself? We shall get the house put pretty straight by +the 12th. Not that there will be any shooting worth speaking of on _my_ +place." + +"If nobody comes before the 12th, I think we can make the house +habitable. I will do my best, Wyvis." + +Wyvis laughed again, but in a softer key. "You!" he said. "You can't do +much, mother. It isn't the sort of thing you care about. You stay in +your own rooms and do your needle-work; I'll see to the house. Some men +are coming long before the 12th--the day after to-morrow, I believe." + +"Who?" + +"Oh, Dering and St. John and Ponsonby, I expect. I don't know whether +they will bring any one else." + +"The worst men of the worst set you know!" sighed his mother, under her +breath. "Could not you have left them behind?" + +She felt rather than saw how he frowned--how his hand twitched with +impatience. + +"What sort of friends am I likely to have?" he said. "Why not those that +amuse me most?" + +Then he rose and went over to the window, where he stood for some time +looking out. Turning round at last, he perceived from a slight familiar +movement of his mother's hand over her eyes that she was weeping, and it +seemed as if his heart smote him at the sight. + +"Come, mother," he said, kindly, "don't take what I say and do so much +to heart. You know I'm no good, and never shall do anything in the +world. You have Cuthbert to comfort you--" + +"Cuthbert is nothing to me--_nothing_--compared with you, Wyvis." + +The young man came to her side and put his hand on her shoulder. The +passionate tone had touched him. + +"Poor mother!" he said, softly. "You've suffered a good deal through me, +haven't you? I wish I could make you forget all the past--but perhaps +you wouldn't thank me if I could." + +"No," she said, leaning forward so as to rest her forehead against his +arm. "No. For there has been brightness in the past, but I see little +brightness in the future either for you or for me." + +"Well, that is my own fault," said Wyvis, lightly but bitterly. "If it +had not been for my own youthful folly I shouldn't be burdened as I am +now. I have no one but myself to thank." + +"Yes, yes, it was my fault. I pressed you to do it--to tie yourself for +life to the woman who has made you miserable!" said Mrs. Brand, in a +tone of despairing self-accusation. "I fancied--then--that we were doing +right." + +"I suppose we were doing right," said Wyvis Brand sternly, but not as if +the thought gave him any consolation. "It was better perhaps that I +should marry the woman whom I thought I loved--instead of leaving her or +wronging her--but I wish to God that I had never seen her face!" + +"And to think that I persuaded you into marrying her," moaned the +mother, rocking herself backward and forward in the extremity of her +regretful anguish; "I--who ought to have been wiser--who might have +interfered----" + +"You couldn't have interfered to much purpose. I was mad about her at +the time," said her son, beginning to walk about the room in a restless, +aimless manner. "I wish, mother, that you would cease to talk about the +past. It seems to me sometimes like a dream; if you would but let it lie +still, I think that I could fancy it was a dream. Remember that I do not +blame you. When I rage against the bond, I am perfectly well aware that +it was one of my own making. No remonstrance, no command would have +availed with me for a moment. I was determined to go my own way, and I +went." + +It was curious to remark that the roughness and harshness of his first +manner had dropped away from him as it did drop now and then. He spoke +with the polished utterance of an educated man. It was almost as though +he at times put on a certain boorishness of demeanor, feeling it in some +way demanded of him by circumstances--but not natural to him after all. + +"I will try not to vex you, Wyvis," said his mother, wistfully. + +"You do not vex me exactly," he answered, "but you stir my old memories +too often. I want to forget the past. Why else did I come down here, +where I have never been since I was a child? where Juliet never set +foot, and where I have no association with that miserable passage in my +life?" + +"Then why do you bring those men down, Wyvis? For _they_ know the past: +_they_ will recall old associations----" + +"They amuse me. I cannot be without companions. I do not pretend to cut +myself off from the whole world." + +As he spoke thus briefly and coldly, he stopped to strike a match, and +then lighted the wax candles that stood on the black sideboard. By this +act he meant perhaps to put a stop to the conversation of which he was +heartily tired. But Mrs. Brand, in the half-bewildered condition of mind +to which long anxiety and sorrow had reduced her, did not know the +virtue of silence, and did not possess the magic quality of tact. + +"You might find companions down here," she said, pertinaciously, "people +suited to your position--old friends of your father's, perhaps----" + +"Will they be so willing to make friends with my father's son?" Wyvis +burst out bitterly. Then, seeing from her white and stricken face that +he had hurt her, he came to her side and kissed her penitently. "Forgive +me, mother," he said, "if I say what you don't like. I've been hearing +about my father ever since I came to Beaminster two days ago. I have +heard nothing but what confirmed my previous idea about his character. +Even poor old Colwyn couldn't say any good of him. He went to the devil +as fast as ever he could go, and his son seems likely to follow in his +footsteps. That's the general opinion, and, by George, I think I shall +soon do something to justify it." + +"You need not live as your father did, Wyvis," said his mother, whose +tears were flowing fast. + +"If I don't, nobody will believe it," said the young man, moodily. +"There is no fighting against fate. The Brands are doomed, mother: we +shall die out and be forgotten--all the better for the world, too. It is +time we were done with: we are a bad lot." + +"Cuthbert is not bad. And you--Wyvis, you have your child." + +"Have I? A child that I have not seen since it was six months old! +Brought up by its mother--a woman without heart or principle or anything +that is good! Much comfort the child is likely to be to me when I get +hold of it." + +"When will that be?" said Mrs. Brand, as if speaking to herself rather +than to him. But Wyvis replied: + +"When she is tired of it--not before. I do not know where she is." + +"Does she not draw her allowance?" + +"Not regularly. And she refused her address when she last appeared at +Kirby's. I suppose she wants to keep the child away from me. She need +not trouble. The last thing I want is her brat to bring up." + +"Wyvis!" + +But to his mother's remonstrating exclamation Wyvis paid no attention in +the least: his mood was fitful, and he was glad to step out of the +ill-lighted room into the hall, and thence to the silence and solitude +of the grounds about the house. + +Brand Hall had been practically deserted for the last few years. A +tenant or two had occupied it for a little time soon after its late +master's withdrawal from the country; but the house was inconvenient and +remote from towns, and it was said, moreover, to be damp and unhealthy. +A caretaker and his wife had, therefore, been its only inhabitants of +late, and a great deal of preparation had been required to make it fit +for its owner when he at last wrote to his agents in Beaminster to +intimate his intention of settling at the Hall. + +The Brands had for many a long year been renowned as the most unlucky +family in the neighborhood. They had once possessed a great property in +the county; but gambling losses and speculation had greatly reduced +their wealth, and even in the time of Wyvis Brand's grandfather the +prestige of the family had sunk very low. In the days of Mark Brand, the +father of Wyvis, it sank lower still. Mark Brand was not only "wild," +but weak: not only weak, but wicked. His career was one of riotous +dissipation, culminating in what was generally spoken of as "a low +marriage"--with the barmaid of a Beaminster public-house. Mary Wyvis had +never been at all like the typical barmaid of fiction or real life: she +was always pale, quiet, and refined-looking, and it was not difficult to +see how she had developed into the sorrowful, careworn woman whom Wyvis +Brand called mother; but she came of a thoroughly bad stock, and was not +untouched in reputation. The county people cut Mark Brand after his +marriage, and never took any notice of his wife; and they were horrified +when he insisted on naming his eldest son after his wife's family, as if +he gloried in the lowliness of her origin. But when Wyvis was a small +boy, his father resolved that neither he nor his children should be +flouted and jeered at by county magnates any longer. He went abroad, and +remained abroad until his death, when Wyvis was twenty years of age and +Cuthbert, the younger son, was barely twelve. Some people said that the +discovery of some particularly disgraceful deed was imminent when he +left his native shores, and that it was for this reason that he had +never returned to England; but Mark Brand himself always spoke as if his +health were too weak, his nerves too delicate, to bear the rough breezes +of his own country and the brusque manners of his compatriots. He had +brought up his son according to his own ideas; and the result did not +seem entirely satisfactory. Vague rumors occasionally reached Beaminster +of scrapes and scandals in which the young Brands figured; it was said +that Wyvis was a particularly black sheep, and that he did his best to +corrupt his younger brother Cuthbert. The news that he was coming back +to Brand Hall was not received with enthusiasm by those who heard it. + +Wyvis' own story had been a sad one--perhaps more sad than scandalous; +but it was a story that the Beaminster people were never to hear aright. +Few knew it, and most of those who knew it had agreed to keep it secret. +That his wife and child were living, many persons in Paris were aware; +that they had separated was also known, but the reason of that +separation was to most persons a secret. And Wyvis, who had a great +dislike to chatterers, made up his mind when he came to Beaminster that +he would tell to nobody the history of the past few years. Had it not +been for his mother's sad face, he fancied that he could have put it out +of his mind altogether. He half resented the pertinacity with which she +seemed to brood upon it. The fact that she had forwarded--had almost +insisted upon--the unfortunate marriage, weighed heavily upon her mind. +There had been a point at which Wyvis would have given it up. But his +mother had espoused the side of the girl, persuaded the young man to +fulfill his promises to her--and repented it ever since. Mrs. Wyvis +Brand had developed an uncontrollable love for strong drink, as well as +a temper that made her at times more like a mad woman than an ordinary +human being; and when she one day disappeared from her husband's home, +carrying his child with her, and announcing in a subsequent letter that +she did not mean to return, it could hardly be wondered at if Wyvis drew +a long breath of relief, and hoped that she never would. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +JANETTA AT HOME. + + +When Lady Caroline drove away from Gwynne Street, Janetta was left by +the tumble-down iron gate with her father, in whose hand she had laid +both her own. He looked at her interrogatively, smiled a little and +said--"Well, my dear?" with a softening of his whole face which made him +positively beautiful in Janetta's eyes. + +"Dear, dearest father!" said the girl, with an irrepressible little sob. +"I am so glad to see you again!" + +"Come in, my dear," said Mr. Colwyn, who was not an emotional man, +although a sympathetic one. "We have been expecting you all day. We did +not think that they would keep you so long at the Court." + +"I'll tell you all about it when I get in," said Janetta, trying to +speak cheerily, with an instinctive remembrance of the demands usually +made upon her fortitude in her own home. "Is mamma in?" She always spoke +of the present Mrs. Colwyn, as "mamma," to distinguish her from her own +mother. "I don't see any of the children." + +"Frightened away by the grand carriage, I expect," said Mr. Colwyn, with +a grim smile. "I see a head or two at the window. Here, Joey, Georgie, +Tiny--where are you all? Come and help to carry your sister's things +upstairs." He went to the front door and called again; whereupon a side +door opened, and from it issued a slip-shod, untidy-looking woman in a +shawl, while over her shoulder and under her arm appeared a little +troop of children in various stages of growth and untidiness. Mrs. +Colwyn had the peculiarity of never being ready for any engagement, much +less for any emergency: she had been expecting Janetta all day, and with +Janetta some of the Court party; but she was nevertheless in a state of +semi-undress, which she tried to conceal underneath her shawl; and on +the first intimation of the approach of Lady Caroline's carriage she had +shut herself and the children into a back room, and declared her +intention of fainting on the spot if Lady Caroline entered the front +door. + +"Well, Janetta," she said, as she advanced towards her stepdaughter and +presented one faded cheek to be kissed, "so your grand friends have +brought you home! Of course they wouldn't come in; I did not expect +them, I am sure. Come into the front room--and children, don't crowd so; +your sister will speak to you by-and-bye." + +"Oh, no, let me kiss them now," said Janetta, who was receiving a series +of affectionate hugs that went far to blind her eyes to the general +deficiency of orderliness and beauty in the house to which she had come. +"Oh, darlings, I am so glad to see you again! Joey, how you have grown! +And Tiny isn't Tiny any longer! Georgie, you have been plaiting your +hair! And here are Curly and Jinks! But where is Nora?" + +"Upstairs, curling her hair," shouted the child who was known by the +name of Jinks. While Georgie, a well-grown girl of thirteen, added in a +lower tone, + +"She would not come down until the Court people had gone. She said _she_ +didn't want to be patronized." + +Janetta colored, and turned away. Meanwhile Mrs. Colwyn had dropped into +the nearest arm-chair, and Mr. Colwyn strayed in and out of the room +with the expression of a dog that has lost its master. Georgie hung upon +Janetta's arm, and the younger children either clung to their elder +sister, or stared at her with round eyes and their fingers in their +mouths. Janetta felt uncomfortably conscious of being more than usually +interesting to them all. Joe, the eldest boy, a dusty lad of fourteen, +all legs and arms, favored her with a broad grin expressive of delight, +which his sister did not understand. It was Tiny, the most gentle and +delicate of the tribe, who let in a little light on the subject. + +"Did they send you away from school for being naughty?" she asked, with +a grave look into Janetta's face. + +A chuckle from Joey, and a giggle from Georgie, were instantly repressed +by Mr. Colwyn's frown and Mrs. Colwyn's acid remonstrance. + +"What are you thinking of, children? Sister is never naughty. We do not +yet quite understand why she has left Miss Polehampton's so suddenly, +but of course she has some good reason. She'll explain it, no doubt, to +her papa and me. Miss Polehampton has been a great deal put out about it +all, and has written a long letter to your papa, Janetta; and, indeed, +it seems to _me_ as if it would have been more becoming if you had kept +to your own place and not tried to make friends with those above +you----" + +"Who are those above her, I should like to know?" broke in the +grey-haired surgeon with some heat. "My Janet's as good as the best of +them any day. The Adairs are not such grand people as Miss Polehampton +makes out--I never heard of such insulting distinctions!" + +"Fancy Janetta being sent away--regularly expelled!" muttered Joey, with +another chuckle. + +"You are very unkind to talk in that way!" said Janetta, addressing him, +because at that moment she could not bear to look at Mr. Colwyn. "It was +not _that_ that made Miss Polehampton angry. It was what she called +insubordination. Miss Adair did not like to see me having meals at a +side-table--though I didn't mind one single bit!--and she left her own +place and sat by me--and then Miss Polehampton was vexed--and everything +followed naturally. It was not just my being friends with Miss Adair +that made her send me away." + +"It seems to me," said Mr. Colwyn, "that Miss Adair was very +inconsiderate." + +"It was all her love and friendship, father," pleaded Janetta. "And she +had always had her own way; and of course she did not think that Miss +Polehampton really meant----" + +Her weak little excuses were cut short by a scornful laugh from her +stepmother. + +"It's easy to see that you have been made a cat's-paw of, Janetta," she +said. "Miss Adair was tired of school, and took the opportunity of +making a to-do about you, so as to provoke the schoolmistress and get +sent away. It does not matter to her, of course: _she_ hasn't got her +living to earn. And if you lose your teaching, and Miss Polehampton's +recommendations by it, it doesn't affect her. Oh, I understand these +fine ladies and their ways." + +"Indeed," said Janetta, in distress, "you quite misunderstand Miss +Adair, mamma. Besides, it has not deprived me of my teaching: Miss +Polehampton had told me that I might go to her sister's school at +Worthing if I liked; and she only let me go yesterday because she became +irritated at--at--some of the things that were said----" + +"Yes, but I shall not let you go to Worthing," said Mr. Colwyn, with +sudden decisiveness. "You shall not be exposed to insolence of this kind +any longer. Miss Polehampton had no right to treat you as she did, and I +shall write and tell her so." + +"And if Janetta stays at home," said his wife complainingly, "what is to +become of her career as a music-teacher? She can't get lessons here, and +there's the expense----" + +"I hope I can afford to keep my daughter as long as I am alive," said +Mr. Colwyn with some vehemence. "There, don't be vexed, my dear child," +and he laid his hand tenderly on Janetta's shoulder, "nobody blames you; +and your friend erred perhaps from over-affection; but Miss +Polehampton"--with energy--"is a vulgar, self-seeking, foolish old +woman, and I won't have you enter into relations with her again." + +And then he left the room, and Janetta, forcing back the tears in her +eyes, did her best to smile when Georgie and Tiny hugged her +simultaneously and Jinks beat a tattoo upon her knee. + +"Well," said Mrs. Colwyn, lugubriously, "I hope everything will turn out +for the best; but it is not at all nice, Janetta, to think that Miss +Adair has been expelled for your sake, or that you are thrown out of +work without a character, so to speak. I should think the Adairs would +see that, and would make some compensation. If they don't offer to do +so, your papa might suggest it----" + +"I'm sure father would never suggest anything of the kind," Janetta +flashed out; but before Mrs. Colwyn could protest, a diversion was +effected by the entrance of the missing Nora, and all discussion was +postponed to a more fitting moment. + +For to look at Nora was to forget discussion. She was the eldest of the +second Mrs. Colwyn's children--a girl just seventeen, taller than +Janetta and thinner, with the thinness of immature girlhood, but with a +fair skin and a mop of golden-brown hair, which curled so naturally that +her younger brother's statement concerning those fair locks must surely +have been a libel. She had a vivacious, narrow, little face, with large +eyes like a child's--that is to say, they had the transparent look that +one sees in some children's eyes, as if the color had been laid on in a +single wash without any shadows. They were very pretty eyes, and gave +light and expression to a set of rather small features, which might have +been insignificant if they had belonged to an insignificant person. But +Nora Colwyn was anything but insignificant. + +"Have your fine friends gone?" she said, peeping into the room in +pretended alarm. "Then I may come in. How are you, Janetta, after your +sojourn in the halls of dazzling light?" + +"Don't be absurd, Nora," said her sister, with a sudden backward dart of +remembrance to the tranquil beauty of the rooms at Helmsley Court and +the silver accents of Lady Caroline. "Why didn't you come down before?" + +"My dear, I thought the nobility and gentry were blocking the door," +said Nora, kissing her. "But since they are gone, you might as well come +upstairs with me and take off your things. Then we can have tea." + +Obediently Janetta followed her sister to the little room which they +always shared when Janetta was at home. It might have looked very bare +and desolate to ordinary eyes, but the girl felt the thrill of pleasure +that all young creatures feel to anything that bears the name of home, +and became aware of a satisfaction such as she had not experienced in +her luxurious bedroom at Helmsley Court. Nora helped her to take off her +hat and cloak, and to unpack her box, insisting meanwhile on a detailed +relation of all the events that had led to Janetta's return three weeks +before the end of the term, and shrieking with laughter over what she +called "Miss Poley's defeat." + +"But, seriously, Nora, what shall I do with myself, if father will not +let me go to Worthing?" + +"Teach the children at home," said Nora, briskly; "and save me the +trouble of looking after them. I should like that. Or get some pupils in +the town. Surely the Adairs will recommend you!" + +This constant reference to possible aid from the Adairs troubled Janetta +not a little, and it was with some notion of combatting the idea that +she repaired to the surgery after tea, in order to get a few words on +the subject with her father. But his first remark was on quite a +different matter. + +"Here's a pretty kettle of fish, Janet! The Brands are back again!" + +"So I heard you say to Lady Caroline." + +"Mark Brand was a cousin of your mother's," said Mr. Colwyn, abruptly; +"and a bad lot. As for these sons of his, I know nothing about +them--absolutely nothing. But their mother----" he shook his head +significantly. + +"We saw them to day," said Janetta. + +"Ah, an accident of that kind would be a shock to her: she does not look +strong. They wrote to me from the 'Clown,' where they had stayed for the +last two days; some question relative to the drainage of Brand Hall. I +went to the 'Crown' and saw them. He's a fine-looking man." + +"He has not altogether a pleasant expression," remarked Janetta, +thinking of Lady Caroline's strictures; "but I--liked--his face." + +"He looks ill-tempered," said her father. "And I can't say that he +showed me much civility. He did not even know that your poor mother was +dead. Never asked whether she had left any family or anything." + +"Did you tell him?" asked Janetta, after a pause. + +"No. I did not think it worth while. I am not anxious to cultivate his +acquaintance." + +"After all, what does it matter?" said the girl coaxingly, for she +thought she saw a shadow of disappointment upon his face. + +"No, what does it matter?" said her father, brightening up at once. "As +long as we are happy with each other, these outside people need not +disturb us, need they?" + +"Not a bit," said Janetta. "And--you are not angry with me, are you, +father, dear?" + +"Why should I be, my Janet? You have done nothing wrong that I know of. +If there is any blame it attaches to Miss Adair, not to you." + +"But I do not want you to think so, father. Miss Adair is the greatest +friend that I have in all the world." + +And she found a good many opportunities of repeating; this conviction of +hers during the next few days, for Mrs. Colwyn and Nora were not slow to +repeat the sentiment with which they had greeted her--that the Adairs +were "stuck-up" fine people, and that they did not mean to take any +further notice of her now that they had got what they desired. + +Janetta stood up gallantly for her friend, but she did feel it a little +hard that Margaret had not written or come to see her since her return +home. She conjectured--and in the conjecture she was nearly right--that +Lady Caroline had sacrificed her a little in order to smooth over things +with her daughter: that she had represented Janetta as resolved upon +going, resolved upon neglecting Margaret and not complying with her +requests; and that Margaret was a little offended with her in +consequence. She wrote an affectionate note of excuse to her friend, but +Margaret made no reply. + +In the first ardor of a youthful friendship, Janetta's heart ached over +this silence, and she meditated much as she lay nights upon her little +white bed in Nora's attic (for she had not time to meditate during the +day) upon the smoothness of life which seemed necessary to the Adairs +and the means they took for securing it. On the whole, their life seemed +to her too artificial, too much like the life of delicate hot-house +flowers under glass; and she came to the conclusion that she preferred +her own mode of existence--troublous and hurried and common as it might +seem in the eyes of the world to be. After all, was it not pleasant to +know that while she was at home, there was a little more comfort than +usual for her over-worked, hardly-driven, careworn father; she could see +that his meals were properly cooked and served when he came in from long +and weary expeditions into the country or amongst the poor of +Beaminster; she could help Joey and Georgie in the evenings with their +respective lessons; she could teach and care for the younger children +all day long. To her stepmother she did not feel that she was very +useful; but she could at any rate make new caps for her, new lace +fichus and bows, which caused Mrs. Colwyn occasionally to remark with +some complacency that Janetta had been quite _wasted_ at Miss +Polehampton's school: her proper destiny was evidently to be a milliner. + +Nora was the one person of the family who did not seem to want Janetta's +help. Indirectly, however, the elder sister was more useful to her than +she knew; for the two went out together and were companions. Hitherto +Nora had walked alone, and had made one or two undesirable girl +acquaintances. But these were dropped when she had Janetta to talk to, +dropped quietly, without a word, much to their indignation, and without +Janetta's knowing of their existence. + +It became a common thing for the two girls to go out together in the +long summer evenings, when the work of the day was over, and stroll +along the country roads, or venture into the cool shadow of the +Beaminster woods. Sometimes the children went with them: sometimes +Janetta and Nora went alone. And it was when they were alone one evening +that a somewhat unexpected incident came to pass. + +The Beaminster woods ran for some distance in a northerly direction +beyond Beaminster, and there was a point where only a wire fence divided +them from the grounds of Brand Hall. Near this fence Janetta and her +sister found themselves one evening--not that they had purposed to reach +the boundary, but that they had strayed a little from the beaten path. +As they neared the fence they looked at each other and laughed. + +"I did not know that we were so near the lordly dwelling of your +relations!" said Nora, who loved to tease, and knew that she could +always rouse Janetta's indignation by a reference to her "fine friends." + +"I did not know either," returned Janetta, good-humoredly. "We can see +the house a little. Look at the great red chimneys." + +"I have been over it," said Nora, contemptuously. "It's a poor little +place, after all--saving your presence, Netta! I wonder if the Brands +mean to acknowledge your existence? They----" + +She stopped short, for her foot had caught on something, and she nearly +stumbled. Janetta stopped also, and the two sisters uttered a sudden +cry of surprise. For what Nora had stumbled over was a wooden horse--a +child's broken toy--and deep in the bracken before them, with one hand +beneath his flushed and dimpled cheek, there lay the loveliest of all +objects--a sleeping child. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +NORA'S NEW ACQUAINTANCE. + + +"He must have lost his way," said Janetta, bending over him. "Poor +little fellow!" + +"He's a pretty little boy," said Nora, carelessly. "His nurse or his +mother or somebody will be near, I dare say--perhaps gone up to the +house. Shall I look about?" + +"Wait a minute--he is awake--he will tell us who he is." + +The child, roused by the sound of voices, turned a little, stretched +himself, then opened his great dark eyes, and fixed them full on +Janetta's face. What he saw there must have reassured him, for a dreamy +smile came to his lips, and he stretched out his little hands to her. + +"You darling!" cried Janetta. "Where did you come from, dear? What is +your name?" + +The boy raised himself and looked about him. He looked about five years +old, and was a remarkably fine and handsome child. It was in perfectly +clear and distinct English--almost free from any trace of baby +dialect--that he replied-- + +"Mammy brought me. She said I should find my father here. I don't want +my father," he remarked, decidedly. + +"Who is your father? What is your name?" Nora asked. + +"My name is Julian Wyvis Brand," said the little fellow, sturdily; "and +I want to know where my father lives, if you please, 'cause it'll soon +be my bed-time, and I'm getting very hungry." + +Janetta and her sister exchanged glances. + +"Is your father's name Wyvis Brand, too?" asked Janetta. + +"Yes, same as mine," said the boy, nodding. He stood erect now, and she +noticed that his clothes, originally of fashionable cut and costly +material, were torn and stained and shabby. He had a little bundle +beside him, tied up in a gaudy shawl; and the broken toy-horse seemed to +have fallen out of it. + +"But where is your mother?" + +"Mammy's gone away. She told me to go and find my father at the big red +house there. I did go once; but they thought I was a beggar, and they +sent me away. I don't know what to do, I don't. I wish mammy would +come." + +"Will she come soon?" + +"She said no. Never, never, never. She's gone over the sea again," said +the boy, with the abstracted, meditative look which children sometimes +assume when they are concocting a romance, and which Janetta was quick +to remark. "I think she's gone right off to America or London. But she +said that I was to tell my father that she would never come back." + +"What are we to do?" said Nora, in an under tone. + +"We must take him to Brand Hall," Janetta answered, "and ask to see +either Mrs. Brand or Mr. Wyvis Brand." + +"Won't it be rather dreadful?" + +Janetta turned hastily on her sister. "Yes," she said, with decision, +"it is very awkward, indeed, and it may be much better that you should +not be mixed up in the matter at all. You must stay here while I go up +to the house." + +"But, Janetta, wouldn't you rather have some one with you?" + +"I think it will be easier alone," Janetta answered. "You see, I have +seen Mrs. Brand and her son already, and I feel as if I knew what they +would be like. Wait for me here: I daresay I shall not be ten minutes. +Come, dear, will you go with me to see if we can find your father?" + +"Yes," said the boy, promptly putting his hand in hers. + +"Are these your things in the bundle?" + +"Yes; mammy put them there. There's my Sunday suit, and my book of +'Jack, the Giantkiller,' you know. And my wooden horse; but it's broke. +Will you carry the horse for me?--and I'll carry the bundle." + +"Isn't it too heavy for you?" + +"Not a bit," and the little fellow grasped it by both bands, and swung +it about triumphantly. + +"Come along, then," said Janetta, with a smile. "Wait for me here, Nora, +dear: I shall then find you easily when I come back." + +She marched off, the boy stumping after her with his burden. Nora +noticed that after a few minutes' walk her sister gently relieved him of +the load and carried it herself. + +"Just like Janetta," she soliloquized, as the two figures disappeared +behind a clump of tall trees; "she was afraid of spoiling the moral if +she did not let him _try_ at least to carry the bundle. She always is +afraid of spoiling the moral: I never knew such a conscientious person +in my life. I am sure, as mamma says, she sets an excellent example." + +And then Nora balanced herself on the loose wire of the fence, which +made an excellent swing, and poising herself upon it she took off her +hat, and resigned herself to waiting for Janetta's return. Naturally, +perhaps, her meditations turned upon Janetta's character. + +"I wish I were like her," she said to herself. "Wherever she is she +seems to find work to do, and makes herself necessary and useful. Now, I +am of no use to anybody. I don't think I was ever meant to be of use. I +was meant to be ornamental!" She struck the wire with the point of her +little shoe, and looked at it regretfully. "I have no talent, mamma +says. I can look nice, I believe, and that is all. If I were Margaret +Adair I am sure I should be very much admired! But being only Nora +Colwyn, the doctor's daughter, I must mend socks and make puddings, and +eat cold mutton and wear old frocks to the end of the chapter! What a +mercy I am taller than Janetta! My old dresses are cut down for her, but +she can't leave me _her_ cast-off ones. That little wretch, Georgie, +will soon be as tall as I am, I believe. Thank goodness, she will never +be as pretty." And Miss Nora, who was really excessively vain, drew out +of her pocket a small looking-glass, and began studying her features as +therein reflected: first her eyes, when she pulled out her eyelashes and +stroked her eyebrows; then her nose, which she pinched a little to make +longer; then her mouth, of which she bit the lips in order to increase +the color and judge of the effect. Then she took some geranium petals +from the flowers in her belt and rubbed them on her cheeks: the red +stain became her mightily, she thought, and was almost as good as rouge. + +Thus engaged, she did not hear steps on the pathway by which she and +Janetta had come. A man, young and slim, with a stoop and a slight halt +in his walk, with bright, curling hair, worn rather longer than +Englishmen usually wear it, with thin but expressive features, and very +brilliant blue eyes--this was the personage who now appeared upon the +scene. He stopped short rather suddenly when he became aware of the +presence of a young lady upon the fence--perhaps it was to him a +somewhat startling one: then, when he noted how she was engaged, a smile +broke gradually over his countenance. He once made a movement to +advance, then restrained himself and waited; but some involuntary rustle +of the branches above him or twigs under his feet revealed him. Nora +gave a little involuntary cry, dropped her looking-glass, and colored +crimson with vexation at finding that some one was watching her. + +"What ought I to do, I wonder?" Such was the thought that flashed +through the young man's mind. He was remarkably quick in receiving +impressions and in drawing conclusions. "She is not a French girl, thank +goodness, fresh from a convent, and afraid to open her lips! Neither is +she the conventional young English lady, or she would not sit on a fence +and look at herself in a pocket looking-glass. At least, I suppose she +would not: how should I know what English girls would do? At any rate, +here goes for addressing her." + +All these ideas passed through his mind in the course of the second or +two which elapsed while he courteously raised his hat, and advanced to +pick up the fallen hand-glass. But Nora was too quick for him. She had +slipped off the fence and secured her mirror before he could reach it; +and then, with a look of quite unnecessary scorn and anger, she almost +turned her back upon him, and stood looking at the one angle of the +house which she could see. + +The young man brushed his moustache to conceal a smile, and ventured on +the remark that he had been waiting to make. + +"I beg your pardon; I trust that I did not startle you." + +"Not at all," said Nora, with dignity. But she did not turn round. + +"If you are looking for the gate into the grounds," he resumed, with +great considerateness of manner, "you will find it about twenty yards +further to your left. Can I have the pleasure of showing you the way?" + +"No, thank you," said Miss Nora, very ungraciously. "I am waiting for my +sister." She felt that some explanation was necessary to account for the +fact that she did not immediately walk away. + +"Oh, I beg your pardon," said the young man once more, but this time in +a rather disappointed tone. Then, brightening--"But if your sister has +gone up to our house why won't you come in too?" + +"_Your_ house?" said Nora, unceremoniously, and facing him with an air +of fearless incredulity, which amused him immensely. "But _you_ are not +Mr. Brand?" + +"My name is Brand," said the young fellow, smiling the sunniest smile in +the world, and again raising his hat, with what Nora now noticed to be a +rather foreign kind of grace: "and if you know it, I feel that it is +honored already." + +Nora knitted her brows. "I don't know what you mean," she said, +impatiently, "but you are not Mr. Brand of the Hall, are you?" + +"I live at the Hall, certainly, and my name is Brand--Cuthbert Brand, at +your service." + +"Oh, I see. Not Wyvis Brand?" said Nora impulsively. "Not the father of +the dear little boy that we found here just now?" + +Cuthbert Brand's fair face colored. He looked excessively surprised. + +"The father--a little boy? I am afraid," he said, with some +embarrassment of manner, "that I do not exactly know what you mean----" + +"It is just this," said Nora, losing her contemptuous manner and coming +closer to the speaker; "when my sister and I were walking this way we +saw a little boy lying here fast asleep. He woke up and told us that his +name was Julian Wyvis Brand, and that his mother had left him here, and +told him to find his father, who lived at that red house." + +"Good heavens! And the woman--what became of her?" + +"The boy said she had gone away and would not come back." + +"I trust she may not," muttered Cuthbert angrily to himself. A red +flush colored his brow as he went on. "My brother's wife," he said +formally, "is not--at present--on very friendly terms with him; we did +not know that she intended to bring the child home in this manner: we +thought that she desired to keep it--where is the boy, by the way?" + +"My sister has taken him up to the Hall. She said that she would see Mr. +Brand." + +Cuthbert raised his eyebrows. "See my brother?" he repeated as if +involuntarily. "My brother!" + +"She is his second cousin, you know: I suppose that gives her courage," +said Nora smiling at the tone of horror which she fancied must be +simulated for the occasion. But Cuthbert was in earnest--he knew Wyvis +Brand's temper too well to anticipate anything but a rough reception for +any one who seemed inclined to meddle with his private affairs. And if +Nora's sister were like herself! For Nora did not look like a person who +would bear roughness or rudeness from any one. + +"Then are you my cousin, too?" he asked, suddenly struck by an idea that +sent a gleam of pleasure to his eye. + +"Oh, no," said Nora, demurely. "I'm no relation. It is only Janetta--her +mother was Mr. Brand's father's cousin. But that was not my +mother--Janetta and I are stepsisters." + +"Surely that makes a relationship, however," said Cuthbert, +courageously. "If your stepsister is my second cousin, you must be a +sort of step-second-cousin to me. Will you not condescend to acknowledge +the connection?" + +"Isn't the condescension all on your side?" said Nora coolly. "It may be +a connection, but it certainly isn't a relationship." + +"I am only too glad to hear you call it a connection," said Cuthbert, +with gravity. And then the two laughed--Nora rather against her +will--Cuthbert out of amusement at the situation, and both out of sheer +light-heartedness. And when they had laughed the ice seemed to be +broken, and they felt as if they were old friends. + +"I did not know that any of our relations were living in Beaminster," he +resumed, after a moment's pause. + +"I suppose you never even heard our name," said Nora, saucily. + +"I don't--know----" he began, in some confusion. + +"Of course you don't. Your father had a cousin and she married a +doctor--a poor country surgeon, and so of course you forgot all about +her existence. She was not _my_ mother, so I can speak out, you know. +Your father never spoke to her again after she married _my_ father." + +"More shame to him! I remember now. Your father is James Colwyn." + +Nora nodded. "I think it was a very great shame," she said. + +"And so do I," said Cuthbert, heartily. + +"It was all the worse," Nora went on, quite forgetting in her eagerness +whom she was talking to, "because Mr. Brand was not himself so very much +thought of, you know--people did not think--oh, I forgot! I beg your +pardon!" she suddenly ejaculated, turning crimson as she remembered that +the man to whom she was speaking was the son of the much-abused Mr. +Brand, who had been considered the black sheep of the county. + +"Don't apologize, pray," said Cuthbert, lightly. "I'm quite accustomed +to hearing my relations spoken ill of. What was it that people did not +think?" + +"Oh," said Nora, now covered with confusion, "of course I could not tell +you." + +"It was so very bad, was it?" said the young man, laughing. "You need +not be afraid. Really and seriously, I have been told that my poor +father was not very popular about here, and I don't much wonder at it, +for although he was a good father to us he was rather short in manner, +and, perhaps, I may add, in temper. Wyvis is like him exactly, I +believe." + +"And are you?" asked Nora. + +Cuthbert raised his hat and gave it a tremendous flourish. +"Mademoiselle, I have not that honor," he replied. + +"I suppose I ought not to have asked," said Nora to herself, but this +time she restrained herself and did not say it aloud. "I wonder where +Janetta is?" she murmured after a moment's silence. "I did not think +that she would be so long." + +If Cuthbert thought the remark ungracious, as he might well have done, +he made no sign of discomfiture. "Can I do anything?" he asked. "Shall I +go to the house and find out whether she has seen my brother? But then I +shall have to leave you." + +"Oh, that doesn't matter," said Nora, innocently. + +"Doesn't it? But I hardly like the idea of leaving you all alone. There +might be tramps about. If you are like all the other young ladies I have +known, you will have an objection to tramps." + +"I am sure," said Nora, with confidence, "that I am not at all like the +other young ladies you know; but at the same time I must confess that I +don't like tramps." + +"I knew it. And I saw a tramp--I am sure I did--a little while ago in +this very wood. He was ragged and dirty, but picturesque. I sketched +him, but I think he would not be a pleasant companion for you." + +"Do you sketch?" said Nora quickly. + +"Oh, yes, I sketch a little," he answered in a careless sort of way--for +what was the use of telling this little girl that his pictures had been +hung in the Salon and the Academy, or that he had hopes of one day +rising to fame and fortune in his recently adopted profession? He was +not given to boasting of his own success, and besides, this child--with +her saucy face and guileless eyes--would not understand either his +ambitions or his achievements. + +But Nora's one talent was for drawing, and although the instruction she +had received was by no means of the best, she had good taste and a great +desire to improve her skill. So Cuthbert's admission excited her +interest at once. + +"Have you been sketching now?" she asked. "Oh, do let me see what you +have done?" + +Cuthbert's portfolio was under his arm. He laughed, hesitated, then +dropped on one knee beside her and began to exhibit his sketches. It was +thus--side by side, with heads very close together--that Janetta, much +to her amazement, found them on her return. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FATHER AND CHILD. + + +Janetta had set off on her expedition to Brand Hall out of an impulse of +mingled pity and indignation--pity for the little boy, indignation +against the mother who could desert him, perhaps against the father +too. This feeling prevented her from realizing all at once the difficult +position in which she was now placing herself; the awkwardness in which +she would be involved if Mr. Brand declared that he knew nothing of the +child, or would have nothing to do with it. "In that case," she said to +herself, with an admiring glance at the lovely little boy, "I shall have +to adopt him, I think! I wonder what poor mamma would say!" + +She found her way without difficulty to the front-door of the long, low, +rambling red house which was dignified by the name of Brand Hall. The +place had a desolate look still, in spite of its being inhabited. +Scarcely a window was open, and no white blinds or pretty curtains could +be seen at the casements. The door was also shut; and as it was one of +those wide oaken doors, mantled with creepers, and flanked with seats, +which look as if they should always stand hospitably open, it gave the +stranger a sense of coldness and aloofness to stand before it. And, +also, there was neither bell nor a knocker--a fact which showed that few +visitors ever made their appearance at Brand Hall. Janetta looked about +her in dismay, and then tapped at the door with her fingers, while the +child followed her every movement with his great wondering eyes, and +finally said, gravely-- + +"I think they have all gone to sleep in this house, like the people in +the 'Sleeping Beauty' story." + +"Then you must be the Fairy Prince to wake them all up," said Janetta, +laughingly. + +The boy looked at her as if he understood; then, suddenly stooping, he +picked up a fallen stick and proceeded to give the door several smart +raps upon its oaken panels. + +This summons procured a response. The door was opened, after a good deal +of ineffectual fumbling at bolts and rattling of chains, by an old, +white-haired serving man, who looked as if he had stepped out of the +story to which Julian had alluded. He was very deaf, and it was some +time before Janetta could make him understand that she wanted to see +Mrs. Brand. Evidently Mrs. Brand was not in the habit of receiving +visitors. At last he conducted her to the dark little drawing-room where +the mistress of the house usually sat, and here Janetta was received by +the pale, grey-haired woman whom she had seen fainting on the +Beaminster road. It was curious to notice the agitation of this elderly +lady on Janetta's appearance. She stood up, crushed her handkerchief +between her trembling fingers, took a step towards her visitor, and then +stood still, looking at her with such extraordinary anxiety that Janetta +was quite confused and puzzled by it. Seeing that her hostess could not +in any way assist her out of her difficulty, she faced it boldly by +introducing herself. + +"My name is Janetta Colwyn," she began. "I believe that my mother was a +relation of Mr. Brand's--a cousin----" + +"Yes, a first cousin," said Mrs. Brand, nervously. "I often heard him +speak of her--I never saw her----" + +She paused, looked suspiciously at Janetta, and colored all over her +thin face. Janetta paused also, being taken somewhat by surprise. + +"No, I don't suppose you ever saw her," she said, "but then you went +abroad, and my dear mother died soon after I was born. Otherwise, I +daresay you would have known her." + +Mrs. Brand gave her a strange look. "You think so?" she said. "But +no--you are wrong: she always looked down on me. She never would have +been friendly with me if she had lived." + +"Indeed," said Janetta, very much astonished. "I always heard that it +was the other way--that Mr. Brand was angry with _her_ for marrying a +poor country surgeon, and would not speak to her again." + +"That is what they may have said to you. But you were too young to be +told the truth," said the sad-faced woman, beginning to tremble all over +as she spoke. "No, your mother would not have been friends with me. I +was not her equal--and she knew I was not." + +"Oh, indeed, you make a mistake: I am sure you do," cried Janetta, +becoming genuinely distressed as this view of her mother's character and +conduct was fixed upon her. "My mother was always gentle and kind, they +tell me; I am sure she would have been your friend--as I will be, if you +will let me." She held out her hands and drew those of the trembling +woman into her warm young clasp. "I am a cousin too," she said, blushing +a little as she asserted herself in this way, "and I hope you will let +me come to see you sometimes and make you less lonely." + +"I am always lonely, and I always shall be lonely to the end of time," +said Mrs. Brand, slowly and bitterly. "However"--with an evident attempt +to recover her self-possession--"I shall always be pleased to see you. +Did--did--your father send you here to-night?" + +"No," said Janetta, remembering her errand. "He does not know----" + +"Does not know?" The pale woman again looked distressed. "Oh," she said, +turning away with a sigh and biting her lip, "then I shall not see you +again." + +"Indeed you will," said Janetta, warmly. "My father would never keep me +away from any one who wanted me--and one of my mother's relations too. +But I came to-night because I found this dear little boy outside your +grounds. He tells me that his name is Julian Wyvis Brand, and that he is +your son's little boy." + +For the first time Mrs. Brand turned her eyes upon the child. Hitherto +she had not noticed him much, evidently thinking that he belonged to +Janetta, and was also a visitor. But when she saw the boy's sweet little +face and large dark eyes, she turned pale, and made a gesture as of +warning or dislike. + +"Take him away! take him away," she said. "Yes, I can see that it is +_her_ child--and his child too. She must be here too, and she has been +the ruin of my boy's life!" And then she sank into a chair and burst +into an agony of tears. + +Janetta felt, with an inexpressible pang, that she had set foot in the +midst of some domestic tragedy, the like of which had never come within +her ken before. She was conscious of a little recoil from it, such as is +natural to a young girl who has not learnt by experience the meaning of +sorrow; but the recoil was followed by a rush of that sympathy for which +she had always shown a great capacity. Her instinct led her instantly to +comfort and console. She knelt down beside the weeping woman and put one +arm round her, drawing the little boy forward with her left hand as she +spoke. + +"Oh, don't cry--don't cry!" she murmured. "He has come to be a joy and a +comfort to you, and he wants you to love him too." + +"Won't you love me, grandmamma?" said the sweet childish voice. And +Julian laid his hand on the poor woman's shaking knee. "Don't cry, +grandmamma." + +It was this scene which met the eyes of Wyvis Brand when he turned the +handle of the drawing-room door and walked into the room. His mother +weeping, with a child before her, and a dark-haired girl on her knees +with one arm round the weeping woman and one round the lovely child. It +was a pretty picture, and Wyvis Brand was not insensible to its beauty. + +He stood, looking prom one to another of the group. + +"What does all this mean?" he asked, in somewhat harsh tones. + +His mother cried aloud and caught the child to her breast. + +"Oh, Wyvis, be kind--be merciful," she gasped. "This is your child--your +child. You will not drive him away. She has left him at our door." + +Wyvis walked into the room, shut the door behind him, and leaned against +it. + +"Upon my word," he said, sarcastically, "you will give this lady--whose +name I haven't the pleasure of knowing--a very fine idea of our domestic +relations. I am not such a brute, I hope, as to drive away my own child +from my door; but I certainly should like to know first whether it is my +child; and more particularly whether it is my son and heir, as I have no +doubt that this young gentleman is endeavoring to persuade you. Did +_you_ bring the child here?" he said, turning sharply to Janetta. + +"I brought him into the house, certainly," she said, rising from her +knees and facing him. "I found him outside your fence; and he told me +that his name was Julian Wyvis Brand." + +"Pretty evidence," said Mr. Brand, very rudely, as Janetta thought. "Who +can tell whether the child is not some beggar's brat that has nothing to +do with me?" + +"Don't you know your own little boy when you see him?" Janetta demanded, +indignantly. + +"Not I. I have not set eyes on him since he was a baby. Turn round, +youngster, and let me have a look at you." + +The child faced him instantly, much as Janetta herself had done. There +was a fearless look in the baby face, an innocent, guileless courage in +the large dark eyes, which must surely, thought Janetta, touch a +father's heart. But Wyvis Brand looked as if it would take a great deal +to move him. + +"Where do you come from?" said Mr. Brand, sternly. + +"From over the sea." + +"That's no answer. Where from?--what place?" + +The boy looked at him without answering. + +"Are you dumb?" said Wyvis Brand, harshly. "Or have you not been taught +what to say to that question? Where do you come from, I say?" + +Mrs. Brand murmured an inarticulate remonstrance; Janetta's eyes flashed +an indignant protest. Both women thought that the boy would be dismayed +and frightened. But he, standing steady and erect, did not flinch. His +color rose and his hands clenched themselves at his side, but he did not +take his eyes from his father's face as he replied. + +"I come with mammy from Paris." + +"And pray where is your mother?" + +"Gone back again. She told me to find my father. Are you my father?" +said the child, with the utmost fearlessness. + +"What is your name?" asked Wyvis, utterly disregarding the question. + +"Julian Wyvis Brand." + +"He's got the name pat enough," said Wyvis, with a sardonic laugh. +"Well, where did you live in Paris? What sort of a house had you?" + +"It was near the church," said the little boy, gravely. "The church with +the big pillars round it. There was a bonnet shop under our rooms, and +the rooms were all pink and white and gold--prettier than this," he +said, wistfully surveying the gloomy room in which he stood. + +"And who took care of you when your mother was out?" asked Mr. Brand. +Even Janetta could see, by the swift, subtle change that had passed over +his face, that he recognized the description of the room. + +"Susan. She was my nurse and mammy's maid as well. She was English." + +The man nodded and set his lips. "He knows what to say," he remarked. + +"Oh, Wyvis!" exclaimed his mother, as if she could repress her feelings +no longer; "don't you see how like he is to you!--don't you _feel_ that +he is your own child?" + +"I confess the paternal feelings are not very strong in me," said her +son, dryly, "but I have a fancy the boy is mine for all that. Haven't +you a letter or a remembrance of some sort to give me, young man?" + +The boy shook his head. + +"There may be something amongst his things--some book or trinket that +you would remember," said Janetta, speaking with timidity. Mr. Brand +gave her a keen look, and Mrs. Brand accepted the suggestion with +eagerness. + +"Oh, yes, yes, let us look. Have you a box, my dear, or a bag?--oh, a +bundle, only: give it me, and let me see what is inside." + +"It is unnecessary, mother," said Wyvis, coldly. "I am as convinced as +you can wish me to be that this is Juliet's child." + +But Mrs. Brand, with trembling fingers and parted lips, was helping +Janetta to unfasten the knots of the big handkerchief in which the +child's worldly goods were wrapped up. Wyvis Brand stood silently beside +the two women, while little Julian pressed closer and pointed out his +various treasures as they were one by one disclosed. + +"That's my book," he said; "and that's my best suit. And that's--oh, I +don't know what _that_ is. I don't know why mammy put it in." + +"_I_ know," said Wyvis Brand, half under his breath. + +The object that called forth this remark was a small morocco box, +loosely wrapped in tissue-paper. Wyvis took it out of his mother's hand, +opened it, and stood silently gazing at its contents. It held a ring, as +Janetta could easily see--a hoop of gold in which were three opals--not +a very large or costly-looking trinket, but one which seemed to have +memories or associations connected with it--to judge, at least, by the +look on Wyvis Brand's dark face. The women involuntarily held their +breath as they glanced at him. + +At last with a short laugh, he slipped the little case into his pocket, +and turned upon his heel. + +"I suppose that this is evidence enough," he said. "It is a ring I once +gave her--our engagement ring. Not one of much value, or you may be sure +that she would never have sent it back." + +"Then you are convinced--you are certain----" His mother did not finish +the sentence, but her son knew what she meant. + +"That he is my son? my wife's child? Oh, yes, I am pretty sure of that. +He had better be put to bed," said Wyvis, carelessly. "You can find a +room for him somewhere, I dare say." + +"There is the old nursery," said Mrs. Brand, in breathless eagerness. "I +looked into it yesterday; it is a nice, cheerful room--but it has not +been used for a long time----" + +"Do as you like; don't consult me," said her son. "I know nothing about +the matter." And he turned to the door, without another look towards his +son. + +But little Julian was not minded to be treated in this way. His large +eyes had been fixed upon his father with a puzzled and rather wistful +expression. He now suddenly started from his position at Mrs. Brand's +knee, and pursued his father to the door. + +"Say good-night, please," he said, pulling at Mr. Brand's coat with a +fearlessness which amused Janetta and startled Mrs. Brand. + +Wyvis looked down at him with a curious and indescribable expression. +"You're not shy, at any rate," he said, drily. "Well, good-night, young +man. What?"--the boy had held up his face to be kissed. + +The father hesitated. Then a better and softer feeling seemed to pass +over his face. He stooped down and let the child put his arms round his +neck, and press a warm kiss on his cheek. A short laugh then escaped his +lips, as if he were half-ashamed of his own action. He went out of the +room and shut the door behind him without looking round, and little +Julian returned to his grandmother's knee, looking well satisfied with +himself. + +Janetta felt that she ought to go, and yet that she hardly liked +trusting the child to the sole care of Mrs. Brand, who was evidently so +much unnerved as to be of little use in deciding what was to be done +with him. And at the first hint of departure grandmother and child both +clung to her as if they felt her to be their sheet-anchor in storm. She +was not allowed to go until she had inspected the nursery and pronounced +it too damp for Julian's use, and seen a little bed made up for the +child in Mrs. Brand's own room, where a fire was lighted, and everything +looked cosey and bright. Poor little Julian was by this time half-dead +with sleep; and Janetta could not after all make up her mind to leave +him until she had seen him tucked up and fast asleep. Then she +bethought herself of Nora, and turned to go. Mrs. Brand, melted out of +her coldness and shy reserve, caught her by the hand. + +"My dear," she said, "what should we have done without you?" + +"I don't think that I have done very much," said Janetta, smiling. + +"You have done more than I could ever do. If I had brought that child to +my son he would never have acknowledged it." + +"He does not look so hard," said the girl involuntarily. + +"He _is_ hard, my dear--hard in his way--but he is a good son for all +that--and he has had sore trouble, which has made him seem harder and +sterner than he is. I cannot thank you enough for all that you have done +to-day." + +"Oh, Mrs. Brand, I have done nothing," said Janetta, blushing at the +elder woman's praise. "But may I come to see you and little Julian +again? I should like so much to know how he gets on." + +"You may come, dear, if your father will let you," said Mrs. Brand, with +rather a troubled look. "It would be a blessing--a charity--to me: but I +don't know whether it would be right to let you--your father must +decide." + +And then Janetta took her leave. + +She was surprised to find that Mr. Brand was lounging about the hall as +she came out, and that he not only opened the door for her but +accompanied her to the garden gate. He did not speak for a minute or +two, and Janetta, not seeing her way clear to any remarks of her own, +wondered whether they were to walk side by side to the gate in utter +silence. Presently, however, he said, abruptly. + +"I have not yet heard to whom I am indebted for the appearance of that +little boy in my house." + +"I am not exactly responsible," said Janetta, "I only found him outside +and brought him in to make inquiries. My name is Janetta Colwyn." + +"Colwyn? What? the doctor's daughter?" + +"Yes, the doctor's daughter," said Janetta, smiling frankly at him, "and +your second cousin." + +Wyvis Brand's hand went up to his hat, which he lifted ceremoniously. + +"I wish I had had the introduction earlier," he said, in a much +pleasanter tone. + +Janetta could not exactly echo the sentiment, and therefore maintained a +discreet silence. + +"You must have thought me a great brute," said Wyvis, with some +sensitiveness in his tone. + +"Oh, no: I quite saw how difficult it was for you to understand who I +was, and how it had all come about." + +"You saw a great deal, then." + +"Oh, I know that it sounds impertinent to say so," Janetta answered, +blushing a little and walking a trifle faster, "but I did not mean it +rudely, I assure you." + +He seemed to take no notice. He was looking straight before him, with a +somewhat sombre expression in his fine dark eyes. + +"What you could not see," he said, perhaps more to himself than to her, +"was what no one will ever guess. Nobody knows what the last few years +have been to me. My mother has seen more of it than any one else, but +even to her my life has been something of a mystery--a sealed book. You +should remember this--remember all that I have passed through--before +you blame me for the way in which I received that child to-day." + +"I did not blame you," said Janetta, eagerly. "I only felt that there +was a great deal which I could not understand." + +He turned his gloomy eyes upon her. "Just so," he said. "You cannot +understand. And it is useless for you to try." + +"I am very sorry," Janetta faltered, scarcely knowing why she said so. + +Wyvis laughed. "Don't trouble to be sorry over my affairs," he said. +"They are not worth sorrow, I assure you. But--if I may make one +request--will you kindly keep silence (except, of course, to your +parents) about this episode? I do not want people to begin gossiping +about that unhappy woman who has the right, unfortunately, to call +herself my wife." + +Janetta promised, and with her promise the garden gate was reached, and +the interview came to an end. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +CONSULTATION. + + +Janetta was rather surprised that Mr. Wyvis Brand did not offer to +accompany her for at least part of her way homewards, but she set down +his remissness to absorption in his own rather complicated affairs. In +this she was not mistaken. Wyvis was far more depressed, and far more +deeply buried in the contemplation of his difficulties, than anybody +knew, and it completely escaped his memory until afterwards that he +ought to have offered Miss Colwyn an escort. Janetta, however, was well +used to going about the world alone, and she proceeded briskly to the +spot where she had left Nora, and was much astonished to find that young +person deep in conversation with a strange young man. + +But the young man had such an attractive face, such pleasant eyes, so +courteous a manner, that she melted towards him before he had got +through his first sentence. Nora, of course, ought to have introduced +him; but she was by no means well versed in the conventionalities of +society, and therefore left him to do what he pleased, and to introduce +himself. + +"I find that I am richer than I thought," said Cuthbert Brand, "in +possessing a relative whom I never heard of before! Miss Colwyn, are we +not cousins? My name is Brand--Cuthbert Brand." + +Janetta's face lighted up. "I have just seen Mrs. Brand and your +brother," she said, offering him her hand. + +"And, oh, Janetta!" cried Nora at once, "do tell us what happened. Have +you left the little boy at Brand Hall? And is it really Mr. Brand's +little boy?" + +"Yes, it is, and I have left him with his father," said Janetta, +gravely. "As it is getting late, Nora, we had better make the best of +our way home." + +"You will let me accompany you?" said Cuthbert, eagerly, while Nora +looked a little bit inclined to pout at her sister's serious tone. "It +is, as you say, rather late; and you have a long walk before you." + +"Thank you, but I could not think of troubling you. My sister and I are +quite accustomed to going about by ourselves. We escort each other," +said Janetta, smiling, so that he should not set her down as utterly +ungracious. + +"I am a good walker," said Cuthbert, coloring a little. He was half +afraid that they thought his lameness a disqualification for +accompanying them. "I do my twenty miles a day quite easily." + +"Thank you," Janetta said again. "But I could not think of troubling +you. Besides, Nora and I are so well used to these woods, and to the +road between them and Beaminster, that we really do not require an +escort." + +A compromise was finally effected. Cuthbert walked with them to the end +of the wood, and the girls were to be allowed to pursue their way +together along the Beaminster road. He made himself very agreeable in +their walk through the wood, and did not leave them, without a hope that +he might be allowed one day to call upon his newly-discovered cousins. + +"He has adopted us, apparently, as well as yourself," said Nora, as the +two girls tramped briskly along the Beaminster road. "He seems to forget +that _we_ are not his relations." + +"He is very pleasant and friendly," said Janetta. + +"But why did you say he might call?" pursued Nora. "I thought that you +would say that we did not have visitors--or something of that sort." + +"My dear Nora! But we do have visitors." + +"Yes; but not of that kind." + +"Don't you want him to come?" said Janetta, in some wonderment; for it +had struck her that Nora had shown an unusual amount of friendliness to +Mr. Cuthbert Brand. + +"No, I don't," said Nora, almost passionately. "I _don't_ want to see +him down in our shabby, untidy little drawing-room, to hear mamma talk +about her expenses and papa's difficulties--to see all that tribe of +children in their old frocks--to see the muddle in which we live! I +don't want him there at all." + +"Dear Nora, I don't think that the Brands have been accustomed to live +in any very grand way. I am sure the rooms I went into this evening were +quite shabby--nearly as shabby as ours, and much gloomier. What does it +matter?" + +"It does not matter to you," said Nora; "because you are their relation. +It is different for us. You belong to them and we don't." + +"I think you are quite wrong to talk in that way. It is nothing so very +great and grand to be related to the Brands." + +"They are '_County_' people," said Nora, with a scornful little emphasis +on the word. "They are like your grand Adairs: they would look down on a +country doctor and his family, except just now and then when they could +make them useful." + +"Look down on father? What are you thinking of?" cried Janetta, warmly. +"Nobody looks down on father, because he does good, honest work in the +world, and everybody respects him; but I am afraid that a good many +people look down on the Brands. You know that as well as I do, Nora; for +you have heard people talk about them. They are not at all well thought +of in this neighborhood. I don't suppose there is much honor and glory +to be gained by relationship to them." + +In which Janetta was quite right, and showed her excellent sense. But +Nora was not inclined to be influenced by her more sagacious sister. + +"You may say what you like," she observed; "but I know very well that it +is a great advantage to be related to 'the County.' Poor papa has no +connections worth speaking of, and mamma's friends are either +shopkeepers or farmers; but your mother was the Brands' cousin, and see +how the Adairs took you up! They would never have made a fuss over +_me_." + +"What nonsense you talk, Nora!" said Janetta, in a disgusted tone. + +"Nonsense or not, it is true," said Nora, doggedly; "and as long as +people look down upon us, I don't want any of your fine friends and +relations in Gwynne Street." + +Janetta did not condescend to argue the point; she contented herself +with telling her sister of Wyvis Brand's desire that the story of his +wife's separation from him should not be known, and the two girls agreed +that it would be better to mention their evening's adventure only to +their father. + +It was quite dark when they reached home, and they entered the house in +much trepidation, fearing a volley of angry words from Mrs. Colwyn. But +to their surprise and relief Mrs. Colwyn was not at home. The children +explained that an invitation to supper had come to her from a neighbor, +and that "after a great deal of fuss," as one of them expressed it, she +had accepted it and gone, leaving word that she should not be back until +eleven o'clock, and that the children were to go to bed at their usual +hour. It was past the younger children's hour already, and they of +course were jubilant. + +The elder sisters set to work instantly to get the young ones into their +beds, but this was a matter of some difficulty. A general inclination to +uproariousness prevailed in Mrs. Colwyn's absence, and it must be +confessed that neither Janetta nor Nora tried very hard to repress the +little ones' noise. It was a comfort to be able, for once, to enjoy +themselves without fear of Mrs. Colwyn's perpetual snarl and grumble. A +most exciting pillow-fight was going on in the upstairs regions, and +here Janetta was holding her own as boldly as the boldest, when the +sound of an opening door made the combatants pause in their mad career. + +"What's that? The front door? It's mamma!" cried Georgie, with +conviction. + +"Get into bed, Tiny!" shouted Joey. Tiny began to cry. + +"Nonsense, children," said Nora, with an air of authority. "You know +that it can't be mamma. It is papa, of course, coming in for his supper. +And one of us must go down." + +"I'll go," said Janetta, hurriedly. "I want a little talk with him, you +know." + +There was a general chorus of "Oh, don't go, Janetta!" "Do stay!" "It +will be no fun when you are gone!" which stimulated Nora to a retort. + +"Well, I must say you are all very polite," she said. "One would think +that I was not here at all!" + +"You are not half such good fun as Janetta," said Joey. "You don't throw +yourself into everything as she does." + +"I must throw myself into giving father his supper, I'm afraid," said +Janetta, laughing, "so good-night, children, and do go to bed quietly +now, for I don't think father will like such a dreadful noise." + +She was nearly choked by the fervent embraces they all bestowed upon her +before she went downstairs. Nora, who stood by, rolling up the ribbon +that she had taken from Tiny's hair, felt a little pang of jealousy. Why +was it that everyone loved Janetta and valued her so much? Not for what +she did, because her share of household duty was not greater than that +of Nora, but for the way in which she did it. It always seemed such a +pleasure to her to do anything for any one--to serve another: never a +toil, never a hardship, always a deep and lasting pleasure. To Nora it +was often a troublesome matter to help her sister or her schoolboy +brother, to attend on her mother, or to be thoughtful of her father's +requirements; but it was never troublesome to Janetta. And as Nora +thought of all this, the tears came involuntarily to her eyes. It seemed +so _easy_ to Janetta to be good, she thought! But perhaps it was no +easier to Janetta than to other people. + +Janetta ran down to the dining-room, where she found her father +surveying with a rather dissatisfied air the cold and scanty repast +which was spread out for him. Mr. Colwyn was so much out that his meals +had to be irregular, and he ate them just when he had a spare half hour. +On this occasion he had been out since two o'clock in the afternoon, and +had not had time even for a cup of tea. He had been attending a hopeless +case, moreover, and one about which he had been anxious for some weeks. +Fagged, chilled, and dispirited, it was no wonder that he had returned +home in not the best of tempers, and that he was a little disposed to +find fault when Janetta made her appearance. + +"Where is mamma?" he began. "Out, I suppose, or the children would not +be making such a racket overhead." + +"They are going to be quiet now, dear father," said his daughter, +kissing him, "and mamma has gone out to supper at Mrs. Maitland's. I am +going to have mine with you if you will let me." + +"And is this what you are going to have for your supper?" said Mr. +Colwyn, half ruefully, half jestingly, as he glanced again at the table, +where some crusts of bread reposed peacefully on one dish, and a scrag +of cold mutton on another. "After your sojourn at Miss Polehampton's and +among the Adairs, I suppose you don't know how to cook, Jenny?" + +"Indeed I do, father, and I'm going to scramble some eggs, and make some +coffee this very minute. I am sorry the table is not better arranged, +but I have been out, and was just having a little game with the children +before they went to bed. If you will sit down by the fire, I shall be +ready in a very few minutes, and then I can tell you about a wonderful +adventure that Nora and I had this evening in the Beaminster wood." + +"You should not roam about those woods so much by yourselves; they are +too lonely," said Mr. Colwyn; but he said it very mildly, and dropped +with an air of weariness into the arm-chair that Janetta had wheeled +forward for him. "Well, well! don't hurry yourself, child. I shall be +glad of a few minutes' rest before I begin my supper." + +Janetta in a big white apron, Janetta flitting backwards and forwards +between kitchen and dining-room, with flushed cheeks and brightly +shining eyes, was a pretty sight--"a sight to make an old man young," +thought Mr. Colwyn, as he watched her furtively from beneath his +half-closed eyelids. She looked so trim, so neat, so happy in her work, +that he would be hard to satisfy who did not admire her, even though she +was not what the world calls strictly beautiful. She succeeded so well +in her cooking operations, with which she would not allow the servant to +intermeddle, that in a very short time a couple of dainty dishes and +some coffee smoked upon the board; and Janetta bidding her father come +to the table, placed herself near him, and smilingly dispensed the +savory concoction. + +She would not enter upon any account of her evening's work until she +felt sure that the wants of her father's inner man were satisfied; but +when supper was over, and his evening pipe--the one luxury in the day he +allowed himself--alight, she drew up a hassock beside his chair and +prepared for what she called "a good long chat." + +Opportunities for such a chat with her father were rather rare in that +household, and Janetta meant to make the most of this one. Nora had +good-naturedly volunteered to stay away from the dining-room, so as to +give Janetta the chance that she wished for; and as it was now barely +ten o'clock, Janetta knew that she might perhaps have an hour of her +father's companionship--if, at least, he were not sent for before eleven +o'clock. At eleven he would probably go to Mrs. Maitland's to fetch his +wife home. + +"Well, Janet, and what have you to tell me?" he said kindly, as he +stretched out his slippered feet to the blaze, and took down his pipe +from the mantel-piece. The lines had cleared away from his face as if by +magic; there was a look of rest and peace upon his face that his +daughter liked to see. She laid her hand on his knee and kept it there +while she told him of her experiences that evening at Brand Hall. + +Mr. Colwyn's eyebrows went up as he listened. His face expressed +astonishment, and something very like perplexity. But he heard the whole +story out before he said a word. + +"Well, you have put your head into the lion's den!" he said at last, in +a half-humorous tone. + +"What I want to know is," said Janetta, "why it is thought to be a +lion's den! I don't mean that I have heard the expression before, but I +have gathered in different ways an impression that people avoid the +house----" + +"The family, not the house, Janet!" + +"Of course I _mean_ the family, father, dear. What have they done that +they should be shunned?" + +"There is a good deal against them in the eyes of the world. Your poor +mother, Janetta, always stood up for them, and said that they were more +sinned against than sinning." + +"_They?_ But these young men were not grown up then?" + +"No; it was their father and----" + +Mr. Colwyn stopped short and seemed as if he did not like to go on. + +"Tell me, father," said Janetta, coaxingly. + +"Well, child, I don't know that you ought to hear old scandals. But you +are too wise to let them harm you. Brand, the father of these two young +fellows, married a barmaid, the daughter of a low publican in the +neighborhood." + +"What! The Mrs. Brand that I saw to-day? _She_ a barmaid--that quiet, +pale, subdued-looking woman?" + +"She has had trouble enough to make her look subdued, poor soul! She was +a handsome girl then; and I daresay the world would have overlooked the +marriage in time if her character had been untarnished. But stories +which I need not repeat were afloat; and from what I have lately heard +they are not yet forgotten." + +"After all these years! Oh, that does seem hard," said Janetta, +sympathetically. + +"Well--there are some things that the world does not forgive, Janet. I +have no doubt that the poor woman is much more worthy of respect and +kindness than her wild sons; and yet the fact remains that if Wyvis +Brand had come here with his brother alone, he would have been received +everywhere, and entertained and visited and honored like any other young +man of property and tolerable repute; but as he has brought his mother +with him, I am very much afraid that many of the nicest people in the +county mean to 'cut' him." + +"It is very unfair, surely." + +"Yes, it is unfair; but it is the way of the world, Janetta. If a +woman's reputation is ever so slightly blackened, she can never get it +fair and white again. Hence, my dear, I am a little doubtful as to +whether you must go to Brand Hall again, as long as poor Mrs. Brand is +there." + +"Oh, father, and I promised to go!" + +"You must not make rash promises another time, my child." + +"But she wants me, father--she is so lonely and so sad?" + +"I am sorry, my Janet, but I don't know----" + +"Oh, do let me, father. I shall not be harmed; and I don't mind what the +world says." + +"But perhaps _I_ mind," said Mr. Colwyn, quaintly. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +MARGARET. + + +Janetta looked so rueful at this remark that her father laughed a little +and pulled her ear. + +"I am not given to taking much notice of what the world says," he told +her, "and if I thought it right for you to go to Brand Hall I should +take no notice of town talk; but I think that I can't decide this matter +without seeing Mrs. Brand for myself." + +"I thought you had seen her, father?" + +"For ten minutes or so, only. They wanted to ask me a question about the +healthiness of Brand Hall, drains, and all that kind of thing. That +young Brand struck me as a very sullen-looking fellow." + +"His face lightens up when he talks," said Janetta, coloring and feeling +hurt for a moment, she could not have told why. + +"He did not talk to me," said her father, drily. "I am told that the +other son has pleasanter manners." + +"Cuthbert? Oh, yes," Janetta said, quickly. "He is much more amiable at +first sight; he made himself very agreeable to Nora and me." And +forthwith she related how the second son had made acquaintance with her +sister and herself. + +Mr. Colwyn did not look altogether pleased. + +"H'm!--they seem very ready to cultivate us," he said, with a slight +contraction of the brow. "Their father used not to know that I existed. +Janet, I don't care for Nora to see much of them. You I can trust; but +she is a bit of a featherbrain, and one never knows what may happen. +Look to it." + +"I will, father." + +"And I will call on Mrs. Brand and have a chat with her. Poor soul! I +daresay she has suffered. Still that does not make her a fit companion +for my girls." + +"If I could be of any use to her, father----" + +"I know that's all you think of, Janet. You are a good child--always +wanting to help others. But we must not let the spirit of self-sacrifice +run away with you, you know." + +He pinched her cheek softly as he spoke, and his daughter carried the +long supple fingers of his hand to her lips and kissed them tenderly. + +"Which reminds me," he went on rather inconsequently, "that I saw +another of your friends to-day. A friend whom you have not mentioned for +some time, Janetta." + +"Who was that?" asked Janetta, a little puzzled by his tone. + +"Another friend whom I don't quite approve of," said her father, in the +same half-quizzical way, "though from a different reason. If poor Mrs. +Brand is not respectable enough, this friend of yours, Janet, is more +than respectable; ultra-respectable--aristocratic even----" + +"Margaret Adair!" cried Janetta, flushing to the very roots of her hair. +"Did you see her, father? Has she quite forgotten me?" And the tears +stood in her eyes. + +"I did not see Miss Margaret Adair, my dear," said her father kindly. "I +saw her mother, Lady Caroline." + +"Did you speak to her, father?" + +"She stopped her ponies and spoke to me in the High Street, Janet. She +certainly has very winning manners." + +"Oh, has she not, father!" Janetta's cheeks glowed. "She is perfectly +charming, I think. I do not believe that she could do anything +disagreeable or unkind." + +Mr. Colwyn shook his head, with a little smile. "I am not so sure of +that, Janetta. These fine ladies sometimes do very cold and cruel things +with a perfectly gracious manner." + +"But Lady Caroline would not," said Janetta, coaxingly. "She was quite +kind and sweet to me all the time that I stayed at her house, +although----" + +"Although afterwards," said Mr. Colwyn, shrewdly, "she could let you +stay here for weeks without seeming to remember you, or coming near you +for an hour!" + +Janetta's cheeks crimsoned, but she did not reply. Loyal as she was to +her friend, she felt that there was not much to be said for her at that +moment. + +"You are a good friend," said her father, in a half-teasing, +half-affectionate tone. "You don't like me to say anything bad of her, +do you? Well, my dear, for your comfort I must tell you that she did her +best to-day to make up for past omissions. She spoke very pleasantly +about you." + +"Did she say why--why----" Janetta could not complete the sentence. + +"Why they had not written or called? Well, she gave some sort of an +explanation. Miss Adair had been unwell--she had had a cold or something +which looked as if it might turn to fever, and they did not like to +write until she was better." + +"I knew there was some good reason!" said Janetta fervently. + +"It is well to take a charitable view of things," returned her father, +rather drily; but, seeing her look of protest, he changed his tone. +"Well, Lady Caroline spoke very kindly, my dear, I must acknowledge +that. She wants you to go over to Helmsley Court to-morrow." + +"Can I go, father?" + +Mr. Colwyn made a grimace. "Between your disreputable friends and your +aristocratic ones, I'm in a difficulty, Janet." + +"Don't say so, father dear!" + +"Well, I consented," said Mr. Colwyn, in rather a grudging tone. "She +said that she would send her carriage for you to-morrow at noon, and +that she would send you back again between six and seven. Her daughter +was most anxious to see you, she said." + +Janetta lifted up a happy face. "I knew that Margaret would be true to +me. I never doubted her." + +Mr. Colwyn watched her silently for a moment, then he put his hand upon +her head, and began smoothing the thick black locks. "You have a very +faithful nature, my Janet," he said, tenderly, "and I am afraid that it +will suffer a great many shocks in this work-a-day world of ours. Don't +let it lead you astray, my child. Remember there is a point at which +faithfulness may degenerate into sheer obstinacy." + +"I don't think it will ever do so with me." + +"Well, perhaps not, for you have a clear head on those young shoulders +of yours. But you must be careful." + +"And I may go to Lady Caroline's, father?" + +"Yes, my dear, you may. And now I must go: my time is up. I have had a +very pleasant hour, my Janet." + +As she raised herself to receive her father's kiss, she felt a glow of +pleasure at his words. It was not often that he spoke so warmly. He was +a man of little speech on ordinary occasions: only when he was alone +with his best-loved daughter, Janetta, did he ever break forth into +expressions of affection. His second marriage had been in some respects +a failure; and it did not seem as if he regarded his younger children +with anything approaching the tenderness which he bestowed upon Janetta. +Good-humored tolerance was all that he gave to them: a deep and almost +passionate love had descended from her mother to Janetta. + +He went out to fetch his wife home from her supper-party; and Janetta +hastened up to her room, not being anxious to meet her stepmother on her +return, in the state of rampant vanity and over-excitement to which an +assembly of her friends usually brought her. It could not be said that +Mrs. Colwyn actually drank too much wine or beer or whisky; and yet +there was often a sensation abroad that she had taken just a little more +than she could bear; and her stepdaughter was sensitively aware of the +fact. From Nora's slighting tone when she had lately spoken of her +mother, Janetta conjectured that the sad truth of Mrs. Colwyn's danger +had dawned upon the girl's mind also, and it certainly accounted for +some new lines in Mr. Colwyn's face, and for some additional streaks of +white in his silvering hair. Not a word had been said on the subject +amongst the members of the family, but Janetta had an uneasy feeling +that there were possibly rocks ahead. + +At this moment, however, the prospect of seeing her dear Margaret again +completely obliterated any thought of her stepmother from Janetta's +mind; and when she was snugly ensconced in her own little, white bed, +she could not help shedding a few tears of relief and joy. For +Margaret's apparent fickleness had weighed heavily on Janetta's mind; +and she now felt proud of the friend in whom she had believed in spite +of appearances, and of whose faithfulness she had steadily refused to +hear a doubt. These feelings enabled her to bear with cheerfulness some +small unpleasantnesses next morning from her stepmother on the subject +of her visit. "Of course you'll be too grand to do a hand's turn about +the house when you come back again from Helmsley Court!" said Mrs. +Colwyn, snappishly. + +"Dear mamma, when I am only going for half a day!" + +"Oh, I know the ways of girls. Because Miss Adair, your fine friend, +does nothing but sit in a drawing-room all day, you'll be sure to think +that you must needs follow her example!" + +"I hope Margaret will do something beside sit in a drawing-room," said +Janetta, with her cheery laugh; "because I am afraid that she might find +that a little dull." + +But in spite of her cheeriness her spirits were perceptibly lowered when +she set foot in the victoria that was sent for her at noon. Her +stepmother's way of begrudging her the friendship which school-life had +bestowed upon Janetta was as distasteful to her as Miss Polehampton's +conviction of its unsuitability had been. And for one moment the tears +of vexation gathered in her brown eyes as she was driving away from the +shabby little house in Gwynne Street; and she had resolutely to drive +away unwelcome thoughts before she could resign herself to enjoyment of +her visit. + +The day was hot and close, and the narrow streets of old Beaminster were +peculiarly oppressive. It was delightful to bowl swiftly along the +smooth high road, and to enter the cool green shades of the park round +Helmsley Court. "How pleasant for Margaret to live here always!" Janetta +said to herself with generous satisfaction in her friend's good fortune. +"I wonder what she would do in Gwynne Street!" And then Janetta laughed, +and felt that what suited _her_ would be very inappropriate to Margaret +Adair. + +Janetta's unselfish admiration for her friend was as simple as it was +true, and it was never alloyed by envy or toadyism. She would have been +just as pleased to see Margaret in a garret as in a palace, supposing +that Margaret were pleased with the garret. And it was with almost +passionate delight that she at length flung herself into her friend's +arms, and felt Margaret's soft lips pressed to her brown flushed cheeks. + +"Margaret! Oh, it is delightful to see you again!" she exclaimed. + +"You poor darling: did you think that we were never going to meet?" said +Margaret. "I have been so sorry, dear----" + +"I knew that you would come to see me, or send for me as soon as you +could," said Janetta quickly. "I trusted you, Margaret." + +"I have had such a bad cold," Margaret went on, still excusing herself a +little, as it seemed to Janetta. "I have had to stay in two rooms for +nearly a fortnight, and I went down to the drawing-room only last +night." + +"I wish I could have nursed you! Don't you remember how I nursed you +through one of your bad colds at school?" + +"Yes, indeed. I wish you could have nursed me now; but mamma was afraid +that I had caught measles or scarlet fever or something, and she said it +would not be right to send for you." + +Janetta was almost pained by the accent of continued excuse. + +"Of course, dear, I understand," she said, pressing her friend's arm +caressingly. "I am so sorry you have been ill. You look quite pale, +Margaret." + +The two girls were standing in Margaret's sitting-room, adjoining her +bedroom. Margaret was dressed completely in white, with long white +ribbons floating amongst the dainty folds of her attire; but the white +dress, exquisitely as it was fashioned, was less becoming to her than +usual, for her face had lost a little of its shell-like bloom. She +turned at Janetta's words and surveyed herself a little anxiously in a +long glass at her side. + +"I do look pale in this dress," she said. "Shall I change it, Janetta?" + +"Oh, no, dear," Janetta answered, in some surprise. "It is a charming +dress." + +"But I do not like to look so pale," said Margaret, gravely. "I think I +will ring for Villars." + +"You could not look nicer--to me--in any dress!" exclaimed her ardent +admirer. + +"You dear--oh, yes; but there may be visitors at luncheon." + +"I thought you would be alone," faltered Janetta, with a momentary +glance at her own neat and clean, but plain, little cotton frock. + +"Well, perhaps there will be only one person beside yourself," said +Margaret, turning aside her long neck to catch a glimpse of the shining +coils behind. "And I don't know that it matters--it is only Sir Philip +Ashley." + +"Oh, I remember him. He was here when we came back from Brighton." + +"He is often here." + +"What lovely flowers!" Janetta exclaimed, rather to break a pause that +followed than because she had looked particularly at a bouquet that +filled a large white vase on a table. But the flowers really were +lovely, and Margaret's face expressed some satisfaction. "Did they come +out of your garden?" + +"No, Sir Philip sent them." + +"Oh, how nice!" said Janetta. But she was a little surprised too. Had +not the Adairs plenty of flowers without receiving contributions from +Sir Philip's conservatories? + +"And you have a dog, Margaret?"--as a pretty little white Esquimaux dog +came trotting into the room. "What a darling! with a silver collar, +too!" + +"Yes, I like a white dog," said Margaret, tranquilly. "Mamma's poodle +snaps at strangers, so Sir Philip thought that it would be better for me +to have a dog of my own." + +Sir Philip again! Janetta felt as if she must ask another question or +two, especially when she saw that her friend's white eyelids had been +lowered, and that a delicate flush was mantling the whiteness of her +cheek; but she paused, scarcely knowing how to begin; and in the pause, +the gong for luncheon sounded, and she was (somewhat hastily, she +fancied) led downstairs. + +Lady Caroline and Mr. Adair received their visitor with great civility. +Sir Philip came forward to give her a very kindly greeting. Their +behavior was so cordial that Janetta could hardly believe that she had +doubted their liking for her. She was not experienced enough as yet to +see that all this apparent friendliness did not mean anything but the +world's way of making things pleasant all round. She accepted her host's +attentions with simple pleasure, and responded to his airy talk so +brightly that he lost no time in assuring his wife after luncheon that +his daughter's friend was really "a very nice little girl." + +After luncheon, Janetta thought at first that she was again going to be +defrauded of a talk with her friend. Margaret was taken possession of by +Sir Philip, and walked away with him into a conservatory to gather a +flower; Mr. Adair disappeared, and Janetta was left for a few moments' +conversation with Lady Caroline. Needless to remark, Lady Caroline had +planned this little interview; she had one or two things that she wanted +to say to Miss Colwyn. And she really did feel kindly towards the girl, +because--after all--she was Margaret's friend, and the mother was ready +to allow Margaret her own way to a very great extent. + +"Dear Miss Colwyn," she began, "I have been so sorry that we could not +see more of you while our poor Margaret was ill. _Now_ I hope things +will be different." + +Janetta remarked that Lady Caroline was very kind. + +"I have been thinking of a method by which I hoped to bring you together +a little more--after the holidays. Of course we are going away very soon +now--to Scotland; and we shall probably not return until October; but +when that time comes--my dear Miss Colwyn, I am sure you will not be +offended by the question I am going to ask?" + +"Oh, no," said Janetta, hastily. + +"Are you intending to give any singing or music lessons in the +neighborhood?" + +"If I can get any pupils, I shall be only too glad to do so." + +"Then _will_ you begin with dear Margaret?" + +"Margaret?" said Janetta, in some astonishment. "But Margaret has had +the same teaching that I have had, exactly!" + +"She needs somebody to help her. She has not your talent or your +perseverance. And she would so much enjoy singing with you. I trust that +you will not refuse us, Miss Colwyn." + +"I shall be very glad to do anything that I can for Margaret," said +Janetta, flushing. + +"Thank you so much. Once a week then--when we come back again. And about +terms----" + +"Oh, Lady Caroline, I shall be only too glad to sing with Margaret at +any time without----" + +"Without any talk about terms?" said Lady Caroline, with a charming +smile of comprehension. "But that, my dear, I could not possibly +allow. No, we must conduct the matter on strictly business-like +principles, or Mr. Adair would be very much displeased with me. Suppose +we say----" And she went on to suggest terms which Janetta was too much +confused to consider very attentively, and agreed to at once. It was only +afterwards that she discovered that they were lower than any which she +should ever have thought of suggesting for herself, and that she should +have to blush for Lady Caroline's meanness in mentioning them to her +father! But at present she saw nothing amiss. + +Lady Caroline went on smoothly. "I want her to make the most of her +time, because she may not be able to study up by-and-bye. She will come +out this winter, and I shall take her to town in the spring. I do not +suppose that I shall ever have another opportunity--if, at least, she +marries as early as she seems likely to do." + +"Margaret! Marry!" ejaculated Janetta. She had scarcely thought of such +a possibility. + +"It is exceedingly probable," said Lady Caroline, rather coldly, "that +she will marry Sir Philip Ashley. It is a perfectly suitable alliance." + +It sounded as if she spoke of a royal marriage! + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +JANETTA'S PROMISES. + + +"But please," Lady Caroline proceeded, "do not mention what I have said +to anyone, least of all to Margaret. She is so sensitive that I should +not like her to know what I have said." + +"I will not say anything," said Janetta. + +And then Lady Caroline's desire for conversation seemed to cease. She +proposed that they should go in search of her daughter, and Janetta +followed her to the conservatory in some trouble and perplexity of mind. +It struck her that Margaret was not looking very well pleased when they +arrived--perhaps, she thought, because of their appearance--and that Sir +Philip had a very lover-like air. He was bending forward a little to +take a white flower from Margaret's hand, and Janetta could not help a +momentary smile when she saw the expression of his face. The earnest +dark eyes were full of tenderness, which possibly he did not wish to +conceal. Janetta could never doubt but that he loved her "rare pale +Margaret" from the very bottom of his heart. + +The two moved apart as Lady Caroline and Janetta came in. Lady Caroline +advanced to Sir Philip and walked away with him, while Margaret laid her +hand on Janetta's arm and led her off to her own sitting-room. She +scarcely spoke until they were safely ensconced there together and then, +with a half-pouting, mutinous expression on her softly flushed face-- + +"Janetta," she began, "there is something I must tell you." + +"Yes, dear?" + +"You saw Sir Philip in the conservatory?" + +"Yes." + +"I can't think why he is so foolish," said Margaret; "but actually, +Janetta--he wants to marry me." + +"Am I to call him foolish for that?" + +"Yes, certainly. I am too young. I want to see a little more of the +world. He is not at all the sort of man that I want to marry." + +"Why not?" said Janetta, after waiting a little while. + +"Oh," said Margaret, with an intonation that--for her--was almost +petulant; "he is so absurdly suitable!" + +"_Absurdly_ suitable, dear Margaret?" + +"Yes. Everything is so neatly arranged for us. He is the right age, he +has the right income, the right views, the right character--he is +even"--said Margaret, with increasing indignation--"even the right +_height_! It is absurd. I am not to have any will of my own in the +matter, because it is all so beautifully suitable. I am to be disposed +of like a slave!" + +Here was indeed a new note of rebellion. + +"Your father and mother would never make you marry a man whom you did +not like," said Janetta, a little doubtfully. + +"I don't know. Papa would not; but mamma!----I am afraid mamma will try. +And it is very hard to do what mamma does not like." + +"But you could explain to her----" + +"I have nothing to explain," said Margaret, arching her delicate brows. +"I like Sir Philip very well. I respect him very much. I think his house +and his position would suit me exceedingly well; and yet I do not want +to marry him. It is so unreasonable of me, mamma says. And I feel that +it is; and yet--what can I do?" + +"There is--nobody--else?" hazarded Janetta. + +Margaret opened her lovely eyes to their fullest extent. + +"Dearest Janetta, who else could there be? Who else have I seen? I have +been kept in the schoolroom until now--when I am to be married to this +most suitable man! Now, confess, Janetta, would you like it? Do your +people want to marry you to anybody?" + +"No, indeed," said Janetta, smiling. "Nobody has expressed any desire +that way. But really I don't know what to say, Margaret; because Sir +Philip does seem so perfectly suitable--and you say you like him?" + +"Yes, but I only like him; I don't love him." Margaret leaned back in +her chair, crossed her hands behind her golden head, and looked dreamily +at the opposite wall. "You know I think one ought to love the man one +marries--don't you think so? I have always thought of loving once and +once only--like Paul and Virginia, you know, or even Romeo and +Juliet--and of giving _all_ for love! That would be beautiful!" + +"Yes, it would. But it would be very hard too," said Janetta, thinking +how lovely Margaret looked, and what a heroine of romance--what a +princess of dreams--she would surely be some day. And she, poor, plain, +brown, little Janetta! There was probably no romance in store for her at +all. + +But Life holds many secrets in her hand; and perhaps it was Janetta and +not Margaret for whom a romance was yet in store. + +"Hard? Do you call it hard?" Margaret asked, with a curiously exalted +expression, like that of a saint absorbed in mystic joys. "It would be +most easy, Janetta, to give up everything for love." + +"I don't know," said Janetta--for once unsympathetic. "Giving up +everything means a great deal. Would you like to go away from Helmsley +Court, for instance, and live in a dingy street with no lady's +maid--only a servant of all-work--on three hundred a year?" + +"I think I could do anything for a man whom I loved," sighed Margaret; +"but I cannot feel as if I should ever care enough for Sir Philip Ashley +to do it for him." + +"What sort of a man would you prefer for a husband, then?" asked +Janetta. + +"Oh, a man with a history. A man about whom there hung a melancholy +interest--a man like Rochester in 'Jane Eyre'----" + +"Not a very good-tempered person, I'm afraid!" + +"Oh, who cares about good temper?" + +"I do, for one. Really, Margaret, you draw a picture which is just like +my cousin, Wyvis Brand." + +Janetta was sorry when she had said the words. Margaret's arms came down +from behind her head, and her eyes were turned to her friend's face with +an immediate awakening of interest. + +"Mr. Brand, of Brand Hall, you mean? I remember you told me that he was +your cousin. So you have met him? And he is like Rochester?" + +"I did not say that exactly," said Janetta, becoming provoked with +herself. "I only said that you spoke of a rather melancholy sort of +man, with a bad temper, and I thought that the description applied very +well to Mr. Brand." + +"What is he like? Dark?" + +"Yes." + +"Handsome?" + +"I suppose so. I do not like any face, however handsome, that is +disfigured by a scowl." + +"Oh, Janetta, how charming! Tell me some more about him; I am so much +interested." + +"Margaret, don't be silly! Wyvis Brand is a very disagreeable man--not a +good man either, I believe--and I hope you will never know him." + +"On the contrary," said Margaret, with a new wilful light in her eyes, +"I intend mamma to call." + +"Lady Caroline will be too wise." + +"Why should people not call upon the Brands? I hear the same story +everywhere--'Oh, no, we do not intend to call.' Is there really anything +wrong about them?" + +Janetta felt some embarrassment. Had not she put nearly the same +question to her own father the night before? But she could not tell +Margaret Adair what her father had said to her. + +"If there were--and I do not know that there is--you could hardly expect +me to talk about it, Margaret," she said, with some dignity. + +Margaret's good breeding came to her aid at once. "I beg your pardon, +dear Janetta. I was talking carelessly. I will say no more about the +Brands. But I must remark that it was _you_ who piqued my curiosity. +Otherwise there is nothing extraordinary in the fact of two young men +settling down with their mother in a country house, is there?" + +"Nothing at all." + +"And I am not likely to see anything of them. But, Janetta," said +Margaret, reverting to her own affairs, "you do not sympathize with me +as I thought you would. Would not you think it wrong to marry where you +did not love? Seriously, Janetta?" + +"Yes, seriously, I should," said Janetta, her face growing graver, and +her eyes lighting up. "It is a profanation of marriage to take for your +husband a man whom you don't love with your whole heart. Oh, yes, +Margaret, you are quite, quite right in that--but I am sorry too, +because Sir Philip seems so nice." + +"And, Janetta, dear, you will help me, will you not?" + +"Whenever I can, Margaret? But what can I do for you?" + +"You can help me in many ways, Janetta. You don't know how hard it is +sometimes"--and Margaret's face resumed a wistful, troubled look. "Mamma +is so kind; but she wants me sometimes to do things that I do not like, +and she is so _surprised_ when I do not wish to do them." + +"You will make her understand in time," said Janetta, almost +reverentially. Her ardent soul was thrilled with the conception of the +true state of things as she imagined it; of Margaret's pure, sweet +nature being dragged down to Lady Caroline's level of artificial +worldliness. For, notwithstanding all Lady Caroline's gentleness of +manner, Janetta was beginning to find her out. She began to see that +this extreme softness and suavity covered a very persistent will, and +that it was Lady Caroline who ruled the house and the family with an +iron hand in a velvet glove. + +"I am afraid not," said Margaret, submissively. "She is so much more +determined than I am. Neither papa nor I could ever do anything against +her. And in most things I like her to manage for me. But not my +marriage!" + +"No, indeed." + +"Will you stand by me, Janetta, dear?" + +"Always, Margaret." + +"You will always be my friend?" + +"Always dear." + +"You make me feel strong when you say 'always' so earnestly, Janetta." + +"Because I believe," said Janetta, quickly, "that friendship is as +strong a tie as any in the world. I don't think it ought to be any less +binding than the tie between sisters, between parents and child, +even"--and her voice dropped a little--"even between husband and wife. I +have heard it suggested that there should be a ceremony--a sort of +form--for the making of a friendship as there is for other relations in +life; a vow of truth and fidelity which two friends could promise to +observe. Don't you think that it would be rather a useless thing, even +if the thought is a pretty one? Because we make and keep or break our +vows in our own heart, and no promise would bind us more than our own +hearts can do." + +"I hope yours binds you to me, Janetta?" said Margaret, half playfully, +half sadly. + +"It does, indeed." + +And then the two girls kissed each other after the manner of impulsive +and affectionate girls, and Margaret wiped away a tear that had gathered +in the corner of her eye. Her face soon became as tranquil as ever; but +Janetta's brow remained grave, her lips firmly pressed together long +after Margaret seemed to have forgotten what had been said. + +Things went deeper with Janetta than with Margaret. Girlish and +unpractical as some of their speeches may appear, they were spoken or +listened to by Janetta with the utmost seriousness. She was not of a +nature to take things lightly. And during the pause that followed the +conversation about friendship, she was mentally registering a very +serious and earnest resolution, worthy indeed of being ranked as the +promise or the vow of which she spoke, that she would always remain +Margaret's true and faithful friend, in spite of all the chances and +changes of this transitory world. A youthful foolish thing to do, +perhaps; but the world is so constituted that the things done or said by +very young and even very foolish persons sometimes dominate the whole +lives of much older and wiser persons. And more came out of that silent +vow of Janetta's than even she anticipated. + +The rest of the day was very delightful to her. She and Margaret were +left almost entirely to themselves, and they formed a dozen plans for +the winter when Margaret should be back again and could resume her +musical studies. Janetta tried to express her natural reluctance at the +thought of giving lessons to her old school-companion, but Margaret +laughed her to scorn. "As if you could not teach me?" she said. "Why, I +know nothing about the theory of music--nothing at all. And you were far +ahead of anybody at Miss Polehampton's! You will soon have dozens of +pupils, Janetta. I expect all Beaminster to be flocking to you before +long." + +She did not say, but it crossed her mind that the fact of _her_ taking +lessons from Janetta would probably serve as a very good advertisement. +For Miss Adair was herself fairly proficient in the worldly wisdom which +did not at all gratify her when exhibited by her mother. + +Janetta was sent home in the gathering twilight with a delightfully +satisfied feeling. She was sure that Margaret's friendship was as +faithful as her own. And why should there not be two women as faithful +to each other in friendship as ever Damon and Pythias, David and +Jonathan, had been of old? "Margaret will always be her own sweet, +high-souled self," Janetta mused. "It is I who may perhaps fall away +from my ideal--I hope not; oh, I hope not! I hope that I shall always be +faithful and true!" + +There was a very tender look upon her face as she sat in Lady Caroline's +victoria, her hands clasped together upon her lap, her mouth firmly +closed, her eyes wistful. The expression was so lovely that it +beautified the whole of her face, which was not in itself strictly +handsome, but capable of as many changes as an April day. She was so +deeply absorbed in thought that she did not see a gentleman lift his hat +to her in passing. It was Cuthbert Brand, and when the carriage had +passed him he stood still for a moment and looked back at it. + +"I should like to paint that girl's face," he said to himself. "There is +soul in it--character--passion. Her sister is prettier by far; but I +doubt whether she is capable of so much." + +But the exalted beauty had faded away by the time Janetta reached her +home, and when she entered the house she was again the bright, sensible, +energetic, and affectionate sister and daughter that they all knew and +loved: no great beauty, no genius, no saint, but a generous-hearted +English girl, who tried to do her duty and to love her neighbor as +herself. + +Her father met her in the hall. + +"Here you are," he said. "I hardly expected you home as yet. Everybody +is out, so you must tell _me_ your experiences and adventures if you +have any to tell." + +"I have not many," said Janetta, brightly. "Only everybody has been +very, very kind." + +"I'm glad to hear of it; but I should be surprised if people were not +kind to my Janet." + +"Nobody is half so kind as you are," said Janetta, fondly. "Have you +been very busy to-day, father?" + +"Very, dear. And I have been to Brand Hall." + +He drew her inside his consulting-room as he spoke. It was a little room +near the hall-door, opposite the dining-room. Janetta did not often go +there, and felt as if some rather serious communication were to be made. + +"Did you see the little boy, father?" + +"Yes--and his grandmother." + +"And may I go to see Mrs. Brand?" + +Mr. Colwyn paused for a moment, and when he spoke his voice was broken +by some emotion. "If you can do anything to help and comfort that poor +woman, my Janet," he said at length, "God forbid that I should ever +hinder you! I will not heed what the world says in face of sorrow such +as she has known. Do what you can for her." + +"I will, father; I promise you I will." + +"It is the second promise that I have made to-day," said Janetta, rather +thoughtfully, as she was undressing herself that night; "and each of +them turns on the same subject--on being a friend to some one who needs +friendship. The vocation of some women is to be a loving daughter, a +true wife, or a good mother; mine, perhaps, is to be above everything +else a true friend. I don't think my promises will be hard to keep!" + +But even Janetta, in her wisdom, could not foresee what was yet to come. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +JANETTA REMONSTRATES. + + +It was with a beating heart that Janetta, a few days later, crossed once +more the threshold of her cousin's house. Her father's words about Mrs. +Brand had impressed her rather painfully, and she felt some shyness and +constraint at the thought of the reason which he had given her for +coming. How she was to set about helping or comforting Mrs. Brand she +had not the least idea. + +These thoughts were, however, put to flight by an un-looked-for scene, +which broke upon her sight as she entered the hall. This hall had to be +crossed before any of the other rooms could be reached; it was +low-ceiled, paneled in oak, and lighted by rather small windows, with +stained glass in the lower panes. Like most rooms in the house it had a +gloomy look, which was not relieved by the square of faded Turkey +carpet in the centre of the black polished boards of the floor, or by +the half-dozen dusky portraits in oak frames which garnished the walls. +When Janetta was ushered in she found this ante-room or entrance chamber +occupied by three persons and a child. These, as she speedily found, +consisted of Wyvis Brand and his little boy, and two gentlemen, one of +whom was laughing immoderately, while the other was leaning over the +back of the chair and addressing little Julian. + +Janetta halted for a moment, for the old servant who had admitted her +seemed to think that his work was done when he had uttered her name, and +had already retreated; and his voice being exceedingly feeble, the +announcement had passed unnoticed by the majority of the persons +present, if not by all. Wyvis Brand had perhaps seen her, for his eyes +were keen, and the shadow in which she stood was not likely to veil her +from his sight; but he gave no sign of being conscious of her presence. +He was standing with his back to the mantel-piece, his arms crossed +behind his head; there was a curious expression on his face, half-smile, +half-sneer, but it was evident that he was merely looking and listening, +not interfering with what was going on. + +It needed only a glance to see that little Julian was in a state of +extraordinary excitement. His face was crimson, his eyes were sparkling +and yet full of tears; his legs were planted sturdily apart, and his +hands were clenched. His head was drawn back, and his whole body also +seemed as if it wanted to recoil, but placed as he was against a strong +oaken table he could evidently go back no further. The gentleman on the +chair was offering him something--Janetta could not at first see +what--and the boy was vehemently resisting. + +"I won't have it! I won't have it!" he was crying, with the whole force +of his lungs. "I won't touch it! Take the nasty stuff away!" + +Janetta wondered whether it were medicine he was refusing, and why his +father did not insist upon obedience. But Wyvis Brand, still standing by +the mantel-piece, only laughed aloud. + +"No shirking! Drink it up!" said the strange gentleman, in what Janetta +thought a curiously unpleasant voice. "Come, come, it will make a man of +you----" + +"I don't want to be made a man of! I won't touch it! I promised I never +would! You can't make me!" + +"You must be taught not to make rash promises," said the man, laughing. +"Come now----" + +But little Julian had suddenly caught sight of Janetta's figure at the +door, and with a great bound he escaped from his tormentor and flung +himself upon her, burying his face in her dress, and clutching its folds +as if he would never let them go. + +"It's the lady! the lady!" he gasped out. "Oh, please don't let them +make me drink it! Indeed, I promised not." + +Janetta came forward a little, and at her appearance every one looked +more or less discomfited. The gentleman on the chair she recognized as a +Mr. Strangways, a man of notoriously evil life, who had a house near +Beaminster, and was generally shunned by respectable people in the +neighborhood. He started up, and looked at her with what she felt to be +a rather insolent gaze. Wyvis Brand stood erect, and looked sullen. The +other gentleman, who was a stranger, rose from his chair in a civiller +manner than his friend had done. + +Janetta put her arms round the little fellow, and turned a rather +bewildered face towards Mr. Brand. "Was it--was it--medicine?" she +asked. + +"Of a kind," said Wyvis, with a laugh. + +"It was brandy--_eau-de-vie_--horrid hot stuff that _maman_ used to +drink," said little Julian, with a burst of angry sobs, "and I promised +not--I promised old Susan that I never would!" + +"It was only a joke," said the master of the house, coming forward now, +and anxious perhaps to avert the storm threatened by a sudden indignant +flash of Janetta's great dark eyes. "We were not in earnest of course." +(A smothered laugh and ejaculation from Mr. Strangways passed without +notice.) "The boy does not know how to take a joke--he's a milksop." + +"I'm not! I'm not!" said little Julian, still struggling with violent +sobs. "I'm not a milksop! Oh, say that I'm not! Do tell father that I'm +not--not----" + +"Certainly you are not. You are a very brave little boy, and know how to +keep your word," said Janetta, with decision. "And now you must come +with me to your grandmother; I came to see _her_ this afternoon." + +She gathered him into her strong, young arms as if she would have +carried him from the room, but he struggled manfully to keep his feet, +although he still held her dress. Without a word, Wyvis strode to the +door and held it open for the pair. Janetta forgot to thank him, or to +greet him in any way. She swept past him in a transport of silent fury, +flashing upon him one look of indignation which Wyvis Brand did not +easily forget. It even deafened him for a moment to the sneering comment +of Mr. Strangways, which fell on Janetta's ears just as she was leaving +the room. + +"That's a regular granny's boy. Well for him if he always gets a pretty +girl to help him out of a difficulty." + +Wyvis, who had stood for a moment as if transfixed by Janetta's glance, +hastily shut the door. + +Janetta paused in the corridor outside. She was flushed and panting; she +felt that she could not present herself to Mrs. Brand in that state. She +held the boy close to her, and listened while he poured forth his story +in sobbing indistinctness. + +"Old Susan--she was their English servant--she had been always with +_maman_--she had told him that brandy made people mad and wicked--and he +did not want to be mad and wicked--and he had promised Susan never to +drink brandy; and the naughty gentleman wanted him to take it, and he +would not--would not--would not!----" + +"Hush, dear," said Janetta, gently. "There is no need to cry over it. +You know you kept your word as a gentleman should." + +The boy's eyes flashed through his tears. "Father thinks I'm a--I'm a +milksop," he faltered. + +"Show him that you are not," said Janetta. She saw that it was no use to +talk to Julian as to a baby. "If you are always brave and manly he won't +think so." + +"I _will_ be always brave," said the little fellow, choking back his +sobs and regarding her with the clear, fearless gaze which she had +noticed in him from the first. And at this moment a door opened, and +Mrs. Brand, who had heard voices, came out in some surprise to see what +was the matter. + +Janetta was glad to see the loving way in which the boy ran into his +grandmother's arms, and the tenderness with which she received him. Mrs. +Brand courteously invited her guest into the drawing-room, but her +attention was given far more to little Julian than to Janetta, and in +two minutes he had poured the whole story into her ear. Mrs. Brand did +not say much; she sat with him in her lap looking excessively pained and +grieved; and that frozen look of pain upon her face made Janetta +long--but long in vain--to comfort her. Tea was brought in by-and-bye, +and then Julian was dismissed to his nursery--whither he went +reluctantly, holding his face up to be kissed by Janetta, and asking her +to "come back soon." And when he was gone, Mrs. Brand seemed unable to +contain herself any longer, and broke forth passionately. + +"A curse is on us all--I am sure of that. The boy will be ruined, and by +his father too." + +"Oh, no," Janetta said, earnestly. "His father would not really hurt +him, I feel sure." + +"You do not know my son. He is like his own father, my husband--and that +is the way my husband began with Wyvis." + +"But--he did not succeed?" + +"Not altogether, because Wyvis had a strong head, and drew back in time; +but his father did him harm--untold harm. His father was a bad man. I do +not scruple to say so, although he was my husband; and there is a taint, +a sort of wild strain, in the blood. Even the boy inherits it; I see +that too clearly. And Wyvis--Wyvis will not hold himself in for long. He +is falling amongst those racing and betting men again--the Strangways +were always to be feared--and before long he will tread in his father's +steps and break my heart, and bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to +the grave." + +She burst into a passion of tears as she spoke. Janetta felt +inexpressibly shocked and startled. This revelation of a dark side of +life was new and appalling to her. She could hardly understand Mrs. +Brand's dark anticipations. + +She took the mother's hand and held it gently between her own, uttering +some few soothing sentences as she did so. Presently the poor woman's +sobs grew quieter, and she returned the pressure of Janetta's hand. + +"Thank you, my dear," she said at last. "You have a very kind heart. But +it is no use telling me to be comforted. I understand my sons, as I +understood my husband before them. They cannot help it. What is in the +blood will come out." + +"Surely," said Janetta, in a very low tone, "there is always the might +and the mercy of God to fall back upon--to help us when we cannot help +ourselves." + +"Ah, my dear, if I could believe in that I should be a happier woman," +said Mrs. Brand, sorrowfully. + +Janetta stayed a little longer, and when she went the elder woman +allowed herself to be kissed affectionately, and asked in a wistful +tone, as Julian had done, when she would come again. + +The girl was glad to find that the hall was empty when she crossed it +again. She had no fancy for encountering the insolent looks (as she +phrased it to herself) of Wyvis Brand and his hateful friends. But she +had reckoned without her host. For when she reached the gate into the +high-road, she found Mr. Brand leaning against it with his elbows +resting on the topmost bar, and his eyes gloomily fixed on the distant +landscape. He started when he saw her, raised his hat and opened the +gate with punctilious politeness. Janetta bowed her thanks, but without +any smile; she was not at all in charity with her cousin, Wyvis Brand. + +He allowed her to pass him, but before she had gone half a dozen yards, +he strode after her and caught her up. "Will you let me have a few words +with you?" he said, rather hoarsely. + +"Certainly, Mr. Brand." Janetta turned and faced him, still with the +disapproving gravity upon her brow. + +"Can't we walk on for a few paces?" said Wyvis, with evident +embarrassment. "I can say what I want to say better while we are +walking. Besides, they can see us from the house if we stand here." + +Privately Janetta thought that this would be no drawback, but she did +not care to make objections, so turned once more and walked on silently. + +"I want to speak to you," said the man, presently, with something of a +shamefaced air, "about the little scene you came upon this +afternoon----" + +"Yes," said Janetta. She did not know how contemptuously her lips curled +as she said the word. + +"You came at an unfortunate moment," he went on, awkwardly enough. "I +was about to interpose; I should not have allowed Jack Strangways to go +too far. Of course you thought that I did not care." + +"Yes," said Janetta, straightforwardly. Wyvis bit his lip. + +"I am not quite so thoughtless of my son's welfare," he said, in a +firmer tone. "There was enough in that glass to madden a child--almost +to kill him. You don't suppose I would have let him take that?" + +"I don't know. You were offering no objection to it when I came in." + +"Do you doubt my word?" said Wyvis, fiercely. + +"No. I believe you, if you mean really to say that you were not going to +allow your little boy to drink what Mr. Strangways offered him." + +"I do mean to say it"--in a tone of hot anger. + +Janetta was silent. + +"Have you nothing to say, Miss Colwyn?" + +"I have no right to express any opinion, Mr. Brand." + +"But I wish for it!" + +"I do not see why you should wish for it," said Janetta, coldly, +"especially when it may not be very agreeable to you to hear." + +"Will you kindly tell me what you mean?" The words were civil, but the +tone was imperious in the extreme. + +"I mean that whether you were going to make Julian drink that poisonous +stuff or not, you were inflicting a horrible torture upon him," said +Janetta, as hotly as Wyvis himself could have spoken. "And I cannot +understand how you could allow your own child to be treated in that +cruel way. I call it wicked to make a child suffer." + +Had she looked at her companion, she would have seen that his face had +grown a little whiter than usual, and that he had the pinched look about +his nostrils which--as his mother would have known--betokened rage. But +she did not look; and, although he paused for a moment before replying, +his voice was quite calm when he spoke again. + +"Torture? Suffering? These are very strong words when applied to a +little harmless teasing." + +"I do not call it harmless teasing when you are trying to make a child +break a promise that he holds sacred." + +"A very foolish promise!" + +"I am not so sure of that." + +"Do you mean to insult me?" said Wyvis, flushing to the roots of his +hair. + +"Insult you? No; certainly not. I don't know why you should say so!" + +"Then I need not explain," he answered drily, though still with that +flush of annoyance on his face. "Perhaps if you think over what you have +heard of that boy's antecedents, you will know what I mean." + +It was Janetta's turn to flush now. She remembered the stories current +respecting old Mr. Brand's drinking habits, and the rumors about Mrs. +Wyvis Brand's reasons for living away from her husband. She saw that her +words had struck home in a manner which she had not intended. + +"I beg your pardon," she said involuntarily; "I never meant--I never +thought--anything--I ought not to have spoken as I did." + +"You had much better say what you mean," was the answer, spoken with +bitter brevity. + +"Well, then, I will." Janetta raised her eyes and looked at him bravely. +"After all, I am a kinswoman of yours, Mr. Brand, and little Julian is +my cousin too; so I _have_ some sort of a right to speak. I never +thought of his antecedents, as you call them, and I do not know much +about them; but if they were--if they had been not altogether what you +wish them to be--don't you see that this very promise which you tried to +make him break was one of his best safeguards?" + +"The promise made by a child is no safeguard," said Wyvis, doggedly. + +"Not if he is forced to break it!" exclaimed Janetta, with a touch of +fire. + +They walked on in silence for a minute or two, and then Wyvis said, + +"Do you believe in a promise made by a child of that age?" + +"Little Julian has made me believe in it. He was so thoroughly in +earnest. Oh, Mr. Brand, do you think that it was right to force him to +do a thing against his conscience in that way?" + +"You use hard words for a very simple thing, Miss Colwyn," said Wyvis, +in a rather angry tone. "The boy was not forced--I had no intention of +letting him drink the brandy." + +"No," said Janetta, indignantly. "You only let him think that he was to +be forced to do it--you only made him lose faith in you as his natural +protector, and believe that you wished him to do what he thought wrong! +And you say there was no cruelty in that?" + +Wyvis Brand kept silence for some minutes. He was impressed in spite of +himself by Janetta's fervor. + +"I suppose," he said, at last, "that the fact is--I don't know what to +do with a child. I never had any teaching or training when I was a +child, and I don't know how to give it. I know I'm a sort of heathen and +savage, and the boy must grow up like me--that is all." + +"It is often said to be a heathen virtue to keep one's word," said +Janetta, with a half smile. + +"Therefore one that I can practice, you mean? Do you always keep your +word when you give it?" + +"I try to." + +"I wish I could get you to give your word to do one thing." + +"What is that?" + +Wyvis spoke slowly. "You see how unfit I am to bring up a child--I +acknowledge the unfitness--and yet to send him away from us would almost +break my mother's heart--you see that." + +"Yes." + +"Will not you sometimes look in on us and give us a word of advice +or--or--rebuke? You are a cousin, as you reminded me, and you have the +right. Will you help us a little now and then?" + +"You would not like it if I did." + +"Was I so very savage? I have an awful temper, I know. But I am not +quite so black as I'm painted, Miss Colwyn. I do want to do the best for +that boy--if I knew how----" + +"Witness this afternoon," said Janetta, with good-humored satire. + +"Well, that shows that I _don't_ know how. Seriously, I am sorry--I +can't say more. Won't you stand our friend, Cousin Janetta?" + +It was the first time he had addressed her in that way. + +"How often am I to be asked to be somebody's friend, I wonder!" said +Janetta to herself, with a touch of humor. But she answered, quite +gravely, "I should like to do what I can--but I'm afraid there is +nothing that I can do, especially"--with a sudden flush--"if your +friends--the people who come to your house--are men like Mr. +Strangways." + +Wyvis looked at her sideways, with a curious look upon his face. + +"You object to Mr. Strangways?" + +"He is a man whom most people object to." + +"Well--if I give up Mr. Strangways and his kind----" + +"Oh, _will_ you, Cousin Wyvis?" + +She turned an eager, sparkling face upon him. It occurred to him, almost +for the first time, to admire her. With that light in her eye, that +color in her cheek, Janetta was almost beautiful. He smiled. + +"I shall be only too glad of an excuse," he said, with more simplicity +and earnestness than she had as yet distinguished in his voice. "And +then--you will come again?" + +"I will--gladly." + +"Shake hands on it after your English fashion," he said, stopping short, +and holding out his own hand. "I have been so long abroad that I almost +forget the way. But it is a sign of friendliness, is it not?" + +Janetta turned and laid her hand in his with a look of bright and +trustful confidence. Somehow it made Wyvis Brand feel himself unworthy. +He said almost nothing more until they parted at Mr. Colwyn's door. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +SHADOWS. + + +But Janetta had not much chance of keeping her promise for some time to +come. She was alarmed to find, on her return home that evening, that her +father had come in sick and shivering, with all the symptoms of a +violent cold, followed shortly by high fever. He had caught a chill +during a long drive undertaken in order to see a motherless child who +had been suddenly taken ill, and in whose case he took a great interest. +The child rapidly recovered, but Mr. Colwyn's illness had a serious +termination. Pleurisy came on, and made such rapid inroads upon his +strength that in a very few days his recovery was pronounced impossible. +Gradually growing weaker and weaker, he was not able even to give +counsel or direction to his family, and could only whisper to Janetta, +who was his devoted nurse, a few words about "taking care" of the rest. + +"I will always do my very best for them, father; you may be sure of +that," said Janetta, earnestly. The look of anxious pain in his eyes +gave her the strength to speak firmly--she must set his mind at ease at +any cost. + +"My faithful Janet," she heard him whisper; and then he spoke no more. +With his hand still clasped in hers he died in the early morning of a +chill October day, and the world of Beaminster knew him no more. + +The world seemed sadly changed for Janetta when her father had gone +forth from it; and yet it was not she who made the greatest +demonstration of mourning. Mrs. Colwyn passed from one hysterical fit +into another, and Nora sobbed herself ill; but Janetta went about her +duties with a calm and settled gravity, a sober tearlessness, which +caused her stepmother to dub her cold and heartless half a dozen times a +day. As a matter of fact the girl felt as if her heart were breaking, +but there was no one but herself to bear any of the commonplace little +burdens of daily life which are so hard to carry in the time of trouble; +and but for her thoughtful presence of mind the whole house would have +degenerated into a state of chaos. She wrote necessary letters, made +arrangements for the sad offices which were all that could be rendered +to her father now, interviewed the dressmaker, and ordered meals for the +children. It was to her that the servants and tradespeople came for +orders; it was she who kept her mother's room quiet, and nursed Nora, +and provided necessary occupation for the awed and bewildered children. + +"You don't seem to feel it a bit, Janetta," Mrs. Colwyn said to her on +the day before the funeral. "And I'm sure you were always your father's +favorite. He never cared half so much for any of the children as he did +for you, and now you can't even give him a tributary tear." + +Mrs. Colwyn was fond of stilted expressions, and the thought of "a +tributary tear" seemed so incongruous to Janetta when compared with her +own deep grief, that--much to Mrs. Colwyn's horror--she burst into an +agitated little laugh, as nervous people sometimes do on the most solemn +occasions. + +"To laugh when your father is lying dead in the house!" ejaculated Mrs. +Colwyn, with awful emphasis. "And you that he thought so loving and +dutiful----!" + +Then poor Janetta collapsed. She was worn out with watching and working, +and from nervous laughter she passed to tears so heart-broken and so +exhausting that Mrs. Colwyn never again dared to accuse her openly of +insensibility. And perhaps it was a good thing for Janetta that she did +break down in this way. The doctor who had attended her father was +growing very uneasy about her. He had not been deceived by her apparent +calmness. Her white face and dark-ringed eyes had told him all that +Janetta could not say. "A good thing too!" he muttered when, on a +subsequent call, Tiny told him, with rather a look of consternation, +that her sister "had been crying." "A good thing too! If she had not +cried she would have had a nervous fever before long, and then what +would become of you all?" + +During these dark days Janetta was inexpressibly touched by the marks of +sympathy that reached her from all sides. Country people trudged long +distances into town that they might gaze once more on the worn face of +the man who had often assuaged not only physical but mental pain, and +had been as ready to help and comfort as to prescribe. Townsfolk sent +flowers for the dead and dainties for the living; but better than all +their gifts was the regret that they expressed for the death of a man +whom everyone liked and respected. Mr. Colwyn's practice, though never +very lucrative, had been an exceedingly large one; and only when he had +passed away did his townsfolk seem to appreciate him at his true worth. + +In the sad absorption of mind which followed upon his death, Janetta +almost forgot her cousins, the Brands. But when the funeral took place, +and she went with her brother Joe to the grave, as she insisted upon +doing in spite of her stepmother's tearful remonstrances, it was a sort +of relief and satisfaction to her to see that both Wyvis and Cuthbert +Brand were present. They were her kinsmen, after all, and it was right +for them to be there. It made her feel momentarily stronger to know of +their presence in the church. + +But at the grave she forgot them utterly. The beautiful and consoling +words of the Burial Service fell almost unheeded on her ear. She could +only think of the blank that was made in her life by the absence of +that loving voice, that tender sympathy, which had never failed her +once. "My faithful Janet!" he had called her. There was no one to call +her "my faithful Janet" now. + +She was shaken by a storm of silent sobs as these thoughts came over +her. She made scarcely a sound, but her figure was swayed by the tempest +as if it would have fallen. Joe, the young brother, who could as yet +scarcely realize the magnitude of the loss which he had sustained, +glanced at her uneasily; but it was not he, but Wyvis Brand, who +suddenly made a step forward and gave her--just in time--the support of +his strong arm. The movement checked her and recalled her to herself. +Her weeping grew less violent, and although strong shudders still shook +her frame, she was able to walk quietly from the grave to the +carriage-door, and to shake hands with Wyvis Brand with some attempt at +calmness of demeanor. + +He came to the house a few days after the funeral, but Janetta happened +to be out, and Mrs. Colwyn refused to see him. Possibly he thought that +some slight lurked within this refusal, for he did not come again, and a +visit at a later date from Mrs. Brand was so entirely embarrassing and +unsatisfactory that Janetta could hardly wish for its repetition. Mrs. +Colwyn, in the deepest of widow's weeds, with a white handkerchief in +her hand, was yet not too much overcome by grief to show that she +esteemed herself far more respectable than Mrs. Brand, and could "set +her down," if necessary; while poor Mrs. Brand, evidently comprehending +the reason of Mrs. Colwyn's bridlings and tossings, was nervous and +flurried, sat on the edge of a chair, and looked--poor, helpless, +elderly woman--as if she had never entered a drawing-room before. + +The only comfort Janetta had out of the visit was a moment's +conversation in the hall when Mrs. Brand took her leave. + +"My dear--my dear," said Mrs. Brand, taking the girl's hand in hers, "I +am so sorry, and I can't do anything to comfort you. Your father was +very kind to me when I was in great trouble, years ago. I shall never +forget his goodness. If there is anything I can ever do for you, you +must let me do it for his sake." + +Janetta put up her face and kissed the woman to whom her father had been +"very kind." It comforted her to hear of his goodness once again. She +loved Mrs. Brand for appreciating it. + +That little sentence or two did her more good than the long letters +which she was receiving every few days from Margaret, her chosen friend. +Margaret was sincerely grieved for Janetta's loss, and said many +consoling things in her sweet, tranquil, rather devotional way; but she +had not known Mr. Colwyn, and she could not say the words that Janetta's +heart was aching for--the words of praise and admiration of a nobly +unselfish life which alone could do Janetta any good. Yes, Margaret's +letters were distinctly unsatisfactory--not from want of feeling, but +from want of experience of life. + +Graver necessities soon arose, however, than those of consolation in +grief. Mr. Colwyn had always been a poor man, and the sum for which he +had insured his life was only sufficient to pay his debts and funeral +expenses, and to leave a very small balance at his banker's. He had +bought the house in Gwynne Street in which he lived, and there was no +need, therefore, to seek for another home; and Mrs. Colwyn had fifty +pounds a year of her own, but of course it was necessary that the two +elder girls should do something for themselves. Nora obtained almost +immediately a post as under-teacher in a school not far from Beaminster, +and Georgie was taken in as a sort of governess-pupil, while Joe was +offered--chiefly out of consideration for his father's memory--a +clerkship in a mercantile house in the town, and was considered to be +well provided for. Curly, one of the younger boys, obtained a nomination +to a naval school in London. Thus only Mrs. Colwyn, Tiny, and "Jinks" +remained at home--with Janetta. + +With Janetta!--That was the difficulty. What was Janetta to do? She +might probably with considerable ease have obtained a position as +resident governess in a family, but then she would have to be absent +from home altogether. And of late the Colwyns had found it best to +dispense with the maid-servant who had hitherto done the work of the +household--a fact which meant that Janetta, with the help of a charity +orphan of thirteen, did it nearly all herself. + +"I might send home enough money for you to keep an efficient servant, +mamma," she said one day, "if I could go away and find a good +situation." + +It never occurred either to her or to her stepmother that any of her +earnings were to belong to Janetta, or be used for her behoof. + +"It would have to be a very good situation indeed, then," said Mrs. +Colwyn, with sharpness. "I don't suppose you could get more than fifty +pounds a year--if so much. And fifty pounds would not go far if we had a +woman in the house to feed and pay wages to. No, you had better stay at +home and get some daily teaching in the neighborhood. With your +recommendations it ought to be easy enough for you to do so." + +"I am afraid not," said Janetta, with a little sigh. + +"Nonsense! You could get some if you tried--if you had any energy, any +spirit: I suppose you would like to sit with your hands before you, +doing nothing, while I slaved my fingers to the bone for you," said Mrs. +Colwyn, who never got up till noon, or did anything but gossip and read +novels when she was up; "but I would be ashamed to do that if I were a +well-educated girl, whose father spent I don't know how much on her +voice, and expected her to make a living for herself by the time she was +one-and-twenty! I must say, Janetta, that I think it very wrong of you +to be so slack in trying to earn a little money, when Nora and Georgie +and Joey are all out in the world doing for themselves, and you sitting +here at home doing nothing at all." + +"I am sorry, mamma," said Janetta, meekly. "I will try to get something +to do at once." + +She did not think of reminding Mrs. Colwyn that she had been up since +six o'clock that morning helping the charity orphan to scrub and scour, +cooking, making beds, sewing, teaching Tiny between whiles, and scarcely +getting five minutes' rest until dinner-time. She only began to wonder +how she could manage to get all her tasks into the day if she had +lessons to give as well. "I suppose I must sit up at night and get up +earlier in the morning," she thought to herself. "It is a pity I am such +a sleepy person. But use reconciles one to all things." + +Mrs. Colwyn meanwhile went on lecturing. + +"And above all things, Janetta, remember that you ask high terms and get +the money always in advance. You are just like your poor father in the +way you have about money; I never saw anyone so unpractical as he was. +I'm sure half his bills are unpaid yet, and never will be paid. I hope +you won't be like _him_, I'm sure----" + +"I hope I shall be like him in every possible respect," said Janetta, +with compressed lips. She rose as she spoke and caught up the basket of +socks that she was mending. "I don't know how you can bear to speak of +him in that slighting manner," she went on, almost passionately. "He was +the best, the kindest of men, and I cannot bear to hear it." And then +she hurriedly left the room and went into her father's little +surgery--as it had once been called--to relieve her overcharged heart +with a burst of weeping. It was not often that Janetta lost patience, +but a word against her father was sufficient to upset her self-command +nowadays. She rested her head against the well-worn arm-chair where he +used to sit, and kissed the back of it, and bedewed it with her tears. + +"Poor father! dear father!" she murmured. "Oh, if only you were here, I +could bear anything! Or if she had loved you as you deserved, I could +bear with her and work for her willingly--cheerfully. But when she +speaks against you, father dear, how _can_ I live with her? And yet he +told me to take care of her, and I said I would. He called me 'his +faithful Janet.' I do not want to be unfaithful, but--oh father, father, +it is hard to live without you!" + +The gathering shades of the wintry day began to gather round her; but +Janetta, her face buried in the depths of the arm-chair, was oblivious +of time. It was almost dark before little Tiny came running in with +cries of terror to summon her sister to Mrs. Colwyn's help. + +"Mamma's ill--I think she's dying. Come, Janet, come," cried the child. +And Janetta hurried back to the dining-room. + +She found Mrs. Colwyn on the sofa in a state of apparent stupor. For +this at first Janetta saw no reason, and was on the point of sending for +a doctor, when her eye fell upon a black object which had rolled from +the sofa to the ground. Janetta looked at it and stood transfixed. + +There was no need to send for a doctor. And Janetta saw at once that she +could not be spared from home. The wretched woman had found a solace +from her woes, real and imaginary, in the brandy bottle. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +JANETTA'S FAILURE. + + +The terrible certainty that Janetta had now acquired of Mrs. Colwyn's +inability to control herself decided her in the choice of an occupation. +She knew that she must, if possible, earn something; but it was equally +impossible for her to leave home entirely, or even for many hours at a +stretch; she was quite convinced that constant watching, and even gentle +restraint, could alone prevail in checking the tendency which her +stepmother evinced. She understood now better than she had ever done why +her father's brow had been so early wrinkled and his hair grey before +its time. Doubtless, he had discovered his wife's unfortunate tendency, +and, while carefully concealing it or keeping it within bounds, had +allowed it often to weigh heavily upon his mind. Janetta realized with a +great shock that _she_ could not hope to exert the influence or the +authority of her father, that all her efforts might possibly be +unavailing unless they were seconded by Mrs. Colwyn herself, and that +public disgrace might yet be added to the troubles and anxieties of +their lives. + +There is something so particularly revolting in the spectacle of this +kind of degradation in a woman, that Janetta felt as if the discovery +that she had made turned her positively ill. She had much ado to behave +to the children and the servant as if nothing were amiss; she got her +stepmother to bed, and kept Tiny out of the room, but the effort was +almost more than she knew how to bear. She passed a melancholy evening +with the children--melancholy in spite of herself, for she did her best +to be cheerful--and spent a sleepless night, rising in the morning with +a bad headache and a conviction as of the worthlessness of all things +which she did not very often experience. + +She shrank sensitively from going to Mrs. Colwyn's room. Surely the poor +woman would be overcome with pain and shame; surely she would understand +how terrible the exposure of her disgrace had been to Janetta. But at +last Mrs. Colwyn's bell sounded sharply, and continued to ring, and the +girl was obliged to run upstairs and enter her stepmother's room. + +Mrs. Colwyn was sitting up in bed, with the bell-rope in her hand, an +aggrieved expression upon her face. + +"Well, I'm sure! Nine o'clock and no breakfast ready for me! I suppose I +may wait until everybody else in the house is served first; I must say, +Janetta, that you are very thoughtless of my comfort." + +Contrary to her usual custom Janetta offered no word of excuse or +apology. She was too much taken aback to speak. She stood and looked at +her stepmother with slightly dilated eyes, and neither moved nor spoke. + +"What _are_ you staring at?" said Mrs. Colwyn, sinking back on her +pillows with a faint--very faint--touch of uneasiness in her tones. "If +you are in a sulky mood, Janetta, I wish you would go away, and send my +breakfast up by Ph[oe]be and Tiny. I have a wretched headache this +morning and can't be bothered." + +"What would you like?" said Janetta, with an effort. + +"Oh, anything. Some coffee and toast, perhaps. I dare say you won't +believe it--you are so unsympathetic--but I was frightfully ill last +night. I don't know how I got to bed; I was quite insensible for a +time--all from a narcotic that I had taken for neuralgia----" + +"I'll go and get your breakfast ready," said Janetta abruptly. "I will +send it up as soon as I can." + +She left the room, unheeding some murmured grumbling at her selfishness, +and shut the door behind her. On the landing it must be confessed that +she struck her foot angrily on the floor and clenched her hands, while +the color flushed into her mobile, sensitive little face. There was +nothing that Janetta hated more than a lie. And her stepmother was lying +to her now. + +She sent up the breakfast tray, and did not re-enter the room for some +time. When at last she came up, Mrs. Colwyn had had the fire lighted and +was sitting beside it in a rocking-chair, with a novel on her lap. She +looked up indolently as Janetta entered. + +"Going out?" she said, noticing that the girl was in her out-door wraps. +"You are always gadding." + +"I came to speak to you before I went out," said Janetta, patiently. "I +am going to the stationer's, and to the Beaminster _Argus_ Office. I +mean to make it well known in the town that I want to give music and +singing-lessons. And, if possible, I shall give them here--at our own +house." + +"You'll do nothing of the sort!" said Mrs. Colwyn, shrilly. "I'll not +have a pack of children about the house playing scales and singing their +Do, Re, Mi, till my head is fit to split. You'll remember, Miss, that +this is _my_ house, and that you are living on _my_ money, and behave +yourself." + +"Mamma," said Janetta, steadily, advancing a step nearer, and turning a +shade paler than she had been before, "please think what you are saying. +I am willing to work as hard as I can, and earn as much as I can. But I +dare not go away from home--at any rate for long--unless I can feel sure +that--that what happened last night--will not occur again." + +"What happened!--what happened last night?--I don't know what you mean." + +"Don't say that, mamma: you know--you know quite well. And think what a +grief it would have been to dear father--what a disgrace it will be to +Joe and Nora and the little ones and all of us--if it ever became known! +Think of yourself, and the shame and the sin of it!" + +"I've not the least notion what you are talking about, Janetta, and I +beg that you will not address me in that way," said Mrs. Colwyn, with an +attempt at dignity. "It is very undutiful indeed, and I hope that I +shall hear no more of it." + +"I'll never speak of it again, mamma, unless you make it necessary. All +I mean is that you must understand--I cannot feel safe now--I must be at +home as much as possible to see that Tiny is safe, and that everything +is going on well. You must please let me advertise for pupils in our own +house." + +Mrs. Colwyn burst into tears. "Oh, well, have your own way! I knew that +you would tyrannize, you always do whenever you get the chance, and very +foolish I have been to give you the opportunity. To speak in that way to +your father's wife--and all because she had to take a little something +for her nerves, and because of her neuralgia! But I am nobody now: +nobody, even in my own house, where I'm sure I ought to be mistress if +anybody is!" + +Janetta could do or say nothing more. She gave her stepmother a dose of +sal volatile, and went away. She had already searched every room and +every cupboard in the house, except in Mrs. Colwyn's own domain, and had +put every bottle that she could find under lock and key; but she left +the house with a feeling of terrible insecurity upon her, as if the +earth might open at any moment beneath her feet. + +She put advertisements in the local papers and left notices at some of +the Beaminster shops, and, when these attempts produced no results, she +called systematically on all the people she knew, and did her best--very +much against the grain--to ask for pupils. Thanks to her perseverance +she soon got three or four children as music pupils, although at a very +low rate of remuneration. Also, she gave two singing lessons weekly to +the daughter of the grocer with whom the Colwyns dealt. But these were +not paid for in money, but in kind. And then for a time she got no more +pupils at all. + +Janetta was somewhat puzzled by her failure. She had fully expected to +succeed as a teacher in Beaminster. "When the Adairs come back it will +be better," she said, hopefully, to herself. "They have not written for +a long time, but I am sure that they will come home soon. Perhaps +Margaret is going to be married and will not want any singing lessons. +But I should think that they would recommend me: I should think that I +might refer to Lady Caroline, and surely people would think more of my +abilities then." + +But it was not confidence in her abilities that was lacking so much as +confidence in her amiability and discretion, she soon found. She called +one day at the house of a schoolmistress, who was said to want +assistance in the musical line, and was received with a stiffness which +did not encourage her to make much of her qualifications. + +"The fact is, Miss Colwyn," said the preceptress at length, "I have +heard of you from Miss Polehampton." + +Janetta was on her feet in a moment. "I know very well what that means," +she said, rather defiantly. + +"Exactly. I see that Miss Polehampton's opinion of you is justifiable. +You will excuse my mentioning to you, as it is all for your own good, +Miss Colwyn, that Miss Polehampton found in you some little weakness of +temper, some want of the submissiveness and good sense which ought to +characterize an under-teacher's demeanor. I have great confidence in +Miss Polehampton's opinion." + +"The circumstances under which I left Miss Polehampton's could be easily +explained if you would allow me to refer you to Lady Caroline Adair," +said Janetta, with mingled spirit and dignity. + +"Lady Caroline Adair? Oh, yes, I have heard all about that," said the +schoolmistress, in a tone of depreciation. "I do not need to hear any +other version of the story. You must excuse my remarking, Miss Colwyn, +that temper and sense are qualities as valuable in music-teaching as in +any other; and that your dismissal from Miss Polehampton's will, in my +opinion, be very much against you, in a place where Miss Polehampton's +school is so well known, and she herself is so much respected." + +"I am sorry to have troubled you," said Janetta, not without +stateliness, although her lips trembled a little as she spoke. "I will +wish you good-morning." + +The schoolmistress bowed solemnly, and allowed the girl to depart. +Janetta hastened out of the house--glad to get away before the tears +that had gathered in her eyes could fall. + +At an ordinary time she would have been equally careful that they did +not fall when she was in the street; but on this occasion, dazed, +wounded, and tormented by an anxiety about the future, which was +beginning to take the spring out of her youth, she moved along the +side-walk with perfect unconsciousness that her eyes were brimming over, +and that two great tears were already on her cheeks. + +It was a quiet road, and there was little likelihood of encountering any +one whom she knew. Therefore Janetta was utterly abashed when a +gentleman, who had met her, took off his hat, glanced at her curiously, +and then turned back as if by a sudden impulse, and addressed her by +name. + +"Miss Colwyn, I think?" + +She looked up at him through a blinding haze of tears, and recognized +the tall, spare figure, the fine sensitive face, the kind, dark eyes and +intellectual forehead. The coal-black beard and moustache nearly hid +his mouth, but Janetta felt instinctively that this tell-tale feature +would not belie the promise of the others. + +"Sir Philip Ashley," she murmured, in her surprise. + +"I beg your pardon," he said, with the courtesy that she so well +remembered; "I stopped you on impulse, I fear, because I felt a great +desire to express to you my deep sympathy with you in your loss. It may +seem impertinent for me to speak, but I knew your father and respected +and trusted him. We had some correspondence about sanitary matters, and +I was greatly relying on his help in certain reforms that I wish to +institute in Beaminster. He is a great loss to us all." + +"Thank you," Janetta said unsteadily. + +"Will you let me ask whether there is anything in which I can help you +just now." + +"Oh, no, nothing, thank you." She had brushed away the involuntary tear, +and smiled bravely as she replied. "I did not think that I should meet +anybody: it was simply that I was disappointed about--about--some +lessons that I hoped to get. Quite a _little_ disappointment, you see." + +"Was it a little disappointment? Do you want to give lessons--singing +lessons?" + +"Yes; but nobody will have me to teach them," said Janetta, laughing +nervously. + +Sir Philip looked back at the house which they had just passed. "That is +Miss Morrison's school: you came out of it, did you not? Does she not +need your help?" + +"I do not suit her." + +"Why? Did she try your voice?" + +"Oh, no. It was for other reasons. She was prejudiced against me," said +Janetta, with a little gulp. + +"Prejudiced? But why?--may I ask?" + +"Oh, she had heard something she did not like. It does not matter: I +shall get other pupils by-and-bye." + +"Is it important to you to have pupils?" Sir Philip asked, as seriously +and anxiously as if the fate of the empire depended on his reply. + +"Oh, most important." Janetta's face and voice were more pathetic than +she knew. Sir Philip was silent for a moment. + +"I have heard you sing," he said at length, in his grave, earnest way. +"I am sure that I should have no hesitation in recommending you--if my +recommendation were of any use. My mother may perhaps hear of somebody +who wants lessons, if you will allow me to mention the matter to her." + +"I shall be very much obliged to you," said Janetta, feeling grateful +and yet a little startled--it did not seem natural to her in her sweet +humility that Sir Philip and his mother should interest themselves in +her welfare. "Oh, _very_ much obliged." + +Sir Philip raised his hat and smiled down kindly upon her as he said +good-bye. He had been interested from the very first in Margaret's +friend. And he had always been vaguely conscious that Margaret's +friendship was not likely to produce any very desirable results. + +Janetta went on her way, feeling for the moment a little less desolate +than she had felt before. Sir Philip turned homewards to seek his +mother, who was a woman of whom many people stood in awe, but whose +kindness of heart was never known to fail. To her Sir Philip at once +poured out his story with the directness and Quixotic ardor which some +of his friends found incomprehensible, not to say absurd. But Lady +Ashley never thought so. + +She smiled very kindly as her son finished his little tale. + +"She is really a good singer, you say? Mr. Colwyn's daughter. I have +seen him once or twice." + +"He was a good fellow." + +"Yes, I believe so. Miss Morrison's school, did you mention? Why, Mabel +Hartley is there." Mabel Hartley was a distant cousin of the Ashleys. "I +will call to-morrow, Philip, and find out what the objection is to Miss +Colwyn. If it can be removed I don't see why she should not teach Mabel, +who, I remember, has a voice." + +Lady Ashley carried out her intention, and announced the result to her +son the following evening. + +"I have not succeeded, dear. Miss Morrison has been prejudiced by some +report from Miss Polehampton, with whom Miss Colwyn and Margaret Adair +were at school. She said that the two girls were expelled together." + +Sir Philip was silent for a minute or two. His brows contracted. "I was +afraid," he said, "that Miss Adair's championship of her friend had not +been conducted in the wisest possible manner. She has done Miss Colwyn +considerable harm." + +Lady Ashley glanced at him inquiringly. She was particularly anxious +that he should marry Margaret Adair. + +"Is Lady Caroline at home?" her son asked, after another and a longer +pause. + +"Yes. She came home yesterday--with dear Margaret. I am sure, Philip, +that Margaret does not know it if she has done harm." + +"I don't suppose she does, mother. I am sure she would not willingly +injure any one. But I think that she ought to know the circumstances of +the case." + +And then he opened a book and began to read. + +Lady Ashley never remonstrated. But she raised her eyebrows a little +over this expression of Sir Philip's opinion. If he were going to try to +tutor Margaret Adair, whose slightest wish had never yet known +contradiction, she thought it probable that the much-wished for marriage +would never take place at all. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +A BONE OF CONTENTION. + + +Poor Janetta, plodding away at her music lessons and doing the household +work of her family, never guessed that she was about to become a bone of +contention. But such she was fated to be, and that between persons no +less distinguished than Lady Caroline Adair and Sir Philip Ashley--not +to speak of Sir Philip and Margaret! + +Two days after Janetta's unexpected meeting with Sir Philip, that +gentleman betook himself to Helmsley Court in a somewhat warm and +indignant mood. He had seen a good deal of Margaret during the autumn +months. They had been members of the same house-party in more than one +great Scottish mansion: they had boated together, fished together, +driven and ridden and walked together, until more than one of Lady +Caroline's acquaintances had asked, with a covert smile, "how soon she +might be allowed to congratulate".... The sentence was never quite +finished, and Lady Caroline never made any very direct reply. Margaret +was too young to think of these things, she said. But other people were +very ready to think of them for her. + +The acquaintance had therefore progressed a long way since the day of +Margaret's return from school. And yet it had not gone quite so far as +onlookers surmised, or as Lady Caroline wished. Sir Philip was most +friendly, most attentive, but he was also somewhat absurdly unconscious +of remark. His character had a simplicity which occasionally set people +wondering. He was perfectly frank and manly: he spoke without +_arrière-pensée_, he meant what he said, and was ready to believe that +other people meant it too. He had a pleasant and courteous manner in +society, and liked to be on friendly terms with every one he met; but at +the same time he was not at all like the ordinary society man, and had +not the slightest idea that he differed from any such person--as indeed +he did. He had very high aims and ideals, and he took it for granted, +with a really charming simplicity, that other people had similar aims +and similar (if not higher) ideals. Consequently he now and then ran his +head against a wall, and was laughed at by commonplace persons; but +those who knew him well loved him all the better for his impracticable +schemes and expectations. + +But to Margaret he seemed rather like a firebrand. He took interest in +things of which she had never heard, or which she regarded with a little +delicate disdain. A steam-laundry in Beaminster, for example--what had a +man like Sir Philip Ashley to do with a steam-laundry? And yet he was +establishing one in the old city, and actually assuring people that it +would "pay." He had been exerting himself about the drainage of the +place and the dwellings of the poor. Margaret was sorry in a vague way +for the poor, and supposed that drainage had to be "seen to" from time +to time, but she did not want to hear anything about it. She liked the +pretty little cottages in the village of Helmsley, and she did not mind +begging for a holiday for the school children (who adored her) now and +then; and she had heard with pleasure of Lady Ashley's pattern +alm-houses and dainty orphanage, where the old women wore red cloaks, +and the children were exceedingly picturesque; but as a necessary +consequence of her life-training, she did not want to know anything +about disease or misery or sin. And Sir Philip could not entirely keep +these subjects out of his conversation, although he tried to be very +careful not to bring a look that he knew well--a look of shocked +repulsion and dislike--to Margaret's tranquil face. + +She welcomed him with her usual sweetness that afternoon. He thought +that she looked lovelier than ever. The day was cold, and she wore a +dark-green dress with a good deal of gold embroidery about it, which +suited her perfectly. Lady Caroline, too, was graciousness itself. She +received him in her own little sitting-room--a gem of a room into which +only her intimate friends were admitted, and made him welcome with all +the charm of manner for which she was distinguished. And to add to her +virtues, she presently found that she had letters to write, and retired +into an adjoining library, leaving the door open between the two rooms, +so that Margaret might still be considered as under her chaperonage, +although conversation could be conducted without any fear of her +overhearing what was said. Lady Caroline knew so exactly what to do and +what to leave undone! + +As soon as she was gone, Sir Philip put down his tea-cup and turned with +an eager movement to Margaret. + +"I have been wanting to speak to you," he said. "I have something +special--something important to say." + +"Yes?" said Margaret, sweetly. She flushed a little and looked down. She +was not quite ignorant of what every one was expecting Sir Philip Ashley +to say. + +"Can you listen to me for a minute or two?" he said, with the +gentle eagerness of manner, the restrained ardor which he was +capable--unfortunately for him--of putting into his most trivial +requests. "You are sure you will not be impatient?" + +Margaret smiled. Should she accept him? she was thinking. After all, he +was very nice, in spite of his little eccentricities. And really--with +his fine features, his tall stature, his dark eyes, and coal-black hair +and beard--he was an exceedingly handsome man. + +"I want you to help me," said Sir Philip, in almost a coaxing tone. "I +want you to carry out a design that I have formed. Nobody can do it but +you. Will you help me?" + +"If I can," said Margaret, shyly. + +"You are always good and kind," said Sir Philip, warmly. "Margaret--may +I call you Margaret? I have known you so long." + +This seemed a little irregular, from Miss Adair's point of view. + +"I don't know whether mamma----" she began, and stopped. + +"Whether she would like it? I don't think she would mind: she suggested +it the other day, in fact. She always calls me 'Philip,' you know: +perhaps you would do the same?" + +Again Margaret smiled; but there was a touch of inquiry in her eyes as +she glanced at him. She did not know very much about proposals of +marriage, but she fancied that Sir Philip's manner of making one was +peculiar. And she had had it impressed upon her so often that he was +about to make one that it could hardly be considered strange if his +manner somewhat bewildered her. + +"I want to speak to you," said the young man, lowering his earnest voice +a little, "about your friend, Miss Colwyn." + +Now, why did the girl flush scarlet? Why did her hand tremble a little +as she put down her cup? Philip lost the thread of the conversation for +a minute or two, and simply looked at her. Then Margaret quietly took +down a screen from the mantel-piece and began to fan herself. "It is +rather hot here, don't you think?" she said, serenely. "The fire makes +one feel quite uncomfortable." + +"It _is_ a large one," said Sir Philip, with conviction. "Shall I take +any of the coal off for you? No? Well, as I was saying, I wished to +speak to you about your friend, Miss Colwyn." + +"She has lost her father lately, poor thing," said Margaret, +conversationally. "She has been very unhappy." + +"Yes, and for more reasons than one. You have not seen her, I conclude, +since his death?" + +"No, he died in August or September, did he not? It is close upon +December now--what a long time we have been away! Poor Janetta!--how +glad she will be to see me!" + +"I am sure she will. But it would be just as well for you to hear +beforehand that her father's death has brought great distress upon the +family. I have had some talk with friends of his, and I find that he +left very little money behind." + +"How sad for them! But--they have not removed?--they are still at their +old house: I thought everything was going on as usual," said Margaret, +in a slightly puzzled tone. + +"The house belongs to them, so they might as well live in it. Two or +three of the family have got situations of some kind--one child is in a +charitable institution, I believe." + +"Oh, how dreadful! Like Lady Ashley's Orphanage?" said Margaret, +shrinking a little. + +"No, no; nothing of that kind--an educational establishment, to which he +has got a nomination. But the mother and the two or three children are +still at home, and I believe that their income is not more than a +hundred a year." + +Sir Philip was considerably above the mark. But the mention of even a +hundred a year, though not a large income, produced little impression +upon Margaret. + +"That is not very much, is it?" she said, gently. + +"Much! I should think not," said Sir Philip, driven almost to +discourtesy by the difficulty of making her understand. "Four or five +people to live upon it and keep up a position! It is semi-starvation and +misery." + +"But, Sir Philip, does not Janetta give lessons? I should have thought +she could make a perfect fortune by her music alone. Hasn't she tried to +get something to do?" + +"Yes, indeed, poor girl, she has. My mother has been making inquiries, +and she finds that Miss Colwyn has advertised and done everything she +could think of--with very little result. I myself met her three or four +days ago, coming away from Miss Morrison's, with tears in her eyes. She +had failed to get the post of music-teacher there." + +"But why had she failed? She can sing and play beautifully!" + +"Ah, I wanted you to ask me that! She failed--because Miss Morrison was +a friend of Miss Polehampton's, and she had heard some garbled and +distorted account of Miss Colwyn's dismissal from that school." + +Sir Philip did not look at her as he spoke: he fancied that she would be +at once struck with horror and even with shame, and he preferred to +avert his eyes during the moment's silence that followed upon his +account of Janetta's failure to get work. But, when Margaret spoke, a +very slight tone of vexation was the only discoverable trace of any such +emotion. + +"Why did not Janetta explain?" + +Sir Philip's lips moved, but he said nothing. + +"That affair cannot be the reason why she has obtained so little work, +of course?" + +"I am afraid that to some extent it is." + +"Janetta could so easily have explained it!" + +"May I ask how she could explain it? Write a letter to the local paper, +or pay a series of calls to declare that she had not been to blame? Do +you think that any one would have believed her? Besides--you call her +your friend: could she exculpate herself without blaming you; and do you +think that she would do that?" + +"Without blaming _me_?" repeated Margaret. She rose to her full height, +letting the fan fall between her hands, and stood silently confronting +him. "But," she said, slowly--"I--I was not to blame." + +Sir Philip bowed. + +"You think that I was to blame?" + +"I think that you acted on impulse, without much consideration for Miss +Colwyn's future. I think that you have done her an injury--which I am +sure you will be only too willing to repair." + +He began rather sternly, he ended almost tenderly--moved as he could not +fail to be by the soft reproach of Margaret's eyes. + +"I cannot see that I have done her any injury at all; and I really do +not know how I can repair it," said the girl, with a cold stateliness +which ought to have warned Sir Philip that he was in danger of +offending. But Philip was rash and warm-hearted, and he had taken up +Janetta's cause. + +"Your best way of repairing it," he said, earnestly, "would be to call +on Miss Morrison yourself and explain the matter to her, as Miss Colwyn +cannot possibly do--unless she is a very different person from the one I +take her for. And if that did not avail, go to Miss Polehampton and +persuade her to write a letter----" + +He stopped somewhat abruptly. The look of profound astonishment on +Margaret's face recalled him to a sense of limitations. "Margaret!" he +said, pleadingly, "won't you be generous? You can afford to do this +thing for your friend!" + +"Go to Miss Morrison and explain! _Persuade_ Miss Polehampton!--after +the way she treated us! But really it is too ridiculous, Sir Philip. You +do not know my friend, Miss Colwyn. She would be the last person to wish +me to humiliate myself to Miss Polehampton!" + +"I do not see that what she wishes has much to do with it," said Sir +Philip, very stiffly. "Miss Colwyn is suffering under an injustice. I +ask you to repair that injustice. I really do not see how you can +refuse." + +Margaret looked as if she were about to make some mutinous reply; then +she compressed her lips and lowered her eyes for a few seconds. + +"I will ask mamma what she thinks," she said at last, in her usual even +tones. + +"Why should you ask her?" said Sir Philip, impetuously. "What +consultation is needed, when I simply beg you to be your own true +self--that noble, generous self that I am sure you are! Margaret, don't +disappoint me!" + +"I didn't know," said the girl, with proud deliberateness, "that you had +any special interest in the matter, Sir Philip." + +"I have this interest--that I love you with all my heart, Margaret, and +hope that you will let me call you my wife one day. It is this love, +this hope, which makes me long to think of you as perfect--always noble +and self-sacrificing and just! Margaret, you will not forbid me to +hope?" + +He had chosen a bad time for his declaration of love. He saw this, and +his accent grew more and more supplicating, for he perceived that the +look of repulsion, which he knew and hated, was already stealing into +Margaret's lovely eyes. She stood as if turned into stone, and did not +answer a word. And it was on this scene that Lady Caroline broke at that +moment--a scene which, at first sight, gave the mother keen pleasure, +for it had all the orthodox appearance of love-making: the girl, silent, +downcast, embarrassed; the man passionate and earnest, with head bent +towards her fair face, and hands outstretched in entreaty. + +But poor Lady Caroline was soon to be undeceived, and her castle in the +air to come tumbling down about her ears. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +SIR PHILIP'S OPINION. + + +"Is anything the matter?" said Lady Caroline, suavely. + +She had been undecided for a minute as to whether she had not better +withdraw unseen, but the distressed expression on her-daughter's face +decided her to speak. She might at least prevent Margaret from saying +anything foolish. + +Sir Philip drew back a little. Margaret went--almost hurriedly--up to +her mother, and put her hand into Lady Caroline's. + +"Will you tell him? will you explain to him, please?" she said. "I do +not want to hear any more: I would rather not. We could never understand +each other, and I should be very unhappy." + +Sir Philip made an eager gesture, but Lady Caroline silenced him by an +entreating glance and then looked straight into her daughter's eyes. +Their limpid hazel depths were troubled now: tears were evidently very +near, and Lady Caroline detested tears. + +"My darling child," she said, "you must not agitate yourself. You shall +hear nothing that you do not want to hear. Sir Philip would never say +anything that would pain you." + +"I have asked her to be my wife," said Sir Philip, very quietly, "and I +hope that she will not refuse to hear me say that, at least." + +"But that was not all," said Margaret, suddenly turning on him her +grieving eyes--eyes that always looked so much more grieved than their +owner felt--and her flushing, quivering face: "You told me first that I +was wrong--selfish and unjust; and you want me to humiliate myself--to +say that it was my fault----" + +"My dearest Margaret!" exclaimed Lady Caroline, in amaze, "what can you +mean? Philip, are we dreaming?--Darling child, come with me to your +room: you had better lie down for a little time while I talk to Sir +Philip. Excuse me a moment, Sir Philip--I will come back." + +Margaret allowed herself to be led from the room. This outbreak of +emotion was almost unprecedented in her history; but then Sir Philip had +attacked her on her tenderest side--that of her personal dignity. +Margaret Adair found it very hard to believe that she was as others are, +and not made of a different clay from them. + +Some little time elapsed before Lady Caroline's return. She had made +Margaret lie down, administered sal volatile, covered her with an +eiderdown quilt, and seen her maid bathing the girl's forehead with eau +de Cologne and water before she came back again. And all this took time. +She apologized very prettily for her delay, but Sir Philip did not seem +to heed her excuses: he was standing beside the fire, meditatively +tugging at his black beard, and Lady Caroline had some difficulty in +thinking that she could read the expression of his face. + +"I do not quite understand all this," she said, with her most amiable +expression of countenance, as she seated herself on the other side of +the soft white hearthrug. "Margaret mentioned Miss Colwyn's name: I am +quite at a loss to imagine how Miss Colwyn comes to be mixed up in the +matter." + +"I am very sorry," said Sir Philip, ruefully. "I never thought that +there would be any difficulty. I seem to have offended Margaret most +thoroughly." + +Lady Caroline smiled. "Girls soon forget a man's offences," she said, +consolingly. "What did you say?" + +And then Sir Philip, with some hesitation, told the story of his plea +for Janetta Colwyn. + +The smile was frozen on Lady Caroline's lips. She sat up straight, and +stared at her visitor. When he had quite ended his explanation, she +said, as icily as she knew how to speak-- + +"And you asked my daughter to justify Miss Colwyn at the cost of her own +feelings--I might almost say, of her own social standing in the +neighborhood!----" + +"Isn't that a little too strong, Lady Caroline? Your daughter's social +standing would not be touched in the least by an act of common justice. +No one who heard of it but would honor her for exculpating her friend!" + +"Exculpating! My dear Philip, you are too Quixotic! Nobody accuses +either of the girls of anything but a little thoughtlessness and +defiance of authority----" + +"Exactly," said Philip, with some heat, "and therefore while the report +of it will not injure your daughter, it may do irreparable harm to a +girl who has her own way to make in the world. The gossip of Beaminster +tea-tables is not to be despised. The old ladies of Beaminster are all +turning their backs on Miss Colwyn, because common report declares her +to have been expelled--or dismissed--in disgrace from Miss Polehampton's +school. The fact that nobody knows exactly _why_ she was dismissed adds +weight to the injury. It is so easy to say, 'They don't tell why she was +sent away--something too dreadful to be talked about,' and so on. My +mother tells me that there is a general feeling abroad that Miss Colwyn +is not a person to be trusted with young girls. Now that is a terrible +slur upon an innocent woman who has to earn her own living, Lady +Caroline; and I really must beg that you and Margaret will set +yourselves to remove it." + +"Really, Philip! Quite a tirade!" + +Lady Caroline laughed delicately as she spoke, and passed a lace +handkerchief across her lips as though to brush away a smile. She was a +little puzzled and rather vexed, but she did not wish to show her true +opinion of Sir Philip and his views. + +"And so," she went on, "you said all this to my poor child; harrowed her +feelings and wounded her self-respect, and insisted on it that she +should go round Beaminster explaining that it was her fault and not +Janetta Colwyn's that Miss Polehampton acted in so absurdly arbitrary a +manner!" + +"You choose to put it in that way," said Sir Philip, drawing down his +brows, "and I cannot very well contradict you; but I venture to think, +Lady Caroline, that you know quite well what I mean." + +"I should be glad if you would put it into plain words. You wish +Margaret--to do--what?" + +"I very much wish that she would go to Miss Morrison and explain to her +why Miss Colwyn left school. There is no need that she should take any +blame upon herself. You must confess that it was she who took the law +into her own hands, Lady Caroline; Miss Colwyn was perfectly ready to +submit. And I think that as this occurrence has been made the ground for +refusing to give Miss Colwyn the work that she urgently needs, it is +Miss Adair's plain duty to try at least to set the matter right. I do +not see why she should refuse." + +"You have no pride yourself, I suppose? Do you suppose that Mr. Adair +would allow it?" + +"Then you might do it for her, Lady Caroline," said Sir Philip, turning +round on her, with his winning, persuasive manner, of which even at that +moment she felt the charm. "It would be so easy for you to explain it +quietly to Miss Morrison, and ask her to give that poor girl a place in +her school! Who else could do it better? If Margaret is not--not quite +strong enough for the task, then will you not help us out of our +difficulty, and do it for her?" + +"Certainly not, Sir Philip. Your request seems to me exceedingly +unreasonable. I do not in the least believe that Miss Morrison has +refused to take her for that reason only. There is some other, you may +depend upon it. I shall not interfere." + +"You could at least give her a strong recommendation." + +"I know nothing about the girl except that she sings fairly well," said +Lady Caroline, in a hard, determined voice. "I do not want to know +anything about her--she has done nothing but make mischief and cause +contention ever since I heard her name. I begin to agree with Miss +Polehampton--it was a most unsuitable friendship." + +"It has been a disastrous friendship for Miss Colwyn, I fear. You must +excuse me if I say that it is hardly generous--after having been the +means of the loss of her first situation--to refuse to help her in +obtaining another." + +"I think I am the best judge of that. If you mean to insinuate, Sir +Philip, that your proposal for Margaret's hand which we have talked over +before, hinges on her compliance with your wishes in this instance, you +had better withdraw it at once." + +"You must be aware that I have no such meaning," said Sir Philip, in a +tone that showed him to be much wounded. + +"I am glad--for your own sake--to hear it. Neither Mr. Adair nor myself +could permit Margaret to lower herself by going to explain her past +conduct to a second-rate Beaminster schoolmistress." + +Sir Philip stood silent, downcast, his eyebrows contracting over his +eyes until--as Lady Caroline afterwards expressed it--he positively +scowled. + +"You disagree with me, I presume?" she inquired, with some irony in her +tone. + +"Yes, Lady Caroline, I do disagree with you. I thought that you--and +Margaret--would be more generous towards a fatherless girl." + +"You must excuse me if I say that your interest in 'a fatherless girl' +is somewhat out of place, Sir Philip. You are a young man, and it is not +quite seemly for you to make such a point of befriending a little music +governess. I am sorry to have to speak so plainly, but I must say that I +do not think such interest befits a gentleman, and especially one who +has been asking us for our daughter." + +"My love for Margaret," said Sir Philip, gravely, "cannot blind me to +other duties." + +"There are duties in the world," rejoined Lady Caroline, "between which +we sometimes have to choose. It seems to me that you may have to choose +between your love for Margaret and your 'interest' in Janetta Colwyn." + +"I hardly think," said her guest, "that I deserve this language, Lady +Caroline. However, since these are your opinions, I can but say that I +deeply regret them--and take my leave. If you or Miss Adair should wish +to recall me you have but to send me a word--a line: I shall be ready to +come. Your daughter knows my love for her. I am not yet disposed to give +up all hope of a recall." + +And then he took his leave with a manner of punctilious politeness +which, oddly enough, made Lady Caroline feel herself in the wrong more +than anything that he had said. She was more ruffled than Margaret had +ever seen her when at last she sought the girl's room shortly before the +ringing of the dressing-bell. + +She found Margaret looking pale and a little frightened, but perfectly +composed. She came up to Lady Caroline and put her arms round her +mother's neck with a caressing movement. + +"Dear mamma," she said, "I am afraid I was not quite polite to Sir +Philip." + +"I think, dear, that Sir Philip was scarcely polite to you. I am not at +all satisfied with his conduct. He is quite unreasonable." + +Margaret slowly withdrew her arms from her mother's neck, looked at her +uneasily, and looked down again. + +"He thinks that I ought to do something for Janetta--to make people +think well of her, I suppose." + +"He is utterly preposterous," said Lady Caroline. + +"Do you think I ought to go to Miss Morrison about Janetta, mamma?" + +"No, indeed, my dearest. Your father would never hear of it." + +"I should like to do all that I could for her. I am very fond of her, +indeed I am, although Sir Philip thinks me so selfish." And Margaret's +soft hazel eyes filled with tears, which fell gently over her delicate +cheeks without distorting her features in the least. + +"Don't cry, my darling; please don't cry," said her mother, anxiously. +"Your eyelids will be red all the evening, and papa will ask what is the +matter. Have you any rose water?--Of course you will do all you can for +your poor little friend: you are only too fond of her--too +generous!--Sir Philip does not understand you as I do; he has +disappointed me very much this afternoon." + +"He was very unkind," said Margaret, with the faintest possible touch of +resentment in her soft tones. + +"Think no more of him for the present, dear. I dare say he will be here +to-morrow, penitent and abashed. There goes the dressing-bell. Are you +ready for Markham now? Put on your pink dress." + +She spoke pleasantly, and even playfully, but she gave Margaret a +searching glance, as though she would have read the girl's heart if she +could. But she was reassured. Margaret was smiling now; she was as calm +as ever; she had brushed the tears from her eyes with a filmy +handkerchief and looked perfectly serene. "I am rather glad that you +have found Sir Philip unreasonable, mamma," she said, placidly; "I +always thought so, but you did not quite agree with me." + +"The child's fancy is untouched," said Lady Caroline to herself as she +went back to her room, "and I am thankful for it. She is quite capable +of a little romantic folly if nobody is near to put some common-sense +into her sometimes. And Philip Ashley has no common-sense at all." + +She was glad to see that at dinner Margaret's serenity was still +unruffled. When Mr. Adair grumbled at the absence of Sir Philip, whom he +had expected to see that evening, the girl only looked down at her plate +without a blush or a word of explanation. Lady Caroline drew her +daughter's arm through her own as they left the dining-room with a +feeling that she was worthy of the race to which she belonged. + +But she was not in the least prepared for the first remark made by +Margaret when they reached the drawing-room. + +"Mamma, I must go to see Janetta to-morrow." + +"Indeed, dear? And why?" + +"To find out whether the things that Sir Philip has been saying are +true." + +"No, Margaret, dear, you really must not do that, darling. It would not +be wise. What Sir Philip says does not matter to us. I cannot have you +interfering with Miss Colwyn's concerns in that way." + +Margaret was very docile. She only said, after a moment's pause-- + +"May I not ask her to give me the singing lessons we arranged for me to +take?" + +Lady Caroline considered for a minute or two and then said-- + +"Yes, dear, you may ask her about the singing lessons. In doing that you +will be benefiting her, and giving her a practical recommendation that +ought to be very valuable to her." + +"Shall I drive over to-morrow?" + +"No, write and ask her to come here to lunch. Then we can arrange about +hours. I have not the least objection to your taking lessons from +her ... especially as they are so cheap," said Lady Caroline to herself, +"but I do not wish you to talk to her about Miss Polehampton's conduct. +There is no use in such discussions." + +"No, mamma," said the dutiful Margaret. + +"And Sir Philip will be pleased to hear that his favorite is being +benefited," said her mother, with a slightly sarcastic smile. + +Margaret held up her stately head. "It matters very little to me whether +Sir Philip is pleased or not," she said with a somewhat lofty accent, +not often heard from the gentle lips of Margaret Adair. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +MARGARET'S FRIENDSHIP. + + +Margaret wrote her note to Janetta, and put her friend into something of +a dilemma. She always felt it difficult to leave Mrs. Colwyn alone for +many hours at a time. She had done her best to prevent her from +obtaining stimulants, but it was no easy thing to make it impossible; +and it was always dangerous to remove a restraining influence. At last +she induced an old friend, a Mrs. Maitland, to spend the day with her +stepmother, while she went to Helmsley Court; and having thus provided +against emergencies, she was prepared to spend some pleasant hours with +Margaret. + +The day was cold and frosty, with a blue sky overhead, and the ground +hard as iron underfoot. A carriage was sent for Janetta, and the girl +was almost sorry that she had to be driven to her destination, for a +brisk walk would have been more to her taste on this brilliant December +day. But she was of course bound to make use of the carriage that came +for her, and so she drove off in state, while Tiny and Jinks danced +wildly on the doorstep and waved their hands to her in hilarious +farewells. Mrs. Colwyn was secluding herself upstairs in high +indignation at Janetta's presumption--first, in going to Helmsley Court +at all, and, secondly, in having invited Mrs. Maitland to come to +dinner--but Janetta did her best to forget the vexations and anxieties +of the day, and to prepare herself as best she might for the serene +atmosphere of Helmsley Court. + +It was more than three months since her father's death, and she had not +seen Margaret for what seemed to her like a century. In those three +months she had had some new and sad experiences, and she almost wondered +whether Margaret would not think her changed beyond knowledge by the +troubles of the past. But in this fancy Janetta only proved herself +young at heart; in later years she found, as we all find, that the outer +man is little changed by the most terrible and heart-rending calamities. +It was almost a surprise to Janetta that Margaret did not remark on her +altered appearance. But Margaret saw nothing very different in her +friend. Her black mourning garments certainly made her look pale, but +Margaret was not a sufficiently keen observer to note the additional +depth of expression in Janetta's dark eyes, or the slightly pathetic +look given to her features by the thinning of her cheeks and the droop +of her finely curved mouth. Lady Caroline, however, noticed all these +points, and was quite aware that these changes, slight though they were, +gave force and refinement to the girl's face. Secretly, she was +embittered against Janetta, and this new charm of hers only added to her +dislike. But, outwardly, Lady Caroline was sweetness and sympathy +personified. + +"You poor darling," said Margaret, when she stood with Janetta in Miss +Adair's own little sitting-room, awaiting the sound of the luncheon +bell; "what you must have suffered! I have felt for you, Janetta--oh, +more than I can tell! You are quite pale, dear; I do hope you are better +and stronger than you were?" + +"I am quite well, thank you," said Janetta. + +"But you must have had so much to bear! If I lost my friends--my dear +father or mother--I know I should be broken-hearted. You are so brave +and good, Janetta, dear." + +"I don't feel so," said Janetta, sorrowfully. "I wish I did. It would be +rather a comfort sometimes." + +"You have a great deal of trouble and care, I am afraid," said Margaret, +softly. She was resolved to be staunch to her friend, although Sir +Philip had been so disagreeable about Janetta. She was going to show him +that she could take her own way of showing friendship. + +"There have been a good many changes in the family, and changes always +bring anxieties with them," said Janetta, firmly. She had particularly +resolved that she would not complain of her troubles to the Adairs; it +would seem like asking them to help her--"sponging upon them," as she +disdainfully thought. Janetta had a very fair share of sturdy pride and +independence with which to make her way through the world. + +Margaret would have continued the subject, but at that moment the bell +rang, and Janetta was glad to go downstairs. + +It was curious, as she remembered afterwards, to find that the splendors +of the house, the elaboration of service, now produced not the slightest +impression upon her. She had grown out of her former girlish feeling of +insignificance in the presence of powdered footmen and fashionable +ladies' maids. The choice flowers, the silver plate, the dainty +furniture and hangings, which had once excited and almost awed her +imagination, were perceived by her with comparative indifference. She +was a woman, not a child, and these things were but as toys to one who +had stood so lately face to face with the larger issues of life and +death. Mr. Adair and Lady Caroline talked pleasantly to her, utterly +ignoring, of course, any change in her circumstances or recent source of +trouble, and Janetta did her best to respond. It was by way of trying to +introduce a pleasant subject of conversation that she said at length to +her hostess-- + +"I met Sir Philip Ashley the other day. He is so kind as to say that he +will try to find me some pupils." + +"Indeed," said Lady Caroline, drily. She did not approve of the +introduction of Sir Philip's name or of Janetta's professional +employment. Margaret flushed a little, and turned aside to give her +mother's poodle a sweet biscuit. + +"Sir Philip is a kind, good fellow," said Mr. Adair, who had not been +admitted behind the scenes; "and I am sure that he will do what he can. +Do you know his mother yet? No? Ah, she's like an antique chatelaine: +one of the stateliest, handsomest old ladies of the day. Is she not, +Caroline?" + +"She is very handsome," said Lady Caroline, quietly, "but difficult to +get on with. She is the proudest woman I ever knew." + +The servants were out of the room, or she would not have said so much. +But it was just as well to let this presuming girl know what she might +expect from Sir Philip's mother if she had any designs upon him. +Unfortunately her intended warning fell unheeded upon Janetta's ear. + +"Is she, indeed?" said Mr. Adair, with interest. He was the greatest +gossip of the neighborhood. "She is one of the Beauchamps, and of course +she has some pride of family. But otherwise--I never noticed much pride +about her. Now, how does it manifest itself, do you think?" + +"Really, Reginald," said Lady Caroline, with her little smile; "how can +I tell you? You must surely have noticed it for yourself. With her +equals she is exceedingly pleasant; but I never knew anyone who could +repress insolence or presumption with a firmer hand." + +"What a pleasant person!" said Mr. Adair, laughing and looking +mirthfully at Margaret. "We shall have to be on our good behavior when +we see her, shall we not, my Pearl?" + +This turn of conversation seemed to Lady Caroline so unfortunate that +she rose from the table as soon as possible, and adjourned further +discussion of the Ashleys to another period. And it was after luncheon +that she found occasion to say to Janetta, in her softiest, silkiest +tones-- + +"Perhaps it would be better, dear Miss Colwyn, if you would be so very +kind as not to mention Sir Philip Ashley to Margaret unless she speaks +of him to you. There is some slight misunderstanding between them, and +Sir Philip has not been here for a day or two; but that it will be all +cleared up very shortly, I have not the slightest doubt." + +"Oh, I am sure I hope so! I am very sorry." + +"There is scarcely any occasion to be sorry; it is quite a temporary +estrangement, I am sure." + +Janetta looked at Margaret with some concern when she had an opportunity +of seeing her closely and alone, but she could distinguish no shade upon +the girl's fair brow, no sadness in her even tones. Margaret talked +about Janetta's brothers and sisters, about music, about her recent +visits, as calmly as if she had not a care in the world. It was almost a +surprise to Janetta when, after a little pause, she asked with some +hesitation-- + +"You said you saw Sir Philip Ashley the other day?" + +"Yes," answered Janetta, blushing out of sympathy, and looking away, so +that she did not see the momentary glance of keen inquiry which was +leveled at her from Margaret's hazel eyes. + +"What did he say to you, dear?" asked Miss Adair. + +"He spoke of my father--he was very kind," said Janetta, unconscious +that her answer sounded like a subterfuge in her friend's ears. "He +asked me if I wanted pupils; and he said that he would recommend me." + +"Oh," said Margaret. Then, after another little pause--"I daresay you +have heard that we are not friends now?" + +"Yes," Janetta replied, not liking to say more. + +For a moment Margaret raised her beautiful eyebrows. + +"So Sir Philip had told her _already_!" she said to herself, with a +little surprise. And she was not pleased with this mark of confidence on +Sir Philip's part. It did not occur to her that Lady Caroline had been +Janetta's informant. + +"I refused him," she said, quietly. "Mamma is vexed about it, but she +does not wish to force me to marry against my will, of course." + +"Oh, but surely, Margaret, dear, you will change your mind?" said +Janetta. + +"No, indeed," Margaret answered, slightly lifting her graceful head. +"Sir Philip is not a man whom I would ever marry." + +And then she changed the subject. "See what a dear little piano I have +in my sitting-room. Papa gave it to me the other day, so that I need not +practice in the drawing-room. And what about our singing lessons, +Janetta? Could you begin them at once, or would you rather wait until +after the Christmas holidays?" + +Janetta reflected. "I should like to begin them at once, dear, if I can +manage it." + +"Have you so many pupils, then?" Margaret asked quickly. + +"Not so very many; but I mean--I am afraid I cannot spare time to come +to Helmsley Court to give them. Do you go to Beaminster? Would you very +much mind coming to our house in Gwynne Street?" + +"Not at all," said Margaret, ever courteous and mindful of her friend's +feelings. "But I must speak to mamma. It may be a little difficult to +have the horses out sometimes ... that will be the only objection, I +think." + +But it seemed as if there were other objections. For Lady Caroline +received the proposition very coldly. It really took her aback.. It was +one thing to have little Miss Colwyn to lunch once a week, and quite +another to send Margaret to that shabby little house in Gywnne Street. +"Who knows whether the drains are all right, and whether she may not get +typhoid fever?" said Lady Caroline to herself, with a shudder. "There +are children in the house--they may develop measles or chicken-pox at +any moment--you never know when children of that class are free from +infection. And I heard an odd report about Mrs. Colwyn's habits the +other day. Oh, I think it is too great a risk." + +But when she said as much after Janetta's departure, she found Margaret +for once recalcitrant. Margaret had her own views of propriety, and +these were quite as firmly grounded as those of Lady Caroline. She had +treated Janetta, she considered, with the greatest magnanimity, and she +meant to be magnanimous to the end. She had made the gardener cut Miss +Colwyn a basket of his best flowers and his choicest forced fruit; she +had herself directed the housekeeper to see that some game was placed +under the coachman's box when Miss Colwyn was driven home; and she had +sent a box of French sweets to Tiny, although she had never seen that +young lady in her life, and had a vague objection to all Janetta's +relations. She felt, therefore, perfectly sure that she had done her +duty, and she was not to be turned aside from the path of right. + +"I don't think that I shall run into any danger, mamma," she said, +quietly. "The children are to be kept out of the way, and I shall see +nobody but Janetta. She said so, very particularly. I daresay she +thought of these things." + +"I don't see why she should not come here." + +"No, nor I. But she says that she has so much to do." + +"Then it could not be true that she had no pupils, as she told Sir +Philip," said Lady Caroline, looking at her daughter. + +Margaret was silent for a little time. Then she said, very +deliberately-- + +"I am almost afraid, mamma, that Janetta is not quite straightforward." + +"That was always my own idea," said Lady Caroline, rather eagerly. "I +never quite trusted her, darling." + +"We always used to think her so truthful and courageous," said Margaret, +with regret. "But I am afraid----You know, mamma, I asked her what Sir +Philip said to her, and she did not say a single word about having +talked to him of our leaving Miss Polehampton's. She said he had spoken +of her father, and of getting pupils for her, and so on." + +"Very double-faced!" commented Lady Caroline. + +"And--mamma, she must have seen Sir Philip again, because he had told +her that we--that I--that we had quarreled a little, you know." And +Margaret really believed that she was speaking the truth. + +"I think it is quite shocking," said Lady Caroline. "And I really do not +understand, dearest, why you still persist in your infatuation for her. +You could drop her easily now, on the excuse that you cannot go to +Beaminster so often." + +"Yes, I know I could, mamma," said Margaret, quietly. "But if you do not +mind, I would rather not do so. You see, she is really in rather +difficult circumstances. Her father has left them badly off, I suppose, +and she has not many advanced pupils in Beaminster. We always promised +that she should give me lessons; and if we draw back now, we may be +doing her real harm; but if I take--say, a dozen lessons, we shall be +giving her a recommendation, which, no doubt, will do her a great deal +of good. And after that, when she is 'floated,' we can easily drop her +if we wish. But it would be hardly kind to do it just now, do you +think?" + +"My darling, you are quite too sweet," said Lady Caroline, languidly. +"Come and kiss me. You shall have your way--until Easter, at any rate." + +"We should be giving Sir Philip no reason to blame us for want of +generosity, either," said Margaret. + +"Exactly, my pet." + +There was again a silence, which Margaret broke at last by saying, with +gentle pensiveness-- + +"Do you think that she will ask me to be her bridesmaid, mamma, if she +marries Sir Philip? I almost fancy that I should decline." + +"I should think that you would," said Lady Caroline. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +A NEW FRIEND. + + +Margaret's presents of fruit, flowers, and game conciliated Mrs. +Colwyn's good-will, and she made no objection when Janetta informed her +a few days later that Miss Adair's singing lessons were about to begin. +There was time for two lessons only before Christmas Day, but they were +to be continued after the first week in the New Year until Margaret went +to town. Janetta was obliged, out of sheer shame, to hide from Mrs. +Colwyn the fact that Lady Caroline had tried to persuade her to lower +the already very moderate terms of payment, on the ground that her +daughter would have to visit Gwynne Street for her lessons. + +However, the first lesson passed off well enough. Margaret brought more +gifts of flowers and game, and submitted gracefully to Janetta's +instructions. There was no time for conversation, for the carriage came +punctually when an hour had elapsed, and Margaret, as she dutifully +observed, did not like to keep the horses waiting. She embraced Janetta +very affectionately at parting, and was able to assure Lady Caroline +afterwards that she had not seen any other member of the family. + +Just as Miss Adair's carriage drove away from Mrs. Colwyn's door, +another--a brougham this time--was driven up. "The Colwyns must be +having a party," said a rather censorious neighbor, who was sitting with +a friend in the bow-window of the next house. "Or else they are having +very fine pupils indeed." "That's not a pupil," said her companion, +craning forward to get a better view of the visitor; "that's Lady +Ashley, Sir Philip Ashley's mother. What's she come for, I wonder?" + +Janetta wondered too. + +She was greatly impressed by Lady Ashley's personality. The lofty +forehead, the aquiline nose, the well-marked eyebrows, the decided chin, +the fine dark eyes, all recalled Sir Philip to her mind, and she said to +herself that when his hair became silvery too, the likeness between him +and his mother would be more striking still. The old lady's dignified +manner did not daunt her as Lady Caroline's caressing tones often did. +There was a sincerity, a grave gentleness in Lady Ashley's way of +speaking which Janetta thoroughly appreciated. "Lady Ashley is a true +_grande dame_, while Lady Caroline is only a fine lady," she said to +herself, when analyzing her feelings afterwards. "And I know which I +like best." + +Lady Ashley, on her side, was pleased with Janetta's demeanor. She liked +the plainness of her dress, the quiet independence of her manner, and +the subdued fire of her great dark eyes. She opened proceedings in a +very friendly way. + +"My son has interested me in your career, Miss Colwyn," she said, "and I +have taken the liberty of calling in order to ask what sort of teaching +you are willing to undertake. I may hear of some that will suit you." + +"You are very kind," Janetta answered. "I was music governess at Miss +Polehampton's, and I think that music is my strong point; but I should +be quite willing to teach other things--if I could get any pupils." + +"And how is it that you do not get any pupils?" + +Janetta hesitated, but a look into the old lady's benevolent face +invited confidence. She answered steadily-- + +"I am afraid that my sudden departure from Miss Polehampton's school has +prejudiced some people against me." + +"And could not somebody write to Miss Polehampton and get her to give +you a testimonial?" + +"I am afraid she would refuse." + +"And that is all Margaret Adair's fault, is it not?" said Lady Ashley, +shrewdly but kindly. + +She was amused to see the flush of indignation in Janetta's face. +"Margaret's fault? Oh no, Lady Ashley. It was not _Margaret's_ fault any +more than mine. We were both not very--not very respectful, perhaps, but +I was, if anything, much worse than Margaret. And she shared my fate +with me; she left when I did." + +"You are a staunch friend, I see. And are you friendly with her still?" + +"Oh yes," said Janetta, with enthusiasm. "She is so good--so kind--so +beautiful! She has been here to-day to have a singing lesson--perhaps +you saw her drive away just as you came up? She brought me these lovely +flowers this afternoon." + +There was a kindly look in Lady Ashley's eyes. + +"I am very glad to hear it," she said. "And now, my dear, would you mind +singing me something? I shall be better able to speak of your +qualifications when I have heard you." + +"I shall be very pleased to sing to you," said Janetta, and she sat down +to the piano with a readiness which charmed Lady Ashley as much as the +song she sang, although she sang it delightfully. + +"That is very nice--very nice indeed," murmured Lady Ashley. Then she +deliberated for a moment, and nodded her head once or twice. "You have +been well taught," she said, "and you have a very sympathetic voice. +Would you mind singing at an evening party for me in the course of the +winter? You will be seen and heard; and you may get pupils in that way." + +Janetta could but falter out a word of thanks. An introduction of this +sort was certainly not to be despised. + +"I will let you know when it takes place," said Lady Ashley, "and give +you a hint or two about the songs. Will two guineas an evening satisfy +you as you are a beginner?--for two songs, I mean? Very well, then, I +shall count upon you for my next evening party." + +She was rising to go, when the door was suddenly thrown open, and a +tall, untidy figure made its appearance in the aperture. The daylight +had almost faded, and the fire gave a very uncertain light--perhaps it +was for that reason that Mrs. Colwyn took no notice of Lady Ashley, and +began to speak in a thick, broken voice. + +"It's shameful, shameful!" she said. "Visitors all afternoon--never +brought them--t'see me--once. Singing and squalling all the time--not +able to get a wink--wink o' sleep----" + +"Oh, please, come away," said Janetta, going hurriedly up to the swaying +figure in the faded dressing-gown, and trying gently to force her +backwards. "I will tell you all about it afterwards; please come away +just now." + +"I'll not come away," said Mrs. Colwyn, thickly. "I want some +money--money--send Ph[oe]be for a drop o' gin----" + +"I'll go, my dear Miss Colwyn," said Lady Ashley, kindly. She was +touched by the despair in Janetta's face. "I can't do any good, I am +afraid. You shall hear from me again. Don't come to the door. Shall I +send my servants to you?" + +"Who's that? Who's that?" screamed the half-maddened woman, beginning to +fling herself wildly out of Janetta's restraining arms. "Let me get at +her, you bad girl! letting people into my house----" + +"Can you manage? Do you want help?" said Lady Ashley, quickly. + +"No, no, nothing; I can manage if you will only please go," Janetta +cried, in her desperation. And Lady Ashley, seeing that her departure +was really wished for, hurried from the house. And Janetta, after some +wrestling and coaxing and argument, at last succeeded in putting her +stepmother to bed, and then sat down and wept heartily. + +What would Lady Ashley think? And how could she now recommend pupils to +go to a house where a drunken woman was liable at any moment to appear +upon the scene? + +As a matter of fact, this was just what Lady Ashley was saying at that +moment to her son. + +"She is a thorough little gentlewoman, Philip, and a good musician; but, +with _such_ a connection, how can I send any one to the house?" + +"It was unlucky, certainly," said Sir Philip, "but you must remember +that you came unexpectedly. Her pupils' hours will be guarded, most +probably, from interruption." + +"One could never be sure. I have been thinking of sending Miss Bevan to +her. But suppose a _contretemps_ of this kind occurred! Poor Mary Bevan +would never get over it." + +"It is her stepmother, not her own mother," said Sir Philip, after a +little pause. "Not that that makes it much better for her, poor little +thing!" + +"I assure you, Philip, it went to my heart to see that fragile girl +struggling with that big woman. I would have helped her, but she +entreated me to go, and so I came away. What else could I do?" + +"Nothing, I suppose. There may be murder committed in that house any +day, if this state of things goes on." + +Lady Ashley sighed. Sir Philip walked about the room, with his hands in +his pockets and his head bent on his breast. + +"Margaret Adair had been there to-day," said his mother, watching him. + +Sir Philip looked up. + +"Why?" he said, keenly. + +"To take a singing lesson. She had brought flowers. Miss Colwyn spoke of +her very warmly, and when I touched on the subject of Miss Polehampton's +treatment, would not allow that Margaret had anything to do with it. She +is a very faithful little person, I should think." + +"Far more generous than Margaret," muttered her son. Then, sombrely, "I +never told you what happened at Helmsley Court the other day. Margaret +refused me." + +"Refused you--entirely?" + +"No appeal possible." + +"On what grounds?" + +"Chiefly, I think, because I wanted her to make reparation to Miss +Colwyn." + +"Then, Philip, she is not worthy of you." + +"She has had a bad training," he said, slowly. "A fine nature ruined by +indulgence and luxury. She has never been crossed in her life." + +"She will find out what it is to be crossed some day. My poor Phil! I am +very sorry." + +"We need not talk about it, mother, dear. You will be all in all to me +now." + +He sat down beside her, and took her hand in his, then kissed it with a +mingling of tenderness and respect which brought the tears to Lady +Ashley's eyes. + +"But I do not want to be all in all to you, you foolish boy," she +assured him. "I want to see you with a wife, with children of your own, +with family ties and interests and delights." + +"Not yet, mother," he answered in a low tone. "Some day, perhaps." + +And from the pained look in his dark eyes she saw that he suffered more +than he would have liked to own for the loss of Margaret. She said no +more, but her heart ached for her boy, and she was hardly able to +comfort herself with the recollection that Time heals all wounds--even +those that have been made by Love. + +Sir Philip had accepted Margaret's refusal as final. He had no reason to +hope that she would ever change her mind towards him. Perhaps if he had +known how large a part of her thoughts he occupied, in spite of her +declaration that she did not like him, he might have had some hope of a +more favorable hearing in the future. But he had no conception of any +under-current of feeling in Margaret Adair. She had always seemed to him +so frank, with a sweet, maidenly frankness, so transparent--without +shallowness, that he was thrown into despair when she dismissed him. He +was singularly ignorant of the nature of women, and more especially of +young girls. His mother's proud, upright, rather inflexible character, +conjoined with great warmth of affection and rare nobility of mind, had +given him a high standard by which to judge other women. He had never +had a sister, and was not particularly observant of young girls. It was +therefore a greater disappointment to him than it would have been to +many men to find that Margaret could be a little bit obstinate, a little +bit selfish, and not at all disposed to sacrifice herself for others. +She lowered his whole conception of womankind. + +At least, so he said to himself, as he sat that evening after dinner +over his library fire, and fell into a mood of somewhat sombre hue. What +poets and philosophers had said of the changeful, capricious, shallow, +and selfish nature of women was then true? His mother was a grand +exception to the rule, 'twas true; but there were no women like her now. +These modern girls thought of nothing but luxury, comfort, +self-indulgence. They had no high ideals, no thought of the seriousness +of life. + +But even as he made his hot accusation against women of the present day, +his heart smote him a little for his injustice. He certainly did know +one girl who was eminently faithful and true; who worked hard, and, as +he had just found out, suffered greatly--a girl whose true nobility of +mind and life was revealed to him as if by a lightning flash of +intuition. + +What a helpmate Janetta Colwyn would be to any man! Her bright +intelligence, her gift of song, her piquante, transitory beauty, her +honesty and faithfulness, made up an individuality of distinct +attractiveness. And yet he was not very much attracted. He admired her, +he respected her; but his pulses did not quicken at the thought of her +as they quickened when he thought of Margaret. Why should they indeed? +She was a country surgeon's daughter, of no particular family; she had +very undesirable connections, and she was very poor--there was nothing +in Janetta's outer circumstances to make her a fitting wife for him. And +yet the attraction of _character_ was very great. He wanted a wife who +would be above all things able to help him in his work--work of reform +and of philanthropy: a selfish, luxurious, indolent woman could be no +mate for him. Janetta Colwyn was the woman that he had been seeking +since first he thought of marriage; and yet--ah, there was nothing wrong +with her except that she was not Margaret. But of Margaret he must think +no more. + +Lady Ashley would have been very much astonished if she had known how +far her idolized son had gone that night along the road of a resolution +to ask Janetta Colwyn to be his wife. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +NORA'S PROCEEDINGS. + + +Janetta scarcely expected to hear from Lady Ashley again, and was not +surprised that days and weeks passed on in silence as regarded her +engagement to sing at the evening party. She did not reflect that +Christmas brought its own special duties and festivities, and that she +was not likely to be wanted until these were over. In the meantime, the +holidays began, and she had to prepare as best she could, though with a +heavy heart, for the homecoming of her brothers and sisters. There was +very little to "keep Christmas" upon; and she could not but be grateful +when her scanty store was enlarged by gifts from the Adairs, and also +(to her great astonishment) from Sir Philip Ashley and from Wyvis Brand. + +"Game, of course!" said Nora, whom she told of these windfalls on the +first night of the sisters' arrival from their school. "Well, I'm not +sorry: we don't often have grouse and woodcock at the luxurious table +of Miss Peacock & Co.; but from three people at once! it will surely be +monotonous." + +"Don't be ridiculous, Nora. Lady Caroline has sent me a turkey, and the +Brands have presented us with fowls and a side of home-cured bacon--very +acceptable too, I can tell you! It is only Sir Philip who has sent +game." + +"Ah, he is the fine gentleman of them all," said Nora, whose spirits +were high in spite of the depression that occasionally overcast the +whole family when they remembered that this Christmas would be spent +without their father's loving presence in their home. "The others are +commonplace! Have they been here lately?" + +"Wyvis Brand called when I was out, and did not come in. Mrs. Brand has +been." + +"Not the other one--Cuthbert?" said Nora, with great carelessness. + +"No. I think he has been in Paris." + +"And haven't you been there at all?" + +"I couldn't go, Nora. I have been too busy. Besides--there is something +that I must tell you--I wish I could put it off, but I want you to help +me." + +The two girls were in their bedroom, and in the darkness and stillness +of the night Janetta put her arms round Nora's neck and told her of her +mother's besetting weakness. She was surprised and almost alarmed at the +effect upon her stepsister. Nora shuddered two or three times and drew +several painful breaths; but she did not cry, and Janetta had expected +an agony of tears. It was in a low, strained voice that the girl said at +last-- + +"You say you have tried to hide it. Even if you have succeeded, it is +not a thing that can be hidden long. Everybody will soon know. And it +will go on from bad to worse. And--oh, Janetta, she is not your own +mother, but she is mine!" + +And then she burst at last into the fit of weeping for which Janetta had +been waiting. But it was more piteous than violent, and she seemed to +listen while Janetta tried to comfort her, and passively endured rather +than returned the elder sister's caresses. Finally the two girls fell +asleep in each other's arms. + +The effect upon Nora of this communication was very marked. She looked +pale and miserable for the next few days, and was irritable when her +depression was remarked. For the children's sakes, Janetta tried to make +a few mild festivities possible: she had a tiny Christmas tree in the +back dining-room, and a private entertainment of snapdragon on Christmas +Eve; and on Christmas Day afternoon the younger ones roasted chestnuts +in the kitchen and listened to the tales that nobody could tell half so +well as "dear old Janet." But Mrs. Colwyn openly lamented the +hard-heartedness thus displayed, and locked herself into her bedroom +with (Janetta feared) some private stores of her own; and Nora refused +to join the subdued joviality in the kitchen, and spent the afternoon +over a novel in the front sitting-room. From the state of her eyes and +her handkerchief at tea-time, however, Janetta conjectured that she had +been crying for the greater part of the time. + +It was useless to remonstrate with Mrs. Colwyn, but Janetta thought that +something might be done with her daughter. When Nora's depression of +spirits had lasted for some days, Janetta spoke out. + +"Nora," she said, "I told you of our trouble, because I thought that you +would help me to bear it; but you are making things worse instead of +better." + +"What do you mean?" asked Nora. + +"It is no use fretting over what cannot be helped, dear. If we are +careful we can do much to lessen the danger and the misery of it all. +Mamma has been much better lately: there has been nothing--no +outbreak--since Lady Ashley came. It is possible that things may be +better. But we must keep home cheerful, dear Nora: it does nobody any +good for you and me to look miserable." + +"But I feel so miserable," said Nora, beginning to cry again. + +"And is that the only thing we have to think of?" demanded Janetta, with +severity. + +"She is not _your_ mother," murmured the girl. + +"I know that, darling, but I have felt the trouble of it as much as I +think you can do." + +"That is impossible!" said Nora, sitting up, and pushing back the +disheveled blonde curls from her flushed face--she had been lying on her +bed when Janetta found her and remonstrated; "quite impossible. Because +you are not of her blood, not of her kith and kin: and for me--for all +of us--it is worse, because people can always point to us, and say, 'The +taint is in their veins: their mother drank--they may drink, too, one +day,' and we shall be always under a ban!" + +Janetta was struck by the fact that Nora looked at the matter entirely +from her own point of view--that very little affection for her mother +was mingled with the shame and the disgrace that she felt. Mrs. Colwyn +had never gained her children's respect; and when the days of babyhood +were over she had not retained their love. Nora was hurt, indignant, +ashamed; but she shrank from her mother more than she pitied her. + +"What do you mean by 'under a ban?'" Janetta asked, after a little +silence. + +Nora colored hotly. + +"I mean," she said, looking down and fingering her dress nervously; "I +mean--that--if any of us wanted to get married----" + +Janetta laughed a little. "Hadn't we better wait until the opportunity +arises" she said, half-satirically, half affectionately. + +"Oh, you don't know!" exclaimed Nora, giving her shoulders a little +impatient twist. "I may have had the opportunity already, for all you +know!" + +Janetta's tone changed instantly. "Nora, dear, have you anything of that +sort to tell me? Won't you trust me?" + +"Oh, there's nothing to tell. It's only--Cuthbert." + +"Cuthbert Brand! Nora! what do you know of him?" + +"Didn't you know?" said Nora, demurely. "He teaches drawing at Mrs. +Smith's school." + +"Teaches--but, Nora, why does he teach?" + +"He is an artist: I suppose he likes it." + +"How long has he been teaching there?" + +"Soon after I went first," said Nora, casting down her eyes. There was a +little smile upon her face, as though she were not at all displeased at +the confession. But a cold chill crept into Janetta's heart. + +"Has it been a scheme--a plot, then? Did you suggest to him that he +should come--and pretend that he was a stranger." + +"Oh, Janetta, don't look so solemn! No, I did not suggest it. He met me +one day when I was out with Georgie shopping, and he walked with us for +a little way and found out where we lived, and all about us. And then I +heard from Mrs. Smith that she had arranged with him to teach drawing to +the girls. She did not know who he was, except that he had all sorts of +medals and certificates and things, and that he had exhibited in the +Royal Academy." + +"And you did not say to her openly that he was a connection of yours?" + +"He isn't," said Nora, petulantly. "He is _your_ connection, not mine. +There was no use in saying anything, only Georgie used to giggle so +dreadfully when he came near her that I was always afraid we should be +found out." + +"You might at least have left Georgie out of your plot," said Janetta, +who was very deeply grieved at Nora's revelations. "I always thought +that _she_ was straightforward." + +"You needn't be so hard on us, Janetta," murmured Nora. "I'm sure we did +not mean to be anything but straightforward." + +"It was not straightforward to conceal your acquaintance with Mr. +Cuthbert Brand from Mrs. Smith. Especially," said Janetta, looking +steadily at her sister, "if you had any idea he came there to see you." + +She seemed to wait for an answer, and Nora felt obliged to respond. + +"He never said so. But, of course"--with a little pout--"Georgie and I +knew quite well. He used to send me lovely flowers by post--he did not +write to me, but I knew where they came from, for he would sometimes put +his initials inside the lid; and he always looked at my drawings a great +deal more than the others--and he--he looked at me too, Janetta, and you +need not be so unbelieving." + +There was such a curious little touch of Mrs. Colwyn's irritability in +Nora's manner at that moment that Janetta stood and looked at her +without replying, conscious only of a great sinking at the heart. Vain, +affected, irresponsible, childish!--were all these qualities to appear +in Nora, as they had already appeared in her mother, to lead her to +destruction? Mr. Colwyn's word of warning with respect to Nora flashed +into her mind. She brought herself to say at last, with dry lips-- + +"This must not go on." + +Nora was up in arms in a moment. "What must not go on? There is nothing +to stop. We have done nothing wrong!" + +"Perhaps not," said Janetta, slowly. "Perhaps there is nothing worse +than childish folly and deceit on _your_ part, but I think that Mr. +Cuthbert Brand is not acting in an honorable manner at all. Either you +must put a stop to it, Nora, or I shall." + +"What can I do, I should like to know?" + +"You had better tell Mrs. Smith," said the elder sister, "that Mr. Brand +is a second-cousin of mine. That the connection was so distant that you +had not thought of mentioning it until I pointed out to you that you +ought to do so, and that you hope she will pardon you for what will +certainly seem to her very underhand conduct." + +Nora shrank a little. "Oh, I can't do that, Janetta: I really can't. She +would be so angry!" + +"There is another way, then: you must tell Cuthbert Brand not to send +you any more flowers, and ask him to give no more drawing lessons at +that school." + +"Oh, Janetta, I _can't_. He has never said that he came to see me, and +it would look as if I thought----" + +"What you do think in your heart," said Janetta. Then, thinking that she +had been a little brutal, she added, more gently--"But there is perhaps +no need to decide to-day or to-morrow what we are to do. We can think +over it and see if there is a better way. All that I am determined upon +is that your doings must be fair and open." + +"And you won't speak to anybody else about it, will you?" said Nora, +rather relieved by this respite, and hoping to elude Janetta's vigilance +still. + +"I shall promise nothing," Janetta answered. "I must think about it." + +She turned to leave the room, but was arrested by a burst of sobbing and +a piteous appeal. + +"You are very unkind, Janetta. I thought that you would have +sympathized." + +Janetta stood still and sighed. "I don't know what to say, Nora," she +said. + +"You are very cold--very hard. You do not care one bit what I feel." + +Perhaps, thought Janetta, the reproach had some truth in it. At any rate +she went quietly out of the room and closed the door, leaving Nora to +cry as long and as heartily as she pleased. + +The elder sister went straight to Georgie. That young person, frank and +boisterous by nature, was not given to deceit, and, although she was +reluctant at first to betray Nora's confidence, she soon acknowledged +that it was a relief to her to speak the truth and the whole truth to +Janetta. Her account tallied in the main with the one given by Nora. +There did not seem to have been more than a little concealment, a little +flirting, a little folly; but Janetta was aghast to think of the extent +to which Nora might have been compromised, and indignant at Cuthbert +Brand's culpable thoughtlessness--if it was nothing worse. + +"What people have said of the Brands is true," she declared vehemently +to herself. "They work mischief wherever they go; they have no goodness, +no pity, no feeling of right and wrong. I thought that Cuthbert looked +good, but he is no better than the others, and there is nothing to be +hoped from any of them. And father told me to take care of his +children--and I promised. What can I do? His 'faithful Janetta' cannot +leave them to take their own way--to go to ruin if they please! Oh, my +poor Nora! You did not mean any harm, and perhaps I _was_ hard on you!" + +She relieved herself by a few quiet but bitter tears; and then she was +forced to leave the consideration of the matter for the present, as +there were many household duties to attend to which nobody could manage +but herself. + +When she was again able to consider the matter, however, she began to +make up her mind that she must act boldly and promptly if she meant to +act at all. Nora had no father, and practically no mother: Janetta must +be both at once, if she would fulfil her ideal of duty. And by degrees a +plan of action formed itself in her mind. She would go to the Brands' +house, and ask for Cuthbert himself. Certainly she had heard that he was +in Paris, but surely he would have returned by this time--for New Year's +Day if not for Christmas Day! She would see him and ask him to +forbear--ask him not to send flowers to her little sister, who was too +young for such attentions--to herself Janetta added, "and too silly." He +could be only amusing himself--and he should not amuse himself at Nora's +expense. He had a nice face, too, she could not help reflecting, he did +not look like a man who would do a wanton injury to a fatherless girl. +Perhaps, after all, there was some mistake. + +And if she could not see him, she would see Mrs. Brand. The mother +would, no doubt, help her: she had been always kind. Of Wyvis Brand she +scarcely thought. She hoped that she might not see him--she had never +spoken to him, she remembered, since the day when he had asked her to be +his friend. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +AN ELDER BROTHER. + + +She did not say a word to Nora about her scheme. The next day--it was +the third of January, as she afterwards remembered--was bright and +clear, a good day for walking. She told her sisters that she had +business abroad, and gave them the directions respecting the care of +their house and their mother that she thought they needed; then set +forth to walk briskly from Gwynne Street to the old Red House. + +She purposely chose the morning for her expedition. She was not making a +call--she was going on business. She did not mean to ask for Mrs. Brand +even, first of all; she intended to ask for Mr. Cuthbert Brand. Wyvis +would probably be out; but Cuthbert, with his sedentary habits and his +slight lameness, was more likely to be at home painting in the brilliant +morning light than out of doors. + +It was nearly twelve o'clock when she reached her destination. She went +through the leafless woods, for that was the shortest way and the +pleasantest--although she had thought little of pleasantness when she +came out, but still it was good to hear the brittle twigs snap under her +feet, and note the slight coating of frost that made the rims of the +dead leaves beautiful--and it was hardly a surprise to her to hear a +child's laugh ring out on the air at the very spot where, months before, +she and Nora had found little Julian Brand. A moment later the boy +himself came leaping down the narrow woodland path towards her with a +noisy greeting; and then--to Janetta's vexation and dismay--instead of +nurse or grandmother, there emerged from among the trees the figure of +the child's father, Wyvis Brand. He had a healthier and more cheerful +look than when she saw him last: he was in shooting coat and +knickerbockers, and he had a gun in his hand and a couple of dogs at his +heels. He lifted his hat and smiled, as if suddenly pleased when he saw +her, but his face grew grave as he held out his hand. Both thought +instinctively of their last meeting at her father's grave, and both +hastened into commonplace speech in order to forget it. + +"I am glad to see you again. I hope you are coming to our place," he +said. And she-- + +"I hope Mrs. Brand is well. Is she at home?" + +"No, she's not," said little Julian, with the frank fearlessness of +childhood. "She's gone out for the whole day with Uncle Cuthbert, and +father and I are left all by ourselves; and father has let me come out +with him; haven't you, father?" He looked proudly at his father, and +then at Janetta, while he spoke. + +"So it appears," said Wyvis, with a queer little smile. + +"Grandmother said I was to take care of father, so I'm doing it," Julian +announced. "Father thinks I'm a brave boy now--not a milksop. He said I +was a milksop, you know, the last time you came here." + +"Come, young man, don't you chatter so much," said his father, with a +sort of rough affectionateness, which struck Janetta as something new. +"You run on with the dogs, and tell the servants to get some wine or +milk or something ready for Miss Colwyn. I'm sure you are tired," he +said to her, in a lower tone, with a searching glance at her pale face. + +It was hardly fatigue so much as disappointment that made Janetta pale. +She had not expected to find both Mrs. Brand and Cuthbert out, and the +failure of her plan daunted her a little, for she did not often find it +an easy thing to absent herself from home for several hours. + +"I am not tired," said Janetta, unsteadily, "but I thought I should find +them in--Mrs. Brand, I mean----" + +"Did you want to see them--my mother, I mean--particularly?" asked +Wyvis, either by accident or intention seeming to parody her words. + +"I have not seen her for a long time." Janetta evaded giving a direct +answer. "I thought that I should have had a little talk with her. If she +is out, I think that I had better turn back." + +"You had better rest for a little while," he said. "It is a long walk, +and in spite of what you may say, you do look tired. If you have +business with my mother, perhaps I may do as well. She generally leaves +all her business to me." + +"No," said Janetta, with considerable embarrassment of manner. "It is +nothing--I can come another time." + +He looked at her for a moment as if she puzzled him. + +"You have been teaching music in Beaminster, I believe?" + +"Yes--and other things." + +"May I ask what other things?" + +Janetta smiled. "I have a little sister, Tiny," she said, "and I teach +her everything she learns. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, you know. +And a neighbor's little boy comes in and learns with her." + +"I have been wondering," said Wyvis, "whether you would care to do +anything with that boy of mine." + +"That dear little Julian? Oh, I should be glad," said Janetta, more +freely than she had yet spoken. "He is such a sweet little fellow." + +"He has a spirit of his own, as you know," said the father, with rather +an unwilling smile. "He is not a bad little chap; but he has lately +attached himself a good deal to me, and I have to go into the stables +and about the land a good deal, and I don't think it's altogether good +for him. I found him"--apologetically--"using some very bad language the +other day. Oh, you needn't be afraid; he won't do it again; I think I +thrashed it out of him--" + +"Oh, that's worse!" said Janetta, reproachfully. + +"What do you mean?" + +"To strike a little fellow like that, when he did not know that what he +was saying was wrong! And why did you take him where he would hear +language of that kind? Wasn't it more your fault than his?" + +Wyvis bent his head and shrugged his shoulders. "If the truth were +known, I dare say he heard me use it," he said dryly. "I'm not +mealy-mouthed myself. However, I've taught him that he must not do it." + +"Have you, indeed? And don't you think that example will prove stronger +than precept, or even than thrashing?" said Janetta. "If you want to +teach him not to use bad words, you had better not use them yourself, +Mr. Brand." + +"Mr. Brand?" said Wyvis; "I thought it was to be Cousin Wyvis. But I've +disgusted you; no wonder. I told you long ago that I did not know how to +bring up a child. I asked you to help us--and you have not been near the +place for months." + +"How could I help you, if you mean to train him by oaths and blows?" +asked Janetta. + +"That's plain speaking, at any rate," he said. "Well, I don't mind; in +fact, I might say that I like you the better for it, if you'll allow me +to go so far. I don't know whether you're right or not. Of course it +won't do for him to talk as I do while he's a baby, but later on it +won't signify; and a thrashing never did a boy any harm." + +"Do you mean that you are in the habit of swearing?" said Janetta, with +a direct simplicity, which made Wyvis smile and wince at the same time. + +"No, I don't," he said. "I always disliked the habit, and I was +determined that Julian shouldn't contract it. But I've lived in a set +that was not over particular; and I suppose I fell into their ways now +and then." + +"Apart from the moral point of view, no _gentleman_ ever does it!" said +Janetta, hotly. + +"Perhaps not. Perhaps I'm not a gentleman. My relations, the publicans +of Roxby, certainly were not. The bad strain in us will out, you see." + +"Oh, Cousin Wyvis, I did not mean that," said Janetta, now genuinely +distressed. "It is only that--I do wish you would not talk in that +way--use those words, I mean. Julian is sure to catch them up, and you +see yourself that that would be a pity." + +"I am to govern my tongue then for Julian's sake?" + +"Yes, and for your own." + +"Do you _care_ whether I govern it or not, Janetta?" + +How oddly soft and tender his voice had grown! + +"Yes, I do care," she answered, not very willingly, but compelled to +truthfulness by her own conscience and his constraining gaze. + +"Then I swear I will," he exclaimed, impetuously. "It is something to +find a woman caring whether one is good or bad, and I won't prove myself +utterly unworthy of your care." + +"There is your mother: _she_ cares." + +"Oh, yes, she cares, poor soul, but she cries over my sins instead of +fighting them. Fighting is not her _métier_, you know. Now, you--you +fight well." + +"That is a compliment, I suppose?" said Janetta, laughing a little and +coloring--not with displeasure--at his tone. + +"Yes," he said; "I like the fighting spirit." + +They had been walking slowly along the path, and now they had reached +the gate that opened into the grounds. Here, as he opened it, Janetta +hesitated, and then stopped short. + +"I think I had better make the best of my way back," she said. "It is +getting late." + +"Not much after twelve. Are we not friends again?" + +"Oh yes." + +"And will you think over what I said about my boy?" + +"Do you really mean it?" + +"Most decidedly. You couldn't come here, I suppose--you wouldn't leave +home?" + +"No, I could not do that. How would he get to me every day?" + +"I would bring him myself, or send him in the dog-cart. I or my brother +would look after that." Then, seeing a sudden look of protest in +Janetta's face, he added quickly--"You don't like that?" + +"It is nothing," said Janetta, looking down. + +"Is it to me or to my brother that you object?" + +He smiled as he spoke, but, a little to his surprise, Janetta kept +silence, and did not smile. Wyvis Brand was a man of very quick +perceptions, and he saw at once that if she seemed troubled she had a +reason for it. + +"Has Cuthbert offended you?" he asked. + +"I have only spoken to him once--four months ago." + +"That is no answer. What has he been about? I have some idea, you know," +said Wyvis, coolly, "because I came across some sketches of his which +betrayed where his thoughts were straying. Your pretty sister quite +captivated him, I believe. Has he been getting up a flirtation?" + +"I suppose it is a joke to him and to you," said Janetta, almost +passionately, "but it is no joke to us. Yes, I came to speak to him or +to your mother about it. Either she must leave the school where she is +teaching, or he must let her alone." + +"You had better not speak to my mother; it will only worry her. Come in, +and tell me about it," said Wyvis, opening the gate, and laying his hand +gently on her arm. + +She did not resent his tone of mastery. In spite of the many faults and +errors that she discerned in him, it always seemed to her that a warmer +and finer nature lay below the outside trappings of roughness and +coldness than was generally perceptible. And when this better nature +came to the front, it brought with it a remembrance of the tie of +kinship, and Janetta's heart softened to him at once. + +He took her into a room which she guessed to be his own private +sanctum--a thoroughly untidy place, littered with books, papers, tools, +weapons, gardening implements, pipes and tobacco jars, in fine +confusion. He had to clear away a pile of books from a chair before she +could sit down. Then he planted himself on a corner of the solid, square +oak table in the middle of the room, and prepared to listen to her +story. Julian, who interrupted them once, was ordered out of the room +again in such a peremptory tone that Janetta was somewhat startled. But +really the boy did not seem to mind. + +By dint of leading questions he drew from her an outline of the facts of +the case, but she softened them, for Nora's sake, as much as possible. +She looked at him anxiously when she had done, to see whether he was +angry. + +"You know," she said, "I don't want to sow dissension of any kind +between you." + +Wyvis smiled. "I know you don't. But I assure you Cuthbert and I never +quarreled in our lives. That is not one of the sins you can lay to my +charge. He is a whimsical fellow, and I suspect that this has been one +of his freaks--not meaning to hurt anybody. If you leave him to me, I'll +stop the drawing-lessons at any rate, and probably the flowers." + +"Don't let him think that Nora cares," she said. "She is quite a +child--if he had sent her bonbons she would have liked them even better +than flowers." + +"I understand. I will do my best--as you are so good as to trust me," he +answered, lowering his voice. + +A little silence fell between them. Something in the tone had made +Janetta's heart beat fast. Then there rose up before her--she hardly +knew why--the vision of a woman, an imaginary woman, one whom she had +never seen--the woman with Julian's eyes, the woman who called herself +the wife of Wyvis Brand. The thought had power to bring her to her feet. + +"And now I must really go." + +"Not yet," he said, smiling down at her with a very kindly look in his +stern dark eyes. "Do you know you have given me a great deal of pleasure +to-day? You have trusted me to do a commission for you--a delicate bit +of work too--and that shows that you don't consider me altogether +worthless." + +"You may be sure that I do not." + +"Yes, we are friends. I have some satisfaction in that thought. Do you +know that you are the first woman who has ever made a _friend_ of me? +who has ever trusted me, and taught me--for a moment or two--to respect +myself? It is the newest sensation I have had for years." + +"Not the sensation of respecting yourself, I hope?" + +"Yes, indeed. You don't know--you will never know--how I've been +handicapped in life. Can you manage to be friendly with me even when I +don't do exactly as you approve? You are at liberty to tell me with +cousinly frankness what you dislike." + +"On that condition we can be friends," said Janetta, smiling and +tendering her hand. She meant to say good-bye, but he retained the +little hand in his own and went on talking. + +"How about the boy? You'll take him for a few hours every day?" + +"You really mean it?" + +"I do, indeed. Name your own terms." + +She blushed a little, but was resolved to be business-like. + +"You know I can't afford to do it for nothing," she said. "He can come +from ten to one, if you like to give me----" and and then she mentioned +a sum which Wyvis thought miserably inadequate. + +"Absurd!" he cried. "Double that, and then take him! When can he come?" + +"Next week, if you like. But I mean what I say----" + +"So do I, and as my will is stronger than yours I shall have my own +way." + +Janetta shook her head, and, having by this time got her hand free, she +managed to say good-bye, and left the house much more cheerfully than +she had entered it. Strange to say, she had a curious feeling of trust +in Wyvis Brand's promise to help her; it seemed to her that he was a man +who would endeavor at all costs to keep his word. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +CUTHBERT'S ROMANCE. + + +Janetta was hardly surprised when, two days later, she was asked to give +a private audience to Mr. Cuthbert Brand. She had not yet told Nora of +the course that she had pursued, for she was indeed rather unnecessarily +ashamed of it. "It was just like a worldly mamma asking a young man his +intentions about her daughter," she said to herself, with a whimsical +smile. "Probably nothing will come of it but a cessation of these silly +little attentions to Nora." But she felt a little shy and constrained +when she entered the drawing-room, and, while shaking hands with her +cousin, she did not lift her eyes to his face. + +When she had taken a seat, however, and managed to steal a glance at +him, she was half-provoked, half-reassured. Cuthbert's mobile face was +full of a merry, twinkling humor, and expressed no penitence at all. She +was so much astonished that she forgot her shyness, and looked at him +inquiringly without opening her lips. + +Cuthbert laughed--an irrepressible little laugh, as if he could not help +it. "Look here, Cousin Janetta," he said, "I'm awfully sorry, but I +really can't help it. The idea of you as a duenna and of Wyvis as a +heavy father has been tickling me ever since yesterday, and I shall have +to have it out sooner or later. I assure you it's only a nervous +affection. If I didn't laugh, I _might_ cry or faint, and that would be +worse, you know." + +"I don't quite see the joke," said Janetta, gravely. + +"The joke," said Cuthbert, "lies in the contrast between yourself and +the role you have taken upon you." + +"It is a role that I am obliged to take upon me," interposed Janetta; +"because my sisters have no father, and a mother whose health makes it +impossible for her to guard them as she would like to do." + +"Now you're going to be severe," said Cuthbert; "and indeed I am +guiltless of anything but a little harmless fooling. I can but tender my +humblest apologies, and assure you that I have resigned my post in Mrs. +Smith's educational establishment, and that I will keep my flowers in +future to myself, unless I may send them with your consent and that of +my authoritative elder brother." + +Janetta was not mollified. "It is easy for you to talk of it so +lightly," she said, "but you forget that you might have involved both my +sisters in serious trouble." + +"Don't you think I should have been able to get them out again?" said +Cuthbert, with all the lightness to which she objected. "Don't you think +that I could have pacified the schoolmistress? There is one thing that I +must explain. My fancy for teaching was a fad, undertaken for its own +sake, which led me accidentally at first to Mrs. Smith's school. I did +not know that your sisters were there until I had made my preliminary +arrangements." + +Janetta flushed deeply, and did not reply. Nora's imagination had been +more active than she expected. Cuthbert, who was watching her, saw the +flush and the look of surprise, and easily guessed what had passed +between the sisters. + +"Did you ever read Sheridan's 'Rivals?'" he asked, quietly. "Don't you +remember the romantic heroine who insisted on her romance? She would +hardly consent to marry a man unless he had a history, and would help +her to make one for herself?" + +"I don't think that Nora is at all like Lydia Languish." + +"Possibly not, in essentials. But she loves romance and mystery and +excitement, as Lydia Languish did. It is a very harmless romance that +consists in sending a few cut flowers by Parcel Post, Cousin Janetta." + +"I know--it sounds very little," Janetta said, "but it may do harm for +all that." + +"Has it done harm to your sister, then?" Cuthbert inquired, with +apparent-innocence, but with the slight twinkle of his eye, which told +of inward mirth. Janetta was again growing indignant, and was about to +answer rather sharply, when he once more changed his tone. "There," he +said, "I have teased you quite enough, haven't I? I have been presuming +on our relationship to be as provoking as I could, because--honestly--I +thought that you might have trusted me a little more. Now, shall I be +serious?" + +"If you can," said Janetta. + +"That's awfully severe. By nature, I must tell you, I am the most +serious, not to say melancholy, person in creation. But on a fine day my +spirits run away with me. Now, Janetta--I may call you Janetta, may not +I?--I am going to be serious, deadly serious, as serious as if it were a +wet day in town. And the communication that I wish to make to you as the +head of the family, which you seem to be, is that I am head over ears in +love with your sister Nora, and that I beg for the honor of her hand." + +"You are joking," said his hearer, reproachfully. + +"Never was joking further from my thoughts. Getting married is an +exceedingly solemn business, I believe. I want to marry Nora and take +her to Paris." + +"Oh, this is ridiculous: you can't mean it," said Janetta. + +"Why ridiculous? Did I not tell you that I admired Miss Lydia Languish? +Her desire for a romance was quite praiseworthy: it is what every woman +cherishes in her heart of hearts: only Nora, being more naive and frank +and child-like than most women, let me see the desire more clearly than +women mostly do. That's why I love her. She is natural and lovable and +lovely. Don't tell me that I can't win her heart. I know I may have +touched her fancy, but that is not enough. Let me have the chance, and I +think that I can go deeper still." + +"You said that you would be serious, but you don't know how serious this +is to me," said Janetta, the tears rising to her eyes. "My father told +me to take care of her: she is very young--and not very wise; and how am +I to know whether you mean what you say?" + +"I do mean it, indeed!" said Cuthbert, in a much graver tone. "I have +got into the habit of talking as if I felt very little--a ridiculous +habit, I acknowledge--but, in this matter, I mean it from the bottom of +my heart." + +"I suppose, then," said Janetta, tremulously, "that you must speak to +mamma--and to Nora. I am not at all the head of the house, although you +are pleased--in fun--to call me so. I am only Nora's half-sister, fond +of her and anxious about her, and ready to do all that I can do for her +good." + +Cuthbert looked at her intently. Her face was pale, and the black dress +that she wore was not altogether becoming to her dark eyes and +complexion, but there was something pathetic to him in the weight of +care which seemed to sit upon those young brows and bear down the +slender shoulders of the girl. The new sensation thus given caused him +to say, with sudden earnestness-- + +"Will you forgive me for having spoken and acted so thoughtlessly? I +never meant to cause you so much anxiety. You see, I am not very well +acquainted with English ways, and I may have made more mistakes than I +knew. When Nora is my wife you shall not have to fear for her +happiness." + +"You speak very confidently of making her your wife," said Janetta, +forgiving him in her heart, nevertheless. "But you have no house--no +profession, have you?" + +"No income, you mean?" said Cuthbert, with his merry smile. "Oh, yes, I +have a profession. It does not pay me quite so well as it might do, but +I think I shall do better by-and-bye. Then I have a couple of hundreds a +year of my own. Is it too much of a pittance to begin upon?" + +"Nora is quite too young to begin upon anything. If only you would leave +her alone for a year or two!--till she is a little more staid and +sensible!" + +"But that's too late, don't you see? That's where my apologies have to +come in. I have disturbed the peace already, haven't I?" + +"Mr. Brand," said Janetta, gravely, in spite of an exclamation of +protest from her cousin, "I don't think that we are going quite deeply +enough into the matter. There are one or two things that I must say: +there is no one else to say them. Nora is young and foolish, but she is +affectionate and sensitive, and if she once cares for you, you may make +the happiness or the misery of her life. Our dear father told me to take +care of her. And I am not sure that he would have sanctioned her +engagement to you." + +"I'd better send Wyvis to talk to you," said Cuthbert, starting up and +nearly upsetting a chair in his eagerness. "I knew he could manage +and--and explain things better than I could. He's well up in the family +affairs. Will you see him now?" + +"Now?" + +"He's outside waiting. He wouldn't come in. I'll go and send him to you. +No, don't object: there are ever so many things that you two elders had +better talk over together. I must say," said Cuthbert, beginning to +laugh again in his light-hearted way, "that, when I think of Wyvis as a +family man, bent on seeing his younger brother _se ranger_, and you as +Nora's stern guardian, I am seized with an access of uncontrollable +mirth." + +He caught up his hat and left the room so quickly that Janetta, taken by +surprise, could not stop him. She tried to follow, but she was too late: +he had rushed off, leaving the hall-door open, and a draught of cold air +was ascending the stairs and causing her stepmother peevishly to remark +that Janetta's visitors were really intolerable. "Who _was_ it, this +time?" she asked of her second daughter Georgie, who was standing at the +window--the mother and her girls being assembled in Mrs. Colwyn's +bedroom, her favorite resort on cold afternoons. + +Georgie gave a little giggle--her manners were not perfect, in spite of +a term at Mrs. Smith's superior seminary for young ladies--and answered, +under her breath-- + +"It was Mr. Cuthbert Brand." + +Nora's book fell from her knee. When she picked it up her cheeks were +crimson and her eyes were flashing fire. + +"Don't be absurd, Georgie. It was _not_." + +"Indeed it was, Nora. I suppose he came to see Janetta, and Janetta has +sent him away. Oh, how he's running, although he is a little lame! He +has caught some one--his brother, I believe it is; and now the brother's +walking back with him." + +"I shall go down," said Mrs. Colwyn, with dignity. "It is not at all +proper for a young person like Janetta to receive gentlemen alone. I +shall go and sit in the drawing-room myself." + +"Then Janetta will take her visitors into the dining-room," said Nora, +abruptly. "She has only business with these people, mamma: they don't +come to visit us because they like us--it is only when they want us to +do something for them; so I would not put myself out for them if I were +you. And as for Janetta's being young, she is the oldest person amongst +us." And then Nora turned to her book, which she held upside down +without being at all aware of it. + +"I do not know what you mean, Nora," was Mrs. Colwyn's fretful response; +"and if the other brother is coming here, I shall certainly not disturb +myself, for I believe him to be a wild, dissipated, immoral, young man." + +"Just the sort of man for Janet to receive alone," murmured Georgie, +maliciously. Georgie was the member of the family who "had a tongue." + +Meanwhile Wyvis had come into the house, though without Cuthbert, who +had thought it better to disappear into the gathering darkness; and +Janetta received him in the hall. + +He laughed a little as he took her hand. "Cuthbert is a little +impatient, is he not? Well, he has persuaded me into talking this matter +over with you. I'm to come in here, am I?" as Janetta silently opened +the sitting-room door for him. "This looks pleasant," he added after a +moment's pause. + +In the gathering evening gloom the shabbiness of the furniture could not +be seen, and the fire-light danced playfully over the worn, +comfortable-looking chairs drawn up to the hearth, on the holly and +mistletoe which decorated the walls, and the great cluster of geranium +and Christmas roses which the Adairs had sent to Janetta the day before. +Everything looked homelike and comfortable, and perhaps it was no wonder +that Wyvis--accustomed to the gloom of his own home, or the garish +splendor of a Paris hotel--felt that he was entering a new sphere, or +undergoing some new experience. + +"Don't light the lamp," he said, in his imperious way: "let us talk in +this half-light, if you don't mind? it's pleasanter." + +"And easier," said Janetta, softly. + +"Easier? Does it need an effort?" + +"I am afraid I have something unpleasant to say." + +"So have I. We are quits, then. You can begin." + +"Your brother has been asking if he maybe engaged to Nora----" + +"If he may marry her out of hand, you mean. That's what he wants to do." + +"We know very little of him," said Janetta, rather unsteadily, "or of +you. Things have been said against you in Beaminster--you have yourself +told me things that I did not like--indeed, my father almost warned me +against you----" + +A murmur from Wyvis Brand sounded uncommonly like "the devil he +did!"--but Janetta did not stop to listen. + +"I never heard anything but vague generalities against _him_, but then I +never heard anything particularly good. I don't like the way in which he +has pursued his acquaintance with Nora. I have no authority with +her--not much influence with her mother--and, therefore, I throw myself +on you for help," said Janetta, her musical voice taking a pathetically +earnest cadence; "and I ask you to beg your brother to wait--to let Nora +grow older and know her own mind a little better--to give us the chance +of knowing him before he asks to take her away." + +"You have not said either of the things that I was expecting to hear," +said Wyvis. + +"What were those?" + +"How much money he had a year!" + +"Oh, he told me about that." + +"Or--an allusion to his forbears: his father's character and his +mother's relations--the two bugbears of Beaminster." + +"I think nothing of those, if Cuthbert himself is good." + +"Well, he _is_ good. He is as different from me as light is from +darkness. He is a little thoughtless and unpractical sometimes, but he +is sweet-tempered, honest, true, clean-living, and God-fearing. Will +that suit you?" + +"If he is all that----" + +"He is that and more. We are not effusive, Cuthbert and I, but I think +him one of the best fellows in the world. She'll be lucky who gets him, +in my opinion." + +"All the more reason, then, why I must say a still more unpleasant thing +than ever," she replied. "Nora is in great trouble, because she has been +told what I have known for some time. Her mother does not always control +herself; you know what I mean? She must not marry without telling +this--we cannot deceive the man who is to be her husband--he must know +the possible disgrace." + +"If every woman were as straightforward and honorable as you, Janetta, +there would be fewer miserable marriages," said Wyvis, slowly. "You are, +no doubt, right to speak; but, on the other hand, _our_ family record is +much worse than yours. If one of you can condescend to take one of us, I +think we shall have the advantage." + +Janetta drew a long breath. + +"Then, will you help me in what I ask?" + +"Yes, I will. I'll speak to Cuthbert and point out how reasonable you +are. Then--you'll let him cultivate your sister's acquaintance, I +suppose? In spite of your disclaimers, I believe you are supreme in the +house. I wish there were more like you to be supreme, Janetta. I +wish--to God I wish--that I had met you--a woman like you--eight years +ago." + +And before she could realize the meaning of what he had said to her, the +man was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +WYVIS BRAND'S IDEAL. + + +Everything was satisfactorily settled. Cuthbert was put on his +probation; Nora was instructed in the prospect that lay before her, and +was allowed to correspond with her "semi-betrothed," as he insisted on +calling himself. Mrs. Colwyn was radiant with reflected glory, for +although she despised and hated Mrs. Brand, she was not blind to the +advantages that would accrue to herself through connection with a County +family. She was not, however, as fully informed in the details of the +little love-affair as she imagined herself to be. Janetta's share in +bringing about a _dénouement_ and retarding its further development was +quite unknown to her. The delay, which some of Mr. Colwyn's old friends +urged with great vigor, was ascribed by her chiefly to the hostile +influences of Wyvis Brand, and she made a point of being openly uncivil +to that gentleman when, on fine mornings, he brought his boy to Gwynne +Street or fetched him away on a bright afternoon. For it had been +decided that little Julian should not only come every day at ten, but on +two days of the week should stay until four o'clock in the afternoon, in +order to enjoy the advantages of Tiny's society. He had been living so +unchild-like a life of late that Janetta begged to keep him for play as +well as for lessons with other children. + +Nora went back to her school somewhat sobered by the unexpected turn of +events, and rather ashamed of her assumption (dispelled by Janetta) that +Cuthbert Brand had given drawing lessons at Mrs. Smith's in order to be +near her. Mr. Cuthbert Brand discontinued these lessons, but opened a +class in Beaminster at the half-deserted Art School, and made himself +popular wherever he went. Janetta was half inclined to doubt the +genuineness of his affection for Nora when she heard of his innocent, +but quite enthusiastic, flirtations with other girls. But he always +solemnly assured her that Nora had his heart, and Nora only; and as long +as he made Nora happy Janetta was content. And so the weeks passed on. +She had more to do now that Julian came every day, but she got no new +music pupils, and she heard nothing about the evening parties at Lady +Ashley's. She concluded that Sir Philip and his mother had forgotten +her, but such was not the case. There had been a death in the family, +and the consequent period of mourning had prevented Lady Ashley from +giving any parties--that was all. + +For some little time, therefore, Janetta's life seemed likely to flow on +in a very peaceful way. Mrs. Colwyn "broke out" only once between +Christmas and Easter, and was more penitent and depressed after her +outbreak than Janetta had ever seen her. Matters went on more quietly +than ever after this event. Easter came, and brought Nora and Georgie +home again, and then there was a period of comparative excitement and +jollity, for the Brands began to come with much regularity to the little +house in Gwynne Street, and there were merry-makings almost every day. + +But when the accustomed routine began again, Janetta, in her +conscientious way, took herself seriously to task. She had not been +governing herself, her thoughts, her time, her temper, as she conceived +that it was right for her to do. On reflection, it seemed to her that +one person lately filled up the whole of her mental horizon. And this +person she was genuinely shocked to find was Wyvis Brand. + +Why should she concern herself so much about him? He was married; he had +a child; his mother and brother lived with him, and supplied his need of +society. He went out into the world about Beaminster more than he used +to do, and might have been fairly popular if he had exerted himself, but +this he would never do. There were fewer reports current about his bad +companions, or his unsteady way of life; and Janetta gathered from +various sources that he had entirely abandoned that profane and +reckless method of speech for which she had rebuked him. He was +improving, certainly. Well, was that any reason why she should think +about him so much, or consider his character and his probable fate so +earnestly? She saw no reason in it, she told herself; and perhaps she +was right. + +There was another reason even more potent for making her think of him. +He had had an unsatisfactory, troublous sort of life; he had been +unfortunate in his domestic relations, and he was most decidedly an +unhappy man. Many a woman before Janetta has found reasons of this kind +suffice for love of a man. Certainly, in Janetta's case, they formed the +basis of a good deal of interest. She told herself that she could not +help thinking of him. He came very often, on pretext of bringing or of +fetching Julian--especially on the days when Julian stayed until four +o'clock, for then he would stray in and sit down to chat with Janetta +and her mother until it was sheer incivility not to offer him a cup of +tea. Softened by the pleasures of hospitality, Mrs. Colwyn would be +quite gracious to him at these times. But now and then she left him to +be entertained by Janetta, saying rather sharply that she did not care +to meet the man who chose to behave "so brutally to her darling Nora." + +So that Janetta got into the way of sitting with him, talking with him +on all subjects, of giving him her sage advice when he asked for it, and +listening with interest to the stories that he told her of his past +life. It was natural that she should think about him a good deal, and +about his efforts to straighten the tangled coil of his life, and to +make himself a worthier father for his little son than his own father +had been to him. There was nothing in the world more likely than this +sort of intercourse to bring these two kinsfolk upon terms of closest +friendship. And as Janetta indignantly told herself--there was +nothing--nothing more. + +She always remembered that his wife was living; she never forgot it for +a moment. He was, of course, not a man whom she ever thought of +loving--she was angry with herself for the very suggestion--but he was +certainly a man who interested her more than any one whom she had ever +met. And he was interested in her too. He liked to talk to her, to ask +her advice and listen to her pet theories. She was friend, comrade, +sister, all in one. Nothing more. But the position was, whether they +knew it or not, a rather dangerous one, and an innocent friendship might +have glided into something closer and more harmful had not an unexpected +turn been given to the events of both their lives. + +For some time Janetta had seen little of the Adairs. They were very much +occupied--visiting and receiving visits--and Margaret's lessons were not +persevered in. But one afternoon, shortly after Easter, she called at +Mrs. Colwyn's house between three and four, and asked when she might +begin again. Before the day was settled, however, they drifted into talk +about other things, and Margaret was soon deeply engaged in an account +of her presentation at Court. + +"I thought you were going to stay in town for the season?" Janetta +asked. + +Margaret shook her head. "It was so hot and noisy," she murmured. "Papa +said the close rooms spoiled my complexion, and I am sure they spoiled +my temper!" She smiled bewitchingly as she spoke. + +She was charmingly dressed in cream-colored muslin, with a soft +silk sash of some nondescript pink hue tied round her waist, and a +bunch of roses at her throat to match the Paris flowers in her +broad-brimmed, slightly tilted, picturesque straw hat. A wrap for the +carriage-fawn-colored, with silk-lining of rose-pink toned by an +under-tint of grey--carried out the scheme of color suggested by her +dress, and suited her fair complexion admirably. She had thrown this +wrap over the back of a chair and removed her hat, so that Janetta might +see whether she was altered or not. + +"You are just a trifle paler," Janetta confessed. + +As a matter of fact there were some tired lines under Margaret's eyes, +and a distinct waning of the fresh faint bloom upon her cheek--changes +which made of her less the school girl than the woman of the world. And +yet, to Janetta's thinking, she was more beautiful than ever, for she +was acquiring a little of the dignity given by experience without losing +the simple tranquillity of the exquisite child. + +"I am a little tired," Margaret said. "One sees so much--one goes to so +many places. I sighed for Helmsley Court, and dear mamma brought me +home." + +At this moment a crash, as of some falling body, resounded through the +house, followed by a clatter of breaking crockery, and the cries of +children. Janetta started up, with changing color, and apologized to her +guest. + +"Dear Margaret, will you excuse me for a moment? I am afraid that one of +the children must have fallen. I will be back in a minute or two." + +"Go, dear, by all means," said Margaret, placidly. "I know how necessary +you are." + +Janetta ran off, being desperately afraid that Mrs. Colwyn had been the +cause of this commotion. But here she was mistaken. Mrs. Colwyn was safe +in her room, but Ph[oe]be, the charity orphan, had been met, while +ascending the kitchen stair with the tea-tray in her hands, by a raid of +nursery people--Tiny and Curly and Julian Brand, to wit--had been +accidentally knocked down, had broken the best tea-set and dislocated +her own collar-bone; while Julian's hand was severely cut and Curly's +right eye was black and blue. Tiny had fortunately escaped without +injury, and it was she, therefore, who was sent to Margaret with a +modified version of the disaster. + +"Please, Janetta says, will you stay for a little minute or two till she +comes back again? Curly's gone for the doctor because Ph[oe]be's done +something to one of her bones; and Janetta's tying up Julian's thumb +because it's bleeding so dreadfully." + +"I have never seen you before, have I?" said Margaret, smiling at the +slim little girl with the delicate face and great blue eyes. "You are +Tiny; I have often heard of you. Do you know me?" + +"Yes," said Tiny. "You are the beautiful lady who sends us flowers and +things--Janetta's friend." + +"Yes, that is right. And how long will Janetta be?" + +"Oh, not long, she said; and she hoped you would not mind waiting for a +little while?" + +"Not at all. Is that the doctor?" as a knock resounded through the +little house. + +"I dare say it is," said Tiny, running to the door; and then after a +moment's pause, she added, in a rather disappointed tone, "No, it's +Julian's father. It's Mr. Brand." + +"Mr. Brand!" said Margaret, half-astonished and half-amused. "Oh, I have +heard of him." And even as she spoke, the door opened, and Wyvis Brand +walked straight into the room. + +He gave a very slight start as his eyes fell upon Margaret, but betrayed +no other sign of surprise. Tiny flew to him at once, dragged at his +hand, and effected some sort of informal introduction, mingled with an +account of the accident which had happened to Julian. + +"Don't you want to go and ascertain the amount of the injury?" said +Margaret, with a little smile. + +"Not at all," said Wyvis, emphatically, and took up his position by the +mantel-piece, whence he got the best view of her graceful figure and +flower-like face. Margaret felt the gaze and was not displeased by it, +admiration was no new thing to her; she smiled vaguely and slightly +lowered her lovely eyes. And Wyvis stood and looked. + +In spite of his apparent roughness Wyvis Brand was an impressionable +man. He had come into the room cold, tired, not quite in his usual +health, and more than usually out of humor; and instead of the ordinary +sight of Janetta--a trim, pleasant, household-fairy sort of sight, it +was true, but not of the wildly exciting kind--he found a vision, as it +seemed to him, of the most ethereal beauty--a woman whose every movement +was full of grace, whose exquisitely modulated voice expressed +refinement as clearly as her delicately moulded features; whose whole +being seemed to exhale a sort of perfume of culture, as if she were in +herself the most perfect product of a whole civilization. + +Wyvis had been in many drawing-rooms and known many women, more or less +intimately, but he had never, in all his purposeless Bohemian life, come +across exactly this type of woman--a type in which refinement counts for +more than beauty, culture for more than grace. With a sudden leap of +memory, he recalled some scenes of which he had been witness years +before, when a woman, hot, red, excited with wine and with furious +jealousy, had reviled him in the coarsest terms, had struck him in the +face and had spat out foul and vindictive words of abuse. That +woman--ah, that woman was his wife--had been for many years to him the +type of what women must always be when stripped of the veneer of +society's restraints. Janetta had of late shaken his conviction on this +point; it was reserved for Margaret Adair to shatter it to the winds. + +She looked so fair, so dainty, so delicate--he would have been a marvel +amongst men who believed that her body was anything but "an index to a +most fair mind"--that Wyvis said to himself that he had never seen any +woman like her. He was fascinated and enthralled. The qualities which +made her so different from his timid, underbred, melancholy mother, or +his coarse and self-indulgent wife, were those in which Margaret showed +peculiar excellence. And before these--for the first time in his +life--Wyvis Brand fell down and worshipped. + +It was unfortunate; it was wrong; but it was one of those things that +will happen sometimes in everyday life. Wyvis was separated from his +wife, and hated as much as he despised her. Almost without knowing what +he did, he laid his whole heart and soul, suddenly and unthinkingly, at +Margaret's feet. And Margaret, smiling and serene, utterly ignorant of +his past, and not averse to a little romance that might end more +flatteringly than Sir Philip's attentions had done, was quite ready to +accept the gift. + +Before Janetta had bound up Julian's hand, and made some fresh tea, +which she was obliged to carry upstairs herself, Mr. Brand had obtained +information from Margaret as to the day and hour on which she was likely +to come to Janetta for her singing-lesson, and also as to several of her +habits in the matter of walks and drives. Margaret gave the information +innocently enough; Wyvis had no direct purpose in extracting it; but the +attraction which the two felt towards each other was sufficient to make +such knowledge of her movements undesirable, and even dangerous for +both. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +FORGET-ME-NOTS. + + +Lady Caroline, always mindful of her daughter's moods, could not quite +understand Margaret's demeanor when she returned home that afternoon. +She fancied that some news about Sir Philip might have reached the +girl's ear and distressed her mind. But when she skilfully led the +conversation in that direction, Margaret said at once, with a complete +absence of finesse that rather disconcerted her mother-- + +"No, mamma, I heard nothing about the Ashleys--mother or son." + +"Dear Margaret," thought Lady Caroline, "is surely not learning +_brusquerie_ and bad manners from that tiresome Miss Colwyn. What a very +unlucky friendship that has been!" + +She did not seize the clue which Margaret unconsciously held out to her +in the course of the same evening. The girl was sitting in a shady +corner of the drawing-room holding a feather fan before her face, when +she introduced what had hitherto been, at Helmsley Court, a forbidden +topic--the history of the Brands. + +"Papa," she said, quietly, "did you never know anything of the Red House +people?" + +Lady Caroline glanced at her husband. Mr. Adair seemed to find it +difficult to reply. + +"Yes, of course, I did--in the old days," he answered, less suavely than +usual. "When the father was alive, I used to go to the house, but, of +course, I was a mere lad then." + +"You do not know the sons, then?" said Margaret. + +"My dear child, I do not hunt. Mr. Brand's only appearance in society is +on the hunting field." + +"But there is another brother--one who paints, I believe." + +"He teaches drawing in some of the schools of the neighborhood," Lady +Caroline interposed, rather dryly. "I suppose you do not want drawing +lessons, dear?" + +"Oh, no," said Margaret, indifferently. "I only thought it seemed odd +that we never met them anywhere." + +"Not very suitable acquaintances," murmured Lady Caroline, almost below +her breath. Mr. Adair was looking at an illustrated magazine and did not +seem to hear, but, after a moment's pause, Margaret said, + +"Why, mamma?" + +Lady Caroline hesitated for a moment. Mr. Adair shrugged his shoulders. +Then she said slowly: + +"His father married beneath him, my love. Mrs. Brand is a quite +impossible person. If the young men would pension her off and send her +away, the County would very likely take them up. But we cannot receive +the mother." + +"That is another of what Sir Philip Ashley would call +class-distinctions, is it not?" said Margaret, placidly. "The sort of +thing which made Miss Polehampton so anxious to separate me from poor +Janetta." + +"Class-distinctions are generally founded on some inherent law of +character or education, dear," said Lady Caroline, softly. "They are not +so arbitrary as young people imagine. I hope the day will never come +when the distinction of class will be done away with. I"--piously--"hope +that I may be in my grave before that day comes." + +"Oh, of course they are very necessary," said Margaret, comfortably. +"And, if old Mrs. Brand were to go away, I suppose her sons would be +received everywhere?" + +"Oh, I suppose so. The property is fairly good, is it not, Reginald?" + +"Not very," said Mr. Adair. "The father squandered a good deal, and I +fancy the present owner is economizing for the sake of his boy." + +"His boy?" A faint color stole into Margaret's cheeks. "Is he married, +papa?" + +"Oh, the wife's dead," said Mr. Adair, hastily. It was part of Lady +Caroline's system that Margaret should not hear more than was absolutely +necessary of what she termed "disagreeable" subjects. Elopements, +separation and divorce cases all came under that head. So that when Mr. +Adair, who knew more of Mr. Brand's domestic history than he chose to +say, added immediately--"At least I heard so: I believe so," he did not +think that he was actually departing from fact, but only that he was +coloring the matter suitably for Margaret's infant understanding. He +really believed that Mrs. Wyvis Brand was divorced from her husband, and +it was "the same thing as being dead, you know," he would have replied +if interrogated on the subject. + +Margaret did not respond, and Lady Caroline never once suspected that +she had any real interest in the matter. But the very fact that Wyvis +Brand was represented to her as a widower threw a halo of romance around +his head in Margaret's eyes. A man who has "loved and lost" is often +invested with a peculiar kind of sanctity in the eyes of a young girl. +Wyvis Brand's handsome face and evident admiration of herself did not +prepossess Margaret in his favor half so much as the fact that he had +known loss and sorrow, and was temporarily ostracized by County society +because his mother was "an impossible person." This last deprivation +appealed to Margaret's imagination more than the first. It seemed to her +a terrible thing to remain unvisited by the "County." What a good thing +it would be, she reflected, if Mr. Brand could marry some nice girl, who +would persuade him to send his mother back to France, and for whose sake +the County magnates would extend to him the right hand of fellowship. To +reinstate him in his proper position--the position which Margaret told +herself he deserved and would adorn--seemed to her an ambition worthy of +any woman in the world. For Margaret's nature was curiously mixed. From +her father she had inherited a great love of the beautiful and the +romantic--there was a thoroughly unworldly strain in him which had +descended to her; but, then, it was counteracted by the influences which +she had imbibed from Lady Caroline. Margaret used sometimes to rebel +against her mother's maxims of worldly wisdom, but they gradually +permeated her mind, and the gold was so mingled with alloy that it was +difficult to separate one from the other. She thought herself a very +unworldly person. We all have ideals of ourselves; and Margaret's ideal +of herself was of a rather saint-like creature, with high aspirations +and pure motives. Where her weakness really lay she had not the faintest +notion. + +It was strange even to herself to note the impression that Wyvis Brand +had produced on her. He was certainly of the type that tends to attract +impressionable girls, for he was dark and handsome, with the indefinable +touch of melancholy in his eyes which lends a subtler interest to the +face than mere beauty. The little that she knew of his history had +touched her. She constructed a great deal from the few facts or fancies +that had been given to her, and the result was sufficiently unlike the +real man to be recognizable by nobody but Margaret herself. + +It has already been said that the Adair property and that of Wyvis Brand +lay side by side. The Adair estate was a large one: that of the Brands' +comparatively small; but at one point the two properties were separated +for some little distance only by a narrow fishing stream, on one side +of which stretched an outlying portion of Mr. Adair's park; while on the +other side lay a plantation, approached through the Beaminster woods, +and not very far from the Red House itself. It was in this +plantation--which was divided from the woods only by a wire fence--that +Janetta had found little Julian and had afterwards encountered Wyvis +Brand. + +In spring the plantation was a particularly pleasant place. It was +starred with primroses and anemones in the earlier months of the year, +and blue with hyacinths at a later date. At a little distance the +flowers looked like a veil of color spread between the trees. The brook +between the park and the plantation was a merry little stream, dancing +gaily over golden pebbles, and brightly responsive to the sunshine that +flickered between the lightly-clothed branches of the trees bordering it +on either side. It was famous in the neighborhood for the big blue +forget-me-nots that grew there; but it could hardly have been in search +of forget-me-nots that Margaret Adair wandered along its side one +morning, for they were scarcely in season, and her dreamy eyes did not +seem to be looking for them on the bank. + +From amongst the trees of the plantation there appeared suddenly a man, +who doffed his cap to Miss Adair with a look of mingled pleasure and +surprise. + +"Oh, good-morning, Mr. Brand." + +"Good-morning, Miss Adair." No greeting could have been more +conventional. "May I ask if you are looking for forget-me nots? There +are some already out lower down the stream. I will show you where they +are if you will turn to the left." + +"Thank you," said Margaret. + +They moved down the slight slope together, but on different sides of the +stream. At last they reached the spot where a gleam of blue was visible +at the water's edge. + +"It is on your side," Margaret said, with a little smile. + +"I will get them for you," he replied. And she stood waiting while he +gathered the faintly-tinted blossoms. + +"And now," she said, as he rose to his feet again, "how will you give +them to me? I am afraid I cannot reach across." + +"I could come over to you," said Wyvis, his dark eyes resting upon her +eagerly. "Will you ask me to come?" + +She paused. "Why should I ask you?" she said, with a smile, as if +between jest and earnest. + +"You are standing on your ground, and I on mine. I have never in my life +been asked to cross the boundary." + +"I ask you then," said Margaret coloring prettily. She was +half-frightened at the significance of her own words, when she had +spoken them. But it was too late to retract. It took Wyvis Brand a +moment only to leap the brook, and to find himself at her side. Then, +taking off his hat and bowing low, he presented her with the flowers +that he had gathered. She thanked him with a blush. + +"Will you give me one?" he asked, his eyes fixed upon her lovely face. +"Just one!----" + +"Why did you not keep one?" she said, bending over her nosegay as if +absorbed in its arrangement. "They are so rare that I hardly know how to +spare any." Which was a bit of innocent coquetry on Margaret's part. + +"Just one," he pleaded. "As a reward. As a memento." + +"A memento of what?" she asked, separating one or two flowers from the +bunch as she spoke. + +"Of this occasion." + +"It is such an important occasion, is it not?" she said, with a sweet, +mocking little laugh. + +"A very important occasion to me. Have I not met you?" + +"That is a most charming compliment," said Margaret, who was not unused +to hearing words of this kind in London drawing-rooms, and was quite in +her native element. "In reward for it I will give you a flower--which of +course you will throw away as soon as I am out of sight." + +"No, not when you are out of sight: when you are out of mind," he said, +significantly. + +"The two are synonymous," said Margaret. + +"Are they? Not with me. Throw it away? I will show you that it shall not +be thrown away." + +He produced a little pocket-book and put the forget-me-nots into it, +carefully pressing them down against a blank page. + +"There," he said, as he made a note in pencil at the bottom of the page, +"that will be always with me now." + +"The poor forget-me-not!" said Margaret, smiling. "What a sad fate for +it! To be torn from its home by the brook, taken away from the sun and +the air, to languish out its life in a pocket-book." + +"It should feel itself honored," Said Wyvis, "because it is dying for +you." + +As we have said, this strain of half-jesting compliment was not +unfamiliar to Margaret; but she could hardly remain unconscious of the +fact that a deeper note had crept into his voice during the last few +words, and that his eyes glowed with a fire more ardent than she usually +saw. She drew back a little, and looked down: she was not exactly +displeased, but she was embarrassed. He noticed and understood the +expression of her face; and changed his tone immediately. + +"This is a pretty place," he said, indicating the park and the distant +woods by a wave of his hand. "I always regret that I have been away from +it so long." + +"You have lived a great deal in France, I believe?" + +"Yes, and in Italy, too. But I tired of foreign lands at last, and +persuaded my mother to come home with me. I am glad that I came." + +"You like the neighborhood?" said Margaret, in a tone of conventional +interest. + +Wyvis laughed. "I don't see much of my neighbors," he said, rather +drily. "They don't approve of my family. But I like the scenery--and I +have a friend or two--Miss Colwyn, for instance, who is a kinswoman of +mine, you know." + +"Oh, yes!" said Margaret, eagerly. Her momentary distrust of him +vanished when she remembered Janetta. Of course, Janetta's cousin _must_ +be "nice!"--"I am so fond of Janetta: she is so clever and so good." + +"It is a great thing for her to have a friend like you," said Wyvis, +looking at her wistfully. In very truth, she was a wonderment to him; +she seemed so ethereal, so saint-like, so innocent! And Margaret smiled +pensively in return: unlimited admiration was quite to her taste. + +"Do you often walk here?" he inquired, when at last she said that she +must return home. + +And she said--"Sometimes." + +"Sometimes" is a very indefinite and convenient word. It may mean +anything or nothing. In a very short time, it meant that Margaret took a +book out with her and walked down to the boundary stream about three +times a week, if not oftener, and that Wyvis Brand was always there to +bear her company. Before long a few stepping-stones were dropped into +the brook, so that she could cross it without wetting her dainty feet. +It was shadier and cooler in the closely-grown plantation than in the +open park. And meetings in the plantation were less likely to be +discovered than in a more public place. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +LADY ASHLEY'S GARDEN PARTY. + + +It may be wondered that Margaret had so much idle time upon her hands, +and was not more constantly supervised in her comings and goings by Lady +Caroline. But certain occurrences in the Adair family made it easy just +then for her to go her own way. Mr. Adair was obliged to stay in London +on business, and while he was away very little was doing at Helmsley +Court. Lady Caroline took the opportunity of his absence to "give way" a +little: she suffered occasionally from neuralgia, and the doctor +recommended her not to rise much before noon. Margaret's comfort and +welfare were not neglected. A Miss Stone, a distant relation of Lady +Caroline's, came to spend a few weeks at the Court as a companion for +Margaret. Miss Stone was not at all a disagreeable person. She could +play tennis, dance, and sing; she could accompany Margaret's songs: she +could talk or be silent, as seemed good to her; and she was a model of +tact and discretion. She was about thirty-five, but looked younger: she +dressed well, and had pleasing manners, and without being absolutely +handsome was sufficiently good-looking. Miss Alicia Stone was almost +penniless, and did not like to work; but she generally found herself +provided for as "sheep-dog" or chaperon in some house of her numerous +aristocratic friends. She was an amusing talker, and Margaret liked her +society well enough, but Miss Stone was too clever not to know when she +was not wanted. It soon became evident to the companion that for some +reason Margaret liked to walk in the park alone in a morning; and what +Margaret liked was law. Alicia knew how to efface herself on such +occasions, so that when Lady Caroline asked at luncheon what the two had +been doing all the morning, it was easy and natural for Miss Stone to +reply, "Oh, we have been out in the park," although this meant only that +she had been sitting at the conservatory door with a novel, while +Margaret had been wandering half a mile away. Lady Caroline used to +smile, and was satisfied. + +And Margaret's conscience was very little troubled. She had never been +told, she sometimes said to herself, that she was not to speak to Mr. +Brand. And she was possessed with the fervent desire to save his soul +(and social reputation), which sometimes leads young women into follies +which they afterwards regret. He told her vaguely that he had had a +miserable, unsatisfactory sort of life, and that he wished to amend. He +did not add that his first impulses towards amendment had come from +Janetta Colwyn. Margaret thought that she was responsible for them, one +and all. And she felt it incumbent upon her to foster their growth, even +at the price of a small concealment--although it would, as she very well +knew, be a great one in her parents' eyes. + +As the days went on towards summer, it seemed to Janetta as though some +interest, some brightness perhaps, had died out of her life. Her +friends--her two chief friends, to whom her vow of friendship and +service had been sworn--were, in some inexplicable manner, alienated +from her. Margaret came regularly for her singing-lesson, but never +lingered to talk as she had done at first. She seemed pensive, languid, +preoccupied. Wyvis Brand had left off calling for little Julian, except +on rare occasions. Perhaps his frequent loitering in the plantation left +him but scant time for his daily work; he always pleaded business when +his boy reproached him for his remissness, or when Janetta questioned +him somewhat mournfully with her earnest eyes. Certainly he too seemed +preoccupied, and when he was beguiled into the Colwyns' little +drawing-room he would sit almost silent in Janetta's company, never once +asking her counsel or opinion as he had done in earlier days. It was +possible that in her presence he felt a sort of compunction, a sort of +conscience-stricken shame. And his silence and apparent estrangement lay +upon Janetta's heart like lead. + +Poor Janetta was going through a time of depression and disappointment. +Mrs. Colwyn had had two or three terrible relapses, and her condition +could no longer be kept quite a secret from her friends. Janetta had +been obliged to call in the aid of the doctor who had been her father's +best friend, and he recommended various changes of diet and habits which +gave the girl far more trouble than he knew. Where poverty is present in +a home, it is sometimes hard to do the best either for the sinning or +the suffering; and so Mrs. Colwyn's weakness was one of the heaviest +burdens that Janetta had to bear. The only gleams of brightness in her +lot lay in the love and gentleness of the children that she taught, and +in her satisfaction with Nora's engagement to Cuthbert. In almost all +other respects she began to feel aware that she was heavily handicapped. + +It was nearly the end of June before she received the long-expected +invitation from Lady Ashley. But it was not to an evening party. It was +a sort of combination entertainment--a garden-party for the young, and +music for those elder persons who did not care to watch games at tennis +all the afternoon. And Janetta was asked to sing. + +The day of the party was cloudlessly fine, but not too warm, as a +pleasant little summer breeze was blowing. Janetta donned a thin black +dress of some gauzy material, and thought that she looked very careworn +and dowdy in her little bedroom looking-glass. But when she reached Lady +Ashley's house, excitement had brought a vivid color to her face; and +when her hostess, after an appreciative glance at her dress, quietly +pinned a cluster of scarlet geranium blooms at her neck, the little +songstress presented an undeniably distinguished appearance. If she was +not exactly pretty, she was more than pretty--she was striking and +original. + +Margaret Adair looked up and smiled at her from a corner, when Janetta +first came forward to sing. She was one of the very few girls who were +present, for most of the young people were in the garden; but she had +insisted on coming in to hear Janetta's song. She did not care about +playing tennis; it made her hot, and ruffled her pretty Paris gown, +which was not suitable for violent exertion of any kind; she left +violent exertion to Alicia Stone, who was always ready to join in other +people's amusements. Lady Caroline was not present; her neuralgia was +troublesome, and she had every confidence in Alicia's chaperonage and +Margaret's discretion. Poor Lady Caroline was sometimes terribly +mistaken in her reading of character. + +To the surprise of a good many people, the Brands were there. Not Mrs. +Brand--only the two young men; but the fact was a good deal commented +upon, as hitherto "the County" had taken very little notice of the owner +of the Red House. It was perhaps this fact that had impelled Sir Philip +to show the Brands some courtesy. He declared that he knew nothing bad +of these men, and that they ought not to be blamed for their father's +sins. Personally he liked them both, and he had no difficulty in +persuading his mother to call on Mrs. Brand, and then to send +invitations for the garden party. But Mrs. Brand, as usual, declined to +go out, and was represented only by her sons. + +What Sir Philip had not calculated on was the air of possession and +previous acquaintance with which Wyvis Brand greeted Miss Adair. He had +hardly expected that Margaret would come; and, indeed, Margaret had been +loath to accept Lady Ashley's invitation, especially without the escort +of her mother. On the other hand, Lady Caroline was very anxious that +the world should not know the extent of the breach between the two +families; and she argued that it would be very marked if Margaret stayed +away from a large garden party to which "everybody" went, and where it +would be very easy to do nothing more than exchange a mere passing +salutation with Sir Philip. So she had rather insisted on Margaret's +going; and the girl had had her own reasons for not protesting too much. +She knew that Wyvis Brand would be there; and she had a fancy for seeing +him amongst other men, and observing how he bore himself in other +people's society. + +She was perfectly satisfied with the result. His appearance was +faultless--far better than that of Sir Philip, who sometimes wore a coat +until it was shiny at the shoulders, and was not very particular about +his boots. Upright, handsome, well-dressed, with the air of distinction +which Margaret much preferred to beauty in a man, he was a distinctly +noticeable figure, and Margaret innocently thought that there was no +reason why she should not show, in a well-bred and maidenly way, of +course, her liking for him. + +She had never had much resistant power, this "rare, pale Margaret" of +Sir Philip's dreams, and it seemed quite natural to her that Wyvis +should hover at her side and attend to all her wants that afternoon. She +did not notice that he was keeping off other men by his air of +proprietorship, and that women, old and young, were eyeing her with +surprise and disapprobation as she walked up and down the lawn with him +and allowed him to provide her with tea or strawberries and cream. She +was under a charm, and could not bear the idea of sending him away. +While Wyvis--for his excuse let it be said that his air of +proprietorship was unconscious, and came simply out of his intense +admiration for the girl and his headlong absorption in the interest of +the moment. He did not at all know how intently and exclusively he +looked at her; how reverential and yet masterful was his attitude; and +the sweet consciousness that sat on her down-dropped eyelids and +tenderly flushed cheeks acted as no warning to him, but only as an +incentive to persevere. + +The situation became patent to Janetta, when she stood up to sing. +Margaret looked, nodded, and smiled at her with exquisite shy +friendliness. Janetta returned the greeting; and then--as people +noticed--suddenly flushed scarlet and as suddenly turned pale. Many +persons set this change of color down to nervousness; but Sir Philip +Ashley followed the direction of her eyes and knew what she had seen. + +Miss Adair was sitting in a corner of the room, where perhaps she hoped +to be unremarked; but her fair beauty and her white dress made it +difficult for her to remain obscure. Wyvis Brand stood beside her, +leaning against the wall, with arms folded across his breast. He was +more in shadow than was she, for he was touched by the folds of a heavy +velvet curtain; but his attitude was significant. He was not looking at +the singer, or at the room; his whole attention was visibly concentrated +upon Margaret. He was looking at her, some one remarked quite audibly, +as if he never meant to look away again. The close, keen absorption of +that gaze was unusual enough to shock conventional observers. There +would have been nothing insolent or overbold about it were he her +husband or her lover; but from a man who--as far as "the County" +knew--was a comparative stranger in the land, and almost an outsider, +it was positively shocking. And yet Miss Adair looked as if she were +only pleasantly conscious of this rude man's stare. + +Fortunately for Margaret's reputation, it was currently believed that +Wyvis Brand's wife was dead. Those who had some notion that she was +living thought that he had divorced her. The general impression was that +he was at any rate free to marry; and that he was laying siege to the +heart of the prettiest girl in the County now seemed an indisputable +fact. Perhaps Janetta only, of all the persons assembled together in the +room, knew the facts of Wyvis Brand's unhappy marriage. And to Janetta, +as well as to other people, it became plain that afternoon that he had +completely lost his heart--perhaps his head as well--to Margaret Adair. + +The chatter of the crowd would have revealed as much to Janetta, even if +her own observation had not told her a good deal. "How that man does +stare at that girl! Is he engaged to her?" "Young Brand's utterly gone +on Miss Adair; that's evident." "Is Lady Caroline not here? Do you think +that she _knows_?" "Margaret Adair is certainly very pretty, but I +should not like one of _my_ girls to let herself be made so +conspicuous!" Such were some of the remarks that fell on Janetta's ear, +and made her face burn with shame and indignation. Not that she exactly +believed in the reality even of the things that she had seen. That Wyvis +should admire Margaret was so natural! That Margaret should accept the +offered admiration in her usual serene manner was equally to be +expected. But that either of them should be unwise enough to give rise +to idle gossip, about so natural a state of mind was what Janetta could +not understand. It was not Margaret's fault; she was very sure of that. +It must be Wyvis Brand's. He was her cousin, and she might +surely--perhaps--ask him what he meant by putting Margaret in such a +false position! Oh, but she could not presume to do that. What would he +think of her? And yet--and yet--the look with which he had regarded +Margaret seemed to be stamped indelibly upon Janetta's faithful, aching +heart. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +SIR PHILIP'S DECISION. + + +"Philip," said Lady Ashley that evening, with some hesitation in her +speech; "Philip--did you--did you notice Mr. Brand--much--to-day?" + +The guests had all gone; dinner was over; mother and son were sitting in +wicker chairs on the terrace, resting after the fatigues of the day. Sir +Philip was smoking a very mild cigarette: he was not very fond of +tobacco, for, as the Adairs sometimes expressed it, he "had no small +vices." Lady Ashley was wrapped in a white shawl, and her delicate, +blue-veined hands were crossed upon her lap in unaccustomed idleness. + +"I did notice him," said her son, quietly. "He seemed to be paying a +great deal of attention to Miss Adair." + +"Oh, Philip, dear, it distressed me so much!" + +"Why should it distress you, mother?--it is nothing to us." + +"Well, if you feel in that way about it--still, I am grieved for the +Adairs' sake. After all, they are old friends of ours. And I had +hoped----" + +"Our hopes are not often realized, are they?" said Sir Philip, in the +gentle, persuasive tones that his mother thought so winning. "Perhaps it +is best. At any rate, it is best to forget the hopes that never _can_ be +realized." + +"Do you think it is really so, Philip? Everyone was talking about his +manner this afternoon." + +"She was giving him every encouragement," said her son, looking away. + +"Such an undesirable match! Poor Lady Caroline!" + +"We do not know how things are being arranged, mother. Possibly Lady +Caroline and Mr. Adair are favoring an engagement. Miss Adair is hardly +likely to act against their will." + +"No, she has scarcely resolution enough for that. Then you don't think +that they met for the first time this afternoon?" + +"Gracious heavens, no!" said Sir Philip, roused a little out of his +apparent indifference. "They met quite as old acquaintances--old +friends. I suppose the Adairs have renewed the friendship. The +properties lie side by side. That may be a reason." + +"I am very sorry we asked him here," said Lady Ashley, almost viciously. +"I had no idea that he was paying attention to _her_. I hope there is +nothing wrong about it--such a very undesirable match!" + +"I don't really know why," said her son, with a forced smile. "Wyvis +Brand is a fine, handsome fellow, and the property, though small, is a +nice one. Miss Adair might do worse." + +"I believe her mother thinks that she might marry a duke." + +"And so she might. She is a great beauty, and an heiress." And there was +a ring of bitterness in his tone which pained his mother's heart. + +"Ah, Philip," she said--not very, wisely--"you need not regret her. 'A +fair woman without discretion,' she would not be the wife for you." + +"I beg that you will not say that again, mother." He did not turn his +face towards her, and his voice was studiously gentle, but it was +decided too. "She is, as you say, 'a fair woman,' but she has not shown +herself as yet 'without discretion,' and it is hardly kind to condemn +her before she has done any wrong." + +"I do not think that she behaved well to you, Philip. But I beg your +pardon, my son: we will not discuss the matter. It seems hard to me, of +course, that you should have suffered for any woman's sake." + +"Ah, mother, every one does not see me with your kind eyes," he said, +bringing his face round with a smile, and laying his right hand over one +of hers. But the smile thinly disguised the pain that lingered like a +shadow in his eyes. "Let us hope, at any rate, that Margaret may be +happy." + +Lady Ashley sighed and pressed his hand. "If you could but meet some one +else whom you cared for as much, Philip!" And then she paused, for he +had--involuntarily as it seemed--shaken his head, and she did not like +to proceed further. + +A pause of some minutes followed; and then she determined to change the +subject. + +"The music went very well this afternoon, I think," she said. "Miss +Colwyn was in very good voice. Do you not like her singing?" + +"Yes, very much." + +"The Watertons were asking me about her. And the Bevans. I fancy she +will get several engagements. Poor girl, I hope she will." + +Sir Philip threw away the end of his cigarette, and got up rather +abruptly, Lady Ashley thought. Without a word he began to pace up and +down the terrace, and finally, turning his back on her, he stared at the +garden and the distant view, now faintly illumined by a rising moon, as +if he had forgotten his mother's very existence. Lady Ashley was +surprised. He usually treated her with such marked distinction that to +appear for a moment unconscious of her presence was almost a slight. She +was too dignified, however, to try to recall his attention, and she +waited quietly until her son turned round again and suddenly faced her +with an air of calm determination. + +"Mother," he said, "I have something important to say." + +"Well, Philip?" + +"You have often said that you wanted me to marry." + +"Yes, dearest, I do wish it." + +"I also see the expediency of marriage. The woman whom I loved, who +seemed to us as suitable as she is lovely, will not marry me. What shall +I look for in my second choice? Character rather than fortune, health +rather than beauty. This seems to me the wiser way." + +"And love rather than expediency," said his mother quickly. + +"Ah!" he drew a long breath. "But we can't always have love. The other +requisites are perhaps more easily found." + +"Have you found them, Philip?" The mother's voice quivered as she asked +the question. He did not answer it immediately--he stood looking at the +ground for some little time. + +"My mind is made up," he said at last, slowly and quietly; "I know what +I want, and I think that I have found it. Mother, I am going to ask Miss +Colwyn to be my wife." + +If a thunderbolt had fallen at her feet, Lady Ashley could not have been +more amazed. She sat silent, rigid, incapable of a reply. + +"I have seen something of her, and I have heard more," her son went on, +soberly. "She is of sterling worth. She has intellect, character, +affection: what can we want more? She is attractive, if not exactly +beautiful, and she is good--thoroughly good and true." + +"But her connections, Philip--her relations," gasped Lady Ashley. + +"It will be easy enough to do something for them. Of course they will +have to be provided for--away from Beaminster, if possible. She is an +orphan, remember: these are only her half sisters and brothers." + +"There is the dreadful stepmother!" + +"I think we can manage her. These points do not concern the main issue, +mother. Will you receive her as your daughter if I bring Janetta Colwyn +here as my wife?" + +Lady Ashley had put her handkerchief to her eyes. "I will do anything to +please you, Philip," she said, almost inaudibly; "but I cannot pretend +that this is anything but a disappointment." + +"I have thought the matter well over. I am convinced that she will make +a good wife," said the young man; and from his voice and manner Lady +Ashley felt that his resolution was invulnerable. "There is absolutely +_no_ objection except the one concerning her relations--and that may be +got over. Mother, you wish for my happiness: tell me that you will not +disapprove." + +Lady Ashley got up from her basket chair, and laid her arms round +Philip's neck. + +"My dear son," she said, "I will do my best. I wish for nothing but your +happiness, and I should never think of trying to thwart your intentions. +But you must give me a little time in which to accustom myself to this +new idea." + +And then she wept a little, and kissed and blessed him, and they parted +on the most cordial of terms. Nevertheless, neither of them was very +happy. Lady Ashley was, as she had said, disappointed in the choice that +he had made; and Sir Philip, in spite of his brave words, was very sore +at heart. + +Janetta, all unconscious of the honor preparing for her, was meanwhile +passing some miserable hours. She could not sleep that night--she knew +not why. It was the excitement of the party, she supposed. But +something beside excitement was stirring in her heart. She tried to +give it a name, but she would not look the thing fairly in the face, +and, therefore, she was not very successful in her nomenclature. She +called it friendly interest in others, a desire for their happiness, a +desire also for their good. What made the burning pain and unrest of +these desires? Why should they cause her such suffering? She did not +know--or, more correctly, she refused to know. + +She rose in the morning feeling haggard and unrefreshed. The day was a +very hot one; the breeze had died away, and there was not a cloud in the +deep blue sky. Julian Brand came in the dog-cart with the groom. He had +not seen his father that morning, he said, and he thought that he had +gone away, but he did not know. Gone away? Janetta sat down to her work +with a heavy heart. It seemed to her that she must speak either to him +or to Margaret. He was compromising her friend, and for Margaret's sake +she must not hold her peace. Well, it was the day for Miss Adair's +singing lesson. When she came that afternoon, Janetta made up her mind +that she would say a needful word. + +But Margaret did not come. She sent a note, asking to be excused. She +had a headache, and could not sing that afternoon. + +"She is afraid to come!" said Janetta, passionately, and for almost the +first time she felt a thrill of anger against her friend. + +Another visitor came, if Margaret did not. About four o'clock, just as +Julian was beginning to wonder when he would be fetched away, a +thundering peal at the door knocker announced the appearance of Wyvis +Brand. Janetta was in the drawing-room putting away some music when he +came in. She saw that he glanced eagerly round the room, as if expecting +to see someone else--perhaps Margaret Adair--and her heart hardened to +him a little as she gave him her hand. Had he come at that hour because +Margaret generally took her lesson then? + +"How cold you are!" cried Wyvis, holding the little hand for the moment +in his own. "On this hot day! How _can_ you manage to keep so cool??" + +If his heart had been throbbing and his head burning as Janetta's were +just then, he might have known how to answer the question. + +"You have come for Julian, I suppose?" she said, a little coldly. + +"Yes--in a minute or two. Won't you let me rest for a few minutes after +my walk in the broiling sun?" + +"Oh, certainly; you shall have some tea, if you like. I am at liberty +this afternoon," said Janetta, with a little malice, "as my pupil has +just sent me word that she has a headache, and cannot come." + +"Who is your pupil this afternoon?" said Wyvis, stroking his black +moustache. + +"Miss Adair." + +He gave her a quick, keen glance, then turned away. She read vexation in +his eyes. + +"Don't let me trouble you," he said, in a different tone, as she moved +towards the door; "I really ought not to stay--I have an engagement or +two to fulfill. No tea, thanks. Is Julian ready?" + +"In a minute or two I will call him. I want to ask you a question +first--if you will let me?" + +"All right; go on. That's the way people begin disagreeable subjects, do +you know?" + +"I don't know whether you will consider this a disagreeable question. I +suppose you will," said Janetta, with an effort. "I promised you once to +say nothing to my friends about your affairs--about Julian's mother, and +I have kept my word. But I must ask you now--does Miss Adair know that +you are married?" + +There was a moment's pause. They stood opposite one another, and, +lifting her eyes to his face, she saw that he was frowning heavily and +gnawing his moustache. + +"What does that matter to _you_?" he said, angrily, at last. + +She shrank a little, but answered steadily-- + +"Margaret is my friend." + +"Well, what then?" + +The color rose to Janetta's face. "I don't believe you knew what you were +doing yesterday," she said; "but I knew--I heard people talking, and I +knew what people thought. They said that you were paying attention to +Miss Adair. They supposed you were going to marry her soon. None of them +seemed to know that--that--your wife was still alive. And of course I +could not tell them." + +"Of course not," he assented, with curious eagerness; "I knew you would +keep your word." + +"You made Margaret conspicuous," Janetta continued, with some warmth. +"You placed her in a very false position. If _she_ thinks, as other +people thought, that you want to marry her, she ought to be told the +truth at once. You must tell her--yourself--that you were only amusing +yourself--only playing with her, as no man has a right to play with a +girl," said Janetta, with such vehemence that the tears rose to her +great dark eyes and the scarlet color to her cheeks--"that you were +flirting, in fact, and that Julian's mother--_your wife_, Cousin +Wyvis--is still alive." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +"FREE!" + + +"And what if I refuse to tell her this?" said Wyvis Brand. + +"Then I shall tell her myself." + +"And break your word to me?" + +"And break my word." + +He stood looking at her for a minute in silence, and then an ironical +smile curled his lip as he turned aside. + +"Women are all alike," he said. "They cannot possibly hold their +tongues. I thought _you_ were superior to most of your sex. I remember +that your father once spoke of you to me as 'his faithful Janet.' Is +this your faithfulness?" + +"Yes, it is, it is," she cried; and then, sitting down, she suddenly +burst into tears. She was unnerved and agitated, and so she wept, as +girls will weep--for nothing at all sometimes, and sometimes in the very +crisis of their fate. + +Wyvis looked on, uncomprehending, a little touched, though rather +against his will, by Janetta's tears. He knew that she did not often +cry. He waited for the paroxysm to pass--waited grimly, but with +"compunctuous visitings." And presently he was rewarded for his +patience. She dried her eyes, lifted up her head, and spoke. + +"I don't know why I should make such a fool of myself," she said. "I +suppose it was because you mentioned my father. Yes, he used to call me +his faithful Janet very often. I have always tried--to--to _deserve_ +that name." + +"Forgive me, Janetta," said her cousin, more moved than he liked to +appear. "I did not want to hurt you; but, indeed, my dear girl, you must +let me manage my affairs for myself. You are not responsible for +Margaret Adair as you were for Nora; and you can't, you know, bring me +to book as you did my brother, Cuthbert." + +"You mean that I interfere too much in other people's business?" said +poor Janetta, with quivering lips. + +"I did not say so. I only say, '_Don't_ interfere.'" + +"It is very hard to do right," said Janetta, looking at him with wistful +eyes. "One's duty seems so divided. Margaret is not my sister--that is +true, but she is my friend; and I always believed that one had +responsibilities and duties towards friends as well as towards +relations." + +"Possibly"--in a very dry tone. "But you need not meddle with what is no +concern of yours." + +"It is my concern, if you--my cousin--are not acting rightly to my +friend." + +"I say it is no concern of yours at all." + +They had come to a deadlock. He faced her, with the dark, haughty, +imperious look which she knew so well upon his fine features; she stood +silent, angry too, and almost as imperious. But, womanlike, she yielded +first. + +"You asked me once to be your friend, Cousin Wyvis. I want to be yours +and Margaret's too. Won't you let me see what you mean?" + +Wyvis Brand's brow relaxed a little. + +"I don't understand your views of friendship: it seems to mean a right +to intermeddle with all the affairs of your acquaintances," he said, +cuttingly; "but since you are so good as to ask my intentions----" + +"If you talk like that, I'll never speak to you again!" cried Janetta, +who was not remarkable for her meekness. + +Wyvis actually smiled. + +"Come," he said, "be friends, Janetta. I assure you I don't mean any +harm. You must not be straight-laced. Your pretty friend is no doubt +well able to take care of herself." + +But he looked down as he said this and knitted his brows. + +"She has never had occasion to do it," said Janetta, epigrammatically. + +"Then don't you think it is time she learns?" + +"You have no right to be her teacher." + +"Right! right!" cried Wyvis, impatiently "I am tired of this cuckoo-cry +about my rights! I have the right to do what I choose, to get what +pleasure out of life I can, to do my best for myself. It is everybody's +right, and he is only a hypocrite who denies it." + +"There is one limitation," said Janetta. "Get what you can for yourself, +if you like--it seems to me a somewhat selfish view--as long as you +don't injure anybody else." + +"Whom do I injure?" he asked, looking at her defiantly in the face. + +"Margaret." + +He dropped his eyes, and the defiance went suddenly out of his look and +voice. + +"Injure her?" he said, in a very low tone. "Surely, you know, I wouldn't +do _that_--to save my life." + +Janetta looked at him mutely. The words were a revelation. There was a +pause, during which she heard, as in a dream, the sound of children's +voices and children's feet along the passages of the house. Julian and +Tiny were running riot; but she felt, for the time being, as if she had +nothing to do with them: their interests did not touch her: she dwelt in +a world apart. Hitherto Wyvis had stood, hat in hand, as if he were +ready to go at a moment's notice; but now he changed his attitude. He +seated himself determinedly, put down his hat, and looked back at her. + +"Well," he said, "I see that I must explain myself if I mean to make my +peace with you, Janetta. I am, perhaps, not so bad as you think me. I +have not mentioned to Miss Adair that Julian's mother is alive, because +I consider myself a free man. Julian's mother, once my wife, has +divorced me, and is, I believe, on the point of marrying again. Surely +in that case I am free to marry too." + +"Divorced you?" Janetta repeated, with dilating eyes. + +"Yes, divorced me. She has gone out to America and managed it there. It +is easy enough in some of the States to get divorced from an absent wife +or husband, as no doubt you know. Incompatibility of temper was the +alleged reason. I believe she is going to marry a Chicago man--something +in pork." + +"And you are legally free?" + +"She says so. I fancy there is a legal hitch somewhere but I have not +yet consulted my lawyers. We were married by the Catholic rite in +France, and the Catholic Church will probably consider us married still. +But Margaret is not a Catholic--nor am I." + +"And you think," said Janetta, very slowly, "of marrying Margaret?" + +He looked up at her and laughed, a little uneasily. + +"You think she won't have me?" + +"I don't know. I think you don't know her yet, Wyvis." + +"I dare say not," said her cousin. Then he broke out in quite a +different tone: "No wonder I don't; she's a perpetual revelation to me. +I never saw anything like her--so pure, so spotless, so exquisite. It's +like looking at a work of art--a bit of delicate china, or a picture by +Francia or Guido. Something holy and serene about her--something that +sets her apart from the ordinary world. I can't define it: but it's +there. I feel myself made of a coarse, common clay in her presence: I +want to go down on my knees and serve her like a queen. That's how I +feel about Margaret." + +"Ah!" said Janetta, "my princess of dreams. That is what I used to call +her. That is what I--used to feel." + +"Don't you feel it now?" said Wyvis, sitting up and staring at her. + +Janetta hesitated. "Margaret is my dear friend, and I love her. But I am +older--perhaps I can't feel exactly in that way about her now." + +"You talk as if you were a sexagenarian," said Wyvis, exploding into +genial laughter. He looked suddenly brighter and younger, as if his +outburst of emotion had wonderfully relieved him. "I am much older than +you, and yet I see her in the same light. What else is there to say +about her? She is perfect--there is not much to discuss in perfection." + +"She is most lovely--most sweet," said Janetta, warmly. "And yet--the +very things you admire may stand in your way, Wyvis. She is very +innocent of the world. And if you have won her--her--affection before +you have told her your history----" + +"You think this wretched first marriage of mine will stand in the way?" + +"I do. With Margaret and with her parents." + +Wyvis frowned again. "I had better make sure of her--marry her at once, +and tell her afterwards," he said. But perhaps he said it only to see +what Janetta would reply. + +"You would not do that, Wyvis?" + +"I don't know." + +"But you want to be worthy of her?" + +"I shall never be that so it's no good trying." + +"She would never forgive you if you married her without telling her the +truth." + +Wyvis laughed scornfully. "You know nothing about it. A woman will +forgive anything to the man she loves." + +"Not a meanness!" said the girl, sharply. + +"Yes, meanness, deceit, lies, anything--so long as it was done for her +sake." + +"I don't believe that would be the case with Margaret. Once disgust her, +and you lose her love." + +"Then she can't have much to give," retorted Wyvis. + +Janetta was silent. In her secret heart she did not think that Margaret +_could_ love very deeply--that, indeed, she had not much to give. + +"Well, what's the upshot?" said her cousin, at last, in a dogged tone. +"Are you satisfied at last?" + +"I shall be better satisfied when you make things plain to the Adairs. +You have no right to win Margaret's heart in this secret way. You blamed +Cuthbert for making love to Nora. It is far worse for you to do it to +Margaret Adair." + +"I am so much beneath her, am I not?" said Wyvis, with a sneer. And then +he once more spoke eagerly. "I _am_ beneath her: I am as the dust under +her feet. Don't you think I know that? I'll tell you what, Janetta, when +I first saw her and spoke to her--here, in this room, if you remember--I +thought that she was like a being from another world. I had never seen +anyone like her. She is the fairest, sweetest of women, and I would not +harm her for the world." + +"I don't know whether I ought even to listen to you," said Janetta, in a +troubled voice and with averted head. "You know, many people would say +that you were in the wrong altogether--that you were not free----" + +"Then they would say a lie! I am legally free, I believe, and morally +free, I am certain. I thank God for it. I have suffered enough." + +He looked so stern, so uncompromising, that Janetta hastened to take +refuge in concrete facts. + +"But you will tell Margaret everything?" + +"In my own good time." + +"Do promise me that you will not marry her without letting her know--if +ever it comes, to a talk of your marriage." + +"_If ever?_ It will come very soon, I hope. But I'll promise nothing. +And you must not make mischief." + +"I am like you--I will promise nothing." + +"I shall never forgive you, if you step between Margaret and me," said +Wyvis. + +"I shall never step between you, I hope," said Janetta, in a dispirited +tone. "But it is better for me to promise nothing more." + +Wyvis shrugged his shoulders, as if he thought it useless to argue with +her. She was sorry for the apparently unfriendly terms on which they +seemed likely to part; and it was a relief to her when, as they were +saying good-bye, he looked into her face rather wistfully and said, +"Wish me success, Janetta, after all." + +"I wish you every happiness," she said. But whether that meant success +or not it would have been hard to say. + +She saw him take his departure, with little Julian clinging to his hand, +and then she set about her household duties in her usual self-contained +and steadfast way. But her heart ached sadly--she did not quite know +why--and when she went to bed that night she lay awake for many weary +hours, weeping silently, but passionately, over the sorrow that, she +foresaw for her dearest friends, and, perhaps, also for herself. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +A BIG BRIBE. + + +It seemed to Janetta as if she had almost expected to see Lady Caroline +Adair drive up to her door about four o'clock next day, in the very +victoria wherein the girl had once sat side by side with Margaret's +mother, and from which she had first set eyes on Wyvis Brand. She had +expected it, and yet her heart beat faster, and her color went and came, +as she disposed of her pupils in the little dining-room, and met her +visitor just as she crossed the hall. + +"Can I speak to you for five minutes, Miss Colwyn?" said Lady Caroline, +in so suave a voice that for a moment Janetta felt reassured. Only for a +moment, however. When she had shut the drawing-room door, she saw that +her visitor's face was for once both cold and hard. Janetta offered a +chair, and Lady Caroline took it, but without a word of thanks. She had +evidently put on the "fine lady" manner, which Janetta detested from her +heart. + +"I come to speak on a very painful subject," said Lady Caroline. Her +voice was pitched a little higher than usual, but she gave no other sign +of agitation. "You were at Lady Ashley's garden party the day before +yesterday I believe?" + +Janetta bowed assent. + +"May I ask if you observed anything remarkable in my daughter's +behavior? You are supposed to be Margaret's friend: you must have +noticed what she was doing all the afternoon." + +"I do not think that Margaret _could_ behave unsuitably," said Janetta, +suddenly flushing up. + +"I am obliged to you for your good opinion of my daughter. But that is +not the point. Did you notice whether she was talking or walking a great +deal with one person, or----" + +"Excuse me, Lady Caroline," said Janetta, "but I did not spend the +afternoon in watching Margaret, and I am quite unable to give you any +information on the subject." + +"I really do not see the use of beating about the bush," said Lady +Caroline, blandly. "You must know perfectly well to what I refer. Mr. +Wyvis Brand is a connection of yours, I believe. I hear on all sides +that he and my daughter were inseparable all the afternoon. Greatly to +my astonishment, I confess." + +"Mr. Brand is a second cousin of mine, and his brother is engaged to my +half-sister," said Janetta; "but I have nothing to do with his +acquaintance with Margaret." + +"Indeed!" exclaimed Lady Caroline. She put up her eye-glass, and +carefully inspected Janetta from head to foot. "Nothing to do with their +acquaintance, you say! May I ask, then, _where_ my daughter met Mr. +Brand? Not in _my_ house, I think." + +Janetta gave a slight start. She had for the moment utterly forgotten +that it was in Gwynne Street that Wyvis Brand and Margaret had first +met. + +"I beg your pardon: I forgot," she said. "Of course--Margaret no doubt +told you--she came here one day for her singing-lesson, and Mr. Brand +called for his little boy. It was the first time they had seen each +other." + +"And how often have they met here since, may I ask?" + +"Never again, Lady Caroline." + +"I was of course to blame in letting my daughter go out without a +chaperon," said Lady Caroline, disagreeably. "I never thought of danger +in _this_ quarter, certainly. I can quite appreciate your motive, Miss +Colwyn. No doubt it would be very pleasant for _you_ if Margaret were to +marry your cousin; but we have prejudices that must be consulted." + +"I hope you did not come here meaning to insult me," said Janetta, +starting to her feet; "but I think you cannot know what you are saying, +Lady Caroline. _I_ want my cousin to marry your daughter? I never +thought of such a thing--until yesterday!" + +"And what made you think of it yesterday, pray? Please let us have no +heroics, no hysterics: these exhibitions of temper are so unseemly. What +made you think so yesterday?" + +"Mr. Brand came here," said Janetta, suddenly growing very white, "and +told me that he cared for Margaret. I do not know how they had met. He +did not tell me. He--he--cares very much for her." + +"Cares for her! What next? He came here--when? At Margaret's +lesson-time, I suppose?" + +She saw from Janetta's face that her guess was correct. + +"I need hardly say that Margaret will not come here again," said Lady +Caroline, rising and drawing her laces closely around her. "There is the +amount due to you, Miss Colwyn. I calculated it before I came out, and I +think you will find it all right. There is one more question I must +really ask before I go: there seems some uncertainty concerning the fate +of Mr. Brand's first wife; perhaps you can tell me whether she is alive +or dead?" + +Poor Janetta scarcely knew what to say. But she told herself that truth +was always best. + +"I believe he--he--is divorced from her," she stammered, knowing full +well how very condemnatory her words must sound in Lady Caroline's ear. +They certainly produced a considerable effect. + +"_Divorced?_ And you introduced him to Margaret? Of course I know that a +_divorcé_ is often received in society, and so on, but I always set my +face against the prevalent lax views of marriage, and I hoped that I had +brought up my daughter to do the same. I suppose"--satirically--"you did +not think it worth while to tell Margaret this little fact?" + +"I did not know it then," Janetta forced herself to say. + +"Indeed?" Lady Caroline's "indeed" was very crushing. "Well, either your +information or your discretion must have been very much at fault. I must +say, Miss Polehampton _now_ strikes me as a woman of great +discrimination of character. I will say good-morning, Miss Colwyn, and I +think the acquaintance between my daughter and yourself had better be +discontinued. It has certainly been, from beginning to end, an +unsuitable and disastrous friendship." + +"Before you go, Lady Caroline, will you kindly take the envelope away +that you have left upon the table?" said Janetta, as haughtily as Lady +Caroline herself could have spoken. "I certainly shall not take money +from you if you believe such evil things of me. I have known nothing of +the acquaintance between my cousin and Miss Adair; but after what you +have said I will not accept anything at your hands." + +"Then I am afraid it will have to remain on the table," said Lady +Caroline, as she swept out of the room, "for I cannot take it back +again." + +Janetta caught up the envelope. One glance showed her that it contained +a cheque. She tore it across and across, and was in time to place the +fragments on the seat beside Lady Caroline, just before the carriage was +driven away. She went back into the house with raised head and flaming +cheeks, too angry and annoyed to settle down to work, too much hurt to +be anything but restless and preoccupied. The reaction did not set in +for some hours; but by six o'clock, when the children were all out of +doors and her stepmother had gone to visit a friend, and Janetta had +the house to herself, she lay down on a couch in the drawing-room with a +feeling of intense exhaustion and fatigue. She was too tired almost to +cry, but a tear welled up now and then, and was allowed to trickle +quietly down her pale cheek. She was utterly wretched and depressed: the +world seemed a dark place to her, especially when she considered that +she had already lost one friend whom she had so long and so tenderly +loved, and that she was not unlikely to lose another. For Wyvis might +blame her--_would_ blame her, probably--for what she had said to Lady +Caroline. + +A knock at the front door aroused her. It was a knock that she did not +know; and she wondered at first whether one of the Adairs or one of the +Brands were coming to visit her. She sat up and hastily rearranged her +hair and dried her eyes. The charity orphan was within hearing and had +gone to the door: it was she who presently flung open the door and +announced, in awe-stricken tones-- + +"Sir Philip Hashley." + +Janetta rose in some consternation. What did this visit portend? Had +_he_ also come to reproach her for her conduct to Margaret and Wyvis? +For she surmised--chiefly from the way in which she had seen him follow +Margaret with his eyes at the garden-party--that his old love was not +dead. + +He greeted her with his usual gentleness of manner, and sat down--not +immediately facing her, as she was glad to think, scarcely realizing +that he had at once seen the trouble in her face, and did not wish to +embarrass her by a straightforward gaze. He gave her a little time in +which to recover herself, too; he spoke of indifferent subjects in an +indifferent tone, so that when five minutes had elapsed Janetta was +quite herself again, and had begun to speculate upon her chance of an +engagement to sing at another musical party. + +"I hope Lady Ashley is well," she said, when at last a short pause came. + +"Quite well, I thank you, and hoping to see you soon." + +"Oh, I am so grateful to you for saying that," said Janetta, +impulsively. "I felt that I did not know whether she was satisfied with +my singing or not. You know I am a beginner." + +"I am sure I may say that she was perfectly satisfied," said Sir Philip, +courteously. "But it was not in allusion to your singing that she spoke +of wishing to see you again." + +"Lady Ashley is very kind," said Janetta, feeling rather surprised. + +"She would like to see more of you," Sir Philip went on in a somewhat +blundering fashion. "She is very much alone: it would be a great comfort +to her to have some one about her--some one whom she liked--some one who +would be like a daughter to her----" + +A conviction as to the cause of his visit flashed across Janetta's mind. +He was going to ask her to become Lady Ashley's companion! With her +usual quickness she forgot to wait for the proposition, and answered it +before it was made. + +"I wish I could be of some use to Lady Ashley," she said, with the warm +directness that Sir Philip had always liked. "I have never seen any one +like her--I admire her so much! You will forgive me for saying so, I +hope? But I could not be spared from home to do anything for her +regularly. If she wants a girl who can read aloud and play nicely, I +think I know of one, but perhaps I had better ask Lady Ashley more +particularly about the qualifications required?" + +"I did not say anything about a companion, did I?" said Sir Philip, with +a queer little smile. "Not in your sense of the word, at any rate." + +"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Janetta, suddenly flushing scarlet: "I +thought--I understood----" + +"You could not possibly know what I meant: I was not at all clear," said +Sir Philip, decidedly. "I had something else in my mind." + +She looked at him inquiringly. He rose from his chair and moved about +the room a little, with an appearance of agitation which excited her +deepest wonderment. He averted his eyes from her, and there was +something like a flush on his naturally pale cheek. He seemed really +nervous. + +"Is there anything that I can do for Lady Ashley?" said Janetta, at +last, when the silence had lasted as long as she thought desirable. + +"There is something you can do for me." + +"For you, Sir Philip?" + +Sir Philip faced her resolutely. "For me, Miss Colwyn. If I tell you in +very few words, will you forgive my abruptness? I don't think it is any +use beating about the bush in these matters. Will you be my wife? That +is what I came to say." + +Janetta sat gazing at him with wide open eyes, as if she thought that he +had taken leave of his senses. + +"Don't answer at once; take time," said Sir Philip, quickly. "I know +that I may perhaps have startled you: but I don't want you to answer +hastily. If you would like time for reflection, pray take it. I hope +that reflection will lead you to say that you will at least try to like +me enough to become my wife." + +Janetta felt that he was very forbearing. Some men in his position would +have thought it sufficient to indicate their choice, and then to expect +the favored lady, especially if she were small and brown and plain, and +worked for her bread, to fall at his feet in an ecstasy of joy. Janetta +had never yet felt inclined to fall at anybody's feet. But Sir Philip's +forbearance seemed to call for additional care and speed in answering +him. + +"But--I am sure Lady Ashley----" she began, and stopped. + +"My mother will welcome you as a daughter," said Sir Philip, gently. +"She sends her love to you to-day, and hopes that you will consent to +make me happy." + +Janetta sat looking at her crossed hands. "Oh, it is +impossible--impossible," she murmured. + +"Why so? If there is no obstacle in--in your own affections, it seems to +me that it would be quite possible," said Sir Philip, standing before +her in an attitude of some urgency. "But perhaps you have a dislike to +me?" + +"Oh, no." She could not say more--she could not look up. + +"I think I could make your life a happy one. You would not find me +difficult. And you need have no further anxiety about your family; we +could find some way of managing that. You think as I do about so many +subjects that I am sure we should be happy together." + +It was a big bribe. That was how Janetta looked at it in that moment. +She was certain that Sir Philip did not love her: she knew that she did +not love Sir Philip; and yet--it did seem that she might have a happy, +easy, honored life if she consented to marry him--a life that would make +her envied by many who had previously scorned her, and which would be, +she hoped, productive of good to those whom she deeply loved. It was a +bribe--a temptation. She was tempted, as any girl might have been, to +exchange her life of toil and anxiety for one of luxury and peace; but +there was something that she would also have to lose--the clear, upright +conscience, the love of truth, the conviction of well-doing. She could +not keep these and become Sir Philip's wife. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +"CHANGES MUST COME." + + +She raised her eyes at length, and looked Sir Philip in the face. What a +manly, honest, intelligent face it was! One that a woman might well be +proud of in her husband: the face of a man whom she might very safely +trust. Janetta thought all this, as she made her answer. + +"I am very sorry, Sir Philip, but I cannot be your wife." + +"You are answering me too hastily. Think again--take a day, a week--a +month if you like. Don't refuse without considering the matter, I beg of +you." + +Janetta shook her head. "No consideration will make any difference." + +"I know that I am not attractive," said her suitor, after a moment's +pause, in a somewhat bitter tone. "I have not known how to woo--how to +make pretty speeches and protestations--but for all that, I should make, +I believe, a very faithful and loving husband. I am almost certain that +I could make you happy, Janetta--if you will let me call you so--may I +not try?" + +"I should not feel that I was doing right," said Janetta, simply. + +It was the only answer that could have made Sir Philip pause. He was +quite prepared for hesitation and reluctance of a sort; but a scruple of +conscience was a thing that he respected. "Why not?" he said, in a +surprised tone. + +"I have two or three reasons. I don't think I can tell them to you, Sir +Philip; but they are quite impossible for me to forget." + +"Then I think you would be doing better to tell me," said he, gently. He +pulled a chair forward, sat down close to Janetta, and quietly laid his +hand upon hers. "Now, what are they--these reasons?" he asked. + +Her seat was lower than his chair, and she was obliged to lift her eyes +when she looked at him. His face compelled truthfulness. And Janetta was +wise enough to know whom she might trust. + +"If I speak frankly, will you forgive me?" she said. + +"If you will speak frankly, I shall esteem it a great honor." + +"Then," said Janetta, bravely, "one of my reasons is this. You are most +kind, and I know that you would be always good to me. I might even, as +you say, be very happy after a time, but you do not--care for me--you do +not love me, and"--here she nearly broke down--"and--I think you love +some one else." + +Sir Philip made a movement as if to take away his hand; but he +restrained himself and grasped hers still more closely. + +"And who is it that I am supposed to care for?" he asked, in a light +tone. + +"Margaret," Janetta answered, almost in a whisper. Then there was a +silence, and this time Sir Philip did slowly withdraw his hand. But he +did not look angry. + +"I see," he said, "you are a friend of hers: you doubtless heard about +my proposition to her concerning the Miss Polehampton business." + +Janetta looked surprised. "No, I heard nothing of that. And indeed I +heard very little from Margaret. I heard a good deal from Lady +Caroline." + +"Ah, that woman!" cried Sir Philip, getting up and making a little +gesture with his hand, expressive of contempt. "She is worldly to the +core. Did she tell you why Margaret refused me?" + +"I did not know--exactly--that she had. Lady Caroline said that it was a +misunderstanding," said Janetta, the startled look growing in her eyes. + +"Just like her. She wanted to bring me back. Forgive me for speaking so +hotly, but I am indignant with Lady Caroline Adair. She has done +Margaret incalculable harm." + +"But Margaret herself is so sweet and generous and womanly," said +Janetta, watching his face carefully, "that she would recover from all +that harm if she were in other hands." + +"Yes, yes; I believe she would," he answered, eagerly. "It only needs to +take her from her mother, and she would be perfect." He stopped, +suddenly abashed by Janetta's smile. "In her way, of course, I mean," he +added, rather confusedly. + +"Ah," said Janetta, "it is certain that I should never be perfect. And +after Margaret!" + +"I esteem you, I respect you, much more than Margaret." + +"But esteem is not enough, Sir Philip. No, you do not love me; and I +think--if I may say so--that you do love Margaret Adair." + +Sir Philip reddened distressfully, and bit his lip. + +"I am quite sure, Miss Colwyn, that I have no thoughts of her that would +do you an injustice. I did love Margaret--perhaps--but I found that I +was mistaken in her. And she is certainly lost to me now. She loves +another." + +"And you will love another one day, if you do not win her yet," said +Janetta, with decision. "But you do not love _me_, and I certainly will +never marry any one who does not. Besides--I should have a feeling of +treachery to Margaret." + +"Which would be quite absurd and unwarrantable. Think of some better +reason if you want to convince me. I hope still to make you believe that +I do care for you." + +Janetta shook her head. "It's no use, Sir Philip. I should be doing very +wrong if I consented, knowing what I do. And besides, there _is_ another +reason. I cannot tell it to you, but indeed there is a good reason for +my not marrying you." + +"Has it anything to do with position--or--or money, may I ask? Because +these things are immaterial to me." + +"And I'm afraid I did not think about them," said Janetta, with a frank +blush, which made him like her better than ever. "I ought to have +remembered how great an honor you were doing me and been grateful!--no, +it was not that." + +"Then you care for some one else? That is what it is." + +"I suppose it is," said Janetta. + +And then a very different kind of blush began--a blush of shame, which +dyed her forehead and ears and neck with so vivid a crimson hue that Sir +Philip averted his eyes in honest sympathy. + +"I'm afraid, then," he said, ruefully, but kindly, "that there's nothing +more to be said." + +"Nothing," said Janetta, wishing her cheeks would cool. + +Sir Philip rose from his chair, and stood for a moment as if not knowing +whether to go or stay. Janetta rose too. + +"If you were to change your mind----" he said. + +"This is a thing about which I could not possibly change my mind, Sir +Philip." + +"I am sorry for it." And then he took his leave, and Janetta went to her +room to bathe her hot face and to wonder at the way in which the +whirligig of Time brings its revenges. + +"Who would have thought it?" she said to herself, half diverted and half +annoyed. "When Miss Polehampton used to lecture me on the difference of +Margaret's position and mine, and when Lady Caroline patronized me, I +certainly never thought that I should be asked to become Lady Ashley. To +take Margaret's place! I have a feeling--and I always had--that he is +the proper husband for her, and that everything will yet come right +between them. If I had said 'yes'--if I only _could_ have said 'yes,' +for the children's sake--I should never have got over the impression +that Margaret was secretly reproaching me! And as it is, she may +reproach me yet. For Wyvis will not make her happy if he marries her: +and she will not make Wyvis happy. And as for me, although he is, I +suppose, legally divorced from his wife, I do not think that I could +bear to marry him under such circumstances. But Margaret is different, +perhaps, from me." + +But the more she meditated upon the subject, the more was Janetta +surprised at Margaret's conduct. It seemed unlike her; it was +uncharacteristic. Margaret might be for a time under the charm of Wyvis +Brand's strong individuality; but if she married him, a miserable +awakening was almost sure to come to her at last. To exchange the +smooth life, the calm and the luxury, of Helmsley Court for the gloom, +the occasional tempests, and the general crookedness of existence at the +Red House would be no agreeable task for Margaret. Of the two, Janetta +felt that life at the Red House would be far the more acceptable to +herself: she did not mind a little roughness, and she had a great +longing to bring mirth and sunshine into the gloomy precincts of her +cousin's house. Janetta agreed with Lady Caroline as to the +inadvisability of Margaret's attachment to Wyvis far more than Lady +Caroline gave her credit for. + +Lady Caroline was almost angrier than she had ever been in her life. She +had had some disagreeable experiences during the last few hours. She had +had visitors, since Lady Ashley's garden-party, and amongst them had +been numbered two or three of her intimate friends who had "warned" her, +as they phrased it, against "Margaret's infatuation for that wild Mr. +Brand." Lady Caroline listened with her most placid smile, but raged +inwardly. That her peerless Margaret should have been indiscreet! She +was sure that it was only indiscretion--nothing more--but even that was +insufferable! And what had Alicia Stone been doing? Where had her eyes +been? Had she been bribed or coaxed into favoring the enemy? + +Miss Stone had had a very unpleasant half-hour with her patroness that +morning. It had ended in her going away weeping to pack up her boxes; +for Lady Caroline literally refused to condone the injury done to +Margaret by any carelessness of chaperonage on Miss Stone's part. "You +must be quite unfit for your post, Alicia," she said, severely. "I am +sorry that I shall not be able to recommend you for Lord Benlomond's +daughters. I never thought you particularly wise, but such gross +carelessness I certainly never did expect." Now this was unfortunate for +Alicia, who had been depending on Lady Caroline's good offices to get +her a responsible position as chaperon to three motherless girls in +Scotland. + +Lady Caroline had as yet not said a single word to Margaret. She had not +even changed her caressing manner for one of displeasure. But she had +kept the girl with her all the morning, and had come out alone only +because Margaret had gone for a drive with two maiden aunts who had +just arrived for a week, and with whom Lady Caroline felt that she would +be absolutely safe. She was glad that she had the afternoon to herself. +It gave her an opportunity of seeing Janetta Colwyn, and of conducting +some business of her own as well. For after seeing Janetta she ordered +the coachman to drive to the office of her husband's local solicitor, +and in this office she remained for more than half an hour. The lawyer, +Mr. Greggs by name, accompanied her with many smiles and bows to the +carriage. + +"I am sure we shall be able to do all that your ladyship wishes," he +said, politely. "You shall have information in a day or two." Whereat +Lady Caroline looked satisfied. + +It was nearly six o'clock when she reached home, and her absence had +caused some astonishment in the house. Tea had been carried out as usual +to the seats under the cedar-tree on the lawn, and Mr. Adair's two +sisters were being waited on by Margaret, fair and innocent-looking as +usual, in her pretty summer gown. Lady Caroline's white eyelids veiled a +glance of sudden sharpness, as she noticed her daughter's unruffled +serenity. Margaret puzzled her. For the first time in her life she +wondered whether she had been mistaken in the girl, who had always +seemed to reproduce so accurately the impressions that her teachers and +guardians wished to make. Had it been, all seeming? and was Margaret +mentally and morally an ugly duckling, hatched in a hen's nest? + +"Dear mamma, how tired you look," said the girl, softly. "Some fresh tea +is coming for you directly. I took Alicia a cup myself, but she would +not let me in. She said she had a headache." + +"I dare say," replied Lady Caroline, a little absently. "At least--I +will go to see her presently: she may be better before dinner. I hope +you enjoyed your drive, dear Isabel." + +Isabel was the elder of Mr. Adair's two sisters. + +"Oh, exceedingly. Margaret did the honors of her County so well: she +seems to know the place by heart." + +"She has ridden with Reginald a good deal," said the mother. + +Margaret had seated herself beside the younger of the aunts--Miss +Rosamond Adair--and was talking to her in a low voice. + +"How lovely she is!" Miss Adair murmured to her sister-in-law. "She +ought to marry well, Caroline." + +"I hope so," said Lady Caroline, placidly. "But I always think that +Margaret will be difficult to satisfy." It was not her _rôle_ to confide +in her husband's sisters, of all people in the world. + +"We heard something about Sir Philip Ashley: was there anything in it?" + +Lady Caroline smiled. "I should have thought him everything that was +desirable," she said, "but Margaret did not seem to see it in that +light. Poor dear Sir Philip was very much upset." + +"Ah, well, she may do better!" + +"Perhaps so. Of course we should never think of forcing the dear child's +inclinations," said Lady Caroline. + +And yet she was conscious that she had laid her hand on a weapon with +which she meant to beat down Margaret's inclinations to the ground. But +it was natural to her to talk prettily. + +Wheels were heard at that moment coming up the drive. Lady Caroline, +raising her eyes, saw that Margaret started as the sound fell upon her +ear. + +"A bad sign!" she said to herself. "Girls do not start and change color +when nothing is wrong. Margaret used not to be nervous. I wonder how far +that man went with her. She may be unconscious of his intentions--he may +not have any; and then she will have been made conspicuous for nothing! +I wish the Brands had stayed away for another year or two." + +The sound of wheels had proceeded from a dog-cart in which Mr. Adair, +after an absence of a fortnight, was driving from the station. In a very +few minutes he had crossed the lawn, greeted his wife, sisters and +daughter, and thrown himself lazily into a luxurious lounging-chair. + +"Ah, this is delightful!" he said. "London is terribly smoky and grimy +at this time of year. And you all look charming--and so exactly the same +as ever! Nothing changes down here, does it, my Pearl?" + +He was stroking Margaret's hand, which lay upon his knee, as he spoke. +The girl colored and dropped her eyes. + +"Changes must come to us all," she said, in a low voice. + +"A very trite remark, my dear," said Lady Caroline, smiling, "but we +need not anticipate changes _before_ they come. We are just as we were +when you went away, Reginald, and nothing at all has happened." + +She thought that Margaret looked at her oddly, but she did not care to +meet her daughter's eyes just then. Lady Caroline was not an unworldly +woman, not a very conscientious one, or apt to set a great value on fine +moral distinctions; but she did regret just then that she had not +impressed on her daughter more deeply the virtue of perfect +truthfulness. + +"By-the-by," said Mr. Adair, "I saw some letters on the hall table and +brought them out with me. Will you excuse me if I open them? Why--that's +the Brands' crest." + +Lady Caroline wished that he had left the words unsaid. Margaret's face +went crimson and then turned very pale. Her mother saw her embarrassment +and hastened to relieve it. + +"Margaret, dear, will you take Alicia my smelling salts? I think they +may relieve her headache. Tell her not to get up--I will come and see +her soon." + +And as Margaret departed, Mr. Adair with lifted eyebrows and in +significant silence handed an envelope to his wife. She glanced at it +with perfectly unmoved composure. It was what she had been expecting: a +letter from Wyvis Brand asking for the hand of their daughter, Margaret +Adair. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +MARGARET'S CONFESSION. + + +Margaret heard nothing of her lover's letter that night. It was not +thought desirable that the tranquillity of the evening should be +disturbed. Lady Caroline would have sacrificed a good deal sooner than +the harmonious influences of a well-appointed dinner and the passionless +refinement of an evening spent with her musical and artistic friends. +Mr. Adair's sisters were women of cultured taste, and she had asked two +gentlemen to meet them, therefore it was quite impossible (from her +point of view) to discuss any difficult point before the morning. +Margaret, who knew pretty well what was coming, spent a rather feverish +half-hour in her room before the ringing of the dinner-bell, expecting +every minute that her mother would appear, or that she would be summoned +to a conference with her father in the library. But when the dinner hour +approached without any attempt at discussion of the matter, and she +perceived that it was to be left until the morrow, it must be confessed +that she drew long breath of relief. She was quite sufficiently well +versed in Lady Caroline's tactics to appreciate the force and wisdom of +this reserve. "It is so much better, of course," she said to herself, as +her maid dressed her hair, "that we should not have any agitating scene +just before dinner. I dare say I should cry--if they were all very grave +and solemn I am sure I should cry!--and it would be so awkward to come +down with red eyes. And, of course, I could not stay upstairs to-night +Perhaps mamma will come to me to-night when every one is gone." + +And armed with this anticipation, she went downstairs, looking only a +little more flushed than usual, and able to bear her part in the +conversation and the amusements as easily as if no question as to her +future fate were hanging undecided in the air. + +But Lady Caroline did not stay when she visited Margaret that night as +usual in her pretty room. She caressed and kissed her with more than +customary warmth, but she did not attempt to enter into conversation +with her in spite of the soft appeal of Margaret's inquiring eyes. "My +dear child, I cannot possibly stay with you to-night," she said. "Your +Aunt Isabel has asked me to go into her room for a few minutes. +Good-night, my own sweetest: you looked admirable to-night in that lace +dress, and your singing was simply charming. Mr. Bevan was saying that +you ought to have the best Italian masters. Good-night, my darling," and +Margaret was left alone. + +She was a little disturbed--a little, not very much. She was not apt to +be irritable or impatient, and she had great confidence in her parents' +love for her. She had never realized that she lived under a yoke. +Everything was made so smooth and easy that she imagined that she had +only to express her will in order to have it granted. That there might +be difficulties she foresaw: her parents might hesitate and parley a +good deal, but she had not the slightest fear of overcoming their +reluctance in course of time. She had always been a young princess, and +nobody had ever seriously combated her will. + +"I am sure that if I am resolute enough I shall be allowed to do as I +choose," she said to herself; and possibly this was true enough. But +Margaret had never yet had occasion to measure her resolution against +that of her father and mother. + +She went to bed and to sleep, therefore, quite peacefully, and slept +like a child until morning, while Wyvis Brand was frantically pacing up +and down his old hall for the greater part of the night, and Janetta was +wetting her pillow with silent tears, and Philip Ashley, sleepless like +these others, vainly tried to forget his disappointment in the perusal +of certain blue-books. Margaret was the cause of all this turmoil of +mind, but she knew nothing of it, and most certainly did not partake in +it. + +She suspected that she was to be spoken to on the subject of Mr. Brand's +letter, when, after breakfast, next morning, she found that her father +was arranging to take his sisters and Miss Stone for a long drive, and +that she was to be left alone with her mother. Lady Caroline had +relented, so far as Alicia was concerned. It would not look well, she +had reflected, to send away her own kinswoman in disgrace, and although +she still felt exceedingly, angry with Alicia, she had formally received +her back into favor, cautioning her only not to speak to Margaret about +Wyvis Brand. When every one was out of the way Lady Caroline knew that +she could more easily have a conversation with her daughter, and +Margaret was well aware of her intent. The girl looked mild and +unobservant as usual, but she was busily engaged in watching for +danger-signals. Her father's manner was decidedly flurried: so much was +evident to her: the very way in which he avoided her eye and glanced +uneasily at her mother spoke volumes to Margaret. It did not surprise +her to see that Lady Caroline's face was as calm, her smile as sweet as +ever: Lady Caroline always masked her emotion well; but there was still +something visible in her eyes (which, in spite of herself, _would_ look +anxious and preoccupied) that made Margaret uncomfortable. Was she going +to have a fight with her parents? She hoped not: it would be quite too +uncomfortable! + +"Come here, darling," said Lady Caroline, when the carriage had driven +away; "come to my morning-room and talk to me a little. I want you." + +Margaret faintly resisted. "It is my practicing time, mamma." + +"But if I want you, dearest----" + +"Oh, of course it does not matter," said Margaret, with her usual +instinct of politeness. "I would much rather talk than practice." + +The mother laid her hand lightly within her tall daughter's arm, and led +her towards the morning-room, a place of which she was especially fond +in summer, as it was cool, airy, and looked out upon a conservatory full +of blossoming plants. Lady Caroline sank down upon a low soft couch, and +motioned to the girl to seat herself beside her; then, possessing +herself of one of Margaret's hands and stroking it gently, she said with +a smile-- + +"You have another admirer, Margaret?" + +This opening differed so widely from any which the girl had expected +that she opened her eyes with a look of intense surprise. + +"Why should you be astonished, darling?" said Lady Caroline, with some +amusement in her light tones. "You have had a good many already, have +you not? And, by the by, you have had one or two very good offers, +Margaret, and you have refused everything. You must really begin to +think a little more seriously of your eligible suitors! This last one, +however, is not an eligible one at all." + +"Who, mamma?" said Margaret, faintly. + +"The very last man whom I should have expected to come forward," said +her mother. "Indeed, I call it the greatest piece of presumption I ever +heard of. Considering that we are not on visiting terms, even." + +"Oh, mamma, do tell me who you mean!" + +Lady Adair arched her pencilled eyebrows over this movement of +impatience. "Really, Margaret, darling! But I suppose I must be lenient: +a girl naturally desires to hear about her suitors; but you must not +interrupt me another time, love. It is that most impossible man, Mr. +Brand of the Red House." + +Margaret's face flushed from brow to chin. "Why impossible, mamma?" + +"Dear child! You are so unworldly! But there is a point at which +unworldliness becomes folly. We must stop short of that. Poor Mr. Brand +is, for one thing, quite out of society." + +"Not in Paris or London, mamma. Only in this place, where people are +narrow and bigoted and censorious." + +"And where, unfortunately, he has to live," said Lady Caroline, with +gentle firmness. "It matters to _us_ very little what they say of him in +Paris or London: it matters a great deal what the County says." + +"But if the County could be induced to take him up!" said Margaret, +rather breathlessly. "He was at Lady Ashley's the other day, and he +seemed to know a great many people. And if you--we--received him, it +would make all the difference in the world." + +"Oh, no doubt we could float him if we chose," said Lady Caroline, +indifferently; "but would it really be worth the trouble? Even if he +went everywhere, dear, he would not be a man that I should care to +cultivate; he has not a nice reputation at all." + +"Nobody knows of anything wrong that he has done," Margaret averred, +with burning cheeks. + +"Well, I have heard of one or two things that are not to his credit. I +am told that he drinks and plays a good deal, that his language to his +groom is something awful, and that he makes his poor little boy drunk +every night." In this version had Wyvis Brand's faults and weaknesses +gone forth to the world near Beaminster! "Then he has very disagreeable +people to visit him, and his mother is not in the least a lady--a +publican's daughter, and not, I am afraid, quite respectable in her +youth." Lady Caroline's voice sank to a whisper. "Some very unpleasant +things have been said about Mrs. Brand. Nobody calls on her. I am very +sorry for her, poor thing, but what could one do? I would not set foot +in the house while she was in it--I really would not. Mr. Brand ought to +send her away." + +"But what has she done, mamma?" + +"There is no necessity for you to hear, Margaret. I like your mind to be +kept innocent of evil, dear. Surely it is enough if I tell you that +there is something wrong." + +The girl was silent for a minute or two: she was beginning to feel +abashed and ashamed. It was in a very low voice that she said at last-- + +"Mr. Brand would probably find another home for her if he married." + +"Oh, most likely. But I do not know that what he would do affects us +particularly. He is quite a poor man: even his family is not very good, +although it is an old one, and it has been the proverb of the +country-side for dissipation and extravagance for upwards of a century." + +"But if he had quite reformed," Margaret murmured. + +"My darling, what difference would it make? I am sure I do not know why +we discuss the matter: it is a little too ridiculous to speak of it +seriously. Your father will give Mr. Wyvis Brand his answer, and in such +a way that he will not care to repeat his presumptuous and insolent +proposal, and there will be an end of it. I hope, dearest, you have not +been annoyed by the man? I heard something of his pursuing you with his +attentions at Lady Ashley's party." + +"Mamma," said Margaret, in a tragic tone, "this must not go on. You must +not speak to me as you are doing now. You do not understand the position +of affairs at all. I----" + +"I beg your pardon, darling--one moment. Will you give me that palm-leaf +fan from the mantel-piece? It is really rather a hot morning. Thanks, +dear. What was it you were saying?" + +Lady Caroline knew the value of an adroit interruption. She had checked +the flow of Margaret's indignation for the moment, and was well aware +that the girl would not probably begin her speech in quite the same tone +a second time. At the same time she saw that she had given her daughter +a momentary advantage. Margaret did not reseat herself after handing her +mother the fan--she remained standing, a pale, slender figure, somewhat +impressive in the shadows of the half-darkened room, with hands clasped +and head slightly lifted as if in solemn protest. + +"Mamma," she began, in a somewhat subdued voice, "I must tell you. Mr. +Brand spoke to me before he wrote to papa. I told him to write." + +Lady Caroline put her eye-glass and looked curiously at her daughter. +"You told him to write, my dear child? And how did that come about? +Don't you know that it was equivalent to accepting him?" + +"Yes, mamma. And I did accept him." + +"My dear Margaret!" The tone was that of pitying contempt. "You must +have been out of your senses! Well, we can easily rectify the +matter--that is one good thing. Why, my darling, when did he find time +to speak to you? At Lady Ashley's?" + +"In the park, near the forget-me-not brook," murmured Margaret, with +downcast eyes. + +"He met you there?" + +"Yes." + +"More than once? And you allowed him to meet you? Oh, Margaret!" + +Lady Caroline's voice was admirably managed. The gradual surprise, +shocked indignation, and reproach of her tones made the tears come to +Margaret's eyes. + +"Indeed, mamma," she said, "I am very sorry. I did not know at first--at +least I did not think--that I was doing what you would not like. He used +to meet me when I went into the park, sometimes--when Alicia was +reading. Alicia did not know. And he was very nice, he was always _nice_ +mamma. He told me a great deal about himself--how discontented he was +with his life, and how I might help him to make it better. And I should +like to help him, mamma: it seems to me it would be a good thing to do. +And if you and papa would help him too, he might take quite a different +position in the County." + +"My poor child!" said Caroline. "My poor deluded child!" + +She lay silent for a few moments, thinking how to frame the argument +which she felt was most likely to appeal to Margaret's tenderer +feelings. "Of course," she said at last, very slowly, "of course, if he +told you so much about his past life, he told you about his +marriage--about that little boy's mother." + +"He said that he had been very unhappy. I do not think," said Margaret +with simplicity, "that he loved his first wife as he loves me." + +"No doubt he made you think so, dear. His first wife, indeed! Did he +tell you that his first wife was alive?" + +"Mamma!" + +"He says he is divorced from her," said Lady Caroline, sarcastically, +"and seems to think it is no drawback to have been divorced. I and your +father think differently. I do not mean there is any legal obstacle; but +he took a very unfair advantage of your youth and inexperience by never +letting you know that fact--or, at any rate, letting us know it before +he paid you any attention. That stamps him as not being a gentleman, +Margaret." + +"Who told you, mamma?" + +"His cousin and your friend," said Lady Caroline, coldly: "Miss Janetta +Colwyn." + +Margaret's color had fluctuated painfully for the last few minutes; she +now sat down on a chair near the open window, and turned so pale that +her mother thought her about to faint. Lady Caroline was on her feet +immediately, and began to fan her, and to hold smelling salts to her +nostrils; but in a very short time the girl's color returned, and she +declined any further remedies. + +"I did not know this," she said at last, rather piteously, "but it is +too late to make any difference, mamma, it really is. I love Wyvis +Brand, and he loves me. Surely you won't refuse to let us love one +another?" + +She caught her mother's hand, and Lady Caroline put her arms around her +daughter's shoulders and kissed her as fondly as ever. + +"My poor dear, romantic Child!" she said. "Do you think we can let you +throw yourself quite away?" + +"But I have given my promise!" + +"Your father must tell Mr. Brand that you cannot keep your promise, my +darling. It is quite out of the question." + +And Lady Caroline thought she had settled the whole matter by that +statement. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +IN REBELLION. + + +Janetta was naturally very anxious to know something of the progress of +affairs between Wyvis and Margaret, but she heard little for a rather +considerable space of time. She was now entirely severed from Helmsley +Court, and had no correspondence with Margaret. As the summer holidays +had begun, little Julian did not come every morning to Gwynne Street, +but Tiny and Curly were invited to spend a month at the Red House in +charge of Nora, who was delighted to be so much with Cuthbert, and who +had the power of enlivening even the persistent gloom of Mrs. Brand. +Janetta was thus obliged to live a good deal at home, and Wyvis seemed +to shun her society. His relations at home had heard nothing of his +proposal for Margaret's hand, and Janetta, like them, did not know that +it had ever been actually made. Another event drove this matter into the +background for some little time--for it was evidently fated that Janetta +should never be quite at peace. + +Mrs. Colwyn summoned her rather mysteriously one afternoon to a +conference in her bedroom. + +"Of course I know that you will be surprised at what I am going to say, +Janetta," began the good lady, with some tossings of the head and +flourishings of a handkerchief which rather puzzled Janetta by their +demonstrativeness; "and no doubt you will accuse me of want of respect +of your father's memory and all that sort of thing; though I'm sure I +don't know why, for _he_ married a second time, and I am a young woman +still and not without admirers." + +"Do you mean," said Janetta, "that you think----?" + +She could go no further: she stood and looked helplessly at her +stepmother. + +"Do I think of marrying again? Well, yes, Janetta, I do; and more for +the children's good than for my own. Poor things, they need a father: +and I am tired of this miserable, scraping, cheeseparing life that you +are so fond of. I have been offered a comfortable home and provision for +my children, and I have decided to accept it." + +"So soon!" + +"It will not be announced just yet, of course. Not until the end of the +summer. But it is really no use to wait." + +Janetta stood pale and wide-eyed: she did not dare to let herself speak +just yet. Mrs. Colwyn grew fretful under what she felt to be silent +condemnation. + +"I should like to know what harm it can do to you?" she said. "I've +waited quite as long as many widows do, and toiled and suffered more +than most. Poor James was the last man to grudge me a little rest and +satisfaction as a reward for all that I have undergone. My own children +will not repine, I am sure, and I look to you, Janetta, to explain to +them how much for their good it will be, and how advantageous for them +all." + +"You can hardly expect me to try to explain away an act of disrespect to +my father's memory," said Janetta, coldly. + +"There is no disrespect to the dead in marrying a second time." + +"After a decent interval." + +Mrs. Colwyn burst into tears. "It's the first time in my life that I've +ever been told that I was going to do a thing that wasn't decent," she +moaned. "And when it's all for his dear children's good, too! Ah, well! +I'll give it up, I'll say no, and we will all starve and go down into +the grave together, and then perhaps you will be satisfied." + +"Mamma, please do not talk such nonsense. Who is it that has asked you +to be his wife?" + +"Dr. Burroughs," said Mrs. Colwyn, faintly. + +Janetta uttered an involuntary exclamation. Dr. Burroughs was certainly +a man of sixty-five, but he was strong and active still; he had a good +position in the town, and a large private income. His sister, who kept +his house, was a good and sensible woman, and Dr. Burroughs himself was +reputed to be a sagacious man. His fondness for children was well known, +and a little thought convinced Janetta that his choice of a wife had +been partly determined by his liking for Tiny and Curly, to say nothing +of the elder children. He had been a close friend of Mr. Colwyn, and it +was not likely that Mrs. Colwyn's infirmity had remained a secret from +him: he must have learned it from common town-talk long ago. Angry as +Janetta was, and petrified with surprise, she could not but acknowledge +in her heart that such a marriage was a very good one for Mrs. Colwyn, +and would probably be of immense advantage to the children. And the old +physician and his sister would probably be able to keep Mrs. Colwyn in +check: Janetta remembered that she had heard of one or two cases of +intemperance which had been cured under his roof. As soon as she could +get over her intense feeling that a slur was thrown on her father's +memory by this very speedy second marriage of his widow, her +common-sense told her that she might be very glad. But it was difficult +to rid herself all at once of her indignation of what she termed "this +indecent haste." + +She made an effort to calm Mrs. Colwyn's fretful sobbing, and assured +her with as much grace as she had at command that the marriage would not +at all displease her if it took place at a somewhat later date. And she +reflected that Dr. and Miss Burroughs might be depended upon not to +violate conventionalities. Her own soreness with regard to the little +affection displayed by Mrs. Colwyn to her late husband must be disposed +of as best it might: there was no use in exhibiting it. + +And as Mrs. Colwyn had hinted, it fell to Janetta to inform the rest of +the family of their mother's intention, and to quell symptoms of +indignation and discontent. After all, things might have been worse. The +children already liked Dr. Burroughs, and soon reconciled themselves to +the notion of living in a large, comfortable house, with a big garden, +and unlimited treats and pleasures provided by their future stepfather +and aunt. And when Janetta had had an interview with these two good +people, her mind was considerably relieved. They were kind and generous; +and although she could not help feeling that Dr. Burroughs was marrying +for the sake of the children rather than their mother, she saw that he +would always be thoughtful and affectionate to her, and that she would +probably have a fairly happy and luxurious life. One thing was also +evident--that he would be master in his own house, as James Colwyn had +never been. + +The marriage was to take place at Christmas, and the house in Gwynne +Street was then to be let. Cuthbert and Nora began to talk of marrying +at the same time, for Nora was somewhat violently angry at her mother's +proceeding, and did not wish to go to Dr. Burroughs' house. The younger +members of the family would all, however, migrate to The Cedars, as Dr. +Burroughs' house was called; and there Miss Burroughs was still to +maintain her sway. On this point Dr. Burroughs had insisted, and Janetta +was thankful for it, and Miss Burroughs was quite able and willing to +perform the duty of guardian not only to her brother's step-children, +but to her brother's wife. + +"And of course you will come to us, too, dear?" Miss Burroughs said to +Janetta. "This will be your home always: Andrew particularly wished me +to say so." + +"It is very kind of Dr. Burroughs," said Janetta, gratefully. "I have no +claim on him at all: I am not Mrs. Colwyn's daughter." + +"As if that made any difference! James Colwyn was one of Andrew's best +friends, and for his sake, if for no other, you will be always welcome." + +"I am very much obliged to you," Janetta replied, "and I shall be +pleased to come to you now and then as a visitor; but I have made up my +mind that now--now that my duty seems to be done, I had better go out +into the world and try to make a career for myself. I shall be happier +at work than leading an idle, easy life. But please do not think me +ungrateful--only I _must_ get away." + +And Miss Burroughs, looking into the girl's worn face, and noticing the +peculiar significance of her tone, refrained from pressing the point. +She was sure from both that some hidden pain existed, that there was +some secret reason why Janetta felt that she "_must_ get away." She was +anxious to help the girl, but she saw that it would be no true kindness +to keep her in Beaminster against her will. + +These matters took some time to arrange, and it was while some of them +were still pending that Janetta was startled by a visit from Margaret +Adair. + +It was a sultry day towards the end of July, and Miss Adair looked for +once hot and dusty. She was much thinner than she had been, and had a +harassed expression which Janetta could not fail to remark. As she +hurriedly explained, she had walked some little distance, leaving Alicia +Stone at the Post Office, and it afterwards transpired, giving her +mother the slip at a confectioner's, in order to see Janetta once again. + +"It is very kind of you, dear," said Janetta, touched, rather against +her will, by so unwonted a proof of affection. "But I am afraid that +Lady Caroline would not be pleased." + +"I know she would not," said Margaret, a little bitterly. "She did not +want me to see any more of you. I told her how unjust it was to blame +you, but she would not believe me." + +"It does not matter, Margaret, dear, I do not much mind." + +"I thought I should like to see you once again." Margaret spoke with +unusual haste, and almost in a breathless manner. "I want to know if you +would do something for me. You used to say you would do anything for +me." + +"So I will, if I can." + +"We were going abroad in a few days. I don't know where, exactly: they +won't tell me. They are angry with me, Janetta, and I can't bear it," +cried Margaret, breaking suddenly into tears which were evidently very +heartfelt, although they did not disfigure that fair and placid face of +hers in the slightest degree; "they were never angry with me before, and +it is terrible. They may take me away and keep me away for years, and I +don't know what to do. The only thing I can think of is to ask you to +help me. I want to send a message to Wyvis--I want to write to him if +you will give him the letter." + +"But why do you not write him through the post?" + +"Oh, because I promised not to post anything to him. Mamma said she must +supervise my correspondence unless I promised not to write to him. And +so I keep my word--but a few lines through you, Janet, darling, would +not be breaking my word at all, for it would not be a letter exactly. +And I want to arrange when I can see him again." + +Janetta drew back a little. "It would be breaking the spirit of your +promise, Margaret. No, I cannot help you to do that." + +"Oh, Janetta, you would never be so hard as to refuse me! I only want to +tell Wyvis that I am true to him, and that I don't mind what the world +says one bit, because I know how people tell lies about him! You know +you always promised to stand by me and to be my best friend." + +"Yes, but I never promised to do a dishonorable action for you," said +Janetta, steadily. + +Margaret started up, her face a-flame directly. + +"How dare you say such a thing to me, Janetta?" she exclaimed. + +"I cannot help it, Margaret, you know that I am right." + +The two looked at each other for a moment, and then Margaret turned away +with the mien of an insulted princess. + +"I was wrong to come. I thought that you would be true to the old bond +of friendship between us. I shall never come to you again." + +Poor Janetta's heart was very tender, although her resolution was +impregnable. She ran after Margaret, putting her hands on her arm, and +imploring her with tears to forgive her for her refusal. "If it were +only anything else, Margaret, dear! If only you did not want me to do +what your father and mother do not wish! Don't you see that you are +trying to deceive them? If you were acting openly it would be a +different thing! Don't be angry with me for wanting to do right!" + +"I am not at all angry," said Margaret, with stateliness. "I am very +disappointed, that is all. I do not see that I am deceiving anybody by +sending a message to Wyvis. But I will not ask you again." + +"If only I could!" sighed Janetta, in deep distress and confusion of +mind. But her anchor of truth and straightforwardness was the thing of +all others that she relied on for safety, and she did not let go her +hold. In spite of Margaret's cold and haughty displeasure, Janetta +kissed her affectionately, and could not refrain from saying, "Dear, I +would do anything for you that I thought right. But don't--don't deceive +your father and mother." + +"I will not, as you shall see," returned Margaret, and she left the +house without again looking at her former friend. Janetta felt very +bitterly, as she watched the graceful figure down the street, that the +old friendship had indeed become impossible in its older sense. Her very +faithfulness to the lines in which it had been laid down now made it an +offence to Margaret. + +Janetta's direct and straightforward dealing had the effect of driving +Margaret, though chiefly out of perversity, to do likewise. Miss Adair +was not accustomed to be withstood, and, during the unexpected +opposition with which her wishes had been met, her mind had turned very +often to Janetta with unswerving faith in her old friend's readiness to +help her at an emergency. + +In this faith she considered that she had been cruelly disappointed. And +her mingled anger, shame, and sorrow so blinded her to the circumstances +in which she stood, that she walked quietly up to Lady Caroline and +Alicia Stone in Beaminster High Street, and did not think of hiding her +escapade at all. + +"My dearest child, where _have_ you been?" cried Lady Caroline, who was +always caressing, if inflexible. + +"I have been to Janetta Colwyn's, mamma," said Margaret, imperturbably, +"to ask her to give a message to Mr. Brand." + +"Margaret! Have you quite forgotten yourself? Oh, that unsuitable +friendship of yours!" + +"I don't think you need call it unsuitable, mamma," Margaret rejoined, +with a weary little smile. "Janetta absolutely refused to give the +message, and told me to obey my parents. I really do not see that _you_ +can blame her." + +Lady Caroline replied only by a look of despair which spoke unutterable +things, and then she walked onward to the spot where she had left the +carriage. The three ladies drove home in complete silence. Lady Caroline +was seriously displeased, Alicia curious, Margaret in rebellion and +disgrace. The state of things was becoming very grave, for the whole +tenor of life at Helmsley Court was disturbed, and Margaret's father and +mother wanted their daughter to be a credit and an ornament to them, not +a cause of disturbance and irritation. Margaret had kept up a gallant +fight: she had borne silence, cold looks, absence of caresses, with +unwavering courage; but she began now to find the situation unendurable. +And a little doubt had lately been creeping into her heart--was it all +worth while? If Wyvis Brand were really as undesirable a _parti_ as he +was represented to be, Margaret was not sure that her lot would be very +happy as his wife. Hitherto she had maintained that the stories told +about him, his habits and his position, were falsehoods. But if--she +began to think--if they were true, and if a marriage with him would +exclude her from the society to which she had been accustomed, was it +worth while to fight as hard as she had done? Perhaps, after all, her +mother and her father were right. + +Lady Caroline, not knowing of these weaknesses in Margaret's defence, +was inclined for once to be more severe than caressing. She went +straight to her husband when she entered the Court, and had a long +conversation with him. Then she proceeded to Margaret's room. + +"I have been talking to your father, Margaret," she said coldly, "and we +are both very much distressed at the course which things are taking." + +"So am I, mamma," said Margaret. + +"Of course we cannot proceed in the mediæval fashion, and lock you up in +your own room until you are reasonable," said Lady Caroline, with a +faint smile. "I should have thought that your own instinct as a lady +would have precluded you from doing anything that would make it +necessary for us to lay any restraint upon you; but to-day's occurrence +really makes me afraid. You have promised not to write to Mr. Brand, I +think?" + +"Yes. But I meant to send him a little note to-day." + +"Indeed? Then what I have to say is all the more necessary. We do not +restrict you to any part of the house, but you must understand that when +you come out of your own room, Margaret, you are never to be alone. +Alicia will sit with you, if I am engaged. She will walk with you, if +you wish to go out into the garden. I have no doubt it will be a little +unpleasant," said Lady Caroline, with a slight, agreeable smile, "to be +constantly under _surveillance_, and of course it will last only until +we leave home next week; but in the meantime, my dear, unless you will +give up your _penchant_ for Mr. Brand, you must submit to be watched. +You cannot be allowed to run off with messages to this man as if you +were a milliner's girl or a servant maid: _we_ manage these matters +differently." + +And then Lady Caroline withdrew, though not too late to see the girl +sink down into a large arm-chair and burst into a very unwonted passion +of sobs and tears. + +"So tiresome of Margaret to force one to behave in this absurd manner!" +reflected Lady Caroline. "So completely out of date in modern days!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +THE PLOUGHMAN'S SON. + + +Two or three days after Margaret's visit to Gwynne Street, Janetta +availed herself of Mrs. Colwyn's temporary absence in Miss Burroughs' +company to pay a visit to the Red House. Her anxiety to know what was +occurring between Wyvis and Margaret had become almost uncontrollable +and, although she was not very likely to hear much about it from Wyvis +or his mother, she vaguely hoped to gather indications at least of the +state of affairs from her cousin's aspect and manners. + +It was plain that Wyvis was not in a happy mood. His brow was dark, his +tone sarcastic; he spoke roughly once or twice to his mother and to his +little son. He evidently repented of his roughness, however, as soon as +the words were out of his mouth, for he went over to Mrs. Brand's side +and kissed her immediately afterwards, and gave some extra indulgence to +Julian by way of making up for his previous severity. Still the +irritation of feeling existed, and could not be altogether repressed +when he spoke; and when he was silent he fell into a condition of gloom +which was even more depressing than his sharpness. Janetta did her best +to be cheerful and talkative to Mrs. Brand, and she fancied that he +liked to listen; for he sat on with them in the blue room long after +Nora and Cuthbert had disappeared into the garden and the children were +romping in the wood. Certainly he did not say much to her, but he seemed +greatly disinclined to move. + +After a time, Mrs. Brand and Janetta adjourned to the hall, which was +always a favorite place of resort on summer evenings. Traces of the +children's presence made the rooms more cheerful than they used to +be--to Janetta's thinking. Tiny's doll and Julian's ball were more +enlivening to the place than even Cuthbert's sketches and Nora's bunches +of wild flowers. And here, too, Wyvis followed them in an aimless, +subdued sort of way; and, having asked and obtained permission to light +a cigarette, he threw himself into a favorite chair, and seemed to +listen dreamily, while Janetta held patient discourse with his mother on +the ailments of the locality and the difficulty of getting the housework +done. Janetta glanced at him from time to time; he sat so quietly that +she would have thought him sleeping but for the faint blue spirals of +smoke that went up from his cigarette. It was six o'clock in the +evening, and the golden lights and long shadows made Janetta long to be +out of doors; but Mrs. Brand had a nervous fear of rheumatism, and did +not want to move. + +"What is that?" said Wyvis, suddenly rousing himself. + +Nobody else had heard anything. He strode suddenly to the door, and +flung it open. Janetta heard the quavering tones of the old man-servant, +an astonished, enraptured exclamation from Wyvis himself; and she +knew--instinctively--what to expect. She turned round; it was as she +had feared. Margaret was there. Wyvis was leading her into the room with +the fixed look of adoration in his eyes which had been so much commented +upon at Lady Ashley's party. When she was present, he evidently saw none +but her. Janetta rose quickly and withdrew a little into the back +ground. She wished for a moment that she had not been there--and then it +occurred to her that she might be useful by and by. But it was perhaps +better for Margaret not to see her too soon. Mrs. Brand, utterly +unprepared for this visit, not even knowing the stranger by sight, and, +as usual, quite unready for an emergency, rose nervously from her seat +and stood, timid, awkward, and anxious, awaiting an explanation. + +"Mother, this is Margaret Adair," said Wyvis, as quietly as if his +mother knew all that was involved in that very simple formula. He was +still holding the girl by the hand and gazing in his former rapt manner +into her face. It was not the look of a lover, to Janetta's eye, half so +much as the worship of a saint. Margaret embodied for Wyvis Brand the +highest aspirations, the purest dreams of his youth. + +As to Margaret, Janetta thought that she was looking exquisitely lovely. +Her thinness added to the impression of ethereal beauty; there was a +delicacy about her appearance which struck the imagination. Her color +fluctuated; her eyes shone like stars; and her whole frame seemed a +little tremulous, as if she were shaken by some strange and powerful +emotion to her very soul. Her broad-brimmed straw hat, white dress, and +long tan gloves belonged, as Janetta knew, only to her ordinary attire +when no visitors were to be seen; but simplicity of dress always seemed +to garnish Margaret's beauty, and to throw it into the strongest +possible relief. She was sufficiently striking in aspect to frighten +poor, timid Mrs. Brand, who was never happy when she found herself in +the company of "fashionable" people. But it was with a perfectly simple +and almost child-like manner that Margaret drew her finger away from +Wyvis' clasp and went up to his mother, holding out both hands as if in +appeal for help. + +"I am Margaret," she said. "I ought not to have come; but what could I +do? They are going to take me away from the Court to-morrow, and I +could not go without seeing you and Wyvis first." + +"Wyvis?" repeated Mrs. Brand, blankly. She had not taken Margaret's +hands, but now she extended her right hand in a stiff, lifeless fashion, +which looked like anything but a welcome. "I do not know--I do not +understand----" + +"It is surely easy enough to understand," said Wyvis, vehemently. "She +loves me--she has promised to be my wife--and you must love her, too, +for my sake, as well as for her own." + +"Won't you love me a little?" said Margaret, letting her eyes rest +pleadingly on Mrs. Brand's impassive face. She was not accustomed to +being met in this exceedingly unresponsive manner. Wyvis made a slight +jesture of impatience, which his mother perfectly understood. She tried, +in her difficult, frozen way, to say something cordial. + +"I am very pleased to see you," she faltered. "You must excuse me if I +did not understand at first. Wyvis did not tell me." + +Then she sank into her chair again, more out of physical weakness than +from any real intention to seat herself. Her hand stole to her side, as +if to still the beating of her heart; her face had turned very pale. +Only Janetta noticed these signs, which betrayed the greatness of the +shock; Margaret, absorbed in her own affairs, and Wyvis absorbed in +Margaret, had no eyes for the poor mother's surprise and agitation. +Janetta made a step forward, but she saw that she could do nothing. Mrs. +Brand was recovering her composure, and the other two were not in a mood +to bear interruption. So she waited, and meanwhile Margaret spoke. + +"Dear Mrs. Brand," she said, kneeling at the side of the trembling +woman, and laying her clasped hands on her lap, "forgive me for +startling you like this." Even Janetta wondered at the marvelous +sweetness of Margaret's tones. "Indeed, I would not have come if there +had been any other way of letting Wyvis know. They made me promise not +to write to him, not to meet him in the wood where we met before you +know, and they watched me, so that I could not get out, or send a +message or anything. It has been like living in prison during the last +few days." And the girl sobbed a little, and laid her forehead for a +moment on her clasped hands. + +"It's a shame--a shame! It must not go on," exclaimed Wyvis, +indignantly. + +"In one way it will not go on," said Margaret, raising her head. "They +are going to take me away, and we are not to come back for the whole +winter--perhaps not next year at all. I don't know where we are going. I +shall never be allowed to write. And I thought it would be terrible to +go without letting Wyvis know that I will never, never forget him. And I +am only nineteen now, and I can't do as I like; but, when I am +twenty-one, nobody can prevent me----" + +"Why should anybody prevent you now?" said Wyvis gloomily. He drew +nearer and laid his hand upon her shoulder. "Why should you wait? You +are safe: you have come to my mother, and she will take care of you. Why +need you go back again?" + +"Is that right, Wyvis?" said Janetta. She could not keep silence any +longer. Wyvis turned on her almost fiercely. Margaret who had not seen +her before started up and faced her, with a look of something like +terror. + +"It is no business of yours," said the man. "This matter is between +Margaret and myself. Margaret must decide it. I do not ask her to +compromise herself in any way. She shall be in my mother's care. All she +will have to do is to trust to me----" + +"I think we need hardly trouble you, Mr. Brand," said another voice. +"Margaret will be better in the care of her own mother than in that of +Mrs. Brand or yourself." + +Lady Caroline Adair stood on the threshold. Lady Caroline addressed the +little group, on which a sudden chill and silence fell for a moment, as +if her appearance heralded some portentous crash of doom. The door had +been left ajar when Margaret entered; it was not easy to say how much of +the conversation Lady Caroline had heard. Mrs. Brand started up; +Margaret turned very pale and drew back, while Wyvis came closer to her +and put his arm round her with an air of protective defiance. Janetta +drew a quick breath of relief. A disagreeable scene would follow she +knew well; and there were probably unpleasant times in store for +Margaret, but these were preferable to the course of rebellion, open or +secret, to which the girl was being incited by her too ardent lover. + +Janetta never admired Lady Caroline so much as she did just then. +Margaret's mother was the last person to show discomposure. She sat down +calmly, although no one had asked her to take a chair, and smilingly +adjusted the lace shawl which she had thrown round her graceful figure. +There were no signs of haste or agitation in her appearance. She wore a +very elegant and becoming dress, a Paris bonnet on her head, a pair of +French gloves on her slender hands. She became at once the centre of the +group, the ornamental point on which all eyes were fixed. Every one else +was distressed, frightened, or angry; but Lady Caroline's pleasing smile +and little air of society was not for one moment to be disturbed. + +"It is really very late for a call," she said, quietly, "but as I found +that my daughter was passing this way, I thought I would follow her +example and take the opportunity of paying a visit to Mrs. Brand. It is +not, however, the first time that we have met." + +She looked graciously towards Mrs. Brand, but that poor woman was +shaking in every limb. Janetta put her arms round Mrs. Brand's +shoulders. What did Lady Caroline mean? She had some purpose to fulfil, +or she would not sit so quietly, pretending not to notice that her +daughter was holding Wyvis Brand by the hand and that one of his arms +was round her waist. There was something behind that fixed, agreeable +smile. + +"No," said Lady Caroline, reflectively, "not the first time. The last +time I saw you, Mrs. Brand----" + +"Oh, my lady, my lady!" Mrs. Brand almost shrieked, "for heaven's sake, +my lady, don't go on!" + +She covered her face with her hands and rocked herself convulsively to +and fro. Wyvis frowned and bit his lip: Margaret started and +unconsciously withdrew her hand. It crossed the minds of both that Mrs. +Brand's tone was that of an inferior, that of a servant to a mistress, +not that of one lady to her equal. + +"Why should I not go on?" said Lady Caroline, glancing from one to +another as if in utter ignorance. "Have I said anything wrong? I only +meant that I was present at Mrs. Brand's _first_ wedding--when she +married your father, Mr. Wyvis--not your adopted father, of course, but +John Wyvis, the ploughman." + +There was a moment's silence. Then Wyvis took a step forward and +thundered. "_What?_" while the veins stood out upon his forehead and his +eyes seemed to be gathering sombre fire. Mrs. Brand, with her head bowed +upon her hands, still rocked herself and sobbed. + +"I hope I have not been indiscreet," said Lady Caroline, innocently. +"You look a little surprised. It is surely no secret that you are the +son of Mary Wyvis and her cousin, John Wyvis, and that you were brought +up by Mr. Brand as his son simply out of consideration for his wife? I +am sure I beg your pardon if I have said anything amiss. As Mrs. Brand +seems disturbed, I had better go." + +"Not until my mother has contradicted this ridiculous slander," said +Wyvis, sternly. But his mother only shook her head and wailed aloud. + +"I can't, my dear--I can't. It's true every word of it. My lady knows." + +"Of course I know. Come, Mary, don't be foolish," said Lady Caroline, in +the carelessly sharp tone in which one sometimes speaks to an erring +dependant. "I took an interest in you at the time, you will remember, +although I was only a child staying at Helmsley Court at the time with +Mr. Adair's family. I was fourteen, I think; and you were scullery-maid +or something, and told me about your sweetheart, John Wyvis. There is +nothing to be ashamed of: you were married very suitably, and if Wyvis, +the ploughman, had not been run over when he was intoxicated, and killed +before your baby's birth, you might even now have been living down at +Wych End, with half a dozen stalwart sons and daughters--of whom you, +Mr. Wyvis, or Mr. Wyvis Brand, as you are generally known, would have +been the eldest--probably by this time a potman or a pugilist, with a +share in your grandfather's public-house at Roxby. How ridiculous it +seems now, does it not?" + +Astonishment had kept Wyvis silent, but his gathering passion could not +longer be repressed. + +"That is enough," he said. "If you desire to insult me you might have +let it be in other company. Or if you will send your husband to repeat +it----" + +"I said a pugilist, did I not?" said Lady Caroline, smiling, and putting +up her eye-glass. "Your thews and sinews justify me perfectly--and so, I +must say, does your manner of speech." She let her eye run over his +limbs critically, and then she dropped her glass. "You are really +wonderfully like poor Wyvis; he was a very strong sort of man." + +"Will you be so good as to take your leave, Lady Caroline Adair? I wish +to treat you with all due courtesy, as you are Margaret's mother," said +Wyvis, setting his teeth, "but you are saying unpardonable things to a +man in his own house." + +"My dear man, there is nothing to be ashamed of!" cried Lady Caroline, +as if very much surprised. "Your father and mother were very honest +people, and I always thought it greatly to Mark Brand's credit that he +adopted you. The odd thing was that so few people knew that you were not +his son. You were only a month or two old when he married Mary Wyvis, +however; for your father died before your birth; but there was no secret +made of it at the time, I believe. And it is nearly thirty years. Things +get forgotten." + +"Mother, can this be true?" said Wyvis, hoarsely. He was forced into +asking the question by Lady Caroline's cool persistence. He was keenly +conscious of the fact that Margaret, looking scared and bewildered, had +shrunk away from him. + +"Yes, yes, it is true," said Mrs. Brand, with a burst of despairing +tears. "We did not mean any harm, and nobody made any inquiries. There +was nothing wrong about it--nothing. It was better for you, Wyvis, that +was all." + +"Is it better for anybody to be brought up to believe a lie?" said the +young man. His lips had grown white, and his brow was set in very +ominous darkness. "I shall hear more of this story by and by. I have to +thank you, Lady Caroline, for letting in a little light upon my mind. +Your opposition to my suit is amply explained." + +"I am glad you take it in that way, Mr. Brand," said Lady Caroline, for +the first time giving him his adopted name, and smiling very amicably. +"As I happened to be one of the very few people who knew or surmised +anything about the matter, I thought it better to take affairs into my +own hands--especially when I found that my daughter had come to your +house. But for this freak of hers I should not, perhaps, have +interfered. As you are no doubt prepared now to resign all hope of her, +I am quite satisfied with the result of my afternoon's work. Come, +Margaret." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +THE FAILURE OF MARGARET. + + +"Then I am to understand," said Wyvis, a sudden glow breaking out over +his dark face, "that you did not make this communication carelessly, as +at first I thought, but out of malice prepense?" + +"If you like to call it so--certainly," said Lady Caroline, with a +slight shrug of her shoulders. + +"This was your revenge?--when you found that Margaret had come to me!" + +"You use strange words, Mr. Wyvis Brand. Revenge is out of date--a quite +too ridiculous idea. I simply mean that I never wish to intermeddle with +my neighbors' affairs, and should not have thought of bringing this +matter forward if your pretentions could have been settled in an +ordinary way. If Margaret"--glancing at her daughter, who stood white +and thunderstricken at her side--"had behaved with submission and with +modesty, I should not have had to inflict what seems to be considerable +pain upon you. But it is her fault and yours. Young people should submit +to the judgment of their elders: we do not refuse to gratify their +wishes without good reason." + +Lady Caroline spoke with a cold dignity, which she did not usually +assume. Margaret half covered her face with one hand, and turned aside. +The sight of the slow tears trickling through her fingers almost +maddened Wyvis, as he stood before her, looking alternately at her and +at Lady Caroline. Mrs. Brand and Janetta were left in the background of +the little group. The older woman was still weeping, and Janetta was +engaged in soothing and caressing her; but neither of them lost a word +which passed between the man for whom they cared and the woman whom at +that moment they both sincerely hated. + +"But is it a good reason?" said Wyvis at last. His eye flashed beneath +his dark brow, his nostril began to quiver. "If I had been Mark Brand's +son, you mean, you would have given me Margaret?" + +"There would then have been no disqualification of birth," said Lady +Caroline, clearly. "There might then have been disqualifications of +character or of fortune, but these we need hardly consider now. The +other--the primary--fact is conclusive." + +"Mamma, mamma!" broke out Margaret; "don't say these terrible +things--please don't. It isn't Wyvis' fault." + +"God bless you, my darling!" Wyvis muttered between his teeth. + +"No, it is not his fault; it is his misfortune," said Lady Caroline. + +"I am to understand, then, Lady Caroline," said Wyvis, to whom +Margaret's expostulation seemed to have brought sudden calmness and +courage, "that my lowly origin forms an insurmountable barrier to my +marriage with Miss Adair?" + +"Quite so, Mr. Brand." + +"But that there is no other obstacle?" + +"I did not say so. Your domestic relations have been unfortunate, and +Mr. Adair strongly objects to giving his daughter to a man in your +position. But we need not go into that matter; I don't consider it a +subject suitable for discussion in my daughter's presence." + +"Then I appeal to Margaret!" said Wyvis, in a deep, strong voice. "I +call upon _her_ to decide whether my birth is as much of an obstacle as +you say it is." + +"That is not fair," said Lady Caroline, quickly. "She will write to you. +She can say nothing now." + +"She must say something. She was on the point of giving me herself--her +all--when you came in. She had promised to be my wife, and she was +prepared to keep her promise almost immediately. She shall not break her +word because my father was a ploughman instead of a landowner and a +gentleman." + +For once Lady Caroline made a quick, resistant gesture, as if some +impulse prompted her to speak sharply and decisively. Then she recovered +herself, leaned back in her chair, and smiled faintly. + +"Is the battle to be fought out here and now?" she said. "Well, then, do +your worst, Mr. Brand. But I must have a word by and by, when you have +spoken." + +Wyvis seemed scarcely to hear her. He was looking again, at Margaret. +She was not crying now, but one hand still grasped a handkerchief wet +with her tears. She had rested the other on the back of her mother's +chair. Janetta marveled at her irresolute attitude. In Margaret's place +she would have flung her arms round Wyvis Brand's neck, and vowed that +nothing but death should sever her from him. But Margaret was neither +passionately loving nor of indomitable courage. + +Wyvis stepped forward and took her by the hand. Lady Caroline's eyebrows +contracted a little, but she did not interfere. She seemed to hold +herself resolutely aloof--for a time--and listened, Janetta thought, as +if she were present at a very interesting comedy of modern manners. + +"Margaret, look at me!" said the man. + +His deep, vibrating voice compelled the girl to raise her eyes. She +looked up piteously, and seemed half afraid to withdraw her gaze from +Wyvis' dark earnestness of aspect. + +"Margaret--my darling--you said you loved me." + +"Yes--I do love you," she murmured; but she looked afraid. + +"I am not altered, Margaret: I am the same Wyvis that you loved--the +Wyvis that you kissed down by the brook, when you promised to be my +wife. Have you forgotten? Ah no--not so soon. You would not have come +here to-day if you had forgotten." + +"I have not forgotten," she said, in a whisper. + +"Then, darling, what difference does it make? There is no stain upon my +birth. I would not ask you to share a dishonored name. But my parents +were honest if they were poor, and what they were does not affect me. +Margaret, speak, tell me, dear, that you will not give me up!" + +Margaret tried to withdraw her hand. "I do not know what to say," she +whispered. + +"Say that you love me." + +"I--have said it." + +"Then, that you will not give me up?" + +"Mamma!" said Margaret, entreatingly. "You hear what Wyvis says. It is +not his fault. Why--why--won't you let us be happy?" + +"Don't appeal to your mother," said Wyvis, the workings of whose +features showed that he was becoming frightfully agitated. "You know +that she is against me. Listen to your own heart--what does it say? It +speaks to you of my love for you, of your own love for me. Darling, you +know how miserable my life has been. Are you going to scatter all my +hopes again and plunge me down in the depths of gloom? And all for what? +To satisfy a worldly scruple. It is not even as if I had been brought up +in my early years in the station to which my father belonged. I have +never known him--never known any relations but the Brands; and they are +not so very much beneath you. Don't fail me, Margaret! I shall lose all +faith in goodness if I lose faith in you!" + +"I think," said Lady Caroline, in the rather disheartening pause which +followed upon Wyvis' words--disheartening to him, at least, and also to +Janetta, who had counted much upon Margaret's innate nobility of +soul!--"I think that I may now be permitted to say a word to my daughter +before she replies. What Mr. Wyvis Brand asks you to do, Margaret, is to +marry him at once. Well, the time for coercion has gone by. Of course, +we cannot prevent you from marrying him if you choose to do so, but on +the other hand we shall never speak to you again." + +Wyvis uttered a short laugh, as if he were scornfully ready to meet that +contingency, but Margaret's look of startled horror recalled him to +decorum. + +"You would be no longer any child of ours," said Lady Caroline, calmly. +"Your father concurs with me in this. You have known our views so long +and so well that we feel it almost necessary to explain this to you. Mr. +Brand wishes you to choose, as a matter of fact, between his house and +ours. Make your choice--make it now, if you like; but understand--and I +am very sorry to be obliged to say a thing which may perhaps hurt the +feelings of some persons present--that if you marry the son of a +ploughman and a scullery-maid--I do not mean to be more offensive than I +can help--you cannot possibly expect to be received at Helmsley Court." + +"But, mamma! he ranks as one of the Brands of the Red House. Nobody +knows." + +"But everybody _will_ know," said Lady Caroline, calmly. "I shall take +care of that. I don't know how it is that Mr. Brand has got possession +of the family estate--to which he has, of course, no right; but it has +an ugly look of fraud about it, to which public attention had better be +drawn at once. Mr. Brand may have been a party to the deception all +along, for aught I know." + +"That statement needs no refutation," said Wyvis, calmly, though with a +dangerous glitter in his eyes. "I shall prove my integrity by handing +over the Red House to my bro----to Cuthbert Brand, who is of course the +rightful owner of the place." + +"You hear. Margaret?" said Lady Caroline. "You will not even have the +Red House in your portion. You have to choose between your mother and +father and friends, position, wealth, refinement, luxury--and Wyvis +Brand. That is your alternative. He will have no position of his own, no +house to offer you; I am amazed at his selfishness, I must own, at +making such a proposition." + +"No, madam," said Mrs. Brand, breaking into the conversation for the +first time, and seeming to forget her timidity in the defence of her +beloved son Wyvis; "we are not so selfish as you think. The estate was +left to Wyvis by my husband's will. He preferred that Wyvis should be +master here; and we thought that no one knew the truth." + +"But I shall not be master here any longer," said her son. "I will hand +over the place to Cuthbert at once. I will take nothing on false +pretences. So, Margaret, choose between me and the advantages your +mother offers you. It is for you to decide." + +"Oh, I can't, I can't! Why need I decide now?" said Margaret, clasping +her hands. "Let me have time to think!" + +"No, you must decide now, Margaret," said Lady Caroline. "You have done +a very unjustifiable thing in coming here to-day, and you must take the +consequences. If you still wish to marry Mr. Wyvis Brand, you had better +accept the offer of his mother's protection and remain here. If you come +away with me, it must be understood that you give up any thought of such +a marriage. You must renounce Mr. Wyvis Brand from this time forth and +for ever. Pray, don't answer hastily. The question is this--do you mean +to stay here or to come away with me?" + +She rose as she spoke, and began to arrange the details of her dress, +as though preparing to take her departure. Margaret stood pale, +irresolute, miserable between her mother and her lover. Wyvis threw +out his hands to her with an imploring gesture and an almost frenzied +cry--"Margaret--love--come to me!" Janetta held her breath. + +But in that moment of indecision, Margaret's wavering eye fell upon Mrs. +Brand. The mother was an unlovely object in her abject sorrow and +despair. Her previous coldness and awkwardness told against her at that +moment. It suddenly darted through Margaret's mind that she would have +to accept this woman, with her common associations, her obscure origin, +her doubtful antecedents, in a mother's place. The soul of the girl who +had been brought up by Lady Caroline Adair revolted at the thought. +Wyvis she loved, or thought she loved; Wyvis she could accept; but +Wyvis' mother for her own, coupled with exclusion from the home where +she had lived so many smooth and tranquil years, exclusion also from the +society in which she had been taught that it was her right to take a +distinguished place--this was too much. Her dreams fell from her like a +garment. Plain, unvarnished reality unfolded itself instead. To be poor +and obscure and unfriended, to be looked down upon and pitied, to be +snubbed and passed by on the other side--this was what seemed to be the +reality of things to Margaret's mind. It was too much for her to accept. +She looked at it and passed by it. + +She stretched out her hand timidly and touched her mother's arm. +"Mamma," she said falteringly, "I--I will come with you." And then she +burst into tears and fell upon her mother's neck, and over her shoulder +Lady Caroline turned and smiled at Wyvis Brand. She had won her game. + +"Of course you will, darling," she said, caressingly. "I did not think +you could have been so wicked as to give us up. Come with me! this is +nor the place for us." + +And in the heart-struck silence which fell upon the little group that +she left behind, Lady Caroline gravely bowed and led her weeping +daughter from the room. + +"Oh, Margaret, Margaret!" Janetta suddenly cried out; but Margaret never +once looked back. Perhaps if she had seen Wyvis Brand's face just then, +she might have given way. It was a terrible face; hard, bitter, +despairing; with lines of anguish about the mouth, and a lurid light in +the deep-set, haggard-looking eyes. Janetta, in the pity of her heart, +went up to her cousin, and took his clenched hand between her own. + +"Wyvis, dear Wyvis," she said, "do not look so. Do not grieve. Indeed, +she could not have been worthy of you, or she would not have done like +this. All women are not like her, Wyvis. Some would have loved you for +yourself." + +And there she stopped, crimson and ashamed. For surely she had almost +told him that she loved him!--that secret of which she had long been so +much ashamed, and which had given her so much of grief and pain. But she +attached too much importance to her own vague words. They did not betray +her, and Wyvis scarcely listened to what she said. He broke into a +short, harsh laugh, more hideous than a sob. + +"Are not all women like her?" he said. "Then they are worse. She was +innocent, at any rate, if she was weak. But she has sold her soul now, +if she ever had one, to the devil; and, as I would rather be with her in +life and death than anywhere else, I shall make haste to go to the devil +too." + +He shook off her detaining hand, and strode to the door. There he +turned, and looked fixedly at his mother. + +"It is almost worse to be weak than wicked, I think," he said. "If you +had told me the truth long ago, mother, I should have kept out of this +complication. It's been your fault--my misery and my failure have always +been your fault. It would have been better for me if you had left me to +plough the fields like my father before me. As it is, life's over for me +in this part of the world, and I may as well bid it good-bye." + +Before they could stop him, he was gone. And Janetta could not follow, +for Mrs. Brand sank fainting from her chair, and it was long before she +could be recovered from the deathlike swoon into which she fell. + +And throughout that evening, and for days to come, Margaret Adair, +although petted and caressed and praised on every hand, and persuaded +into feeling that she had not only done the thing that was expected of +her, but a very worthy and noble thing, was haunted by an uneasy +consciousness, that the argument which had prevailed with her was not +the love of home or of her parents, which, indeed, might have been a +very creditable motive for her decision, but a shrinking from trouble, a +dislike to effort of any kind, and an utter distaste for obscurity and +humility. Janetta's reproachful call rang in her ears for days. She +knew that she had chosen the baser part. True, as she argued with +herself, it was right to obey one's parents, to be submissive and +straightforward, to shrink from the idea of ingratitude and rebellion; +and, if she had yielded on these grounds, she might have been somewhat +consoled for the loss of her lover by the conviction that she had done +her duty. But for some little time she was distressfully aware that she +had never considered her parents in the matter at all. She had thought +of worldly disadvantage only. She had not felt any desire to stand by +Wyvis Brand in his trouble. She had felt only repugnance and disgust; +and, having some elements of good in her, she was troubled and ashamed +by her failure; for, even if she had done right in the main, she knew +that she had done it in the wrong way. + +But, of course, time changed her estimate of herself. She was so much +caressed and flattered by her family for her "exquisite dutifulness," as +they phrased it, that she ended by believing that she had behaved +beautifully. And this belief was a great support to her during the +winter that she subsequently spent with her parents in Italy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +RETROSPECT. + + +For my part, I am inclined to think that Margaret was more right than +she knew. There was really no inherent fitness between her temperament +and that of Wyvis Brand; and his position in the County was one which +would have fretted her inexpressibly. She, who had been the petted +favorite of a brilliant circle in town and country, to take rank as the +wife of a ploughman's son! It would not have suited her at all; and her +discontent would have ended in making Wyvis miserable. + +He was, he considered, miserable enough already. He was sore all +over--sore and injured and angry. He had been deceived in a manner which +seemed to him unjustifiable from beginning to end. The disclosure of his +parentage explained many little things which had been puzzling to him +in his previous life, but it brought with it a baffling, passionate +sense of having been fooled and duped--not a condition of things which +was easy for him to support. Little by little the whole story became +clear to him. For, when he flung out of the Red House after Margaret's +departure, in a tumult of rage and shame, announcing his determination +to go to the devil, he did not immediately seek out the Prince of +Darkness: he only went to his lawyer. His lawyer told him a good deal, +and Mrs. Brand, in a letter dictated to Janetta, told him more. + +Mary Wyvis, the daughter of the village inn-keeper at Roxby, was brought +up to act as his barmaid, and early became engaged to marry her cousin, +John Wyvis, ploughman. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, when Mark +Brand appeared upon the scene, and fell desperately in love with the +handsome barmaid. She returned his love, but was too conscientious to +elope with him and forget her cousin, as he wished her to do. Her father +supported John's claim, and threatened to horsewhip the fine gentleman +if he visited the Roxby Arms again. By way of change, Mary then went +into domestic service for a few weeks at Helmsley Manor. It was not +expected that she would remain there, and it was thought by her friends +that she distinctly "lowered herself" by accepting this position, for +her father was a well-to-do man in his way; but Mary Wyvis made the +break with Mark Brand by this new departure which she considered it +essential for her to make; and she was thereby delivered from his +attentions for a time. At Helmsley Manor she was treated with much +consideration, being considered a superior young person for her class; +and although only a scullery maid in name, she was allowed a good deal +of liberty, and promoted to attend on Lady Caroline Bertie, who, as a +girl of fourteen, was then visiting Mrs. Adair, the mother of the man +whom she afterward married. Mary Wyvis was lured into confiding one or +two of her little secrets to Lady Caroline; and when she left Helmsley +Court to marry John Wyvis, that young lady took so much interest in the +affair that she attended the wedding and gave the bride a +wedding-present. And as she often visited the Adairs, she seldom failed +to asked after Mary, until that consummation of Mary's fate which +effectually destroyed Lady Caroline's interest in her. + +Wyvis the ploughman was accidentally killed, and Mary's child, named +John after his father, was born shortly after the ploughman's death. It +was then that Mark Brand sought out his old love, and to better purpose +than before. His passion for her had been strengthened by what he was +pleased to call her desertion of him. He proposed marriage, and offered +to adopt the boy. Mary Wyvis accepted both propositions, and left +England with him almost immediately, in order to escape mocking and +slanderous tongues. + +It was inevitable that evil should be said of her. Mark Brand's pursuit +of her before her marriage to Wyvis had been well known. That she should +marry him so soon after her first husband's death seemed to point to +some continued understanding between the two, and caused much gossip in +the neighborhood. Such gossip was really unfounded, for Mary was a good +woman in her way, though not a very wise one; but the charges against +her were believed in many places, and never disproved. It was even +whispered that the little boy was Mark Brand's own son, and that John +Wyvis had met his death through some foul play. Rumors of this kind died +down in course of time. But they were certainly sufficient to account +for the disfavor with which the County eyed the Brands in general, and +Mrs. Brand in particular. Mark Brand lived very little at the Red House +after his marriage. He knew what a storm of indignation had been spent +upon his conduct, and he was well aware of the aspersions on his wife's +character. He was too reckless by nature to try to set things straight: +he considered that he did his best for his family when he left England +behind him, and trained the boys, Wyvis and Cuthbert, to love a foreign +land better than their own. + +He grew very fond of Mary's boy during the first few years of his +married life. This fondness led him to wish that the boy were his own, +and the appearance of Cuthbert did not alter this odd liking for another +man's son. He never cared very much for Cuthbert, who was delicate and +lame from babyhood; but Wyvis was the apple of his eye. The boy was +called John Wyvis: it was easy enough in a foreign country to let him +slip into the position of the eldest of the family as Wyvis Brand. A +baby son was born before Cuthbert, and dying a month old, gave Mark all +the opportunity that he needed. He sent word to old Wyvis at Roxby that +John's boy was dead; and he then quietly substituted Wyvis in place of +his own son. Every year, he argued, would make the real difference of +age between John's boy and the dead child less apparent: it would save +trouble to speak of Wyvis as his own, and troublesome inquiries were not +likely to be made. Time and use made him almost forget that Wyvis did +not really belong to him; and but for his wife's insistence he would not +even have made the will which secured the Red House to his adopted son. +Cuthbert was of course treated with scandalous injustice by this will; +but the secret had been well kept, and the story was fully known to +nobody save the Brands' lawyer and Mary Brand herself. + +The way in which Lady Caroline had ferreted out the secret remained a +mystery to the Brands. But they never gave her half enough credit for +her remarkable cleverness. When she saw Wyvis Brand, she had been struck +almost at once by his likeness to John Wyvis, the man who married her +old favorite, Mary. She leaped quickly to the conviction that he was not +Mark Brand's son. And when Margaret's infatuation for him declared +itself, she went straight to her husband's man of business, and +commissioned him to find out all that could be found out about the +Brands during the period of their early married life in Italy. The task +was surprisingly easy. Mark Brand had taken few precautions, for he had +drifted rather than deliberately steered towards the substitution of +Wyvis for his own eldest son. A very few inquiries elicited all that +Lady Caroline wanted to know. But she had not been quite sure of her +facts when she entered the Red House, and, if Mrs. Brand had been a +little cooler and a little braver, she might have defeated her enemy's +ends, and carried her secret inviolate to her grave. + +But courage and coolness were the last things that could be expected +from Mrs. Brand. She had never possessed a strong mind and the various +chances and changes of her life had enfeebled instead of strengthening +it. Mark Brand had proved by no means a loving or faithful husband, and +did not scruple to taunt her with her inferiority of position, and to +threaten that he would mortify Wyvis' pride some day by a revelation of +his true name and descent. He was too fond of Wyvis to carry his threat +into effect but he made the poor woman, his wife, suffer an infinity of +torture, the greater part of which might have been avoided if she had +chanced to be gifted with a higher spirit and a firmer will. + +Wyvis Brand went immediately to London after the interview with his +lawyer in Beaminster, and from London, in a few days, he wrote to +Cuthbert. The letter was curt, but not unfriendly. He wished, he said, +to repair the injustice that had been done, and to restore to Cuthbert +the inheritance that was his by right. He had already instructed his +lawyers to take the necessary steps, and he was glad to think that +Cuthbert and Nora would now be able to make the Red House what it ought +to be. He hoped that they would be very happy. For himself, he thought +of immigrating: he was heartily sick of modern civilization, and +believed that he would more easily find friends and fellow-workers +amongst the Red Skins of the Choctaw Indians than in "County" +drawing-rooms. And only by this touch did Wyvis betray the bitterness +that filled his heart. + +Cuthbert rushed up to town at once in a white heat of indignation. He +was only just in time to find Wyvis at his hotel, for he had taken his +passage to America, and was going to start almost immediately. But there +was time at least for a very energetic discussion between the two young +men. + +"If you think," said Cuthbert, hotly, "that I'm going to take your +place, you are very much mistaken." + +"It is not my place. It has been mine only by fraud." + +"Not a bit of it. It is yours by my father's will. He knew the truth, +and chose to take this course." + +"Very unfair to you, Cuth," said Wyvis, a faint smile showing itself for +the first time on his haggard face. + +Cuthbert shrugged his shoulders. "My dear fellow, do you suppose it's +any news to me that my father cared more for your little finger than for +my whole body? He chose--practically--to disinherit me in your favor; +and a very good thing it's been for me too. I should never have taken to +Art if I had been a landed proprietor." + +"I don't understand it," said Wyvis, meditatively. "One would have +expected him to be jealous of his wife's family--and then you're a much +better fellow than I am." + +"That was the reason," said Cuthbert, sitting down and nursing his lame +leg, after a characteristic fashion of his own "I was a meek child--a +sickly lad who didn't get into mischief. I was afraid of horses, you may +remember, and hated manly exercises of every kind. Now you were never so +happy as when you were on a horse's back----" + +"A strain inherited from my ploughman father, I suppose," said Wyvis, +rather grimly. + +"And you got into scrapes innumerable; for which he liked you all the +better. And you--well you know, old boy, you were never a reproach to +him, as the sight of me was!" + +Cuthbert's voice dropped. He had never spoken of it before, but he and +Wyvis knew well enough that his lameness was the result of his father's +brutal treatment of Mary Brand shortly before the birth of her second +son. + +"He ought to have been more bent on making amends than on sacrificing +you to me," said Wyvis, bitterly. + +"Oh, don't look at it in that way," Cuthbert answered. The natural +sweetness of his disposition made it painful to him to hear his father +blamed, although that father had done his best to make his life +miserable. "He never meant to hurt me, the poor old man; and when he had +done it, the sight of my infirmity became exquisitely painful to him. I +can forgive him that; I can forgive him everything. There are others +whom it is more difficult to forgive." + +"You mean----" + +"I mean women who have not the courage to be true," said Cuthbert, in a +low voice. He did not look at his brother, but he felt certain that a +thrill of pain passed through him. For a minute or two Wyvis did not +speak. + +"Well," he said at last, forcing an uneasy laugh, "I think that she was +perhaps right. She might not have been very happy. And I doubt, after +all, whether I ought to have asked her. Janetta thought not, at any +rate." + +"Janetta is generally very wise." + +"So she is very wise. I am legally quite free, but she thinks +me--morally--bound." + +"Well, so do I," said Cuthbert, frankly. "On all moral and religious +grounds, I think you are as much bound as ever you were. And if Miss +Adair refused you on those grounds, she has more right on her side than +I thought." + +"Ah, but she did not," answered Wyvis, dryly. "She refused me because I +was not rich, not 'in society,' and a ploughman's son." + +"That's bad," said his brother. And then the two sat for a little time +in silence, which is the way of Englishmen when one wishes to show +sympathy for another. + +"But we are not approaching what I want to say at all," said Cuthbert, +presently. "We must not let our feelings run away with us. We are both +in a very awkward position, old boy, but we shan't make it better by +publishing it to the world. If you throw up the place in this absurd +fashion--excuse the term--you _will_ publish it to the world at large." + +"Do you think that matters to me?" asked Wyvis, sternly. + +"Perhaps not to you. But it matters to mother, and to me. And it affects +our father's character." + +"Your father's, not mine." + +"He was the only father you ever knew, and you have no reason to find +fault with him." + +Wyvis groaned impatiently. "One has duties to the living, not to the +dead." + +"One has duties to the dead, too. You can't give up the Red House to +me--even if I would take it, which I won't--without having the whole +story made public. My father hasn't a very good reputation in the +County: people will think no better of him for having lamed me, +disinherited me, and practiced a fraud on them. That's what they will +say about the affair, you know. We can't let the world know." + +"Then I'd better go and shoot myself. It seems to me the only thing I +can do." + +"And what about Julian? The estate would pass to him, of course," said +Cuthbert, coolly. He saw that Wyvis' face changed a little at the +mention of Julian's name. + +"No, I could will it to you--make it over to you, with the condition +that it should go to the Foundling Hospital if you wouldn't accept it." + +"I think that a will of that kind could be easily set aside on the +ground of insanity," said Cuthbert, with a slight smile. + +"I could find a way out of the difficulty, if I tried, I have no +doubt," said Wyvis, frowning gloomily and pulling at his moustache. + +"_Don't_ try," said his brother, leaning forward and speaking +persuasively. "Let things continue much as they are. I am content: Nora +is content. Why should you not be so, too?" Then, as Wyvis shook his +head: "Make your mind easy then if you must do something, by giving me a +sum down, or a slice of your income, old man. Upon my word I wouldn't +live in the old place if you gave it to me. It is picturesque--but damp. +Come let's compromise matters." + +"I love every stick and stone in the place," said Wyvis grimly. + +"I know you do. I don't. I want to live in Paris or Vienna with Nora, +and enjoy myself I don't want to paint pot-boilers. I say like the man +in the parable, 'Give me the portion that belongeth to me,' and I'll go +my way, promising, however, not to spend it in riotous living. Won't +that arrangement suit you?" + +Wyvis demurred at first, but was finally persuaded into making an +arrangement of the kind that Cuthbert desired. He retained the Red +House, but he bestowed on his brother enough to give him an ample income +for the life that Cuthbert and Nora wished to lead. During his absence +from England, Mrs. Brand and Julian were still to inhabit the Red House. +And Wyvis announced his intention of going to South America to shoot big +game, from which Cuthbert inferred that his heart, although bruised, was +not broken yet. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +FROM DISTANT LANDS. + + +More than a year had passed away since the events recorded in the last +chapter. Early autumn was beginning to touch the leaves with gold and +crimson; the later flowers were coming into bloom, and the fruit hung +purple and russet-red upon the boughs. The woods about Beaminster had +put on a gorgeous mantle, and the gardens were gay with color, and yet +over all there hung the indefinable brooding melancholy that comes of +the first touch of decay. It was of this that Janetta Colwyn was chiefly +conscious, as she walked in the Red House grounds and looked at the +yellowing leaves that eddied through the still air to the gravelled +walks and unshorn lawns below. Janetta was thinner and paler than in +days of yore, and yet there was a peaceful expression upon her face +which gave it an added charm. She had discarded her black gowns and wore +a pretty dark red dress which suited her admirably. There was a look of +thought and feeling in her dark eyes, a sweetness in her smile, which +would always redeem her appearance from the old charge of insignificance +that used to be brought against it. Small and slight she might be, but +never a woman to be overlooked. + +The past few months had seen several changes in her family. Mrs. Colwyn +was now Mrs. Burroughs, and filled her place with more dignity than had +been expected. She was kept in strict order by her husband and his +sister, and, like many weak persons, was all the better and happier for +feeling a strong hand over her. The children had accommodated themselves +very well to the new life, and were very fond of their stepfather. Nora +and Cuthbert had quitted the Red House almost immediately after their +marriage, and gone to Paris, whence Nora wrote glowing accounts to her +sister of the happiness of her life. And Janetta had taken up her abode +at the Red House, nominally as governess to little Julian, and companion +to Mrs. Brand, but practically ruler of the household, adviser-in-chief +to every one on the estate; teacher, comforter, and confidante in turn, +or all at once. She could not remain long in any place without winning +trust and affection, and there was not a servant in Wyvis Brand's employ +who did not soon learn that the best way of gaining help in need or +redress for any grievance was to address himself or herself to little +Miss Colwyn. To Mrs. Brand, now more weak and ailing than ever, Janetta +was like a daughter. And secure in her love, little Julian never knew +what it was to miss a mother's care. + +Janetta might have her own private cares and worries, but in public, at +any rate, she was seldom anything but cheerful. It was a duty that she +owed the world, she thought, to look bright in it, and especially a duty +to Mrs. Brand and little Julian, who would sorely have missed her ready +playfulness and her tender little jokes if ever she had forgotten +herself so far as to put on a gloomy countenance. And yet she sometimes +felt very much dispirited. She had no prospects of prosperity; she could +not expect to live at the Red House for ever; and yet, when Wyvis came +home and she had to go--which, of course, must happen some time, since +Mrs. Brand was growing old and infirm, and Julian would have to go to +school--what would she do? She asked herself this question many times, +and could never find a very satisfactory answer. She might advertise for +a situation: she might take lodgings in London, and give lessons: she +might go to the house of her stepfather. Each of these attempts to solve +the problem of her future gave her a cold shudder and a sudden sickness +of heart. And yet, as she often severely told herself, what else was +there for her to do? + +She had heard nothing of the Adairs, save through common town gossip, +for many months. The house was shut up, and they were still travelling +abroad. Margaret had evidently quite given up her old friend, Janetta, +and this desertion made Janetta's heart a little sore. Wyvis also was in +foreign lands. He had been to many places, and killed a great many wild +beasts--so much all the world knew, and few people knew anything more. +To his mother he wrote seldom, though kindly. An occasional note to +Julian, or a post card to Cuthbert or his agent, would give a new +address from time to time, but it was to Janetta only that he sometimes +wrote a really long and interesting epistle, detailing some of his +adventures in the friendly and intimate way which his acquaintance with +her seemed to warrant. He did not mention any of his private affairs: he +never spoke of that painful last scene at the Red House, of Margaret, of +his mother, of his wife; but he wrote of the scenes through which he +passed, and the persons whom he met, with an unreserve which Janetta +knew to be the sincerest compliment. + +But on this autumnal day she had received a letter in which another note +was struck. And it was for this reason that she had brought it out into +the garden, so that she might think over it, and read it again in the +shadow of the great beech trees, away from the anxious eyes of Mrs. +Brand and the eager childish questions of Wyvis' boy. + +For three pages Wyvis had written in his usual strain. He was not +perhaps an ideally good letter-writer, but he had a terse, forcible +style of his own, and could describe a scene with some amount of graphic +power. In the midst of an account of certain brigands with whom he had +met in Sicily, however, he had, in this letter, broken off quite +suddenly and struck into a new subject in a new and unexpected way. + +"I had written thus far when I was interrupted: the date of the letter, +you will see, is three weeks ago. I put down my pen and went out: I +found that fever had made its appearance, so I packed up my traps that +afternoon and started for Norway. A sudden change, you will say? Heaven +knows why I went there, but I am glad I did. + +"It was early in July when I reached the hotel at V----. There was +_table d'hote_ and many another sign of civilization, which bored me not +a little. However, I made the best of a bad job, and went down to dinner +with the rest, took my seat without noticing my companions until I was +seated, and then found myself next to--can you guess who, Janetta?--I am +sure you never will. + +"_Lady Caroline Adair!!!_ + +"Her daughter was just beyond her, and Mr. Adair beyond the daughter, so +the fair Margaret was well guarded. Of course I betrayed no sign of +recognition, but I wished myself at Jericho very heartily. For, between +ourselves, Janetta, I made such an ass of myself last summer that my +ears burn to think of it, and it was not a particularly honorable or +gentlemanly ass, I believe, so that I deserve to be drowned in the deep +sea for my folly. I can only hope that I did not show what I felt. + +"Miss Adair was blooming: fair, serene, self-possessed as ever. _She_ +did not show any sign of embarrassment, I can tell you. She did not even +blush. She looked at me once or twice with the faint, well-bred +indifference with which the well-brought-up young lady usually eyes a +perfect stranger. It was Mr. Adair who did all the embarrassment for us. +He turned purple when he saw me, and wanted his daughter to come away +from the table. My ears are quick, and I heard what he said to her, and +I heard also her reply. 'Why should I go away, dear papa! I don't mind +in the least.' Kind of her not to mind, wasn't it? And do you think I +was going to 'mind,' after that? I lifted up my head, which I had +hitherto bent studiously over my soup, and began to talk to my neighbor +on the other side, a stalwart English clergyman with a blue ribbon at +his button-hole. + +"But presently, to my surprise, Lady Caroline addressed me. 'I hope you +have not forgotten me, Mr. Brand,' she said, quite graciously. I must +confess, Janetta, that I stared at her. The calm audacity of the woman +took me by surprise. She looked as amiable as if we were close friends +meeting after a long absence. I hope you won't be very angry with me +when I tell you how I answered her. 'Pardon me,' I said, 'my name is +Wyvis--not Brand.' And then I went on talking to my muscular Christian +on the left. + +"She looked just a little bit disconcerted. Not much, you know. It would +take a great deal to disconcert Lady Caroline very much. But she did not +try to talk to me again! I choked her off that time, anyhow. + +"And, now, let me make a confession. I don't admire Margaret Adair in +the very least. I did, I know: and I made a fool of myself, and worse, +perhaps, about her: but she does, not move one fibre of my heart now, +she does not make it beat a bit faster, and she does not give my eye +more pleasure than a wax doll would give me. She is fair and sweet and +tranquil, I know: but what has she done with her heart and her brain? I +suppose her mother has them in her keeping, and will make them over to +her husband when she marries?... I know a woman who is worth a dozen +Margarets.... + +"But I have made up my mind to live single, so long as Julian's mother +is alive. Legally, I am not bound; morally, I can scarcely feel myself +free. And I know that you feel with me, Janet. The world may call us +over-scrupulous; but I set your judgment higher than that of the world. +And all I can say about Margaret is that I fell into a passing fit of +madness, and cared for nothing but what my fancy dictated; and that now +I am sane--clothed in my right mind, so to speak--I am disgusted with +myself for my folly. Lady Caroline and her daughter should have taken +higher ground. They were right to send me away--but not right to act on +unworthy motives. In the long nights that I have spent camping out under +the quiet stars, far away from the dwellings of men, I have argued the +thing out with myself, and I say unreservedly that they were right and +I was wrong--wrong from beginning to end, wrong to my mother, wrong to +my wife (as she once was), wrong to Margaret, wrong to myself. Your +influence has always been on the side of right and truth, Janetta, and +you more than once told me that I was wrong. + +"So I make my confession. I do not think that I shall come back to +England just yet. I am going to America next week. You will not leave +the Red House, will you? While you are there I can feel at ease about my +mother and my boy. I trust you with them entirely, Janetta; and I want +you to trust me. Wherever I may go, and whatever I may do, I will +henceforward be worthy of your trust and of your friendship." + +This was the letter that Janetta read under the beech trees; and as she +read it tears gathered in her eyes and fell upon the pages. But they +were not tears of sadness--rather tears of joy and thankfulness. For +Wyvis Brand's aberration of mind--so it had always appeared to her--had +given her much pain and sorrow. And he seemed now to have placed his +foot upon the road to better things. + +She was still holding the letter in her hand when she reached the end of +the beech-tree shaded walk along which she had been slowly walking. The +tears were wet upon her cheeks, but a smile played on her lips. She did +not notice for some time that she was watched from the gate that led +into the pasture-land, at the end of the beech-tree walk, by a woman, +who seemed uncertain whether to speak, to enter, or to go away. + +Janetta saw her at last, and wondered what she was doing there. She put +the letter into her pocket, dashed the tears from her eyes, and advanced +towards the gate. + +"Can I do anything for you?" she said. + +The woman looked about thirty-five years old, and possessed the remains +of great beauty. She was haggard and worn: her cheeks were sunken, +though brilliantly red, and her large, velvety-brown eyes were strangely +bright. Her dark, waving hair had probably once been curled over her +brow: it now hung almost straight, and had a rough, dishevelled look, +which corresponded with the soiled and untidy appearance of her dress. +Her gown and mantle were of rich stuff, but torn and stained in many +places; and her gloves and boots were shabby to the very last degree, +while her bonnet, of cheap and tawdry materials, had at any rate the +one merit of being fresh and new. Altogether she was an odd figure to be +seen in a country place; and Janetta wondered greatly whence she came, +and what her errand was at the Red House. + +"Can I do anything for you?" she asked. + +"This is the Red House, I suppose?" the woman asked, hoarsely. + +"Yes, it is." + +"Wyvis Brand's house?" + +Janetta hesitated in surprise, and then said, "Yes," in a rather distant +tone. + +"Who are _you_?" said the woman, looking at her sharply. + +"I am governess to Mr. Brand's little boy." + +"Oh, indeed. And he's at home, I suppose?" + +"No," said Janetta, gravely, "he has been away for more than a year, and +is now, I believe, on his way to America." + +"You lie!" said the woman, furiously; "and you know that you lie!" + +Janetta recoiled a step. Was this person mad? + +"He is at home, and you want to keep me out," the woman went on, wildly. +"You don't want me to set foot in the place, or to see my child again! +He is at home, and I'll see him if I have to trample on your body +first." + +"Nobody wants to keep you out," said Janetta, forcing herself to speak +and look calmly, but tingling with anger from head to foot. "But I +assure you Mr. Brand is away from home. His mother lives here; she is +not very strong, and ought not to be disturbed. If you will give me your +name----" + +"My name?" repeated the other in a tone of mockery. "Oh yes, I'll give +you my name. I don't see why I should hide it; do you? I've been away a +good long time; but I mean to have my rights now. My name is Mrs. Wyvis +Brand: what do you think of that, young lady?" + +She drew herself up as she spoke, looking gaunt and defiant. Her eyes +flamed and her cheeks grew hotter and deeper in tint until they were +poppy-red. She showed her teeth--short, square, white teeth--as if she +wanted to snarl like an angry dog. But Janetta, after the first moment +of repulsion and astonishment, was not dismayed. + +"I did not know," she said, gravely, "that you had any right to call +yourself by that name. I thought that you were divorced from Mr. Wyvis +Brand." + +"Separated for incompatibility of temper; that was all," said Mrs. Brand +coolly. "I told him I'd got a divorce, but it wasn't true. I wanted to +be free from him--that's the truth. I didn't mean him to marry again. I +heard that he was going to be married--is that so! Perhaps he was going +to marry _you_?" + +"No," Janetta answered, very coldly. + +"I'm not going to put up with it if he is," was her visitor's sullen +reply. "I've borne enough from him in my day, I can tell you. So I've +come for the boy. I'm going to have him back; and when I've got him I've +no doubt but what I can make Wyvis do what I choose. I hear he's fond of +the boy." + +"But what--what--do you want him to do?" said Janetta, startled out of +her reserve. "Do you want--_money_ from him?" + +Mrs. Wyvis Brand laughed hoarsely. Janetta noticed that her breath was +very short, and that she leaned against the gate-post for support. + +"No, not precisely," she said. "I want more than that. I see that he's +got a nice, comfortable, respectable house; and I'm tired of wandering. +I'm ill, too, I believe. I want a place in which to be quiet and rest, +or die, as it may turn out. I mean Wyvis to take me back." + +She opened the gate as she spoke, and tried to pass Janetta. But the +girl stood in her way. + +"Take you back after you have left him and ill-treated him and deceived +him, you wicked woman!" she broke out, in her old impetuous way. And for +answer, Mrs. Wyvis Brand raised her hand and struck her sharply across +the face. + +A shrill, childish cry rang out upon the air. Janetta stood mute and +trembling, unable for the moment to move or speak, as little Julian +suddenly flung himself into her arms and tried to drag her towards the +house. + +"Oh, come away, come away, dear Janetta!" he cried. "It's mamma, and +she'll take me back to Paris, I know she will! I won't go away from you, +I won't, I won't!" His mother sprung towards him, as if to tear him from +Janetta's arm, and then her strength seemed suddenly to pass from her. +She stopped, turned ghastly white, and then as suddenly very red. Then +she flung up her arms with a gasping, gurgling cry, and, to Janetta's +horror, she saw a crimson tide break from her quivering lips. She was +just in time to catch her in her arms before she sank senseless to the +ground. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +JULIET. + + +There was no help for it. Into Wyvis Brand's house Wyvis Brand's wife +must go. Old Mrs. Brand came feebly into the garden, and identified the +woman as the mother of Julian, and the wife of her eldest son. She could +not be allowed to die at their door. She could not be taken to any other +dwelling. There were laborers' cottages only in the immediate vicinity. +She must be brought to the Red House and nursed by Janetta and Mrs. +Brand. A woman with a broken blood-vessel, how unworthy soever she might +be, could not be sent to the Beaminster Hospital three miles away. +Common humanity forbade it. She must, for a time at least, be nursed in +the place where she was taken ill. + +So she was carried indoors and laid in the best bedroom, which was a +gloomy-looking place until Janetta began to make reforms in it. When she +had put fresh curtains to the windows, and set flowers on the +window-sill, and banished some of the old black furniture, the room +looked a trifle more agreeable, and there was nothing on which poor +Juliet Brand's eye could dwell with positive dislike or dissatisfaction +when she came to herself. But for some time she lay at the very point of +death, and it seemed to Janetta and to all the watchers at the bedside +that Mrs. Wyvis Brand could not long continue in the present world. + +Mrs. Brand the elder seldom came into the room. She showed a singular +horror of her daughter-in-law: she would not even willingly speak of +her. She pleaded her ill-health as an excuse for not taking her share of +the nursing; and when it seemed likely that Janetta would be worn out by +it, she insisted that a nurse from the Beaminster Hospital should be +procured. "It will not be for long," she said gloomily, when Janetta +spoke regretfully of the expense. For Janetta was chief cashier and +financier in the household. + +But it appeared as if she were mistaken. Mrs. Brand did not die, as +everybody expected. She lay for a time in a very weak state, and then +began gradually to recover strength. Before long, she was able to +converse, and then she showed a preference for Janetta's society which +puzzled the girl not a little. For Julian she also showed some fondness, +but he sometimes wearied, sometimes vexed her, and a visit of a very few +minutes sufficed for both mother and son. Julian himself exhibited not +only dislike but terror of her. He tried to run away and hide when the +hour came for his daily visit to his mother's room; and when Janetta +spoke to him on the subject rather anxiously, he burst into tears and +avowed he was afraid. + +"Afraid of what?" said Janetta. + +But he only sobbed and would not tell. + +"She can't hurt you, Julian, dear. She is ill and weak and lonely; and +she loves you. It's not kind and loving of you to run away." + +"I don't want to be unkind." + +"Or unloving?" said Janetta. + +"I don't love her," the boy answered, and bit his lip. His eye flashed +for a moment, and then he looked down as if he were ashamed of the +confession. + +"Julian, dear? Your mother?" + +"I can't help it. She hasn't been very much like a mother to me." + +"You should not say that, dear. She loves you very much; and all people +do not love in the same way." + +"Oh, it isn't that," said the boy, as if in desperation. "I know she +loves me, but--but----" And there he broke down in a passion of tears +and sobs, amidst which Janetta could distinguish only a few words, such +as "Suzanne said"--"father"--"make me wicked too." + +"Do you mean," said Janetta, more shocked than she liked to show, "that +you think your father wicked?" + +"Oh, no, no! Suzanne said mother was not good. Not father." + +"But, my dear boy, you must not say that your mother is not good. You +have no reason to say so, and it is a terrible thing to say." + +"She was unkind to father--and to me, too," Julian burst forth. "And she +struck you; she is wicked and unkind, and I don't love her. And Suzanne +said she would make me wicked, too, and that I was just like her; and I +don't want--to--be--wicked." + +"Nobody can make you wicked if you are certain that you want to be +good," said Janetta, gravely; "and it was very wrong of Suzanne to say +anything that could make you think evil of your mother." + +"Isn't she naughty, then?" Julian asked in a bewildered tone. + +"I do not know," Janetta answered, very seriously. "Only God knows that. +We cannot tell. It is the last thing we ought say." + +"But--but--you call me naughty sometimes?" the child said, fixing a pair +of innocent, inquiring eyes upon her. + +"Ah, but, my dear, I do not love you the less," said Janetta, out of the +fullness of her heart, and she took him in her arms and kissed him. + +"You are more like what I always think a mother ought to be," said +Julian. What stabs children inflict on us sometimes by their artless +words! Janetta shuddered a little as he spoke. "Then ought I to love +her, whether she is good or bad?" + +Janetta paused. She was very anxious to say only what was right. + +"Yes, my darling," she said at last. "Love her always, through +everything. She is your mother, and she has a right to your love." + +And then, in simple words, she talked to him about right and wrong, +about love and duty and life, until, with brimming eyes, he flung his +arms about her, and said---- + +"Yes, I understand now. And I will love her and take care of her always, +because God sent me to her to do that." + +And he objected no more to the daily visit to his mother's room. + +The sick woman's restless eyes, sharpened by illness, soon discerned the +change in his demeanor. + +"You've been talking to that boy about me," she said one day to Janetta, +in a quick, sensitive voice. + +"Nothing that would hurt you," Janetta replied, smiling. + +"Oh, indeed, I'm not so sure of that. He used to run away from me, and +now he sits beside me like a lamb. I know what you've been saying." + +"What?" said Janetta. + +"You've been saying that I'm going to die, and that he won't be bothered +with me long. Eh?" + +"No; nothing of that kind." + +"What did you say, then?" + +"I told him," said Janetta, slowly, "that God sent him to you as a +little baby to be a help and comfort to you; and that it was a son's +duty to protect and sustain his mother, as she had once protected and +sustained him." + +"And you think he understood that sort of nonsense?" + +"You see for yourself whether he does or not," said Janetta, gently. "He +likes to come and see you and sit beside you now." + +Mrs. Wyvis Brand was silent for a minute or two. A tear gathered in each +of her defiant black eyes, but she did not allow either of them to fall. + +"You're a queer one," she said, with a hard laugh. "I never met anybody +like you before. You're religious, aren't you?" + +"I don't know: I should like to be," said Janetta, soberly. + +"That's the queerest thing you've said yet. And all you religious people +look down on folks like me." + +"Then I'm not religious, for I don't look down on folks like you at +all," said Janetta, calmly adopting Mrs. Brand's vocabulary. + +"Well, you ought to. I'm not a very good sort myself." + +Janetta smiled, but made no other answer: And presently Juliet Brand +remarked-- + +"I dare say I'm not so bad as some people, but I've never been a saint, +you know. And the day I came here I was in an awful temper. I struck +you, didn't I?" + +"Oh, never mind that," said Janetta, hastily. "You were tired: you +hardly knew what you were doing." + +"Yes, I did," said Mrs. Brand. "I knew perfectly well. But I hated you, +because you lived here and had care of Julian. I had heard all about you +at Beaminster, you see. And people said that you would probably marry +Wyvis when he came home again. Oh, I've made you blush, have I? It was +true then?" + +"Not at all; and you have no right to say so." + +"Don't be angry, my dear. I don't want to vex you. But it looks to me +rather as though----Well, we won't say any more about it since it vexes +you. I shan't trouble you long, most likely, and then Wyvis can do as he +pleases. But you see it was that thought that maddened me when I came +here, and I felt as if I'd like to fall upon you and tear you limb from +limb. So I struck you on the face when you tried to thwart me." + +"But--I don't understand," said Janetta, tremulously. "I thought you did +not--_love_--Wyvis." + +Mrs. Brand laughed. "Not in your way," she said in an enigmatic tone. +"But a woman can hate a man and be jealous of him too. And I was jealous +of you, and struck you. And in return for that you've nursed me night +and day, and waited on me, until you're nearly worn out, and the doctor +says I owe my life to you. Don't you think I'm right when I say you're a +queer one?" + +"It would be very odd if I neglected you when you were ill just because +of a moment of passion on your part," said Janetta, rather stiffly. It +was difficult to her to be perfectly natural just then. + +"Would it? Some people wouldn't say so. But come--you say I don't love +Wyvis?" + +"I thought so--certainly." + +"Well, look here," said Wyvis' wife. "I'll tell you something. Wyvis was +tired of me before ever he married me. I soon found that out. And you +think I should be caring for him then? Not I. But there _was_ a time +when I would have kissed the very ground he walked on. But he never +cared for me like that." + +"Then--why----". + +"Why did he marry me? Chiefly because his old fool of a mother egged him +on. She should have let us alone." + +"Did she want him to marry you?" said Janetta, in some amaze. + +"It doesn't seem likely, does it?" said Mrs. Brand, with a sharp, +heartless little laugh. "But she sets up for having a conscience now and +then. I was a girl in a shop, I may tell you, and Wyvis made love to me +without the slightest idea of marrying me. Then Mrs. Brand comes on the +scene: 'Oh, my dear boy, you mustn't make that young woman unhappy. I +was made unhappy by a gentleman when I was a girl, and I don't want you +to behave as he did." + +"And that was very good of Mrs. Brand!" said Janetta, courageously. + +Juliet made a grimace. "After a fashion. She had better have let us +alone. She put Wyvis into a fume about his honor; and so he asked me to +marry him. And I cared for him--though I cared more about his +position--and I said yes. So we were married, and a nice cat and dog +life we had of it together." + +"And then you left him?" + +"Yes, I did. I got tired of it all at last. But I always lived +respectably, except for taking a little too much stimulant now and then; +and I never brought any dishonor on his name. And at last I thought the +best thing for us both would be to set him free. And I wrote to him that +he _was_ free. But there was some hitch--I don't know what exactly. Any +way, we're bound to each other as fast as ever we were, so we needn't +think to get rid of each other just yet." + +Janetta felt a throb of thankfulness, for Margaret's sake. Suppose she +had yielded to Wyvis' solicitations and become his wife, to be proved +only no wife at all? Her want of love for Wyvis had at least saved her +from terrible misery. Mrs. Brand went on, reflectively-- + +"When I'm gone, he can marry whom he likes. I only hope it'll be anybody +as good as you. You'd make a capital mother to Julian. And I don't +suppose I shall trouble anybody very long." + +"You are getting better--you will soon be perfectly well." + +"Nonsense: nothing of the kind. But if I am, I know one thing," said +Mrs. Brand, in a petulant tone; "I won't be kept out of my rights any +longer. This house seems to be nice and comfortable: I shall stay here. +I am tired of wandering about the world." + +Janetta was silent and went on with some needle-work. + +"You don't like that, do you?" said Mrs. Brand, peering into her face. +"You think I'd be better away." + +"No," said Janetta. But she could not say more. + +"Do you know where he is?" + +"He? Wyvis?" + +"Yes, my husband." + +"I have an address. I do not know whether he is there or not, but he +would no doubt get a letter if sent to the place. Do you wish to write +to him?" + +"No. But I want you to write. Write and say that I am here. Ask him to +come back." + +"You had better write yourself." + +"No. He would not read it. Write for me." + +Janetta could not refuse. But she felt it one of the hardest tasks that +she had ever had to perform in life. She was sorry for Juliet Brand, but +she shrank with all her heart and soul from writing to Wyvis to return +to her. Yet what else could she do? + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +THE FRUITS OF A LIE. + + +When she told old Mrs. Brand what she had done, she was amazed to mark +the change which came over that sad and troubled countenance. Mrs. +Brand's face flushed violently, her eyes gleamed with a look as near +akin to wrath as any which Janetta had ever seen upon it. + +"You have promised to write to Wyvis?" she cried. "Why? What is it to +you? Why should you write?" + +"Why should I not?" asked Janetta, in surprise. + +"He will never come back to her--never. And it is better so. She spoiled +his life with her violence, her extravagance, her flirtations. He could +not bear it; and why should he be brought back to suffer all again?" + +"She is his wife still," said the girl, in a low tone. + +"They are separated. She tried to get a divorce, even if she did not +succeed. I do not call her his wife." + +Janetta shook her head. "I cannot think of it as you do, then," she +said, quietly. "She and Wyvis are married; and as they separated only +for faults of temper, not for unfaithfulness, I do not believe that they +have any right to divorce each other. Some people may think +differently--I cannot see it in that way." + +"You mean," said Mrs. Brand, with curious agitation of manner; "you mean +that even if she had divorced him in America, you would not think him +free--free to marry again?" + +"No," Janetta answered, "I would not." + +She felt a singular reluctance to answering the question, and she hoped +that Mrs. Brand would ask her nothing more. She was relieved when Wyvis' +mother moved away, after standing perfectly still for a moment, with her +hands clasped before her, a strange ashen shade of color disfiguring her +handsome old face. Janetta thought the face had grown wonderfully tragic +of late; but she hoped that when Juliet had left the house the poor +mother would again recover the serenity of mind which she had gained +during the past few months of Janetta's gentle companionship. + +She wrote her letter to Wyvis, making it as brief and business-like as +possible. She dwelt a good deal on Juliet's weakness, on her love for +the boy, and her desire to see him once again. At the same time she +added her own conviction that Mrs. Wyvis Brand was on the high road to +recovery, and would soon be fairly strong and well. She dared not give +any hint as to a possible reconciliation, but she felt, even as she +penned her letter, that it was to this end that she was working. "And it +is right," she said steadily to herself; "there is nothing to gain in +disunion: everything to lose by unfaithfulness. It will be better for +Julian--for all three--that father and mother should no longer be +divided." + +But although she argued thus, she had a somewhat different and entirely +instinctive feeling in her heart. To begin with, she could not imagine +persons more utterly unsuited to one another than Wyvis and his wife. +Juliet had no principles, no judgment, to guide her: she was impulsive +and passionate; she did not speak the truth, and she seemed in her +wilder moments to care little what she did. Wyvis had faults--who knew +them better than Janetta, who had studied his character with great and +loving care?--but they were nor of the same kind. His mood was +habitually sombre; Juliet loved pleasure and variety: his nature was a +loving one, strong and deep, although undisciplined; but Juliet's light +and fickle temperament made her shrink from and almost dislike +characteristics so different from her own. And Janetta soon saw that in +spite of her open defiance of her husband she was a little afraid of +him; and she could well imagine that when Wyvis was angry he was a man +of whom a woman might very easily be afraid. + +Yet, when the letter was despatched, Janetta felt a sense of relief. She +had at least done her duty, as she conceived of it. She did not know +what the upshot might be; but at any rate, she had done her best to put +matters in train towards the solving of the problem of Wyvis' married +life. + +She was puzzled during the next few days by some curious, indefinable +change in Mrs. Brand's demeanor. The poor woman had of late seemed +almost distraught; she had lost all care, apparently, for appearances, +and went along the corridors moaning Wyvis' name sadly to herself, and +wringing her hands as if in bitter woe. Her dress was neglected, and her +hair unbrushed: indeed, when Janetta was too busy to give her a +daughter's loving care, as it was her custom and her pleasure to do, +poor Mrs. Brand roamed about the house looking like a madwoman. Her +madness was, however, of a gentle kind: it took the form of melancholia, +and manifested itself chiefly by continual restlessness and occasional +bursts of weeping and lament. + +In one of these outbreaks Janetta found her shortly after she had sent +her letter to Wyvis, and tried by all means in her power to soothe and +pacify her. + +"Dear grandmother," she began--for she had caught the word from Julian, +and Mrs. Brand liked her to use it--"why should you be so sad? Wyvis is +coming home, Juliet is better, little Julian is well, and we are all +happy." + +"_You_ are not happy," said Mrs. Brand, throwing up her hands with a +curiously tragic gesture. "You are miserable--miserable; and I am the +most unhappy woman living!" + +"No," I said Janetta, gently. "I am not miserable at all. And there are +many women more unhappy than you are. You have a home, sons who love +you, a grandson, friends--see how many things you have that other people +want! Is it right to speak of yourself as unhappy?" + +"Child," said the older woman, impressively, "you are young, and do not +know what you say. Does happiness consist in houses and clothes, or even +in children and friends? I have been happier in a cottage than in the +grandest house. As for friends--what friends have I? None; my husband +would never let me make friends lest I should expose my ignorance, and +disgrace him by my low birth and bringing up. I have never had a woman +friend." + +"But your children," said Janetta, putting her arms tenderly round the +desolate woman's neck. + +"Ah, my children! When they were babies, they were a pleasure to me. But +they have never been a pleasure since. They have been a toil and a pain +and a bondage. That began when Wyvis was a little child, and Mr. Brand +took a fancy to him and wanted to make every one believe that he was +_his_ child, not John's. I foresaw that there would be trouble, but he +would never listen to me. It was just a whim of the moment at first, and +then, when he saw that the deceit troubled me, it became a craze with +him. And whatever he said, I had to seem to agree with. I dared not +contradict him. I hated the deceit, and the more I hated it, the more he +loved it and practiced it in my hearing, until I used to be sick with +misery. Oh, my dear, it is the worst of miseries to be forced into +wrong-doing against your will." + +"But why did you give way?" said Janetta, who could not fancy herself in +similar circumstances being forced into anything at all. + +"My dear, he made me, I dared not cross him. He made me suffer, and he +made the children suffer if ever I opposed him. What could I do?" said +the poor woman, twisting and untwisting her thin hands, and looking +piteously into Janetta's face. "I was obliged to obey him--he was my +husband, and so much above me, so much more of a gentleman than I ever +was a lady. You know that I never could say him nay. He ruled me, as he +used to say, with a rod of iron--for he made a boast of it, my dear--and +he was never so happy, I think, as when he was torturing me and making +me wince with pain." + +"He must have been----" when Janetta stopped short: she could not say +exactly what she thought of Mrs. Brand's second husband. + +"He was cruel, my dear: cruel, that is, to women. Not cruel amongst his +own set--among his equals, as he would have said--not cruel to boys. But +always cruel to women. Some woman must have done him a grievous wrong +one day--I never knew who she was; but I am certain that it was so; and +that soured and embittered him. He was revenging himself on that other +woman, I used to think, when he was cruel to me." + +Janetta dared not speak. + +"I did not mind his cruelty when it meant nothing but bodily pain, you +know, my dear," Mrs. Brand continued patiently. "But it was harder for +me to bear when it came to what might be called moral things. You see I +loved him, and I could not say him nay. If he told me to lie, I had to +do it. I never forgave myself for the lies I told at his bidding. And if +he were here to tell me to do the same things I should do them still. If +he had turned Mohammedan, and told me to trample on the Bible or the +Cross, as I have read in missionary books that Christians have sometimes +been bribed to do, I should have obeyed him. I was his body and soul, +and all my misery has come out of that." + +"How?" Janetta asked. + +"I brought Wyvis up on a lie," the mother answered, her face growing +woefully stern and rigid as she mentioned his name, "and it has been my +punishment that he has always hated lies. I have trembled to hear him +speak against falsehood--to catch his look of scorn when he began to see +that his father did not speak truth. Very early he made me understand +that he would never be likely to forgive us for the deception we +practiced on him. For his good, you will say; but ah, my dear, deception +is never for anybody's good. I never forgave myself, and Wyvis will +never forgive me. And yet he is my child. Now you see the happiness that +lies in having children." + +Janetta tried to dissipate the morbid terror of the past, the morbid +dread of Wyvis' condemnation, which hung like a shadow over the poor +woman's mind, but she was far from being successful. + +"You do not know," was all that Mrs. Brand would say. "You do not +understand." And then she broke out more passionately-- + +"I have done him harm all his life. His misery has been my fault. You +heard him tell me so. It is true: there is no use denying it. And he +knows it." + +"He spoke in a moment of anger: he did not know what he said." + +"Oh, yes, he did, and he meant it too. I have heard him say a similar +thing before. You see it was I that brought about this wretched marriage +of his--because I pitied this woman, and thought her case was like my +own--that she loved Wyvis as I loved Mark Brand. I brought that +marriage about, and Wyvis has cursed me ever since." + +"No, no," said Janetta, kissing her troubled face, "Wyvis would never +curse his mother for doing what she thought right. Wyvis loves you. +Surely you know that--you believe that? Wyvis is not a bad son." + +"No, my dear, not a bad son, but a cruelly injured one," said Mrs. +Brand. "And he blames me. I cannot blame him: it was all my fault for +not opposing Mark when he wanted me to help him to carry out his wicked +scheme." + +"I think," said Janetta, tentatively, "that Cuthbert has more right to +feel himself injured than Wyvis." + +"Cuthbert?" Mrs. Brand repeated, in an indifferent tone. "Oh, Cuthbert +is of no consequence: his father always said so. A lame, sickly, +cowardly child! If we had had a strong, healthy lad of our own, Mark +would not have put Wyvis in Cuthbert's place, but with a boy like +Cuthbert, what would you expect him to do?" + +It seemed to Janetta almost as if her mind were beginning to wander: the +references to Cuthbert's boyish days appeared to be so extraordinarily +clear and defined--almost as though she were living again through the +time when Cuthbert was supplanted by her boy Wyvis. But when she spoke +again, Mrs. Brand's words were perfectly clear, and apparently +reasonable in tone. + +"I often think that if I could do my poor boy some great service, he +would forgive me in heart as well as in deed. I would do anything in the +world for him, Janetta, if only I could give him back the happiness of +which I robbed him." + +Janetta could not exactly see that the poor mother's sins had been so +great against Wyvis as against Cuthbert, but it was evident that Mrs. +Brand could never be brought to look at matters in this light. The +thought that she had injured her first-born son had taken possession of +her completely, and seriously disturbed the balance of her faculties. +The desire to make amends to Wyvis for her wrong-doing had already +reached almost a maniacal point: how much further it might be carried +Janetta never thought of guessing. + +She was anxious about Mrs. Brand, but more so for her physical than for +her mental strength. For her powers were evidently failing in every +direction, and the doctor spoke warningly to Janetta of the weakness of +her heart's action, and the desirability of shielding her from every +kind of agitation. It was impossible to provide against every kind of +shock, but Janetta promised to do her best. + +The winter was approaching before Janetta's letter to Wyvis received an +answer. She was beginning to feel very anxious about it, for his silence +alarmed and also surprised her. She could hardly imagine a man of Wyvis' +disposition remaining unmoved when he read the letter that she had sent +him. His wife's health was, moreover, giving her serious concern. She +had caught cold on one of the foggy autumnal days, and the doctor +assured her that her life would be endangered if she did not at once +seek a warmer climate. But she steadily refused to leave the Red House. + +"I won't go," she said to Janetta, with a red spot of anger on either +cheek, "until I know whether he means to do the proper thing by me or +not." + +"He is sure to do that; you need have no fear," said Janetta, bluntly. + +An angry gleam shot from the sick woman's eyes. "You defend him through +thick and thin, don't you? Wyvis has a knack of getting women to stick +up for him. They say the worst men are often the most beloved." + +Janetta left the room, feeling both sick and sorry, and wondering how +much longer she could bear this kind of life. It was telling upon her +nerves and on her strength in every possible way. And yet she could not +abandon her post--unless, indeed, Wyvis himself relieved her. And from +him for many weary days there came no word. + +But at last a telegram arrived--dated from Liverpool. "I shall be with +you to-morrow. Your letter was delayed, and reached me only by +accident," Wyvis said. And then his silence was explained. + +Janetta carried the news of his approaching arrival to wife and mother +in turn. Mrs. Wyvis took it calmly. "I told you so," she said, with a +triumphant little nod. But Mrs. Brand was terribly agitated, and even, +as it seemed to Janetta, amazed. "I never thought that he would come," +she said, in a loud whisper, with a troubled face and various nervous +movements of her hands. "I never thought that he would come back to her. +I must be quick. I must be quick, indeed." And when Janetta tried to +soothe her, and said that she must now make haste to be well and strong +when Wyvis was returning, she answered only in about the self-same +words--"never thought it, my dear, indeed, I never did. But if he is +coming back, so soon, I must be quick--I must be very quick." + +And Janetta could not persuade her to say why. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +NIGHT. + + +It was the night before Wyvis' return. The whole household seemed +somewhat disorganized by the prospect. There was an air of subdued +excitement visible in the oldest and staidest of the servants, for in +spite of Wyvis' many shortcomings and his equivocal position, he was +universally liked by his inferiors, if not by those who esteemed +themselves his superiors, in social station. Mrs. Brand had gone to bed +early, and Janetta hoped that she was asleep; Mrs. Wyvis had kept +Janetta at her bedside until after eleven o'clock, regaling her with an +account of her early experience in Paris. When at last she seemed +sleepy, Janetta said good-night and went to her own room. She was tired +but wakeful. The prospect of Wyvis' return excited her; she felt that it +would be impossible to sleep that night, and she resolved therefore to +establish herself before the fire in her own room, with a book, and to +see, by carefully abstracting her mind from actual fact, whether she +could induce the shy goddess, sleep, to visit her. + +She read for some time, but she had great difficulty in fixing her mind +upon her book. She found herself conning the same words over and over +again, without understanding their meaning in the least; her thoughts +flew continually to Wyvis and his affairs, and to the mother and wife +and son with whom her fate had linked her with such curious closeness. +At last she relinquished the attempt to read, and sat for some time +gazing into the fire. She heard the clock strike one; the quarter and +half-hour followed at intervals, but still she sat on. Anyone who had +seen her at that hour would hardly have recognized her for the +vivacious, sparkling, ever cheerful woman who made the brightness of the +Red House; the sunshine had left her face, her eyes were wistful, almost +sad; the lines of her mouth drooped, and her cheeks had grown very pale. +She felt very keenly that the period of happy, peaceful work and rest +which she had enjoyed for the last few months was coming to an end. She +was trying to picture to herself what her future life would be, and it +was difficult to imagine it when her old ties had all been severed. "It +seems as if I had to give up everybody that I ever cared for," she said +to herself, not complainingly, but as one recognizing the fact that some +persons are always more or less lonely in the world, and that she +belonged to a lonely class. "My father has gone--my brother and sisters +do not need me; Margaret abandoned me; Wyvis and his mother and Julian +are lost to me from henceforth. God forgive me," said Janetta to +herself, burying her face in her hands and shedding some very heartfelt +tears, "if I seem to be repining at my friends' good fortune; I do not +mean it; I wish them every joy. But what I fear is, lest it should not +be for their good--that Wyvis and his mother and Julian should be +unhappy." + +She was roused from her reflection by a sound in the corridor. It was a +creaking board, she knew that well enough; but the board never creaked +unless some one trod upon it. Who could be walking about the house at +this time of night? Mrs. Brand, perhaps; she was terribly restless at +night, and often went about the house, seeking to tire herself so +completely that sleep would be inevitable on her return to bed. On a +cold night, such expeditions were not, however, unattended by danger, as +she was not careful to protect herself against draughts, and it was with +the desire to care for her that Janetta at last rose and took up a soft +warm shawl with which she thought that she might cover Mrs. Brand's +shoulders. + +With the shawl over her arm and a candle in one hand she opened her door +and looked out into the passage. It was unlighted, and the air seemed +very chilly. Janetta stole along the corridor like a thief, and peeped +into Mrs. Brand's bedroom; as was expected, it was empty. Then she +looked into Julian's room, for she had several times found the +grandmother praying by his bed, at dead of night; but Julian slumbered +peacefully, and nobody else was there. Janetta rather wonderingly turned +her attention to the lower rooms of the house. But Mrs. Brand was not to +be found in any of the sitting rooms; and the hall door was securely +locked and bolted, so that she could not have gone out into the garden. + +"She must be upstairs," said Janetta to herself. "But what can she be +doing in that upper storey, where there are only empty garrets and +servants rooms! I did not look into the spare room, however; perhaps she +has gone to see if it is ready for Wyvis, and I did not go to Juliet. +She cannot have gone to _her_, surely; she never enters the room unless +she is obliged." + +Nevertheless, her heart began to beat faster, and she involuntarily +quickened her steps. She did not believe that Mrs. Brand would seek +Juliet's room with any good intent, and as she reached the top of the +stairs her eyes dilated and her face grew suddenly pale with fear. For a +strange whiff of something--was it smoke?--came into her eyes, and an +odd smell of burning assailed her nostrils. Fire, was it fire? She +remembered that Wyvis had once said that the Red House would burn like +tinder if it was ever set alight. The old woodwork was very combustible, +and there was a great deal of it, especially in the upper rooms. + +Juliet's door was open. Janetta stood before it for the space of one +half second, stupefied and aghast. Smoke was rapidly filling the room +and circling into the corridor; the curtains near the window were in a +blaze, and Mrs. Brand, with a lighted candle in her hand, was +deliberately setting fire to the upholstery of the bed where the +unconscious Juliet lay. Janetta never forgot the moment's vision that +she obtained of Mrs. Brand's pale, worn, wildly despairing face--the +face of a madwoman as she now perceived, who was not responsible for the +deed she did. + +Janetta sprang to the window curtains, dragged them down and trampled +upon them. Her thick dressing gown, and the woollen shawl that she +carried all helped in extinguishing the flame. Her appearance had +arrested Mrs. Brand in her terrible work; she paused and began to +tremble, as if she knew in some vague way that she was doing what was +wrong. The flame had already caught the curtains, which were of a light +material, and was creeping up to the woodwork of the old-fashioned bed, +singeing and blackening as it went. These, also, Janetta tore down, +burning her hands as she did so, and then with her shawl she pressed out +the sparks that were beginning to fly dangerously near the sleeping +woman. A heavy ewer of water over the mouldering mass of torn muslin and +lace completed her task; and by that time Juliet had started from her +sleep, and was asking in hysterical accents what was wrong. + +Her screams startled the whole household, and the servants came in +various stages of dress and undress to know what was the matter. Mrs. +Brand had set down her candle and was standing near the door, trembling +from head to foot, and apparently so much overcome by the shock as to be +unable to answer any question. That was thought very natural. "Poor +lady! what a narrow escape! No wonder she was upset," said one of the +maids sympathetically, and tried to lead her back to her own room. But +Mrs. Brand refused to stir. + +Meanwhile Juliet was screaming that she was burning, that the whole +house was on fire, that she should die of the shock, and that Wyvis was +alone to blame--after her usual fashion of expressing herself wildly +when she was suffering from any sort of excitement of mind. + +"You are quite safe now," Janetta said at last, rather sharply. "The +fire is out: it was never very much. Come into my room: the bed may be +cold and damp now, and the smoke will make you cough." + +She was right; the lingering clouds of smoke were producing unpleasant +effects on the throat and lungs of Mrs. Wyvis Brand; and she was glad to +be half led, half carried, by two of the servants into Janetta's room. +And no sooner was she laid in Janetta's bed than a little white figure +rushed out of another room and flew towards her, crying out: + +"Mother! Mother! You are not hurt?" + +She was not hurt, but she was shaken and out of breath, and Julian's +caresses were not altogether opportune. Still she did not seem to be +vexed by them. Perhaps they were too rare to be unwelcome. She let him +creep into bed beside her, and lay with her arm round him as if he were +still a baby at her breast, and then for a time they slept together, +mother and child, as they had not slept since the days of Julian's +babyhood. For both it may have been a blessed hour. Julian scarcely knew +what it was to feel a mother's love; and with Juliet, the softer side of +her nature had long been hidden beneath a crust of coldness and +selfishness. But those moments of tenderness which a common danger had +brought to light would live for ever in Julian's memory. + +While these two were sleeping, however, others in the house were busy. +As soon as Juliet was out of the room, Janetta turned anxiously to Mrs. +Brand. "Come with me, dear," she said. "Come back to your room. You will +catch cold." + +She felt no repulsion, nothing but a great pity for the hapless woman +whose nature was not strong enough to bear the strain to which it had +been subjected, and she wished, above all things, to keep secret the +origin of the fire. If Mrs. Brand would but be silent, she did not think +that Juliet could fathom the secret, but she was not sure that poor Mrs. +Brand would not betray herself. At present, she showed no signs of +understanding what had been said to her. + +"She is quite upset by the shock," said the maid who had previously +spoken. "And no wonder. And oh! Miss Colwyn, don't you know how burnt +your hands are! You must have them seen to, I'm sure." + +"Never mind my hands, I don't feel them," said Janetta brusquely. "Help +me to get Mrs. Brand to her room, and then send for a doctor. Go to Dr. +Burroughs, he will know what to do. I want him here as quickly as +possible. And bring me some oil and cotton wool." + +The servants looked at one another, astonished at the strangeness of her +tone. But they were fond of her and always did her bidding gladly, so +they performed her behest, and helped her to lead Mrs. Brand, who was +now perfectly passive in their hands, into her own room. + +But when she was there, the old butler returned to knock at the door and +ask to speak to Miss Colwyn alone. Janetta came out, with a feeling of +curious fear. She held the handle of the door as he spoke to her. + +"I beg pardon, m'm," he said deferentially, "but hadn't I better keep +them gossiping maids out of the room over there?" + +Janetta looked into his face, and saw that he more than suspected the +truth. + +"What do you mean?" she asked. + +"The window curtains are burned, m'm, and the bed-curtains; also the bed +clothes in different places, and one or two other light articles about +the room. It is easy to see that it was not exactly an accident, m'm." + +Then, seeing Janetta's color change, he added kindly, "But there's no +call for you to feel afraid, m'm. We've all known as the poor lady's +been going off her head for a good long time, and this is only perhaps +what might have been expected, seeing what her feelings are. You leave +it all to me, and just keep her quiet, m'm; I'll see to the room, and +nobody else shall put their foot into it. The master will be home this +morning, I hope and trust." + +He hobbled away, and Janetta went back to Mrs. Brand. The reaction was +setting in; her own hurts had not been attended to, and were beginning +to give her a good deal of pain; and she was conscious of sickness and +faintness as well as fatigue. A great dread of Mrs. Brand's next words +and actions was also coming over her. + +But for the present, at least, she need not have been afraid! Mrs. Brand +was lying on the bed in a kind of stupor: her eyes were only half-open; +her hands were very cold. + +Janetta did her best to warm and comfort her physically; and then, +finding that she seemed to sleep more naturally, she got her hands bound +up and sat down to await the coming of the doctor. + +But she was not destined to wait in idleness very long. She was summoned +to Mrs. Wyvis Brand, who had awakened suddenly from her sleep and was +coughing violently. Little Julian had to be hastily sent back to his own +room, for his mother's cough was dangerous as well as distressing to +her, and Janetta was anxious that he should not witness what might prove +to be a painful sight. + +And she was not far wrong. For the violent cough produced on this +occasion one of its most serious results. The shock, the exposure, the +exertion, had proved almost too much for Mrs. Wyvis Brand's strength. +She ruptured a blood-vessel just as the doctor entered the house; and +all that he could do was to check the bleeding with ice, and enjoin +perfect quiet and repose. And when he had seen her, he had to hear from +Janetta the story of that terrible night. She felt that it was wise to +trust Dr. Burroughs entirely, and she told him, in outline, the whole +story of Mrs. Brand's depression of spirits, and of her evident half-mad +notion that she might gain Wyvis' forgiveness for her past mistakes by +some deed that would set him free from his unloved wife, and enable him +to lead a happier life in the future. + +The doctor shook his head when he saw his patient. "It is just as well +for her, perhaps," he said afterwards, "but it is sad for her son and +for those who love her--if any one does! She will probably not recover. +She is in a state of complete prostration; and she will most likely slip +away in sleep." + +"Oh, I am sorry," said Janetta, with tears in her eyes. + +The doctor looked at her kindly. "You need not be sorry for her, my +dear. She is best out of a world which she was not fitted to cope with. +You should not wish her to stay." + +"It will be so sad for Wyvis, when he comes home to-day," murmured +Janetta, her lip trembling. + +"He is coming to-day, is he? Early this morning? I will stay with you, +if you like." + +Janetta was glad of the offer, although it gave her an uneasy feeling +that the end was nearer than she thought. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +THE LAST SCENE. + + +"She does not know you," Dr. Burroughs said, when, a few hours later, +Wyvis bent over his mother's pillow and looked into her quiet, +care-lined face. + +"Will she never know me?" asked the young man in a tone of deep +distress. "My poor mother! I must tell her how sorry I am for the pain +that I have often given her." + +"She may be conscious for a few minutes by-and-bye," the doctor said. +"But consciousness will only show that the end is near." + +There was a silence in the room. Mrs. Brand had now lain in a stupor for +many hours. Wyvis had been greeted on his arrival with sad news indeed: +his mother and wife were seriously ill, and the doctor acknowledged +that he did not think Mrs. Brand likely to live for many hours. + +Wyvis had not been allowed to enter his wife's room, Juliet had to be +kept very quiet, lest the hæmorrhage should return. He was almost glad +of the respite; he dreaded the meeting, and he was anxious to bestow all +his time upon his mother. Janetta had told him something about what had +passed; he had heard an outline, but only an outline, of the sad story, +and it must be confessed that as yet he could not understand it. It was +perhaps difficult for a man to fathom the depths of a woman's morbid +misery, or of a doating mother's passionate and unreasonable love. He +grieved, however, over what was somewhat incomprehensible to him, and he +thought once or twice with a sudden sense of comfort that Janetta would +explain, Janetta would make him understand. He looked round for her when +this idea occurred to him; but she was not in the room. She did not like +to intrude upon what might be the last interview between mother and son, +for she was firmly persuaded that Mrs. Brand would recover +consciousness, and would tell Wyvis in her own way something of what she +had thought and felt; but she was not far off, and when Wyvis sent her a +peremptory message to the effect that she was wanted, she came at once +and took up her position with him as watcher beside his mother's bed. + +Janetta was right. Mrs. Brand's eyes opened at last, and rested on +Wyvis' face with a look of recognition. She smiled a little, and seemed +pleased that he was there. It was plain that for the moment she had +quite forgotten the events of the last few hours, and the first words +that she spoke proved that the immediate past had completely faded from +her mind. + +"Wyvis!" she faltered. "Are you back again, dear? And is--is your father +with you?" + +"I am here, mother," Wyvis answered. He could say nothing more. + +"But your father----" + +Then something--a gleam of reawakening memory--seemed to trouble her; +she looked round the room, knitted her brows anxiously, and murmured a +few words that Wyvis could not hear. + +"I remember now," she said, in a stronger voice. "I wanted something--I +thought it was your father, but it was something quite different--I +wanted your forgiveness, Wyvis." + +"Mother, mother, don't speak in that way," cried her son. "Have you not +suffered enough to expiate _any_ mistake?" + +"Any mistake, perhaps, not any sin," said his mother feebly. "Now that I +am old and dying, I call things by their right names. I did you a wrong, +and I did Cuthbert a wrong, and I am sorry now." + +"It is all past," said Wyvis softly. "It does not matter now." + +"You forgive me for my part in it? You do not hate me?" + +"Mother! Have I been cold to you then? I have loved you all the time, +and never blamed you in my heart." + +"You said that I was to blame." + +"But I did not mean it. I never thought that you would take an idle word +of mine so seriously, mother. Forgive me, and believe me that I would +not have given you pain for the world if I had thought, if I had only +thought that it would hurt you so much!" + +His mother smiled faintly, and closed her eyes for a moment, as if the +exertion of speaking had been too much for her; but, after a short +pause, she started suddenly, and opened her eyes with a look of extreme +terror. + +"What is it," she said. "What have I done? Where is she?" + +"Who, mother?" + +"Your wife, Juliet. What did I do? Is she dead? The fire--the fire----" + +Wyvis looked helplessly round for Janetta. He could not answer: he did +not know how to calm his mother's rapidly increasing excitement. Janetta +came forward and bent over the pillow. + +"No, Juliet is not dead. She is in her room; you must not trouble +yourself about her," she said. + +Mrs. Brand's eyes were fixed apprehensively on Janetta's face. + +"Tell me what I did," she said in a loud whisper. + +It was difficult to answer. Wyvis hid his face in a sort of desperation. +He wondered what Janetta was going to say, and listened in amazement to +her first words. + +"You were ill," said Janetta clearly. "You did not know what you were +doing, and you set fire to the curtains in her room. Nobody was hurt, +and we all understand that you would have been very sorry to harm +anybody. It is all right, dear grandmother, and you must remember that +you were not responsible for what you were doing then." + +The boldness of her answer filed Wyvis with admiration. He knew that +he--manlike--would have temporized and tried in vain to deny the truth, +it was far wiser for Janetta to acknowledge and explain the facts. Mrs. +Brand pressed the girl's hand and looked fearfully in her face. + +"She--she was not burned?" + +"Not at all." + +"Stoop down," said Mrs. Brand. "Lower. Close to my face. There--listen +to me. I meant to kill her. Do you understand? I meant to set the place +on fire and let her burn. I thought she deserved it for making my boy +miserable." + +Wyvis started up, and turned his back to the bed. It was impossible for +him to hear the confession with equanimity. But Janetta still hung over +the pillow, caressing the dying woman, and looking tenderly into her +face. + +"Yes, you thought so then--I understand," she said. "But that was +because of your illness. You do not think so now." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Brand, in the same loud, hoarse whisper. "I think so +now." + +Then Janetta was silent for a minute or two. The black, ghastly look in +Mrs. Brand's wide-open eyes disconcerted her. She scarcely knew what to +say. + +"I have always hated her. I hate her now," said Wyvis' mother. "She has +done me no harm; no. But she has injured my boy; she made his life +miserable, and I cannot forgive her for that." + +"If Wyvis forgives her," said Janetta gently, "can you not forgive her +too?" + +"Wyvis does not forgive her for making him unhappy," said Mrs. Brand. + +"Wyvis,"--Janetta looked round at him. She could not see his face. He +was standing with his face to the window and his back to the bed. +"Wyvis, you have come back to your wife: does not that show that you are +willing to forget the past and to make a fresh beginning. Tell your +mother so, Cousin Wyvis." + +He turned round slowly, and looked at her, not at his mother, as he +replied: + +"Yes, I am willing to begin again," he said. "I never wished her any +harm." + +"Then, you will forgive her--for Wyvis' sake? For Julian's sake?" said +Janetta. + +A strange contraction of the features altered Mrs. Brand's face for a +moment: her breath came with difficulty and her lips turned white. + +"I forgive," she said at last, in broken tones. "I cannot quite forget. +But I do not want--now--to harm her. It was but for a time--when my head +was bad." + +"We know, we know," said Janetta eagerly. "We understand. Wyvis, tell +her that _you_ understand too." + +She looked at him insistently, and he returned the look. Their eyes said +a good deal to each other in a second's space of time. In hers there was +tenderness, expostulation, entreaty; in his some shade of mingled horror +and regret. But he yielded his will to hers, thinking it nobler than his +own; and, turning to his mother, he stooped and kissed her on the +forehead. + +"I understand, mother. Janetta has made me understand." + +"Janetta--it is always Janetta we have to thank," his mother murmured +feebly. "It was for Janetta as well as for you that I did it. Wyvis--but +it is no use now. And, God forgive me, I did not know what I did." + +She sank into silence and spoke no more for the next few hours. Her life +was quietly ebbing away. Towards midnight, she opened her eyes and spoke +again. + +"Janetta--Wyvis," she said softly, and then the last moment came. Her +eyelids drooped, her head fell aside upon the pillow. There was no more +for her to say or do. Poor Mary Brand's long trial had come to an end at +last. + +Juliet was not told of Mrs. Brand's death until after the funeral, as it +was feared that the news might unduly excite her. As it was, she gave a +hoarse little scream when she heard it, and asked, with every appearance +of horror, whether there was really "a body" in the house. On being +informed by Janetta that "the body" had been removed, she became +immediately tranquil, and remarked confidentially that she was "not +sorry, after all, for the old lady's death: it was such a bore to have +one's husband's mother in the house." Then she became silent and +thoughtful, and Janetta wondered whether some kindlier feeling were not +mixing itself with her self-gratulation. But presently Mrs. Wyvis Brand +broke forth: + +"Look here, I must say this, if I die for it. You know the night when my +room was on fire. Well, now tell me true: wasn't my mother-in-law to +blame for it?" + +Janetta looked at her in speechless dismay. She had no trust in Juliet's +disposition: she did not know whether she might revile Mrs. Brand +bitterly, or be touched by an account of her mental suffering. Wyvis, +however, had recommended her to tell his wife as much of the truth as +seemed necessary; "because, if you don't," he said, "she is quite sharp +enough to find it out for herself. So if she has any suspicion, tell her +something. Anything is better than nothing in such a case." + +And Janetta, taking her courage in both hands, so to speak, answered +courageously: + +"May I speak frankly to you, Juliet?" For Mrs. Wyvis Brand had insisted +that Janetta should always call her by her Christian name. + +"Of course you may. What is it?" + +"It is about Mrs. Brand. You must have known that for some time she had +been very weak and feeble. Her mind was giving way. Indeed, she was far +worse than we ever imagined, and she was not sufficiently watched. On +that night, it was she whom you saw, and it was she who set fire to the +curtains; but you must remember, Juliet, that she was not in her right +mind." + +"Why, I might have been burned alive in my bed," cried Juliet--an +exclamation so thoroughly characteristic that Janetta could hardly +forbear to smile. Mrs. Wyvis Brand looked terribly shocked and +disconcerted, and it was after a pause that she collected herself +sufficiently to say in her usual rapid manner: + +"You may say what you like about her being mad; but Mrs. Brand knew very +well what she was doing. She always hated me, and she wanted to get me +out of the way." + +"Oh, Juliet, don't say so," entreated Janetta. + +"But I do say so, and I will say so, and I have reason on my side. She +hated me like poison, and she loved you dearly. Don't you see what she +wanted? She would have liked you to take my place." + +"If you say such things, Juliet----" + +"You'll go out of the room, won't you, my dear? Why," said Juliet, with +a hard laugh in which there was very little mirth, "you don't suppose I +mind? I have known long enough that she thought bad things of me. Don't +you remember the name you called me when you thought I wanted Julian? +You had learnt every one of them from her, you know you had. Oh, you +needn't apologize. I understand the matter perfectly. I bear no malice +either against her or you, though I don't know that I am quite the black +sheep that you both took me to be." + +"I am sorry if I was unjust," said Janetta slowly. "But all that I meant +amounts to one thing--that you did not make my Cousin Wyvis very happy." + +"Ah, and that's the chief thing, isn't it?" said Juliet, with a keen +look. "Well, don't be frightened, I'm going to change my ways. I've had +a warning if anybody ever had; and I'm not going to get myself turned +out of house and home. If Wyvis will stick to me, I'll stick to him; and +I can't say more than that. I should like to see him now." + +"Now, Juliet?" said Janetta, rather aghast at the idea. The meeting +between husband and wife had not yet taken place, and Janetta shrank +sensitively from the notion that Juliet might inflict fresh pain on +Wyvis on the very day of his mother's funeral. But Mrs. Wyvis Brand +insisted, and her husband was summoned to the room. + +"You needn't go away, Janetta," said Juliet imperatively. "I want you as +a witness. Well, Wyvis, here I am, and I hope you are glad to see me." + +She lifted herself a little from the couch on which she lay, and looked +at him defiantly. Janetta could see that he was shocked at the sight of +her wasted outlines, her hectic color, the unhealthy brilliance of her +eyes; and it was this sight, perhaps, that caused him to say gently: + +"I am sorry not to see you looking better." + +"The politest speech he has made me for years," she said, laughing. +"Well, half a loaf is better than no bread. We didn't hit it off exactly +the last time we saw each other, did we? Suppose we try again: should we +get on any better, do you think?" + +"We might try," said Wyvis slowly. + +He was pale and grave, but, as she saw, not unwilling to make peace. + +"All right," she said, holding out her hand to him with easy, audacious +grace, "let us try then. I own I was aggravating--own in your turn that +you were tyrannical now and then! You witness that he owns up, +Janetta--why, the girl's gone! Never mind: give me a kiss now we are +alone, Wyvis, and take me to the Riviera to-morrow if you want to save +my life." + +Wyvis kissed his wife and promised to do what she asked him, but he did +not look as if he expected to have an easy task. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +MAKING AMENDS. + + +"It is pleasant to be home again," said Margaret. + +For two years she had not seen the Court. For two year's she and her +parents had roamed over the world, spending a winter in Egypt or Italy, +a summer in Norway, a spring or autumn at Biarritz, or Pau, or some +other resort of wealthy and idle Englishmen. These wanderings had been +begun with the laudable object of weaning Margaret's heart away from +Wyvis Brand, but they had been continued long after Margaret's errant +fancy had been chided back to its wonted resting place. The habit of +wandering easily grows, and the two years had slipped away so pleasantly +that it was with a feeling almost of surprise that the Adairs reckoned +up the time that had elapsed since they left England. Then Margaret had +a touch of fever, and began to pine for her home; and, as her will was +still law (in all minor points, at least), her parents at once turned +homeward, and arrived at Helmsley Court in the month of May, when the +woods and gardens were at their loveliest, bright with flowers, and +verdant with the exquisite green of the spring foliage, before it +becomes dusty and faded in the summer-heat. + +"It is pleasant to be at home again," said Margaret, standing at the +door of the conservatory one fair May morning and looking at the great +sweep of green sward before her, where elm and beech trees made a +charming shade, and beds of brightly-tinted flowers dotted the grass at +intervals. "I was so tired of foreign towns." + +"Were you, dear? You did not say so until lately," said Lady Caroline. + +"I did not want to bring you and papa home until you were ready to +come," said Margaret gently. + +"Dear child. And you have lost your roses. English country air will soon +bring them back." + +"I never had much color, mama," said Margaret gravely. It was almost as +though she were not quite well pleased by the remark. + +She moved away from the door, and Lady Caroline's eyes followed her with +a solicitude which had more anxiety and less pride than they used to +show. For Margaret had altered during the last few months. She had grown +more slender, more pale than ever, and a certain languor was perceptible +in her movements and the expression of her beautiful eyes. She was not +less fair, perhaps, than she had been before; and the ethereal character +of her beauty had only been increased by time. Lady Caroline had been +seriously distressed lately by the comments made by her acquaintances +upon Margaret's appearance. "Very delicate, surely," said one. "Do you +think that your daughter is consumptive?" said another. "She would be so +very pretty if she looked stronger," remarked a third. Now these were +not precisely the remarks that Lady Caroline liked her friends to make. + +She could not quite understand her daughter. Margaret had of late become +more and more reticent. She was always gentle, always caressing, but she +was not expansive. Something was amiss with her spirits or her health: +nobody could exactly say what it was. Even her father discovered at last +that she did not seem well; but, although he grumbled and fidgeted about +it, he did not know how to suggest a remedy. Lady Caroline hoped that +the return to England would prove efficacious in restoring the girl's +health and spirits, and she was encouraged by hearing Margaret express +her pleasure in her English home. But she felt uneasily that she was not +quite sure as to what was wrong. + +"People are beginning to call very quickly," she said, looking at some +cards that lay in a little silver tray. "The Bevans have been here, +Margaret." + +"Have they? When we were out yesterday, I suppose?" + +"Yes. And the Accringtons, and--oh, ah, yes--two or three other +people." + +"Who, mamma?" said Margaret, her attention immediately attracted by her +mother's hesitation. She turned away from the door and entered the +morning-room as she spoke. + +"Oh, only Lady Ashley, dear," said Lady Caroline smoothly. She had quite +recovered her self-possession by this time. + +"And Sir Philip Ashley," said Margaret, with equal calmness, as she +glanced at the cards in the little silver dish. But the lovely color +flushed up into her cheeks, and as she stood with her eyes cast down, +still fingering the cards, her face assumed the tint of the deepest +rose-carnation. + +"Is that the reason?" thought Lady Caroline, with a sudden little thrill +of fear and astonishment. "Surely not! After all this time--and after +dismissing him so summarily! Well, there is no accounting for girls' +tastes." + +She said aloud: + +"We ought to return these calls pretty soon, I think. With such old +friends it would be nice to go within the week. Do you not agree with +me, love?" + +"Yes, mamma," said, Margaret dutifully. + +"Shall we go to-morrow then? To the Bevans first, and then to the +Ashleys?" + +Margaret hesitated. "The Accringtons live nearer the Bevans than Lady +Ashley," she said. "You might call on Lady Ashley next day, mamma." + +"Yes, darling," said Lady Caroline. She was reassured. She certainly did +not want Margaret to show any alacrity in seeking out the Ashleys, and +she hoped that that tell-tale blush had been due to mere maiden modesty +and not to any warmer feeling, which would probably be completely thrown +away upon Philip Ashley, who was not the man to offer himself a second +time to a woman who had once refused him. + +She noticed, however, that Margaret showed no other sign of interest in +Sir Philip and his mother; that she did not ask for any account of the +call paid, without her, by Lady Caroline a day or two later. Indeed, she +turned away and talked to Alicia Stone while Lady Caroline was telling +Mr. Adair of the visits that she had made. So the mother was once more +reassured. + +She was made uneasy again by an item of news that reached her ear soon +after her return home. "Mr. Brand is coming back," said Mrs. Accrington +to her, with a meaning smile. "I hear that there are great preparations +at the Red House. His wife is dead, you know." + +"Indeed," said Lady Caroline, stiffly. + +"Yes, died at Nice last spring or summer, I forget which; I suppose he +means to settle at home now. They say he's quite a changed character." + +"I am glad to hear it," said Lady Caroline. + +She felt annoyed as well as anxious. Was it possible that Margaret knew +that Wyvis Brand was coming home? In spite of the inveterate habit of +caressing Margaret and making soft speeches, in spite also of the very +real love that she had for her daughter, Lady Caroline did not +altogether trust her. Margaret had once or twice disappointed her too +much. + +"His little boy," continued Mrs. Accrington in a conversational tone, +"has been spending the time with Mr. Brand's younger brother and his +wife, one of the Colwyn girls, wasn't she? And the eldest Colwyn girl, +the one who sang, has been acting as his governess. She used to be +companion to old Mrs. Brand you know." + +"I remember," said Lady Caroline, and managed to change the subject. + +She would have liked to question Margaret, but she did not dare. She +watched her carefully for the next few days, and she was not satisfied. +Margaret was nervous and uneasy, as she had been about the time when +Wyvis Brand made his indiscreet proposal for her hand; it seemed to Lady +Caroline that she was watching for some person to arrive--some person +who never came. Who was the person for whom she watched? so Lady +Caroline asked herself. But she dared not question Margaret. + +She noticed, too, that Mr. Adair looked once or twice at his daughter in +a curiously doubtful way, as if he were puzzled or distressed. And one +day he said musingly: + +"It is surely time for Margaret to be getting married, is it not?" + +"Somebody has been saying so to you," said Lady Caroline, with less +urbanity than usual. + +"No, no, only Isabel; she wrote this morning expressing some surprise at +not having heard that Margaret was engaged before now. I suppose," Mr. +Adair hesitated a little, "I suppose she _will_ marry?" + +"Reginald, what an idea! Of course Margaret will marry, and marry +brilliantly." + +"I am not so sure of that," said Mr. Adair, who seemed to be in low +spirits. "Look at my two sisters, and lots of other girls. How many men +has Margaret refused? She will take up with some crooked stick at last." + +He went out without waiting for his wife's reply. Lady Caroline, +harassed in mind and considerably weakened of late in body, sat still +and shed a few silent tears. She was angry with him, and yet she shared +his apprehensions. Was it possible that their lovely Margaret was +turning out a social failure? To have Margaret at home, fading, ageing, +growing into an old maid like the sisters of Reginald Adair, that was +not to be thought of for a moment. + +Meanwhile Margaret was taking her fate in her own hands. + +She was at that very moment standing in the conservatory opposite a +tall, dark man, who, hat in hand, looked at her expectantly as if he +wished her to open the conversation. She had never made a fairer picture +than she did just then. She was dressed in white, and the exquisite +fairness of her head and face was thrown into strong relief by the dark +background of fronded fern and thickly matted creeper with which the +wall behind her was overgrown. Her face was slightly bent, and her hands +hung clasped before her. To her visitor, who was indeed Sir Philip +Ashley, she appeared more beautiful than ever. But his eye, as it rested +upon her, though attentive, was indifferent and cold. + +"You sent for me, I think?" he said politely, finding that she did not +speak. + +"Yes." Margaret's voice was very low. "I hope you did not mind my +writing that little note?" + +"Mind? Not at all. If there is anything I can do for you----?" + +"It is not that I want you to do anything," said Margaret, whose +self-possession, not easily disturbed, was now returning to her. "It was +simply that I had something to say." + +Sir Philip bowed. His role was that of a listener, it appeared. + +"When I was in England before," Margaret went on, this time with some +effort, "you found fault with me----" + +"Presumption on my part, I am sure," said Sir Philip, smiling a little. +"Such a thing will certainly not occur again." + +"Oh please hear me," said Margaret, rather hurriedly. "Please listen +seriously--I am very serious, and I want you to hear what I have to +say." + +"I will listen," said Sir Philip, gravely; he turned aside a little, and +looked at the flowers as she spoke. + +"I want to tell you that you were right about Janetta Colwyn. The more I +have thought of it, the more sure I have been that you were right. I +ought not to have been angry when you asked me to prevent people from +misjudging her. I ought to have written to Miss Polehampton and set +things straight." + +Sir Philip made an inarticulate sound of assent. She paused for a +moment, and then went on pleadingly. + +"It's such a long time ago now that I do not know what to do. I cannot +ask mamma. She never liked Janetta--she never was just to her. I do not +even know where Janetta is, nor whether I can do anything to help her. +Do you know?" + +"I know where she is. At the Red House just now, with Mr. and Mrs. +Cuthbert Brand." + +"Then--what shall I do?" said Margaret, more urgently. "Would it be of +any use if I wrote to Miss Polehampton or anyone about her now? I will +do anything I can to help her--anything you advise." + +Sir Philip changed his position, as if he were slightly impatient. + +"I do not know that there is anything to be done for Miss Colwyn at +present," he replied. "She is in a very good position, and I do not +think she wants material help. Of course, if you were to see her and +tell her that you regret the manifest injustice with which she was +treated on more than one occasion, I dare say she would be glad, and +that such an acknowledgment from you would draw out the sting from much +that is past and gone. I think that this is all you can do." + +"I will do it," said Margaret submissively. "I will tell her that I am +sorry." + +"You will do well," replied Sir Philip in a kinder tone. "I am only +sorry that you did not see things differently when we spoke of the +matter before." + +"I am older now, I have thought more. I have reflected on what you +said," murmured Margaret. + +"You have done my poor words much honor," said he, with a slight cold +smile. "And I am glad to think that the breach in your friendship is +healed. Miss Colwyn is a true and loyal friend--I could not wish you a +better. I shall feel some pleasure in the thought, when I am far from +England, that you have her for your friend once more." + +"Far from England"--Margaret repeated the words with paling lips. + +"Did you not know? I have accepted a post in Victoria. I shall be out +for five years at least. So great a field of usefulness seems open to me +there that I did not know how to refuse it." + +Margaret was mute for a time. Then, with a tremendous effort, she put +another question. "You go--alone?" she said. + +Sir Philip did not look at her. + +"No," he said, kicking a small pebble off the tesselated pavement with +the toe of his boot, and apparently taking the greatest interest in its +ultimate fate, "no, I don't go quite alone. I am taking with me my +secretary--and--my wife. I suppose you know that next week I am going to +marry Miss Adela Smithies, daughter of Smithies the great brewer? We +sail ten days later." + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +MY FAITHFUL JANET. + + +"Good blood," they say, "does not lie." Margaret was true to her +traditions. She did not faint, she did not weep, over what was complete +ruin to her expectations, if not of her hopes. She held her head a +little more erect than usual, and looked Sir Philip quietly in the face. + +"I am very glad to hear it," she said--it was a very excusable lie, +perhaps. "I hope you will be happy." + +Strange to say, her calmness robbed Sir Philip of his self-possession. +He flushed hotly and looked away, thinking of some words that he had +spoken many months ago to Margaret's mother--a sort of promise to be +"always ready" if Margaret should ever change her mind. Had she changed +it now? But she was not going to leave him in doubt upon this point. + +"You have only just forestalled a similar announcement on my part," she +said, smiling bravely. "I dare say you will hear all about it soon--and +I hope that you will wish me joy." + +He looked up with evident relief. + +"I am exceedingly glad. I may congratulate you then?" + +"Thank you. Yes, we may congratulate each other." + +She still smiled--rather strangely, as he thought. He wondered who the +"happy man" could be? But of that, to tell the truth, Margaret was as +ignorant as he. She had invented her little tale of an engagement in +self-defence. + +"Ah, Margaret," he said, with a sudden impulse of affection, "if only +you could have seen as I saw--two years ago!" + +"But that was impossible," she answered quietly. "And I think it would +be undesirable also. I wanted you to know, however, that I agree with +you about Janetta--I think that you were right." + +"And you have nothing more to tell me?" + +For the moment he was willing to throw up his appointment in Australia, +to fly from the wealthy and sensible Miss Adela Smithies and incur any +odium, any disappointment, and any shame, if only Margaret Adair would +own that she loved him and consent to be his wife. For, although he +liked and esteemed Miss Smithies, who was a rather plain-faced girl with +a large fortune, he was perfectly conscious that Margaret had been the +one love of his life. But Margaret was on her guard. + +"To tell you?" she echoed, as if in mild surprise. "Why no, I think not, +Sir Philip. Except, perhaps, to ask you not to speak--for the present, +at least--of my own prospects, they are not yet generally known, and I +do not want them mentioned just now." + +"Certainly. I will respect your confidence," said Sir Philip. He felt +ashamed of that momentary aberration. Adela was a very suitable wife for +him, and he could not think without remorse that he had ever proposed to +himself to be untrue to her. How fortunate, he reflected, that Margaret +did not seem to care! + +"Will you come in?" she said graciously. "Mamma will be so pleased to +see you, and she will be glad to congratulate you on your good fortune." + +"Thank you very much, but I fear I must be off. I am very busy, and I +really have scarcely any time to spare." + +"I must thank you all the more for giving me some of your valuable +time," said Margaret sweetly. "Must you go?" + +"I really must. And--" as he held out his hand--"we are friends, then, +from henceforth?" + +"Oh, of course we are," she answered. But her eyes were strangely cold, +and the smile upon her lips was conventional and frosty. The hand that +he held in his own was cold, too, and somewhat limp and flabby. + +"I am so glad," he said, growing warmer as she grew cold, "that you have +resolved to renew your acquaintance with Miss Colwyn. It is what I +should have expected from your generous nature, and it shows that what I +always--always thought of you was true." + +"Please do not say so," said Margaret. She came very near being natural +in that moment. She had a choking sensation in her throat, and her eyes +smarted with unshed tears. But her training stood her in good stead. "It +is very kind of you to be so complimentary," she went on with a light +little laugh. "And I hope that I shall find Janetta as nice as she used +to be. Good-bye. _Bon voyage._" + +"I wish you every happiness," he said with a warm clasp of her hand and +a long grave look into her beautiful face; and then he went away and +Margaret was left alone. + +She stole up to her room almost stealthily, and locked the door. She +hoped that no one had seen Sir Philip come and go--that her mother would +not question her, or remark on the length of his visit. She was +thoroughly frightened and ashamed to think of what she had done. She had +been as near as possible to making Sir Philip what would virtually have +been an offer of marriage. What an awful thought! And what a narrow +escape! For of course he would have had to refuse her, and she--what +could she have done then? She would never have borne the mortification. +As it was, she hoped that Sir Philip would accept the explanation of the +little note of summons which she had despatched to him that morning, +and would never inquire what her secret motive had been in writing it. + +She set herself to consider the situation. She did not love Sir Philip. +She was not capable of a great deal of love, and all that she had been +capable of she had given to Wyvis Brand. But the years of girlhood in +her father's house were beginning to pall upon her. She was conscious of +a slight waning of her beauty, of a perceptible diminution in the +attentions which she received, and the admiration that she excited. It +had occurred to her lately, as it had occurred to her parents, that she +ought to think seriously of getting married. The notion of spinsterhood +was odious to Margaret Adair. And Sir Philip Ashley would have been, as +her mother used to say, so _suitable_ a man for her to marry! Margaret +saw it now. + +She wept a few quiet tears for her lost hopes, and then she arrayed +herself becomingly, and, with a look of purpose on her face, went down +to tea. + +"Do you know, mamma," she said, "that Sir Philip Ashley is going to +marry Miss Smithies, the great brewer's daughter, and that he has +accepted a post in Victoria?" + +"Margaret!" + +"It is quite true, mamma, he told me so himself. Why need you look +surprised? We could hardly expect," said Margaret, with a pretty smile, +"that Sir Philip should always remain unmarried for my sake." + +"It is rather sudden, surely!" + +"Oh, I don't think so. By the bye, mamma, shall we not soon feel a +little dull if we are here all alone? It would be very nice to fill the +house with guests and have a little gaiety. Perhaps--" with a faint but +charming blush--"Lord Southbourne would come if he were asked." + +Lord Southbourne was an exceptionable viscount with weak brains and a +large rent-roll whom Margaret had refused six months before. + +"I am sure he would, my darling; I will ask him," said Lady Caroline, +with great satisfaction. And she noticed that Margaret's watch for an +unknown visitor had now come to its natural end. + +It was not more than a month later in the year when Janetta Colwyn, +walking in the plantation near the Red House, came face to face with a +man who was leaning against the trunk of a fir-tree, and had been +waiting for her to approach. She looked astonished; but he was calm, +though he smiled with pleasure, and held out his hands. + +"Well, Janetta!" + +"Wyvis! You have come home at last!" + +"At last." + +"You have not been up to the house yet?" + +"No, I was standing here wishing that I could see you first of all; and, +just as I wished it, you came in sight. I take it as a good omen." + +"I am glad you are back," said Janetta earnestly. + +"Are you? Really? And why?" + +"Oh, for many reasons. The estate wants you, for one thing," said +Janetta, coloring a little, "and Julian wants you----" + +"Don't you want me at all, Janetta?" + +"Everybody wants you, so I do, too." + +"Tell me more about everybody and everybody's wants. How is Julian?" + +"Very well, indeed, and longing to see you before he goes to school." + +"Ah yes, poor little man. How does he like the idea of school?" + +"Pretty well." + +"And how do you like the idea of his going?" + +Janetta's face fell. "I am sure it is good for him," she said rather +wistfully. + +"But not so good for you. What are you going to do? Shall you live with +Mrs. Burroughs, Janet?" + +"No, indeed; I think I shall take lodgings in London, and give lessons. +I have saved money during the last few months," said Janetta with +something between a tear in the eye and a smile on the lip, "so that I +shall be able to live even if I get no pupils at first." + +"And shall you like that?" + +She looked at him for a moment without replying, and then said +cheerfully: + +"I shall not like it if I get no pupils." + +"And how are Cuthbert and Nora?" + +"Absorbed in baby-worship," said Janetta. "You will be expected to fall +down and worship also. And your little niece is really very pretty." + +Wyvis shook his head. "Babies are all exactly alike to me, so you had +better instruct me beforehand in what I ought to say. And what about +our neighbors, Janet? Are the Adairs at home?" + +"Yes," said Janetta, with some reserve of tone. + +"And the Ashleys?" + +"Old Lady Ashley. Sir Philip has married and gone to the Antipodes." + +"Married Margaret? I always thought that would be the end of it." + +"You are quite wrong. He married a Miss Smithies, a very rich girl, I +believe. And Margaret is engaged to a certain Lord Southbourne--who is +also very rich, I believe." + +"Little Southbourne!" exclaimed Wyvis, with a sudden burst of laughter. +"You don't say so! I used to know him at Monaco. Oh, there's no harm in +little South; only he isn't very bright." + +"I am sorry for Margaret," said Janetta. + +"Oh she will be perfectly happy. She will always move in her own circle +of society, and that is paradise for Margaret." + +"You are very hard on her, Wyvis," Janetta said, reprovingly. "She is +capable of higher things than you believe." + +"Capable! Oh, she may be _capable_ of anything," said Wyvis, "but she +does not do the things that she is capable of doing." + +"At any rate she is very kind to me now. She wrote to me a few days ago, +and told me that she was sorry for our past misunderstanding. And she +asked me to go and stay with her when she was married to Lord +Southbourne and had a house of her own." + +"Are you sure that she did not add that it would be such an advantage to +you?" + +"Of course she did not." But Janetta blushed guiltily, nevertheless. + +"And did you promise to accept the invitation?" + +She smiled and shook her head. + +"I thought you were such a devoted friend of hers!" + +"I always tried to be a true friend to her. But you know I think, Wyvis, +that some people have not got it in their nature to be true friends to +anyone. And perhaps it was not--quite--in Margaret's nature." + +"I agree with you," said Wyvis, more gravely than he had spoken +hitherto. "She has not your depth of affection, Janetta--your strength +of will. You have been a very true and loyal friend to those you have +loved." + +Janetta turned away her face. Something in his words touched her very +keenly. After a pause, Wyvis spoke again. + +"I have had reason since I saw you last to know the value of your +friendship," he said seriously. "I want to speak to you for a moment, +Janetta, before we join the others, about my poor Juliet. I had not, as +you know, very many months with her after we left England. But during +those few months I became aware that she was a different creature from +the woman I had known in earlier days. She showed me that she had a +heart--that she loved me and our boy after all--and died craving my +forgiveness, poor soul (though God knows that I needed hers more than +she needed mine), for the coldness she had often shown me. And she said, +Janetta, that _you_ had taught her what love meant, and she charged me +to tell you that your lessons had not been in vain." + +Janetta looked up with swimming eyes. "Poor Juliet! I am glad that she +said that." + +"She is at peace now," said Wyvis, in a lower voice, "and the happiness +of her later days is due to you. But how much is not due to you, +Janetta! Your magic power seemed to change my poor wife's very nature: +it has made my child happy: it gave all possible comfort to my mother on +her dying bed--and what it has done for me no words can ever tell! No +one has been to me what you have been, Janetta; the good angel of my +life, always inspiring and encouraging, always ready to give me hope and +strength and courage in my hours of despair." + +"You must not say so: I have done nothing," she said, but she let her +hand lie unresistingly between his own, as he took it and pressed it +tenderly. + +"Have you not? Then I have been woefully mistaken. And it has come +across me strangely, Janetta, of late, that of all the losses I have +had, one of the greatest is the loss of my kinship with you. No doubt +you have thought of that: John Wyvis, the ploughman's son, is not your +cousin, Wyvis Brand." + +"I never remembered it," said Janetta. + +"Then I must remind you of it now. I cannot call you Cousin Janet any +longer. May I call you something else, dear, so that I may not lose you +out of my life? I want you to be something infinitely closer and dearer +and sweeter than a cousin, Janetta; will you forgive me all my errors +and be my wife?" + +And when she had whispered her reply, he took her in his arms and called +her, as her father used to call her-- + +"My faithful Janet!" + +And she thought that she had never borne a sweeter name. + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A True Friend, by Adeline Sergeant + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRUE FRIEND *** + +***** This file should be named 23797-8.txt or 23797-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/7/9/23797/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A True Friend + A Novel + +Author: Adeline Sergeant + +Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23797] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRUE FRIEND *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>A TRUE FRIEND.</h1> + +<h3>A NOVEL.</h3> + +<h2>BY ADELINE SERGEANT</h2> + +<h3><i>Author of "The Luck of the House," "A Life Sentence," etc., etc.</i></h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Montreal</span>:<br /> +JOHN LOVELL & SON,<br /> +23 <span class="smcap">St. Nicholas Street</span>.</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. AN UNSUITABLE FRIENDSHIP</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. LADY CAROLINE'S TACTICS</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. AT HELMSLEY COURT</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. ON THE ROAD</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. WYVIS BRAND</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. JANETTA AT HOME</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. NORA'S NEW ACQUAINTANCE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. FATHER AND CHILD</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. CONSULTATION</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. MARGARET</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. JANETTA'S PROMISES</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. JANETTA REMONSTRATES</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. SHADOWS</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. JANETTA'S FAILURE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. A BONE OF CONTENTION</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. SIR PHILIP'S OPINION</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. MARGARET'S FRIENDSHIP</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. A NEW FRIEND</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX. NORA'S PROCEEDINGS</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX. AN ELDER BROTHER</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI. CUTHBERT'S ROMANCE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII. WYVIS BRAND'S IDEAL</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII. FORGET-ME-NOTS</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV. LADY ASHLEY'S GARDEN PARTY</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV. SIR PHILIP'S DECISION</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI. "FREE!"</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII. A BIG BRIBE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII. "CHANGES MUST COME."</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX. MARGARET'S CONFESSION</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX. IN REBELLION</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI. THE PLOUGHMAN'S SON</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">CHAPTER XXXII. THE FAILURE OF MARGARET</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">CHAPTER XXXIII. RETROSPECT</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">CHAPTER XXXIV. FROM DISTANT LANDS</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">CHAPTER XXXV. JULIET</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">CHAPTER XXXVI. THE FRUITS OF A LIE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">CHAPTER XXXVII. NIGHT</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE LAST SCENE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX">CHAPTER XXXIX. MAKING AMENDS</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XL">CHAPTER XL. MY FAITHFUL JANET</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A TRUE FRIEND</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>AN UNSUITABLE FRIENDSHIP.</h3> + + +<p>Janetta was the music governess—a brown little thing of no particular +importance, and Margaret Adair was a beauty and an heiress, and the only +daughter of people who thought themselves very distinguished indeed; so +that the two had not, you might think, very much in common, and were not +likely to be attracted one to the other. Yet, in spite of differing +circumstances, they were close friends and allies; and had been such +ever since they were together at the same fashionable school where Miss +Adair was the petted favorite of all, and Janetta Colwyn was the +pupil-teacher in the shabbiest of frocks, who got all the snubbing and +did most of the hard work. And great offence was given in several +directions by Miss Adair's attachment to poor little Janetta.</p> + +<p>"It is an unsuitable friendship," Miss Polehampton, the principal of the +school, observed on more than one occasion, "and I am sure I do not know +how Lady Caroline will like it."</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline was, of course, Margaret Adair's mamma.</p> + +<p>Miss Polehampton felt her responsibility so keenly in the matter that at +last she resolved to speak "very seriously" to her dear Margaret. She +always talked of "her dear Margaret," Janetta used to say, when she was +going to make herself particularly disagreeable. For "her dear Margaret" +was the pet pupil, the show pupil of the establishment: her air of +perfect breeding gave distinction, Miss Polehampton thought, to the +whole school; and her refinement, her exemplary behavior, her industry, +and her talent formed the theme of many a lecture to less accomplished +and less decorous pupils. For, contrary to all conventional +expectations, Margaret Adair was not stupid, although she was beautiful +and well-behaved. She was an exceedingly intelligent girl; she had an +aptitude for several arts and accomplishments, and she was remarkable +for the delicacy of her taste and the exquisite discrimination of which +she sometimes showed herself capable. At the same time she was not as +clever—("not as <i>glaringly</i> clever," a friend of hers once expressed +it)—as little Janetta Colwyn, whose nimble wits gathered knowledge as a +bee collects honey under the most unfavorable circumstances. Janetta had +to learn her lessons when the other girls had gone to bed, in a little +room under the roof; a room which was like an ice-house in winter and an +oven in summer; she was never able to be in time for her classes, and +she often missed them altogether; but, in spite of these disadvantages, +she generally proved herself the most advanced pupil in her division, +and if pupil-teachers had been allowed to take prizes, would have +carried off every first prize in the school. This, to be sure, was not +allowed. It would not have been "the thing" for the little +governess-pupil to take away the prizes from the girls whose parents +paid between two and three hundred a year for their tuition (the fees +were high, because Miss Polehampton's school was so exceedingly +fashionable); therefore, Janetta's marks were not counted, and her +exercises were put aside and did not come into competition with those of +the other girls, and it was generally understood amongst the teachers +that, if you wished to stand well with Miss Polehampton, it would be +better not to praise Miss Colwyn, but rather to put forward the merits +of some charming Lady Mary or Honorable Adeliza, and leave Janetta in +the obscurity from which (according to Miss Polehampton) she was fated +never to emerge.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately for the purposes of the mistress of the school, Janetta +was rather a favorite with the girls. She was not adored, like Margaret; +she was not looked up to and respected, as was the Honorable Edith Gore; +she was nobody's pet, as the little Ladies Blanche and Rose Amberley had +been ever since they set foot in the school; but she was everybody's +friend and comrade, the recipient of everybody's confidences, the sharer +in everybody's joys or woes. The fact was that Janetta had the +inestimable gift of sympathy; she understood the difficulties of people +around her better than many women of twice her age would have done; and +she was so bright and sunny-tempered and quick-witted that her very +presence in a room was enough to dispel gloom and ill-temper. She was, +therefore, deservedly popular, and did more to keep up the character of +Miss Polehampton's school for comfort and cheerfulness than Miss +Polehampton herself was ever likely to be aware. And the girl most +devoted to Janetta was Margaret Adair.</p> + +<p>"Remain for a few moments, Margaret; I wish to speak to you," said Miss +Polehampton, majestically, when one evening, directly after prayers, the +show pupil advanced to bid her teachers good-night.</p> + +<p>The girls all sat round the room on wooden chairs, and Miss Polehampton +occupied a high-backed, cushioned seat at a centre table while she read +the portion of Scripture with which the day's work concluded. Near her +sat the governesses, English, French and German, with little Janetta +bringing up the rear in the draughtiest place and the most uncomfortable +chair. After prayers, Miss Polehampton and the teachers rose, and their +pupils came to bid them good-night, offering hand and cheek to each in +turn. There was always a great deal of kissing to be got through on +these occasions. Miss Polehampton blandly insisted on kissing all her +thirty pupils every evening; it made them feel more as if they were at +home, she used to say; and her example was, of course, followed by the +teachers and the girls.</p> + +<p>Margaret Adair, as one of the oldest and tallest girls in the school, +generally came forward first for that evening salute. When Miss +Polehampton made the observation just recorded, she stepped back to a +position beside her teacher's chair in the demure attitude of a +well-behaved schoolgirl—hands crossed over the wrists, feet in +position, head and shoulders carefully erect, and eyes gently lowered +towards the carpet. Thus standing, she was yet perfectly well aware that +Janetta Colwyn gave her an odd, impish little look of mingled fun and +anxiety behind Miss Polehampton's back; for it was generally known that +a lecture was impending when one of the girls was detained after +prayers, and it was very unusual for Margaret to be lectured! Miss Adair +did not, however, look discomposed. A momentary smile flitted across her +face at Janetta's tiny grimace, but it was instantly succeeded by the +look of simple gravity becoming to the occasion.</p> + +<p>When the last of the pupils and the last also of the teachers had filed +out of the room, Miss Polehampton turned and surveyed the waiting girl +with some uncertainty. She was really fond of Margaret Adair. Not only +did she bring credit to the school, but she was a good, nice, lady-like +girl (such were Miss Polehampton's epithets), and very fair to look +upon. Margaret was tall, slender, and exceedingly graceful in her +movements; she was delicately fair, and had hair of the silkiest texture +and palest gold; her eyes, however, were not blue, as one would have +expected them to be; they were hazel brown, and veiled by long brown +lashes—eyes of melting softness and dreaminess, peculiarly sweet in +expression. Her features were a very little too long and thin for +perfect beauty; but they gave her a Madonna-like look of peace and calm +which many were ready enthusiastically to admire. And there was no want +of expression in her face; its faint rose bloom varied almost at a word, +and the thin curved lips were as sensitive to feeling as could be +desired. What was wanting in the face was what gave it its peculiar +maidenly charm—a lack of passion, a little lack, perhaps, of strength. +But at seventeen we look less for these characteristics than for the +sweetness and docility which Margaret certainly possessed. Her dress of +soft, white muslin was quite simple—the ideal dress for a young +girl—and yet it was so beautifully made, so perfectly finished in every +detail, that Miss Polehampton never looked at it without an uneasy +feeling that she was <i>too</i> well-dressed for a schoolgirl. Others wore +muslin dresses of apparently the same cut and texture; but what the +casual eye might fail to observe, the schoolmistress was perfectly well +aware of, namely, that the tiny frills at neck and wrists were of the +costliest Mechlin lace, that the hem of the dress was bordered with the +same material, as if it had been the commonest of things; that the +embroidered white ribbons with which it was trimmed had been woven in +France especially for Miss Adair, and that the little silver buckles at +her waist and on her shoes were so ancient and beautiful as to be of +almost historic importance. The effect was that of simplicity; but it +was the costly simplicity of absolute perfection. Margaret's mother was +never content unless her child was clothed from head to foot in +materials of the softest, finest and best. It was a sort of outward +symbol of what she desired for the girl in all relations of life.</p> + +<p>This it was that disturbed Miss Polehampton's mind as she stood and +looked uneasily for a moment at Margaret Adair. Then she took the girl +by the hand.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, my dear," she said, in a kind voice, "and let me talk to you +for a few moments. I hope you are not tired with standing so long."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, thank you; not at all," Margaret answered, blushing slightly as +she took a seat at Miss Polehampton's left hand. She was more +intimidated by this unwonted kindness of address than by any imaginable +severity. The schoolmistress was tall and imposing in appearance: her +manner was usually a little pompous, and it did not seem quite natural +to Margaret that she should speak so gently.</p> + +<p>"My dear," said Miss Polehampton, "when your dear mamma gave you into my +charge, I am sure she considered me responsible for the influences under +which you were brought, and the friendships that you made under my +roof."</p> + +<p>"Mamma knew that I could not be hurt by any friendship that I made +<i>here</i>," said Margaret, with the softest flattery. She was quite +sincere: it was natural to her to say "pretty things" to people.</p> + +<p>"Quite so," the schoolmistress admitted. "Quite so, dear Margaret, if +you keep within your own grade in society. There is no pupil in this +establishment, I am thankful to say, who is not of suitable family and +prospects to become your friend. You are young yet, and do not +understand the complications in which people sometimes involve +themselves by making friendships out of their own sphere. But <i>I</i> +understand, and I wish to caution you."</p> + +<p>"I am not aware that I have made any unsuitable friendships," said +Margaret, with a rather proud look in her hazel eyes.</p> + +<p>"Well—no, I hope not," said Miss Polehampton with a hesitating little +cough. "You understand, my dear, that in an establishment like mine, +persons must be employed to do certain work who are not quite equal in +position to—to—ourselves. Persons of inferior birth and station, I +mean, to whom the care of the younger girls, and certain menial duties, +must be committed. These persons, my dear, with whom you must +necessarily be brought in contact, and whom I hope you will always treat +with perfect courtesy and consideration, need not, at the same time, be +made your intimate friends."</p> + +<p>"I have never made friends with any of the servants," said Margaret, +quietly. Miss Polehampton was somewhat irritated by this remark.</p> + +<p>"I do not allude to the servants," she said with momentary sharpness. "I +do not consider Miss Colwyn a servant, or I should not, of course, allow +her to sit at the same table with you. But there is a sort of +familiarity of which I do not altogether approve——"</p> + +<p>She paused, and Margaret drew up her head and spoke with unusual +decision.</p> + +<p>"Miss Colwyn is my greatest friend."</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear, that is what I complain of. Could you not find a friend +in your own rank of life without making one of Miss Colwyn?"</p> + +<p>"She is quite as good as I am," cried Margaret, indignantly. "Quite as +good, far more so, and a great deal cleverer!"</p> + +<p>"She has capabilities," said the schoolmistress, with the air of one +making a concession; "and I hope that they will be useful to her in her +calling. She will probably become a nursery governess, or companion to +some lady of superior position. But I cannot believe, my dear that dear +Lady Caroline would approve of your singling her out as your especial +and particular friend."</p> + +<p>"I am sure mamma always likes people who are good and clever," said +Margaret. She did not fly into a rage as some girls would have done, but +her face flushed, and her breath came more quickly than usual—signs of +great excitement on her part, which Miss Polehampton was not slow to +observe.</p> + +<p>"She likes them in their proper station, my dear. This friendship is not +improving for you, nor for Miss Colwyn. Your positions in life are so +different that your notice of her can but cause discontent and +ill-feeling in her mind. It is exceedingly injudicious, and I cannot +think that your dear mamma would approve of it if she knew the +circumstances."</p> + +<p>"But Janetta's family is not at all badly connected," said Margaret, +with some eagerness. "There are cousins of hers living close to us—the +next property belongs to them——"</p> + +<p>"Do you know them, my dear?"</p> + +<p>"I know <i>about</i> them," answered Margaret, suddenly coloring very deeply, +and looking uncomfortable, "but I don't think I have ever seen them, +they are so much away from home——"</p> + +<p>"I know <i>about</i> them, too," said Miss Polehampton, grimly; "and I do not +think that you will ever advance Miss Colwyn's interests by mentioning +her connection with that family. I have heard Lady Caroline speak of +Mrs. Brand and her children. They are not people, my dear Margaret, whom +it is desirable for you to know."</p> + +<p>"But Janetta's own people live quite near us," said Margaret, reduced to +a very pleading tone. "I know them at home; they live at Beaminster—not +three miles off."</p> + +<p>"And may I ask if Lady Caroline visits them, my dear?" asked Miss +Polehampton, with mild sarcasm, which brought the color again to +Margaret's fair face. The girl could not answer; she knew well enough +that Janetta's stepmother was not at all the sort of person whom Lady +Caroline Adair would willingly speak to, and yet she did not like to say +that her acquaintance with Janetta had only been made at a Beaminster +dancing class. Probably Miss Polehampton divined the fact. "Under the +circumstances," she said, "I think I should be justified in writing to +Lady Caroline and asking her to remonstrate a little with you, my dear +Margaret. Probably she would be better able to make you understand the +impropriety of your behavior than I can do."</p> + +<p>The tears rose to Margaret's eyes. She was not used to being rebuked in +this manner.</p> + +<p>"But—I don't know, Miss Polehampton, what you want me to do," she said, +more nervously than usual. "I can't give up Janetta; I can't possibly +avoid speaking to her, you know, even if I wanted to——"</p> + +<p>"I desire nothing of the sort, Margaret. Be kind and polite to her, as +usual. But let me suggest that you do not make a companion of her in the +garden so constantly—that you do not try to sit beside her in class or +look over the same book. I will speak to Miss Colwyn herself about it. I +think I can make <i>her</i> understand."</p> + +<p>"Oh, please do not speak to Janetta! I quite understand already," said +Margaret, growing pale with distress. "You do not know how kind and good +she has always been to me——"</p> + +<p>Sobs choked her utterance, rather to Miss Polehampton's alarm. She did +not like to see her girls cry—least of all, Margaret Adair.</p> + +<p>"My dear, you have no need to excite yourself. Janetta Colwyn has always +been treated, I hope, with justice and kindness in this house. If you +will endeavor only to make her position in life less instead of more +difficult, you will be doing her the greatest favor in your power. I do +not at all mean that I wish you to be unkind to her. A little more +reserve, a little more caution, in your demeanor, and you will be all +that I have ever wished you to be—a credit to your parents and to the +school which has educated you!"</p> + +<p>This sentiment was so effusive that it stopped Margaret's tears out of +sheer amazement; and when she had said good-night and gone to bed, Miss +Polehampton stood for a moment or two quite still, as if to recover from +the unwonted exertion of expressing an affectionate emotion. It was +perhaps a reaction against it that caused her almost immediately to ring +the bell a trifle sharply, and to say—still sharply—to the maid who +appeared in answer.</p> + +<p>"Send Miss Colwyn to me."</p> + +<p>Five minutes elapsed before Miss Colwyn came, however, and the +schoolmistress had had time to grow impatient.</p> + +<p>"Why did you not come at once when I sent for you?" she said, severely, +as soon as Janetta presented herself.</p> + +<p>"I was going to bed," said the girl, quickly; "and I had to dress myself +again."</p> + +<p>The short, decided accents grated on Miss Polehampton's ear. Miss Colwyn +did not speak half so "nicely," she said to herself, as did dear +Margaret Adair.</p> + +<p>"I have been talking to Miss Adair about you," said the schoolmistress, +coldly. "I have been telling her, as I now tell you, that the difference +in your positions makes your present intimacy very undesirable. I wish +you to understand, henceforward, that Miss Adair is not to walk with you +in the garden, not to sit beside you in class, not to associate with +you, as she has hitherto done, on equal terms."</p> + +<p>"Why should we not associate on equal terms?" said Janetta. She was a +black-browed girl, with a clear olive skin, and her eyes flashed and her +cheeks glowed with indignation as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"You are not equals," said Miss Polehampton, with icy displeasure in her +tone—she had spoken very differently to Margaret. "You have to work for +your bread: there is no disgrace in that, but it puts you on a different +level from that of Miss Margaret Adair, an earl's grand-daughter, and +the only child of one of the richest commoners in England. I have never +before reminded you of the difference in position between yourself and +the young ladies with whom you have hitherto been allowed to associate; +and I really think I shall have to adopt another method—unless you +conduct yourself, Miss Colwyn, with a little more modesty and +propriety."</p> + +<p>"May I ask what your other method would be?" asked Miss Colwyn, with +perfect self-possession.</p> + +<p>Miss Polehampton looked at her for a moment in silence.</p> + +<p>"To begin with," she said, "I could order the meals differently, and +request you to take yours with the younger children, and in other ways +cut you off from the society of the young ladies. And if this failed, I +could signify to your father that our arrangement was not satisfactory, +and that it had better end at the close of this term."</p> + +<p>Janetta's eyes fell and her color faded as she heard this threat. It +meant a good deal to her. She answered quickly, but with some +nervousness of tone.</p> + +<p>"Of course, that must be as you please, Miss Polehampton. If I do not +satisfy you, I must go."</p> + +<p>"You satisfy me very well except in that one respect. However, I do not +ask for any promise from you now. I shall observe your conduct during +the next few days, and be guided by what I see. I have already spoken to +Miss Adair."</p> + +<p>Janetta bit her lips. After a pause, she said—</p> + +<p>"Is that all? May I go now?"</p> + +<p>"You may go," said Miss Polehampton, with majesty; and Janetta softly +and slowly retired.</p> + +<p>But as soon as she was outside the door her demeanor changed. She burst +into tears as she sped swiftly up the broad staircase, and her eyes were +so blinded that she did not even see a white figure hovering on the +landing until she found herself suddenly in Margaret's arms. In defiance +of all rules—disobedient for nearly the first time in her +life—Margaret had waited and watched for Janetta's coming; and now, +clasped as closely together as sisters, the two friends held a whispered +colloquy on the stairs.</p> + +<p>"Darling," said Margaret, "was she very unkind?"</p> + +<p>"She was very horrid, but I suppose she couldn't help it," said Janetta, +with a little laugh mixing itself with her sobs. "We mustn't be friends +any more, Margaret."</p> + +<p>"But we will be friends—always, Janetta."</p> + +<p>"We must not sit together or walk together——"</p> + +<p>"Janetta, I shall behave to you exactly as I have always done." The +gentle Margaret was in revolt.</p> + +<p>"She will write to your mother, Margaret, and to my father."</p> + +<p>"I shall write to mine, too, and explain," said Margaret with dignity. +And Janetta had not the heart to whisper to her friend that the tone in +which Miss Polehampton would write to Lady Caroline would differ very +widely from the one that she would adopt to Mr. Colwyn.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>LADY CAROLINE'S TACTICS.</h3> + + +<p>Helmsley Court was generally considered one of the prettiest houses +about Beaminster; a place which was rich in pretty houses, being a +Cathedral town situated in one of the most beautiful southern counties +of England. The village of Helmsley was a picturesque little group of +black and white cottages, with gardens full of old-fashioned flowers +before them and meadows and woods behind. Helmsley Court was on slightly +higher ground than the village, and its windows commanded an extensive +view of lovely country bounded in the distance by a long low range of +blue hills, beyond which, in clear days, it was said, keen eyes could +catch a glimpse of the shining sea. The house itself was a very fine old +building, with a long terrace stretching before its lower windows, and +flower gardens which were the admiration of half the county. It had a +picture gallery and a magnificent hall with polished floor and stained +windows, and all the accessories of an antique and celebrated mansion; +and it had also all the comfort and luxury that modern civilization +could procure.</p> + +<p>It was this latter characteristic that made "the Court," as it was +commonly called, so popular. Picturesque old houses are sometimes +draughty and inconvenient, but no such defects were ever allowed to +exist at the Court. Every thing went smoothly: the servants were +perfectly trained: the latest improvements possible were always +introduced: the house was ideally luxurious. There never seemed to be +any jar or discord: no domestic worry was ever allowed to reach the ears +of the mistress of the household, no cares or troubles seemed able to +exist in that serene atmosphere. You could not even say of it that it +was dull. For the master of the Court was a hospitable man, with many +tastes and whims which he liked to indulge by having down from London +the numerous friends whose fancies matched his own, and his wife was a +little bit of a fine lady who had London friends too, as well as +neighbors, whom she liked to entertain. The house was seldom free from +visitors; and it was partly for that very reason that Lady Caroline +Adair, being in her own way a wise woman, had arranged that two or three +years of her daughter's life should be spent at Miss Polehampton's very +select boarding-school at Brighton. It would be a great drawback to +Margaret, she reflected, if her beauty were familiar to all the world +before she came out; and really, when Mr. Adair would insist on inviting +his friends constantly to the house, it was impossible to keep the girl +so mewed up in the schoolroom that she would not be seen and talked of; +and therefore it was better that she should go away for a time. Mr. +Adair did not like the arrangement; he was very fond of Margaret, and +objected to her leaving home; but Lady Caroline was gently inexorable +and got her own way—as she generally did.</p> + +<p>She does not look much like the mother of the tall girl whom we saw at +Brighton, as she sits at the head of her breakfast-table in the +daintiest of morning gowns—a marvelous combination of silk, muslin and +lace and pale pink ribbons—with a tiny white dog reposing in her lap. +She is a much smaller woman than Margaret, and darker in complexion: it +is from her, however, that Margaret inherits the large, appealing hazel +eyes, which look at you with an infinite sweetness, while their owner is +perhaps thinking of the <i>menu</i> or her milliner's bill. Lady Caroline's +face is thin and pointed, but her complexion is still clear, and her +soft brown hair is very prettily arranged. As she sits with her back to +the light, with a rose-colored curtain behind her, just tinting her +delicate cheek (for Lady Caroline is always careful of appearance), she +looks quite a young woman still.</p> + +<p>It is Mr. Adair whom Margaret most resembles. He is a tall and +exceedingly handsome man, whose hair and moustache and pointed beard +were as golden once as Margaret's soft tresses, but are now toned down +by a little grey. He has the alert blue eyes that generally go with his +fair complexion, and his long limbs are never still for many minutes +together. His daughter's tranquillity seems to have come from her +mother; certainly it cannot be inherited from the restless Reginald +Adair.</p> + +<p>The third person present at the breakfast-table—and, for the time +being, the only visitor in the house—is a young man of seven or +eight-and-twenty, tall, dark, and very spare, with a coal-black beard +trimmed to a point, earnest dark eyes, and a remarkably pleasant and +intelligent expression. He is not exactly handsome, but he has a face +that attracts one; it is the face of a man who has quick perceptions, +great kindliness of heart, and a refined and cultured mind. Nobody is +more popular in that county than young Sir Philip Ashley, although his +neighbors grumble sometimes at his absorption in scientific and +philanthropic objects, and think that it would be more creditable to +them if he went out with the hounds a little oftener or were a rather +better shot. For, being shortsighted, he was never particularly fond +either of sport or of games of skill, and his interest had always +centred on intellectual pursuits to a degree that amazed the more +countrified squires of the neighborhood.</p> + +<p>The post-bag was brought in while breakfast was proceeding, and two or +three letters were laid before Lady Caroline, who, with a careless word +of apology, opened and read them in turn. She smiled as she put them +down and looked at her husband.</p> + +<p>"This is a novel experience," she said. "For the first time in our +lives, Reginald, here is a formal complaint of our Margaret."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip looked up somewhat eagerly, and Mr. Adair elevated his +eyebrows, stirred his coffee, and laughed aloud.</p> + +<p>"Wonders will never cease," he said. "It is rather refreshing to hear +that our immaculate Margaret has done something naughty. What is it, +Caroline? Is she habitually late for breakfast? A touch of unpunctuality +is the only fault I ever heard of, and that, I believe, she inherits +from me."</p> + +<p>"I should be sorry to think that she was immaculate," said Lady +Caroline, calmly, "it has such an uncomfortable sound. But Margaret is +generally, I must say, a very tractable child."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that her schoolmistress does not find her tractable?" said +Mr. Adair, with amusement. "What has she been doing?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing very bad. Making friends with a governess-pupil, or something +of, that sort——"</p> + +<p>"Just what a generous-hearted girl would be likely to do!" exclaimed Sir +Philip, with a sudden warm lighting of his dark eyes.</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline smiled at him. "The schoolmistress thinks this girl an +unsuitable friend for Margaret, and wants me to interfere," she said.</p> + +<p>"Pray do nothing of the sort," said Mr. Adair. "I would trust my Pearl's +instinct anywhere. She would never make an unsuitable friend!"</p> + +<p>"Margaret has written to me herself," said Lady Caroline. "She seems +unusually excited about the matter. 'Dear mother,' she writes, 'pray +interpose to prevent Miss Polehampton from doing an unjust and +ungenerous thing. She disapproves of my friendship with dear Janetta +Colwyn, simply because Janetta is poor; and she threatens to punish +Janetta—not me—by sending her home in disgrace. Janetta is a +governess-pupil here, and it would be a great trouble to her if she were +sent away. I hope that you would rather take <i>me</i> away than let such an +injustice be done.'"</p> + +<p>"My Pearl hits the nail on the head exactly," said Mr. Adair, with +complacency. He rose as he spoke, and began to walk about the room. "She +is quite old enough to come home, Caroline. It is June now, and the term +ends in July. Fetch her home, and invite the little governess too, and +you will soon see whether or no she is the right sort of friend for +Margaret." He laughed in his mellow, genial way, and leaned against the +mantel-piece, stroking his yellow moustache and glancing at his wife.</p> + +<p>"I am not sure that that would be advisable," said Lady Caroline, with +her pretty smile. "Janetta Colwyn: Colwyn? Did not Margaret know her +before she went to school? Are there not some Colwyns at Beaminster? The +doctor—yes, I remember him; don't you, Reginald?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Adair shook his head, but Sir Philip looked up hastily.</p> + +<p>"I know him—a struggling man with a large family. His first wife was +rather well-connected, I believe: at any rate she was related to the +Brands of Brand Hall. He married a second time after her death."</p> + +<p>"Do you call that being well-connected, Philip?" said Lady Caroline, +with gentle reproach; while Mr. Adair laughed and whistled, but caught +himself up immediately and apologized.</p> + +<p>"I beg pardon—I forgot where I was: the less any of us have to do with +the Brands of Brand Hall the better, Phil."</p> + +<p>"I know nothing of them," said Sir Philip, rather gravely.</p> + +<p>"Nor anybody else"—hastily—"they never live at home, you know. So this +girl is a connection of theirs?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not a very suitable friend: Miss Polehampton may be right," +said Lady Caroline. "I suppose I must go over to Brighton and see +Margaret."</p> + +<p>"Bring her back with you," said Mr. Adair, recklessly. "She has had +quite enough of school by this time: she is nearly eighteen, isn't she?"</p> + +<p>But Lady Caroline smilingly refused to decide anything until she had +herself interviewed Miss Polehampton. She asked her husband to order the +carriage for her at once, and retired to summon her maid and array +herself for the journey.</p> + +<p>"You won't go to-day, will you, Philip?" said Mr. Adair, almost +appealingly. "I shall be all alone, and my wife will not perhaps return +until to-morrow—there's no saying."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, I shall be most pleased to stay," answered Sir Philip, +cordially. After a moment's pause, he added, with something very like a +touch of shyness—"I have not seen—your daughter since she was twelve +years old."</p> + +<p>"Haven't you?" said Mr. Adair, with ready interest. "You don't say so! +Pretty little girl she was then! Didn't you think so?"</p> + +<p>"I thought her the loveliest child I had ever seen in all my life," said +Sir Philip, with curious devoutness of manner.</p> + +<p>He saw Lady Caroline just as she was starting for the train, with man +and maid in attendance, and Mr. Adair handing her into the carriage and +gallantly offering to accompany her if she liked. "Not at all +necessary," said Lady Caroline, with an indulgent smile. "I shall be +home to dinner. Take care of my husband, Philip, and don't let him be +dull."</p> + +<p>"If they are making Margaret unhappy, be sure you bring her back with +you," were Mr. Adair's last words. Lady Caroline gave him a kind but +inscrutable little smile and nod as she was whirled away. Sir Philip +thought to himself that she looked like a woman who would take her own +course in spite of advice or recommendation from her husband or anybody +else.</p> + +<p>He smiled once or twice as the day passed on at her parting injunction +to him not to let her husband be dull. He had known the Adairs for many +years, and had never known Reginald Adair dull under any circumstances. +He was too full of interests, of "fads," some people called them, ever +to be dull. He took Sir Philip round the picture-gallery, round the +stables, to the kennels, to the flower-garden, to his own studio (where +he painted in oils when he had nothing else to do) with never-flagging +energy and animation. Sir Philip's interests lay in different grooves, +but he was quite capable of sympathizing with Mr. Adair's interests, +too. The day passed pleasantly, and seemed rather short for all that the +two men wanted to pack into it; although from time to time Mr. Adair +would say, half-impatiently, "I wonder how Caroline is getting on!" or +"I hope she'll bring Margaret back with her! But I don't expect it, you +know. Carry was always a great one for education and that sort of +thing."</p> + +<p>"Is Miss Adair intellectual—too?" asked Sir Philip, with respect.</p> + +<p>Mr. Adair broke into a sudden laugh. "Intellectual? Our Daisy?—our +Pearl?" he said. "Wait until you see her, then ask the question if you +like."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid I don't quite understand."</p> + +<p>"Of course you don't. It is the partiality of a fond father that speaks, +my dear fellow. I only meant that these young, fresh, pretty girls put +such questions out of one's head."</p> + +<p>"She must be very pretty then," said Sir Philip, with a smile.</p> + +<p>He had seen a great many beautiful women, and told himself that he did +not care for beauty. Fashionable, talkative women were his abomination. +He had no sisters, but he loved his mother very dearly; and upon her he +had founded a very high ideal of womanhood. He had begun to think +vaguely, of late, that he ought to marry: duty demanded it of him, and +Sir Philip was always attentive, if not obedient, to the voice of duty. +But he was not inclined to marry a girl out of the schoolroom, or a girl +who was accustomed to the enervating luxury (as he considered it) of +Helmsley Court: he wanted an energetic, sensible, large-hearted, and +large-minded woman who would be his right hand, his first minister of +state. Sir Philip was fairly wealthy, but by no means enormously so; and +he had other uses for his wealth than the buying of pictures and keeping +up stables and kennels at an alarming expense. If Miss Adair were so +pretty, he mused, it was just as well that she was not at home, for, of +course, it was possible that he might find a lovely face an attraction: +and much as he liked Lady Caroline, he did not want particularly to +marry Lady Caroline's daughter. That she treated him with great +consideration, and that he had once overheard her speak of him as "the +most eligible <i>parti</i> of the neighborhood," had already put him a little +on his guard. Lady Caroline was no vulgar, match-making mother, he knew +that well enough; but she was in some respects a thoroughly worldly +woman, and Philip Ashley was an essentially unworldly man.</p> + +<p>As he went upstairs to dress for dinner that evening, he was struck by +the fact that a door stood open that he had never seen opened before: a +door into a pretty, well-lighted, pink and white room, the ideal +apartment for a young girl. The evening was chilly, and rain had begun +to fall, so a bright little fire was burning in the steel grate, and +casting a cheerful glow over white sheepskin rugs and rose-colored +curtains. A maid seemed to be busying herself with some white +material—all gauze and lace it looked—and another servant was, as Sir +Philip passed, entering with a great white vase filled with red roses.</p> + +<p>"Do they expect visitors to-night?" thought the young man, who knew +enough of the house to be aware that the room was not one in general +use. "Adair said nothing about it, but perhaps some people are coming +from town."</p> + +<p>A budget of letters was brought to him at that moment, and in reading +and answering them he did not note the sound of carriage-wheels on the +drive, nor the bustle of an arrival in the house. Indeed, he left +himself so little time that he had to dress in extraordinary haste, and +went downstairs at last in the conviction that he was unpardonably late.</p> + +<p>But apparently he was wrong.</p> + +<p>For the drawing-room was tenanted by one figure only—that of a young +lady in evening dress. Neither Lady Caroline nor Mr. Adair had appeared +upon the scene; but on the hearthrug, by the small crackling +fire—which, in deference to the chilliness of an English June evening, +had been lighted—stood a tall, fair, slender girl, with pale +complexion, and soft, loosely-coiled masses of golden hair. She was +dressed in pure white, a soft loose gown of Indian silk, trimmed with +the most delicate lace: it was high to the milk-white throat, but showed +the rounded curves of the finely-moulded arm to the elbow. She wore no +ornaments, but a white rose was fastened into the lace frill of her +dress at her neck. As she turned her face towards the new comer, Sir +Philip suddenly felt himself abashed. It was not that she was so +beautiful—in those first few moments he scarcely thought her beautiful +at all—but that she produced on him an impression of serious, virginal +grace and innocence which was almost disconcerting. Her pure complexion, +her grave, serene eyes, her graceful way of moving as she advanced a +little to receive him stirred him to more than admiration—to something +not unlike awe. She looked young; but it was youth in perfection: there +was some marvelous finish, delicacy, polish, which one does not usually +associate with extreme youth.</p> + +<p>"You are Sir Philip Ashley, I think?" she said, offering him her slim +cool hand without embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"You do not remember me, perhaps, but I remember you perfectly well, I +am Margaret Adair."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>AT HELMSLEY COURT.</h3> + + +<p>"Lady Caroline has brought you back, then?" said Sir Philip, after his +first pause of astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Margaret, serenely. "I have been expelled."</p> + +<p>"Expelled! <i>You?</i>"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed, I have," said the girl, with a faintly amused little +smile. "And so has my great friend, Janetta Colwyn. Here she is: +Janetta, I am telling Sir Philip Ashley that we have been expelled, and +he will not believe me."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip turned in some curiosity to see the girl of whom he had heard +for the first time that morning. He had not noticed before that she was +present. He saw a brown little creature, with eyes that had been swollen +with crying until they were well-nigh invisible, small, unremarkable +features, and a mouth that was inclined to quiver. Margaret might afford +to be serene, but to this girl expulsion from school had evidently been +a sad trouble. He threw all the more kindness and gentleness into his +voice and look as he spoke to her.</p> + +<p>Janetta might have felt a little awkward if she had not been so entirely +absorbed by her own woes. She had never set foot before in half so grand +a house as this of Helmsley Court, nor had she ever dined late or spoken +to a gentleman in an evening coat in all her previous life. The size and +the magnificence of the room would perhaps have oppressed her if she had +been fully aware of them. But she was for the moment very much wrapped +up in her own affairs, and scarcely stopped to think of the novel +situation in which she found herself. The only thing that had startled +her was the attention paid to her dress by Margaret and Margaret's maid. +Janetta would have put on her afternoon black cashmere and little silver +brooch, and would have felt herself perfectly well dressed; but +Margaret, after a little consultation with the very grand young person +who condescended to brush Miss Colwyn's hair, had herself brought to +Janetta's room a dress of black lace over cherry-colored silk, and had +begged her to put it on.</p> + +<p>"You will feel so hot downstairs if you don't put on something cool," +Margaret had said. "There is a fire in the drawing-room: papa likes the +rooms warm. My dresses would not have fitted you, I am so much taller +than you; but mamma is just your height, and although you are thinner +perhaps——But I don't know: the dress fits you perfectly. Look in the +glass, Janet; you are quite splendid."</p> + +<p>Janetta looked and blushed a little—not because she thought herself at +all splendid, but because the dress showed her neck and arms in a way no +dress had ever done before. "Ought it to be—open—like this?" she said, +vaguely. "Do you wear your dresses like this when you are at home?"</p> + +<p>"Mine are high," said Margaret. "I am not 'out,' you know. But you are +older than I, and you used to teach——I think we may consider that you +<i>are</i> 'out,'" she added, with a little laugh. "You look very nice, +Janetta: you have such pretty arms! Now I must go and dress, and I will +call for you when I am ready to go down."</p> + +<p>Janetta felt decidedly doubtful as to whether she were not a great deal +too grand for the occasion; but she altered her mind when she saw +Margaret's dainty silk and lace, and Lady Caroline's exquisite brocade; +and she felt herself quite unworthy to take Mr. Adair's offered arm when +dinner was announced and her host politely convoyed her to the +dining-room. She wondered whether he knew that she was only a little +governess-pupil, and whether he was not angry with her for being the +cause of his daughter's abrupt departure from school. As a matter of +fact, Mr. Adair knew her position exactly, and was very much amused by +the whole affair; also, as it had procured him the pleasure of his +daughter's return home, he had an illogical inclination to be pleased +also with Janetta. "As Margaret is so fond of her, there must be +something in her," he said to himself, with a critical glance at the +girl's delicate features and big dark eyes. "I'll draw her out at +dinner."</p> + +<p>He tried his best, and made himself so agreeable and amusing that +Janetta lost a good deal of her shyness, and forgot her troubles. She +had a quick tongue of her own, as everybody at Miss Polehampton's was +aware; and she soon found that she had not lost it. She was a good deal +surprised to find that not a word was said at the dinner table about the +cause of Margaret's return: in her own home it would have been the +subject of the evening; it would have been discussed from every point of +view, and she would probably have been reduced to tears before the first +hour was over. But here it was evident that the matter was not +considered of great importance. Margaret looked serene as ever, and +joined quietly in talk which was alarmingly unlike Miss Polehampton's +improving conversation: talk about county gaieties and county magnates: +gossip about neighbors—gossip of a harmless although frivolous type, +for Lady Caroline never allowed any talk at her table that was anything +but harmless, about fashions, about old china, about music and art. Mr. +Adair was passionately fond of music, and when he found that Miss Colwyn +really knew something of it he was in his element. They discoursed of +fugues, sonatas, concertos, quartettes, and trios, until even Lady +Caroline raised her eyebrows a little at the very technical nature of +the conversation; and Sir Philip exchanged a congratulatory smile with +Margaret over her friend's success. For the delight of finding a +congenial spirit had brought the crimson into Janetta's olive cheeks and +the brilliance to her dark eyes: she had looked insignificant when she +went in to dinner; she was splendidly handsome at dessert. Mr. Adair +noticed her flashing, transitory beauty, and said to himself that +Margaret's taste was unimpeachable; it was just like his own; he had +complete confidence in Margaret.</p> + +<p>When the ladies went back to the drawing-room, Sir Philip turned with a +look of only half-disguised curiosity to his host. "Lady Caroline +brought her back then?" he said, longing to ask questions, yet hardly +knowing how to frame them aright.</p> + +<p>Mr. Adair gave a great laugh. "It's been the oddest thing I ever heard +of," he said, in a tone of enjoyment. "Margaret takes a fancy to that +little black-eyed girl—a nice little thing, too, don't you think?—and +nothing must serve but that her favorite must walk with her, sit by +her, and so on—you know the romantic way girls have? The schoolmistress +interfered, said it was not proper, and so on; forbade it. Miss Colwyn +would have obeyed, it seems, but Margaret took the bit in a quiet way +between her teeth. Miss Colwyn was ordered to take her meals at a side +table: Margaret insisted on taking her meals there too. The school was +thrown into confusion. At last Miss Polehampton decided that the best +way out of the difficulty was first to complain to us, and then to send +Miss Colwyn home, straight away. She would not send <i>Margaret</i> home, you +know!"</p> + +<p>"That was very hard on Miss Colwyn," said Sir Philip, gravely.</p> + +<p>"Yes, horribly hard. So Margaret, as you heard, appealed to her mother, +and when Lady Caroline arrived, she found that not only were Miss +Colwyn's boxes packed, but Margaret's as well; and that Margaret had +declared that if her friend was sent away for what was after all <i>her</i> +fault, she would not stay an hour in the house. Miss Polehampton was +weeping: the girls were in revolt, the teachers in despair, so my wife +thought the best way out of the difficulty was to bring both girls away +at once, and settle it with Miss Colwyn's relations afterwards. The joke +is that Margaret insists on it that she has been 'expelled.'"</p> + +<p>"So she told me."</p> + +<p>"The schoolmistress said something of that kind, you know. Caroline says +the woman entirely lost her temper and made an exhibition of herself. +Caroline was glad to get our girl away. But, of course, it's all +nonsense about being 'expelled' as a punishment; she was leaving of her +own accord."</p> + +<p>"One could hardly imagine punishment in connection with her," said Sir +Philip, warmly.</p> + +<p>"No, she's a nice-looking girl, isn't she? and her little friend is a +good foil, poor little thing."</p> + +<p>"This affair may prove of some serious inconvenience to Miss Colwyn, I +suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you may depend upon it, she won't be the loser," said Mr. Adair, +hastily. "We'll see about that. Of course she will not suffer any injury +through my daughter's friendship for her."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip was not so sure about it. In spite of his intense admiration +for Margaret's beauty, it occurred to him that the romantic partisanship +of the girl with beauty, position, and wealth for her less fortunate +sister had not been attended with very brilliant results. No doubt Miss +Adair, reared in luxury and indulgence, did not in the least realize the +harm done to the poor governess-pupil's future by her summary dismissal +from Miss Polehampton's boarding-school. To Margaret, anything that the +schoolmistress chose to say or do mattered little; to Janetta Colwyn, it +might some day mean prosperity or adversity of a very serious kind. Sir +Philip did not quite believe in the compensation so easily promised by +Mr. Adair. He made a mental note of Miss Colwyn's condition and +prospects, and said to himself that he would not forget her. And this +meant a good deal from a busy man like Sir Philip Ashley.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile there had been another conversation going on in the +drawing-room between the three ladies. Margaret put her arm +affectionately round Janetta's waist as they stood by the hearthrug, and +looked at her mother with a smile. Lady Caroline sank into an easy-chair +on the other side of the fireplace, and contemplated the two girls.</p> + +<p>"This is better than Claremont House, is it not, Janet?" said Margaret.</p> + +<p>"Indeed it is," Janetta answered, gratefully.</p> + +<p>"You found the way to papa's heart by your talk about music—did she +not, mamma? And does not this dress suit her beautifully?"</p> + +<p>"It wants a little alteration in the sleeve," said Lady Caroline, with +the placidity which Janetta had always attributed to Margaret as a +special virtue, but which she now found was merely characteristic of the +house and family in general, "but Markham can do that to-morrow. There +are some people coming in the evening, and the sleeve will look better +shortened."</p> + +<p>The remark sounded a little inconsequent in Janetta's ear, but Margaret +understood and assented. It meant that Lady Caroline was on the whole +pleased with Janetta, and did not object to introducing her to her +friends. Margaret gave her mother a little smile over Janetta's head, +while that young person was gathering up her courage in two hands, so to +speak, before addressing Lady Caroline.</p> + +<p>"I am very much obliged to you," she said at last, with a thrill of +gratitude in her sweet voice which was very pleasant to the ear. "But—I +was thinking—what time would be the most convenient for me to go home +to-morrow?"</p> + +<p>"Home? To Beaminster?" said Margaret. "But you need not go, dear; you +can write a note and tell them that you are staying here."</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear; I am sure Margaret cannot part with you yet," said Lady +Caroline, amiably.</p> + +<p>"Thank you; it is most kind of you," Janetta answered, her voice +shaking. "But I must ask my father whether I can stay—and hear what he +says; Miss Polehampton will have written to him, and——"</p> + +<p>"And he will be very glad that we have rescued you from her clutches," +said Margaret, with a soft triumphant little laugh. "My poor Janetta! +What we suffered at her hands!"</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline lying back in her easy chair, with the candle light +gleaming upon her silvery grey and white brocade with its touches of +soft pink, and the diamonds flashing on her white hands, so calmly +crossed upon the handle of her ivory fan, did not feel quite so tranquil +as she looked. It crossed her mind that Margaret was acting +inconsiderately. This little Miss Colwyn had her living to earn; it +would be no kindness to unfit her for her profession. So, when she spoke +it was with a shade more decision than usual in her tones.</p> + +<p>"We will drive you over to Beaminster to-morrow, my dear Miss Colwyn, +and you can then see your family, and ask your father if you may spend a +few days with Margaret. I do not think that Mr. Colwyn will refuse us," +she said, graciously. "I wonder when those men are coming, Margaret. +Suppose you open the piano and let us have a little music. You sing, do +you not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, a little," said Janetta.</p> + +<p>"A little!" exclaimed Margaret, with contempt. "She has a delightful +voice, mamma. Come and sing at once, Janetta, darling, and astonish +mamma."</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline smiled. She had heard a great many singers in her day, and +did not expect to be astonished. A little governess-pupil, an +under-teacher in a boarding-school! Dear Margaret's enthusiasm certainly +carried her away.</p> + +<p>But when Janetta sang, Lady Caroline was, after all, rather surprised. +The girl had a remarkably sweet and rich contralto voice, and it had +been well trained; and, moreover, she sang with feeling and passion +which were somewhat unusual in one so young. It seemed as if some hidden +power, some latent characteristic came out in her singing because it +found no other way of expressing itself. Neither Lady Caroline nor +Margaret understood why Janetta's voice moved them so much; Sir Philip, +who came in with his host while the music was going on, heard and was +charmed also without quite knowing why; it was Mr. Adair alone whose +musical knowledge and experience of the world enabled him, +feather-headed as in some respects he was, to lay his finger directly on +the salient features of Janetta's singing.</p> + +<p>"It's not her voice altogether, you know," he said afterwards to Philip +Ashley, in a moment of confidence; "it's soul. She's got more of that +commodity than is good for a woman. It makes her singing lovely, you +know—brings tears into one's eyes, and all that sort of thing—but upon +my honor I'm thankful that Margaret hasn't got a voice like that! It's +women of that kind that are either heroines of virtue—or go to the +devil. They are always in extremes."</p> + +<p>"Then we may promise ourselves some excitement in watching Miss Colwyn's +career," said Sir Philip, dryly.</p> + +<p>After Janetta, Margaret sang; she had a sweet mezzo-soprano voice, of no +great strength or compass, but perfectly trained and very pleasing to +the ear. The sort of voice, Sir Philip thought, that would be soothing +to the nerves of a tired man in his own house. Whereas, Janetta's +singing had something impassioned in it which disturbed and excited +instead of soothing. But he was quite ready to admire when Margaret +called on him for admiration. They were sitting together on a sofa, and +Janetta, who had just finished one of her songs, was talking to, or +being talked to, by Mr. Adair. Lady Caroline had taken up a review.</p> + +<p>"Is not Miss Colwyn's voice perfectly lovely?" Margaret asked, with +shining eyes.</p> + +<p>"It is very sweet."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think she looks very nice?"—Margaret was hungering for +admiration of her friend.</p> + +<p>"She is a very pretty girl. You are very fond of each other?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, devoted. I am so glad I succeeded!" said the girl, with a +great sigh.</p> + +<p>"In getting her away from the school?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"You think it was for her good?"</p> + +<p>Margaret opened her lovely eyes.</p> + +<p>"For her good?—to come here instead of staying in that close +uncomfortable house to give music lessons, and bear Miss Polehampton's +snubs?——" It had evidently never occurred to her that the change could +be anything but beneficial to Janetta.</p> + +<p>"It is very pleasant for her, no doubt," said Sir Philip, smiling in +spite of his disapproval. "I only wondered whether it was a good +preparation for the life of hard work which probably lies before her."</p> + +<p>He saw that Margaret colored, and wondered whether she would be offended +by his suggestion. After a moment's pause, she answered, gravely, but +quite gently—</p> + +<p>"I never thought of it in that way before, exactly. I want to keep her +here, so that she should never have to work hard at all."</p> + +<p>"Would she consent to that?"</p> + +<p>"Why not?" said Margaret.</p> + +<p>Sir Philip smiled and said no more. It was curious, he said to himself, +to see how little conception Margaret had of lives unlike and outside +her own. And Janetta's brave but sensitive little face, with its +resolute brows and lips and brilliant eyes, gave promise of a +determination and an originality which, he felt convinced, would never +allow her to become a mere plaything or appendage of a wealthy +household, as Margaret Adair seemed to expect. But his words had made an +impression. At night, when Lady Caroline and her daughter were standing +in the charming little room which had always been appropriated to +Margaret's use, she spoke, with the unconscious habit of saying frankly +anything that had occurred to her, of Sir Philip's remarks.</p> + +<p>"It was so odd," she said; "Sir Philip seemed to think that it would be +bad for Janetta to stay here, mamma. Why should it be bad for her, +mamma, dear?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think it will be at all bad for her to spend a day or two with +us, darling," said Lady Caroline, keeping somewhat careful watch on +Margaret's face as she spoke. "But perhaps it had better be by-and-bye. +You know she wants to go home to-morrow, and we must not keep her away +from her duties or her own sphere of life."</p> + +<p>"No," Margaret answered, "but her duties will not always keep her at +home, you know, mamma, dear."</p> + +<p>"I suppose not, my dearest," said Lady Caroline, vaguely, but in the +caressing tone to which Margaret was accustomed. "Go to bed, my sweetest +one, and we will talk of all these things to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Janetta was wondering at the luxury of the room which had been +allotted to her, and thinking over the events of the past day. When a +tap at the door announced Margaret's appearance to say good-night, +Janetta was standing before the long looking-glass, apparently +inspecting herself by the light of the rose-tinted wax candles in silver +sconces which were fixed on either side of the mirror. She was in her +dressing-gown, and her long and abundant hair fell over her shoulder in +a great curly mass.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Miss Vanity!" cried Margaret, with more gaiety of tone than was +usual with her, "are you admiring your pretty hair?"</p> + +<p>"I was thinking," said Janetta, with the intensity which often +characterized her speech, "that <i>now</i> I understood you—now I know why +you were so different from other girls, so sweet, so calm and beautiful! +You have lived in this lovely place all your life! It is like a fairy +palace—a dream-house—to me; and you are the queen of it, Margaret—a +princess of dreams!"</p> + +<p>"I hope I shall have something more than dreams to reign over some day," +said Margaret, putting her arms round her friend's neck. "And whatever I +am queen over, you must share my queendom, Janet. You know how fond I am +of you—how I want you to stay with me always and be my friend."</p> + +<p>"I shall always be your friend—always, to the last day of my life!" +said Janetta, with fervor. The two made a pretty picture, reflected in +the long mirror; the tall, fair Margaret, still in her soft white silk +frock, with her arm round the smaller figure of the dark girl whose +curly masses of hair half covered her pink cotton dressing-gown, and +whose brown face was upturned so lovingly to her friend's.</p> + +<p>"And I am sure it will be good for you to stay with me," said Margaret, +answering an unspoken objection in her mind.</p> + +<p>"Good for me? It is delicious—it is lovely!" cried Janetta, +rapturously. "I have never had anything so nice in my whole life. Dear +Margaret, you are so good and so kind—if there were only anything that +I could do for you in return! Perhaps some day I shall have the chance, +and if ever I have—<i>then</i> you shall see whether I am true to my friend +or not!"</p> + +<p>Margaret kissed her, with a little smile at Janetta's enthusiasm, which +was so far different from the modes of expression customary at Helmsley +Court, as to be almost amusing.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>ON THE ROAD.</h3> + + +<p>Miss Polehampton had, of course, written to Mr. and Mrs. Colwyn when she +made up her mind that Janetta was to be removed from school; and two or +three letters had been interchanged before that eventful day on which +Margaret declared that if Janetta went she should go too. Margaret had +been purposely kept in the dark until almost the last moment, for Miss +Polehampton did not in the least wish to make a scandal, and annoyed as +she was by Miss Adair's avowed preference for Janetta, she had arranged +a neat little plan by which Miss Colwyn was to go away "for change of +air," and be transferred to a school at Worthing kept by a relation of +her own at the beginning of the following term. These plans had been +upset by a foolish and ill-judged letter from Mrs. Colwyn to her +stepdaughter, which Janetta had not been able to keep from Margaret's +eyes. This letter was full of reproaches to Janetta for giving so much +trouble to her friends; "for, of course," Mrs. Colwyn wrote, "Miss +Polehampton's concern for your health is all a blind in order to get you +away: and if it hadn't been for Miss Adair taking you up, she would have +been only too glad to keep you. But knowing Miss Adair's position, she +sees very clearly that it isn't fit for you to be friends with her, and +so she wants to send you away."</p> + +<p>This was in the main true, but Janetta, in the blithe confidence of +youth, would never have discovered it but for that letter. Together she +and Margaret consulted over it, for when Margaret saw Janetta crying, +she almost forced the letter from her hand; and then it was that Miss +Adair vindicated her claim to social superiority. She went straight to +Miss Polehampton and demanded that Janetta should remain; and when the +schoolmistress refused to alter her decision, she calmly replied that in +that case <i>she</i> should go home too. Miss Polehampton was an obstinate +woman, and would not concede the point; and Lady Caroline, on learning +the state of affairs, at once perceived that it was impossible to leave +Margaret at the school where open warfare had been declared. She +accordingly brought both girls away with her, arranging to send Janetta +to her own home next morning.</p> + +<p>"You will stay to luncheon, dear, and I will drive you over to +Beaminster at three o'clock," she said to Janetta at breakfast. "No +doubt you are anxious to see your own people."</p> + +<p>Janetta looked as if she might find it difficult to reply, but Margaret +interposed a remark—as usual at the right moment.</p> + +<p>"We will practice our duets this morning—if Janetta likes, that is; and +we can have a walk in the garden too. Shall we have the landau, mamma?"</p> + +<p>"The victoria, I think, dear," said Lady Caroline, placidly. "Your +father wants you to ride with him this afternoon, so I shall have the +pleasure of Miss Colwyn's society in my drive."</p> + +<p>Margaret assented; but Janetta became suddenly aware, by a flash of keen +feminine intuition, that Lady Caroline had some reason for wishing to go +with her alone, and that she had purposely made the arrangement that she +spoke of. However, there was nothing to displease her in this, for Lady +Caroline had been most kind and considerate to her, so far, and she was +innocently disposed to believe in the cordiality and sincerity of every +one who behaved with common civility.</p> + +<p>So she spent a pleasant morning, singing with Margaret, loitering about +the garden with Mr. Adair, while Margaret and Sir Philip gathered +roses, and enjoying to the full all the sweet influences of peace, +refinement, and prosperity by which she was surrounded.</p> + +<p>Margaret left her in the afternoon with rather a hasty kiss, and an +assurance that she would see her again at dinner. Janetta tried to +remind her that by that time she would have left the Court, but Margaret +did not or would not hear. The tears came into the girl's eyes as her +friend disappeared.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, dear," said Lady Caroline, who was observing her closely, +"Margaret has forgotten at what hour you were going and I would not +remind her—it would spoil her pleasure in her ride. We will arrange for +you to come to us another day when you have seen your friends at home."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Janetta. "It was only that she did not seem to +remember that I was going—I had meant to say good-bye."</p> + +<p>"Exactly. She thinks that I am going to bring you back this afternoon. +We will talk about it as we go, dear. Suppose you were to put on your +hat now. The carriage will be here in ten minutes."</p> + +<p>Janetta prepared for her departure in a somewhat bewildered spirit. She +did not know precisely what Lady Caroline meant. She even felt a little +nervous as she took her place in the victoria and cast a last look at +the stately house in which she had spent some nineteen or twenty +pleasant hours. It was Lady Caroline who spoke first.</p> + +<p>"We shall miss your singing to-night," she said, amiably. "Mr. Adair was +looking forward to some more duets. Another time, perhaps——"</p> + +<p>"I am always pleased to sing," said Janetta, brightening at this +address.</p> + +<p>"Yes—ye—es," said Lady Caroline, with a doubtful little drawl. "No +doubt: one always likes to do what one can do so well; but—I confess I +am not so musical as my husband or my daughter. I must explain why dear +Margaret did not say good bye to you, Miss Colwyn. I allowed her to +remain in the belief that she was to see you again to-night, in order +that she might not be depressed during her ride by the thought of +parting with you. It is always my principle to make the lives of those +dear to me as happy as possible," said Margaret's mother, piously.</p> + +<p>"And if Margaret had been depressed during her ride, Mr. Adair and Sir +Philip might have suffered some depression also, and that would be a +great pity."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Janetta. But she felt chilled, without knowing why.</p> + +<p>"I must take you into my confidence," said Lady Caroline, in her softest +voice. "Mr. Adair has plans for our dear Margaret. Sir Philip Ashley's +property adjoins our own: he is of good principles, kind-hearted, and +intellectual: he is well off, nice-looking, and of a suitable age—he +admires Margaret very much. I need say no more, I am sure."</p> + +<p>Again she looked keenly at Janetta's face, but she read there nothing +but interest and surprise.</p> + +<p>"Oh—does Margaret know?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"She feels more than she knows," said Lady Caroline, discreetly. "She is +in the first stage of—of—emotion. I did not want the afternoon's +arrangements to be interfered with."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! especially on <i>my</i> account," said Janetta, sincerely.</p> + +<p>"When I go home I shall talk quietly to Margaret," pursued Lady +Caroline, "and tell her that you will come back another day, that your +duties called you home—they do, I am sure, dear Miss Colwyn—and that +you could not return with me when you were so much wanted."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I am not much wanted," said Janetta, with a sigh; "but I +daresay it is my duty to go home——"</p> + +<p>"I am sure it is," Lady Caroline declared; "and duty is so high and holy +a thing, dear, that you will never regret the performance of it."</p> + +<p>It occurred dimly to Janetta at that point that Lady Caroline's views of +duty might possibly differ from her own; but she did not venture to say +so.</p> + +<p>"And, of course, you will never repeat to Margaret——"</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline did not complete her sentence. The coachman suddenly +checked the horses' speed: for some unknown reason he actually stopped +short in the very middle of the country road between Helmsley Court and +Beaminster. His mistress uttered a little cry of alarm.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter, Steel?"</p> + +<p>The footman dismounted and touched his hat.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid there has been an accident, my lady," he said, as +apologetically, as if he were responsible for the accident.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Nothing horrible, I hope!" said Lady Caroline, drawing out her +smelling-bottle.</p> + +<p>"It's a carriage accident, my lady. Leastways, a cab. The 'orse is lying +right across the road, my lady."</p> + +<p>"Speak to the people, Steel," said her ladyship, with great dignity. +"They must not be allowed to block up the road in this way."</p> + +<p>"May I get out?" said Janetta, eagerly. "There is a lady lying on the +path, and some people bathing her face. Now they are lifting her up—I +am sure they ought not to lift her up in that way—oh, please, I must go +just for one minute!" And, without waiting for a reply, she stepped, out +of the victoria and sped to the side of the woman who had been hurt.</p> + +<p>"Very impulsive and undisciplined," said Lady Caroline to herself, as +she leaned back and held the smelling-bottle to her own delicate nose. +"I am glad I have got her out of the house so soon. Those men were wild +about her singing. Sir Philip disapproved of her presence, but he was +charmed by her voice, I could see that; and poor, dear Reginald was +positively absurd about her voice. And dear Margaret does <i>not</i> sing so +well—it is no use pretending that she does—and Sir Philip is trembling +on the verge—oh, yes, I am sure that I have been very wise. What is +that girl doing now?"</p> + +<p>The victoria moved forward a little, so that Lady Caroline could obtain +a clearer view of what was going on. The vehicle which caused the +obstruction—evidently a hired fly from an inn—was uninjured, but the +horse had fallen between the shafts and would never rise again. The +occupants of the fly—a lady, and a much younger man, perhaps her +son—had got out, and the lady had then turned faint, Lady Caroline +heard, but was not in any way hurt. Janetta was kneeling by the side of +the lady—kneeling in the dust, without any regard to the freshness of +her cotton frock, by the way—and had already placed her in the right +position, and was ordering the half-dozen people who had collected to +stand back and give her air. Lady Caroline watched her movements and +gestures with placid amusement, and went so far as to send Steel with +the offer of her smelling salts; but as this offer was rejected she +felt that nothing else could be done. So she sat and looked on +critically.</p> + +<p>The woman—Lady Caroline was hardly inclined to call her a lady, +although she did not exactly know why—was at present of a ghastly +paleness, but her features were finely cut, and showed traces of former +beauty. Her hair was grey, with rebellious waves in it, but her eyebrows +were still dark. She was dressed in black, with a good deal of lace +about her; and on her ungloved hand Lady Caroline's keen sight enabled +her to distinguish some very handsome diamond rings. The effect of the +costume was a little spoiled by a large gaudy fan, of violent rainbow +hues, which hung at her side; and perhaps it was this article of +adornment which decided Lady Caroline in her opinion of the woman's +social status. But about the man she was equally positive in a different +way. He <i>was</i> a gentleman: there could be no doubt of that. She put up +her eye-glass and gazed at him with interest. She almost thought that +she had seen him somewhere before.</p> + +<p>A handsome man, indeed, and a gentleman; but, oh, what an ill-tempered +one, apparently! He was dark, with fine features, and black hair with a +slight inclination to wave or curl (as far at least as could be judged +when the extremely well-cropped state of his head was taken into +consideration); and from these indications Lady Caroline judged him to +be "the woman's" son. He was tall, muscular, and active looking: it was +the way in which his black eyebrows were bent above his eyes which made +the observer think him ill-tempered, for his manner and his words +expressed anxiety, not anger. But that frown, which must have been +habitual, gave him a distinctly ill-humored look.</p> + +<p>At last the lady opened her eyes, and drank a little water, and sat up. +Janetta rose from her knees, and turned to the young man with a smile. +"She will soon be better now," she said. "I am afraid there is nothing +else that I can do—and I think I must go on."</p> + +<p>"I am very much obliged to you for your kind assistance," said the +gentleman, but without any abatement of the gloom of his expression. He +gave Janetta a keen look—almost a bold look—Lady Caroline thought, and +then smiled a little, not very pleasantly. "Allow me to take you to your +carriage."</p> + +<p>Janetta blushed, as if she were minded to say that it was not her +carriage; but returned to the victoria, and was handed to her seat by +the young man, who then raised his hat with an elaborate flourish which +was not exactly English. Indeed, it occurred to Lady Caroline at once +that there was something French about both the travelers. The lady with +the frizzled grey hair, the black lace dress and mantel, the gaudy blue +and scarlet fan, was quite foreign in appearance; the young man with the +perfectly fitting frock-coat, the tall hat, the flower in his +button-hole, was—in spite of his perfectly English accent—foreign too. +Lady Caroline was cosmopolitan enough to feel an access of greater +interest in the pair in consequence.</p> + +<p>"They have sent to the nearest inn for a horse," said Janetta, as the +carriage moved on; "and I dare say they will not have long to wait."</p> + +<p>"Was the lady hurt?"</p> + +<p>"No, only shaken. She is subject to fainting fits, and the accident +quite upset her nerves, her son said."</p> + +<p>"Her son?"</p> + +<p>"The gentleman called her mother."</p> + +<p>"Oh! You did not hear their name, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"No. There was a big B on their traveling bag."</p> + +<p>"B—B—?" said Lady Caroline, thoughtfully. "I don't know any one in +this neighborhood whose name begins with B, except the Bevans. They must +have been merely passing through; and yet the young man's face seemed +familiar to me."</p> + +<p>Janetta shook her head. "I never saw them before," she said.</p> + +<p>"He has a very bold and unpleasant expression," Lady Caroline remarked, +decidedly. "It spoils him entirely: otherwise he is a handsome man."</p> + +<p>The girl made no answer. She knew, as well as Lady Caroline, that she +had been stared at in a manner that was not quite agreeable to her, and +yet she did not like to endorse that lady's condemnation of the +stranger. For he was certainly very nice-looking—and he had been so +kind to his mother that he could not be entirely bad—and to her also +his face was vaguely familiar. Could he belong to Beaminster?</p> + +<p>As she sat and meditated, the tall spires of Beaminster Cathedral came +into sight, and a few minutes brought the carriage across the grey +stone bridge and down the principal street of the quaint old place which +called itself a city, but was really neither more nor less than a quiet +country town. Here Lady Caroline turned to her young guest with a +question—"You live in Gwynne Street, I believe, my dear?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, at number ten, Gwynne Street," said Janetta, suddenly starting and +feeling a little uncomfortable. The coachman evidently knew the address +already, for at that moment he turned the horse's heads to the left, and +the carriage rolled down a narrow side-street, where the tall red brick +houses had a mean and shabby aspect, and seemed as if constructed to +keep out sun and air as much as possible.</p> + +<p>Janetta always felt the closeness and the shabbiness a little when she +first came home, even from school, but when she came from Helmsley Court +they struck her with redoubled force. She had never thought before how +dull the street was, nor noticed that the railings were broken down in +front of the door with the brass-plate that bore her father's name, nor +that the window-curtains were torn and the windows sadly in need of +washing. The little flight of stone steps that led from the iron gate to +the door was also very dirty; and the servant girl, whose head appeared +against the area railings as the carriage drove up, was more untidy, +more unkempt, in appearance than ever Janetta could have expected. "We +can't be rich, but we might be <i>clean</i>!" she said to herself in a +subdued frenzy of impatience, as she fancied (quite unjustly) that she +saw a faint smile pass over Lady Caroline's delicate, impassive face. "No +wonder she thinks me an unfit friend for dear Margaret. But—oh, there +is my dear, darling father! Well, nobody can say anything against him at +any rate!" And Janetta's face beamed with sudden joy as she saw Mr. +Colwyn coming down the dirty steps to the ricketty little iron gate, and +Lady Caroline, who knew the surgeon by sight, nodded to him with +friendly condescension.</p> + +<p>"How are you, Mr. Colwyn?" she said, graciously. "I have brought your +daughter home, you see, and I hope you will not scold her for what has +been <i>my</i> daughter's fault—not your's."</p> + +<p>"I am very glad to see Janetta, under any circumstances," said Mr. +Colwyn, gravely, as he raised his hat. He was a tall spare man, in a +shabby coat, with a careworn aspect, and kindly, melancholy eyes. +Janetta noticed with a pang that his hair was greyer than it had been +when last she went back to school.</p> + +<p>"We shall be glad to see her again at Helmsley Court," said Lady +Caroline. "No, I won't get out, thank you. I have to get back to tea. +Your daughter's box is in front. I was to tell you from Miss +Polehampton, Mr. Colwyn, that her friend at Worthing would be glad of +Miss Colwyn's services after the holidays."</p> + +<p>"I am much obliged to your ladyship," said Mr. Colwyn, with grave +formality. "I am not sure that I shall let my daughter go."</p> + +<p>"Won't you? Oh, but she ought to have all possible advantages! And can +you tell me, Mr. Colwyn, by any chance, <i>who</i> are the people whom we +passed on the road to Beaminster—an oldish lady in black and a young +man with very dark hair and eyes? They had B on their luggage, I +believe."</p> + +<p>Mr. Colwyn looked surprised.</p> + +<p>"I think I can tell you," he said, quietly. "They were on their way from +Beaminster to Brand Hall. The young man was a cousin of my wife's: his +name is Wyvis Brand, and the lady in black was his mother. They have +come home after an absence of nearly four-and-twenty years."</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline was too polite to say what she really felt—that she was +sorry to hear it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>WYVIS BRAND.</h3> + + +<p>On the evening of the day on which Lady Caroline drove with Janetta +Colwyn to Beaminster, the lady who had fainted by the wayside was +sitting in a rather gloomy-looking room at Brand Hall—a room known in +the household as the Blue Drawing-room. It had not the look of a +drawing-room exactly: it was paneled in oak, which had grown black with +age, as had also the great oak beams that crossed the ceiling and the +polished floor. The furniture also was of oak, and the hangings of dark +but faded blue, while the blue velvet of the chairs and the square of +Oriental carpet, in which blue tints also preponderated, did not add +cheerfulness to the scene. One or two great blue vases set on the carved +oak mantel-piece, and some smaller blue ornaments on a sideboard, +matched the furniture in tint; but it was remarkable that on a day when +country gardens were overflowing with blossom, there was not a single +flower or green leaf in any of the vases. No smaller and lighter +ornaments, no scrap of woman's handiwork—lace or embroidery—enlivened +the place: no books were set upon the table. A fire would not have been +out of season, for the evenings were chilly, and it would have had a +cheery look; but there was no attempt at cheeriness. The woman who sat +in one of the high-backed chairs was pale and sad: her folded hands lay +listlessly clasped together on her lap, and the sombre garb that she +wore was as unrelieved by any gleam of brightness as the room itself. In +the gathering gloom of a chilly summer evening, even the rings upon her +fingers could not flash. Her white face, in its setting of rough, wavy +grey hair, over which she wore a covering of black lace, looked almost +statuesque in its profound tranquillity. But it was not the tranquillity +of comfort and prosperity that had settled on that pale, worn, +high-featured face—it was rather the tranquillity that comes of +accepted sorrow and inextinguishable despair.</p> + +<p>She had sat thus for fully half an hour when the door was roughly +opened, and the young man whom Mr. Colwyn had named as Wyvis Brand came +lounging into the room. He had been dining, but he was not in evening +dress, and there was something unrestful and reckless in his way of +moving round the room and throwing himself in the chair nearest his +mother's, which roused Mrs. Brand's attention. She turned slightly +towards him, and became conscious at once of the fumes of wine and +strong tobacco with which her son had made her only too familiar. She +looked at him for a moment, then clasped her hands tightly together and +resumed her former position, with her sad face turned to the window. She +may have breathed a sigh as she did so, but Wyvis Brand did not hear it, +and if he had heard it, would not perhaps have very greatly cared.</p> + +<p>"Why do you sit in the dark?" he said at last, in a vexed tone.</p> + +<p>"I will ring for lights," Mrs. Brand answered quietly.</p> + +<p>"Do as you like: I am not going to stay: I am going out," said the young +man.</p> + +<p>The hand that his mother had stretched out towards the bell fell to her +side: she was a submissive woman, used to taking her son at his word.</p> + +<p>"You are lonely here," she ventured to remark, after a short silence: +"you will be glad when Cuthbert comes down."</p> + +<p>"It's a beastly hole," said her son, gloomily. "I would advise Cuthbert +to stay in Paris. What he will do with himself here, I can't imagine."</p> + +<p>"He is happy anywhere," said the mother, with a stifled sigh.</p> + +<p>Wyvis uttered a short, harsh laugh.</p> + +<p>"That can't be said of us, can it?" he exclaimed, putting his hand on +his mother's knee in a rough sort of caress. "We are generally in the +shadow while Cuthbert is in the sunshine, eh? The influence of this old +place makes me poetical, you see."</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> need not be in the shadow," said Mrs. Brand. But she said it with +an effort.</p> + +<p>"Needn't I?" said Wyvis. He thrust his hands into his pockets and leaned +back in his chair with another laugh. "I have such a lot to make me +cheerful, haven't I?"</p> + +<p>His mother turned her eyes upon him with a look of yearning tenderness +which, even if the room had been less dimly lighted, he would not have +seen. He was not much in the habit of looking for sympathy in other +people's faces.</p> + +<p>"Is the place worse than you expected?" she asked, with a tremor in her +voice.</p> + +<p>"It is mouldier—and smaller," he replied, curtly. "One's childish +impressions don't go for much. And it is in a miserable state—roof out +of repair—fences falling down—drainage imperfect. It has been allowed +to go to rack and ruin while we were away."</p> + +<p>"Wyvis, Wyvis," said his mother, in a tone of pain, "I kept you away for +your own sake. I thought you would be happier abroad."</p> + +<p>"Oh—happier!" said the young man, rather scornfully. "Happiness isn't +meant for me: it isn't in my line. It makes no difference to me whether +I am here or in Paris. I should have been here long ago if I had had +any idea that things were going wrong in this way."</p> + +<p>"I suppose," said Mrs. Brand, carefully controlling her voice, "that you +will not have the visitors you spoke of if the house is in so bad a +state."</p> + +<p>"Not have visitors? Of course I shall have visitors. What else is there +for me to do with myself? We shall get the house put pretty straight by +the 12th. Not that there will be any shooting worth speaking of on <i>my</i> +place."</p> + +<p>"If nobody comes before the 12th, I think we can make the house +habitable. I will do my best, Wyvis."</p> + +<p>Wyvis laughed again, but in a softer key. "You!" he said. "You can't do +much, mother. It isn't the sort of thing you care about. You stay in +your own rooms and do your needle-work; I'll see to the house. Some men +are coming long before the 12th—the day after to-morrow, I believe."</p> + +<p>"Who?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Dering and St. John and Ponsonby, I expect. I don't know whether +they will bring any one else."</p> + +<p>"The worst men of the worst set you know!" sighed his mother, under her +breath. "Could not you have left them behind?"</p> + +<p>She felt rather than saw how he frowned—how his hand twitched with +impatience.</p> + +<p>"What sort of friends am I likely to have?" he said. "Why not those that +amuse me most?"</p> + +<p>Then he rose and went over to the window, where he stood for some time +looking out. Turning round at last, he perceived from a slight familiar +movement of his mother's hand over her eyes that she was weeping, and it +seemed as if his heart smote him at the sight.</p> + +<p>"Come, mother," he said, kindly, "don't take what I say and do so much +to heart. You know I'm no good, and never shall do anything in the +world. You have Cuthbert to comfort you—"</p> + +<p>"Cuthbert is nothing to me—<i>nothing</i>—compared with you, Wyvis."</p> + +<p>The young man came to her side and put his hand on her shoulder. The +passionate tone had touched him.</p> + +<p>"Poor mother!" he said, softly. "You've suffered a good deal through me, +haven't you? I wish I could make you forget all the past—but perhaps +you wouldn't thank me if I could."</p> + +<p>"No," she said, leaning forward so as to rest her forehead against his +arm. "No. For there has been brightness in the past, but I see little +brightness in the future either for you or for me."</p> + +<p>"Well, that is my own fault," said Wyvis, lightly but bitterly. "If it +had not been for my own youthful folly I shouldn't be burdened as I am +now. I have no one but myself to thank."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, it was my fault. I pressed you to do it—to tie yourself for +life to the woman who has made you miserable!" said Mrs. Brand, in a +tone of despairing self-accusation. "I fancied—then—that we were doing +right."</p> + +<p>"I suppose we were doing right," said Wyvis Brand sternly, but not as if +the thought gave him any consolation. "It was better perhaps that I +should marry the woman whom I thought I loved—instead of leaving her or +wronging her—but I wish to God that I had never seen her face!"</p> + +<p>"And to think that I persuaded you into marrying her," moaned the +mother, rocking herself backward and forward in the extremity of her +regretful anguish; "I—who ought to have been wiser—who might have +interfered——"</p> + +<p>"You couldn't have interfered to much purpose. I was mad about her at +the time," said her son, beginning to walk about the room in a restless, +aimless manner. "I wish, mother, that you would cease to talk about the +past. It seems to me sometimes like a dream; if you would but let it lie +still, I think that I could fancy it was a dream. Remember that I do not +blame you. When I rage against the bond, I am perfectly well aware that +it was one of my own making. No remonstrance, no command would have +availed with me for a moment. I was determined to go my own way, and I +went."</p> + +<p>It was curious to remark that the roughness and harshness of his first +manner had dropped away from him as it did drop now and then. He spoke +with the polished utterance of an educated man. It was almost as though +he at times put on a certain boorishness of demeanor, feeling it in some +way demanded of him by circumstances—but not natural to him after all.</p> + +<p>"I will try not to vex you, Wyvis," said his mother, wistfully.</p> + +<p>"You do not vex me exactly," he answered, "but you stir my old memories +too often. I want to forget the past. Why else did I come down here, +where I have never been since I was a child? where Juliet never set +foot, and where I have no association with that miserable passage in my +life?"</p> + +<p>"Then why do you bring those men down, Wyvis? For <i>they</i> know the past: +<i>they</i> will recall old associations——"</p> + +<p>"They amuse me. I cannot be without companions. I do not pretend to cut +myself off from the whole world."</p> + +<p>As he spoke thus briefly and coldly, he stopped to strike a match, and +then lighted the wax candles that stood on the black sideboard. By this +act he meant perhaps to put a stop to the conversation of which he was +heartily tired. But Mrs. Brand, in the half-bewildered condition of mind +to which long anxiety and sorrow had reduced her, did not know the +virtue of silence, and did not possess the magic quality of tact.</p> + +<p>"You might find companions down here," she said, pertinaciously, "people +suited to your position—old friends of your father's, perhaps——"</p> + +<p>"Will they be so willing to make friends with my father's son?" Wyvis +burst out bitterly. Then, seeing from her white and stricken face that +he had hurt her, he came to her side and kissed her penitently. "Forgive +me, mother," he said, "if I say what you don't like. I've been hearing +about my father ever since I came to Beaminster two days ago. I have +heard nothing but what confirmed my previous idea about his character. +Even poor old Colwyn couldn't say any good of him. He went to the devil +as fast as ever he could go, and his son seems likely to follow in his +footsteps. That's the general opinion, and, by George, I think I shall +soon do something to justify it."</p> + +<p>"You need not live as your father did, Wyvis," said his mother, whose +tears were flowing fast.</p> + +<p>"If I don't, nobody will believe it," said the young man, moodily. +"There is no fighting against fate. The Brands are doomed, mother: we +shall die out and be forgotten—all the better for the world, too. It is +time we were done with: we are a bad lot."</p> + +<p>"Cuthbert is not bad. And you—Wyvis, you have your child."</p> + +<p>"Have I? A child that I have not seen since it was six months old! +Brought up by its mother—a woman without heart or principle or anything +that is good! Much comfort the child is likely to be to me when I get +hold of it."</p> + +<p>"When will that be?" said Mrs. Brand, as if speaking to herself rather +than to him. But Wyvis replied:</p> + +<p>"When she is tired of it—not before. I do not know where she is."</p> + +<p>"Does she not draw her allowance?"</p> + +<p>"Not regularly. And she refused her address when she last appeared at +Kirby's. I suppose she wants to keep the child away from me. She need +not trouble. The last thing I want is her brat to bring up."</p> + +<p>"Wyvis!"</p> + +<p>But to his mother's remonstrating exclamation Wyvis paid no attention in +the least: his mood was fitful, and he was glad to step out of the +ill-lighted room into the hall, and thence to the silence and solitude +of the grounds about the house.</p> + +<p>Brand Hall had been practically deserted for the last few years. A +tenant or two had occupied it for a little time soon after its late +master's withdrawal from the country; but the house was inconvenient and +remote from towns, and it was said, moreover, to be damp and unhealthy. +A caretaker and his wife had, therefore, been its only inhabitants of +late, and a great deal of preparation had been required to make it fit +for its owner when he at last wrote to his agents in Beaminster to +intimate his intention of settling at the Hall.</p> + +<p>The Brands had for many a long year been renowned as the most unlucky +family in the neighborhood. They had once possessed a great property in +the county; but gambling losses and speculation had greatly reduced +their wealth, and even in the time of Wyvis Brand's grandfather the +prestige of the family had sunk very low. In the days of Mark Brand, the +father of Wyvis, it sank lower still. Mark Brand was not only "wild," +but weak: not only weak, but wicked. His career was one of riotous +dissipation, culminating in what was generally spoken of as "a low +marriage"—with the barmaid of a Beaminster public-house. Mary Wyvis had +never been at all like the typical barmaid of fiction or real life: she +was always pale, quiet, and refined-looking, and it was not difficult to +see how she had developed into the sorrowful, careworn woman whom Wyvis +Brand called mother; but she came of a thoroughly bad stock, and was not +untouched in reputation. The county people cut Mark Brand after his +marriage, and never took any notice of his wife; and they were horrified +when he insisted on naming his eldest son after his wife's family, as if +he gloried in the lowliness of her origin. But when Wyvis was a small +boy, his father resolved that neither he nor his children should be +flouted and jeered at by county magnates any longer. He went abroad, and +remained abroad until his death, when Wyvis was twenty years of age and +Cuthbert, the younger son, was barely twelve. Some people said that the +discovery of some particularly disgraceful deed was imminent when he +left his native shores, and that it was for this reason that he had +never returned to England; but Mark Brand himself always spoke as if his +health were too weak, his nerves too delicate, to bear the rough breezes +of his own country and the brusque manners of his compatriots. He had +brought up his son according to his own ideas; and the result did not +seem entirely satisfactory. Vague rumors occasionally reached Beaminster +of scrapes and scandals in which the young Brands figured; it was said +that Wyvis was a particularly black sheep, and that he did his best to +corrupt his younger brother Cuthbert. The news that he was coming back +to Brand Hall was not received with enthusiasm by those who heard it.</p> + +<p>Wyvis' own story had been a sad one—perhaps more sad than scandalous; +but it was a story that the Beaminster people were never to hear aright. +Few knew it, and most of those who knew it had agreed to keep it secret. +That his wife and child were living, many persons in Paris were aware; +that they had separated was also known, but the reason of that +separation was to most persons a secret. And Wyvis, who had a great +dislike to chatterers, made up his mind when he came to Beaminster that +he would tell to nobody the history of the past few years. Had it not +been for his mother's sad face, he fancied that he could have put it out +of his mind altogether. He half resented the pertinacity with which she +seemed to brood upon it. The fact that she had forwarded—had almost +insisted upon—the unfortunate marriage, weighed heavily upon her mind. +There had been a point at which Wyvis would have given it up. But his +mother had espoused the side of the girl, persuaded the young man to +fulfill his promises to her—and repented it ever since. Mrs. Wyvis +Brand had developed an uncontrollable love for strong drink, as well as +a temper that made her at times more like a mad woman than an ordinary +human being; and when she one day disappeared from her husband's home, +carrying his child with her, and announcing in a subsequent letter that +she did not mean to return, it could hardly be wondered at if Wyvis drew +a long breath of relief, and hoped that she never would.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>JANETTA AT HOME.</h3> + + +<p>When Lady Caroline drove away from Gwynne Street, Janetta was left by +the tumble-down iron gate with her father, in whose hand she had laid +both her own. He looked at her interrogatively, smiled a little and +said—"Well, my dear?" with a softening of his whole face which made him +positively beautiful in Janetta's eyes.</p> + +<p>"Dear, dearest father!" said the girl, with an irrepressible little sob. +"I am so glad to see you again!"</p> + +<p>"Come in, my dear," said Mr. Colwyn, who was not an emotional man, +although a sympathetic one. "We have been expecting you all day. We did +not think that they would keep you so long at the Court."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you all about it when I get in," said Janetta, trying to +speak cheerily, with an instinctive remembrance of the demands usually +made upon her fortitude in her own home. "Is mamma in?" She always spoke +of the present Mrs. Colwyn, as "mamma," to distinguish her from her own +mother. "I don't see any of the children."</p> + +<p>"Frightened away by the grand carriage, I expect," said Mr. Colwyn, with +a grim smile. "I see a head or two at the window. Here, Joey, Georgie, +Tiny—where are you all? Come and help to carry your sister's things +upstairs." He went to the front door and called again; whereupon a side +door opened, and from it issued a slip-shod, untidy-looking woman in a +shawl, while over her shoulder and under her arm appeared a little +troop of children in various stages of growth and untidiness. Mrs. +Colwyn had the peculiarity of never being ready for any engagement, much +less for any emergency: she had been expecting Janetta all day, and with +Janetta some of the Court party; but she was nevertheless in a state of +semi-undress, which she tried to conceal underneath her shawl; and on +the first intimation of the approach of Lady Caroline's carriage she had +shut herself and the children into a back room, and declared her +intention of fainting on the spot if Lady Caroline entered the front +door.</p> + +<p>"Well, Janetta," she said, as she advanced towards her stepdaughter and +presented one faded cheek to be kissed, "so your grand friends have +brought you home! Of course they wouldn't come in; I did not expect +them, I am sure. Come into the front room—and children, don't crowd so; +your sister will speak to you by-and-bye."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, let me kiss them now," said Janetta, who was receiving a series +of affectionate hugs that went far to blind her eyes to the general +deficiency of orderliness and beauty in the house to which she had come. +"Oh, darlings, I am so glad to see you again! Joey, how you have grown! +And Tiny isn't Tiny any longer! Georgie, you have been plaiting your +hair! And here are Curly and Jinks! But where is Nora?"</p> + +<p>"Upstairs, curling her hair," shouted the child who was known by the +name of Jinks. While Georgie, a well-grown girl of thirteen, added in a +lower tone,</p> + +<p>"She would not come down until the Court people had gone. She said <i>she</i> +didn't want to be patronized."</p> + +<p>Janetta colored, and turned away. Meanwhile Mrs. Colwyn had dropped into +the nearest arm-chair, and Mr. Colwyn strayed in and out of the room +with the expression of a dog that has lost its master. Georgie hung upon +Janetta's arm, and the younger children either clung to their elder +sister, or stared at her with round eyes and their fingers in their +mouths. Janetta felt uncomfortably conscious of being more than usually +interesting to them all. Joe, the eldest boy, a dusty lad of fourteen, +all legs and arms, favored her with a broad grin expressive of delight, +which his sister did not understand. It was Tiny, the most gentle and +delicate of the tribe, who let in a little light on the subject.</p> + +<p>"Did they send you away from school for being naughty?" she asked, with +a grave look into Janetta's face.</p> + +<p>A chuckle from Joey, and a giggle from Georgie, were instantly repressed +by Mr. Colwyn's frown and Mrs. Colwyn's acid remonstrance.</p> + +<p>"What are you thinking of, children? Sister is never naughty. We do not +yet quite understand why she has left Miss Polehampton's so suddenly, +but of course she has some good reason. She'll explain it, no doubt, to +her papa and me. Miss Polehampton has been a great deal put out about it +all, and has written a long letter to your papa, Janetta; and, indeed, +it seems to <i>me</i> as if it would have been more becoming if you had kept +to your own place and not tried to make friends with those above +you——"</p> + +<p>"Who are those above her, I should like to know?" broke in the +grey-haired surgeon with some heat. "My Janet's as good as the best of +them any day. The Adairs are not such grand people as Miss Polehampton +makes out—I never heard of such insulting distinctions!"</p> + +<p>"Fancy Janetta being sent away—regularly expelled!" muttered Joey, with +another chuckle.</p> + +<p>"You are very unkind to talk in that way!" said Janetta, addressing him, +because at that moment she could not bear to look at Mr. Colwyn. "It was +not <i>that</i> that made Miss Polehampton angry. It was what she called +insubordination. Miss Adair did not like to see me having meals at a +side-table—though I didn't mind one single bit!—and she left her own +place and sat by me—and then Miss Polehampton was vexed—and everything +followed naturally. It was not just my being friends with Miss Adair +that made her send me away."</p> + +<p>"It seems to me," said Mr. Colwyn, "that Miss Adair was very +inconsiderate."</p> + +<p>"It was all her love and friendship, father," pleaded Janetta. "And she +had always had her own way; and of course she did not think that Miss +Polehampton really meant——"</p> + +<p>Her weak little excuses were cut short by a scornful laugh from her +stepmother.</p> + +<p>"It's easy to see that you have been made a cat's-paw of, Janetta," she +said. "Miss Adair was tired of school, and took the opportunity of +making a to-do about you, so as to provoke the schoolmistress and get +sent away. It does not matter to her, of course: <i>she</i> hasn't got her +living to earn. And if you lose your teaching, and Miss Polehampton's +recommendations by it, it doesn't affect her. Oh, I understand these +fine ladies and their ways."</p> + +<p>"Indeed," said Janetta, in distress, "you quite misunderstand Miss +Adair, mamma. Besides, it has not deprived me of my teaching: Miss +Polehampton had told me that I might go to her sister's school at +Worthing if I liked; and she only let me go yesterday because she became +irritated at—at—some of the things that were said——"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I shall not let you go to Worthing," said Mr. Colwyn, with +sudden decisiveness. "You shall not be exposed to insolence of this kind +any longer. Miss Polehampton had no right to treat you as she did, and I +shall write and tell her so."</p> + +<p>"And if Janetta stays at home," said his wife complainingly, "what is to +become of her career as a music-teacher? She can't get lessons here, and +there's the expense——"</p> + +<p>"I hope I can afford to keep my daughter as long as I am alive," said +Mr. Colwyn with some vehemence. "There, don't be vexed, my dear child," +and he laid his hand tenderly on Janetta's shoulder, "nobody blames you; +and your friend erred perhaps from over-affection; but Miss +Polehampton"—with energy—"is a vulgar, self-seeking, foolish old +woman, and I won't have you enter into relations with her again."</p> + +<p>And then he left the room, and Janetta, forcing back the tears in her +eyes, did her best to smile when Georgie and Tiny hugged her +simultaneously and Jinks beat a tattoo upon her knee.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mrs. Colwyn, lugubriously, "I hope everything will turn out +for the best; but it is not at all nice, Janetta, to think that Miss +Adair has been expelled for your sake, or that you are thrown out of +work without a character, so to speak. I should think the Adairs would +see that, and would make some compensation. If they don't offer to do +so, your papa might suggest it——"</p> + +<p>"I'm sure father would never suggest anything of the kind," Janetta +flashed out; but before Mrs. Colwyn could protest, a diversion was +effected by the entrance of the missing Nora, and all discussion was +postponed to a more fitting moment.</p> + +<p>For to look at Nora was to forget discussion. She was the eldest of the +second Mrs. Colwyn's children—a girl just seventeen, taller than +Janetta and thinner, with the thinness of immature girlhood, but with a +fair skin and a mop of golden-brown hair, which curled so naturally that +her younger brother's statement concerning those fair locks must surely +have been a libel. She had a vivacious, narrow, little face, with large +eyes like a child's—that is to say, they had the transparent look that +one sees in some children's eyes, as if the color had been laid on in a +single wash without any shadows. They were very pretty eyes, and gave +light and expression to a set of rather small features, which might have +been insignificant if they had belonged to an insignificant person. But +Nora Colwyn was anything but insignificant.</p> + +<p>"Have your fine friends gone?" she said, peeping into the room in +pretended alarm. "Then I may come in. How are you, Janetta, after your +sojourn in the halls of dazzling light?"</p> + +<p>"Don't be absurd, Nora," said her sister, with a sudden backward dart of +remembrance to the tranquil beauty of the rooms at Helmsley Court and +the silver accents of Lady Caroline. "Why didn't you come down before?"</p> + +<p>"My dear, I thought the nobility and gentry were blocking the door," +said Nora, kissing her. "But since they are gone, you might as well come +upstairs with me and take off your things. Then we can have tea."</p> + +<p>Obediently Janetta followed her sister to the little room which they +always shared when Janetta was at home. It might have looked very bare +and desolate to ordinary eyes, but the girl felt the thrill of pleasure +that all young creatures feel to anything that bears the name of home, +and became aware of a satisfaction such as she had not experienced in +her luxurious bedroom at Helmsley Court. Nora helped her to take off her +hat and cloak, and to unpack her box, insisting meanwhile on a detailed +relation of all the events that had led to Janetta's return three weeks +before the end of the term, and shrieking with laughter over what she +called "Miss Poley's defeat."</p> + +<p>"But, seriously, Nora, what shall I do with myself, if father will not +let me go to Worthing?"</p> + +<p>"Teach the children at home," said Nora, briskly; "and save me the +trouble of looking after them. I should like that. Or get some pupils in +the town. Surely the Adairs will recommend you!"</p> + +<p>This constant reference to possible aid from the Adairs troubled Janetta +not a little, and it was with some notion of combatting the idea that +she repaired to the surgery after tea, in order to get a few words on +the subject with her father. But his first remark was on quite a +different matter.</p> + +<p>"Here's a pretty kettle of fish, Janet! The Brands are back again!"</p> + +<p>"So I heard you say to Lady Caroline."</p> + +<p>"Mark Brand was a cousin of your mother's," said Mr. Colwyn, abruptly; +"and a bad lot. As for these sons of his, I know nothing about +them—absolutely nothing. But their mother——" he shook his head +significantly.</p> + +<p>"We saw them to day," said Janetta.</p> + +<p>"Ah, an accident of that kind would be a shock to her: she does not look +strong. They wrote to me from the 'Clown,' where they had stayed for the +last two days; some question relative to the drainage of Brand Hall. I +went to the 'Crown' and saw them. He's a fine-looking man."</p> + +<p>"He has not altogether a pleasant expression," remarked Janetta, +thinking of Lady Caroline's strictures; "but I—liked—his face."</p> + +<p>"He looks ill-tempered," said her father. "And I can't say that he +showed me much civility. He did not even know that your poor mother was +dead. Never asked whether she had left any family or anything."</p> + +<p>"Did you tell him?" asked Janetta, after a pause.</p> + +<p>"No. I did not think it worth while. I am not anxious to cultivate his +acquaintance."</p> + +<p>"After all, what does it matter?" said the girl coaxingly, for she +thought she saw a shadow of disappointment upon his face.</p> + +<p>"No, what does it matter?" said her father, brightening up at once. "As +long as we are happy with each other, these outside people need not +disturb us, need they?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit," said Janetta. "And—you are not angry with me, are you, +father, dear?"</p> + +<p>"Why should I be, my Janet? You have done nothing wrong that I know of. +If there is any blame it attaches to Miss Adair, not to you."</p> + +<p>"But I do not want you to think so, father. Miss Adair is the greatest +friend that I have in all the world."</p> + +<p>And she found a good many opportunities of repeating; this conviction of +hers during the next few days, for Mrs. Colwyn and Nora were not slow to +repeat the sentiment with which they had greeted her—that the Adairs +were "stuck-up" fine people, and that they did not mean to take any +further notice of her now that they had got what they desired.</p> + +<p>Janetta stood up gallantly for her friend, but she did feel it a little +hard that Margaret had not written or come to see her since her return +home. She conjectured—and in the conjecture she was nearly right—that +Lady Caroline had sacrificed her a little in order to smooth over things +with her daughter: that she had represented Janetta as resolved upon +going, resolved upon neglecting Margaret and not complying with her +requests; and that Margaret was a little offended with her in +consequence. She wrote an affectionate note of excuse to her friend, but +Margaret made no reply.</p> + +<p>In the first ardor of a youthful friendship, Janetta's heart ached over +this silence, and she meditated much as she lay nights upon her little +white bed in Nora's attic (for she had not time to meditate during the +day) upon the smoothness of life which seemed necessary to the Adairs +and the means they took for securing it. On the whole, their life seemed +to her too artificial, too much like the life of delicate hot-house +flowers under glass; and she came to the conclusion that she preferred +her own mode of existence—troublous and hurried and common as it might +seem in the eyes of the world to be. After all, was it not pleasant to +know that while she was at home, there was a little more comfort than +usual for her over-worked, hardly-driven, careworn father; she could see +that his meals were properly cooked and served when he came in from long +and weary expeditions into the country or amongst the poor of +Beaminster; she could help Joey and Georgie in the evenings with their +respective lessons; she could teach and care for the younger children +all day long. To her stepmother she did not feel that she was very +useful; but she could at any rate make new caps for her, new lace +fichus and bows, which caused Mrs. Colwyn occasionally to remark with +some complacency that Janetta had been quite <i>wasted</i> at Miss +Polehampton's school: her proper destiny was evidently to be a milliner.</p> + +<p>Nora was the one person of the family who did not seem to want Janetta's +help. Indirectly, however, the elder sister was more useful to her than +she knew; for the two went out together and were companions. Hitherto +Nora had walked alone, and had made one or two undesirable girl +acquaintances. But these were dropped when she had Janetta to talk to, +dropped quietly, without a word, much to their indignation, and without +Janetta's knowing of their existence.</p> + +<p>It became a common thing for the two girls to go out together in the +long summer evenings, when the work of the day was over, and stroll +along the country roads, or venture into the cool shadow of the +Beaminster woods. Sometimes the children went with them: sometimes +Janetta and Nora went alone. And it was when they were alone one evening +that a somewhat unexpected incident came to pass.</p> + +<p>The Beaminster woods ran for some distance in a northerly direction +beyond Beaminster, and there was a point where only a wire fence divided +them from the grounds of Brand Hall. Near this fence Janetta and her +sister found themselves one evening—not that they had purposed to reach +the boundary, but that they had strayed a little from the beaten path. +As they neared the fence they looked at each other and laughed.</p> + +<p>"I did not know that we were so near the lordly dwelling of your +relations!" said Nora, who loved to tease, and knew that she could +always rouse Janetta's indignation by a reference to her "fine friends."</p> + +<p>"I did not know either," returned Janetta, good-humoredly. "We can see +the house a little. Look at the great red chimneys."</p> + +<p>"I have been over it," said Nora, contemptuously. "It's a poor little +place, after all—saving your presence, Netta! I wonder if the Brands +mean to acknowledge your existence? They——"</p> + +<p>She stopped short, for her foot had caught on something, and she nearly +stumbled. Janetta stopped also, and the two sisters uttered a sudden +cry of surprise. For what Nora had stumbled over was a wooden horse—a +child's broken toy—and deep in the bracken before them, with one hand +beneath his flushed and dimpled cheek, there lay the loveliest of all +objects—a sleeping child.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>NORA'S NEW ACQUAINTANCE.</h3> + + +<p>"He must have lost his way," said Janetta, bending over him. "Poor +little fellow!"</p> + +<p>"He's a pretty little boy," said Nora, carelessly. "His nurse or his +mother or somebody will be near, I dare say—perhaps gone up to the +house. Shall I look about?"</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute—he is awake—he will tell us who he is."</p> + +<p>The child, roused by the sound of voices, turned a little, stretched +himself, then opened his great dark eyes, and fixed them full on +Janetta's face. What he saw there must have reassured him, for a dreamy +smile came to his lips, and he stretched out his little hands to her.</p> + +<p>"You darling!" cried Janetta. "Where did you come from, dear? What is +your name?"</p> + +<p>The boy raised himself and looked about him. He looked about five years +old, and was a remarkably fine and handsome child. It was in perfectly +clear and distinct English—almost free from any trace of baby +dialect—that he replied—</p> + +<p>"Mammy brought me. She said I should find my father here. I don't want +my father," he remarked, decidedly.</p> + +<p>"Who is your father? What is your name?" Nora asked.</p> + +<p>"My name is Julian Wyvis Brand," said the little fellow, sturdily; "and +I want to know where my father lives, if you please, 'cause it'll soon +be my bed-time, and I'm getting very hungry."</p> + +<p>Janetta and her sister exchanged glances.</p> + +<p>"Is your father's name Wyvis Brand, too?" asked Janetta.</p> + +<p>"Yes, same as mine," said the boy, nodding. He stood erect now, and she +noticed that his clothes, originally of fashionable cut and costly +material, were torn and stained and shabby. He had a little bundle +beside him, tied up in a gaudy shawl; and the broken toy-horse seemed to +have fallen out of it.</p> + +<p>"But where is your mother?"</p> + +<p>"Mammy's gone away. She told me to go and find my father at the big red +house there. I did go once; but they thought I was a beggar, and they +sent me away. I don't know what to do, I don't. I wish mammy would +come."</p> + +<p>"Will she come soon?"</p> + +<p>"She said no. Never, never, never. She's gone over the sea again," said +the boy, with the abstracted, meditative look which children sometimes +assume when they are concocting a romance, and which Janetta was quick +to remark. "I think she's gone right off to America or London. But she +said that I was to tell my father that she would never come back."</p> + +<p>"What are we to do?" said Nora, in an under tone.</p> + +<p>"We must take him to Brand Hall," Janetta answered, "and ask to see +either Mrs. Brand or Mr. Wyvis Brand."</p> + +<p>"Won't it be rather dreadful?"</p> + +<p>Janetta turned hastily on her sister. "Yes," she said, with decision, +"it is very awkward, indeed, and it may be much better that you should +not be mixed up in the matter at all. You must stay here while I go up +to the house."</p> + +<p>"But, Janetta, wouldn't you rather have some one with you?"</p> + +<p>"I think it will be easier alone," Janetta answered. "You see, I have +seen Mrs. Brand and her son already, and I feel as if I knew what they +would be like. Wait for me here: I daresay I shall not be ten minutes. +Come, dear, will you go with me to see if we can find your father?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the boy, promptly putting his hand in hers.</p> + +<p>"Are these your things in the bundle?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; mammy put them there. There's my Sunday suit, and my book of +'Jack, the Giantkiller,' you know. And my wooden horse; but it's broke. +Will you carry the horse for me?—and I'll carry the bundle."</p> + +<p>"Isn't it too heavy for you?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit," and the little fellow grasped it by both bands, and swung +it about triumphantly.</p> + +<p>"Come along, then," said Janetta, with a smile. "Wait for me here, Nora, +dear: I shall then find you easily when I come back."</p> + +<p>She marched off, the boy stumping after her with his burden. Nora +noticed that after a few minutes' walk her sister gently relieved him of +the load and carried it herself.</p> + +<p>"Just like Janetta," she soliloquized, as the two figures disappeared +behind a clump of tall trees; "she was afraid of spoiling the moral if +she did not let him <i>try</i> at least to carry the bundle. She always is +afraid of spoiling the moral: I never knew such a conscientious person +in my life. I am sure, as mamma says, she sets an excellent example."</p> + +<p>And then Nora balanced herself on the loose wire of the fence, which +made an excellent swing, and poising herself upon it she took off her +hat, and resigned herself to waiting for Janetta's return. Naturally, +perhaps, her meditations turned upon Janetta's character.</p> + +<p>"I wish I were like her," she said to herself. "Wherever she is she +seems to find work to do, and makes herself necessary and useful. Now, I +am of no use to anybody. I don't think I was ever meant to be of use. I +was meant to be ornamental!" She struck the wire with the point of her +little shoe, and looked at it regretfully. "I have no talent, mamma +says. I can look nice, I believe, and that is all. If I were Margaret +Adair I am sure I should be very much admired! But being only Nora +Colwyn, the doctor's daughter, I must mend socks and make puddings, and +eat cold mutton and wear old frocks to the end of the chapter! What a +mercy I am taller than Janetta! My old dresses are cut down for her, but +she can't leave me <i>her</i> cast-off ones. That little wretch, Georgie, +will soon be as tall as I am, I believe. Thank goodness, she will never +be as pretty." And Miss Nora, who was really excessively vain, drew out +of her pocket a small looking-glass, and began studying her features as +therein reflected: first her eyes, when she pulled out her eyelashes and +stroked her eyebrows; then her nose, which she pinched a little to make +longer; then her mouth, of which she bit the lips in order to increase +the color and judge of the effect. Then she took some geranium petals +from the flowers in her belt and rubbed them on her cheeks: the red +stain became her mightily, she thought, and was almost as good as rouge.</p> + +<p>Thus engaged, she did not hear steps on the pathway by which she and +Janetta had come. A man, young and slim, with a stoop and a slight halt +in his walk, with bright, curling hair, worn rather longer than +Englishmen usually wear it, with thin but expressive features, and very +brilliant blue eyes—this was the personage who now appeared upon the +scene. He stopped short rather suddenly when he became aware of the +presence of a young lady upon the fence—perhaps it was to him a +somewhat startling one: then, when he noted how she was engaged, a smile +broke gradually over his countenance. He once made a movement to +advance, then restrained himself and waited; but some involuntary rustle +of the branches above him or twigs under his feet revealed him. Nora +gave a little involuntary cry, dropped her looking-glass, and colored +crimson with vexation at finding that some one was watching her.</p> + +<p>"What ought I to do, I wonder?" Such was the thought that flashed +through the young man's mind. He was remarkably quick in receiving +impressions and in drawing conclusions. "She is not a French girl, thank +goodness, fresh from a convent, and afraid to open her lips! Neither is +she the conventional young English lady, or she would not sit on a fence +and look at herself in a pocket looking-glass. At least, I suppose she +would not: how should I know what English girls would do? At any rate, +here goes for addressing her."</p> + +<p>All these ideas passed through his mind in the course of the second or +two which elapsed while he courteously raised his hat, and advanced to +pick up the fallen hand-glass. But Nora was too quick for him. She had +slipped off the fence and secured her mirror before he could reach it; +and then, with a look of quite unnecessary scorn and anger, she almost +turned her back upon him, and stood looking at the one angle of the +house which she could see.</p> + +<p>The young man brushed his moustache to conceal a smile, and ventured on +the remark that he had been waiting to make.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon; I trust that I did not startle you."</p> + +<p>"Not at all," said Nora, with dignity. But she did not turn round.</p> + +<p>"If you are looking for the gate into the grounds," he resumed, with +great considerateness of manner, "you will find it about twenty yards +further to your left. Can I have the pleasure of showing you the way?"</p> + +<p>"No, thank you," said Miss Nora, very ungraciously. "I am waiting for my +sister." She felt that some explanation was necessary to account for the +fact that she did not immediately walk away.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I beg your pardon," said the young man once more, but this time in +a rather disappointed tone. Then, brightening—"But if your sister has +gone up to our house why won't you come in too?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Your</i> house?" said Nora, unceremoniously, and facing him with an air +of fearless incredulity, which amused him immensely. "But <i>you</i> are not +Mr. Brand?"</p> + +<p>"My name is Brand," said the young fellow, smiling the sunniest smile in +the world, and again raising his hat, with what Nora now noticed to be a +rather foreign kind of grace: "and if you know it, I feel that it is +honored already."</p> + +<p>Nora knitted her brows. "I don't know what you mean," she said, +impatiently, "but you are not Mr. Brand of the Hall, are you?"</p> + +<p>"I live at the Hall, certainly, and my name is Brand—Cuthbert Brand, at +your service."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see. Not Wyvis Brand?" said Nora impulsively. "Not the father of +the dear little boy that we found here just now?"</p> + +<p>Cuthbert Brand's fair face colored. He looked excessively surprised.</p> + +<p>"The father—a little boy? I am afraid," he said, with some +embarrassment of manner, "that I do not exactly know what you mean——"</p> + +<p>"It is just this," said Nora, losing her contemptuous manner and coming +closer to the speaker; "when my sister and I were walking this way we +saw a little boy lying here fast asleep. He woke up and told us that his +name was Julian Wyvis Brand, and that his mother had left him here, and +told him to find his father, who lived at that red house."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens! And the woman—what became of her?"</p> + +<p>"The boy said she had gone away and would not come back."</p> + +<p>"I trust she may not," muttered Cuthbert angrily to himself. A red +flush colored his brow as he went on. "My brother's wife," he said +formally, "is not—at present—on very friendly terms with him; we did +not know that she intended to bring the child home in this manner: we +thought that she desired to keep it—where is the boy, by the way?"</p> + +<p>"My sister has taken him up to the Hall. She said that she would see Mr. +Brand."</p> + +<p>Cuthbert raised his eyebrows. "See my brother?" he repeated as if +involuntarily. "My brother!"</p> + +<p>"She is his second cousin, you know: I suppose that gives her courage," +said Nora smiling at the tone of horror which she fancied must be +simulated for the occasion. But Cuthbert was in earnest—he knew Wyvis +Brand's temper too well to anticipate anything but a rough reception for +any one who seemed inclined to meddle with his private affairs. And if +Nora's sister were like herself! For Nora did not look like a person who +would bear roughness or rudeness from any one.</p> + +<p>"Then are you my cousin, too?" he asked, suddenly struck by an idea that +sent a gleam of pleasure to his eye.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said Nora, demurely. "I'm no relation. It is only Janetta—her +mother was Mr. Brand's father's cousin. But that was not my +mother—Janetta and I are stepsisters."</p> + +<p>"Surely that makes a relationship, however," said Cuthbert, +courageously. "If your stepsister is my second cousin, you must be a +sort of step-second-cousin to me. Will you not condescend to acknowledge +the connection?"</p> + +<p>"Isn't the condescension all on your side?" said Nora coolly. "It may be +a connection, but it certainly isn't a relationship."</p> + +<p>"I am only too glad to hear you call it a connection," said Cuthbert, +with gravity. And then the two laughed—Nora rather against her +will—Cuthbert out of amusement at the situation, and both out of sheer +light-heartedness. And when they had laughed the ice seemed to be +broken, and they felt as if they were old friends.</p> + +<p>"I did not know that any of our relations were living in Beaminster," he +resumed, after a moment's pause.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you never even heard our name," said Nora, saucily.</p> + +<p>"I don't—know——" he began, in some confusion.</p> + +<p>"Of course you don't. Your father had a cousin and she married a +doctor—a poor country surgeon, and so of course you forgot all about +her existence. She was not <i>my</i> mother, so I can speak out, you know. +Your father never spoke to her again after she married <i>my</i> father."</p> + +<p>"More shame to him! I remember now. Your father is James Colwyn."</p> + +<p>Nora nodded. "I think it was a very great shame," she said.</p> + +<p>"And so do I," said Cuthbert, heartily.</p> + +<p>"It was all the worse," Nora went on, quite forgetting in her eagerness +whom she was talking to, "because Mr. Brand was not himself so very much +thought of, you know—people did not think—oh, I forgot! I beg your +pardon!" she suddenly ejaculated, turning crimson as she remembered that +the man to whom she was speaking was the son of the much-abused Mr. +Brand, who had been considered the black sheep of the county.</p> + +<p>"Don't apologize, pray," said Cuthbert, lightly. "I'm quite accustomed +to hearing my relations spoken ill of. What was it that people did not +think?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Nora, now covered with confusion, "of course I could not tell +you."</p> + +<p>"It was so very bad, was it?" said the young man, laughing. "You need +not be afraid. Really and seriously, I have been told that my poor +father was not very popular about here, and I don't much wonder at it, +for although he was a good father to us he was rather short in manner, +and, perhaps, I may add, in temper. Wyvis is like him exactly, I +believe."</p> + +<p>"And are you?" asked Nora.</p> + +<p>Cuthbert raised his hat and gave it a tremendous flourish. +"Mademoiselle, I have not that honor," he replied.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I ought not to have asked," said Nora to herself, but this +time she restrained herself and did not say it aloud. "I wonder where +Janetta is?" she murmured after a moment's silence. "I did not think +that she would be so long."</p> + +<p>If Cuthbert thought the remark ungracious, as he might well have done, +he made no sign of discomfiture. "Can I do anything?" he asked. "Shall I +go to the house and find out whether she has seen my brother? But then I +shall have to leave you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that doesn't matter," said Nora, innocently.</p> + +<p>"Doesn't it? But I hardly like the idea of leaving you all alone. There +might be tramps about. If you are like all the other young ladies I have +known, you will have an objection to tramps."</p> + +<p>"I am sure," said Nora, with confidence, "that I am not at all like the +other young ladies you know; but at the same time I must confess that I +don't like tramps."</p> + +<p>"I knew it. And I saw a tramp—I am sure I did—a little while ago in +this very wood. He was ragged and dirty, but picturesque. I sketched +him, but I think he would not be a pleasant companion for you."</p> + +<p>"Do you sketch?" said Nora quickly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I sketch a little," he answered in a careless sort of way—for +what was the use of telling this little girl that his pictures had been +hung in the Salon and the Academy, or that he had hopes of one day +rising to fame and fortune in his recently adopted profession? He was +not given to boasting of his own success, and besides, this child—with +her saucy face and guileless eyes—would not understand either his +ambitions or his achievements.</p> + +<p>But Nora's one talent was for drawing, and although the instruction she +had received was by no means of the best, she had good taste and a great +desire to improve her skill. So Cuthbert's admission excited her +interest at once.</p> + +<p>"Have you been sketching now?" she asked. "Oh, do let me see what you +have done?"</p> + +<p>Cuthbert's portfolio was under his arm. He laughed, hesitated, then +dropped on one knee beside her and began to exhibit his sketches. It was +thus—side by side, with heads very close together—that Janetta, much +to her amazement, found them on her return.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>FATHER AND CHILD.</h3> + + +<p>Janetta had set off on her expedition to Brand Hall out of an impulse of +mingled pity and indignation—pity for the little boy, indignation +against the mother who could desert him, perhaps against the father +too. This feeling prevented her from realizing all at once the difficult +position in which she was now placing herself; the awkwardness in which +she would be involved if Mr. Brand declared that he knew nothing of the +child, or would have nothing to do with it. "In that case," she said to +herself, with an admiring glance at the lovely little boy, "I shall have +to adopt him, I think! I wonder what poor mamma would say!"</p> + +<p>She found her way without difficulty to the front-door of the long, low, +rambling red house which was dignified by the name of Brand Hall. The +place had a desolate look still, in spite of its being inhabited. +Scarcely a window was open, and no white blinds or pretty curtains could +be seen at the casements. The door was also shut; and as it was one of +those wide oaken doors, mantled with creepers, and flanked with seats, +which look as if they should always stand hospitably open, it gave the +stranger a sense of coldness and aloofness to stand before it. And, +also, there was neither bell nor a knocker—a fact which showed that few +visitors ever made their appearance at Brand Hall. Janetta looked about +her in dismay, and then tapped at the door with her fingers, while the +child followed her every movement with his great wondering eyes, and +finally said, gravely—</p> + +<p>"I think they have all gone to sleep in this house, like the people in +the 'Sleeping Beauty' story."</p> + +<p>"Then you must be the Fairy Prince to wake them all up," said Janetta, +laughingly.</p> + +<p>The boy looked at her as if he understood; then, suddenly stooping, he +picked up a fallen stick and proceeded to give the door several smart +raps upon its oaken panels.</p> + +<p>This summons procured a response. The door was opened, after a good deal +of ineffectual fumbling at bolts and rattling of chains, by an old, +white-haired serving man, who looked as if he had stepped out of the +story to which Julian had alluded. He was very deaf, and it was some +time before Janetta could make him understand that she wanted to see +Mrs. Brand. Evidently Mrs. Brand was not in the habit of receiving +visitors. At last he conducted her to the dark little drawing-room where +the mistress of the house usually sat, and here Janetta was received by +the pale, grey-haired woman whom she had seen fainting on the +Beaminster road. It was curious to notice the agitation of this elderly +lady on Janetta's appearance. She stood up, crushed her handkerchief +between her trembling fingers, took a step towards her visitor, and then +stood still, looking at her with such extraordinary anxiety that Janetta +was quite confused and puzzled by it. Seeing that her hostess could not +in any way assist her out of her difficulty, she faced it boldly by +introducing herself.</p> + +<p>"My name is Janetta Colwyn," she began. "I believe that my mother was a +relation of Mr. Brand's—a cousin——"</p> + +<p>"Yes, a first cousin," said Mrs. Brand, nervously. "I often heard him +speak of her—I never saw her——"</p> + +<p>She paused, looked suspiciously at Janetta, and colored all over her +thin face. Janetta paused also, being taken somewhat by surprise.</p> + +<p>"No, I don't suppose you ever saw her," she said, "but then you went +abroad, and my dear mother died soon after I was born. Otherwise, I +daresay you would have known her."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Brand gave her a strange look. "You think so?" she said. "But +no—you are wrong: she always looked down on me. She never would have +been friendly with me if she had lived."</p> + +<p>"Indeed," said Janetta, very much astonished. "I always heard that it +was the other way—that Mr. Brand was angry with <i>her</i> for marrying a +poor country surgeon, and would not speak to her again."</p> + +<p>"That is what they may have said to you. But you were too young to be +told the truth," said the sad-faced woman, beginning to tremble all over +as she spoke. "No, your mother would not have been friends with me. I +was not her equal—and she knew I was not."</p> + +<p>"Oh, indeed, you make a mistake: I am sure you do," cried Janetta, +becoming genuinely distressed as this view of her mother's character and +conduct was fixed upon her. "My mother was always gentle and kind, they +tell me; I am sure she would have been your friend—as I will be, if you +will let me." She held out her hands and drew those of the trembling +woman into her warm young clasp. "I am a cousin too," she said, blushing +a little as she asserted herself in this way, "and I hope you will let +me come to see you sometimes and make you less lonely."</p> + +<p>"I am always lonely, and I always shall be lonely to the end of time," +said Mrs. Brand, slowly and bitterly. "However"—with an evident attempt +to recover her self-possession—"I shall always be pleased to see you. +Did—did—your father send you here to-night?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Janetta, remembering her errand. "He does not know——"</p> + +<p>"Does not know?" The pale woman again looked distressed. "Oh," she said, +turning away with a sigh and biting her lip, "then I shall not see you +again."</p> + +<p>"Indeed you will," said Janetta, warmly. "My father would never keep me +away from any one who wanted me—and one of my mother's relations too. +But I came to-night because I found this dear little boy outside your +grounds. He tells me that his name is Julian Wyvis Brand, and that he is +your son's little boy."</p> + +<p>For the first time Mrs. Brand turned her eyes upon the child. Hitherto +she had not noticed him much, evidently thinking that he belonged to +Janetta, and was also a visitor. But when she saw the boy's sweet little +face and large dark eyes, she turned pale, and made a gesture as of +warning or dislike.</p> + +<p>"Take him away! take him away," she said. "Yes, I can see that it is +<i>her</i> child—and his child too. She must be here too, and she has been +the ruin of my boy's life!" And then she sank into a chair and burst +into an agony of tears.</p> + +<p>Janetta felt, with an inexpressible pang, that she had set foot in the +midst of some domestic tragedy, the like of which had never come within +her ken before. She was conscious of a little recoil from it, such as is +natural to a young girl who has not learnt by experience the meaning of +sorrow; but the recoil was followed by a rush of that sympathy for which +she had always shown a great capacity. Her instinct led her instantly to +comfort and console. She knelt down beside the weeping woman and put one +arm round her, drawing the little boy forward with her left hand as she +spoke.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't cry—don't cry!" she murmured. "He has come to be a joy and a +comfort to you, and he wants you to love him too."</p> + +<p>"Won't you love me, grandmamma?" said the sweet childish voice. And +Julian laid his hand on the poor woman's shaking knee. "Don't cry, +grandmamma."</p> + +<p>It was this scene which met the eyes of Wyvis Brand when he turned the +handle of the drawing-room door and walked into the room. His mother +weeping, with a child before her, and a dark-haired girl on her knees +with one arm round the weeping woman and one round the lovely child. It +was a pretty picture, and Wyvis Brand was not insensible to its beauty.</p> + +<p>He stood, looking prom one to another of the group.</p> + +<p>"What does all this mean?" he asked, in somewhat harsh tones.</p> + +<p>His mother cried aloud and caught the child to her breast.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Wyvis, be kind—be merciful," she gasped. "This is your child—your +child. You will not drive him away. She has left him at our door."</p> + +<p>Wyvis walked into the room, shut the door behind him, and leaned against +it.</p> + +<p>"Upon my word," he said, sarcastically, "you will give this lady—whose +name I haven't the pleasure of knowing—a very fine idea of our domestic +relations. I am not such a brute, I hope, as to drive away my own child +from my door; but I certainly should like to know first whether it is my +child; and more particularly whether it is my son and heir, as I have no +doubt that this young gentleman is endeavoring to persuade you. Did +<i>you</i> bring the child here?" he said, turning sharply to Janetta.</p> + +<p>"I brought him into the house, certainly," she said, rising from her +knees and facing him. "I found him outside your fence; and he told me +that his name was Julian Wyvis Brand."</p> + +<p>"Pretty evidence," said Mr. Brand, very rudely, as Janetta thought. "Who +can tell whether the child is not some beggar's brat that has nothing to +do with me?"</p> + +<p>"Don't you know your own little boy when you see him?" Janetta demanded, +indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Not I. I have not set eyes on him since he was a baby. Turn round, +youngster, and let me have a look at you."</p> + +<p>The child faced him instantly, much as Janetta herself had done. There +was a fearless look in the baby face, an innocent, guileless courage in +the large dark eyes, which must surely, thought Janetta, touch a +father's heart. But Wyvis Brand looked as if it would take a great deal +to move him.</p> + +<p>"Where do you come from?" said Mr. Brand, sternly.</p> + +<p>"From over the sea."</p> + +<p>"That's no answer. Where from?—what place?"</p> + +<p>The boy looked at him without answering.</p> + +<p>"Are you dumb?" said Wyvis Brand, harshly. "Or have you not been taught +what to say to that question? Where do you come from, I say?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Brand murmured an inarticulate remonstrance; Janetta's eyes flashed +an indignant protest. Both women thought that the boy would be dismayed +and frightened. But he, standing steady and erect, did not flinch. His +color rose and his hands clenched themselves at his side, but he did not +take his eyes from his father's face as he replied.</p> + +<p>"I come with mammy from Paris."</p> + +<p>"And pray where is your mother?"</p> + +<p>"Gone back again. She told me to find my father. Are you my father?" +said the child, with the utmost fearlessness.</p> + +<p>"What is your name?" asked Wyvis, utterly disregarding the question.</p> + +<p>"Julian Wyvis Brand."</p> + +<p>"He's got the name pat enough," said Wyvis, with a sardonic laugh. +"Well, where did you live in Paris? What sort of a house had you?"</p> + +<p>"It was near the church," said the little boy, gravely. "The church with +the big pillars round it. There was a bonnet shop under our rooms, and +the rooms were all pink and white and gold—prettier than this," he +said, wistfully surveying the gloomy room in which he stood.</p> + +<p>"And who took care of you when your mother was out?" asked Mr. Brand. +Even Janetta could see, by the swift, subtle change that had passed over +his face, that he recognized the description of the room.</p> + +<p>"Susan. She was my nurse and mammy's maid as well. She was English."</p> + +<p>The man nodded and set his lips. "He knows what to say," he remarked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Wyvis!" exclaimed his mother, as if she could repress her feelings +no longer; "don't you see how like he is to you!—don't you <i>feel</i> that +he is your own child?"</p> + +<p>"I confess the paternal feelings are not very strong in me," said her +son, dryly, "but I have a fancy the boy is mine for all that. Haven't +you a letter or a remembrance of some sort to give me, young man?"</p> + +<p>The boy shook his head.</p> + +<p>"There may be something amongst his things—some book or trinket that +you would remember," said Janetta, speaking with timidity. Mr. Brand +gave her a keen look, and Mrs. Brand accepted the suggestion with +eagerness.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, yes, let us look. Have you a box, my dear, or a bag?—oh, a +bundle, only: give it me, and let me see what is inside."</p> + +<p>"It is unnecessary, mother," said Wyvis, coldly. "I am as convinced as +you can wish me to be that this is Juliet's child."</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Brand, with trembling fingers and parted lips, was helping +Janetta to unfasten the knots of the big handkerchief in which the +child's worldly goods were wrapped up. Wyvis Brand stood silently beside +the two women, while little Julian pressed closer and pointed out his +various treasures as they were one by one disclosed.</p> + +<p>"That's my book," he said; "and that's my best suit. And that's—oh, I +don't know what <i>that</i> is. I don't know why mammy put it in."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> know," said Wyvis Brand, half under his breath.</p> + +<p>The object that called forth this remark was a small morocco box, +loosely wrapped in tissue-paper. Wyvis took it out of his mother's hand, +opened it, and stood silently gazing at its contents. It held a ring, as +Janetta could easily see—a hoop of gold in which were three opals—not +a very large or costly-looking trinket, but one which seemed to have +memories or associations connected with it—to judge, at least, by the +look on Wyvis Brand's dark face. The women involuntarily held their +breath as they glanced at him.</p> + +<p>At last with a short laugh, he slipped the little case into his pocket, +and turned upon his heel.</p> + +<p>"I suppose that this is evidence enough," he said. "It is a ring I once +gave her—our engagement ring. Not one of much value, or you may be sure +that she would never have sent it back."</p> + +<p>"Then you are convinced—you are certain——" His mother did not finish +the sentence, but her son knew what she meant.</p> + +<p>"That he is my son? my wife's child? Oh, yes, I am pretty sure of that. +He had better be put to bed," said Wyvis, carelessly. "You can find a +room for him somewhere, I dare say."</p> + +<p>"There is the old nursery," said Mrs. Brand, in breathless eagerness. "I +looked into it yesterday; it is a nice, cheerful room—but it has not +been used for a long time——"</p> + +<p>"Do as you like; don't consult me," said her son. "I know nothing about +the matter." And he turned to the door, without another look towards his +son.</p> + +<p>But little Julian was not minded to be treated in this way. His large +eyes had been fixed upon his father with a puzzled and rather wistful +expression. He now suddenly started from his position at Mrs. Brand's +knee, and pursued his father to the door.</p> + +<p>"Say good-night, please," he said, pulling at Mr. Brand's coat with a +fearlessness which amused Janetta and startled Mrs. Brand.</p> + +<p>Wyvis looked down at him with a curious and indescribable expression. +"You're not shy, at any rate," he said, drily. "Well, good-night, young +man. What?"—the boy had held up his face to be kissed.</p> + +<p>The father hesitated. Then a better and softer feeling seemed to pass +over his face. He stooped down and let the child put his arms round his +neck, and press a warm kiss on his cheek. A short laugh then escaped his +lips, as if he were half-ashamed of his own action. He went out of the +room and shut the door behind him without looking round, and little +Julian returned to his grandmother's knee, looking well satisfied with +himself.</p> + +<p>Janetta felt that she ought to go, and yet that she hardly liked +trusting the child to the sole care of Mrs. Brand, who was evidently so +much unnerved as to be of little use in deciding what was to be done +with him. And at the first hint of departure grandmother and child both +clung to her as if they felt her to be their sheet-anchor in storm. She +was not allowed to go until she had inspected the nursery and pronounced +it too damp for Julian's use, and seen a little bed made up for the +child in Mrs. Brand's own room, where a fire was lighted, and everything +looked cosey and bright. Poor little Julian was by this time half-dead +with sleep; and Janetta could not after all make up her mind to leave +him until she had seen him tucked up and fast asleep. Then she +bethought herself of Nora, and turned to go. Mrs. Brand, melted out of +her coldness and shy reserve, caught her by the hand.</p> + +<p>"My dear," she said, "what should we have done without you?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think that I have done very much," said Janetta, smiling.</p> + +<p>"You have done more than I could ever do. If I had brought that child to +my son he would never have acknowledged it."</p> + +<p>"He does not look so hard," said the girl involuntarily.</p> + +<p>"He <i>is</i> hard, my dear—hard in his way—but he is a good son for all +that—and he has had sore trouble, which has made him seem harder and +sterner than he is. I cannot thank you enough for all that you have done +to-day."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mrs. Brand, I have done nothing," said Janetta, blushing at the +elder woman's praise. "But may I come to see you and little Julian +again? I should like so much to know how he gets on."</p> + +<p>"You may come, dear, if your father will let you," said Mrs. Brand, with +rather a troubled look. "It would be a blessing—a charity—to me: but I +don't know whether it would be right to let you—your father must +decide."</p> + +<p>And then Janetta took her leave.</p> + +<p>She was surprised to find that Mr. Brand was lounging about the hall as +she came out, and that he not only opened the door for her but +accompanied her to the garden gate. He did not speak for a minute or +two, and Janetta, not seeing her way clear to any remarks of her own, +wondered whether they were to walk side by side to the gate in utter +silence. Presently, however, he said, abruptly.</p> + +<p>"I have not yet heard to whom I am indebted for the appearance of that +little boy in my house."</p> + +<p>"I am not exactly responsible," said Janetta, "I only found him outside +and brought him in to make inquiries. My name is Janetta Colwyn."</p> + +<p>"Colwyn? What? the doctor's daughter?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, the doctor's daughter," said Janetta, smiling frankly at him, "and +your second cousin."</p> + +<p>Wyvis Brand's hand went up to his hat, which he lifted ceremoniously.</p> + +<p>"I wish I had had the introduction earlier," he said, in a much +pleasanter tone.</p> + +<p>Janetta could not exactly echo the sentiment, and therefore maintained a +discreet silence.</p> + +<p>"You must have thought me a great brute," said Wyvis, with some +sensitiveness in his tone.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no: I quite saw how difficult it was for you to understand who I +was, and how it had all come about."</p> + +<p>"You saw a great deal, then."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know that it sounds impertinent to say so," Janetta answered, +blushing a little and walking a trifle faster, "but I did not mean it +rudely, I assure you."</p> + +<p>He seemed to take no notice. He was looking straight before him, with a +somewhat sombre expression in his fine dark eyes.</p> + +<p>"What you could not see," he said, perhaps more to himself than to her, +"was what no one will ever guess. Nobody knows what the last few years +have been to me. My mother has seen more of it than any one else, but +even to her my life has been something of a mystery—a sealed book. You +should remember this—remember all that I have passed through—before +you blame me for the way in which I received that child to-day."</p> + +<p>"I did not blame you," said Janetta, eagerly. "I only felt that there +was a great deal which I could not understand."</p> + +<p>He turned his gloomy eyes upon her. "Just so," he said. "You cannot +understand. And it is useless for you to try."</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry," Janetta faltered, scarcely knowing why she said so.</p> + +<p>Wyvis laughed. "Don't trouble to be sorry over my affairs," he said. +"They are not worth sorrow, I assure you. But—if I may make one +request—will you kindly keep silence (except, of course, to your +parents) about this episode? I do not want people to begin gossiping +about that unhappy woman who has the right, unfortunately, to call +herself my wife."</p> + +<p>Janetta promised, and with her promise the garden gate was reached, and +the interview came to an end.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>CONSULTATION.</h3> + + +<p>Janetta was rather surprised that Mr. Wyvis Brand did not offer to +accompany her for at least part of her way homewards, but she set down +his remissness to absorption in his own rather complicated affairs. In +this she was not mistaken. Wyvis was far more depressed, and far more +deeply buried in the contemplation of his difficulties, than anybody +knew, and it completely escaped his memory until afterwards that he +ought to have offered Miss Colwyn an escort. Janetta, however, was well +used to going about the world alone, and she proceeded briskly to the +spot where she had left Nora, and was much astonished to find that young +person deep in conversation with a strange young man.</p> + +<p>But the young man had such an attractive face, such pleasant eyes, so +courteous a manner, that she melted towards him before he had got +through his first sentence. Nora, of course, ought to have introduced +him; but she was by no means well versed in the conventionalities of +society, and therefore left him to do what he pleased, and to introduce +himself.</p> + +<p>"I find that I am richer than I thought," said Cuthbert Brand, "in +possessing a relative whom I never heard of before! Miss Colwyn, are we +not cousins? My name is Brand—Cuthbert Brand."</p> + +<p>Janetta's face lighted up. "I have just seen Mrs. Brand and your +brother," she said, offering him her hand.</p> + +<p>"And, oh, Janetta!" cried Nora at once, "do tell us what happened. Have +you left the little boy at Brand Hall? And is it really Mr. Brand's +little boy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is, and I have left him with his father," said Janetta, +gravely. "As it is getting late, Nora, we had better make the best of +our way home."</p> + +<p>"You will let me accompany you?" said Cuthbert, eagerly, while Nora +looked a little bit inclined to pout at her sister's serious tone. "It +is, as you say, rather late; and you have a long walk before you."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, but I could not think of troubling you. My sister and I are +quite accustomed to going about by ourselves. We escort each other," +said Janetta, smiling, so that he should not set her down as utterly +ungracious.</p> + +<p>"I am a good walker," said Cuthbert, coloring a little. He was half +afraid that they thought his lameness a disqualification for +accompanying them. "I do my twenty miles a day quite easily."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," Janetta said again. "But I could not think of troubling +you. Besides, Nora and I are so well used to these woods, and to the +road between them and Beaminster, that we really do not require an +escort."</p> + +<p>A compromise was finally effected. Cuthbert walked with them to the end +of the wood, and the girls were to be allowed to pursue their way +together along the Beaminster road. He made himself very agreeable in +their walk through the wood, and did not leave them, without a hope that +he might be allowed one day to call upon his newly-discovered cousins.</p> + +<p>"He has adopted us, apparently, as well as yourself," said Nora, as the +two girls tramped briskly along the Beaminster road. "He seems to forget +that <i>we</i> are not his relations."</p> + +<p>"He is very pleasant and friendly," said Janetta.</p> + +<p>"But why did you say he might call?" pursued Nora. "I thought that you +would say that we did not have visitors—or something of that sort."</p> + +<p>"My dear Nora! But we do have visitors."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but not of that kind."</p> + +<p>"Don't you want him to come?" said Janetta, in some wonderment; for it +had struck her that Nora had shown an unusual amount of friendliness to +Mr. Cuthbert Brand.</p> + +<p>"No, I don't," said Nora, almost passionately. "I <i>don't</i> want to see +him down in our shabby, untidy little drawing-room, to hear mamma talk +about her expenses and papa's difficulties—to see all that tribe of +children in their old frocks—to see the muddle in which we live! I +don't want him there at all."</p> + +<p>"Dear Nora, I don't think that the Brands have been accustomed to live +in any very grand way. I am sure the rooms I went into this evening were +quite shabby—nearly as shabby as ours, and much gloomier. What does it +matter?"</p> + +<p>"It does not matter to you," said Nora; "because you are their relation. +It is different for us. You belong to them and we don't."</p> + +<p>"I think you are quite wrong to talk in that way. It is nothing so very +great and grand to be related to the Brands."</p> + +<p>"They are '<i>County</i>' people," said Nora, with a scornful little emphasis +on the word. "They are like your grand Adairs: they would look down on a +country doctor and his family, except just now and then when they could +make them useful."</p> + +<p>"Look down on father? What are you thinking of?" cried Janetta, warmly. +"Nobody looks down on father, because he does good, honest work in the +world, and everybody respects him; but I am afraid that a good many +people look down on the Brands. You know that as well as I do, Nora; for +you have heard people talk about them. They are not at all well thought +of in this neighborhood. I don't suppose there is much honor and glory +to be gained by relationship to them."</p> + +<p>In which Janetta was quite right, and showed her excellent sense. But +Nora was not inclined to be influenced by her more sagacious sister.</p> + +<p>"You may say what you like," she observed; "but I know very well that it +is a great advantage to be related to 'the County.' Poor papa has no +connections worth speaking of, and mamma's friends are either +shopkeepers or farmers; but your mother was the Brands' cousin, and see +how the Adairs took you up! They would never have made a fuss over +<i>me</i>."</p> + +<p>"What nonsense you talk, Nora!" said Janetta, in a disgusted tone.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense or not, it is true," said Nora, doggedly; "and as long as +people look down upon us, I don't want any of your fine friends and +relations in Gwynne Street."</p> + +<p>Janetta did not condescend to argue the point; she contented herself +with telling her sister of Wyvis Brand's desire that the story of his +wife's separation from him should not be known, and the two girls agreed +that it would be better to mention their evening's adventure only to +their father.</p> + +<p>It was quite dark when they reached home, and they entered the house in +much trepidation, fearing a volley of angry words from Mrs. Colwyn. But +to their surprise and relief Mrs. Colwyn was not at home. The children +explained that an invitation to supper had come to her from a neighbor, +and that "after a great deal of fuss," as one of them expressed it, she +had accepted it and gone, leaving word that she should not be back until +eleven o'clock, and that the children were to go to bed at their usual +hour. It was past the younger children's hour already, and they of +course were jubilant.</p> + +<p>The elder sisters set to work instantly to get the young ones into their +beds, but this was a matter of some difficulty. A general inclination to +uproariousness prevailed in Mrs. Colwyn's absence, and it must be +confessed that neither Janetta nor Nora tried very hard to repress the +little ones' noise. It was a comfort to be able, for once, to enjoy +themselves without fear of Mrs. Colwyn's perpetual snarl and grumble. A +most exciting pillow-fight was going on in the upstairs regions, and +here Janetta was holding her own as boldly as the boldest, when the +sound of an opening door made the combatants pause in their mad career.</p> + +<p>"What's that? The front door? It's mamma!" cried Georgie, with +conviction.</p> + +<p>"Get into bed, Tiny!" shouted Joey. Tiny began to cry.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, children," said Nora, with an air of authority. "You know +that it can't be mamma. It is papa, of course, coming in for his supper. +And one of us must go down."</p> + +<p>"I'll go," said Janetta, hurriedly. "I want a little talk with him, you +know."</p> + +<p>There was a general chorus of "Oh, don't go, Janetta!" "Do stay!" "It +will be no fun when you are gone!" which stimulated Nora to a retort.</p> + +<p>"Well, I must say you are all very polite," she said. "One would think +that I was not here at all!"</p> + +<p>"You are not half such good fun as Janetta," said Joey. "You don't throw +yourself into everything as she does."</p> + +<p>"I must throw myself into giving father his supper, I'm afraid," said +Janetta, laughing, "so good-night, children, and do go to bed quietly +now, for I don't think father will like such a dreadful noise."</p> + +<p>She was nearly choked by the fervent embraces they all bestowed upon her +before she went downstairs. Nora, who stood by, rolling up the ribbon +that she had taken from Tiny's hair, felt a little pang of jealousy. Why +was it that everyone loved Janetta and valued her so much? Not for what +she did, because her share of household duty was not greater than that +of Nora, but for the way in which she did it. It always seemed such a +pleasure to her to do anything for any one—to serve another: never a +toil, never a hardship, always a deep and lasting pleasure. To Nora it +was often a troublesome matter to help her sister or her schoolboy +brother, to attend on her mother, or to be thoughtful of her father's +requirements; but it was never troublesome to Janetta. And as Nora +thought of all this, the tears came involuntarily to her eyes. It seemed +so <i>easy</i> to Janetta to be good, she thought! But perhaps it was no +easier to Janetta than to other people.</p> + +<p>Janetta ran down to the dining-room, where she found her father +surveying with a rather dissatisfied air the cold and scanty repast +which was spread out for him. Mr. Colwyn was so much out that his meals +had to be irregular, and he ate them just when he had a spare half hour. +On this occasion he had been out since two o'clock in the afternoon, and +had not had time even for a cup of tea. He had been attending a hopeless +case, moreover, and one about which he had been anxious for some weeks. +Fagged, chilled, and dispirited, it was no wonder that he had returned +home in not the best of tempers, and that he was a little disposed to +find fault when Janetta made her appearance.</p> + +<p>"Where is mamma?" he began. "Out, I suppose, or the children would not +be making such a racket overhead."</p> + +<p>"They are going to be quiet now, dear father," said his daughter, +kissing him, "and mamma has gone out to supper at Mrs. Maitland's. I am +going to have mine with you if you will let me."</p> + +<p>"And is this what you are going to have for your supper?" said Mr. +Colwyn, half ruefully, half jestingly, as he glanced again at the table, +where some crusts of bread reposed peacefully on one dish, and a scrag +of cold mutton on another. "After your sojourn at Miss Polehampton's and +among the Adairs, I suppose you don't know how to cook, Jenny?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I do, father, and I'm going to scramble some eggs, and make some +coffee this very minute. I am sorry the table is not better arranged, +but I have been out, and was just having a little game with the children +before they went to bed. If you will sit down by the fire, I shall be +ready in a very few minutes, and then I can tell you about a wonderful +adventure that Nora and I had this evening in the Beaminster wood."</p> + +<p>"You should not roam about those woods so much by yourselves; they are +too lonely," said Mr. Colwyn; but he said it very mildly, and dropped +with an air of weariness into the arm-chair that Janetta had wheeled +forward for him. "Well, well! don't hurry yourself, child. I shall be +glad of a few minutes' rest before I begin my supper."</p> + +<p>Janetta in a big white apron, Janetta flitting backwards and forwards +between kitchen and dining-room, with flushed cheeks and brightly +shining eyes, was a pretty sight—"a sight to make an old man young," +thought Mr. Colwyn, as he watched her furtively from beneath his +half-closed eyelids. She looked so trim, so neat, so happy in her work, +that he would be hard to satisfy who did not admire her, even though she +was not what the world calls strictly beautiful. She succeeded so well +in her cooking operations, with which she would not allow the servant to +intermeddle, that in a very short time a couple of dainty dishes and +some coffee smoked upon the board; and Janetta bidding her father come +to the table, placed herself near him, and smilingly dispensed the +savory concoction.</p> + +<p>She would not enter upon any account of her evening's work until she +felt sure that the wants of her father's inner man were satisfied; but +when supper was over, and his evening pipe—the one luxury in the day he +allowed himself—alight, she drew up a hassock beside his chair and +prepared for what she called "a good long chat."</p> + +<p>Opportunities for such a chat with her father were rather rare in that +household, and Janetta meant to make the most of this one. Nora had +good-naturedly volunteered to stay away from the dining-room, so as to +give Janetta the chance that she wished for; and as it was now barely +ten o'clock, Janetta knew that she might perhaps have an hour of her +father's companionship—if, at least, he were not sent for before eleven +o'clock. At eleven he would probably go to Mrs. Maitland's to fetch his +wife home.</p> + +<p>"Well, Janet, and what have you to tell me?" he said kindly, as he +stretched out his slippered feet to the blaze, and took down his pipe +from the mantel-piece. The lines had cleared away from his face as if by +magic; there was a look of rest and peace upon his face that his +daughter liked to see. She laid her hand on his knee and kept it there +while she told him of her experiences that evening at Brand Hall.</p> + +<p>Mr. Colwyn's eyebrows went up as he listened. His face expressed +astonishment, and something very like perplexity. But he heard the whole +story out before he said a word.</p> + +<p>"Well, you have put your head into the lion's den!" he said at last, in +a half-humorous tone.</p> + +<p>"What I want to know is," said Janetta, "why it is thought to be a +lion's den! I don't mean that I have heard the expression before, but I +have gathered in different ways an impression that people avoid the +house——"</p> + +<p>"The family, not the house, Janet!"</p> + +<p>"Of course I <i>mean</i> the family, father, dear. What have they done that +they should be shunned?"</p> + +<p>"There is a good deal against them in the eyes of the world. Your poor +mother, Janetta, always stood up for them, and said that they were more +sinned against than sinning."</p> + +<p>"<i>They?</i> But these young men were not grown up then?"</p> + +<p>"No; it was their father and——"</p> + +<p>Mr. Colwyn stopped short and seemed as if he did not like to go on.</p> + +<p>"Tell me, father," said Janetta, coaxingly.</p> + +<p>"Well, child, I don't know that you ought to hear old scandals. But you +are too wise to let them harm you. Brand, the father of these two young +fellows, married a barmaid, the daughter of a low publican in the +neighborhood."</p> + +<p>"What! The Mrs. Brand that I saw to-day? <i>She</i> a barmaid—that quiet, +pale, subdued-looking woman?"</p> + +<p>"She has had trouble enough to make her look subdued, poor soul! She was +a handsome girl then; and I daresay the world would have overlooked the +marriage in time if her character had been untarnished. But stories +which I need not repeat were afloat; and from what I have lately heard +they are not yet forgotten."</p> + +<p>"After all these years! Oh, that does seem hard," said Janetta, +sympathetically.</p> + +<p>"Well—there are some things that the world does not forgive, Janet. I +have no doubt that the poor woman is much more worthy of respect and +kindness than her wild sons; and yet the fact remains that if Wyvis +Brand had come here with his brother alone, he would have been received +everywhere, and entertained and visited and honored like any other young +man of property and tolerable repute; but as he has brought his mother +with him, I am very much afraid that many of the nicest people in the +county mean to 'cut' him."</p> + +<p>"It is very unfair, surely."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is unfair; but it is the way of the world, Janetta. If a +woman's reputation is ever so slightly blackened, she can never get it +fair and white again. Hence, my dear, I am a little doubtful as to +whether you must go to Brand Hall again, as long as poor Mrs. Brand is +there."</p> + +<p>"Oh, father, and I promised to go!"</p> + +<p>"You must not make rash promises another time, my child."</p> + +<p>"But she wants me, father—she is so lonely and so sad?"</p> + +<p>"I am sorry, my Janet, but I don't know——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, do let me, father. I shall not be harmed; and I don't mind what the +world says."</p> + +<p>"But perhaps <i>I</i> mind," said Mr. Colwyn, quaintly.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>MARGARET.</h3> + + +<p>Janetta looked so rueful at this remark that her father laughed a little +and pulled her ear.</p> + +<p>"I am not given to taking much notice of what the world says," he told +her, "and if I thought it right for you to go to Brand Hall I should +take no notice of town talk; but I think that I can't decide this matter +without seeing Mrs. Brand for myself."</p> + +<p>"I thought you had seen her, father?"</p> + +<p>"For ten minutes or so, only. They wanted to ask me a question about the +healthiness of Brand Hall, drains, and all that kind of thing. That +young Brand struck me as a very sullen-looking fellow."</p> + +<p>"His face lightens up when he talks," said Janetta, coloring and feeling +hurt for a moment, she could not have told why.</p> + +<p>"He did not talk to me," said her father, drily. "I am told that the +other son has pleasanter manners."</p> + +<p>"Cuthbert? Oh, yes," Janetta said, quickly. "He is much more amiable at +first sight; he made himself very agreeable to Nora and me." And +forthwith she related how the second son had made acquaintance with her +sister and herself.</p> + +<p>Mr. Colwyn did not look altogether pleased.</p> + +<p>"H'm!—they seem very ready to cultivate us," he said, with a slight +contraction of the brow. "Their father used not to know that I existed. +Janet, I don't care for Nora to see much of them. You I can trust; but +she is a bit of a featherbrain, and one never knows what may happen. +Look to it."</p> + +<p>"I will, father."</p> + +<p>"And I will call on Mrs. Brand and have a chat with her. Poor soul! I +daresay she has suffered. Still that does not make her a fit companion +for my girls."</p> + +<p>"If I could be of any use to her, father——"</p> + +<p>"I know that's all you think of, Janet. You are a good child—always +wanting to help others. But we must not let the spirit of self-sacrifice +run away with you, you know."</p> + +<p>He pinched her cheek softly as he spoke, and his daughter carried the +long supple fingers of his hand to her lips and kissed them tenderly.</p> + +<p>"Which reminds me," he went on rather inconsequently, "that I saw +another of your friends to-day. A friend whom you have not mentioned for +some time, Janetta."</p> + +<p>"Who was that?" asked Janetta, a little puzzled by his tone.</p> + +<p>"Another friend whom I don't quite approve of," said her father, in the +same half-quizzical way, "though from a different reason. If poor Mrs. +Brand is not respectable enough, this friend of yours, Janet, is more +than respectable; ultra-respectable—aristocratic even——"</p> + +<p>"Margaret Adair!" cried Janetta, flushing to the very roots of her hair. +"Did you see her, father? Has she quite forgotten me?" And the tears +stood in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"I did not see Miss Margaret Adair, my dear," said her father kindly. "I +saw her mother, Lady Caroline."</p> + +<p>"Did you speak to her, father?"</p> + +<p>"She stopped her ponies and spoke to me in the High Street, Janet. She +certainly has very winning manners."</p> + +<p>"Oh, has she not, father!" Janetta's cheeks glowed. "She is perfectly +charming, I think. I do not believe that she could do anything +disagreeable or unkind."</p> + +<p>Mr. Colwyn shook his head, with a little smile. "I am not so sure of +that, Janetta. These fine ladies sometimes do very cold and cruel things +with a perfectly gracious manner."</p> + +<p>"But Lady Caroline would not," said Janetta, coaxingly. "She was quite +kind and sweet to me all the time that I stayed at her house, +although——"</p> + +<p>"Although afterwards," said Mr. Colwyn, shrewdly, "she could let you +stay here for weeks without seeming to remember you, or coming near you +for an hour!"</p> + +<p>Janetta's cheeks crimsoned, but she did not reply. Loyal as she was to +her friend, she felt that there was not much to be said for her at that +moment.</p> + +<p>"You are a good friend," said her father, in a half-teasing, +half-affectionate tone. "You don't like me to say anything bad of her, +do you? Well, my dear, for your comfort I must tell you that she did her +best to-day to make up for past omissions. She spoke very pleasantly +about you."</p> + +<p>"Did she say why—why——" Janetta could not complete the sentence.</p> + +<p>"Why they had not written or called? Well, she gave some sort of an +explanation. Miss Adair had been unwell—she had had a cold or something +which looked as if it might turn to fever, and they did not like to +write until she was better."</p> + +<p>"I knew there was some good reason!" said Janetta fervently.</p> + +<p>"It is well to take a charitable view of things," returned her father, +rather drily; but, seeing her look of protest, he changed his tone. +"Well, Lady Caroline spoke very kindly, my dear, I must acknowledge +that. She wants you to go over to Helmsley Court to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Can I go, father?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Colwyn made a grimace. "Between your disreputable friends and your +aristocratic ones, I'm in a difficulty, Janet."</p> + +<p>"Don't say so, father dear!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I consented," said Mr. Colwyn, in rather a grudging tone. "She +said that she would send her carriage for you to-morrow at noon, and +that she would send you back again between six and seven. Her daughter +was most anxious to see you, she said."</p> + +<p>Janetta lifted up a happy face. "I knew that Margaret would be true to +me. I never doubted her."</p> + +<p>Mr. Colwyn watched her silently for a moment, then he put his hand upon +her head, and began smoothing the thick black locks. "You have a very +faithful nature, my Janet," he said, tenderly, "and I am afraid that it +will suffer a great many shocks in this work-a-day world of ours. Don't +let it lead you astray, my child. Remember there is a point at which +faithfulness may degenerate into sheer obstinacy."</p> + +<p>"I don't think it will ever do so with me."</p> + +<p>"Well, perhaps not, for you have a clear head on those young shoulders +of yours. But you must be careful."</p> + +<p>"And I may go to Lady Caroline's, father?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear, you may. And now I must go: my time is up. I have had a +very pleasant hour, my Janet."</p> + +<p>As she raised herself to receive her father's kiss, she felt a glow of +pleasure at his words. It was not often that he spoke so warmly. He was +a man of little speech on ordinary occasions: only when he was alone +with his best-loved daughter, Janetta, did he ever break forth into +expressions of affection. His second marriage had been in some respects +a failure; and it did not seem as if he regarded his younger children +with anything approaching the tenderness which he bestowed upon Janetta. +Good-humored tolerance was all that he gave to them: a deep and almost +passionate love had descended from her mother to Janetta.</p> + +<p>He went out to fetch his wife home from her supper-party; and Janetta +hastened up to her room, not being anxious to meet her stepmother on her +return, in the state of rampant vanity and over-excitement to which an +assembly of her friends usually brought her. It could not be said that +Mrs. Colwyn actually drank too much wine or beer or whisky; and yet +there was often a sensation abroad that she had taken just a little more +than she could bear; and her stepdaughter was sensitively aware of the +fact. From Nora's slighting tone when she had lately spoken of her +mother, Janetta conjectured that the sad truth of Mrs. Colwyn's danger +had dawned upon the girl's mind also, and it certainly accounted for +some new lines in Mr. Colwyn's face, and for some additional streaks of +white in his silvering hair. Not a word had been said on the subject +amongst the members of the family, but Janetta had an uneasy feeling +that there were possibly rocks ahead.</p> + +<p>At this moment, however, the prospect of seeing her dear Margaret again +completely obliterated any thought of her stepmother from Janetta's +mind; and when she was snugly ensconced in her own little, white bed, +she could not help shedding a few tears of relief and joy. For +Margaret's apparent fickleness had weighed heavily on Janetta's mind; +and she now felt proud of the friend in whom she had believed in spite +of appearances, and of whose faithfulness she had steadily refused to +hear a doubt. These feelings enabled her to bear with cheerfulness some +small unpleasantnesses next morning from her stepmother on the subject +of her visit. "Of course you'll be too grand to do a hand's turn about +the house when you come back again from Helmsley Court!" said Mrs. +Colwyn, snappishly.</p> + +<p>"Dear mamma, when I am only going for half a day!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know the ways of girls. Because Miss Adair, your fine friend, +does nothing but sit in a drawing-room all day, you'll be sure to think +that you must needs follow her example!"</p> + +<p>"I hope Margaret will do something beside sit in a drawing-room," said +Janetta, with her cheery laugh; "because I am afraid that she might find +that a little dull."</p> + +<p>But in spite of her cheeriness her spirits were perceptibly lowered when +she set foot in the victoria that was sent for her at noon. Her +stepmother's way of begrudging her the friendship which school-life had +bestowed upon Janetta was as distasteful to her as Miss Polehampton's +conviction of its unsuitability had been. And for one moment the tears +of vexation gathered in her brown eyes as she was driving away from the +shabby little house in Gwynne Street; and she had resolutely to drive +away unwelcome thoughts before she could resign herself to enjoyment of +her visit.</p> + +<p>The day was hot and close, and the narrow streets of old Beaminster were +peculiarly oppressive. It was delightful to bowl swiftly along the +smooth high road, and to enter the cool green shades of the park round +Helmsley Court. "How pleasant for Margaret to live here always!" Janetta +said to herself with generous satisfaction in her friend's good fortune. +"I wonder what she would do in Gwynne Street!" And then Janetta laughed, +and felt that what suited <i>her</i> would be very inappropriate to Margaret +Adair.</p> + +<p>Janetta's unselfish admiration for her friend was as simple as it was +true, and it was never alloyed by envy or toadyism. She would have been +just as pleased to see Margaret in a garret as in a palace, supposing +that Margaret were pleased with the garret. And it was with almost +passionate delight that she at length flung herself into her friend's +arms, and felt Margaret's soft lips pressed to her brown flushed cheeks.</p> + +<p>"Margaret! Oh, it is delightful to see you again!" she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"You poor darling: did you think that we were never going to meet?" said +Margaret. "I have been so sorry, dear——"</p> + +<p>"I knew that you would come to see me, or send for me as soon as you +could," said Janetta quickly. "I trusted you, Margaret."</p> + +<p>"I have had such a bad cold," Margaret went on, still excusing herself a +little, as it seemed to Janetta. "I have had to stay in two rooms for +nearly a fortnight, and I went down to the drawing-room only last +night."</p> + +<p>"I wish I could have nursed you! Don't you remember how I nursed you +through one of your bad colds at school?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed. I wish you could have nursed me now; but mamma was afraid +that I had caught measles or scarlet fever or something, and she said it +would not be right to send for you."</p> + +<p>Janetta was almost pained by the accent of continued excuse.</p> + +<p>"Of course, dear, I understand," she said, pressing her friend's arm +caressingly. "I am so sorry you have been ill. You look quite pale, +Margaret."</p> + +<p>The two girls were standing in Margaret's sitting-room, adjoining her +bedroom. Margaret was dressed completely in white, with long white +ribbons floating amongst the dainty folds of her attire; but the white +dress, exquisitely as it was fashioned, was less becoming to her than +usual, for her face had lost a little of its shell-like bloom. She +turned at Janetta's words and surveyed herself a little anxiously in a +long glass at her side.</p> + +<p>"I do look pale in this dress," she said. "Shall I change it, Janetta?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, dear," Janetta answered, in some surprise. "It is a charming +dress."</p> + +<p>"But I do not like to look so pale," said Margaret, gravely. "I think I +will ring for Villars."</p> + +<p>"You could not look nicer—to me—in any dress!" exclaimed her ardent +admirer.</p> + +<p>"You dear—oh, yes; but there may be visitors at luncheon."</p> + +<p>"I thought you would be alone," faltered Janetta, with a momentary +glance at her own neat and clean, but plain, little cotton frock.</p> + +<p>"Well, perhaps there will be only one person beside yourself," said +Margaret, turning aside her long neck to catch a glimpse of the shining +coils behind. "And I don't know that it matters—it is only Sir Philip +Ashley."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I remember him. He was here when we came back from Brighton."</p> + +<p>"He is often here."</p> + +<p>"What lovely flowers!" Janetta exclaimed, rather to break a pause that +followed than because she had looked particularly at a bouquet that +filled a large white vase on a table. But the flowers really were +lovely, and Margaret's face expressed some satisfaction. "Did they come +out of your garden?"</p> + +<p>"No, Sir Philip sent them."</p> + +<p>"Oh, how nice!" said Janetta. But she was a little surprised too. Had +not the Adairs plenty of flowers without receiving contributions from +Sir Philip's conservatories?</p> + +<p>"And you have a dog, Margaret?"—as a pretty little white Esquimaux dog +came trotting into the room. "What a darling! with a silver collar, +too!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I like a white dog," said Margaret, tranquilly. "Mamma's poodle +snaps at strangers, so Sir Philip thought that it would be better for me +to have a dog of my own."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip again! Janetta felt as if she must ask another question or +two, especially when she saw that her friend's white eyelids had been +lowered, and that a delicate flush was mantling the whiteness of her +cheek; but she paused, scarcely knowing how to begin; and in the pause, +the gong for luncheon sounded, and she was (somewhat hastily, she +fancied) led downstairs.</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline and Mr. Adair received their visitor with great civility. +Sir Philip came forward to give her a very kindly greeting. Their +behavior was so cordial that Janetta could hardly believe that she had +doubted their liking for her. She was not experienced enough as yet to +see that all this apparent friendliness did not mean anything but the +world's way of making things pleasant all round. She accepted her host's +attentions with simple pleasure, and responded to his airy talk so +brightly that he lost no time in assuring his wife after luncheon that +his daughter's friend was really "a very nice little girl."</p> + +<p>After luncheon, Janetta thought at first that she was again going to be +defrauded of a talk with her friend. Margaret was taken possession of by +Sir Philip, and walked away with him into a conservatory to gather a +flower; Mr. Adair disappeared, and Janetta was left for a few moments' +conversation with Lady Caroline. Needless to remark, Lady Caroline had +planned this little interview; she had one or two things that she wanted +to say to Miss Colwyn. And she really did feel kindly towards the girl, +because—after all—she was Margaret's friend, and the mother was ready +to allow Margaret her own way to a very great extent.</p> + +<p>"Dear Miss Colwyn," she began, "I have been so sorry that we could not +see more of you while our poor Margaret was ill. <i>Now</i> I hope things +will be different."</p> + +<p>Janetta remarked that Lady Caroline was very kind.</p> + +<p>"I have been thinking of a method by which I hoped to bring you together +a little more—after the holidays. Of course we are going away very soon +now—to Scotland; and we shall probably not return until October; but +when that time comes—my dear Miss Colwyn, I am sure you will not be +offended by the question I am going to ask?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said Janetta, hastily.</p> + +<p>"Are you intending to give any singing or music lessons in the +neighborhood?"</p> + +<p>"If I can get any pupils, I shall be only too glad to do so."</p> + +<p>"Then <i>will</i> you begin with dear Margaret?"</p> + +<p>"Margaret?" said Janetta, in some astonishment. "But Margaret has had +the same teaching that I have had, exactly!"</p> + +<p>"She needs somebody to help her. She has not your talent or your +perseverance. And she would so much enjoy singing with you. I trust that +you will not refuse us, Miss Colwyn."</p> + +<p>"I shall be very glad to do anything that I can for Margaret," said +Janetta, flushing.</p> + +<p>"Thank you so much. Once a week then—when we come back again. And about +terms——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Lady Caroline, I shall be only too glad to sing with Margaret at +any time without——"</p> + +<p>"Without any talk about terms?" said Lady Caroline, with a charming +smile of comprehension. "But that, my dear, I could not possibly +allow. No, we must conduct the matter on strictly business-like +principles, or Mr. Adair would be very much displeased with me. Suppose +we say——" And she went on to suggest terms which Janetta was too much +confused to consider very attentively, and agreed to at once. It was only +afterwards that she discovered that they were lower than any which she +should ever have thought of suggesting for herself, and that she should +have to blush for Lady Caroline's meanness in mentioning them to her +father! But at present she saw nothing amiss.</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline went on smoothly. "I want her to make the most of her +time, because she may not be able to study up by-and-bye. She will come +out this winter, and I shall take her to town in the spring. I do not +suppose that I shall ever have another opportunity—if, at least, she +marries as early as she seems likely to do."</p> + +<p>"Margaret! Marry!" ejaculated Janetta. She had scarcely thought of such +a possibility.</p> + +<p>"It is exceedingly probable," said Lady Caroline, rather coldly, "that +she will marry Sir Philip Ashley. It is a perfectly suitable alliance."</p> + +<p>It sounded as if she spoke of a royal marriage!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3>JANETTA'S PROMISES.</h3> + + +<p>"But please," Lady Caroline proceeded, "do not mention what I have said +to anyone, least of all to Margaret. She is so sensitive that I should +not like her to know what I have said."</p> + +<p>"I will not say anything," said Janetta.</p> + +<p>And then Lady Caroline's desire for conversation seemed to cease. She +proposed that they should go in search of her daughter, and Janetta +followed her to the conservatory in some trouble and perplexity of mind. +It struck her that Margaret was not looking very well pleased when they +arrived—perhaps, she thought, because of their appearance—and that Sir +Philip had a very lover-like air. He was bending forward a little to +take a white flower from Margaret's hand, and Janetta could not help a +momentary smile when she saw the expression of his face. The earnest +dark eyes were full of tenderness, which possibly he did not wish to +conceal. Janetta could never doubt but that he loved her "rare pale +Margaret" from the very bottom of his heart.</p> + +<p>The two moved apart as Lady Caroline and Janetta came in. Lady Caroline +advanced to Sir Philip and walked away with him, while Margaret laid her +hand on Janetta's arm and led her off to her own sitting-room. She +scarcely spoke until they were safely ensconced there together and then, +with a half-pouting, mutinous expression on her softly flushed face—</p> + +<p>"Janetta," she began, "there is something I must tell you."</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear?"</p> + +<p>"You saw Sir Philip in the conservatory?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"I can't think why he is so foolish," said Margaret; "but actually, +Janetta—he wants to marry me."</p> + +<p>"Am I to call him foolish for that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, certainly. I am too young. I want to see a little more of the +world. He is not at all the sort of man that I want to marry."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" said Janetta, after waiting a little while.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Margaret, with an intonation that—for her—was almost +petulant; "he is so absurdly suitable!"</p> + +<p>"<i>Absurdly</i> suitable, dear Margaret?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Everything is so neatly arranged for us. He is the right age, he +has the right income, the right views, the right character—he is +even"—said Margaret, with increasing indignation—"even the right +<i>height</i>! It is absurd. I am not to have any will of my own in the +matter, because it is all so beautifully suitable. I am to be disposed +of like a slave!"</p> + +<p>Here was indeed a new note of rebellion.</p> + +<p>"Your father and mother would never make you marry a man whom you did +not like," said Janetta, a little doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. Papa would not; but mamma!—--I am afraid mamma will try. +And it is very hard to do what mamma does not like."</p> + +<p>"But you could explain to her——"</p> + +<p>"I have nothing to explain," said Margaret, arching her delicate brows. +"I like Sir Philip very well. I respect him very much. I think his house +and his position would suit me exceedingly well; and yet I do not want +to marry him. It is so unreasonable of me, mamma says. And I feel that +it is; and yet—what can I do?"</p> + +<p>"There is—nobody—else?" hazarded Janetta.</p> + +<p>Margaret opened her lovely eyes to their fullest extent.</p> + +<p>"Dearest Janetta, who else could there be? Who else have I seen? I have +been kept in the schoolroom until now—when I am to be married to this +most suitable man! Now, confess, Janetta, would you like it? Do your +people want to marry you to anybody?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed," said Janetta, smiling. "Nobody has expressed any desire +that way. But really I don't know what to say, Margaret; because Sir +Philip does seem so perfectly suitable—and you say you like him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I only like him; I don't love him." Margaret leaned back in +her chair, crossed her hands behind her golden head, and looked dreamily +at the opposite wall. "You know I think one ought to love the man one +marries—don't you think so? I have always thought of loving once and +once only—like Paul and Virginia, you know, or even Romeo and +Juliet—and of giving <i>all</i> for love! That would be beautiful!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it would. But it would be very hard too," said Janetta, thinking +how lovely Margaret looked, and what a heroine of romance—what a +princess of dreams—she would surely be some day. And she, poor, plain, +brown, little Janetta! There was probably no romance in store for her at +all.</p> + +<p>But Life holds many secrets in her hand; and perhaps it was Janetta and +not Margaret for whom a romance was yet in store.</p> + +<p>"Hard? Do you call it hard?" Margaret asked, with a curiously exalted +expression, like that of a saint absorbed in mystic joys. "It would be +most easy, Janetta, to give up everything for love."</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Janetta—for once unsympathetic. "Giving up +everything means a great deal. Would you like to go away from Helmsley +Court, for instance, and live in a dingy street with no lady's +maid—only a servant of all-work—on three hundred a year?"</p> + +<p>"I think I could do anything for a man whom I loved," sighed Margaret; +"but I cannot feel as if I should ever care enough for Sir Philip Ashley +to do it for him."</p> + +<p>"What sort of a man would you prefer for a husband, then?" asked +Janetta.</p> + +<p>"Oh, a man with a history. A man about whom there hung a melancholy +interest—a man like Rochester in 'Jane Eyre'——"</p> + +<p>"Not a very good-tempered person, I'm afraid!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, who cares about good temper?"</p> + +<p>"I do, for one. Really, Margaret, you draw a picture which is just like +my cousin, Wyvis Brand."</p> + +<p>Janetta was sorry when she had said the words. Margaret's arms came down +from behind her head, and her eyes were turned to her friend's face with +an immediate awakening of interest.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Brand, of Brand Hall, you mean? I remember you told me that he was +your cousin. So you have met him? And he is like Rochester?"</p> + +<p>"I did not say that exactly," said Janetta, becoming provoked with +herself. "I only said that you spoke of a rather melancholy sort of +man, with a bad temper, and I thought that the description applied very +well to Mr. Brand."</p> + +<p>"What is he like? Dark?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Handsome?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose so. I do not like any face, however handsome, that is +disfigured by a scowl."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Janetta, how charming! Tell me some more about him; I am so much +interested."</p> + +<p>"Margaret, don't be silly! Wyvis Brand is a very disagreeable man—not a +good man either, I believe—and I hope you will never know him."</p> + +<p>"On the contrary," said Margaret, with a new wilful light in her eyes, +"I intend mamma to call."</p> + +<p>"Lady Caroline will be too wise."</p> + +<p>"Why should people not call upon the Brands? I hear the same story +everywhere—'Oh, no, we do not intend to call.' Is there really anything +wrong about them?"</p> + +<p>Janetta felt some embarrassment. Had not she put nearly the same +question to her own father the night before? But she could not tell +Margaret Adair what her father had said to her.</p> + +<p>"If there were—and I do not know that there is—you could hardly expect +me to talk about it, Margaret," she said, with some dignity.</p> + +<p>Margaret's good breeding came to her aid at once. "I beg your pardon, +dear Janetta. I was talking carelessly. I will say no more about the +Brands. But I must remark that it was <i>you</i> who piqued my curiosity. +Otherwise there is nothing extraordinary in the fact of two young men +settling down with their mother in a country house, is there?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing at all."</p> + +<p>"And I am not likely to see anything of them. But, Janetta," said +Margaret, reverting to her own affairs, "you do not sympathize with me +as I thought you would. Would not you think it wrong to marry where you +did not love? Seriously, Janetta?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, seriously, I should," said Janetta, her face growing graver, and +her eyes lighting up. "It is a profanation of marriage to take for your +husband a man whom you don't love with your whole heart. Oh, yes, +Margaret, you are quite, quite right in that—but I am sorry too, +because Sir Philip seems so nice."</p> + +<p>"And, Janetta, dear, you will help me, will you not?"</p> + +<p>"Whenever I can, Margaret? But what can I do for you?"</p> + +<p>"You can help me in many ways, Janetta. You don't know how hard it is +sometimes"—and Margaret's face resumed a wistful, troubled look. "Mamma +is so kind; but she wants me sometimes to do things that I do not like, +and she is so <i>surprised</i> when I do not wish to do them."</p> + +<p>"You will make her understand in time," said Janetta, almost +reverentially. Her ardent soul was thrilled with the conception of the +true state of things as she imagined it; of Margaret's pure, sweet +nature being dragged down to Lady Caroline's level of artificial +worldliness. For, notwithstanding all Lady Caroline's gentleness of +manner, Janetta was beginning to find her out. She began to see that +this extreme softness and suavity covered a very persistent will, and +that it was Lady Caroline who ruled the house and the family with an +iron hand in a velvet glove.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid not," said Margaret, submissively. "She is so much more +determined than I am. Neither papa nor I could ever do anything against +her. And in most things I like her to manage for me. But not my +marriage!"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed."</p> + +<p>"Will you stand by me, Janetta, dear?"</p> + +<p>"Always, Margaret."</p> + +<p>"You will always be my friend?"</p> + +<p>"Always dear."</p> + +<p>"You make me feel strong when you say 'always' so earnestly, Janetta."</p> + +<p>"Because I believe," said Janetta, quickly, "that friendship is as +strong a tie as any in the world. I don't think it ought to be any less +binding than the tie between sisters, between parents and child, +even"—and her voice dropped a little—"even between husband and wife. I +have heard it suggested that there should be a ceremony—a sort of +form—for the making of a friendship as there is for other relations in +life; a vow of truth and fidelity which two friends could promise to +observe. Don't you think that it would be rather a useless thing, even +if the thought is a pretty one? Because we make and keep or break our +vows in our own heart, and no promise would bind us more than our own +hearts can do."</p> + +<p>"I hope yours binds you to me, Janetta?" said Margaret, half playfully, +half sadly.</p> + +<p>"It does, indeed."</p> + +<p>And then the two girls kissed each other after the manner of impulsive +and affectionate girls, and Margaret wiped away a tear that had gathered +in the corner of her eye. Her face soon became as tranquil as ever; but +Janetta's brow remained grave, her lips firmly pressed together long +after Margaret seemed to have forgotten what had been said.</p> + +<p>Things went deeper with Janetta than with Margaret. Girlish and +unpractical as some of their speeches may appear, they were spoken or +listened to by Janetta with the utmost seriousness. She was not of a +nature to take things lightly. And during the pause that followed the +conversation about friendship, she was mentally registering a very +serious and earnest resolution, worthy indeed of being ranked as the +promise or the vow of which she spoke, that she would always remain +Margaret's true and faithful friend, in spite of all the chances and +changes of this transitory world. A youthful foolish thing to do, +perhaps; but the world is so constituted that the things done or said by +very young and even very foolish persons sometimes dominate the whole +lives of much older and wiser persons. And more came out of that silent +vow of Janetta's than even she anticipated.</p> + +<p>The rest of the day was very delightful to her. She and Margaret were +left almost entirely to themselves, and they formed a dozen plans for +the winter when Margaret should be back again and could resume her +musical studies. Janetta tried to express her natural reluctance at the +thought of giving lessons to her old school-companion, but Margaret +laughed her to scorn. "As if you could not teach me?" she said. "Why, I +know nothing about the theory of music—nothing at all. And you were far +ahead of anybody at Miss Polehampton's! You will soon have dozens of +pupils, Janetta. I expect all Beaminster to be flocking to you before +long."</p> + +<p>She did not say, but it crossed her mind that the fact of <i>her</i> taking +lessons from Janetta would probably serve as a very good advertisement. +For Miss Adair was herself fairly proficient in the worldly wisdom which +did not at all gratify her when exhibited by her mother.</p> + +<p>Janetta was sent home in the gathering twilight with a delightfully +satisfied feeling. She was sure that Margaret's friendship was as +faithful as her own. And why should there not be two women as faithful +to each other in friendship as ever Damon and Pythias, David and +Jonathan, had been of old? "Margaret will always be her own sweet, +high-souled self," Janetta mused. "It is I who may perhaps fall away +from my ideal—I hope not; oh, I hope not! I hope that I shall always be +faithful and true!"</p> + +<p>There was a very tender look upon her face as she sat in Lady Caroline's +victoria, her hands clasped together upon her lap, her mouth firmly +closed, her eyes wistful. The expression was so lovely that it +beautified the whole of her face, which was not in itself strictly +handsome, but capable of as many changes as an April day. She was so +deeply absorbed in thought that she did not see a gentleman lift his hat +to her in passing. It was Cuthbert Brand, and when the carriage had +passed him he stood still for a moment and looked back at it.</p> + +<p>"I should like to paint that girl's face," he said to himself. "There is +soul in it—character—passion. Her sister is prettier by far; but I +doubt whether she is capable of so much."</p> + +<p>But the exalted beauty had faded away by the time Janetta reached her +home, and when she entered the house she was again the bright, sensible, +energetic, and affectionate sister and daughter that they all knew and +loved: no great beauty, no genius, no saint, but a generous-hearted +English girl, who tried to do her duty and to love her neighbor as +herself.</p> + +<p>Her father met her in the hall.</p> + +<p>"Here you are," he said. "I hardly expected you home as yet. Everybody +is out, so you must tell <i>me</i> your experiences and adventures if you +have any to tell."</p> + +<p>"I have not many," said Janetta, brightly. "Only everybody has been +very, very kind."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad to hear of it; but I should be surprised if people were not +kind to my Janet."</p> + +<p>"Nobody is half so kind as you are," said Janetta, fondly. "Have you +been very busy to-day, father?"</p> + +<p>"Very, dear. And I have been to Brand Hall."</p> + +<p>He drew her inside his consulting-room as he spoke. It was a little room +near the hall-door, opposite the dining-room. Janetta did not often go +there, and felt as if some rather serious communication were to be made.</p> + +<p>"Did you see the little boy, father?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—and his grandmother."</p> + +<p>"And may I go to see Mrs. Brand?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Colwyn paused for a moment, and when he spoke his voice was broken +by some emotion. "If you can do anything to help and comfort that poor +woman, my Janet," he said at length, "God forbid that I should ever +hinder you! I will not heed what the world says in face of sorrow such +as she has known. Do what you can for her."</p> + +<p>"I will, father; I promise you I will."</p> + +<p>"It is the second promise that I have made to-day," said Janetta, rather +thoughtfully, as she was undressing herself that night; "and each of +them turns on the same subject—on being a friend to some one who needs +friendship. The vocation of some women is to be a loving daughter, a +true wife, or a good mother; mine, perhaps, is to be above everything +else a true friend. I don't think my promises will be hard to keep!"</p> + +<p>But even Janetta, in her wisdom, could not foresee what was yet to come.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3>JANETTA REMONSTRATES.</h3> + + +<p>It was with a beating heart that Janetta, a few days later, crossed once +more the threshold of her cousin's house. Her father's words about Mrs. +Brand had impressed her rather painfully, and she felt some shyness and +constraint at the thought of the reason which he had given her for +coming. How she was to set about helping or comforting Mrs. Brand she +had not the least idea.</p> + +<p>These thoughts were, however, put to flight by an un-looked-for scene, +which broke upon her sight as she entered the hall. This hall had to be +crossed before any of the other rooms could be reached; it was +low-ceiled, paneled in oak, and lighted by rather small windows, with +stained glass in the lower panes. Like most rooms in the house it had a +gloomy look, which was not relieved by the square of faded Turkey +carpet in the centre of the black polished boards of the floor, or by +the half-dozen dusky portraits in oak frames which garnished the walls. +When Janetta was ushered in she found this ante-room or entrance chamber +occupied by three persons and a child. These, as she speedily found, +consisted of Wyvis Brand and his little boy, and two gentlemen, one of +whom was laughing immoderately, while the other was leaning over the +back of the chair and addressing little Julian.</p> + +<p>Janetta halted for a moment, for the old servant who had admitted her +seemed to think that his work was done when he had uttered her name, and +had already retreated; and his voice being exceedingly feeble, the +announcement had passed unnoticed by the majority of the persons +present, if not by all. Wyvis Brand had perhaps seen her, for his eyes +were keen, and the shadow in which she stood was not likely to veil her +from his sight; but he gave no sign of being conscious of her presence. +He was standing with his back to the mantel-piece, his arms crossed +behind his head; there was a curious expression on his face, half-smile, +half-sneer, but it was evident that he was merely looking and listening, +not interfering with what was going on.</p> + +<p>It needed only a glance to see that little Julian was in a state of +extraordinary excitement. His face was crimson, his eyes were sparkling +and yet full of tears; his legs were planted sturdily apart, and his +hands were clenched. His head was drawn back, and his whole body also +seemed as if it wanted to recoil, but placed as he was against a strong +oaken table he could evidently go back no further. The gentleman on the +chair was offering him something—Janetta could not at first see +what—and the boy was vehemently resisting.</p> + +<p>"I won't have it! I won't have it!" he was crying, with the whole force +of his lungs. "I won't touch it! Take the nasty stuff away!"</p> + +<p>Janetta wondered whether it were medicine he was refusing, and why his +father did not insist upon obedience. But Wyvis Brand, still standing by +the mantel-piece, only laughed aloud.</p> + +<p>"No shirking! Drink it up!" said the strange gentleman, in what Janetta +thought a curiously unpleasant voice. "Come, come, it will make a man of +you——"</p> + +<p>"I don't want to be made a man of! I won't touch it! I promised I never +would! You can't make me!"</p> + +<p>"You must be taught not to make rash promises," said the man, laughing. +"Come now——"</p> + +<p>But little Julian had suddenly caught sight of Janetta's figure at the +door, and with a great bound he escaped from his tormentor and flung +himself upon her, burying his face in her dress, and clutching its folds +as if he would never let them go.</p> + +<p>"It's the lady! the lady!" he gasped out. "Oh, please don't let them +make me drink it! Indeed, I promised not."</p> + +<p>Janetta came forward a little, and at her appearance every one looked +more or less discomfited. The gentleman on the chair she recognized as a +Mr. Strangways, a man of notoriously evil life, who had a house near +Beaminster, and was generally shunned by respectable people in the +neighborhood. He started up, and looked at her with what she felt to be +a rather insolent gaze. Wyvis Brand stood erect, and looked sullen. The +other gentleman, who was a stranger, rose from his chair in a civiller +manner than his friend had done.</p> + +<p>Janetta put her arms round the little fellow, and turned a rather +bewildered face towards Mr. Brand. "Was it—was it—medicine?" she +asked.</p> + +<p>"Of a kind," said Wyvis, with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"It was brandy—<i>eau-de-vie</i>—horrid hot stuff that <i>maman</i> used to +drink," said little Julian, with a burst of angry sobs, "and I promised +not—I promised old Susan that I never would!"</p> + +<p>"It was only a joke," said the master of the house, coming forward now, +and anxious perhaps to avert the storm threatened by a sudden indignant +flash of Janetta's great dark eyes. "We were not in earnest of course." +(A smothered laugh and ejaculation from Mr. Strangways passed without +notice.) "The boy does not know how to take a joke—he's a milksop."</p> + +<p>"I'm not! I'm not!" said little Julian, still struggling with violent +sobs. "I'm not a milksop! Oh, say that I'm not! Do tell father that I'm +not—not——"</p> + +<p>"Certainly you are not. You are a very brave little boy, and know how to +keep your word," said Janetta, with decision. "And now you must come +with me to your grandmother; I came to see <i>her</i> this afternoon."</p> + +<p>She gathered him into her strong, young arms as if she would have +carried him from the room, but he struggled manfully to keep his feet, +although he still held her dress. Without a word, Wyvis strode to the +door and held it open for the pair. Janetta forgot to thank him, or to +greet him in any way. She swept past him in a transport of silent fury, +flashing upon him one look of indignation which Wyvis Brand did not +easily forget. It even deafened him for a moment to the sneering comment +of Mr. Strangways, which fell on Janetta's ears just as she was leaving +the room.</p> + +<p>"That's a regular granny's boy. Well for him if he always gets a pretty +girl to help him out of a difficulty."</p> + +<p>Wyvis, who had stood for a moment as if transfixed by Janetta's glance, +hastily shut the door.</p> + +<p>Janetta paused in the corridor outside. She was flushed and panting; she +felt that she could not present herself to Mrs. Brand in that state. She +held the boy close to her, and listened while he poured forth his story +in sobbing indistinctness.</p> + +<p>"Old Susan—she was their English servant—she had been always with +<i>maman</i>—she had told him that brandy made people mad and wicked—and he +did not want to be mad and wicked—and he had promised Susan never to +drink brandy; and the naughty gentleman wanted him to take it, and he +would not—would not—would not!—--"</p> + +<p>"Hush, dear," said Janetta, gently. "There is no need to cry over it. +You know you kept your word as a gentleman should."</p> + +<p>The boy's eyes flashed through his tears. "Father thinks I'm a—I'm a +milksop," he faltered.</p> + +<p>"Show him that you are not," said Janetta. She saw that it was no use to +talk to Julian as to a baby. "If you are always brave and manly he won't +think so."</p> + +<p>"I <i>will</i> be always brave," said the little fellow, choking back his +sobs and regarding her with the clear, fearless gaze which she had +noticed in him from the first. And at this moment a door opened, and +Mrs. Brand, who had heard voices, came out in some surprise to see what +was the matter.</p> + +<p>Janetta was glad to see the loving way in which the boy ran into his +grandmother's arms, and the tenderness with which she received him. Mrs. +Brand courteously invited her guest into the drawing-room, but her +attention was given far more to little Julian than to Janetta, and in +two minutes he had poured the whole story into her ear. Mrs. Brand did +not say much; she sat with him in her lap looking excessively pained and +grieved; and that frozen look of pain upon her face made Janetta +long—but long in vain—to comfort her. Tea was brought in by-and-bye, +and then Julian was dismissed to his nursery—whither he went +reluctantly, holding his face up to be kissed by Janetta, and asking her +to "come back soon." And when he was gone, Mrs. Brand seemed unable to +contain herself any longer, and broke forth passionately.</p> + +<p>"A curse is on us all—I am sure of that. The boy will be ruined, and by +his father too."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," Janetta said, earnestly. "His father would not really hurt +him, I feel sure."</p> + +<p>"You do not know my son. He is like his own father, my husband—and that +is the way my husband began with Wyvis."</p> + +<p>"But—he did not succeed?"</p> + +<p>"Not altogether, because Wyvis had a strong head, and drew back in time; +but his father did him harm—untold harm. His father was a bad man. I do +not scruple to say so, although he was my husband; and there is a taint, +a sort of wild strain, in the blood. Even the boy inherits it; I see +that too clearly. And Wyvis—Wyvis will not hold himself in for long. He +is falling amongst those racing and betting men again—the Strangways +were always to be feared—and before long he will tread in his father's +steps and break my heart, and bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to +the grave."</p> + +<p>She burst into a passion of tears as she spoke. Janetta felt +inexpressibly shocked and startled. This revelation of a dark side of +life was new and appalling to her. She could hardly understand Mrs. +Brand's dark anticipations.</p> + +<p>She took the mother's hand and held it gently between her own, uttering +some few soothing sentences as she did so. Presently the poor woman's +sobs grew quieter, and she returned the pressure of Janetta's hand.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, my dear," she said at last. "You have a very kind heart. But +it is no use telling me to be comforted. I understand my sons, as I +understood my husband before them. They cannot help it. What is in the +blood will come out."</p> + +<p>"Surely," said Janetta, in a very low tone, "there is always the might +and the mercy of God to fall back upon—to help us when we cannot help +ourselves."</p> + +<p>"Ah, my dear, if I could believe in that I should be a happier woman," +said Mrs. Brand, sorrowfully.</p> + +<p>Janetta stayed a little longer, and when she went the elder woman +allowed herself to be kissed affectionately, and asked in a wistful +tone, as Julian had done, when she would come again.</p> + +<p>The girl was glad to find that the hall was empty when she crossed it +again. She had no fancy for encountering the insolent looks (as she +phrased it to herself) of Wyvis Brand and his hateful friends. But she +had reckoned without her host. For when she reached the gate into the +high-road, she found Mr. Brand leaning against it with his elbows +resting on the topmost bar, and his eyes gloomily fixed on the distant +landscape. He started when he saw her, raised his hat and opened the +gate with punctilious politeness. Janetta bowed her thanks, but without +any smile; she was not at all in charity with her cousin, Wyvis Brand.</p> + +<p>He allowed her to pass him, but before she had gone half a dozen yards, +he strode after her and caught her up. "Will you let me have a few words +with you?" he said, rather hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, Mr. Brand." Janetta turned and faced him, still with the +disapproving gravity upon her brow.</p> + +<p>"Can't we walk on for a few paces?" said Wyvis, with evident +embarrassment. "I can say what I want to say better while we are +walking. Besides, they can see us from the house if we stand here."</p> + +<p>Privately Janetta thought that this would be no drawback, but she did +not care to make objections, so turned once more and walked on silently.</p> + +<p>"I want to speak to you," said the man, presently, with something of a +shamefaced air, "about the little scene you came upon this +afternoon——"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Janetta. She did not know how contemptuously her lips curled +as she said the word.</p> + +<p>"You came at an unfortunate moment," he went on, awkwardly enough. "I +was about to interpose; I should not have allowed Jack Strangways to go +too far. Of course you thought that I did not care."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Janetta, straightforwardly. Wyvis bit his lip.</p> + +<p>"I am not quite so thoughtless of my son's welfare," he said, in a +firmer tone. "There was enough in that glass to madden a child—almost +to kill him. You don't suppose I would have let him take that?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. You were offering no objection to it when I came in."</p> + +<p>"Do you doubt my word?" said Wyvis, fiercely.</p> + +<p>"No. I believe you, if you mean really to say that you were not going to +allow your little boy to drink what Mr. Strangways offered him."</p> + +<p>"I do mean to say it"—in a tone of hot anger.</p> + +<p>Janetta was silent.</p> + +<p>"Have you nothing to say, Miss Colwyn?"</p> + +<p>"I have no right to express any opinion, Mr. Brand."</p> + +<p>"But I wish for it!"</p> + +<p>"I do not see why you should wish for it," said Janetta, coldly, +"especially when it may not be very agreeable to you to hear."</p> + +<p>"Will you kindly tell me what you mean?" The words were civil, but the +tone was imperious in the extreme.</p> + +<p>"I mean that whether you were going to make Julian drink that poisonous +stuff or not, you were inflicting a horrible torture upon him," said +Janetta, as hotly as Wyvis himself could have spoken. "And I cannot +understand how you could allow your own child to be treated in that +cruel way. I call it wicked to make a child suffer."</p> + +<p>Had she looked at her companion, she would have seen that his face had +grown a little whiter than usual, and that he had the pinched look about +his nostrils which—as his mother would have known—betokened rage. But +she did not look; and, although he paused for a moment before replying, +his voice was quite calm when he spoke again.</p> + +<p>"Torture? Suffering? These are very strong words when applied to a +little harmless teasing."</p> + +<p>"I do not call it harmless teasing when you are trying to make a child +break a promise that he holds sacred."</p> + +<p>"A very foolish promise!"</p> + +<p>"I am not so sure of that."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to insult me?" said Wyvis, flushing to the roots of his +hair.</p> + +<p>"Insult you? No; certainly not. I don't know why you should say so!"</p> + +<p>"Then I need not explain," he answered drily, though still with that +flush of annoyance on his face. "Perhaps if you think over what you have +heard of that boy's antecedents, you will know what I mean."</p> + +<p>It was Janetta's turn to flush now. She remembered the stories current +respecting old Mr. Brand's drinking habits, and the rumors about Mrs. +Wyvis Brand's reasons for living away from her husband. She saw that her +words had struck home in a manner which she had not intended.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," she said involuntarily; "I never meant—I never +thought—anything—I ought not to have spoken as I did."</p> + +<p>"You had much better say what you mean," was the answer, spoken with +bitter brevity.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, I will." Janetta raised her eyes and looked at him bravely. +"After all, I am a kinswoman of yours, Mr. Brand, and little Julian is +my cousin too; so I <i>have</i> some sort of a right to speak. I never +thought of his antecedents, as you call them, and I do not know much +about them; but if they were—if they had been not altogether what you +wish them to be—don't you see that this very promise which you tried to +make him break was one of his best safeguards?"</p> + +<p>"The promise made by a child is no safeguard," said Wyvis, doggedly.</p> + +<p>"Not if he is forced to break it!" exclaimed Janetta, with a touch of +fire.</p> + +<p>They walked on in silence for a minute or two, and then Wyvis said,</p> + +<p>"Do you believe in a promise made by a child of that age?"</p> + +<p>"Little Julian has made me believe in it. He was so thoroughly in +earnest. Oh, Mr. Brand, do you think that it was right to force him to +do a thing against his conscience in that way?"</p> + +<p>"You use hard words for a very simple thing, Miss Colwyn," said Wyvis, +in a rather angry tone. "The boy was not forced—I had no intention of +letting him drink the brandy."</p> + +<p>"No," said Janetta, indignantly. "You only let him think that he was to +be forced to do it—you only made him lose faith in you as his natural +protector, and believe that you wished him to do what he thought wrong! +And you say there was no cruelty in that?"</p> + +<p>Wyvis Brand kept silence for some minutes. He was impressed in spite of +himself by Janetta's fervor.</p> + +<p>"I suppose," he said, at last, "that the fact is—I don't know what to +do with a child. I never had any teaching or training when I was a +child, and I don't know how to give it. I know I'm a sort of heathen and +savage, and the boy must grow up like me—that is all."</p> + +<p>"It is often said to be a heathen virtue to keep one's word," said +Janetta, with a half smile.</p> + +<p>"Therefore one that I can practice, you mean? Do you always keep your +word when you give it?"</p> + +<p>"I try to."</p> + +<p>"I wish I could get you to give your word to do one thing."</p> + +<p>"What is that?"</p> + +<p>Wyvis spoke slowly. "You see how unfit I am to bring up a child—I +acknowledge the unfitness—and yet to send him away from us would almost +break my mother's heart—you see that."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Will not you sometimes look in on us and give us a word of advice +or—or—rebuke? You are a cousin, as you reminded me, and you have the +right. Will you help us a little now and then?"</p> + +<p>"You would not like it if I did."</p> + +<p>"Was I so very savage? I have an awful temper, I know. But I am not +quite so black as I'm painted, Miss Colwyn. I do want to do the best for +that boy—if I knew how——"</p> + +<p>"Witness this afternoon," said Janetta, with good-humored satire.</p> + +<p>"Well, that shows that I <i>don't</i> know how. Seriously, I am sorry—I +can't say more. Won't you stand our friend, Cousin Janetta?"</p> + +<p>It was the first time he had addressed her in that way.</p> + +<p>"How often am I to be asked to be somebody's friend, I wonder!" said +Janetta to herself, with a touch of humor. But she answered, quite +gravely, "I should like to do what I can—but I'm afraid there is +nothing that I can do, especially"—with a sudden flush—"if your +friends—the people who come to your house—are men like Mr. +Strangways."</p> + +<p>Wyvis looked at her sideways, with a curious look upon his face.</p> + +<p>"You object to Mr. Strangways?"</p> + +<p>"He is a man whom most people object to."</p> + +<p>"Well—if I give up Mr. Strangways and his kind——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>will</i> you, Cousin Wyvis?"</p> + +<p>She turned an eager, sparkling face upon him. It occurred to him, almost +for the first time, to admire her. With that light in her eye, that +color in her cheek, Janetta was almost beautiful. He smiled.</p> + +<p>"I shall be only too glad of an excuse," he said, with more simplicity +and earnestness than she had as yet distinguished in his voice. "And +then—you will come again?"</p> + +<p>"I will—gladly."</p> + +<p>"Shake hands on it after your English fashion," he said, stopping short, +and holding out his own hand. "I have been so long abroad that I almost +forget the way. But it is a sign of friendliness, is it not?"</p> + +<p>Janetta turned and laid her hand in his with a look of bright and +trustful confidence. Somehow it made Wyvis Brand feel himself unworthy. +He said almost nothing more until they parted at Mr. Colwyn's door.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3>SHADOWS.</h3> + + +<p>But Janetta had not much chance of keeping her promise for some time to +come. She was alarmed to find, on her return home that evening, that her +father had come in sick and shivering, with all the symptoms of a +violent cold, followed shortly by high fever. He had caught a chill +during a long drive undertaken in order to see a motherless child who +had been suddenly taken ill, and in whose case he took a great interest. +The child rapidly recovered, but Mr. Colwyn's illness had a serious +termination. Pleurisy came on, and made such rapid inroads upon his +strength that in a very few days his recovery was pronounced impossible. +Gradually growing weaker and weaker, he was not able even to give +counsel or direction to his family, and could only whisper to Janetta, +who was his devoted nurse, a few words about "taking care" of the rest.</p> + +<p>"I will always do my very best for them, father; you may be sure of +that," said Janetta, earnestly. The look of anxious pain in his eyes +gave her the strength to speak firmly—she must set his mind at ease at +any cost.</p> + +<p>"My faithful Janet," she heard him whisper; and then he spoke no more. +With his hand still clasped in hers he died in the early morning of a +chill October day, and the world of Beaminster knew him no more.</p> + +<p>The world seemed sadly changed for Janetta when her father had gone +forth from it; and yet it was not she who made the greatest +demonstration of mourning. Mrs. Colwyn passed from one hysterical fit +into another, and Nora sobbed herself ill; but Janetta went about her +duties with a calm and settled gravity, a sober tearlessness, which +caused her stepmother to dub her cold and heartless half a dozen times a +day. As a matter of fact the girl felt as if her heart were breaking, +but there was no one but herself to bear any of the commonplace little +burdens of daily life which are so hard to carry in the time of trouble; +and but for her thoughtful presence of mind the whole house would have +degenerated into a state of chaos. She wrote necessary letters, made +arrangements for the sad offices which were all that could be rendered +to her father now, interviewed the dressmaker, and ordered meals for the +children. It was to her that the servants and tradespeople came for +orders; it was she who kept her mother's room quiet, and nursed Nora, +and provided necessary occupation for the awed and bewildered children.</p> + +<p>"You don't seem to feel it a bit, Janetta," Mrs. Colwyn said to her on +the day before the funeral. "And I'm sure you were always your father's +favorite. He never cared half so much for any of the children as he did +for you, and now you can't even give him a tributary tear."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Colwyn was fond of stilted expressions, and the thought of "a +tributary tear" seemed so incongruous to Janetta when compared with her +own deep grief, that—much to Mrs. Colwyn's horror—she burst into an +agitated little laugh, as nervous people sometimes do on the most solemn +occasions.</p> + +<p>"To laugh when your father is lying dead in the house!" ejaculated Mrs. +Colwyn, with awful emphasis. "And you that he thought so loving and +dutiful——!"</p> + +<p>Then poor Janetta collapsed. She was worn out with watching and working, +and from nervous laughter she passed to tears so heart-broken and so +exhausting that Mrs. Colwyn never again dared to accuse her openly of +insensibility. And perhaps it was a good thing for Janetta that she did +break down in this way. The doctor who had attended her father was +growing very uneasy about her. He had not been deceived by her apparent +calmness. Her white face and dark-ringed eyes had told him all that +Janetta could not say. "A good thing too!" he muttered when, on a +subsequent call, Tiny told him, with rather a look of consternation, +that her sister "had been crying." "A good thing too! If she had not +cried she would have had a nervous fever before long, and then what +would become of you all?"</p> + +<p>During these dark days Janetta was inexpressibly touched by the marks of +sympathy that reached her from all sides. Country people trudged long +distances into town that they might gaze once more on the worn face of +the man who had often assuaged not only physical but mental pain, and +had been as ready to help and comfort as to prescribe. Townsfolk sent +flowers for the dead and dainties for the living; but better than all +their gifts was the regret that they expressed for the death of a man +whom everyone liked and respected. Mr. Colwyn's practice, though never +very lucrative, had been an exceedingly large one; and only when he had +passed away did his townsfolk seem to appreciate him at his true worth.</p> + +<p>In the sad absorption of mind which followed upon his death, Janetta +almost forgot her cousins, the Brands. But when the funeral took place, +and she went with her brother Joe to the grave, as she insisted upon +doing in spite of her stepmother's tearful remonstrances, it was a sort +of relief and satisfaction to her to see that both Wyvis and Cuthbert +Brand were present. They were her kinsmen, after all, and it was right +for them to be there. It made her feel momentarily stronger to know of +their presence in the church.</p> + +<p>But at the grave she forgot them utterly. The beautiful and consoling +words of the Burial Service fell almost unheeded on her ear. She could +only think of the blank that was made in her life by the absence of +that loving voice, that tender sympathy, which had never failed her +once. "My faithful Janet!" he had called her. There was no one to call +her "my faithful Janet" now.</p> + +<p>She was shaken by a storm of silent sobs as these thoughts came over +her. She made scarcely a sound, but her figure was swayed by the tempest +as if it would have fallen. Joe, the young brother, who could as yet +scarcely realize the magnitude of the loss which he had sustained, +glanced at her uneasily; but it was not he, but Wyvis Brand, who +suddenly made a step forward and gave her—just in time—the support of +his strong arm. The movement checked her and recalled her to herself. +Her weeping grew less violent, and although strong shudders still shook +her frame, she was able to walk quietly from the grave to the +carriage-door, and to shake hands with Wyvis Brand with some attempt at +calmness of demeanor.</p> + +<p>He came to the house a few days after the funeral, but Janetta happened +to be out, and Mrs. Colwyn refused to see him. Possibly he thought that +some slight lurked within this refusal, for he did not come again, and a +visit at a later date from Mrs. Brand was so entirely embarrassing and +unsatisfactory that Janetta could hardly wish for its repetition. Mrs. +Colwyn, in the deepest of widow's weeds, with a white handkerchief in +her hand, was yet not too much overcome by grief to show that she +esteemed herself far more respectable than Mrs. Brand, and could "set +her down," if necessary; while poor Mrs. Brand, evidently comprehending +the reason of Mrs. Colwyn's bridlings and tossings, was nervous and +flurried, sat on the edge of a chair, and looked—poor, helpless, +elderly woman—as if she had never entered a drawing-room before.</p> + +<p>The only comfort Janetta had out of the visit was a moment's +conversation in the hall when Mrs. Brand took her leave.</p> + +<p>"My dear—my dear," said Mrs. Brand, taking the girl's hand in hers, "I +am so sorry, and I can't do anything to comfort you. Your father was +very kind to me when I was in great trouble, years ago. I shall never +forget his goodness. If there is anything I can ever do for you, you +must let me do it for his sake."</p> + +<p>Janetta put up her face and kissed the woman to whom her father had been +"very kind." It comforted her to hear of his goodness once again. She +loved Mrs. Brand for appreciating it.</p> + +<p>That little sentence or two did her more good than the long letters +which she was receiving every few days from Margaret, her chosen friend. +Margaret was sincerely grieved for Janetta's loss, and said many +consoling things in her sweet, tranquil, rather devotional way; but she +had not known Mr. Colwyn, and she could not say the words that Janetta's +heart was aching for—the words of praise and admiration of a nobly +unselfish life which alone could do Janetta any good. Yes, Margaret's +letters were distinctly unsatisfactory—not from want of feeling, but +from want of experience of life.</p> + +<p>Graver necessities soon arose, however, than those of consolation in +grief. Mr. Colwyn had always been a poor man, and the sum for which he +had insured his life was only sufficient to pay his debts and funeral +expenses, and to leave a very small balance at his banker's. He had +bought the house in Gwynne Street in which he lived, and there was no +need, therefore, to seek for another home; and Mrs. Colwyn had fifty +pounds a year of her own, but of course it was necessary that the two +elder girls should do something for themselves. Nora obtained almost +immediately a post as under-teacher in a school not far from Beaminster, +and Georgie was taken in as a sort of governess-pupil, while Joe was +offered—chiefly out of consideration for his father's memory—a +clerkship in a mercantile house in the town, and was considered to be +well provided for. Curly, one of the younger boys, obtained a nomination +to a naval school in London. Thus only Mrs. Colwyn, Tiny, and "Jinks" +remained at home—with Janetta.</p> + +<p>With Janetta!—That was the difficulty. What was Janetta to do? She +might probably with considerable ease have obtained a position as +resident governess in a family, but then she would have to be absent +from home altogether. And of late the Colwyns had found it best to +dispense with the maid-servant who had hitherto done the work of the +household—a fact which meant that Janetta, with the help of a charity +orphan of thirteen, did it nearly all herself.</p> + +<p>"I might send home enough money for you to keep an efficient servant, +mamma," she said one day, "if I could go away and find a good +situation."</p> + +<p>It never occurred either to her or to her stepmother that any of her +earnings were to belong to Janetta, or be used for her behoof.</p> + +<p>"It would have to be a very good situation indeed, then," said Mrs. +Colwyn, with sharpness. "I don't suppose you could get more than fifty +pounds a year—if so much. And fifty pounds would not go far if we had a +woman in the house to feed and pay wages to. No, you had better stay at +home and get some daily teaching in the neighborhood. With your +recommendations it ought to be easy enough for you to do so."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid not," said Janetta, with a little sigh.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! You could get some if you tried—if you had any energy, any +spirit: I suppose you would like to sit with your hands before you, +doing nothing, while I slaved my fingers to the bone for you," said Mrs. +Colwyn, who never got up till noon, or did anything but gossip and read +novels when she was up; "but I would be ashamed to do that if I were a +well-educated girl, whose father spent I don't know how much on her +voice, and expected her to make a living for herself by the time she was +one-and-twenty! I must say, Janetta, that I think it very wrong of you +to be so slack in trying to earn a little money, when Nora and Georgie +and Joey are all out in the world doing for themselves, and you sitting +here at home doing nothing at all."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry, mamma," said Janetta, meekly. "I will try to get something +to do at once."</p> + +<p>She did not think of reminding Mrs. Colwyn that she had been up since +six o'clock that morning helping the charity orphan to scrub and scour, +cooking, making beds, sewing, teaching Tiny between whiles, and scarcely +getting five minutes' rest until dinner-time. She only began to wonder +how she could manage to get all her tasks into the day if she had +lessons to give as well. "I suppose I must sit up at night and get up +earlier in the morning," she thought to herself. "It is a pity I am such +a sleepy person. But use reconciles one to all things."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Colwyn meanwhile went on lecturing.</p> + +<p>"And above all things, Janetta, remember that you ask high terms and get +the money always in advance. You are just like your poor father in the +way you have about money; I never saw anyone so unpractical as he was. +I'm sure half his bills are unpaid yet, and never will be paid. I hope +you won't be like <i>him</i>, I'm sure——"</p> + +<p>"I hope I shall be like him in every possible respect," said Janetta, +with compressed lips. She rose as she spoke and caught up the basket of +socks that she was mending. "I don't know how you can bear to speak of +him in that slighting manner," she went on, almost passionately. "He was +the best, the kindest of men, and I cannot bear to hear it." And then +she hurriedly left the room and went into her father's little +surgery—as it had once been called—to relieve her overcharged heart +with a burst of weeping. It was not often that Janetta lost patience, +but a word against her father was sufficient to upset her self-command +nowadays. She rested her head against the well-worn arm-chair where he +used to sit, and kissed the back of it, and bedewed it with her tears.</p> + +<p>"Poor father! dear father!" she murmured. "Oh, if only you were here, I +could bear anything! Or if she had loved you as you deserved, I could +bear with her and work for her willingly—cheerfully. But when she +speaks against you, father dear, how <i>can</i> I live with her? And yet he +told me to take care of her, and I said I would. He called me 'his +faithful Janet.' I do not want to be unfaithful, but—oh father, father, +it is hard to live without you!"</p> + +<p>The gathering shades of the wintry day began to gather round her; but +Janetta, her face buried in the depths of the arm-chair, was oblivious +of time. It was almost dark before little Tiny came running in with +cries of terror to summon her sister to Mrs. Colwyn's help.</p> + +<p>"Mamma's ill—I think she's dying. Come, Janet, come," cried the child. +And Janetta hurried back to the dining-room.</p> + +<p>She found Mrs. Colwyn on the sofa in a state of apparent stupor. For +this at first Janetta saw no reason, and was on the point of sending for +a doctor, when her eye fell upon a black object which had rolled from +the sofa to the ground. Janetta looked at it and stood transfixed.</p> + +<p>There was no need to send for a doctor. And Janetta saw at once that she +could not be spared from home. The wretched woman had found a solace +from her woes, real and imaginary, in the brandy bottle.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3>JANETTA'S FAILURE.</h3> + + +<p>The terrible certainty that Janetta had now acquired of Mrs. Colwyn's +inability to control herself decided her in the choice of an occupation. +She knew that she must, if possible, earn something; but it was equally +impossible for her to leave home entirely, or even for many hours at a +stretch; she was quite convinced that constant watching, and even gentle +restraint, could alone prevail in checking the tendency which her +stepmother evinced. She understood now better than she had ever done why +her father's brow had been so early wrinkled and his hair grey before +its time. Doubtless, he had discovered his wife's unfortunate tendency, +and, while carefully concealing it or keeping it within bounds, had +allowed it often to weigh heavily upon his mind. Janetta realized with a +great shock that <i>she</i> could not hope to exert the influence or the +authority of her father, that all her efforts might possibly be +unavailing unless they were seconded by Mrs. Colwyn herself, and that +public disgrace might yet be added to the troubles and anxieties of +their lives.</p> + +<p>There is something so particularly revolting in the spectacle of this +kind of degradation in a woman, that Janetta felt as if the discovery +that she had made turned her positively ill. She had much ado to behave +to the children and the servant as if nothing were amiss; she got her +stepmother to bed, and kept Tiny out of the room, but the effort was +almost more than she knew how to bear. She passed a melancholy evening +with the children—melancholy in spite of herself, for she did her best +to be cheerful—and spent a sleepless night, rising in the morning with +a bad headache and a conviction as of the worthlessness of all things +which she did not very often experience.</p> + +<p>She shrank sensitively from going to Mrs. Colwyn's room. Surely the poor +woman would be overcome with pain and shame; surely she would understand +how terrible the exposure of her disgrace had been to Janetta. But at +last Mrs. Colwyn's bell sounded sharply, and continued to ring, and the +girl was obliged to run upstairs and enter her stepmother's room.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Colwyn was sitting up in bed, with the bell-rope in her hand, an +aggrieved expression upon her face.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm sure! Nine o'clock and no breakfast ready for me! I suppose I +may wait until everybody else in the house is served first; I must say, +Janetta, that you are very thoughtless of my comfort."</p> + +<p>Contrary to her usual custom Janetta offered no word of excuse or +apology. She was too much taken aback to speak. She stood and looked at +her stepmother with slightly dilated eyes, and neither moved nor spoke.</p> + +<p>"What <i>are</i> you staring at?" said Mrs. Colwyn, sinking back on her +pillows with a faint—very faint—touch of uneasiness in her tones. "If +you are in a sulky mood, Janetta, I wish you would go away, and send my +breakfast up by Ph[oe]be and Tiny. I have a wretched headache this +morning and can't be bothered."</p> + +<p>"What would you like?" said Janetta, with an effort.</p> + +<p>"Oh, anything. Some coffee and toast, perhaps. I dare say you won't +believe it—you are so unsympathetic—but I was frightfully ill last +night. I don't know how I got to bed; I was quite insensible for a +time—all from a narcotic that I had taken for neuralgia——"</p> + +<p>"I'll go and get your breakfast ready," said Janetta abruptly. "I will +send it up as soon as I can."</p> + +<p>She left the room, unheeding some murmured grumbling at her selfishness, +and shut the door behind her. On the landing it must be confessed that +she struck her foot angrily on the floor and clenched her hands, while +the color flushed into her mobile, sensitive little face. There was +nothing that Janetta hated more than a lie. And her stepmother was lying +to her now.</p> + +<p>She sent up the breakfast tray, and did not re-enter the room for some +time. When at last she came up, Mrs. Colwyn had had the fire lighted and +was sitting beside it in a rocking-chair, with a novel on her lap. She +looked up indolently as Janetta entered.</p> + +<p>"Going out?" she said, noticing that the girl was in her out-door wraps. +"You are always gadding."</p> + +<p>"I came to speak to you before I went out," said Janetta, patiently. "I +am going to the stationer's, and to the Beaminster <i>Argus</i> Office. I +mean to make it well known in the town that I want to give music and +singing-lessons. And, if possible, I shall give them here—at our own +house."</p> + +<p>"You'll do nothing of the sort!" said Mrs. Colwyn, shrilly. "I'll not +have a pack of children about the house playing scales and singing their +Do, Re, Mi, till my head is fit to split. You'll remember, Miss, that +this is <i>my</i> house, and that you are living on <i>my</i> money, and behave +yourself."</p> + +<p>"Mamma," said Janetta, steadily, advancing a step nearer, and turning a +shade paler than she had been before, "please think what you are saying. +I am willing to work as hard as I can, and earn as much as I can. But I +dare not go away from home—at any rate for long—unless I can feel sure +that—that what happened last night—will not occur again."</p> + +<p>"What happened!—what happened last night?—I don't know what you mean."</p> + +<p>"Don't say that, mamma: you know—you know quite well. And think what a +grief it would have been to dear father—what a disgrace it will be to +Joe and Nora and the little ones and all of us—if it ever became known! +Think of yourself, and the shame and the sin of it!"</p> + +<p>"I've not the least notion what you are talking about, Janetta, and I +beg that you will not address me in that way," said Mrs. Colwyn, with an +attempt at dignity. "It is very undutiful indeed, and I hope that I +shall hear no more of it."</p> + +<p>"I'll never speak of it again, mamma, unless you make it necessary. All +I mean is that you must understand—I cannot feel safe now—I must be at +home as much as possible to see that Tiny is safe, and that everything +is going on well. You must please let me advertise for pupils in our own +house."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Colwyn burst into tears. "Oh, well, have your own way! I knew that +you would tyrannize, you always do whenever you get the chance, and very +foolish I have been to give you the opportunity. To speak in that way to +your father's wife—and all because she had to take a little something +for her nerves, and because of her neuralgia! But I am nobody now: +nobody, even in my own house, where I'm sure I ought to be mistress if +anybody is!"</p> + +<p>Janetta could do or say nothing more. She gave her stepmother a dose of +sal volatile, and went away. She had already searched every room and +every cupboard in the house, except in Mrs. Colwyn's own domain, and had +put every bottle that she could find under lock and key; but she left +the house with a feeling of terrible insecurity upon her, as if the +earth might open at any moment beneath her feet.</p> + +<p>She put advertisements in the local papers and left notices at some of +the Beaminster shops, and, when these attempts produced no results, she +called systematically on all the people she knew, and did her best—very +much against the grain—to ask for pupils. Thanks to her perseverance +she soon got three or four children as music pupils, although at a very +low rate of remuneration. Also, she gave two singing lessons weekly to +the daughter of the grocer with whom the Colwyns dealt. But these were +not paid for in money, but in kind. And then for a time she got no more +pupils at all.</p> + +<p>Janetta was somewhat puzzled by her failure. She had fully expected to +succeed as a teacher in Beaminster. "When the Adairs come back it will +be better," she said, hopefully, to herself. "They have not written for +a long time, but I am sure that they will come home soon. Perhaps +Margaret is going to be married and will not want any singing lessons. +But I should think that they would recommend me: I should think that I +might refer to Lady Caroline, and surely people would think more of my +abilities then."</p> + +<p>But it was not confidence in her abilities that was lacking so much as +confidence in her amiability and discretion, she soon found. She called +one day at the house of a schoolmistress, who was said to want +assistance in the musical line, and was received with a stiffness which +did not encourage her to make much of her qualifications.</p> + +<p>"The fact is, Miss Colwyn," said the preceptress at length, "I have +heard of you from Miss Polehampton."</p> + +<p>Janetta was on her feet in a moment. "I know very well what that means," +she said, rather defiantly.</p> + +<p>"Exactly. I see that Miss Polehampton's opinion of you is justifiable. +You will excuse my mentioning to you, as it is all for your own good, +Miss Colwyn, that Miss Polehampton found in you some little weakness of +temper, some want of the submissiveness and good sense which ought to +characterize an under-teacher's demeanor. I have great confidence in +Miss Polehampton's opinion."</p> + +<p>"The circumstances under which I left Miss Polehampton's could be easily +explained if you would allow me to refer you to Lady Caroline Adair," +said Janetta, with mingled spirit and dignity.</p> + +<p>"Lady Caroline Adair? Oh, yes, I have heard all about that," said the +schoolmistress, in a tone of depreciation. "I do not need to hear any +other version of the story. You must excuse my remarking, Miss Colwyn, +that temper and sense are qualities as valuable in music-teaching as in +any other; and that your dismissal from Miss Polehampton's will, in my +opinion, be very much against you, in a place where Miss Polehampton's +school is so well known, and she herself is so much respected."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to have troubled you," said Janetta, not without +stateliness, although her lips trembled a little as she spoke. "I will +wish you good-morning."</p> + +<p>The schoolmistress bowed solemnly, and allowed the girl to depart. +Janetta hastened out of the house—glad to get away before the tears +that had gathered in her eyes could fall.</p> + +<p>At an ordinary time she would have been equally careful that they did +not fall when she was in the street; but on this occasion, dazed, +wounded, and tormented by an anxiety about the future, which was +beginning to take the spring out of her youth, she moved along the +side-walk with perfect unconsciousness that her eyes were brimming over, +and that two great tears were already on her cheeks.</p> + +<p>It was a quiet road, and there was little likelihood of encountering any +one whom she knew. Therefore Janetta was utterly abashed when a +gentleman, who had met her, took off his hat, glanced at her curiously, +and then turned back as if by a sudden impulse, and addressed her by +name.</p> + +<p>"Miss Colwyn, I think?"</p> + +<p>She looked up at him through a blinding haze of tears, and recognized +the tall, spare figure, the fine sensitive face, the kind, dark eyes and +intellectual forehead. The coal-black beard and moustache nearly hid +his mouth, but Janetta felt instinctively that this tell-tale feature +would not belie the promise of the others.</p> + +<p>"Sir Philip Ashley," she murmured, in her surprise.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," he said, with the courtesy that she so well +remembered; "I stopped you on impulse, I fear, because I felt a great +desire to express to you my deep sympathy with you in your loss. It may +seem impertinent for me to speak, but I knew your father and respected +and trusted him. We had some correspondence about sanitary matters, and +I was greatly relying on his help in certain reforms that I wish to +institute in Beaminster. He is a great loss to us all."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," Janetta said unsteadily.</p> + +<p>"Will you let me ask whether there is anything in which I can help you +just now."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, nothing, thank you." She had brushed away the involuntary tear, +and smiled bravely as she replied. "I did not think that I should meet +anybody: it was simply that I was disappointed about—about—some +lessons that I hoped to get. Quite a <i>little</i> disappointment, you see."</p> + +<p>"Was it a little disappointment? Do you want to give lessons—singing +lessons?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but nobody will have me to teach them," said Janetta, laughing +nervously.</p> + +<p>Sir Philip looked back at the house which they had just passed. "That is +Miss Morrison's school: you came out of it, did you not? Does she not +need your help?"</p> + +<p>"I do not suit her."</p> + +<p>"Why? Did she try your voice?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. It was for other reasons. She was prejudiced against me," said +Janetta, with a little gulp.</p> + +<p>"Prejudiced? But why?—may I ask?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, she had heard something she did not like. It does not matter: I +shall get other pupils by-and-bye."</p> + +<p>"Is it important to you to have pupils?" Sir Philip asked, as seriously +and anxiously as if the fate of the empire depended on his reply.</p> + +<p>"Oh, most important." Janetta's face and voice were more pathetic than +she knew. Sir Philip was silent for a moment.</p> + +<p>"I have heard you sing," he said at length, in his grave, earnest way. +"I am sure that I should have no hesitation in recommending you—if my +recommendation were of any use. My mother may perhaps hear of somebody +who wants lessons, if you will allow me to mention the matter to her."</p> + +<p>"I shall be very much obliged to you," said Janetta, feeling grateful +and yet a little startled—it did not seem natural to her in her sweet +humility that Sir Philip and his mother should interest themselves in +her welfare. "Oh, <i>very</i> much obliged."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip raised his hat and smiled down kindly upon her as he said +good-bye. He had been interested from the very first in Margaret's +friend. And he had always been vaguely conscious that Margaret's +friendship was not likely to produce any very desirable results.</p> + +<p>Janetta went on her way, feeling for the moment a little less desolate +than she had felt before. Sir Philip turned homewards to seek his +mother, who was a woman of whom many people stood in awe, but whose +kindness of heart was never known to fail. To her Sir Philip at once +poured out his story with the directness and Quixotic ardor which some +of his friends found incomprehensible, not to say absurd. But Lady +Ashley never thought so.</p> + +<p>She smiled very kindly as her son finished his little tale.</p> + +<p>"She is really a good singer, you say? Mr. Colwyn's daughter. I have +seen him once or twice."</p> + +<p>"He was a good fellow."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I believe so. Miss Morrison's school, did you mention? Why, Mabel +Hartley is there." Mabel Hartley was a distant cousin of the Ashleys. "I +will call to-morrow, Philip, and find out what the objection is to Miss +Colwyn. If it can be removed I don't see why she should not teach Mabel, +who, I remember, has a voice."</p> + +<p>Lady Ashley carried out her intention, and announced the result to her +son the following evening.</p> + +<p>"I have not succeeded, dear. Miss Morrison has been prejudiced by some +report from Miss Polehampton, with whom Miss Colwyn and Margaret Adair +were at school. She said that the two girls were expelled together."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip was silent for a minute or two. His brows contracted. "I was +afraid," he said, "that Miss Adair's championship of her friend had not +been conducted in the wisest possible manner. She has done Miss Colwyn +considerable harm."</p> + +<p>Lady Ashley glanced at him inquiringly. She was particularly anxious +that he should marry Margaret Adair.</p> + +<p>"Is Lady Caroline at home?" her son asked, after another and a longer +pause.</p> + +<p>"Yes. She came home yesterday—with dear Margaret. I am sure, Philip, +that Margaret does not know it if she has done harm."</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose she does, mother. I am sure she would not willingly +injure any one. But I think that she ought to know the circumstances of +the case."</p> + +<p>And then he opened a book and began to read.</p> + +<p>Lady Ashley never remonstrated. But she raised her eyebrows a little +over this expression of Sir Philip's opinion. If he were going to try to +tutor Margaret Adair, whose slightest wish had never yet known +contradiction, she thought it probable that the much-wished for marriage +would never take place at all.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3>A BONE OF CONTENTION.</h3> + + +<p>Poor Janetta, plodding away at her music lessons and doing the household +work of her family, never guessed that she was about to become a bone of +contention. But such she was fated to be, and that between persons no +less distinguished than Lady Caroline Adair and Sir Philip Ashley—not +to speak of Sir Philip and Margaret!</p> + +<p>Two days after Janetta's unexpected meeting with Sir Philip, that +gentleman betook himself to Helmsley Court in a somewhat warm and +indignant mood. He had seen a good deal of Margaret during the autumn +months. They had been members of the same house-party in more than one +great Scottish mansion: they had boated together, fished together, +driven and ridden and walked together, until more than one of Lady +Caroline's acquaintances had asked, with a covert smile, "how soon she +might be allowed to congratulate".... The sentence was never quite +finished, and Lady Caroline never made any very direct reply. Margaret +was too young to think of these things, she said. But other people were +very ready to think of them for her.</p> + +<p>The acquaintance had therefore progressed a long way since the day of +Margaret's return from school. And yet it had not gone quite so far as +onlookers surmised, or as Lady Caroline wished. Sir Philip was most +friendly, most attentive, but he was also somewhat absurdly unconscious +of remark. His character had a simplicity which occasionally set people +wondering. He was perfectly frank and manly: he spoke without +<i>arrière-pensée</i>, he meant what he said, and was ready to believe that +other people meant it too. He had a pleasant and courteous manner in +society, and liked to be on friendly terms with every one he met; but at +the same time he was not at all like the ordinary society man, and had +not the slightest idea that he differed from any such person—as indeed +he did. He had very high aims and ideals, and he took it for granted, +with a really charming simplicity, that other people had similar aims +and similar (if not higher) ideals. Consequently he now and then ran his +head against a wall, and was laughed at by commonplace persons; but +those who knew him well loved him all the better for his impracticable +schemes and expectations.</p> + +<p>But to Margaret he seemed rather like a firebrand. He took interest in +things of which she had never heard, or which she regarded with a little +delicate disdain. A steam-laundry in Beaminster, for example—what had a +man like Sir Philip Ashley to do with a steam-laundry? And yet he was +establishing one in the old city, and actually assuring people that it +would "pay." He had been exerting himself about the drainage of the +place and the dwellings of the poor. Margaret was sorry in a vague way +for the poor, and supposed that drainage had to be "seen to" from time +to time, but she did not want to hear anything about it. She liked the +pretty little cottages in the village of Helmsley, and she did not mind +begging for a holiday for the school children (who adored her) now and +then; and she had heard with pleasure of Lady Ashley's pattern +alm-houses and dainty orphanage, where the old women wore red cloaks, +and the children were exceedingly picturesque; but as a necessary +consequence of her life-training, she did not want to know anything +about disease or misery or sin. And Sir Philip could not entirely keep +these subjects out of his conversation, although he tried to be very +careful not to bring a look that he knew well—a look of shocked +repulsion and dislike—to Margaret's tranquil face.</p> + +<p>She welcomed him with her usual sweetness that afternoon. He thought +that she looked lovelier than ever. The day was cold, and she wore a +dark-green dress with a good deal of gold embroidery about it, which +suited her perfectly. Lady Caroline, too, was graciousness itself. She +received him in her own little sitting-room—a gem of a room into which +only her intimate friends were admitted, and made him welcome with all +the charm of manner for which she was distinguished. And to add to her +virtues, she presently found that she had letters to write, and retired +into an adjoining library, leaving the door open between the two rooms, +so that Margaret might still be considered as under her chaperonage, +although conversation could be conducted without any fear of her +overhearing what was said. Lady Caroline knew so exactly what to do and +what to leave undone!</p> + +<p>As soon as she was gone, Sir Philip put down his tea-cup and turned with +an eager movement to Margaret.</p> + +<p>"I have been wanting to speak to you," he said. "I have something +special—something important to say."</p> + +<p>"Yes?" said Margaret, sweetly. She flushed a little and looked down. She +was not quite ignorant of what every one was expecting Sir Philip Ashley +to say.</p> + +<p>"Can you listen to me for a minute or two?" he said, with the +gentle eagerness of manner, the restrained ardor which he was +capable—unfortunately for him—of putting into his most trivial +requests. "You are sure you will not be impatient?"</p> + +<p>Margaret smiled. Should she accept him? she was thinking. After all, he +was very nice, in spite of his little eccentricities. And really—with +his fine features, his tall stature, his dark eyes, and coal-black hair +and beard—he was an exceedingly handsome man.</p> + +<p>"I want you to help me," said Sir Philip, in almost a coaxing tone. "I +want you to carry out a design that I have formed. Nobody can do it but +you. Will you help me?"</p> + +<p>"If I can," said Margaret, shyly.</p> + +<p>"You are always good and kind," said Sir Philip, warmly. "Margaret—may +I call you Margaret? I have known you so long."</p> + +<p>This seemed a little irregular, from Miss Adair's point of view.</p> + +<p>"I don't know whether mamma——" she began, and stopped.</p> + +<p>"Whether she would like it? I don't think she would mind: she suggested +it the other day, in fact. She always calls me 'Philip,' you know: +perhaps you would do the same?"</p> + +<p>Again Margaret smiled; but there was a touch of inquiry in her eyes as +she glanced at him. She did not know very much about proposals of +marriage, but she fancied that Sir Philip's manner of making one was +peculiar. And she had had it impressed upon her so often that he was +about to make one that it could hardly be considered strange if his +manner somewhat bewildered her.</p> + +<p>"I want to speak to you," said the young man, lowering his earnest voice +a little, "about your friend, Miss Colwyn."</p> + +<p>Now, why did the girl flush scarlet? Why did her hand tremble a little +as she put down her cup? Philip lost the thread of the conversation for +a minute or two, and simply looked at her. Then Margaret quietly took +down a screen from the mantel-piece and began to fan herself. "It is +rather hot here, don't you think?" she said, serenely. "The fire makes +one feel quite uncomfortable."</p> + +<p>"It <i>is</i> a large one," said Sir Philip, with conviction. "Shall I take +any of the coal off for you? No? Well, as I was saying, I wished to +speak to you about your friend, Miss Colwyn."</p> + +<p>"She has lost her father lately, poor thing," said Margaret, +conversationally. "She has been very unhappy."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and for more reasons than one. You have not seen her, I conclude, +since his death?"</p> + +<p>"No, he died in August or September, did he not? It is close upon +December now—what a long time we have been away! Poor Janetta!—how +glad she will be to see me!"</p> + +<p>"I am sure she will. But it would be just as well for you to hear +beforehand that her father's death has brought great distress upon the +family. I have had some talk with friends of his, and I find that he +left very little money behind."</p> + +<p>"How sad for them! But—they have not removed?—they are still at their +old house: I thought everything was going on as usual," said Margaret, +in a slightly puzzled tone.</p> + +<p>"The house belongs to them, so they might as well live in it. Two or +three of the family have got situations of some kind—one child is in a +charitable institution, I believe."</p> + +<p>"Oh, how dreadful! Like Lady Ashley's Orphanage?" said Margaret, +shrinking a little.</p> + +<p>"No, no; nothing of that kind—an educational establishment, to which he +has got a nomination. But the mother and the two or three children are +still at home, and I believe that their income is not more than a +hundred a year."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip was considerably above the mark. But the mention of even a +hundred a year, though not a large income, produced little impression +upon Margaret.</p> + +<p>"That is not very much, is it?" she said, gently.</p> + +<p>"Much! I should think not," said Sir Philip, driven almost to +discourtesy by the difficulty of making her understand. "Four or five +people to live upon it and keep up a position! It is semi-starvation and +misery."</p> + +<p>"But, Sir Philip, does not Janetta give lessons? I should have thought +she could make a perfect fortune by her music alone. Hasn't she tried to +get something to do?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed, poor girl, she has. My mother has been making inquiries, +and she finds that Miss Colwyn has advertised and done everything she +could think of—with very little result. I myself met her three or four +days ago, coming away from Miss Morrison's, with tears in her eyes. She +had failed to get the post of music-teacher there."</p> + +<p>"But why had she failed? She can sing and play beautifully!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, I wanted you to ask me that! She failed—because Miss Morrison was +a friend of Miss Polehampton's, and she had heard some garbled and +distorted account of Miss Colwyn's dismissal from that school."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip did not look at her as he spoke: he fancied that she would be +at once struck with horror and even with shame, and he preferred to +avert his eyes during the moment's silence that followed upon his +account of Janetta's failure to get work. But, when Margaret spoke, a +very slight tone of vexation was the only discoverable trace of any such +emotion.</p> + +<p>"Why did not Janetta explain?"</p> + +<p>Sir Philip's lips moved, but he said nothing.</p> + +<p>"That affair cannot be the reason why she has obtained so little work, +of course?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid that to some extent it is."</p> + +<p>"Janetta could so easily have explained it!"</p> + +<p>"May I ask how she could explain it? Write a letter to the local paper, +or pay a series of calls to declare that she had not been to blame? Do +you think that any one would have believed her? Besides—you call her +your friend: could she exculpate herself without blaming you; and do you +think that she would do that?"</p> + +<p>"Without blaming <i>me</i>?" repeated Margaret. She rose to her full height, +letting the fan fall between her hands, and stood silently confronting +him. "But," she said, slowly—"I—I was not to blame."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip bowed.</p> + +<p>"You think that I was to blame?"</p> + +<p>"I think that you acted on impulse, without much consideration for Miss +Colwyn's future. I think that you have done her an injury—which I am +sure you will be only too willing to repair."</p> + +<p>He began rather sternly, he ended almost tenderly—moved as he could not +fail to be by the soft reproach of Margaret's eyes.</p> + +<p>"I cannot see that I have done her any injury at all; and I really do +not know how I can repair it," said the girl, with a cold stateliness +which ought to have warned Sir Philip that he was in danger of +offending. But Philip was rash and warm-hearted, and he had taken up +Janetta's cause.</p> + +<p>"Your best way of repairing it," he said, earnestly, "would be to call +on Miss Morrison yourself and explain the matter to her, as Miss Colwyn +cannot possibly do—unless she is a very different person from the one I +take her for. And if that did not avail, go to Miss Polehampton and +persuade her to write a letter——"</p> + +<p>He stopped somewhat abruptly. The look of profound astonishment on +Margaret's face recalled him to a sense of limitations. "Margaret!" he +said, pleadingly, "won't you be generous? You can afford to do this +thing for your friend!"</p> + +<p>"Go to Miss Morrison and explain! <i>Persuade</i> Miss Polehampton!—after +the way she treated us! But really it is too ridiculous, Sir Philip. You +do not know my friend, Miss Colwyn. She would be the last person to wish +me to humiliate myself to Miss Polehampton!"</p> + +<p>"I do not see that what she wishes has much to do with it," said Sir +Philip, very stiffly. "Miss Colwyn is suffering under an injustice. I +ask you to repair that injustice. I really do not see how you can +refuse."</p> + +<p>Margaret looked as if she were about to make some mutinous reply; then +she compressed her lips and lowered her eyes for a few seconds.</p> + +<p>"I will ask mamma what she thinks," she said at last, in her usual even +tones.</p> + +<p>"Why should you ask her?" said Sir Philip, impetuously. "What +consultation is needed, when I simply beg you to be your own true +self—that noble, generous self that I am sure you are! Margaret, don't +disappoint me!"</p> + +<p>"I didn't know," said the girl, with proud deliberateness, "that you had +any special interest in the matter, Sir Philip."</p> + +<p>"I have this interest—that I love you with all my heart, Margaret, and +hope that you will let me call you my wife one day. It is this love, +this hope, which makes me long to think of you as perfect—always noble +and self-sacrificing and just! Margaret, you will not forbid me to +hope?"</p> + +<p>He had chosen a bad time for his declaration of love. He saw this, and +his accent grew more and more supplicating, for he perceived that the +look of repulsion, which he knew and hated, was already stealing into +Margaret's lovely eyes. She stood as if turned into stone, and did not +answer a word. And it was on this scene that Lady Caroline broke at that +moment—a scene which, at first sight, gave the mother keen pleasure, +for it had all the orthodox appearance of love-making: the girl, silent, +downcast, embarrassed; the man passionate and earnest, with head bent +towards her fair face, and hands outstretched in entreaty.</p> + +<p>But poor Lady Caroline was soon to be undeceived, and her castle in the +air to come tumbling down about her ears.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3>SIR PHILIP'S OPINION.</h3> + + +<p>"Is anything the matter?" said Lady Caroline, suavely.</p> + +<p>She had been undecided for a minute as to whether she had not better +withdraw unseen, but the distressed expression on her-daughter's face +decided her to speak. She might at least prevent Margaret from saying +anything foolish.</p> + +<p>Sir Philip drew back a little. Margaret went—almost hurriedly—up to +her mother, and put her hand into Lady Caroline's.</p> + +<p>"Will you tell him? will you explain to him, please?" she said. "I do +not want to hear any more: I would rather not. We could never understand +each other, and I should be very unhappy."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip made an eager gesture, but Lady Caroline silenced him by an +entreating glance and then looked straight into her daughter's eyes. +Their limpid hazel depths were troubled now: tears were evidently very +near, and Lady Caroline detested tears.</p> + +<p>"My darling child," she said, "you must not agitate yourself. You shall +hear nothing that you do not want to hear. Sir Philip would never say +anything that would pain you."</p> + +<p>"I have asked her to be my wife," said Sir Philip, very quietly, "and I +hope that she will not refuse to hear me say that, at least."</p> + +<p>"But that was not all," said Margaret, suddenly turning on him her +grieving eyes—eyes that always looked so much more grieved than their +owner felt—and her flushing, quivering face: "You told me first that I +was wrong—selfish and unjust; and you want me to humiliate myself—to +say that it was my fault——"</p> + +<p>"My dearest Margaret!" exclaimed Lady Caroline, in amaze, "what can you +mean? Philip, are we dreaming?—Darling child, come with me to your +room: you had better lie down for a little time while I talk to Sir +Philip. Excuse me a moment, Sir Philip—I will come back."</p> + +<p>Margaret allowed herself to be led from the room. This outbreak of +emotion was almost unprecedented in her history; but then Sir Philip had +attacked her on her tenderest side—that of her personal dignity. +Margaret Adair found it very hard to believe that she was as others are, +and not made of a different clay from them.</p> + +<p>Some little time elapsed before Lady Caroline's return. She had made +Margaret lie down, administered sal volatile, covered her with an +eiderdown quilt, and seen her maid bathing the girl's forehead with eau +de Cologne and water before she came back again. And all this took time. +She apologized very prettily for her delay, but Sir Philip did not seem +to heed her excuses: he was standing beside the fire, meditatively +tugging at his black beard, and Lady Caroline had some difficulty in +thinking that she could read the expression of his face.</p> + +<p>"I do not quite understand all this," she said, with her most amiable +expression of countenance, as she seated herself on the other side of +the soft white hearthrug. "Margaret mentioned Miss Colwyn's name: I am +quite at a loss to imagine how Miss Colwyn comes to be mixed up in the +matter."</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry," said Sir Philip, ruefully. "I never thought that +there would be any difficulty. I seem to have offended Margaret most +thoroughly."</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline smiled. "Girls soon forget a man's offences," she said, +consolingly. "What did you say?"</p> + +<p>And then Sir Philip, with some hesitation, told the story of his plea +for Janetta Colwyn.</p> + +<p>The smile was frozen on Lady Caroline's lips. She sat up straight, and +stared at her visitor. When he had quite ended his explanation, she +said, as icily as she knew how to speak—</p> + +<p>"And you asked my daughter to justify Miss Colwyn at the cost of her own +feelings—I might almost say, of her own social standing in the +neighborhood!—--"</p> + +<p>"Isn't that a little too strong, Lady Caroline? Your daughter's social +standing would not be touched in the least by an act of common justice. +No one who heard of it but would honor her for exculpating her friend!"</p> + +<p>"Exculpating! My dear Philip, you are too Quixotic! Nobody accuses +either of the girls of anything but a little thoughtlessness and +defiance of authority——"</p> + +<p>"Exactly," said Philip, with some heat, "and therefore while the report +of it will not injure your daughter, it may do irreparable harm to a +girl who has her own way to make in the world. The gossip of Beaminster +tea-tables is not to be despised. The old ladies of Beaminster are all +turning their backs on Miss Colwyn, because common report declares her +to have been expelled—or dismissed—in disgrace from Miss Polehampton's +school. The fact that nobody knows exactly <i>why</i> she was dismissed adds +weight to the injury. It is so easy to say, 'They don't tell why she was +sent away—something too dreadful to be talked about,' and so on. My +mother tells me that there is a general feeling abroad that Miss Colwyn +is not a person to be trusted with young girls. Now that is a terrible +slur upon an innocent woman who has to earn her own living, Lady +Caroline; and I really must beg that you and Margaret will set +yourselves to remove it."</p> + +<p>"Really, Philip! Quite a tirade!"</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline laughed delicately as she spoke, and passed a lace +handkerchief across her lips as though to brush away a smile. She was a +little puzzled and rather vexed, but she did not wish to show her true +opinion of Sir Philip and his views.</p> + +<p>"And so," she went on, "you said all this to my poor child; harrowed her +feelings and wounded her self-respect, and insisted on it that she +should go round Beaminster explaining that it was her fault and not +Janetta Colwyn's that Miss Polehampton acted in so absurdly arbitrary a +manner!"</p> + +<p>"You choose to put it in that way," said Sir Philip, drawing down his +brows, "and I cannot very well contradict you; but I venture to think, +Lady Caroline, that you know quite well what I mean."</p> + +<p>"I should be glad if you would put it into plain words. You wish +Margaret—to do—what?"</p> + +<p>"I very much wish that she would go to Miss Morrison and explain to her +why Miss Colwyn left school. There is no need that she should take any +blame upon herself. You must confess that it was she who took the law +into her own hands, Lady Caroline; Miss Colwyn was perfectly ready to +submit. And I think that as this occurrence has been made the ground for +refusing to give Miss Colwyn the work that she urgently needs, it is +Miss Adair's plain duty to try at least to set the matter right. I do +not see why she should refuse."</p> + +<p>"You have no pride yourself, I suppose? Do you suppose that Mr. Adair +would allow it?"</p> + +<p>"Then you might do it for her, Lady Caroline," said Sir Philip, turning +round on her, with his winning, persuasive manner, of which even at that +moment she felt the charm. "It would be so easy for you to explain it +quietly to Miss Morrison, and ask her to give that poor girl a place in +her school! Who else could do it better? If Margaret is not—not quite +strong enough for the task, then will you not help us out of our +difficulty, and do it for her?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not, Sir Philip. Your request seems to me exceedingly +unreasonable. I do not in the least believe that Miss Morrison has +refused to take her for that reason only. There is some other, you may +depend upon it. I shall not interfere."</p> + +<p>"You could at least give her a strong recommendation."</p> + +<p>"I know nothing about the girl except that she sings fairly well," said +Lady Caroline, in a hard, determined voice. "I do not want to know +anything about her—she has done nothing but make mischief and cause +contention ever since I heard her name. I begin to agree with Miss +Polehampton—it was a most unsuitable friendship."</p> + +<p>"It has been a disastrous friendship for Miss Colwyn, I fear. You must +excuse me if I say that it is hardly generous—after having been the +means of the loss of her first situation—to refuse to help her in +obtaining another."</p> + +<p>"I think I am the best judge of that. If you mean to insinuate, Sir +Philip, that your proposal for Margaret's hand which we have talked over +before, hinges on her compliance with your wishes in this instance, you +had better withdraw it at once."</p> + +<p>"You must be aware that I have no such meaning," said Sir Philip, in a +tone that showed him to be much wounded.</p> + +<p>"I am glad—for your own sake—to hear it. Neither Mr. Adair nor myself +could permit Margaret to lower herself by going to explain her past +conduct to a second-rate Beaminster schoolmistress."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip stood silent, downcast, his eyebrows contracting over his +eyes until—as Lady Caroline afterwards expressed it—he positively +scowled.</p> + +<p>"You disagree with me, I presume?" she inquired, with some irony in her +tone.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Lady Caroline, I do disagree with you. I thought that you—and +Margaret—would be more generous towards a fatherless girl."</p> + +<p>"You must excuse me if I say that your interest in 'a fatherless girl' +is somewhat out of place, Sir Philip. You are a young man, and it is not +quite seemly for you to make such a point of befriending a little music +governess. I am sorry to have to speak so plainly, but I must say that I +do not think such interest befits a gentleman, and especially one who +has been asking us for our daughter."</p> + +<p>"My love for Margaret," said Sir Philip, gravely, "cannot blind me to +other duties."</p> + +<p>"There are duties in the world," rejoined Lady Caroline, "between which +we sometimes have to choose. It seems to me that you may have to choose +between your love for Margaret and your 'interest' in Janetta Colwyn."</p> + +<p>"I hardly think," said her guest, "that I deserve this language, Lady +Caroline. However, since these are your opinions, I can but say that I +deeply regret them—and take my leave. If you or Miss Adair should wish +to recall me you have but to send me a word—a line: I shall be ready to +come. Your daughter knows my love for her. I am not yet disposed to give +up all hope of a recall."</p> + +<p>And then he took his leave with a manner of punctilious politeness +which, oddly enough, made Lady Caroline feel herself in the wrong more +than anything that he had said. She was more ruffled than Margaret had +ever seen her when at last she sought the girl's room shortly before the +ringing of the dressing-bell.</p> + +<p>She found Margaret looking pale and a little frightened, but perfectly +composed. She came up to Lady Caroline and put her arms round her +mother's neck with a caressing movement.</p> + +<p>"Dear mamma," she said, "I am afraid I was not quite polite to Sir +Philip."</p> + +<p>"I think, dear, that Sir Philip was scarcely polite to you. I am not at +all satisfied with his conduct. He is quite unreasonable."</p> + +<p>Margaret slowly withdrew her arms from her mother's neck, looked at her +uneasily, and looked down again.</p> + +<p>"He thinks that I ought to do something for Janetta—to make people +think well of her, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"He is utterly preposterous," said Lady Caroline.</p> + +<p>"Do you think I ought to go to Miss Morrison about Janetta, mamma?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed, my dearest. Your father would never hear of it."</p> + +<p>"I should like to do all that I could for her. I am very fond of her, +indeed I am, although Sir Philip thinks me so selfish." And Margaret's +soft hazel eyes filled with tears, which fell gently over her delicate +cheeks without distorting her features in the least.</p> + +<p>"Don't cry, my darling; please don't cry," said her mother, anxiously. +"Your eyelids will be red all the evening, and papa will ask what is the +matter. Have you any rose water?—Of course you will do all you can for +your poor little friend: you are only too fond of her—too +generous!—Sir Philip does not understand you as I do; he has +disappointed me very much this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"He was very unkind," said Margaret, with the faintest possible touch of +resentment in her soft tones.</p> + +<p>"Think no more of him for the present, dear. I dare say he will be here +to-morrow, penitent and abashed. There goes the dressing-bell. Are you +ready for Markham now? Put on your pink dress."</p> + +<p>She spoke pleasantly, and even playfully, but she gave Margaret a +searching glance, as though she would have read the girl's heart if she +could. But she was reassured. Margaret was smiling now; she was as calm +as ever; she had brushed the tears from her eyes with a filmy +handkerchief and looked perfectly serene. "I am rather glad that you +have found Sir Philip unreasonable, mamma," she said, placidly; "I +always thought so, but you did not quite agree with me."</p> + +<p>"The child's fancy is untouched," said Lady Caroline to herself as she +went back to her room, "and I am thankful for it. She is quite capable +of a little romantic folly if nobody is near to put some common-sense +into her sometimes. And Philip Ashley has no common-sense at all."</p> + +<p>She was glad to see that at dinner Margaret's serenity was still +unruffled. When Mr. Adair grumbled at the absence of Sir Philip, whom he +had expected to see that evening, the girl only looked down at her plate +without a blush or a word of explanation. Lady Caroline drew her +daughter's arm through her own as they left the dining-room with a +feeling that she was worthy of the race to which she belonged.</p> + +<p>But she was not in the least prepared for the first remark made by +Margaret when they reached the drawing-room.</p> + +<p>"Mamma, I must go to see Janetta to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, dear? And why?"</p> + +<p>"To find out whether the things that Sir Philip has been saying are +true."</p> + +<p>"No, Margaret, dear, you really must not do that, darling. It would not +be wise. What Sir Philip says does not matter to us. I cannot have you +interfering with Miss Colwyn's concerns in that way."</p> + +<p>Margaret was very docile. She only said, after a moment's pause—</p> + +<p>"May I not ask her to give me the singing lessons we arranged for me to +take?"</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline considered for a minute or two and then said—</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear, you may ask her about the singing lessons. In doing that you +will be benefiting her, and giving her a practical recommendation that +ought to be very valuable to her."</p> + +<p>"Shall I drive over to-morrow?"</p> + +<p>"No, write and ask her to come here to lunch. Then we can arrange about +hours. I have not the least objection to your taking lessons from +her ... especially as they are so cheap," said Lady Caroline to herself, +"but I do not wish you to talk to her about Miss Polehampton's conduct. +There is no use in such discussions."</p> + +<p>"No, mamma," said the dutiful Margaret.</p> + +<p>"And Sir Philip will be pleased to hear that his favorite is being +benefited," said her mother, with a slightly sarcastic smile.</p> + +<p>Margaret held up her stately head. "It matters very little to me whether +Sir Philip is pleased or not," she said with a somewhat lofty accent, +not often heard from the gentle lips of Margaret Adair.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3>MARGARET'S FRIENDSHIP.</h3> + + +<p>Margaret wrote her note to Janetta, and put her friend into something of +a dilemma. She always felt it difficult to leave Mrs. Colwyn alone for +many hours at a time. She had done her best to prevent her from +obtaining stimulants, but it was no easy thing to make it impossible; +and it was always dangerous to remove a restraining influence. At last +she induced an old friend, a Mrs. Maitland, to spend the day with her +stepmother, while she went to Helmsley Court; and having thus provided +against emergencies, she was prepared to spend some pleasant hours with +Margaret.</p> + +<p>The day was cold and frosty, with a blue sky overhead, and the ground +hard as iron underfoot. A carriage was sent for Janetta, and the girl +was almost sorry that she had to be driven to her destination, for a +brisk walk would have been more to her taste on this brilliant December +day. But she was of course bound to make use of the carriage that came +for her, and so she drove off in state, while Tiny and Jinks danced +wildly on the doorstep and waved their hands to her in hilarious +farewells. Mrs. Colwyn was secluding herself upstairs in high +indignation at Janetta's presumption—first, in going to Helmsley Court +at all, and, secondly, in having invited Mrs. Maitland to come to +dinner—but Janetta did her best to forget the vexations and anxieties +of the day, and to prepare herself as best she might for the serene +atmosphere of Helmsley Court.</p> + +<p>It was more than three months since her father's death, and she had not +seen Margaret for what seemed to her like a century. In those three +months she had had some new and sad experiences, and she almost wondered +whether Margaret would not think her changed beyond knowledge by the +troubles of the past. But in this fancy Janetta only proved herself +young at heart; in later years she found, as we all find, that the outer +man is little changed by the most terrible and heart-rending calamities. +It was almost a surprise to Janetta that Margaret did not remark on her +altered appearance. But Margaret saw nothing very different in her +friend. Her black mourning garments certainly made her look pale, but +Margaret was not a sufficiently keen observer to note the additional +depth of expression in Janetta's dark eyes, or the slightly pathetic +look given to her features by the thinning of her cheeks and the droop +of her finely curved mouth. Lady Caroline, however, noticed all these +points, and was quite aware that these changes, slight though they were, +gave force and refinement to the girl's face. Secretly, she was +embittered against Janetta, and this new charm of hers only added to her +dislike. But, outwardly, Lady Caroline was sweetness and sympathy +personified.</p> + +<p>"You poor darling," said Margaret, when she stood with Janetta in Miss +Adair's own little sitting-room, awaiting the sound of the luncheon +bell; "what you must have suffered! I have felt for you, Janetta—oh, +more than I can tell! You are quite pale, dear; I do hope you are better +and stronger than you were?"</p> + +<p>"I am quite well, thank you," said Janetta.</p> + +<p>"But you must have had so much to bear! If I lost my friends—my dear +father or mother—I know I should be broken-hearted. You are so brave +and good, Janetta, dear."</p> + +<p>"I don't feel so," said Janetta, sorrowfully. "I wish I did. It would be +rather a comfort sometimes."</p> + +<p>"You have a great deal of trouble and care, I am afraid," said Margaret, +softly. She was resolved to be staunch to her friend, although Sir +Philip had been so disagreeable about Janetta. She was going to show him +that she could take her own way of showing friendship.</p> + +<p>"There have been a good many changes in the family, and changes always +bring anxieties with them," said Janetta, firmly. She had particularly +resolved that she would not complain of her troubles to the Adairs; it +would seem like asking them to help her—"sponging upon them," as she +disdainfully thought. Janetta had a very fair share of sturdy pride and +independence with which to make her way through the world.</p> + +<p>Margaret would have continued the subject, but at that moment the bell +rang, and Janetta was glad to go downstairs.</p> + +<p>It was curious, as she remembered afterwards, to find that the splendors +of the house, the elaboration of service, now produced not the slightest +impression upon her. She had grown out of her former girlish feeling of +insignificance in the presence of powdered footmen and fashionable +ladies' maids. The choice flowers, the silver plate, the dainty +furniture and hangings, which had once excited and almost awed her +imagination, were perceived by her with comparative indifference. She +was a woman, not a child, and these things were but as toys to one who +had stood so lately face to face with the larger issues of life and +death. Mr. Adair and Lady Caroline talked pleasantly to her, utterly +ignoring, of course, any change in her circumstances or recent source of +trouble, and Janetta did her best to respond. It was by way of trying to +introduce a pleasant subject of conversation that she said at length to +her hostess—</p> + +<p>"I met Sir Philip Ashley the other day. He is so kind as to say that he +will try to find me some pupils."</p> + +<p>"Indeed," said Lady Caroline, drily. She did not approve of the +introduction of Sir Philip's name or of Janetta's professional +employment. Margaret flushed a little, and turned aside to give her +mother's poodle a sweet biscuit.</p> + +<p>"Sir Philip is a kind, good fellow," said Mr. Adair, who had not been +admitted behind the scenes; "and I am sure that he will do what he can. +Do you know his mother yet? No? Ah, she's like an antique chatelaine: +one of the stateliest, handsomest old ladies of the day. Is she not, +Caroline?"</p> + +<p>"She is very handsome," said Lady Caroline, quietly, "but difficult to +get on with. She is the proudest woman I ever knew."</p> + +<p>The servants were out of the room, or she would not have said so much. +But it was just as well to let this presuming girl know what she might +expect from Sir Philip's mother if she had any designs upon him. +Unfortunately her intended warning fell unheeded upon Janetta's ear.</p> + +<p>"Is she, indeed?" said Mr. Adair, with interest. He was the greatest +gossip of the neighborhood. "She is one of the Beauchamps, and of course +she has some pride of family. But otherwise—I never noticed much pride +about her. Now, how does it manifest itself, do you think?"</p> + +<p>"Really, Reginald," said Lady Caroline, with her little smile; "how can +I tell you? You must surely have noticed it for yourself. With her +equals she is exceedingly pleasant; but I never knew anyone who could +repress insolence or presumption with a firmer hand."</p> + +<p>"What a pleasant person!" said Mr. Adair, laughing and looking +mirthfully at Margaret. "We shall have to be on our good behavior when +we see her, shall we not, my Pearl?"</p> + +<p>This turn of conversation seemed to Lady Caroline so unfortunate that +she rose from the table as soon as possible, and adjourned further +discussion of the Ashleys to another period. And it was after luncheon +that she found occasion to say to Janetta, in her softiest, silkiest +tones—</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it would be better, dear Miss Colwyn, if you would be so very +kind as not to mention Sir Philip Ashley to Margaret unless she speaks +of him to you. There is some slight misunderstanding between them, and +Sir Philip has not been here for a day or two; but that it will be all +cleared up very shortly, I have not the slightest doubt."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am sure I hope so! I am very sorry."</p> + +<p>"There is scarcely any occasion to be sorry; it is quite a temporary +estrangement, I am sure."</p> + +<p>Janetta looked at Margaret with some concern when she had an opportunity +of seeing her closely and alone, but she could distinguish no shade upon +the girl's fair brow, no sadness in her even tones. Margaret talked +about Janetta's brothers and sisters, about music, about her recent +visits, as calmly as if she had not a care in the world. It was almost a +surprise to Janetta when, after a little pause, she asked with some +hesitation—</p> + +<p>"You said you saw Sir Philip Ashley the other day?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Janetta, blushing out of sympathy, and looking away, so +that she did not see the momentary glance of keen inquiry which was +leveled at her from Margaret's hazel eyes.</p> + +<p>"What did he say to you, dear?" asked Miss Adair.</p> + +<p>"He spoke of my father—he was very kind," said Janetta, unconscious +that her answer sounded like a subterfuge in her friend's ears. "He +asked me if I wanted pupils; and he said that he would recommend me."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Margaret. Then, after another little pause—"I daresay you +have heard that we are not friends now?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Janetta replied, not liking to say more.</p> + +<p>For a moment Margaret raised her beautiful eyebrows.</p> + +<p>"So Sir Philip had told her <i>already</i>!" she said to herself, with a +little surprise. And she was not pleased with this mark of confidence on +Sir Philip's part. It did not occur to her that Lady Caroline had been +Janetta's informant.</p> + +<p>"I refused him," she said, quietly. "Mamma is vexed about it, but she +does not wish to force me to marry against my will, of course."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but surely, Margaret, dear, you will change your mind?" said +Janetta.</p> + +<p>"No, indeed," Margaret answered, slightly lifting her graceful head. +"Sir Philip is not a man whom I would ever marry."</p> + +<p>And then she changed the subject. "See what a dear little piano I have +in my sitting-room. Papa gave it to me the other day, so that I need not +practice in the drawing-room. And what about our singing lessons, +Janetta? Could you begin them at once, or would you rather wait until +after the Christmas holidays?"</p> + +<p>Janetta reflected. "I should like to begin them at once, dear, if I can +manage it."</p> + +<p>"Have you so many pupils, then?" Margaret asked quickly.</p> + +<p>"Not so very many; but I mean—I am afraid I cannot spare time to come +to Helmsley Court to give them. Do you go to Beaminster? Would you very +much mind coming to our house in Gwynne Street?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all," said Margaret, ever courteous and mindful of her friend's +feelings. "But I must speak to mamma. It may be a little difficult to +have the horses out sometimes ... that will be the only objection, I +think."</p> + +<p>But it seemed as if there were other objections. For Lady Caroline +received the proposition very coldly. It really took her aback.. It was +one thing to have little Miss Colwyn to lunch once a week, and quite +another to send Margaret to that shabby little house in Gywnne Street. +"Who knows whether the drains are all right, and whether she may not get +typhoid fever?" said Lady Caroline to herself, with a shudder. "There +are children in the house—they may develop measles or chicken-pox at +any moment—you never know when children of that class are free from +infection. And I heard an odd report about Mrs. Colwyn's habits the +other day. Oh, I think it is too great a risk."</p> + +<p>But when she said as much after Janetta's departure, she found Margaret +for once recalcitrant. Margaret had her own views of propriety, and +these were quite as firmly grounded as those of Lady Caroline. She had +treated Janetta, she considered, with the greatest magnanimity, and she +meant to be magnanimous to the end. She had made the gardener cut Miss +Colwyn a basket of his best flowers and his choicest forced fruit; she +had herself directed the housekeeper to see that some game was placed +under the coachman's box when Miss Colwyn was driven home; and she had +sent a box of French sweets to Tiny, although she had never seen that +young lady in her life, and had a vague objection to all Janetta's +relations. She felt, therefore, perfectly sure that she had done her +duty, and she was not to be turned aside from the path of right.</p> + +<p>"I don't think that I shall run into any danger, mamma," she said, +quietly. "The children are to be kept out of the way, and I shall see +nobody but Janetta. She said so, very particularly. I daresay she +thought of these things."</p> + +<p>"I don't see why she should not come here."</p> + +<p>"No, nor I. But she says that she has so much to do."</p> + +<p>"Then it could not be true that she had no pupils, as she told Sir +Philip," said Lady Caroline, looking at her daughter.</p> + +<p>Margaret was silent for a little time. Then she said, very +deliberately—</p> + +<p>"I am almost afraid, mamma, that Janetta is not quite straightforward."</p> + +<p>"That was always my own idea," said Lady Caroline, rather eagerly. "I +never quite trusted her, darling."</p> + +<p>"We always used to think her so truthful and courageous," said Margaret, +with regret. "But I am afraid——You know, mamma, I asked her what Sir +Philip said to her, and she did not say a single word about having +talked to him of our leaving Miss Polehampton's. She said he had spoken +of her father, and of getting pupils for her, and so on."</p> + +<p>"Very double-faced!" commented Lady Caroline.</p> + +<p>"And—mamma, she must have seen Sir Philip again, because he had told +her that we—that I—that we had quarreled a little, you know." And +Margaret really believed that she was speaking the truth.</p> + +<p>"I think it is quite shocking," said Lady Caroline. "And I really do not +understand, dearest, why you still persist in your infatuation for her. +You could drop her easily now, on the excuse that you cannot go to +Beaminster so often."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know I could, mamma," said Margaret, quietly. "But if you do not +mind, I would rather not do so. You see, she is really in rather +difficult circumstances. Her father has left them badly off, I suppose, +and she has not many advanced pupils in Beaminster. We always promised +that she should give me lessons; and if we draw back now, we may be +doing her real harm; but if I take—say, a dozen lessons, we shall be +giving her a recommendation, which, no doubt, will do her a great deal +of good. And after that, when she is 'floated,' we can easily drop her +if we wish. But it would be hardly kind to do it just now, do you +think?"</p> + +<p>"My darling, you are quite too sweet," said Lady Caroline, languidly. +"Come and kiss me. You shall have your way—until Easter, at any rate."</p> + +<p>"We should be giving Sir Philip no reason to blame us for want of +generosity, either," said Margaret.</p> + +<p>"Exactly, my pet."</p> + +<p>There was again a silence, which Margaret broke at last by saying, with +gentle pensiveness—</p> + +<p>"Do you think that she will ask me to be her bridesmaid, mamma, if she +marries Sir Philip? I almost fancy that I should decline."</p> + +<p>"I should think that you would," said Lady Caroline.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3>A NEW FRIEND.</h3> + + +<p>Margaret's presents of fruit, flowers, and game conciliated Mrs. +Colwyn's good-will, and she made no objection when Janetta informed her +a few days later that Miss Adair's singing lessons were about to begin. +There was time for two lessons only before Christmas Day, but they were +to be continued after the first week in the New Year until Margaret went +to town. Janetta was obliged, out of sheer shame, to hide from Mrs. +Colwyn the fact that Lady Caroline had tried to persuade her to lower +the already very moderate terms of payment, on the ground that her +daughter would have to visit Gwynne Street for her lessons.</p> + +<p>However, the first lesson passed off well enough. Margaret brought more +gifts of flowers and game, and submitted gracefully to Janetta's +instructions. There was no time for conversation, for the carriage came +punctually when an hour had elapsed, and Margaret, as she dutifully +observed, did not like to keep the horses waiting. She embraced Janetta +very affectionately at parting, and was able to assure Lady Caroline +afterwards that she had not seen any other member of the family.</p> + +<p>Just as Miss Adair's carriage drove away from Mrs. Colwyn's door, +another—a brougham this time—was driven up. "The Colwyns must be +having a party," said a rather censorious neighbor, who was sitting with +a friend in the bow-window of the next house. "Or else they are having +very fine pupils indeed." "That's not a pupil," said her companion, +craning forward to get a better view of the visitor; "that's Lady +Ashley, Sir Philip Ashley's mother. What's she come for, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>Janetta wondered too.</p> + +<p>She was greatly impressed by Lady Ashley's personality. The lofty +forehead, the aquiline nose, the well-marked eyebrows, the decided chin, +the fine dark eyes, all recalled Sir Philip to her mind, and she said to +herself that when his hair became silvery too, the likeness between him +and his mother would be more striking still. The old lady's dignified +manner did not daunt her as Lady Caroline's caressing tones often did. +There was a sincerity, a grave gentleness in Lady Ashley's way of +speaking which Janetta thoroughly appreciated. "Lady Ashley is a true +<i>grande dame</i>, while Lady Caroline is only a fine lady," she said to +herself, when analyzing her feelings afterwards. "And I know which I +like best."</p> + +<p>Lady Ashley, on her side, was pleased with Janetta's demeanor. She liked +the plainness of her dress, the quiet independence of her manner, and +the subdued fire of her great dark eyes. She opened proceedings in a +very friendly way.</p> + +<p>"My son has interested me in your career, Miss Colwyn," she said, "and I +have taken the liberty of calling in order to ask what sort of teaching +you are willing to undertake. I may hear of some that will suit you."</p> + +<p>"You are very kind," Janetta answered. "I was music governess at Miss +Polehampton's, and I think that music is my strong point; but I should +be quite willing to teach other things—if I could get any pupils."</p> + +<p>"And how is it that you do not get any pupils?"</p> + +<p>Janetta hesitated, but a look into the old lady's benevolent face +invited confidence. She answered steadily—</p> + +<p>"I am afraid that my sudden departure from Miss Polehampton's school has +prejudiced some people against me."</p> + +<p>"And could not somebody write to Miss Polehampton and get her to give +you a testimonial?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid she would refuse."</p> + +<p>"And that is all Margaret Adair's fault, is it not?" said Lady Ashley, +shrewdly but kindly.</p> + +<p>She was amused to see the flush of indignation in Janetta's face. +"Margaret's fault? Oh no, Lady Ashley. It was not <i>Margaret's</i> fault any +more than mine. We were both not very—not very respectful, perhaps, but +I was, if anything, much worse than Margaret. And she shared my fate +with me; she left when I did."</p> + +<p>"You are a staunch friend, I see. And are you friendly with her still?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes," said Janetta, with enthusiasm. "She is so good—so kind—so +beautiful! She has been here to-day to have a singing lesson—perhaps +you saw her drive away just as you came up? She brought me these lovely +flowers this afternoon."</p> + +<p>There was a kindly look in Lady Ashley's eyes.</p> + +<p>"I am very glad to hear it," she said. "And now, my dear, would you mind +singing me something? I shall be better able to speak of your +qualifications when I have heard you."</p> + +<p>"I shall be very pleased to sing to you," said Janetta, and she sat down +to the piano with a readiness which charmed Lady Ashley as much as the +song she sang, although she sang it delightfully.</p> + +<p>"That is very nice—very nice indeed," murmured Lady Ashley. Then she +deliberated for a moment, and nodded her head once or twice. "You have +been well taught," she said, "and you have a very sympathetic voice. +Would you mind singing at an evening party for me in the course of the +winter? You will be seen and heard; and you may get pupils in that way."</p> + +<p>Janetta could but falter out a word of thanks. An introduction of this +sort was certainly not to be despised.</p> + +<p>"I will let you know when it takes place," said Lady Ashley, "and give +you a hint or two about the songs. Will two guineas an evening satisfy +you as you are a beginner?—for two songs, I mean? Very well, then, I +shall count upon you for my next evening party."</p> + +<p>She was rising to go, when the door was suddenly thrown open, and a +tall, untidy figure made its appearance in the aperture. The daylight +had almost faded, and the fire gave a very uncertain light—perhaps it +was for that reason that Mrs. Colwyn took no notice of Lady Ashley, and +began to speak in a thick, broken voice.</p> + +<p>"It's shameful, shameful!" she said. "Visitors all afternoon—never +brought them—t'see me—once. Singing and squalling all the time—not +able to get a wink—wink o' sleep——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, please, come away," said Janetta, going hurriedly up to the swaying +figure in the faded dressing-gown, and trying gently to force her +backwards. "I will tell you all about it afterwards; please come away +just now."</p> + +<p>"I'll not come away," said Mrs. Colwyn, thickly. "I want some +money—money—send Ph[oe]be for a drop o' gin——"</p> + +<p>"I'll go, my dear Miss Colwyn," said Lady Ashley, kindly. She was +touched by the despair in Janetta's face. "I can't do any good, I am +afraid. You shall hear from me again. Don't come to the door. Shall I +send my servants to you?"</p> + +<p>"Who's that? Who's that?" screamed the half-maddened woman, beginning to +fling herself wildly out of Janetta's restraining arms. "Let me get at +her, you bad girl! letting people into my house——"</p> + +<p>"Can you manage? Do you want help?" said Lady Ashley, quickly.</p> + +<p>"No, no, nothing; I can manage if you will only please go," Janetta +cried, in her desperation. And Lady Ashley, seeing that her departure +was really wished for, hurried from the house. And Janetta, after some +wrestling and coaxing and argument, at last succeeded in putting her +stepmother to bed, and then sat down and wept heartily.</p> + +<p>What would Lady Ashley think? And how could she now recommend pupils to +go to a house where a drunken woman was liable at any moment to appear +upon the scene?</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, this was just what Lady Ashley was saying at that +moment to her son.</p> + +<p>"She is a thorough little gentlewoman, Philip, and a good musician; but, +with <i>such</i> a connection, how can I send any one to the house?"</p> + +<p>"It was unlucky, certainly," said Sir Philip, "but you must remember +that you came unexpectedly. Her pupils' hours will be guarded, most +probably, from interruption."</p> + +<p>"One could never be sure. I have been thinking of sending Miss Bevan to +her. But suppose a <i>contretemps</i> of this kind occurred! Poor Mary Bevan +would never get over it."</p> + +<p>"It is her stepmother, not her own mother," said Sir Philip, after a +little pause. "Not that that makes it much better for her, poor little +thing!"</p> + +<p>"I assure you, Philip, it went to my heart to see that fragile girl +struggling with that big woman. I would have helped her, but she +entreated me to go, and so I came away. What else could I do?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, I suppose. There may be murder committed in that house any +day, if this state of things goes on."</p> + +<p>Lady Ashley sighed. Sir Philip walked about the room, with his hands in +his pockets and his head bent on his breast.</p> + +<p>"Margaret Adair had been there to-day," said his mother, watching him.</p> + +<p>Sir Philip looked up.</p> + +<p>"Why?" he said, keenly.</p> + +<p>"To take a singing lesson. She had brought flowers. Miss Colwyn spoke of +her very warmly, and when I touched on the subject of Miss Polehampton's +treatment, would not allow that Margaret had anything to do with it. She +is a very faithful little person, I should think."</p> + +<p>"Far more generous than Margaret," muttered her son. Then, sombrely, "I +never told you what happened at Helmsley Court the other day. Margaret +refused me."</p> + +<p>"Refused you—entirely?"</p> + +<p>"No appeal possible."</p> + +<p>"On what grounds?"</p> + +<p>"Chiefly, I think, because I wanted her to make reparation to Miss +Colwyn."</p> + +<p>"Then, Philip, she is not worthy of you."</p> + +<p>"She has had a bad training," he said, slowly. "A fine nature ruined by +indulgence and luxury. She has never been crossed in her life."</p> + +<p>"She will find out what it is to be crossed some day. My poor Phil! I am +very sorry."</p> + +<p>"We need not talk about it, mother, dear. You will be all in all to me +now."</p> + +<p>He sat down beside her, and took her hand in his, then kissed it with a +mingling of tenderness and respect which brought the tears to Lady +Ashley's eyes.</p> + +<p>"But I do not want to be all in all to you, you foolish boy," she +assured him. "I want to see you with a wife, with children of your own, +with family ties and interests and delights."</p> + +<p>"Not yet, mother," he answered in a low tone. "Some day, perhaps."</p> + +<p>And from the pained look in his dark eyes she saw that he suffered more +than he would have liked to own for the loss of Margaret. She said no +more, but her heart ached for her boy, and she was hardly able to +comfort herself with the recollection that Time heals all wounds—even +those that have been made by Love.</p> + +<p>Sir Philip had accepted Margaret's refusal as final. He had no reason to +hope that she would ever change her mind towards him. Perhaps if he had +known how large a part of her thoughts he occupied, in spite of her +declaration that she did not like him, he might have had some hope of a +more favorable hearing in the future. But he had no conception of any +under-current of feeling in Margaret Adair. She had always seemed to him +so frank, with a sweet, maidenly frankness, so transparent—without +shallowness, that he was thrown into despair when she dismissed him. He +was singularly ignorant of the nature of women, and more especially of +young girls. His mother's proud, upright, rather inflexible character, +conjoined with great warmth of affection and rare nobility of mind, had +given him a high standard by which to judge other women. He had never +had a sister, and was not particularly observant of young girls. It was +therefore a greater disappointment to him than it would have been to +many men to find that Margaret could be a little bit obstinate, a little +bit selfish, and not at all disposed to sacrifice herself for others. +She lowered his whole conception of womankind.</p> + +<p>At least, so he said to himself, as he sat that evening after dinner +over his library fire, and fell into a mood of somewhat sombre hue. What +poets and philosophers had said of the changeful, capricious, shallow, +and selfish nature of women was then true? His mother was a grand +exception to the rule, 'twas true; but there were no women like her now. +These modern girls thought of nothing but luxury, comfort, +self-indulgence. They had no high ideals, no thought of the seriousness +of life.</p> + +<p>But even as he made his hot accusation against women of the present day, +his heart smote him a little for his injustice. He certainly did know +one girl who was eminently faithful and true; who worked hard, and, as +he had just found out, suffered greatly—a girl whose true nobility of +mind and life was revealed to him as if by a lightning flash of +intuition.</p> + +<p>What a helpmate Janetta Colwyn would be to any man! Her bright +intelligence, her gift of song, her piquante, transitory beauty, her +honesty and faithfulness, made up an individuality of distinct +attractiveness. And yet he was not very much attracted. He admired her, +he respected her; but his pulses did not quicken at the thought of her +as they quickened when he thought of Margaret. Why should they indeed? +She was a country surgeon's daughter, of no particular family; she had +very undesirable connections, and she was very poor—there was nothing +in Janetta's outer circumstances to make her a fitting wife for him. And +yet the attraction of <i>character</i> was very great. He wanted a wife who +would be above all things able to help him in his work—work of reform +and of philanthropy: a selfish, luxurious, indolent woman could be no +mate for him. Janetta Colwyn was the woman that he had been seeking +since first he thought of marriage; and yet—ah, there was nothing wrong +with her except that she was not Margaret. But of Margaret he must think +no more.</p> + +<p>Lady Ashley would have been very much astonished if she had known how +far her idolized son had gone that night along the road of a resolution +to ask Janetta Colwyn to be his wife.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3>NORA'S PROCEEDINGS.</h3> + + +<p>Janetta scarcely expected to hear from Lady Ashley again, and was not +surprised that days and weeks passed on in silence as regarded her +engagement to sing at the evening party. She did not reflect that +Christmas brought its own special duties and festivities, and that she +was not likely to be wanted until these were over. In the meantime, the +holidays began, and she had to prepare as best she could, though with a +heavy heart, for the homecoming of her brothers and sisters. There was +very little to "keep Christmas" upon; and she could not but be grateful +when her scanty store was enlarged by gifts from the Adairs, and also +(to her great astonishment) from Sir Philip Ashley and from Wyvis Brand.</p> + +<p>"Game, of course!" said Nora, whom she told of these windfalls on the +first night of the sisters' arrival from their school. "Well, I'm not +sorry: we don't often have grouse and woodcock at the luxurious table +of Miss Peacock & Co.; but from three people at once! it will surely be +monotonous."</p> + +<p>"Don't be ridiculous, Nora. Lady Caroline has sent me a turkey, and the +Brands have presented us with fowls and a side of home-cured bacon—very +acceptable too, I can tell you! It is only Sir Philip who has sent +game."</p> + +<p>"Ah, he is the fine gentleman of them all," said Nora, whose spirits +were high in spite of the depression that occasionally overcast the +whole family when they remembered that this Christmas would be spent +without their father's loving presence in their home. "The others are +commonplace! Have they been here lately?"</p> + +<p>"Wyvis Brand called when I was out, and did not come in. Mrs. Brand has +been."</p> + +<p>"Not the other one—Cuthbert?" said Nora, with great carelessness.</p> + +<p>"No. I think he has been in Paris."</p> + +<p>"And haven't you been there at all?"</p> + +<p>"I couldn't go, Nora. I have been too busy. Besides—there is something +that I must tell you—I wish I could put it off, but I want you to help +me."</p> + +<p>The two girls were in their bedroom, and in the darkness and stillness +of the night Janetta put her arms round Nora's neck and told her of her +mother's besetting weakness. She was surprised and almost alarmed at the +effect upon her stepsister. Nora shuddered two or three times and drew +several painful breaths; but she did not cry, and Janetta had expected +an agony of tears. It was in a low, strained voice that the girl said at +last—</p> + +<p>"You say you have tried to hide it. Even if you have succeeded, it is +not a thing that can be hidden long. Everybody will soon know. And it +will go on from bad to worse. And—oh, Janetta, she is not your own +mother, but she is mine!"</p> + +<p>And then she burst at last into the fit of weeping for which Janetta had +been waiting. But it was more piteous than violent, and she seemed to +listen while Janetta tried to comfort her, and passively endured rather +than returned the elder sister's caresses. Finally the two girls fell +asleep in each other's arms.</p> + +<p>The effect upon Nora of this communication was very marked. She looked +pale and miserable for the next few days, and was irritable when her +depression was remarked. For the children's sakes, Janetta tried to make +a few mild festivities possible: she had a tiny Christmas tree in the +back dining-room, and a private entertainment of snapdragon on Christmas +Eve; and on Christmas Day afternoon the younger ones roasted chestnuts +in the kitchen and listened to the tales that nobody could tell half so +well as "dear old Janet." But Mrs. Colwyn openly lamented the +hard-heartedness thus displayed, and locked herself into her bedroom +with (Janetta feared) some private stores of her own; and Nora refused +to join the subdued joviality in the kitchen, and spent the afternoon +over a novel in the front sitting-room. From the state of her eyes and +her handkerchief at tea-time, however, Janetta conjectured that she had +been crying for the greater part of the time.</p> + +<p>It was useless to remonstrate with Mrs. Colwyn, but Janetta thought that +something might be done with her daughter. When Nora's depression of +spirits had lasted for some days, Janetta spoke out.</p> + +<p>"Nora," she said, "I told you of our trouble, because I thought that you +would help me to bear it; but you are making things worse instead of +better."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" asked Nora.</p> + +<p>"It is no use fretting over what cannot be helped, dear. If we are +careful we can do much to lessen the danger and the misery of it all. +Mamma has been much better lately: there has been nothing—no +outbreak—since Lady Ashley came. It is possible that things may be +better. But we must keep home cheerful, dear Nora: it does nobody any +good for you and me to look miserable."</p> + +<p>"But I feel so miserable," said Nora, beginning to cry again.</p> + +<p>"And is that the only thing we have to think of?" demanded Janetta, with +severity.</p> + +<p>"She is not <i>your</i> mother," murmured the girl.</p> + +<p>"I know that, darling, but I have felt the trouble of it as much as I +think you can do."</p> + +<p>"That is impossible!" said Nora, sitting up, and pushing back the +disheveled blonde curls from her flushed face—she had been lying on her +bed when Janetta found her and remonstrated; "quite impossible. Because +you are not of her blood, not of her kith and kin: and for me—for all +of us—it is worse, because people can always point to us, and say, 'The +taint is in their veins: their mother drank—they may drink, too, one +day,' and we shall be always under a ban!"</p> + +<p>Janetta was struck by the fact that Nora looked at the matter entirely +from her own point of view—that very little affection for her mother +was mingled with the shame and the disgrace that she felt. Mrs. Colwyn +had never gained her children's respect; and when the days of babyhood +were over she had not retained their love. Nora was hurt, indignant, +ashamed; but she shrank from her mother more than she pitied her.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by 'under a ban?'" Janetta asked, after a little +silence.</p> + +<p>Nora colored hotly.</p> + +<p>"I mean," she said, looking down and fingering her dress nervously; "I +mean—that—if any of us wanted to get married——"</p> + +<p>Janetta laughed a little. "Hadn't we better wait until the opportunity +arises" she said, half-satirically, half affectionately.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you don't know!" exclaimed Nora, giving her shoulders a little +impatient twist. "I may have had the opportunity already, for all you +know!"</p> + +<p>Janetta's tone changed instantly. "Nora, dear, have you anything of that +sort to tell me? Won't you trust me?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, there's nothing to tell. It's only—Cuthbert."</p> + +<p>"Cuthbert Brand! Nora! what do you know of him?"</p> + +<p>"Didn't you know?" said Nora, demurely. "He teaches drawing at Mrs. +Smith's school."</p> + +<p>"Teaches—but, Nora, why does he teach?"</p> + +<p>"He is an artist: I suppose he likes it."</p> + +<p>"How long has he been teaching there?"</p> + +<p>"Soon after I went first," said Nora, casting down her eyes. There was a +little smile upon her face, as though she were not at all displeased at +the confession. But a cold chill crept into Janetta's heart.</p> + +<p>"Has it been a scheme—a plot, then? Did you suggest to him that he +should come—and pretend that he was a stranger."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Janetta, don't look so solemn! No, I did not suggest it. He met me +one day when I was out with Georgie shopping, and he walked with us for +a little way and found out where we lived, and all about us. And then I +heard from Mrs. Smith that she had arranged with him to teach drawing to +the girls. She did not know who he was, except that he had all sorts of +medals and certificates and things, and that he had exhibited in the +Royal Academy."</p> + +<p>"And you did not say to her openly that he was a connection of yours?"</p> + +<p>"He isn't," said Nora, petulantly. "He is <i>your</i> connection, not mine. +There was no use in saying anything, only Georgie used to giggle so +dreadfully when he came near her that I was always afraid we should be +found out."</p> + +<p>"You might at least have left Georgie out of your plot," said Janetta, +who was very deeply grieved at Nora's revelations. "I always thought +that <i>she</i> was straightforward."</p> + +<p>"You needn't be so hard on us, Janetta," murmured Nora. "I'm sure we did +not mean to be anything but straightforward."</p> + +<p>"It was not straightforward to conceal your acquaintance with Mr. +Cuthbert Brand from Mrs. Smith. Especially," said Janetta, looking +steadily at her sister, "if you had any idea he came there to see you."</p> + +<p>She seemed to wait for an answer, and Nora felt obliged to respond.</p> + +<p>"He never said so. But, of course"—with a little pout—"Georgie and I +knew quite well. He used to send me lovely flowers by post—he did not +write to me, but I knew where they came from, for he would sometimes put +his initials inside the lid; and he always looked at my drawings a great +deal more than the others—and he—he looked at me too, Janetta, and you +need not be so unbelieving."</p> + +<p>There was such a curious little touch of Mrs. Colwyn's irritability in +Nora's manner at that moment that Janetta stood and looked at her +without replying, conscious only of a great sinking at the heart. Vain, +affected, irresponsible, childish!—were all these qualities to appear +in Nora, as they had already appeared in her mother, to lead her to +destruction? Mr. Colwyn's word of warning with respect to Nora flashed +into her mind. She brought herself to say at last, with dry lips—</p> + +<p>"This must not go on."</p> + +<p>Nora was up in arms in a moment. "What must not go on? There is nothing +to stop. We have done nothing wrong!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not," said Janetta, slowly. "Perhaps there is nothing worse +than childish folly and deceit on <i>your</i> part, but I think that Mr. +Cuthbert Brand is not acting in an honorable manner at all. Either you +must put a stop to it, Nora, or I shall."</p> + +<p>"What can I do, I should like to know?"</p> + +<p>"You had better tell Mrs. Smith," said the elder sister, "that Mr. Brand +is a second-cousin of mine. That the connection was so distant that you +had not thought of mentioning it until I pointed out to you that you +ought to do so, and that you hope she will pardon you for what will +certainly seem to her very underhand conduct."</p> + +<p>Nora shrank a little. "Oh, I can't do that, Janetta: I really can't. She +would be so angry!"</p> + +<p>"There is another way, then: you must tell Cuthbert Brand not to send +you any more flowers, and ask him to give no more drawing lessons at +that school."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Janetta, I <i>can't</i>. He has never said that he came to see me, and +it would look as if I thought——"</p> + +<p>"What you do think in your heart," said Janetta. Then, thinking that she +had been a little brutal, she added, more gently—"But there is perhaps +no need to decide to-day or to-morrow what we are to do. We can think +over it and see if there is a better way. All that I am determined upon +is that your doings must be fair and open."</p> + +<p>"And you won't speak to anybody else about it, will you?" said Nora, +rather relieved by this respite, and hoping to elude Janetta's vigilance +still.</p> + +<p>"I shall promise nothing," Janetta answered. "I must think about it."</p> + +<p>She turned to leave the room, but was arrested by a burst of sobbing and +a piteous appeal.</p> + +<p>"You are very unkind, Janetta. I thought that you would have +sympathized."</p> + +<p>Janetta stood still and sighed. "I don't know what to say, Nora," she +said.</p> + +<p>"You are very cold—very hard. You do not care one bit what I feel."</p> + +<p>Perhaps, thought Janetta, the reproach had some truth in it. At any rate +she went quietly out of the room and closed the door, leaving Nora to +cry as long and as heartily as she pleased.</p> + +<p>The elder sister went straight to Georgie. That young person, frank and +boisterous by nature, was not given to deceit, and, although she was +reluctant at first to betray Nora's confidence, she soon acknowledged +that it was a relief to her to speak the truth and the whole truth to +Janetta. Her account tallied in the main with the one given by Nora. +There did not seem to have been more than a little concealment, a little +flirting, a little folly; but Janetta was aghast to think of the extent +to which Nora might have been compromised, and indignant at Cuthbert +Brand's culpable thoughtlessness—if it was nothing worse.</p> + +<p>"What people have said of the Brands is true," she declared vehemently +to herself. "They work mischief wherever they go; they have no goodness, +no pity, no feeling of right and wrong. I thought that Cuthbert looked +good, but he is no better than the others, and there is nothing to be +hoped from any of them. And father told me to take care of his +children—and I promised. What can I do? His 'faithful Janetta' cannot +leave them to take their own way—to go to ruin if they please! Oh, my +poor Nora! You did not mean any harm, and perhaps I <i>was</i> hard on you!"</p> + +<p>She relieved herself by a few quiet but bitter tears; and then she was +forced to leave the consideration of the matter for the present, as +there were many household duties to attend to which nobody could manage +but herself.</p> + +<p>When she was again able to consider the matter, however, she began to +make up her mind that she must act boldly and promptly if she meant to +act at all. Nora had no father, and practically no mother: Janetta must +be both at once, if she would fulfil her ideal of duty. And by degrees a +plan of action formed itself in her mind. She would go to the Brands' +house, and ask for Cuthbert himself. Certainly she had heard that he was +in Paris, but surely he would have returned by this time—for New Year's +Day if not for Christmas Day! She would see him and ask him to +forbear—ask him not to send flowers to her little sister, who was too +young for such attentions—to herself Janetta added, "and too silly." He +could be only amusing himself—and he should not amuse himself at Nora's +expense. He had a nice face, too, she could not help reflecting, he did +not look like a man who would do a wanton injury to a fatherless girl. +Perhaps, after all, there was some mistake.</p> + +<p>And if she could not see him, she would see Mrs. Brand. The mother +would, no doubt, help her: she had been always kind. Of Wyvis Brand she +scarcely thought. She hoped that she might not see him—she had never +spoken to him, she remembered, since the day when he had asked her to be +his friend.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<h3>AN ELDER BROTHER.</h3> + + +<p>She did not say a word to Nora about her scheme. The next day—it was +the third of January, as she afterwards remembered—was bright and +clear, a good day for walking. She told her sisters that she had +business abroad, and gave them the directions respecting the care of +their house and their mother that she thought they needed; then set +forth to walk briskly from Gwynne Street to the old Red House.</p> + +<p>She purposely chose the morning for her expedition. She was not making a +call—she was going on business. She did not mean to ask for Mrs. Brand +even, first of all; she intended to ask for Mr. Cuthbert Brand. Wyvis +would probably be out; but Cuthbert, with his sedentary habits and his +slight lameness, was more likely to be at home painting in the brilliant +morning light than out of doors.</p> + +<p>It was nearly twelve o'clock when she reached her destination. She went +through the leafless woods, for that was the shortest way and the +pleasantest—although she had thought little of pleasantness when she +came out, but still it was good to hear the brittle twigs snap under her +feet, and note the slight coating of frost that made the rims of the +dead leaves beautiful—and it was hardly a surprise to her to hear a +child's laugh ring out on the air at the very spot where, months before, +she and Nora had found little Julian Brand. A moment later the boy +himself came leaping down the narrow woodland path towards her with a +noisy greeting; and then—to Janetta's vexation and dismay—instead of +nurse or grandmother, there emerged from among the trees the figure of +the child's father, Wyvis Brand. He had a healthier and more cheerful +look than when she saw him last: he was in shooting coat and +knickerbockers, and he had a gun in his hand and a couple of dogs at his +heels. He lifted his hat and smiled, as if suddenly pleased when he saw +her, but his face grew grave as he held out his hand. Both thought +instinctively of their last meeting at her father's grave, and both +hastened into commonplace speech in order to forget it.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to see you again. I hope you are coming to our place," he +said. And she—</p> + +<p>"I hope Mrs. Brand is well. Is she at home?"</p> + +<p>"No, she's not," said little Julian, with the frank fearlessness of +childhood. "She's gone out for the whole day with Uncle Cuthbert, and +father and I are left all by ourselves; and father has let me come out +with him; haven't you, father?" He looked proudly at his father, and +then at Janetta, while he spoke.</p> + +<p>"So it appears," said Wyvis, with a queer little smile.</p> + +<p>"Grandmother said I was to take care of father, so I'm doing it," Julian +announced. "Father thinks I'm a brave boy now—not a milksop. He said I +was a milksop, you know, the last time you came here."</p> + +<p>"Come, young man, don't you chatter so much," said his father, with a +sort of rough affectionateness, which struck Janetta as something new. +"You run on with the dogs, and tell the servants to get some wine or +milk or something ready for Miss Colwyn. I'm sure you are tired," he +said to her, in a lower tone, with a searching glance at her pale face.</p> + +<p>It was hardly fatigue so much as disappointment that made Janetta pale. +She had not expected to find both Mrs. Brand and Cuthbert out, and the +failure of her plan daunted her a little, for she did not often find it +an easy thing to absent herself from home for several hours.</p> + +<p>"I am not tired," said Janetta, unsteadily, "but I thought I should find +them in—Mrs. Brand, I mean——"</p> + +<p>"Did you want to see them—my mother, I mean—particularly?" asked +Wyvis, either by accident or intention seeming to parody her words.</p> + +<p>"I have not seen her for a long time." Janetta evaded giving a direct +answer. "I thought that I should have had a little talk with her. If she +is out, I think that I had better turn back."</p> + +<p>"You had better rest for a little while," he said. "It is a long walk, +and in spite of what you may say, you do look tired. If you have +business with my mother, perhaps I may do as well. She generally leaves +all her business to me."</p> + +<p>"No," said Janetta, with considerable embarrassment of manner. "It is +nothing—I can come another time."</p> + +<p>He looked at her for a moment as if she puzzled him.</p> + +<p>"You have been teaching music in Beaminster, I believe?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—and other things."</p> + +<p>"May I ask what other things?"</p> + +<p>Janetta smiled. "I have a little sister, Tiny," she said, "and I teach +her everything she learns. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, you know. +And a neighbor's little boy comes in and learns with her."</p> + +<p>"I have been wondering," said Wyvis, "whether you would care to do +anything with that boy of mine."</p> + +<p>"That dear little Julian? Oh, I should be glad," said Janetta, more +freely than she had yet spoken. "He is such a sweet little fellow."</p> + +<p>"He has a spirit of his own, as you know," said the father, with rather +an unwilling smile. "He is not a bad little chap; but he has lately +attached himself a good deal to me, and I have to go into the stables +and about the land a good deal, and I don't think it's altogether good +for him. I found him"—apologetically—"using some very bad language the +other day. Oh, you needn't be afraid; he won't do it again; I think I +thrashed it out of him—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's worse!" said Janetta, reproachfully.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"To strike a little fellow like that, when he did not know that what he +was saying was wrong! And why did you take him where he would hear +language of that kind? Wasn't it more your fault than his?"</p> + +<p>Wyvis bent his head and shrugged his shoulders. "If the truth were +known, I dare say he heard me use it," he said dryly. "I'm not +mealy-mouthed myself. However, I've taught him that he must not do it."</p> + +<p>"Have you, indeed? And don't you think that example will prove stronger +than precept, or even than thrashing?" said Janetta. "If you want to +teach him not to use bad words, you had better not use them yourself, +Mr. Brand."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Brand?" said Wyvis; "I thought it was to be Cousin Wyvis. But I've +disgusted you; no wonder. I told you long ago that I did not know how to +bring up a child. I asked you to help us—and you have not been near the +place for months."</p> + +<p>"How could I help you, if you mean to train him by oaths and blows?" +asked Janetta.</p> + +<p>"That's plain speaking, at any rate," he said. "Well, I don't mind; in +fact, I might say that I like you the better for it, if you'll allow me +to go so far. I don't know whether you're right or not. Of course it +won't do for him to talk as I do while he's a baby, but later on it +won't signify; and a thrashing never did a boy any harm."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that you are in the habit of swearing?" said Janetta, with +a direct simplicity, which made Wyvis smile and wince at the same time.</p> + +<p>"No, I don't," he said. "I always disliked the habit, and I was +determined that Julian shouldn't contract it. But I've lived in a set +that was not over particular; and I suppose I fell into their ways now +and then."</p> + +<p>"Apart from the moral point of view, no <i>gentleman</i> ever does it!" said +Janetta, hotly.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not. Perhaps I'm not a gentleman. My relations, the publicans +of Roxby, certainly were not. The bad strain in us will out, you see."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Cousin Wyvis, I did not mean that," said Janetta, now genuinely +distressed. "It is only that—I do wish you would not talk in that +way—use those words, I mean. Julian is sure to catch them up, and you +see yourself that that would be a pity."</p> + +<p>"I am to govern my tongue then for Julian's sake?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and for your own."</p> + +<p>"Do you <i>care</i> whether I govern it or not, Janetta?"</p> + +<p>How oddly soft and tender his voice had grown!</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do care," she answered, not very willingly, but compelled to +truthfulness by her own conscience and his constraining gaze.</p> + +<p>"Then I swear I will," he exclaimed, impetuously. "It is something to +find a woman caring whether one is good or bad, and I won't prove myself +utterly unworthy of your care."</p> + +<p>"There is your mother: <i>she</i> cares."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, she cares, poor soul, but she cries over my sins instead of +fighting them. Fighting is not her <i>métier</i>, you know. Now, you—you +fight well."</p> + +<p>"That is a compliment, I suppose?" said Janetta, laughing a little and +coloring—not with displeasure—at his tone.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said; "I like the fighting spirit."</p> + +<p>They had been walking slowly along the path, and now they had reached +the gate that opened into the grounds. Here, as he opened it, Janetta +hesitated, and then stopped short.</p> + +<p>"I think I had better make the best of my way back," she said. "It is +getting late."</p> + +<p>"Not much after twelve. Are we not friends again?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes."</p> + +<p>"And will you think over what I said about my boy?"</p> + +<p>"Do you really mean it?"</p> + +<p>"Most decidedly. You couldn't come here, I suppose—you wouldn't leave +home?"</p> + +<p>"No, I could not do that. How would he get to me every day?"</p> + +<p>"I would bring him myself, or send him in the dog-cart. I or my brother +would look after that." Then, seeing a sudden look of protest in +Janetta's face, he added quickly—"You don't like that?"</p> + +<p>"It is nothing," said Janetta, looking down.</p> + +<p>"Is it to me or to my brother that you object?"</p> + +<p>He smiled as he spoke, but, a little to his surprise, Janetta kept +silence, and did not smile. Wyvis Brand was a man of very quick +perceptions, and he saw at once that if she seemed troubled she had a +reason for it.</p> + +<p>"Has Cuthbert offended you?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I have only spoken to him once—four months ago."</p> + +<p>"That is no answer. What has he been about? I have some idea, you know," +said Wyvis, coolly, "because I came across some sketches of his which +betrayed where his thoughts were straying. Your pretty sister quite +captivated him, I believe. Has he been getting up a flirtation?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose it is a joke to him and to you," said Janetta, almost +passionately, "but it is no joke to us. Yes, I came to speak to him or +to your mother about it. Either she must leave the school where she is +teaching, or he must let her alone."</p> + +<p>"You had better not speak to my mother; it will only worry her. Come in, +and tell me about it," said Wyvis, opening the gate, and laying his hand +gently on her arm.</p> + +<p>She did not resent his tone of mastery. In spite of the many faults and +errors that she discerned in him, it always seemed to her that a warmer +and finer nature lay below the outside trappings of roughness and +coldness than was generally perceptible. And when this better nature +came to the front, it brought with it a remembrance of the tie of +kinship, and Janetta's heart softened to him at once.</p> + +<p>He took her into a room which she guessed to be his own private +sanctum—a thoroughly untidy place, littered with books, papers, tools, +weapons, gardening implements, pipes and tobacco jars, in fine +confusion. He had to clear away a pile of books from a chair before she +could sit down. Then he planted himself on a corner of the solid, square +oak table in the middle of the room, and prepared to listen to her +story. Julian, who interrupted them once, was ordered out of the room +again in such a peremptory tone that Janetta was somewhat startled. But +really the boy did not seem to mind.</p> + +<p>By dint of leading questions he drew from her an outline of the facts of +the case, but she softened them, for Nora's sake, as much as possible. +She looked at him anxiously when she had done, to see whether he was +angry.</p> + +<p>"You know," she said, "I don't want to sow dissension of any kind +between you."</p> + +<p>Wyvis smiled. "I know you don't. But I assure you Cuthbert and I never +quarreled in our lives. That is not one of the sins you can lay to my +charge. He is a whimsical fellow, and I suspect that this has been one +of his freaks—not meaning to hurt anybody. If you leave him to me, I'll +stop the drawing-lessons at any rate, and probably the flowers."</p> + +<p>"Don't let him think that Nora cares," she said. "She is quite a +child—if he had sent her bonbons she would have liked them even better +than flowers."</p> + +<p>"I understand. I will do my best—as you are so good as to trust me," he +answered, lowering his voice.</p> + +<p>A little silence fell between them. Something in the tone had made +Janetta's heart beat fast. Then there rose up before her—she hardly +knew why—the vision of a woman, an imaginary woman, one whom she had +never seen—the woman with Julian's eyes, the woman who called herself +the wife of Wyvis Brand. The thought had power to bring her to her feet.</p> + +<p>"And now I must really go."</p> + +<p>"Not yet," he said, smiling down at her with a very kindly look in his +stern dark eyes. "Do you know you have given me a great deal of pleasure +to-day? You have trusted me to do a commission for you—a delicate bit +of work too—and that shows that you don't consider me altogether +worthless."</p> + +<p>"You may be sure that I do not."</p> + +<p>"Yes, we are friends. I have some satisfaction in that thought. Do you +know that you are the first woman who has ever made a <i>friend</i> of me? +who has ever trusted me, and taught me—for a moment or two—to respect +myself? It is the newest sensation I have had for years."</p> + +<p>"Not the sensation of respecting yourself, I hope?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed. You don't know—you will never know—how I've been +handicapped in life. Can you manage to be friendly with me even when I +don't do exactly as you approve? You are at liberty to tell me with +cousinly frankness what you dislike."</p> + +<p>"On that condition we can be friends," said Janetta, smiling and +tendering her hand. She meant to say good-bye, but he retained the +little hand in his own and went on talking.</p> + +<p>"How about the boy? You'll take him for a few hours every day?"</p> + +<p>"You really mean it?"</p> + +<p>"I do, indeed. Name your own terms."</p> + +<p>She blushed a little, but was resolved to be business-like.</p> + +<p>"You know I can't afford to do it for nothing," she said. "He can come +from ten to one, if you like to give me——" and and then she mentioned +a sum which Wyvis thought miserably inadequate.</p> + +<p>"Absurd!" he cried. "Double that, and then take him! When can he come?"</p> + +<p>"Next week, if you like. But I mean what I say——"</p> + +<p>"So do I, and as my will is stronger than yours I shall have my own +way."</p> + +<p>Janetta shook her head, and, having by this time got her hand free, she +managed to say good-bye, and left the house much more cheerfully than +she had entered it. Strange to say, she had a curious feeling of trust +in Wyvis Brand's promise to help her; it seemed to her that he was a man +who would endeavor at all costs to keep his word.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<h3>CUTHBERT'S ROMANCE.</h3> + + +<p>Janetta was hardly surprised when, two days later, she was asked to give +a private audience to Mr. Cuthbert Brand. She had not yet told Nora of +the course that she had pursued, for she was indeed rather unnecessarily +ashamed of it. "It was just like a worldly mamma asking a young man his +intentions about her daughter," she said to herself, with a whimsical +smile. "Probably nothing will come of it but a cessation of these silly +little attentions to Nora." But she felt a little shy and constrained +when she entered the drawing-room, and, while shaking hands with her +cousin, she did not lift her eyes to his face.</p> + +<p>When she had taken a seat, however, and managed to steal a glance at +him, she was half-provoked, half-reassured. Cuthbert's mobile face was +full of a merry, twinkling humor, and expressed no penitence at all. She +was so much astonished that she forgot her shyness, and looked at him +inquiringly without opening her lips.</p> + +<p>Cuthbert laughed—an irrepressible little laugh, as if he could not help +it. "Look here, Cousin Janetta," he said, "I'm awfully sorry, but I +really can't help it. The idea of you as a duenna and of Wyvis as a +heavy father has been tickling me ever since yesterday, and I shall have +to have it out sooner or later. I assure you it's only a nervous +affection. If I didn't laugh, I <i>might</i> cry or faint, and that would be +worse, you know."</p> + +<p>"I don't quite see the joke," said Janetta, gravely.</p> + +<p>"The joke," said Cuthbert, "lies in the contrast between yourself and +the role you have taken upon you."</p> + +<p>"It is a role that I am obliged to take upon me," interposed Janetta; +"because my sisters have no father, and a mother whose health makes it +impossible for her to guard them as she would like to do."</p> + +<p>"Now you're going to be severe," said Cuthbert; "and indeed I am +guiltless of anything but a little harmless fooling. I can but tender my +humblest apologies, and assure you that I have resigned my post in Mrs. +Smith's educational establishment, and that I will keep my flowers in +future to myself, unless I may send them with your consent and that of +my authoritative elder brother."</p> + +<p>Janetta was not mollified. "It is easy for you to talk of it so +lightly," she said, "but you forget that you might have involved both my +sisters in serious trouble."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think I should have been able to get them out again?" said +Cuthbert, with all the lightness to which she objected. "Don't you think +that I could have pacified the schoolmistress? There is one thing that I +must explain. My fancy for teaching was a fad, undertaken for its own +sake, which led me accidentally at first to Mrs. Smith's school. I did +not know that your sisters were there until I had made my preliminary +arrangements."</p> + +<p>Janetta flushed deeply, and did not reply. Nora's imagination had been +more active than she expected. Cuthbert, who was watching her, saw the +flush and the look of surprise, and easily guessed what had passed +between the sisters.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever read Sheridan's 'Rivals?'" he asked, quietly. "Don't you +remember the romantic heroine who insisted on her romance? She would +hardly consent to marry a man unless he had a history, and would help +her to make one for herself?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think that Nora is at all like Lydia Languish."</p> + +<p>"Possibly not, in essentials. But she loves romance and mystery and +excitement, as Lydia Languish did. It is a very harmless romance that +consists in sending a few cut flowers by Parcel Post, Cousin Janetta."</p> + +<p>"I know—it sounds very little," Janetta said, "but it may do harm for +all that."</p> + +<p>"Has it done harm to your sister, then?" Cuthbert inquired, with +apparent-innocence, but with the slight twinkle of his eye, which told +of inward mirth. Janetta was again growing indignant, and was about to +answer rather sharply, when he once more changed his tone. "There," he +said, "I have teased you quite enough, haven't I? I have been presuming +on our relationship to be as provoking as I could, because—honestly—I +thought that you might have trusted me a little more. Now, shall I be +serious?"</p> + +<p>"If you can," said Janetta.</p> + +<p>"That's awfully severe. By nature, I must tell you, I am the most +serious, not to say melancholy, person in creation. But on a fine day my +spirits run away with me. Now, Janetta—I may call you Janetta, may not +I?—I am going to be serious, deadly serious, as serious as if it were a +wet day in town. And the communication that I wish to make to you as the +head of the family, which you seem to be, is that I am head over ears in +love with your sister Nora, and that I beg for the honor of her hand."</p> + +<p>"You are joking," said his hearer, reproachfully.</p> + +<p>"Never was joking further from my thoughts. Getting married is an +exceedingly solemn business, I believe. I want to marry Nora and take +her to Paris."</p> + +<p>"Oh, this is ridiculous: you can't mean it," said Janetta.</p> + +<p>"Why ridiculous? Did I not tell you that I admired Miss Lydia Languish? +Her desire for a romance was quite praiseworthy: it is what every woman +cherishes in her heart of hearts: only Nora, being more naive and frank +and child-like than most women, let me see the desire more clearly than +women mostly do. That's why I love her. She is natural and lovable and +lovely. Don't tell me that I can't win her heart. I know I may have +touched her fancy, but that is not enough. Let me have the chance, and I +think that I can go deeper still."</p> + +<p>"You said that you would be serious, but you don't know how serious this +is to me," said Janetta, the tears rising to her eyes. "My father told +me to take care of her: she is very young—and not very wise; and how am +I to know whether you mean what you say?"</p> + +<p>"I do mean it, indeed!" said Cuthbert, in a much graver tone. "I have +got into the habit of talking as if I felt very little—a ridiculous +habit, I acknowledge—but, in this matter, I mean it from the bottom of +my heart."</p> + +<p>"I suppose, then," said Janetta, tremulously, "that you must speak to +mamma—and to Nora. I am not at all the head of the house, although you +are pleased—in fun—to call me so. I am only Nora's half-sister, fond +of her and anxious about her, and ready to do all that I can do for her +good."</p> + +<p>Cuthbert looked at her intently. Her face was pale, and the black dress +that she wore was not altogether becoming to her dark eyes and +complexion, but there was something pathetic to him in the weight of +care which seemed to sit upon those young brows and bear down the +slender shoulders of the girl. The new sensation thus given caused him +to say, with sudden earnestness—</p> + +<p>"Will you forgive me for having spoken and acted so thoughtlessly? I +never meant to cause you so much anxiety. You see, I am not very well +acquainted with English ways, and I may have made more mistakes than I +knew. When Nora is my wife you shall not have to fear for her +happiness."</p> + +<p>"You speak very confidently of making her your wife," said Janetta, +forgiving him in her heart, nevertheless. "But you have no house—no +profession, have you?"</p> + +<p>"No income, you mean?" said Cuthbert, with his merry smile. "Oh, yes, I +have a profession. It does not pay me quite so well as it might do, but +I think I shall do better by-and-bye. Then I have a couple of hundreds a +year of my own. Is it too much of a pittance to begin upon?"</p> + +<p>"Nora is quite too young to begin upon anything. If only you would leave +her alone for a year or two!—till she is a little more staid and +sensible!"</p> + +<p>"But that's too late, don't you see? That's where my apologies have to +come in. I have disturbed the peace already, haven't I?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Brand," said Janetta, gravely, in spite of an exclamation of +protest from her cousin, "I don't think that we are going quite deeply +enough into the matter. There are one or two things that I must say: +there is no one else to say them. Nora is young and foolish, but she is +affectionate and sensitive, and if she once cares for you, you may make +the happiness or the misery of her life. Our dear father told me to take +care of her. And I am not sure that he would have sanctioned her +engagement to you."</p> + +<p>"I'd better send Wyvis to talk to you," said Cuthbert, starting up and +nearly upsetting a chair in his eagerness. "I knew he could manage +and—and explain things better than I could. He's well up in the family +affairs. Will you see him now?"</p> + +<p>"Now?"</p> + +<p>"He's outside waiting. He wouldn't come in. I'll go and send him to you. +No, don't object: there are ever so many things that you two elders had +better talk over together. I must say," said Cuthbert, beginning to +laugh again in his light-hearted way, "that, when I think of Wyvis as a +family man, bent on seeing his younger brother <i>se ranger</i>, and you as +Nora's stern guardian, I am seized with an access of uncontrollable +mirth."</p> + +<p>He caught up his hat and left the room so quickly that Janetta, taken by +surprise, could not stop him. She tried to follow, but she was too late: +he had rushed off, leaving the hall-door open, and a draught of cold air +was ascending the stairs and causing her stepmother peevishly to remark +that Janetta's visitors were really intolerable. "Who <i>was</i> it, this +time?" she asked of her second daughter Georgie, who was standing at the +window—the mother and her girls being assembled in Mrs. Colwyn's +bedroom, her favorite resort on cold afternoons.</p> + +<p>Georgie gave a little giggle—her manners were not perfect, in spite of +a term at Mrs. Smith's superior seminary for young ladies—and answered, +under her breath—</p> + +<p>"It was Mr. Cuthbert Brand."</p> + +<p>Nora's book fell from her knee. When she picked it up her cheeks were +crimson and her eyes were flashing fire.</p> + +<p>"Don't be absurd, Georgie. It was <i>not</i>."</p> + +<p>"Indeed it was, Nora. I suppose he came to see Janetta, and Janetta has +sent him away. Oh, how he's running, although he is a little lame! He +has caught some one—his brother, I believe it is; and now the brother's +walking back with him."</p> + +<p>"I shall go down," said Mrs. Colwyn, with dignity. "It is not at all +proper for a young person like Janetta to receive gentlemen alone. I +shall go and sit in the drawing-room myself."</p> + +<p>"Then Janetta will take her visitors into the dining-room," said Nora, +abruptly. "She has only business with these people, mamma: they don't +come to visit us because they like us—it is only when they want us to +do something for them; so I would not put myself out for them if I were +you. And as for Janetta's being young, she is the oldest person amongst +us." And then Nora turned to her book, which she held upside down +without being at all aware of it.</p> + +<p>"I do not know what you mean, Nora," was Mrs. Colwyn's fretful response; +"and if the other brother is coming here, I shall certainly not disturb +myself, for I believe him to be a wild, dissipated, immoral, young man."</p> + +<p>"Just the sort of man for Janet to receive alone," murmured Georgie, +maliciously. Georgie was the member of the family who "had a tongue."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Wyvis had come into the house, though without Cuthbert, who +had thought it better to disappear into the gathering darkness; and +Janetta received him in the hall.</p> + +<p>He laughed a little as he took her hand. "Cuthbert is a little +impatient, is he not? Well, he has persuaded me into talking this matter +over with you. I'm to come in here, am I?" as Janetta silently opened +the sitting-room door for him. "This looks pleasant," he added after a +moment's pause.</p> + +<p>In the gathering evening gloom the shabbiness of the furniture could not +be seen, and the fire-light danced playfully over the worn, +comfortable-looking chairs drawn up to the hearth, on the holly and +mistletoe which decorated the walls, and the great cluster of geranium +and Christmas roses which the Adairs had sent to Janetta the day before. +Everything looked homelike and comfortable, and perhaps it was no wonder +that Wyvis—accustomed to the gloom of his own home, or the garish +splendor of a Paris hotel—felt that he was entering a new sphere, or +undergoing some new experience.</p> + +<p>"Don't light the lamp," he said, in his imperious way: "let us talk in +this half-light, if you don't mind? it's pleasanter."</p> + +<p>"And easier," said Janetta, softly.</p> + +<p>"Easier? Does it need an effort?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid I have something unpleasant to say."</p> + +<p>"So have I. We are quits, then. You can begin."</p> + +<p>"Your brother has been asking if he maybe engaged to Nora——"</p> + +<p>"If he may marry her out of hand, you mean. That's what he wants to do."</p> + +<p>"We know very little of him," said Janetta, rather unsteadily, "or of +you. Things have been said against you in Beaminster—you have yourself +told me things that I did not like—indeed, my father almost warned me +against you——"</p> + +<p>A murmur from Wyvis Brand sounded uncommonly like "the devil he +did!"—but Janetta did not stop to listen.</p> + +<p>"I never heard anything but vague generalities against <i>him</i>, but then I +never heard anything particularly good. I don't like the way in which he +has pursued his acquaintance with Nora. I have no authority with +her—not much influence with her mother—and, therefore, I throw myself +on you for help," said Janetta, her musical voice taking a pathetically +earnest cadence; "and I ask you to beg your brother to wait—to let Nora +grow older and know her own mind a little better—to give us the chance +of knowing him before he asks to take her away."</p> + +<p>"You have not said either of the things that I was expecting to hear," +said Wyvis.</p> + +<p>"What were those?"</p> + +<p>"How much money he had a year!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he told me about that."</p> + +<p>"Or—an allusion to his forbears: his father's character and his +mother's relations—the two bugbears of Beaminster."</p> + +<p>"I think nothing of those, if Cuthbert himself is good."</p> + +<p>"Well, he <i>is</i> good. He is as different from me as light is from +darkness. He is a little thoughtless and unpractical sometimes, but he +is sweet-tempered, honest, true, clean-living, and God-fearing. Will +that suit you?"</p> + +<p>"If he is all that——"</p> + +<p>"He is that and more. We are not effusive, Cuthbert and I, but I think +him one of the best fellows in the world. She'll be lucky who gets him, +in my opinion."</p> + +<p>"All the more reason, then, why I must say a still more unpleasant thing +than ever," she replied. "Nora is in great trouble, because she has been +told what I have known for some time. Her mother does not always control +herself; you know what I mean? She must not marry without telling +this—we cannot deceive the man who is to be her husband—he must know +the possible disgrace."</p> + +<p>"If every woman were as straightforward and honorable as you, Janetta, +there would be fewer miserable marriages," said Wyvis, slowly. "You are, +no doubt, right to speak; but, on the other hand, <i>our</i> family record is +much worse than yours. If one of you can condescend to take one of us, I +think we shall have the advantage."</p> + +<p>Janetta drew a long breath.</p> + +<p>"Then, will you help me in what I ask?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I will. I'll speak to Cuthbert and point out how reasonable you +are. Then—you'll let him cultivate your sister's acquaintance, I +suppose? In spite of your disclaimers, I believe you are supreme in the +house. I wish there were more like you to be supreme, Janetta. I +wish—to God I wish—that I had met you—a woman like you—eight years +ago."</p> + +<p>And before she could realize the meaning of what he had said to her, the +man was gone.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<h3>WYVIS BRAND'S IDEAL.</h3> + + +<p>Everything was satisfactorily settled. Cuthbert was put on his +probation; Nora was instructed in the prospect that lay before her, and +was allowed to correspond with her "semi-betrothed," as he insisted on +calling himself. Mrs. Colwyn was radiant with reflected glory, for +although she despised and hated Mrs. Brand, she was not blind to the +advantages that would accrue to herself through connection with a County +family. She was not, however, as fully informed in the details of the +little love-affair as she imagined herself to be. Janetta's share in +bringing about a <i>dénouement</i> and retarding its further development was +quite unknown to her. The delay, which some of Mr. Colwyn's old friends +urged with great vigor, was ascribed by her chiefly to the hostile +influences of Wyvis Brand, and she made a point of being openly uncivil +to that gentleman when, on fine mornings, he brought his boy to Gwynne +Street or fetched him away on a bright afternoon. For it had been +decided that little Julian should not only come every day at ten, but on +two days of the week should stay until four o'clock in the afternoon, in +order to enjoy the advantages of Tiny's society. He had been living so +unchild-like a life of late that Janetta begged to keep him for play as +well as for lessons with other children.</p> + +<p>Nora went back to her school somewhat sobered by the unexpected turn of +events, and rather ashamed of her assumption (dispelled by Janetta) that +Cuthbert Brand had given drawing lessons at Mrs. Smith's in order to be +near her. Mr. Cuthbert Brand discontinued these lessons, but opened a +class in Beaminster at the half-deserted Art School, and made himself +popular wherever he went. Janetta was half inclined to doubt the +genuineness of his affection for Nora when she heard of his innocent, +but quite enthusiastic, flirtations with other girls. But he always +solemnly assured her that Nora had his heart, and Nora only; and as long +as he made Nora happy Janetta was content. And so the weeks passed on. +She had more to do now that Julian came every day, but she got no new +music pupils, and she heard nothing about the evening parties at Lady +Ashley's. She concluded that Sir Philip and his mother had forgotten +her, but such was not the case. There had been a death in the family, +and the consequent period of mourning had prevented Lady Ashley from +giving any parties—that was all.</p> + +<p>For some little time, therefore, Janetta's life seemed likely to flow on +in a very peaceful way. Mrs. Colwyn "broke out" only once between +Christmas and Easter, and was more penitent and depressed after her +outbreak than Janetta had ever seen her. Matters went on more quietly +than ever after this event. Easter came, and brought Nora and Georgie +home again, and then there was a period of comparative excitement and +jollity, for the Brands began to come with much regularity to the little +house in Gwynne Street, and there were merry-makings almost every day.</p> + +<p>But when the accustomed routine began again, Janetta, in her +conscientious way, took herself seriously to task. She had not been +governing herself, her thoughts, her time, her temper, as she conceived +that it was right for her to do. On reflection, it seemed to her that +one person lately filled up the whole of her mental horizon. And this +person she was genuinely shocked to find was Wyvis Brand.</p> + +<p>Why should she concern herself so much about him? He was married; he had +a child; his mother and brother lived with him, and supplied his need of +society. He went out into the world about Beaminster more than he used +to do, and might have been fairly popular if he had exerted himself, but +this he would never do. There were fewer reports current about his bad +companions, or his unsteady way of life; and Janetta gathered from +various sources that he had entirely abandoned that profane and +reckless method of speech for which she had rebuked him. He was +improving, certainly. Well, was that any reason why she should think +about him so much, or consider his character and his probable fate so +earnestly? She saw no reason in it, she told herself; and perhaps she +was right.</p> + +<p>There was another reason even more potent for making her think of him. +He had had an unsatisfactory, troublous sort of life; he had been +unfortunate in his domestic relations, and he was most decidedly an +unhappy man. Many a woman before Janetta has found reasons of this kind +suffice for love of a man. Certainly, in Janetta's case, they formed the +basis of a good deal of interest. She told herself that she could not +help thinking of him. He came very often, on pretext of bringing or of +fetching Julian—especially on the days when Julian stayed until four +o'clock, for then he would stray in and sit down to chat with Janetta +and her mother until it was sheer incivility not to offer him a cup of +tea. Softened by the pleasures of hospitality, Mrs. Colwyn would be +quite gracious to him at these times. But now and then she left him to +be entertained by Janetta, saying rather sharply that she did not care +to meet the man who chose to behave "so brutally to her darling Nora."</p> + +<p>So that Janetta got into the way of sitting with him, talking with him +on all subjects, of giving him her sage advice when he asked for it, and +listening with interest to the stories that he told her of his past +life. It was natural that she should think about him a good deal, and +about his efforts to straighten the tangled coil of his life, and to +make himself a worthier father for his little son than his own father +had been to him. There was nothing in the world more likely than this +sort of intercourse to bring these two kinsfolk upon terms of closest +friendship. And as Janetta indignantly told herself—there was +nothing—nothing more.</p> + +<p>She always remembered that his wife was living; she never forgot it for +a moment. He was, of course, not a man whom she ever thought of +loving—she was angry with herself for the very suggestion—but he was +certainly a man who interested her more than any one whom she had ever +met. And he was interested in her too. He liked to talk to her, to ask +her advice and listen to her pet theories. She was friend, comrade, +sister, all in one. Nothing more. But the position was, whether they +knew it or not, a rather dangerous one, and an innocent friendship might +have glided into something closer and more harmful had not an unexpected +turn been given to the events of both their lives.</p> + +<p>For some time Janetta had seen little of the Adairs. They were very much +occupied—visiting and receiving visits—and Margaret's lessons were not +persevered in. But one afternoon, shortly after Easter, she called at +Mrs. Colwyn's house between three and four, and asked when she might +begin again. Before the day was settled, however, they drifted into talk +about other things, and Margaret was soon deeply engaged in an account +of her presentation at Court.</p> + +<p>"I thought you were going to stay in town for the season?" Janetta +asked.</p> + +<p>Margaret shook her head. "It was so hot and noisy," she murmured. "Papa +said the close rooms spoiled my complexion, and I am sure they spoiled +my temper!" She smiled bewitchingly as she spoke.</p> + +<p>She was charmingly dressed in cream-colored muslin, with a soft +silk sash of some nondescript pink hue tied round her waist, and a +bunch of roses at her throat to match the Paris flowers in her +broad-brimmed, slightly tilted, picturesque straw hat. A wrap for the +carriage-fawn-colored, with silk-lining of rose-pink toned by an +under-tint of grey—carried out the scheme of color suggested by her +dress, and suited her fair complexion admirably. She had thrown this +wrap over the back of a chair and removed her hat, so that Janetta might +see whether she was altered or not.</p> + +<p>"You are just a trifle paler," Janetta confessed.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact there were some tired lines under Margaret's eyes, +and a distinct waning of the fresh faint bloom upon her cheek—changes +which made of her less the school girl than the woman of the world. And +yet, to Janetta's thinking, she was more beautiful than ever, for she +was acquiring a little of the dignity given by experience without losing +the simple tranquillity of the exquisite child.</p> + +<p>"I am a little tired," Margaret said. "One sees so much—one goes to so +many places. I sighed for Helmsley Court, and dear mamma brought me +home."</p> + +<p>At this moment a crash, as of some falling body, resounded through the +house, followed by a clatter of breaking crockery, and the cries of +children. Janetta started up, with changing color, and apologized to her +guest.</p> + +<p>"Dear Margaret, will you excuse me for a moment? I am afraid that one of +the children must have fallen. I will be back in a minute or two."</p> + +<p>"Go, dear, by all means," said Margaret, placidly. "I know how necessary +you are."</p> + +<p>Janetta ran off, being desperately afraid that Mrs. Colwyn had been the +cause of this commotion. But here she was mistaken. Mrs. Colwyn was safe +in her room, but Ph[oe]be, the charity orphan, had been met, while +ascending the kitchen stair with the tea-tray in her hands, by a raid of +nursery people—Tiny and Curly and Julian Brand, to wit—had been +accidentally knocked down, had broken the best tea-set and dislocated +her own collar-bone; while Julian's hand was severely cut and Curly's +right eye was black and blue. Tiny had fortunately escaped without +injury, and it was she, therefore, who was sent to Margaret with a +modified version of the disaster.</p> + +<p>"Please, Janetta says, will you stay for a little minute or two till she +comes back again? Curly's gone for the doctor because Ph[oe]be's done +something to one of her bones; and Janetta's tying up Julian's thumb +because it's bleeding so dreadfully."</p> + +<p>"I have never seen you before, have I?" said Margaret, smiling at the +slim little girl with the delicate face and great blue eyes. "You are +Tiny; I have often heard of you. Do you know me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Tiny. "You are the beautiful lady who sends us flowers and +things—Janetta's friend."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that is right. And how long will Janetta be?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, not long, she said; and she hoped you would not mind waiting for a +little while?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all. Is that the doctor?" as a knock resounded through the +little house.</p> + +<p>"I dare say it is," said Tiny, running to the door; and then after a +moment's pause, she added, in a rather disappointed tone, "No, it's +Julian's father. It's Mr. Brand."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Brand!" said Margaret, half-astonished and half-amused. "Oh, I have +heard of him." And even as she spoke, the door opened, and Wyvis Brand +walked straight into the room.</p> + +<p>He gave a very slight start as his eyes fell upon Margaret, but betrayed +no other sign of surprise. Tiny flew to him at once, dragged at his +hand, and effected some sort of informal introduction, mingled with an +account of the accident which had happened to Julian.</p> + +<p>"Don't you want to go and ascertain the amount of the injury?" said +Margaret, with a little smile.</p> + +<p>"Not at all," said Wyvis, emphatically, and took up his position by the +mantel-piece, whence he got the best view of her graceful figure and +flower-like face. Margaret felt the gaze and was not displeased by it, +admiration was no new thing to her; she smiled vaguely and slightly +lowered her lovely eyes. And Wyvis stood and looked.</p> + +<p>In spite of his apparent roughness Wyvis Brand was an impressionable +man. He had come into the room cold, tired, not quite in his usual +health, and more than usually out of humor; and instead of the ordinary +sight of Janetta—a trim, pleasant, household-fairy sort of sight, it +was true, but not of the wildly exciting kind—he found a vision, as it +seemed to him, of the most ethereal beauty—a woman whose every movement +was full of grace, whose exquisitely modulated voice expressed +refinement as clearly as her delicately moulded features; whose whole +being seemed to exhale a sort of perfume of culture, as if she were in +herself the most perfect product of a whole civilization.</p> + +<p>Wyvis had been in many drawing-rooms and known many women, more or less +intimately, but he had never, in all his purposeless Bohemian life, come +across exactly this type of woman—a type in which refinement counts for +more than beauty, culture for more than grace. With a sudden leap of +memory, he recalled some scenes of which he had been witness years +before, when a woman, hot, red, excited with wine and with furious +jealousy, had reviled him in the coarsest terms, had struck him in the +face and had spat out foul and vindictive words of abuse. That +woman—ah, that woman was his wife—had been for many years to him the +type of what women must always be when stripped of the veneer of +society's restraints. Janetta had of late shaken his conviction on this +point; it was reserved for Margaret Adair to shatter it to the winds.</p> + +<p>She looked so fair, so dainty, so delicate—he would have been a marvel +amongst men who believed that her body was anything but "an index to a +most fair mind"—that Wyvis said to himself that he had never seen any +woman like her. He was fascinated and enthralled. The qualities which +made her so different from his timid, underbred, melancholy mother, or +his coarse and self-indulgent wife, were those in which Margaret showed +peculiar excellence. And before these—for the first time in his +life—Wyvis Brand fell down and worshipped.</p> + +<p>It was unfortunate; it was wrong; but it was one of those things that +will happen sometimes in everyday life. Wyvis was separated from his +wife, and hated as much as he despised her. Almost without knowing what +he did, he laid his whole heart and soul, suddenly and unthinkingly, at +Margaret's feet. And Margaret, smiling and serene, utterly ignorant of +his past, and not averse to a little romance that might end more +flatteringly than Sir Philip's attentions had done, was quite ready to +accept the gift.</p> + +<p>Before Janetta had bound up Julian's hand, and made some fresh tea, +which she was obliged to carry upstairs herself, Mr. Brand had obtained +information from Margaret as to the day and hour on which she was likely +to come to Janetta for her singing-lesson, and also as to several of her +habits in the matter of walks and drives. Margaret gave the information +innocently enough; Wyvis had no direct purpose in extracting it; but the +attraction which the two felt towards each other was sufficient to make +such knowledge of her movements undesirable, and even dangerous for +both.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<h3>FORGET-ME-NOTS.</h3> + + +<p>Lady Caroline, always mindful of her daughter's moods, could not quite +understand Margaret's demeanor when she returned home that afternoon. +She fancied that some news about Sir Philip might have reached the +girl's ear and distressed her mind. But when she skilfully led the +conversation in that direction, Margaret said at once, with a complete +absence of finesse that rather disconcerted her mother—</p> + +<p>"No, mamma, I heard nothing about the Ashleys—mother or son."</p> + +<p>"Dear Margaret," thought Lady Caroline, "is surely not learning +<i>brusquerie</i> and bad manners from that tiresome Miss Colwyn. What a very +unlucky friendship that has been!"</p> + +<p>She did not seize the clue which Margaret unconsciously held out to her +in the course of the same evening. The girl was sitting in a shady +corner of the drawing-room holding a feather fan before her face, when +she introduced what had hitherto been, at Helmsley Court, a forbidden +topic—the history of the Brands.</p> + +<p>"Papa," she said, quietly, "did you never know anything of the Red House +people?"</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline glanced at her husband. Mr. Adair seemed to find it +difficult to reply.</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course, I did—in the old days," he answered, less suavely than +usual. "When the father was alive, I used to go to the house, but, of +course, I was a mere lad then."</p> + +<p>"You do not know the sons, then?" said Margaret.</p> + +<p>"My dear child, I do not hunt. Mr. Brand's only appearance in society is +on the hunting field."</p> + +<p>"But there is another brother—one who paints, I believe."</p> + +<p>"He teaches drawing in some of the schools of the neighborhood," Lady +Caroline interposed, rather dryly. "I suppose you do not want drawing +lessons, dear?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said Margaret, indifferently. "I only thought it seemed odd +that we never met them anywhere."</p> + +<p>"Not very suitable acquaintances," murmured Lady Caroline, almost below +her breath. Mr. Adair was looking at an illustrated magazine and did not +seem to hear, but, after a moment's pause, Margaret said,</p> + +<p>"Why, mamma?"</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline hesitated for a moment. Mr. Adair shrugged his shoulders. +Then she said slowly:</p> + +<p>"His father married beneath him, my love. Mrs. Brand is a quite +impossible person. If the young men would pension her off and send her +away, the County would very likely take them up. But we cannot receive +the mother."</p> + +<p>"That is another of what Sir Philip Ashley would call +class-distinctions, is it not?" said Margaret, placidly. "The sort of +thing which made Miss Polehampton so anxious to separate me from poor +Janetta."</p> + +<p>"Class-distinctions are generally founded on some inherent law of +character or education, dear," said Lady Caroline, softly. "They are not +so arbitrary as young people imagine. I hope the day will never come +when the distinction of class will be done away with. I"—piously—"hope +that I may be in my grave before that day comes."</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course they are very necessary," said Margaret, comfortably. +"And, if old Mrs. Brand were to go away, I suppose her sons would be +received everywhere?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I suppose so. The property is fairly good, is it not, Reginald?"</p> + +<p>"Not very," said Mr. Adair. "The father squandered a good deal, and I +fancy the present owner is economizing for the sake of his boy."</p> + +<p>"His boy?" A faint color stole into Margaret's cheeks. "Is he married, +papa?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, the wife's dead," said Mr. Adair, hastily. It was part of Lady +Caroline's system that Margaret should not hear more than was absolutely +necessary of what she termed "disagreeable" subjects. Elopements, +separation and divorce cases all came under that head. So that when Mr. +Adair, who knew more of Mr. Brand's domestic history than he chose to +say, added immediately—"At least I heard so: I believe so," he did not +think that he was actually departing from fact, but only that he was +coloring the matter suitably for Margaret's infant understanding. He +really believed that Mrs. Wyvis Brand was divorced from her husband, and +it was "the same thing as being dead, you know," he would have replied +if interrogated on the subject.</p> + +<p>Margaret did not respond, and Lady Caroline never once suspected that +she had any real interest in the matter. But the very fact that Wyvis +Brand was represented to her as a widower threw a halo of romance around +his head in Margaret's eyes. A man who has "loved and lost" is often +invested with a peculiar kind of sanctity in the eyes of a young girl. +Wyvis Brand's handsome face and evident admiration of herself did not +prepossess Margaret in his favor half so much as the fact that he had +known loss and sorrow, and was temporarily ostracized by County society +because his mother was "an impossible person." This last deprivation +appealed to Margaret's imagination more than the first. It seemed to her +a terrible thing to remain unvisited by the "County." What a good thing +it would be, she reflected, if Mr. Brand could marry some nice girl, who +would persuade him to send his mother back to France, and for whose sake +the County magnates would extend to him the right hand of fellowship. To +reinstate him in his proper position—the position which Margaret told +herself he deserved and would adorn—seemed to her an ambition worthy of +any woman in the world. For Margaret's nature was curiously mixed. From +her father she had inherited a great love of the beautiful and the +romantic—there was a thoroughly unworldly strain in him which had +descended to her; but, then, it was counteracted by the influences which +she had imbibed from Lady Caroline. Margaret used sometimes to rebel +against her mother's maxims of worldly wisdom, but they gradually +permeated her mind, and the gold was so mingled with alloy that it was +difficult to separate one from the other. She thought herself a very +unworldly person. We all have ideals of ourselves; and Margaret's ideal +of herself was of a rather saint-like creature, with high aspirations +and pure motives. Where her weakness really lay she had not the faintest +notion.</p> + +<p>It was strange even to herself to note the impression that Wyvis Brand +had produced on her. He was certainly of the type that tends to attract +impressionable girls, for he was dark and handsome, with the indefinable +touch of melancholy in his eyes which lends a subtler interest to the +face than mere beauty. The little that she knew of his history had +touched her. She constructed a great deal from the few facts or fancies +that had been given to her, and the result was sufficiently unlike the +real man to be recognizable by nobody but Margaret herself.</p> + +<p>It has already been said that the Adair property and that of Wyvis Brand +lay side by side. The Adair estate was a large one: that of the Brands' +comparatively small; but at one point the two properties were separated +for some little distance only by a narrow fishing stream, on one side +of which stretched an outlying portion of Mr. Adair's park; while on the +other side lay a plantation, approached through the Beaminster woods, +and not very far from the Red House itself. It was in this +plantation—which was divided from the woods only by a wire fence—that +Janetta had found little Julian and had afterwards encountered Wyvis +Brand.</p> + +<p>In spring the plantation was a particularly pleasant place. It was +starred with primroses and anemones in the earlier months of the year, +and blue with hyacinths at a later date. At a little distance the +flowers looked like a veil of color spread between the trees. The brook +between the park and the plantation was a merry little stream, dancing +gaily over golden pebbles, and brightly responsive to the sunshine that +flickered between the lightly-clothed branches of the trees bordering it +on either side. It was famous in the neighborhood for the big blue +forget-me-nots that grew there; but it could hardly have been in search +of forget-me-nots that Margaret Adair wandered along its side one +morning, for they were scarcely in season, and her dreamy eyes did not +seem to be looking for them on the bank.</p> + +<p>From amongst the trees of the plantation there appeared suddenly a man, +who doffed his cap to Miss Adair with a look of mingled pleasure and +surprise.</p> + +<p>"Oh, good-morning, Mr. Brand."</p> + +<p>"Good-morning, Miss Adair." No greeting could have been more +conventional. "May I ask if you are looking for forget-me nots? There +are some already out lower down the stream. I will show you where they +are if you will turn to the left."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Margaret.</p> + +<p>They moved down the slight slope together, but on different sides of the +stream. At last they reached the spot where a gleam of blue was visible +at the water's edge.</p> + +<p>"It is on your side," Margaret said, with a little smile.</p> + +<p>"I will get them for you," he replied. And she stood waiting while he +gathered the faintly-tinted blossoms.</p> + +<p>"And now," she said, as he rose to his feet again, "how will you give +them to me? I am afraid I cannot reach across."</p> + +<p>"I could come over to you," said Wyvis, his dark eyes resting upon her +eagerly. "Will you ask me to come?"</p> + +<p>She paused. "Why should I ask you?" she said, with a smile, as if +between jest and earnest.</p> + +<p>"You are standing on your ground, and I on mine. I have never in my life +been asked to cross the boundary."</p> + +<p>"I ask you then," said Margaret coloring prettily. She was +half-frightened at the significance of her own words, when she had +spoken them. But it was too late to retract. It took Wyvis Brand a +moment only to leap the brook, and to find himself at her side. Then, +taking off his hat and bowing low, he presented her with the flowers +that he had gathered. She thanked him with a blush.</p> + +<p>"Will you give me one?" he asked, his eyes fixed upon her lovely face. +"Just one!—--"</p> + +<p>"Why did you not keep one?" she said, bending over her nosegay as if +absorbed in its arrangement. "They are so rare that I hardly know how to +spare any." Which was a bit of innocent coquetry on Margaret's part.</p> + +<p>"Just one," he pleaded. "As a reward. As a memento."</p> + +<p>"A memento of what?" she asked, separating one or two flowers from the +bunch as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"Of this occasion."</p> + +<p>"It is such an important occasion, is it not?" she said, with a sweet, +mocking little laugh.</p> + +<p>"A very important occasion to me. Have I not met you?"</p> + +<p>"That is a most charming compliment," said Margaret, who was not unused +to hearing words of this kind in London drawing-rooms, and was quite in +her native element. "In reward for it I will give you a flower—which of +course you will throw away as soon as I am out of sight."</p> + +<p>"No, not when you are out of sight: when you are out of mind," he said, +significantly.</p> + +<p>"The two are synonymous," said Margaret.</p> + +<p>"Are they? Not with me. Throw it away? I will show you that it shall not +be thrown away."</p> + +<p>He produced a little pocket-book and put the forget-me-nots into it, +carefully pressing them down against a blank page.</p> + +<p>"There," he said, as he made a note in pencil at the bottom of the page, +"that will be always with me now."</p> + +<p>"The poor forget-me-not!" said Margaret, smiling. "What a sad fate for +it! To be torn from its home by the brook, taken away from the sun and +the air, to languish out its life in a pocket-book."</p> + +<p>"It should feel itself honored," Said Wyvis, "because it is dying for +you."</p> + +<p>As we have said, this strain of half-jesting compliment was not +unfamiliar to Margaret; but she could hardly remain unconscious of the +fact that a deeper note had crept into his voice during the last few +words, and that his eyes glowed with a fire more ardent than she usually +saw. She drew back a little, and looked down: she was not exactly +displeased, but she was embarrassed. He noticed and understood the +expression of her face; and changed his tone immediately.</p> + +<p>"This is a pretty place," he said, indicating the park and the distant +woods by a wave of his hand. "I always regret that I have been away from +it so long."</p> + +<p>"You have lived a great deal in France, I believe?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and in Italy, too. But I tired of foreign lands at last, and +persuaded my mother to come home with me. I am glad that I came."</p> + +<p>"You like the neighborhood?" said Margaret, in a tone of conventional +interest.</p> + +<p>Wyvis laughed. "I don't see much of my neighbors," he said, rather +drily. "They don't approve of my family. But I like the scenery—and I +have a friend or two—Miss Colwyn, for instance, who is a kinswoman of +mine, you know."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes!" said Margaret, eagerly. Her momentary distrust of him +vanished when she remembered Janetta. Of course, Janetta's cousin <i>must</i> +be "nice!"—"I am so fond of Janetta: she is so clever and so good."</p> + +<p>"It is a great thing for her to have a friend like you," said Wyvis, +looking at her wistfully. In very truth, she was a wonderment to him; +she seemed so ethereal, so saint-like, so innocent! And Margaret smiled +pensively in return: unlimited admiration was quite to her taste.</p> + +<p>"Do you often walk here?" he inquired, when at last she said that she +must return home.</p> + +<p>And she said—"Sometimes."</p> + +<p>"Sometimes" is a very indefinite and convenient word. It may mean +anything or nothing. In a very short time, it meant that Margaret took a +book out with her and walked down to the boundary stream about three +times a week, if not oftener, and that Wyvis Brand was always there to +bear her company. Before long a few stepping-stones were dropped into +the brook, so that she could cross it without wetting her dainty feet. +It was shadier and cooler in the closely-grown plantation than in the +open park. And meetings in the plantation were less likely to be +discovered than in a more public place.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<h3>LADY ASHLEY'S GARDEN PARTY.</h3> + + +<p>It may be wondered that Margaret had so much idle time upon her hands, +and was not more constantly supervised in her comings and goings by Lady +Caroline. But certain occurrences in the Adair family made it easy just +then for her to go her own way. Mr. Adair was obliged to stay in London +on business, and while he was away very little was doing at Helmsley +Court. Lady Caroline took the opportunity of his absence to "give way" a +little: she suffered occasionally from neuralgia, and the doctor +recommended her not to rise much before noon. Margaret's comfort and +welfare were not neglected. A Miss Stone, a distant relation of Lady +Caroline's, came to spend a few weeks at the Court as a companion for +Margaret. Miss Stone was not at all a disagreeable person. She could +play tennis, dance, and sing; she could accompany Margaret's songs: she +could talk or be silent, as seemed good to her; and she was a model of +tact and discretion. She was about thirty-five, but looked younger: she +dressed well, and had pleasing manners, and without being absolutely +handsome was sufficiently good-looking. Miss Alicia Stone was almost +penniless, and did not like to work; but she generally found herself +provided for as "sheep-dog" or chaperon in some house of her numerous +aristocratic friends. She was an amusing talker, and Margaret liked her +society well enough, but Miss Stone was too clever not to know when she +was not wanted. It soon became evident to the companion that for some +reason Margaret liked to walk in the park alone in a morning; and what +Margaret liked was law. Alicia knew how to efface herself on such +occasions, so that when Lady Caroline asked at luncheon what the two had +been doing all the morning, it was easy and natural for Miss Stone to +reply, "Oh, we have been out in the park," although this meant only that +she had been sitting at the conservatory door with a novel, while +Margaret had been wandering half a mile away. Lady Caroline used to +smile, and was satisfied.</p> + +<p>And Margaret's conscience was very little troubled. She had never been +told, she sometimes said to herself, that she was not to speak to Mr. +Brand. And she was possessed with the fervent desire to save his soul +(and social reputation), which sometimes leads young women into follies +which they afterwards regret. He told her vaguely that he had had a +miserable, unsatisfactory sort of life, and that he wished to amend. He +did not add that his first impulses towards amendment had come from +Janetta Colwyn. Margaret thought that she was responsible for them, one +and all. And she felt it incumbent upon her to foster their growth, even +at the price of a small concealment—although it would, as she very well +knew, be a great one in her parents' eyes.</p> + +<p>As the days went on towards summer, it seemed to Janetta as though some +interest, some brightness perhaps, had died out of her life. Her +friends—her two chief friends, to whom her vow of friendship and +service had been sworn—were, in some inexplicable manner, alienated +from her. Margaret came regularly for her singing-lesson, but never +lingered to talk as she had done at first. She seemed pensive, languid, +preoccupied. Wyvis Brand had left off calling for little Julian, except +on rare occasions. Perhaps his frequent loitering in the plantation left +him but scant time for his daily work; he always pleaded business when +his boy reproached him for his remissness, or when Janetta questioned +him somewhat mournfully with her earnest eyes. Certainly he too seemed +preoccupied, and when he was beguiled into the Colwyns' little +drawing-room he would sit almost silent in Janetta's company, never once +asking her counsel or opinion as he had done in earlier days. It was +possible that in her presence he felt a sort of compunction, a sort of +conscience-stricken shame. And his silence and apparent estrangement lay +upon Janetta's heart like lead.</p> + +<p>Poor Janetta was going through a time of depression and disappointment. +Mrs. Colwyn had had two or three terrible relapses, and her condition +could no longer be kept quite a secret from her friends. Janetta had +been obliged to call in the aid of the doctor who had been her father's +best friend, and he recommended various changes of diet and habits which +gave the girl far more trouble than he knew. Where poverty is present in +a home, it is sometimes hard to do the best either for the sinning or +the suffering; and so Mrs. Colwyn's weakness was one of the heaviest +burdens that Janetta had to bear. The only gleams of brightness in her +lot lay in the love and gentleness of the children that she taught, and +in her satisfaction with Nora's engagement to Cuthbert. In almost all +other respects she began to feel aware that she was heavily handicapped.</p> + +<p>It was nearly the end of June before she received the long-expected +invitation from Lady Ashley. But it was not to an evening party. It was +a sort of combination entertainment—a garden-party for the young, and +music for those elder persons who did not care to watch games at tennis +all the afternoon. And Janetta was asked to sing.</p> + +<p>The day of the party was cloudlessly fine, but not too warm, as a +pleasant little summer breeze was blowing. Janetta donned a thin black +dress of some gauzy material, and thought that she looked very careworn +and dowdy in her little bedroom looking-glass. But when she reached Lady +Ashley's house, excitement had brought a vivid color to her face; and +when her hostess, after an appreciative glance at her dress, quietly +pinned a cluster of scarlet geranium blooms at her neck, the little +songstress presented an undeniably distinguished appearance. If she was +not exactly pretty, she was more than pretty—she was striking and +original.</p> + +<p>Margaret Adair looked up and smiled at her from a corner, when Janetta +first came forward to sing. She was one of the very few girls who were +present, for most of the young people were in the garden; but she had +insisted on coming in to hear Janetta's song. She did not care about +playing tennis; it made her hot, and ruffled her pretty Paris gown, +which was not suitable for violent exertion of any kind; she left +violent exertion to Alicia Stone, who was always ready to join in other +people's amusements. Lady Caroline was not present; her neuralgia was +troublesome, and she had every confidence in Alicia's chaperonage and +Margaret's discretion. Poor Lady Caroline was sometimes terribly +mistaken in her reading of character.</p> + +<p>To the surprise of a good many people, the Brands were there. Not Mrs. +Brand—only the two young men; but the fact was a good deal commented +upon, as hitherto "the County" had taken very little notice of the owner +of the Red House. It was perhaps this fact that had impelled Sir Philip +to show the Brands some courtesy. He declared that he knew nothing bad +of these men, and that they ought not to be blamed for their father's +sins. Personally he liked them both, and he had no difficulty in +persuading his mother to call on Mrs. Brand, and then to send +invitations for the garden party. But Mrs. Brand, as usual, declined to +go out, and was represented only by her sons.</p> + +<p>What Sir Philip had not calculated on was the air of possession and +previous acquaintance with which Wyvis Brand greeted Miss Adair. He had +hardly expected that Margaret would come; and, indeed, Margaret had been +loath to accept Lady Ashley's invitation, especially without the escort +of her mother. On the other hand, Lady Caroline was very anxious that +the world should not know the extent of the breach between the two +families; and she argued that it would be very marked if Margaret stayed +away from a large garden party to which "everybody" went, and where it +would be very easy to do nothing more than exchange a mere passing +salutation with Sir Philip. So she had rather insisted on Margaret's +going; and the girl had had her own reasons for not protesting too much. +She knew that Wyvis Brand would be there; and she had a fancy for seeing +him amongst other men, and observing how he bore himself in other +people's society.</p> + +<p>She was perfectly satisfied with the result. His appearance was +faultless—far better than that of Sir Philip, who sometimes wore a coat +until it was shiny at the shoulders, and was not very particular about +his boots. Upright, handsome, well-dressed, with the air of distinction +which Margaret much preferred to beauty in a man, he was a distinctly +noticeable figure, and Margaret innocently thought that there was no +reason why she should not show, in a well-bred and maidenly way, of +course, her liking for him.</p> + +<p>She had never had much resistant power, this "rare, pale Margaret" of +Sir Philip's dreams, and it seemed quite natural to her that Wyvis +should hover at her side and attend to all her wants that afternoon. She +did not notice that he was keeping off other men by his air of +proprietorship, and that women, old and young, were eyeing her with +surprise and disapprobation as she walked up and down the lawn with him +and allowed him to provide her with tea or strawberries and cream. She +was under a charm, and could not bear the idea of sending him away. +While Wyvis—for his excuse let it be said that his air of +proprietorship was unconscious, and came simply out of his intense +admiration for the girl and his headlong absorption in the interest of +the moment. He did not at all know how intently and exclusively he +looked at her; how reverential and yet masterful was his attitude; and +the sweet consciousness that sat on her down-dropped eyelids and +tenderly flushed cheeks acted as no warning to him, but only as an +incentive to persevere.</p> + +<p>The situation became patent to Janetta, when she stood up to sing. +Margaret looked, nodded, and smiled at her with exquisite shy +friendliness. Janetta returned the greeting; and then—as people +noticed—suddenly flushed scarlet and as suddenly turned pale. Many +persons set this change of color down to nervousness; but Sir Philip +Ashley followed the direction of her eyes and knew what she had seen.</p> + +<p>Miss Adair was sitting in a corner of the room, where perhaps she hoped +to be unremarked; but her fair beauty and her white dress made it +difficult for her to remain obscure. Wyvis Brand stood beside her, +leaning against the wall, with arms folded across his breast. He was +more in shadow than was she, for he was touched by the folds of a heavy +velvet curtain; but his attitude was significant. He was not looking at +the singer, or at the room; his whole attention was visibly concentrated +upon Margaret. He was looking at her, some one remarked quite audibly, +as if he never meant to look away again. The close, keen absorption of +that gaze was unusual enough to shock conventional observers. There +would have been nothing insolent or overbold about it were he her +husband or her lover; but from a man who—as far as "the County" +knew—was a comparative stranger in the land, and almost an outsider, +it was positively shocking. And yet Miss Adair looked as if she were +only pleasantly conscious of this rude man's stare.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for Margaret's reputation, it was currently believed that +Wyvis Brand's wife was dead. Those who had some notion that she was +living thought that he had divorced her. The general impression was that +he was at any rate free to marry; and that he was laying siege to the +heart of the prettiest girl in the County now seemed an indisputable +fact. Perhaps Janetta only, of all the persons assembled together in the +room, knew the facts of Wyvis Brand's unhappy marriage. And to Janetta, +as well as to other people, it became plain that afternoon that he had +completely lost his heart—perhaps his head as well—to Margaret Adair.</p> + +<p>The chatter of the crowd would have revealed as much to Janetta, even if +her own observation had not told her a good deal. "How that man does +stare at that girl! Is he engaged to her?" "Young Brand's utterly gone +on Miss Adair; that's evident." "Is Lady Caroline not here? Do you think +that she <i>knows</i>?" "Margaret Adair is certainly very pretty, but I +should not like one of <i>my</i> girls to let herself be made so +conspicuous!" Such were some of the remarks that fell on Janetta's ear, +and made her face burn with shame and indignation. Not that she exactly +believed in the reality even of the things that she had seen. That Wyvis +should admire Margaret was so natural! That Margaret should accept the +offered admiration in her usual serene manner was equally to be +expected. But that either of them should be unwise enough to give rise +to idle gossip, about so natural a state of mind was what Janetta could +not understand. It was not Margaret's fault; she was very sure of that. +It must be Wyvis Brand's. He was her cousin, and she might +surely—perhaps—ask him what he meant by putting Margaret in such a +false position! Oh, but she could not presume to do that. What would he +think of her? And yet—and yet—the look with which he had regarded +Margaret seemed to be stamped indelibly upon Janetta's faithful, aching +heart.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<h3>SIR PHILIP'S DECISION.</h3> + + +<p>"Philip," said Lady Ashley that evening, with some hesitation in her +speech; "Philip—did you—did you notice Mr. Brand—much—to-day?"</p> + +<p>The guests had all gone; dinner was over; mother and son were sitting in +wicker chairs on the terrace, resting after the fatigues of the day. Sir +Philip was smoking a very mild cigarette: he was not very fond of +tobacco, for, as the Adairs sometimes expressed it, he "had no small +vices." Lady Ashley was wrapped in a white shawl, and her delicate, +blue-veined hands were crossed upon her lap in unaccustomed idleness.</p> + +<p>"I did notice him," said her son, quietly. "He seemed to be paying a +great deal of attention to Miss Adair."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Philip, dear, it distressed me so much!"</p> + +<p>"Why should it distress you, mother?—it is nothing to us."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you feel in that way about it—still, I am grieved for the +Adairs' sake. After all, they are old friends of ours. And I had +hoped——"</p> + +<p>"Our hopes are not often realized, are they?" said Sir Philip, in the +gentle, persuasive tones that his mother thought so winning. "Perhaps it +is best. At any rate, it is best to forget the hopes that never <i>can</i> be +realized."</p> + +<p>"Do you think it is really so, Philip? Everyone was talking about his +manner this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"She was giving him every encouragement," said her son, looking away.</p> + +<p>"Such an undesirable match! Poor Lady Caroline!"</p> + +<p>"We do not know how things are being arranged, mother. Possibly Lady +Caroline and Mr. Adair are favoring an engagement. Miss Adair is hardly +likely to act against their will."</p> + +<p>"No, she has scarcely resolution enough for that. Then you don't think +that they met for the first time this afternoon?"</p> + +<p>"Gracious heavens, no!" said Sir Philip, roused a little out of his +apparent indifference. "They met quite as old acquaintances—old +friends. I suppose the Adairs have renewed the friendship. The +properties lie side by side. That may be a reason."</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry we asked him here," said Lady Ashley, almost viciously. +"I had no idea that he was paying attention to <i>her</i>. I hope there is +nothing wrong about it—such a very undesirable match!"</p> + +<p>"I don't really know why," said her son, with a forced smile. "Wyvis +Brand is a fine, handsome fellow, and the property, though small, is a +nice one. Miss Adair might do worse."</p> + +<p>"I believe her mother thinks that she might marry a duke."</p> + +<p>"And so she might. She is a great beauty, and an heiress." And there was +a ring of bitterness in his tone which pained his mother's heart.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Philip," she said—not very, wisely—"you need not regret her. 'A +fair woman without discretion,' she would not be the wife for you."</p> + +<p>"I beg that you will not say that again, mother." He did not turn his +face towards her, and his voice was studiously gentle, but it was +decided too. "She is, as you say, 'a fair woman,' but she has not shown +herself as yet 'without discretion,' and it is hardly kind to condemn +her before she has done any wrong."</p> + +<p>"I do not think that she behaved well to you, Philip. But I beg your +pardon, my son: we will not discuss the matter. It seems hard to me, of +course, that you should have suffered for any woman's sake."</p> + +<p>"Ah, mother, every one does not see me with your kind eyes," he said, +bringing his face round with a smile, and laying his right hand over one +of hers. But the smile thinly disguised the pain that lingered like a +shadow in his eyes. "Let us hope, at any rate, that Margaret may be +happy."</p> + +<p>Lady Ashley sighed and pressed his hand. "If you could but meet some one +else whom you cared for as much, Philip!" And then she paused, for he +had—involuntarily as it seemed—shaken his head, and she did not like +to proceed further.</p> + +<p>A pause of some minutes followed; and then she determined to change the +subject.</p> + +<p>"The music went very well this afternoon, I think," she said. "Miss +Colwyn was in very good voice. Do you not like her singing?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, very much."</p> + +<p>"The Watertons were asking me about her. And the Bevans. I fancy she +will get several engagements. Poor girl, I hope she will."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip threw away the end of his cigarette, and got up rather +abruptly, Lady Ashley thought. Without a word he began to pace up and +down the terrace, and finally, turning his back on her, he stared at the +garden and the distant view, now faintly illumined by a rising moon, as +if he had forgotten his mother's very existence. Lady Ashley was +surprised. He usually treated her with such marked distinction that to +appear for a moment unconscious of her presence was almost a slight. She +was too dignified, however, to try to recall his attention, and she +waited quietly until her son turned round again and suddenly faced her +with an air of calm determination.</p> + +<p>"Mother," he said, "I have something important to say."</p> + +<p>"Well, Philip?"</p> + +<p>"You have often said that you wanted me to marry."</p> + +<p>"Yes, dearest, I do wish it."</p> + +<p>"I also see the expediency of marriage. The woman whom I loved, who +seemed to us as suitable as she is lovely, will not marry me. What shall +I look for in my second choice? Character rather than fortune, health +rather than beauty. This seems to me the wiser way."</p> + +<p>"And love rather than expediency," said his mother quickly.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" he drew a long breath. "But we can't always have love. The other +requisites are perhaps more easily found."</p> + +<p>"Have you found them, Philip?" The mother's voice quivered as she asked +the question. He did not answer it immediately—he stood looking at the +ground for some little time.</p> + +<p>"My mind is made up," he said at last, slowly and quietly; "I know what +I want, and I think that I have found it. Mother, I am going to ask Miss +Colwyn to be my wife."</p> + +<p>If a thunderbolt had fallen at her feet, Lady Ashley could not have been +more amazed. She sat silent, rigid, incapable of a reply.</p> + +<p>"I have seen something of her, and I have heard more," her son went on, +soberly. "She is of sterling worth. She has intellect, character, +affection: what can we want more? She is attractive, if not exactly +beautiful, and she is good—thoroughly good and true."</p> + +<p>"But her connections, Philip—her relations," gasped Lady Ashley.</p> + +<p>"It will be easy enough to do something for them. Of course they will +have to be provided for—away from Beaminster, if possible. She is an +orphan, remember: these are only her half sisters and brothers."</p> + +<p>"There is the dreadful stepmother!"</p> + +<p>"I think we can manage her. These points do not concern the main issue, +mother. Will you receive her as your daughter if I bring Janetta Colwyn +here as my wife?"</p> + +<p>Lady Ashley had put her handkerchief to her eyes. "I will do anything to +please you, Philip," she said, almost inaudibly; "but I cannot pretend +that this is anything but a disappointment."</p> + +<p>"I have thought the matter well over. I am convinced that she will make +a good wife," said the young man; and from his voice and manner Lady +Ashley felt that his resolution was invulnerable. "There is absolutely +<i>no</i> objection except the one concerning her relations—and that may be +got over. Mother, you wish for my happiness: tell me that you will not +disapprove."</p> + +<p>Lady Ashley got up from her basket chair, and laid her arms round +Philip's neck.</p> + +<p>"My dear son," she said, "I will do my best. I wish for nothing but your +happiness, and I should never think of trying to thwart your intentions. +But you must give me a little time in which to accustom myself to this +new idea."</p> + +<p>And then she wept a little, and kissed and blessed him, and they parted +on the most cordial of terms. Nevertheless, neither of them was very +happy. Lady Ashley was, as she had said, disappointed in the choice that +he had made; and Sir Philip, in spite of his brave words, was very sore +at heart.</p> + +<p>Janetta, all unconscious of the honor preparing for her, was meanwhile +passing some miserable hours. She could not sleep that night—she knew +not why. It was the excitement of the party, she supposed. But +something beside excitement was stirring in her heart. She tried to +give it a name, but she would not look the thing fairly in the face, +and, therefore, she was not very successful in her nomenclature. She +called it friendly interest in others, a desire for their happiness, a +desire also for their good. What made the burning pain and unrest of +these desires? Why should they cause her such suffering? She did not +know—or, more correctly, she refused to know.</p> + +<p>She rose in the morning feeling haggard and unrefreshed. The day was a +very hot one; the breeze had died away, and there was not a cloud in the +deep blue sky. Julian Brand came in the dog-cart with the groom. He had +not seen his father that morning, he said, and he thought that he had +gone away, but he did not know. Gone away? Janetta sat down to her work +with a heavy heart. It seemed to her that she must speak either to him +or to Margaret. He was compromising her friend, and for Margaret's sake +she must not hold her peace. Well, it was the day for Miss Adair's +singing lesson. When she came that afternoon, Janetta made up her mind +that she would say a needful word.</p> + +<p>But Margaret did not come. She sent a note, asking to be excused. She +had a headache, and could not sing that afternoon.</p> + +<p>"She is afraid to come!" said Janetta, passionately, and for almost the +first time she felt a thrill of anger against her friend.</p> + +<p>Another visitor came, if Margaret did not. About four o'clock, just as +Julian was beginning to wonder when he would be fetched away, a +thundering peal at the door knocker announced the appearance of Wyvis +Brand. Janetta was in the drawing-room putting away some music when he +came in. She saw that he glanced eagerly round the room, as if expecting +to see someone else—perhaps Margaret Adair—and her heart hardened to +him a little as she gave him her hand. Had he come at that hour because +Margaret generally took her lesson then?</p> + +<p>"How cold you are!" cried Wyvis, holding the little hand for the moment +in his own. "On this hot day! How <i>can</i> you manage to keep so cool??"</p> + +<p>If his heart had been throbbing and his head burning as Janetta's were +just then, he might have known how to answer the question.</p> + +<p>"You have come for Julian, I suppose?" she said, a little coldly.</p> + +<p>"Yes—in a minute or two. Won't you let me rest for a few minutes after +my walk in the broiling sun?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, certainly; you shall have some tea, if you like. I am at liberty +this afternoon," said Janetta, with a little malice, "as my pupil has +just sent me word that she has a headache, and cannot come."</p> + +<p>"Who is your pupil this afternoon?" said Wyvis, stroking his black +moustache.</p> + +<p>"Miss Adair."</p> + +<p>He gave her a quick, keen glance, then turned away. She read vexation in +his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Don't let me trouble you," he said, in a different tone, as she moved +towards the door; "I really ought not to stay—I have an engagement or +two to fulfill. No tea, thanks. Is Julian ready?"</p> + +<p>"In a minute or two I will call him. I want to ask you a question +first—if you will let me?"</p> + +<p>"All right; go on. That's the way people begin disagreeable subjects, do +you know?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know whether you will consider this a disagreeable question. I +suppose you will," said Janetta, with an effort. "I promised you once to +say nothing to my friends about your affairs—about Julian's mother, and +I have kept my word. But I must ask you now—does Miss Adair know that +you are married?"</p> + +<p>There was a moment's pause. They stood opposite one another, and, +lifting her eyes to his face, she saw that he was frowning heavily and +gnawing his moustache.</p> + +<p>"What does that matter to <i>you</i>?" he said, angrily, at last.</p> + +<p>She shrank a little, but answered steadily—</p> + +<p>"Margaret is my friend."</p> + +<p>"Well, what then?"</p> + +<p>The color rose to Janetta's face. "I don't believe you knew what you were +doing yesterday," she said; "but I knew—I heard people talking, and I +knew what people thought. They said that you were paying attention to +Miss Adair. They supposed you were going to marry her soon. None of them +seemed to know that—that—your wife was still alive. And of course I +could not tell them."</p> + +<p>"Of course not," he assented, with curious eagerness; "I knew you would +keep your word."</p> + +<p>"You made Margaret conspicuous," Janetta continued, with some warmth. +"You placed her in a very false position. If <i>she</i> thinks, as other +people thought, that you want to marry her, she ought to be told the +truth at once. You must tell her—yourself—that you were only amusing +yourself—only playing with her, as no man has a right to play with a +girl," said Janetta, with such vehemence that the tears rose to her +great dark eyes and the scarlet color to her cheeks—"that you were +flirting, in fact, and that Julian's mother—<i>your wife</i>, Cousin +Wyvis—is still alive."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<h3>"FREE!"</h3> + + +<p>"And what if I refuse to tell her this?" said Wyvis Brand.</p> + +<p>"Then I shall tell her myself."</p> + +<p>"And break your word to me?"</p> + +<p>"And break my word."</p> + +<p>He stood looking at her for a minute in silence, and then an ironical +smile curled his lip as he turned aside.</p> + +<p>"Women are all alike," he said. "They cannot possibly hold their +tongues. I thought <i>you</i> were superior to most of your sex. I remember +that your father once spoke of you to me as 'his faithful Janet.' Is +this your faithfulness?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is, it is," she cried; and then, sitting down, she suddenly +burst into tears. She was unnerved and agitated, and so she wept, as +girls will weep—for nothing at all sometimes, and sometimes in the very +crisis of their fate.</p> + +<p>Wyvis looked on, uncomprehending, a little touched, though rather +against his will, by Janetta's tears. He knew that she did not often +cry. He waited for the paroxysm to pass—waited grimly, but with +"compunctuous visitings." And presently he was rewarded for his +patience. She dried her eyes, lifted up her head, and spoke.</p> + +<p>"I don't know why I should make such a fool of myself," she said. "I +suppose it was because you mentioned my father. Yes, he used to call me +his faithful Janet very often. I have always tried—to—to <i>deserve</i> +that name."</p> + +<p>"Forgive me, Janetta," said her cousin, more moved than he liked to +appear. "I did not want to hurt you; but, indeed, my dear girl, you must +let me manage my affairs for myself. You are not responsible for +Margaret Adair as you were for Nora; and you can't, you know, bring me +to book as you did my brother, Cuthbert."</p> + +<p>"You mean that I interfere too much in other people's business?" said +poor Janetta, with quivering lips.</p> + +<p>"I did not say so. I only say, '<i>Don't</i> interfere.'"</p> + +<p>"It is very hard to do right," said Janetta, looking at him with wistful +eyes. "One's duty seems so divided. Margaret is not my sister—that is +true, but she is my friend; and I always believed that one had +responsibilities and duties towards friends as well as towards +relations."</p> + +<p>"Possibly"—in a very dry tone. "But you need not meddle with what is no +concern of yours."</p> + +<p>"It is my concern, if you—my cousin—are not acting rightly to my +friend."</p> + +<p>"I say it is no concern of yours at all."</p> + +<p>They had come to a deadlock. He faced her, with the dark, haughty, +imperious look which she knew so well upon his fine features; she stood +silent, angry too, and almost as imperious. But, womanlike, she yielded +first.</p> + +<p>"You asked me once to be your friend, Cousin Wyvis. I want to be yours +and Margaret's too. Won't you let me see what you mean?"</p> + +<p>Wyvis Brand's brow relaxed a little.</p> + +<p>"I don't understand your views of friendship: it seems to mean a right +to intermeddle with all the affairs of your acquaintances," he said, +cuttingly; "but since you are so good as to ask my intentions——"</p> + +<p>"If you talk like that, I'll never speak to you again!" cried Janetta, +who was not remarkable for her meekness.</p> + +<p>Wyvis actually smiled.</p> + +<p>"Come," he said, "be friends, Janetta. I assure you I don't mean any +harm. You must not be straight-laced. Your pretty friend is no doubt +well able to take care of herself."</p> + +<p>But he looked down as he said this and knitted his brows.</p> + +<p>"She has never had occasion to do it," said Janetta, epigrammatically.</p> + +<p>"Then don't you think it is time she learns?"</p> + +<p>"You have no right to be her teacher."</p> + +<p>"Right! right!" cried Wyvis, impatiently "I am tired of this cuckoo-cry +about my rights! I have the right to do what I choose, to get what +pleasure out of life I can, to do my best for myself. It is everybody's +right, and he is only a hypocrite who denies it."</p> + +<p>"There is one limitation," said Janetta. "Get what you can for yourself, +if you like—it seems to me a somewhat selfish view—as long as you +don't injure anybody else."</p> + +<p>"Whom do I injure?" he asked, looking at her defiantly in the face.</p> + +<p>"Margaret."</p> + +<p>He dropped his eyes, and the defiance went suddenly out of his look and +voice.</p> + +<p>"Injure her?" he said, in a very low tone. "Surely, you know, I wouldn't +do <i>that</i>—to save my life."</p> + +<p>Janetta looked at him mutely. The words were a revelation. There was a +pause, during which she heard, as in a dream, the sound of children's +voices and children's feet along the passages of the house. Julian and +Tiny were running riot; but she felt, for the time being, as if she had +nothing to do with them: their interests did not touch her: she dwelt in +a world apart. Hitherto Wyvis had stood, hat in hand, as if he were +ready to go at a moment's notice; but now he changed his attitude. He +seated himself determinedly, put down his hat, and looked back at her.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "I see that I must explain myself if I mean to make my +peace with you, Janetta. I am, perhaps, not so bad as you think me. I +have not mentioned to Miss Adair that Julian's mother is alive, because +I consider myself a free man. Julian's mother, once my wife, has +divorced me, and is, I believe, on the point of marrying again. Surely +in that case I am free to marry too."</p> + +<p>"Divorced you?" Janetta repeated, with dilating eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes, divorced me. She has gone out to America and managed it there. It +is easy enough in some of the States to get divorced from an absent wife +or husband, as no doubt you know. Incompatibility of temper was the +alleged reason. I believe she is going to marry a Chicago man—something +in pork."</p> + +<p>"And you are legally free?"</p> + +<p>"She says so. I fancy there is a legal hitch somewhere but I have not +yet consulted my lawyers. We were married by the Catholic rite in +France, and the Catholic Church will probably consider us married still. +But Margaret is not a Catholic—nor am I."</p> + +<p>"And you think," said Janetta, very slowly, "of marrying Margaret?"</p> + +<p>He looked up at her and laughed, a little uneasily.</p> + +<p>"You think she won't have me?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I think you don't know her yet, Wyvis."</p> + +<p>"I dare say not," said her cousin. Then he broke out in quite a +different tone: "No wonder I don't; she's a perpetual revelation to me. +I never saw anything like her—so pure, so spotless, so exquisite. It's +like looking at a work of art—a bit of delicate china, or a picture by +Francia or Guido. Something holy and serene about her—something that +sets her apart from the ordinary world. I can't define it: but it's +there. I feel myself made of a coarse, common clay in her presence: I +want to go down on my knees and serve her like a queen. That's how I +feel about Margaret."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Janetta, "my princess of dreams. That is what I used to call +her. That is what I—used to feel."</p> + +<p>"Don't you feel it now?" said Wyvis, sitting up and staring at her.</p> + +<p>Janetta hesitated. "Margaret is my dear friend, and I love her. But I am +older—perhaps I can't feel exactly in that way about her now."</p> + +<p>"You talk as if you were a sexagenarian," said Wyvis, exploding into +genial laughter. He looked suddenly brighter and younger, as if his +outburst of emotion had wonderfully relieved him. "I am much older than +you, and yet I see her in the same light. What else is there to say +about her? She is perfect—there is not much to discuss in perfection."</p> + +<p>"She is most lovely—most sweet," said Janetta, warmly. "And yet—the +very things you admire may stand in your way, Wyvis. She is very +innocent of the world. And if you have won her—her—affection before +you have told her your history——"</p> + +<p>"You think this wretched first marriage of mine will stand in the way?"</p> + +<p>"I do. With Margaret and with her parents."</p> + +<p>Wyvis frowned again. "I had better make sure of her—marry her at once, +and tell her afterwards," he said. But perhaps he said it only to see +what Janetta would reply.</p> + +<p>"You would not do that, Wyvis?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know."</p> + +<p>"But you want to be worthy of her?"</p> + +<p>"I shall never be that so it's no good trying."</p> + +<p>"She would never forgive you if you married her without telling her the +truth."</p> + +<p>Wyvis laughed scornfully. "You know nothing about it. A woman will +forgive anything to the man she loves."</p> + +<p>"Not a meanness!" said the girl, sharply.</p> + +<p>"Yes, meanness, deceit, lies, anything—so long as it was done for her +sake."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe that would be the case with Margaret. Once disgust her, +and you lose her love."</p> + +<p>"Then she can't have much to give," retorted Wyvis.</p> + +<p>Janetta was silent. In her secret heart she did not think that Margaret +<i>could</i> love very deeply—that, indeed, she had not much to give.</p> + +<p>"Well, what's the upshot?" said her cousin, at last, in a dogged tone. +"Are you satisfied at last?"</p> + +<p>"I shall be better satisfied when you make things plain to the Adairs. +You have no right to win Margaret's heart in this secret way. You blamed +Cuthbert for making love to Nora. It is far worse for you to do it to +Margaret Adair."</p> + +<p>"I am so much beneath her, am I not?" said Wyvis, with a sneer. And then +he once more spoke eagerly. "I <i>am</i> beneath her: I am as the dust under +her feet. Don't you think I know that? I'll tell you what, Janetta, when +I first saw her and spoke to her—here, in this room, if you remember—I +thought that she was like a being from another world. I had never seen +anyone like her. She is the fairest, sweetest of women, and I would not +harm her for the world."</p> + +<p>"I don't know whether I ought even to listen to you," said Janetta, in a +troubled voice and with averted head. "You know, many people would say +that you were in the wrong altogether—that you were not free——"</p> + +<p>"Then they would say a lie! I am legally free, I believe, and morally +free, I am certain. I thank God for it. I have suffered enough."</p> + +<p>He looked so stern, so uncompromising, that Janetta hastened to take +refuge in concrete facts.</p> + +<p>"But you will tell Margaret everything?"</p> + +<p>"In my own good time."</p> + +<p>"Do promise me that you will not marry her without letting her know—if +ever it comes, to a talk of your marriage."</p> + +<p>"<i>If ever?</i> It will come very soon, I hope. But I'll promise nothing. +And you must not make mischief."</p> + +<p>"I am like you—I will promise nothing."</p> + +<p>"I shall never forgive you, if you step between Margaret and me," said +Wyvis.</p> + +<p>"I shall never step between you, I hope," said Janetta, in a dispirited +tone. "But it is better for me to promise nothing more."</p> + +<p>Wyvis shrugged his shoulders, as if he thought it useless to argue with +her. She was sorry for the apparently unfriendly terms on which they +seemed likely to part; and it was a relief to her when, as they were +saying good-bye, he looked into her face rather wistfully and said, +"Wish me success, Janetta, after all."</p> + +<p>"I wish you every happiness," she said. But whether that meant success +or not it would have been hard to say.</p> + +<p>She saw him take his departure, with little Julian clinging to his hand, +and then she set about her household duties in her usual self-contained +and steadfast way. But her heart ached sadly—she did not quite know +why—and when she went to bed that night she lay awake for many weary +hours, weeping silently, but passionately, over the sorrow that, she +foresaw for her dearest friends, and, perhaps, also for herself.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> + +<h3>A BIG BRIBE.</h3> + + +<p>It seemed to Janetta as if she had almost expected to see Lady Caroline +Adair drive up to her door about four o'clock next day, in the very +victoria wherein the girl had once sat side by side with Margaret's +mother, and from which she had first set eyes on Wyvis Brand. She had +expected it, and yet her heart beat faster, and her color went and came, +as she disposed of her pupils in the little dining-room, and met her +visitor just as she crossed the hall.</p> + +<p>"Can I speak to you for five minutes, Miss Colwyn?" said Lady Caroline, +in so suave a voice that for a moment Janetta felt reassured. Only for a +moment, however. When she had shut the drawing-room door, she saw that +her visitor's face was for once both cold and hard. Janetta offered a +chair, and Lady Caroline took it, but without a word of thanks. She had +evidently put on the "fine lady" manner, which Janetta detested from her +heart.</p> + +<p>"I come to speak on a very painful subject," said Lady Caroline. Her +voice was pitched a little higher than usual, but she gave no other sign +of agitation. "You were at Lady Ashley's garden party the day before +yesterday I believe?"</p> + +<p>Janetta bowed assent.</p> + +<p>"May I ask if you observed anything remarkable in my daughter's +behavior? You are supposed to be Margaret's friend: you must have +noticed what she was doing all the afternoon."</p> + +<p>"I do not think that Margaret <i>could</i> behave unsuitably," said Janetta, +suddenly flushing up.</p> + +<p>"I am obliged to you for your good opinion of my daughter. But that is +not the point. Did you notice whether she was talking or walking a great +deal with one person, or——"</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, Lady Caroline," said Janetta, "but I did not spend the +afternoon in watching Margaret, and I am quite unable to give you any +information on the subject."</p> + +<p>"I really do not see the use of beating about the bush," said Lady +Caroline, blandly. "You must know perfectly well to what I refer. Mr. +Wyvis Brand is a connection of yours, I believe. I hear on all sides +that he and my daughter were inseparable all the afternoon. Greatly to +my astonishment, I confess."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Brand is a second cousin of mine, and his brother is engaged to my +half-sister," said Janetta; "but I have nothing to do with his +acquaintance with Margaret."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" exclaimed Lady Caroline. She put up her eye-glass, and +carefully inspected Janetta from head to foot. "Nothing to do with their +acquaintance, you say! May I ask, then, <i>where</i> my daughter met Mr. +Brand? Not in <i>my</i> house, I think."</p> + +<p>Janetta gave a slight start. She had for the moment utterly forgotten +that it was in Gwynne Street that Wyvis Brand and Margaret had first +met.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon: I forgot," she said. "Of course—Margaret no doubt +told you—she came here one day for her singing-lesson, and Mr. Brand +called for his little boy. It was the first time they had seen each +other."</p> + +<p>"And how often have they met here since, may I ask?"</p> + +<p>"Never again, Lady Caroline."</p> + +<p>"I was of course to blame in letting my daughter go out without a +chaperon," said Lady Caroline, disagreeably. "I never thought of danger +in <i>this</i> quarter, certainly. I can quite appreciate your motive, Miss +Colwyn. No doubt it would be very pleasant for <i>you</i> if Margaret were to +marry your cousin; but we have prejudices that must be consulted."</p> + +<p>"I hope you did not come here meaning to insult me," said Janetta, +starting to her feet; "but I think you cannot know what you are saying, +Lady Caroline. <i>I</i> want my cousin to marry your daughter? I never +thought of such a thing—until yesterday!"</p> + +<p>"And what made you think of it yesterday, pray? Please let us have no +heroics, no hysterics: these exhibitions of temper are so unseemly. What +made you think so yesterday?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Brand came here," said Janetta, suddenly growing very white, "and +told me that he cared for Margaret. I do not know how they had met. He +did not tell me. He—he—cares very much for her."</p> + +<p>"Cares for her! What next? He came here—when? At Margaret's +lesson-time, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>She saw from Janetta's face that her guess was correct.</p> + +<p>"I need hardly say that Margaret will not come here again," said Lady +Caroline, rising and drawing her laces closely around her. "There is the +amount due to you, Miss Colwyn. I calculated it before I came out, and I +think you will find it all right. There is one more question I must +really ask before I go: there seems some uncertainty concerning the fate +of Mr. Brand's first wife; perhaps you can tell me whether she is alive +or dead?"</p> + +<p>Poor Janetta scarcely knew what to say. But she told herself that truth +was always best.</p> + +<p>"I believe he—he—is divorced from her," she stammered, knowing full +well how very condemnatory her words must sound in Lady Caroline's ear. +They certainly produced a considerable effect.</p> + +<p>"<i>Divorced?</i> And you introduced him to Margaret? Of course I know that a +<i>divorcé</i> is often received in society, and so on, but I always set my +face against the prevalent lax views of marriage, and I hoped that I had +brought up my daughter to do the same. I suppose"—satirically—"you did +not think it worth while to tell Margaret this little fact?"</p> + +<p>"I did not know it then," Janetta forced herself to say.</p> + +<p>"Indeed?" Lady Caroline's "indeed" was very crushing. "Well, either your +information or your discretion must have been very much at fault. I must +say, Miss Polehampton <i>now</i> strikes me as a woman of great +discrimination of character. I will say good-morning, Miss Colwyn, and I +think the acquaintance between my daughter and yourself had better be +discontinued. It has certainly been, from beginning to end, an +unsuitable and disastrous friendship."</p> + +<p>"Before you go, Lady Caroline, will you kindly take the envelope away +that you have left upon the table?" said Janetta, as haughtily as Lady +Caroline herself could have spoken. "I certainly shall not take money +from you if you believe such evil things of me. I have known nothing of +the acquaintance between my cousin and Miss Adair; but after what you +have said I will not accept anything at your hands."</p> + +<p>"Then I am afraid it will have to remain on the table," said Lady +Caroline, as she swept out of the room, "for I cannot take it back +again."</p> + +<p>Janetta caught up the envelope. One glance showed her that it contained +a cheque. She tore it across and across, and was in time to place the +fragments on the seat beside Lady Caroline, just before the carriage was +driven away. She went back into the house with raised head and flaming +cheeks, too angry and annoyed to settle down to work, too much hurt to +be anything but restless and preoccupied. The reaction did not set in +for some hours; but by six o'clock, when the children were all out of +doors and her stepmother had gone to visit a friend, and Janetta had +the house to herself, she lay down on a couch in the drawing-room with a +feeling of intense exhaustion and fatigue. She was too tired almost to +cry, but a tear welled up now and then, and was allowed to trickle +quietly down her pale cheek. She was utterly wretched and depressed: the +world seemed a dark place to her, especially when she considered that +she had already lost one friend whom she had so long and so tenderly +loved, and that she was not unlikely to lose another. For Wyvis might +blame her—<i>would</i> blame her, probably—for what she had said to Lady +Caroline.</p> + +<p>A knock at the front door aroused her. It was a knock that she did not +know; and she wondered at first whether one of the Adairs or one of the +Brands were coming to visit her. She sat up and hastily rearranged her +hair and dried her eyes. The charity orphan was within hearing and had +gone to the door: it was she who presently flung open the door and +announced, in awe-stricken tones—</p> + +<p>"Sir Philip Hashley."</p> + +<p>Janetta rose in some consternation. What did this visit portend? Had +<i>he</i> also come to reproach her for her conduct to Margaret and Wyvis? +For she surmised—chiefly from the way in which she had seen him follow +Margaret with his eyes at the garden-party—that his old love was not +dead.</p> + +<p>He greeted her with his usual gentleness of manner, and sat down—not +immediately facing her, as she was glad to think, scarcely realizing +that he had at once seen the trouble in her face, and did not wish to +embarrass her by a straightforward gaze. He gave her a little time in +which to recover herself, too; he spoke of indifferent subjects in an +indifferent tone, so that when five minutes had elapsed Janetta was +quite herself again, and had begun to speculate upon her chance of an +engagement to sing at another musical party.</p> + +<p>"I hope Lady Ashley is well," she said, when at last a short pause came.</p> + +<p>"Quite well, I thank you, and hoping to see you soon."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am so grateful to you for saying that," said Janetta, +impulsively. "I felt that I did not know whether she was satisfied with +my singing or not. You know I am a beginner."</p> + +<p>"I am sure I may say that she was perfectly satisfied," said Sir Philip, +courteously. "But it was not in allusion to your singing that she spoke +of wishing to see you again."</p> + +<p>"Lady Ashley is very kind," said Janetta, feeling rather surprised.</p> + +<p>"She would like to see more of you," Sir Philip went on in a somewhat +blundering fashion. "She is very much alone: it would be a great comfort +to her to have some one about her—some one whom she liked—some one who +would be like a daughter to her——"</p> + +<p>A conviction as to the cause of his visit flashed across Janetta's mind. +He was going to ask her to become Lady Ashley's companion! With her +usual quickness she forgot to wait for the proposition, and answered it +before it was made.</p> + +<p>"I wish I could be of some use to Lady Ashley," she said, with the warm +directness that Sir Philip had always liked. "I have never seen any one +like her—I admire her so much! You will forgive me for saying so, I +hope? But I could not be spared from home to do anything for her +regularly. If she wants a girl who can read aloud and play nicely, I +think I know of one, but perhaps I had better ask Lady Ashley more +particularly about the qualifications required?"</p> + +<p>"I did not say anything about a companion, did I?" said Sir Philip, with +a queer little smile. "Not in your sense of the word, at any rate."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Janetta, suddenly flushing scarlet: "I +thought—I understood——"</p> + +<p>"You could not possibly know what I meant: I was not at all clear," said +Sir Philip, decidedly. "I had something else in my mind."</p> + +<p>She looked at him inquiringly. He rose from his chair and moved about +the room a little, with an appearance of agitation which excited her +deepest wonderment. He averted his eyes from her, and there was +something like a flush on his naturally pale cheek. He seemed really +nervous.</p> + +<p>"Is there anything that I can do for Lady Ashley?" said Janetta, at +last, when the silence had lasted as long as she thought desirable.</p> + +<p>"There is something you can do for me."</p> + +<p>"For you, Sir Philip?"</p> + +<p>Sir Philip faced her resolutely. "For me, Miss Colwyn. If I tell you in +very few words, will you forgive my abruptness? I don't think it is any +use beating about the bush in these matters. Will you be my wife? That +is what I came to say."</p> + +<p>Janetta sat gazing at him with wide open eyes, as if she thought that he +had taken leave of his senses.</p> + +<p>"Don't answer at once; take time," said Sir Philip, quickly. "I know +that I may perhaps have startled you: but I don't want you to answer +hastily. If you would like time for reflection, pray take it. I hope +that reflection will lead you to say that you will at least try to like +me enough to become my wife."</p> + +<p>Janetta felt that he was very forbearing. Some men in his position would +have thought it sufficient to indicate their choice, and then to expect +the favored lady, especially if she were small and brown and plain, and +worked for her bread, to fall at his feet in an ecstasy of joy. Janetta +had never yet felt inclined to fall at anybody's feet. But Sir Philip's +forbearance seemed to call for additional care and speed in answering +him.</p> + +<p>"But—I am sure Lady Ashley——" she began, and stopped.</p> + +<p>"My mother will welcome you as a daughter," said Sir Philip, gently. +"She sends her love to you to-day, and hopes that you will consent to +make me happy."</p> + +<p>Janetta sat looking at her crossed hands. "Oh, it is +impossible—impossible," she murmured.</p> + +<p>"Why so? If there is no obstacle in—in your own affections, it seems to +me that it would be quite possible," said Sir Philip, standing before +her in an attitude of some urgency. "But perhaps you have a dislike to +me?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no." She could not say more—she could not look up.</p> + +<p>"I think I could make your life a happy one. You would not find me +difficult. And you need have no further anxiety about your family; we +could find some way of managing that. You think as I do about so many +subjects that I am sure we should be happy together."</p> + +<p>It was a big bribe. That was how Janetta looked at it in that moment. +She was certain that Sir Philip did not love her: she knew that she did +not love Sir Philip; and yet—it did seem that she might have a happy, +easy, honored life if she consented to marry him—a life that would make +her envied by many who had previously scorned her, and which would be, +she hoped, productive of good to those whom she deeply loved. It was a +bribe—a temptation. She was tempted, as any girl might have been, to +exchange her life of toil and anxiety for one of luxury and peace; but +there was something that she would also have to lose—the clear, upright +conscience, the love of truth, the conviction of well-doing. She could +not keep these and become Sir Philip's wife.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> + +<h3>"CHANGES MUST COME."</h3> + + +<p>She raised her eyes at length, and looked Sir Philip in the face. What a +manly, honest, intelligent face it was! One that a woman might well be +proud of in her husband: the face of a man whom she might very safely +trust. Janetta thought all this, as she made her answer.</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry, Sir Philip, but I cannot be your wife."</p> + +<p>"You are answering me too hastily. Think again—take a day, a week—a +month if you like. Don't refuse without considering the matter, I beg of +you."</p> + +<p>Janetta shook her head. "No consideration will make any difference."</p> + +<p>"I know that I am not attractive," said her suitor, after a moment's +pause, in a somewhat bitter tone. "I have not known how to woo—how to +make pretty speeches and protestations—but for all that, I should make, +I believe, a very faithful and loving husband. I am almost certain that +I could make you happy, Janetta—if you will let me call you so—may I +not try?"</p> + +<p>"I should not feel that I was doing right," said Janetta, simply.</p> + +<p>It was the only answer that could have made Sir Philip pause. He was +quite prepared for hesitation and reluctance of a sort; but a scruple of +conscience was a thing that he respected. "Why not?" he said, in a +surprised tone.</p> + +<p>"I have two or three reasons. I don't think I can tell them to you, Sir +Philip; but they are quite impossible for me to forget."</p> + +<p>"Then I think you would be doing better to tell me," said he, gently. He +pulled a chair forward, sat down close to Janetta, and quietly laid his +hand upon hers. "Now, what are they—these reasons?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Her seat was lower than his chair, and she was obliged to lift her eyes +when she looked at him. His face compelled truthfulness. And Janetta was +wise enough to know whom she might trust.</p> + +<p>"If I speak frankly, will you forgive me?" she said.</p> + +<p>"If you will speak frankly, I shall esteem it a great honor."</p> + +<p>"Then," said Janetta, bravely, "one of my reasons is this. You are most +kind, and I know that you would be always good to me. I might even, as +you say, be very happy after a time, but you do not—care for me—you do +not love me, and"—here she nearly broke down—"and—I think you love +some one else."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip made a movement as if to take away his hand; but he +restrained himself and grasped hers still more closely.</p> + +<p>"And who is it that I am supposed to care for?" he asked, in a light +tone.</p> + +<p>"Margaret," Janetta answered, almost in a whisper. Then there was a +silence, and this time Sir Philip did slowly withdraw his hand. But he +did not look angry.</p> + +<p>"I see," he said, "you are a friend of hers: you doubtless heard about +my proposition to her concerning the Miss Polehampton business."</p> + +<p>Janetta looked surprised. "No, I heard nothing of that. And indeed I +heard very little from Margaret. I heard a good deal from Lady +Caroline."</p> + +<p>"Ah, that woman!" cried Sir Philip, getting up and making a little +gesture with his hand, expressive of contempt. "She is worldly to the +core. Did she tell you why Margaret refused me?"</p> + +<p>"I did not know—exactly—that she had. Lady Caroline said that it was a +misunderstanding," said Janetta, the startled look growing in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Just like her. She wanted to bring me back. Forgive me for speaking so +hotly, but I am indignant with Lady Caroline Adair. She has done +Margaret incalculable harm."</p> + +<p>"But Margaret herself is so sweet and generous and womanly," said +Janetta, watching his face carefully, "that she would recover from all +that harm if she were in other hands."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes; I believe she would," he answered, eagerly. "It only needs to +take her from her mother, and she would be perfect." He stopped, +suddenly abashed by Janetta's smile. "In her way, of course, I mean," he +added, rather confusedly.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Janetta, "it is certain that I should never be perfect. And +after Margaret!"</p> + +<p>"I esteem you, I respect you, much more than Margaret."</p> + +<p>"But esteem is not enough, Sir Philip. No, you do not love me; and I +think—if I may say so—that you do love Margaret Adair."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip reddened distressfully, and bit his lip.</p> + +<p>"I am quite sure, Miss Colwyn, that I have no thoughts of her that would +do you an injustice. I did love Margaret—perhaps—but I found that I +was mistaken in her. And she is certainly lost to me now. She loves +another."</p> + +<p>"And you will love another one day, if you do not win her yet," said +Janetta, with decision. "But you do not love <i>me</i>, and I certainly will +never marry any one who does not. Besides—I should have a feeling of +treachery to Margaret."</p> + +<p>"Which would be quite absurd and unwarrantable. Think of some better +reason if you want to convince me. I hope still to make you believe that +I do care for you."</p> + +<p>Janetta shook her head. "It's no use, Sir Philip. I should be doing very +wrong if I consented, knowing what I do. And besides, there <i>is</i> another +reason. I cannot tell it to you, but indeed there is a good reason for +my not marrying you."</p> + +<p>"Has it anything to do with position—or—or money, may I ask? Because +these things are immaterial to me."</p> + +<p>"And I'm afraid I did not think about them," said Janetta, with a frank +blush, which made him like her better than ever. "I ought to have +remembered how great an honor you were doing me and been grateful!—no, +it was not that."</p> + +<p>"Then you care for some one else? That is what it is."</p> + +<p>"I suppose it is," said Janetta.</p> + +<p>And then a very different kind of blush began—a blush of shame, which +dyed her forehead and ears and neck with so vivid a crimson hue that Sir +Philip averted his eyes in honest sympathy.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid, then," he said, ruefully, but kindly, "that there's nothing +more to be said."</p> + +<p>"Nothing," said Janetta, wishing her cheeks would cool.</p> + +<p>Sir Philip rose from his chair, and stood for a moment as if not knowing +whether to go or stay. Janetta rose too.</p> + +<p>"If you were to change your mind——" he said.</p> + +<p>"This is a thing about which I could not possibly change my mind, Sir +Philip."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry for it." And then he took his leave, and Janetta went to her +room to bathe her hot face and to wonder at the way in which the +whirligig of Time brings its revenges.</p> + +<p>"Who would have thought it?" she said to herself, half diverted and half +annoyed. "When Miss Polehampton used to lecture me on the difference of +Margaret's position and mine, and when Lady Caroline patronized me, I +certainly never thought that I should be asked to become Lady Ashley. To +take Margaret's place! I have a feeling—and I always had—that he is +the proper husband for her, and that everything will yet come right +between them. If I had said 'yes'—if I only <i>could</i> have said 'yes,' +for the children's sake—I should never have got over the impression +that Margaret was secretly reproaching me! And as it is, she may +reproach me yet. For Wyvis will not make her happy if he marries her: +and she will not make Wyvis happy. And as for me, although he is, I +suppose, legally divorced from his wife, I do not think that I could +bear to marry him under such circumstances. But Margaret is different, +perhaps, from me."</p> + +<p>But the more she meditated upon the subject, the more was Janetta +surprised at Margaret's conduct. It seemed unlike her; it was +uncharacteristic. Margaret might be for a time under the charm of Wyvis +Brand's strong individuality; but if she married him, a miserable +awakening was almost sure to come to her at last. To exchange the +smooth life, the calm and the luxury, of Helmsley Court for the gloom, +the occasional tempests, and the general crookedness of existence at the +Red House would be no agreeable task for Margaret. Of the two, Janetta +felt that life at the Red House would be far the more acceptable to +herself: she did not mind a little roughness, and she had a great +longing to bring mirth and sunshine into the gloomy precincts of her +cousin's house. Janetta agreed with Lady Caroline as to the +inadvisability of Margaret's attachment to Wyvis far more than Lady +Caroline gave her credit for.</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline was almost angrier than she had ever been in her life. She +had had some disagreeable experiences during the last few hours. She had +had visitors, since Lady Ashley's garden-party, and amongst them had +been numbered two or three of her intimate friends who had "warned" her, +as they phrased it, against "Margaret's infatuation for that wild Mr. +Brand." Lady Caroline listened with her most placid smile, but raged +inwardly. That her peerless Margaret should have been indiscreet! She +was sure that it was only indiscretion—nothing more—but even that was +insufferable! And what had Alicia Stone been doing? Where had her eyes +been? Had she been bribed or coaxed into favoring the enemy?</p> + +<p>Miss Stone had had a very unpleasant half-hour with her patroness that +morning. It had ended in her going away weeping to pack up her boxes; +for Lady Caroline literally refused to condone the injury done to +Margaret by any carelessness of chaperonage on Miss Stone's part. "You +must be quite unfit for your post, Alicia," she said, severely. "I am +sorry that I shall not be able to recommend you for Lord Benlomond's +daughters. I never thought you particularly wise, but such gross +carelessness I certainly never did expect." Now this was unfortunate for +Alicia, who had been depending on Lady Caroline's good offices to get +her a responsible position as chaperon to three motherless girls in +Scotland.</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline had as yet not said a single word to Margaret. She had not +even changed her caressing manner for one of displeasure. But she had +kept the girl with her all the morning, and had come out alone only +because Margaret had gone for a drive with two maiden aunts who had +just arrived for a week, and with whom Lady Caroline felt that she would +be absolutely safe. She was glad that she had the afternoon to herself. +It gave her an opportunity of seeing Janetta Colwyn, and of conducting +some business of her own as well. For after seeing Janetta she ordered +the coachman to drive to the office of her husband's local solicitor, +and in this office she remained for more than half an hour. The lawyer, +Mr. Greggs by name, accompanied her with many smiles and bows to the +carriage.</p> + +<p>"I am sure we shall be able to do all that your ladyship wishes," he +said, politely. "You shall have information in a day or two." Whereat +Lady Caroline looked satisfied.</p> + +<p>It was nearly six o'clock when she reached home, and her absence had +caused some astonishment in the house. Tea had been carried out as usual +to the seats under the cedar-tree on the lawn, and Mr. Adair's two +sisters were being waited on by Margaret, fair and innocent-looking as +usual, in her pretty summer gown. Lady Caroline's white eyelids veiled a +glance of sudden sharpness, as she noticed her daughter's unruffled +serenity. Margaret puzzled her. For the first time in her life she +wondered whether she had been mistaken in the girl, who had always +seemed to reproduce so accurately the impressions that her teachers and +guardians wished to make. Had it been, all seeming? and was Margaret +mentally and morally an ugly duckling, hatched in a hen's nest?</p> + +<p>"Dear mamma, how tired you look," said the girl, softly. "Some fresh tea +is coming for you directly. I took Alicia a cup myself, but she would +not let me in. She said she had a headache."</p> + +<p>"I dare say," replied Lady Caroline, a little absently. "At least—I +will go to see her presently: she may be better before dinner. I hope +you enjoyed your drive, dear Isabel."</p> + +<p>Isabel was the elder of Mr. Adair's two sisters.</p> + +<p>"Oh, exceedingly. Margaret did the honors of her County so well: she +seems to know the place by heart."</p> + +<p>"She has ridden with Reginald a good deal," said the mother.</p> + +<p>Margaret had seated herself beside the younger of the aunts—Miss +Rosamond Adair—and was talking to her in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"How lovely she is!" Miss Adair murmured to her sister-in-law. "She +ought to marry well, Caroline."</p> + +<p>"I hope so," said Lady Caroline, placidly. "But I always think that +Margaret will be difficult to satisfy." It was not her <i>rôle</i> to confide +in her husband's sisters, of all people in the world.</p> + +<p>"We heard something about Sir Philip Ashley: was there anything in it?"</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline smiled. "I should have thought him everything that was +desirable," she said, "but Margaret did not seem to see it in that +light. Poor dear Sir Philip was very much upset."</p> + +<p>"Ah, well, she may do better!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps so. Of course we should never think of forcing the dear child's +inclinations," said Lady Caroline.</p> + +<p>And yet she was conscious that she had laid her hand on a weapon with +which she meant to beat down Margaret's inclinations to the ground. But +it was natural to her to talk prettily.</p> + +<p>Wheels were heard at that moment coming up the drive. Lady Caroline, +raising her eyes, saw that Margaret started as the sound fell upon her +ear.</p> + +<p>"A bad sign!" she said to herself. "Girls do not start and change color +when nothing is wrong. Margaret used not to be nervous. I wonder how far +that man went with her. She may be unconscious of his intentions—he may +not have any; and then she will have been made conspicuous for nothing! +I wish the Brands had stayed away for another year or two."</p> + +<p>The sound of wheels had proceeded from a dog-cart in which Mr. Adair, +after an absence of a fortnight, was driving from the station. In a very +few minutes he had crossed the lawn, greeted his wife, sisters and +daughter, and thrown himself lazily into a luxurious lounging-chair.</p> + +<p>"Ah, this is delightful!" he said. "London is terribly smoky and grimy +at this time of year. And you all look charming—and so exactly the same +as ever! Nothing changes down here, does it, my Pearl?"</p> + +<p>He was stroking Margaret's hand, which lay upon his knee, as he spoke. +The girl colored and dropped her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Changes must come to us all," she said, in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"A very trite remark, my dear," said Lady Caroline, smiling, "but we +need not anticipate changes <i>before</i> they come. We are just as we were +when you went away, Reginald, and nothing at all has happened."</p> + +<p>She thought that Margaret looked at her oddly, but she did not care to +meet her daughter's eyes just then. Lady Caroline was not an unworldly +woman, not a very conscientious one, or apt to set a great value on fine +moral distinctions; but she did regret just then that she had not +impressed on her daughter more deeply the virtue of perfect +truthfulness.</p> + +<p>"By-the-by," said Mr. Adair, "I saw some letters on the hall table and +brought them out with me. Will you excuse me if I open them? Why—that's +the Brands' crest."</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline wished that he had left the words unsaid. Margaret's face +went crimson and then turned very pale. Her mother saw her embarrassment +and hastened to relieve it.</p> + +<p>"Margaret, dear, will you take Alicia my smelling salts? I think they +may relieve her headache. Tell her not to get up—I will come and see +her soon."</p> + +<p>And as Margaret departed, Mr. Adair with lifted eyebrows and in +significant silence handed an envelope to his wife. She glanced at it +with perfectly unmoved composure. It was what she had been expecting: a +letter from Wyvis Brand asking for the hand of their daughter, Margaret +Adair.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> + +<h3>MARGARET'S CONFESSION.</h3> + + +<p>Margaret heard nothing of her lover's letter that night. It was not +thought desirable that the tranquillity of the evening should be +disturbed. Lady Caroline would have sacrificed a good deal sooner than +the harmonious influences of a well-appointed dinner and the passionless +refinement of an evening spent with her musical and artistic friends. +Mr. Adair's sisters were women of cultured taste, and she had asked two +gentlemen to meet them, therefore it was quite impossible (from her +point of view) to discuss any difficult point before the morning. +Margaret, who knew pretty well what was coming, spent a rather feverish +half-hour in her room before the ringing of the dinner-bell, expecting +every minute that her mother would appear, or that she would be summoned +to a conference with her father in the library. But when the dinner hour +approached without any attempt at discussion of the matter, and she +perceived that it was to be left until the morrow, it must be confessed +that she drew long breath of relief. She was quite sufficiently well +versed in Lady Caroline's tactics to appreciate the force and wisdom of +this reserve. "It is so much better, of course," she said to herself, as +her maid dressed her hair, "that we should not have any agitating scene +just before dinner. I dare say I should cry—if they were all very grave +and solemn I am sure I should cry!—and it would be so awkward to come +down with red eyes. And, of course, I could not stay upstairs to-night +Perhaps mamma will come to me to-night when every one is gone."</p> + +<p>And armed with this anticipation, she went downstairs, looking only a +little more flushed than usual, and able to bear her part in the +conversation and the amusements as easily as if no question as to her +future fate were hanging undecided in the air.</p> + +<p>But Lady Caroline did not stay when she visited Margaret that night as +usual in her pretty room. She caressed and kissed her with more than +customary warmth, but she did not attempt to enter into conversation +with her in spite of the soft appeal of Margaret's inquiring eyes. "My +dear child, I cannot possibly stay with you to-night," she said. "Your +Aunt Isabel has asked me to go into her room for a few minutes. +Good-night, my own sweetest: you looked admirable to-night in that lace +dress, and your singing was simply charming. Mr. Bevan was saying that +you ought to have the best Italian masters. Good-night, my darling," and +Margaret was left alone.</p> + +<p>She was a little disturbed—a little, not very much. She was not apt to +be irritable or impatient, and she had great confidence in her parents' +love for her. She had never realized that she lived under a yoke. +Everything was made so smooth and easy that she imagined that she had +only to express her will in order to have it granted. That there might +be difficulties she foresaw: her parents might hesitate and parley a +good deal, but she had not the slightest fear of overcoming their +reluctance in course of time. She had always been a young princess, and +nobody had ever seriously combated her will.</p> + +<p>"I am sure that if I am resolute enough I shall be allowed to do as I +choose," she said to herself; and possibly this was true enough. But +Margaret had never yet had occasion to measure her resolution against +that of her father and mother.</p> + +<p>She went to bed and to sleep, therefore, quite peacefully, and slept +like a child until morning, while Wyvis Brand was frantically pacing up +and down his old hall for the greater part of the night, and Janetta was +wetting her pillow with silent tears, and Philip Ashley, sleepless like +these others, vainly tried to forget his disappointment in the perusal +of certain blue-books. Margaret was the cause of all this turmoil of +mind, but she knew nothing of it, and most certainly did not partake in +it.</p> + +<p>She suspected that she was to be spoken to on the subject of Mr. Brand's +letter, when, after breakfast, next morning, she found that her father +was arranging to take his sisters and Miss Stone for a long drive, and +that she was to be left alone with her mother. Lady Caroline had +relented, so far as Alicia was concerned. It would not look well, she +had reflected, to send away her own kinswoman in disgrace, and although +she still felt exceedingly, angry with Alicia, she had formally received +her back into favor, cautioning her only not to speak to Margaret about +Wyvis Brand. When every one was out of the way Lady Caroline knew that +she could more easily have a conversation with her daughter, and +Margaret was well aware of her intent. The girl looked mild and +unobservant as usual, but she was busily engaged in watching for +danger-signals. Her father's manner was decidedly flurried: so much was +evident to her: the very way in which he avoided her eye and glanced +uneasily at her mother spoke volumes to Margaret. It did not surprise +her to see that Lady Caroline's face was as calm, her smile as sweet as +ever: Lady Caroline always masked her emotion well; but there was still +something visible in her eyes (which, in spite of herself, <i>would</i> look +anxious and preoccupied) that made Margaret uncomfortable. Was she going +to have a fight with her parents? She hoped not: it would be quite too +uncomfortable!</p> + +<p>"Come here, darling," said Lady Caroline, when the carriage had driven +away; "come to my morning-room and talk to me a little. I want you."</p> + +<p>Margaret faintly resisted. "It is my practicing time, mamma."</p> + +<p>"But if I want you, dearest——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course it does not matter," said Margaret, with her usual +instinct of politeness. "I would much rather talk than practice."</p> + +<p>The mother laid her hand lightly within her tall daughter's arm, and led +her towards the morning-room, a place of which she was especially fond +in summer, as it was cool, airy, and looked out upon a conservatory full +of blossoming plants. Lady Caroline sank down upon a low soft couch, and +motioned to the girl to seat herself beside her; then, possessing +herself of one of Margaret's hands and stroking it gently, she said with +a smile—</p> + +<p>"You have another admirer, Margaret?"</p> + +<p>This opening differed so widely from any which the girl had expected +that she opened her eyes with a look of intense surprise.</p> + +<p>"Why should you be astonished, darling?" said Lady Caroline, with some +amusement in her light tones. "You have had a good many already, have +you not? And, by the by, you have had one or two very good offers, +Margaret, and you have refused everything. You must really begin to +think a little more seriously of your eligible suitors! This last one, +however, is not an eligible one at all."</p> + +<p>"Who, mamma?" said Margaret, faintly.</p> + +<p>"The very last man whom I should have expected to come forward," said +her mother. "Indeed, I call it the greatest piece of presumption I ever +heard of. Considering that we are not on visiting terms, even."</p> + +<p>"Oh, mamma, do tell me who you mean!"</p> + +<p>Lady Adair arched her pencilled eyebrows over this movement of +impatience. "Really, Margaret, darling! But I suppose I must be lenient: +a girl naturally desires to hear about her suitors; but you must not +interrupt me another time, love. It is that most impossible man, Mr. +Brand of the Red House."</p> + +<p>Margaret's face flushed from brow to chin. "Why impossible, mamma?"</p> + +<p>"Dear child! You are so unworldly! But there is a point at which +unworldliness becomes folly. We must stop short of that. Poor Mr. Brand +is, for one thing, quite out of society."</p> + +<p>"Not in Paris or London, mamma. Only in this place, where people are +narrow and bigoted and censorious."</p> + +<p>"And where, unfortunately, he has to live," said Lady Caroline, with +gentle firmness. "It matters to <i>us</i> very little what they say of him in +Paris or London: it matters a great deal what the County says."</p> + +<p>"But if the County could be induced to take him up!" said Margaret, +rather breathlessly. "He was at Lady Ashley's the other day, and he +seemed to know a great many people. And if you—we—received him, it +would make all the difference in the world."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no doubt we could float him if we chose," said Lady Caroline, +indifferently; "but would it really be worth the trouble? Even if he +went everywhere, dear, he would not be a man that I should care to +cultivate; he has not a nice reputation at all."</p> + +<p>"Nobody knows of anything wrong that he has done," Margaret averred, +with burning cheeks.</p> + +<p>"Well, I have heard of one or two things that are not to his credit. I +am told that he drinks and plays a good deal, that his language to his +groom is something awful, and that he makes his poor little boy drunk +every night." In this version had Wyvis Brand's faults and weaknesses +gone forth to the world near Beaminster! "Then he has very disagreeable +people to visit him, and his mother is not in the least a lady—a +publican's daughter, and not, I am afraid, quite respectable in her +youth." Lady Caroline's voice sank to a whisper. "Some very unpleasant +things have been said about Mrs. Brand. Nobody calls on her. I am very +sorry for her, poor thing, but what could one do? I would not set foot +in the house while she was in it—I really would not. Mr. Brand ought to +send her away."</p> + +<p>"But what has she done, mamma?"</p> + +<p>"There is no necessity for you to hear, Margaret. I like your mind to be +kept innocent of evil, dear. Surely it is enough if I tell you that +there is something wrong."</p> + +<p>The girl was silent for a minute or two: she was beginning to feel +abashed and ashamed. It was in a very low voice that she said at last—</p> + +<p>"Mr. Brand would probably find another home for her if he married."</p> + +<p>"Oh, most likely. But I do not know that what he would do affects us +particularly. He is quite a poor man: even his family is not very good, +although it is an old one, and it has been the proverb of the +country-side for dissipation and extravagance for upwards of a century."</p> + +<p>"But if he had quite reformed," Margaret murmured.</p> + +<p>"My darling, what difference would it make? I am sure I do not know why +we discuss the matter: it is a little too ridiculous to speak of it +seriously. Your father will give Mr. Wyvis Brand his answer, and in such +a way that he will not care to repeat his presumptuous and insolent +proposal, and there will be an end of it. I hope, dearest, you have not +been annoyed by the man? I heard something of his pursuing you with his +attentions at Lady Ashley's party."</p> + +<p>"Mamma," said Margaret, in a tragic tone, "this must not go on. You must +not speak to me as you are doing now. You do not understand the position +of affairs at all. I——"</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, darling—one moment. Will you give me that palm-leaf +fan from the mantel-piece? It is really rather a hot morning. Thanks, +dear. What was it you were saying?"</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline knew the value of an adroit interruption. She had checked +the flow of Margaret's indignation for the moment, and was well aware +that the girl would not probably begin her speech in quite the same tone +a second time. At the same time she saw that she had given her daughter +a momentary advantage. Margaret did not reseat herself after handing her +mother the fan—she remained standing, a pale, slender figure, somewhat +impressive in the shadows of the half-darkened room, with hands clasped +and head slightly lifted as if in solemn protest.</p> + +<p>"Mamma," she began, in a somewhat subdued voice, "I must tell you. Mr. +Brand spoke to me before he wrote to papa. I told him to write."</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline put her eye-glass and looked curiously at her daughter. +"You told him to write, my dear child? And how did that come about? +Don't you know that it was equivalent to accepting him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, mamma. And I did accept him."</p> + +<p>"My dear Margaret!" The tone was that of pitying contempt. "You must +have been out of your senses! Well, we can easily rectify the +matter—that is one good thing. Why, my darling, when did he find time +to speak to you? At Lady Ashley's?"</p> + +<p>"In the park, near the forget-me-not brook," murmured Margaret, with +downcast eyes.</p> + +<p>"He met you there?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"More than once? And you allowed him to meet you? Oh, Margaret!"</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline's voice was admirably managed. The gradual surprise, +shocked indignation, and reproach of her tones made the tears come to +Margaret's eyes.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, mamma," she said, "I am very sorry. I did not know at first—at +least I did not think—that I was doing what you would not like. He used +to meet me when I went into the park, sometimes—when Alicia was +reading. Alicia did not know. And he was very nice, he was always <i>nice</i> +mamma. He told me a great deal about himself—how discontented he was +with his life, and how I might help him to make it better. And I should +like to help him, mamma: it seems to me it would be a good thing to do. +And if you and papa would help him too, he might take quite a different +position in the County."</p> + +<p>"My poor child!" said Caroline. "My poor deluded child!"</p> + +<p>She lay silent for a few moments, thinking how to frame the argument +which she felt was most likely to appeal to Margaret's tenderer +feelings. "Of course," she said at last, very slowly, "of course, if he +told you so much about his past life, he told you about his +marriage—about that little boy's mother."</p> + +<p>"He said that he had been very unhappy. I do not think," said Margaret +with simplicity, "that he loved his first wife as he loves me."</p> + +<p>"No doubt he made you think so, dear. His first wife, indeed! Did he +tell you that his first wife was alive?"</p> + +<p>"Mamma!"</p> + +<p>"He says he is divorced from her," said Lady Caroline, sarcastically, +"and seems to think it is no drawback to have been divorced. I and your +father think differently. I do not mean there is any legal obstacle; but +he took a very unfair advantage of your youth and inexperience by never +letting you know that fact—or, at any rate, letting us know it before +he paid you any attention. That stamps him as not being a gentleman, +Margaret."</p> + +<p>"Who told you, mamma?"</p> + +<p>"His cousin and your friend," said Lady Caroline, coldly: "Miss Janetta +Colwyn."</p> + +<p>Margaret's color had fluctuated painfully for the last few minutes; she +now sat down on a chair near the open window, and turned so pale that +her mother thought her about to faint. Lady Caroline was on her feet +immediately, and began to fan her, and to hold smelling salts to her +nostrils; but in a very short time the girl's color returned, and she +declined any further remedies.</p> + +<p>"I did not know this," she said at last, rather piteously, "but it is +too late to make any difference, mamma, it really is. I love Wyvis +Brand, and he loves me. Surely you won't refuse to let us love one +another?"</p> + +<p>She caught her mother's hand, and Lady Caroline put her arms around her +daughter's shoulders and kissed her as fondly as ever.</p> + +<p>"My poor dear, romantic Child!" she said. "Do you think we can let you +throw yourself quite away?"</p> + +<p>"But I have given my promise!"</p> + +<p>"Your father must tell Mr. Brand that you cannot keep your promise, my +darling. It is quite out of the question."</p> + +<p>And Lady Caroline thought she had settled the whole matter by that +statement.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> + +<h3>IN REBELLION.</h3> + + +<p>Janetta was naturally very anxious to know something of the progress of +affairs between Wyvis and Margaret, but she heard little for a rather +considerable space of time. She was now entirely severed from Helmsley +Court, and had no correspondence with Margaret. As the summer holidays +had begun, little Julian did not come every morning to Gwynne Street, +but Tiny and Curly were invited to spend a month at the Red House in +charge of Nora, who was delighted to be so much with Cuthbert, and who +had the power of enlivening even the persistent gloom of Mrs. Brand. +Janetta was thus obliged to live a good deal at home, and Wyvis seemed +to shun her society. His relations at home had heard nothing of his +proposal for Margaret's hand, and Janetta, like them, did not know that +it had ever been actually made. Another event drove this matter into the +background for some little time—for it was evidently fated that Janetta +should never be quite at peace.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Colwyn summoned her rather mysteriously one afternoon to a +conference in her bedroom.</p> + +<p>"Of course I know that you will be surprised at what I am going to say, +Janetta," began the good lady, with some tossings of the head and +flourishings of a handkerchief which rather puzzled Janetta by their +demonstrativeness; "and no doubt you will accuse me of want of respect +of your father's memory and all that sort of thing; though I'm sure I +don't know why, for <i>he</i> married a second time, and I am a young woman +still and not without admirers."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean," said Janetta, "that you think——?"</p> + +<p>She could go no further: she stood and looked helplessly at her +stepmother.</p> + +<p>"Do I think of marrying again? Well, yes, Janetta, I do; and more for +the children's good than for my own. Poor things, they need a father: +and I am tired of this miserable, scraping, cheeseparing life that you +are so fond of. I have been offered a comfortable home and provision for +my children, and I have decided to accept it."</p> + +<p>"So soon!"</p> + +<p>"It will not be announced just yet, of course. Not until the end of the +summer. But it is really no use to wait."</p> + +<p>Janetta stood pale and wide-eyed: she did not dare to let herself speak +just yet. Mrs. Colwyn grew fretful under what she felt to be silent +condemnation.</p> + +<p>"I should like to know what harm it can do to you?" she said. "I've +waited quite as long as many widows do, and toiled and suffered more +than most. Poor James was the last man to grudge me a little rest and +satisfaction as a reward for all that I have undergone. My own children +will not repine, I am sure, and I look to you, Janetta, to explain to +them how much for their good it will be, and how advantageous for them +all."</p> + +<p>"You can hardly expect me to try to explain away an act of disrespect to +my father's memory," said Janetta, coldly.</p> + +<p>"There is no disrespect to the dead in marrying a second time."</p> + +<p>"After a decent interval."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Colwyn burst into tears. "It's the first time in my life that I've +ever been told that I was going to do a thing that wasn't decent," she +moaned. "And when it's all for his dear children's good, too! Ah, well! +I'll give it up, I'll say no, and we will all starve and go down into +the grave together, and then perhaps you will be satisfied."</p> + +<p>"Mamma, please do not talk such nonsense. Who is it that has asked you +to be his wife?"</p> + +<p>"Dr. Burroughs," said Mrs. Colwyn, faintly.</p> + +<p>Janetta uttered an involuntary exclamation. Dr. Burroughs was certainly +a man of sixty-five, but he was strong and active still; he had a good +position in the town, and a large private income. His sister, who kept +his house, was a good and sensible woman, and Dr. Burroughs himself was +reputed to be a sagacious man. His fondness for children was well known, +and a little thought convinced Janetta that his choice of a wife had +been partly determined by his liking for Tiny and Curly, to say nothing +of the elder children. He had been a close friend of Mr. Colwyn, and it +was not likely that Mrs. Colwyn's infirmity had remained a secret from +him: he must have learned it from common town-talk long ago. Angry as +Janetta was, and petrified with surprise, she could not but acknowledge +in her heart that such a marriage was a very good one for Mrs. Colwyn, +and would probably be of immense advantage to the children. And the old +physician and his sister would probably be able to keep Mrs. Colwyn in +check: Janetta remembered that she had heard of one or two cases of +intemperance which had been cured under his roof. As soon as she could +get over her intense feeling that a slur was thrown on her father's +memory by this very speedy second marriage of his widow, her +common-sense told her that she might be very glad. But it was difficult +to rid herself all at once of her indignation of what she termed "this +indecent haste."</p> + +<p>She made an effort to calm Mrs. Colwyn's fretful sobbing, and assured +her with as much grace as she had at command that the marriage would not +at all displease her if it took place at a somewhat later date. And she +reflected that Dr. and Miss Burroughs might be depended upon not to +violate conventionalities. Her own soreness with regard to the little +affection displayed by Mrs. Colwyn to her late husband must be disposed +of as best it might: there was no use in exhibiting it.</p> + +<p>And as Mrs. Colwyn had hinted, it fell to Janetta to inform the rest of +the family of their mother's intention, and to quell symptoms of +indignation and discontent. After all, things might have been worse. The +children already liked Dr. Burroughs, and soon reconciled themselves to +the notion of living in a large, comfortable house, with a big garden, +and unlimited treats and pleasures provided by their future stepfather +and aunt. And when Janetta had had an interview with these two good +people, her mind was considerably relieved. They were kind and generous; +and although she could not help feeling that Dr. Burroughs was marrying +for the sake of the children rather than their mother, she saw that he +would always be thoughtful and affectionate to her, and that she would +probably have a fairly happy and luxurious life. One thing was also +evident—that he would be master in his own house, as James Colwyn had +never been.</p> + +<p>The marriage was to take place at Christmas, and the house in Gwynne +Street was then to be let. Cuthbert and Nora began to talk of marrying +at the same time, for Nora was somewhat violently angry at her mother's +proceeding, and did not wish to go to Dr. Burroughs' house. The younger +members of the family would all, however, migrate to The Cedars, as Dr. +Burroughs' house was called; and there Miss Burroughs was still to +maintain her sway. On this point Dr. Burroughs had insisted, and Janetta +was thankful for it, and Miss Burroughs was quite able and willing to +perform the duty of guardian not only to her brother's step-children, +but to her brother's wife.</p> + +<p>"And of course you will come to us, too, dear?" Miss Burroughs said to +Janetta. "This will be your home always: Andrew particularly wished me +to say so."</p> + +<p>"It is very kind of Dr. Burroughs," said Janetta, gratefully. "I have no +claim on him at all: I am not Mrs. Colwyn's daughter."</p> + +<p>"As if that made any difference! James Colwyn was one of Andrew's best +friends, and for his sake, if for no other, you will be always welcome."</p> + +<p>"I am very much obliged to you," Janetta replied, "and I shall be +pleased to come to you now and then as a visitor; but I have made up my +mind that now—now that my duty seems to be done, I had better go out +into the world and try to make a career for myself. I shall be happier +at work than leading an idle, easy life. But please do not think me +ungrateful—only I <i>must</i> get away."</p> + +<p>And Miss Burroughs, looking into the girl's worn face, and noticing the +peculiar significance of her tone, refrained from pressing the point. +She was sure from both that some hidden pain existed, that there was +some secret reason why Janetta felt that she "<i>must</i> get away." She was +anxious to help the girl, but she saw that it would be no true kindness +to keep her in Beaminster against her will.</p> + +<p>These matters took some time to arrange, and it was while some of them +were still pending that Janetta was startled by a visit from Margaret +Adair.</p> + +<p>It was a sultry day towards the end of July, and Miss Adair looked for +once hot and dusty. She was much thinner than she had been, and had a +harassed expression which Janetta could not fail to remark. As she +hurriedly explained, she had walked some little distance, leaving Alicia +Stone at the Post Office, and it afterwards transpired, giving her +mother the slip at a confectioner's, in order to see Janetta once again.</p> + +<p>"It is very kind of you, dear," said Janetta, touched, rather against +her will, by so unwonted a proof of affection. "But I am afraid that +Lady Caroline would not be pleased."</p> + +<p>"I know she would not," said Margaret, a little bitterly. "She did not +want me to see any more of you. I told her how unjust it was to blame +you, but she would not believe me."</p> + +<p>"It does not matter, Margaret, dear, I do not much mind."</p> + +<p>"I thought I should like to see you once again." Margaret spoke with +unusual haste, and almost in a breathless manner. "I want to know if you +would do something for me. You used to say you would do anything for +me."</p> + +<p>"So I will, if I can."</p> + +<p>"We were going abroad in a few days. I don't know where, exactly: they +won't tell me. They are angry with me, Janetta, and I can't bear it," +cried Margaret, breaking suddenly into tears which were evidently very +heartfelt, although they did not disfigure that fair and placid face of +hers in the slightest degree; "they were never angry with me before, and +it is terrible. They may take me away and keep me away for years, and I +don't know what to do. The only thing I can think of is to ask you to +help me. I want to send a message to Wyvis—I want to write to him if +you will give him the letter."</p> + +<p>"But why do you not write him through the post?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, because I promised not to post anything to him. Mamma said she must +supervise my correspondence unless I promised not to write to him. And +so I keep my word—but a few lines through you, Janet, darling, would +not be breaking my word at all, for it would not be a letter exactly. +And I want to arrange when I can see him again."</p> + +<p>Janetta drew back a little. "It would be breaking the spirit of your +promise, Margaret. No, I cannot help you to do that."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Janetta, you would never be so hard as to refuse me! I only want to +tell Wyvis that I am true to him, and that I don't mind what the world +says one bit, because I know how people tell lies about him! You know +you always promised to stand by me and to be my best friend."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I never promised to do a dishonorable action for you," said +Janetta, steadily.</p> + +<p>Margaret started up, her face a-flame directly.</p> + +<p>"How dare you say such a thing to me, Janetta?" she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"I cannot help it, Margaret, you know that I am right."</p> + +<p>The two looked at each other for a moment, and then Margaret turned away +with the mien of an insulted princess.</p> + +<p>"I was wrong to come. I thought that you would be true to the old bond +of friendship between us. I shall never come to you again."</p> + +<p>Poor Janetta's heart was very tender, although her resolution was +impregnable. She ran after Margaret, putting her hands on her arm, and +imploring her with tears to forgive her for her refusal. "If it were +only anything else, Margaret, dear! If only you did not want me to do +what your father and mother do not wish! Don't you see that you are +trying to deceive them? If you were acting openly it would be a +different thing! Don't be angry with me for wanting to do right!"</p> + +<p>"I am not at all angry," said Margaret, with stateliness. "I am very +disappointed, that is all. I do not see that I am deceiving anybody by +sending a message to Wyvis. But I will not ask you again."</p> + +<p>"If only I could!" sighed Janetta, in deep distress and confusion of +mind. But her anchor of truth and straightforwardness was the thing of +all others that she relied on for safety, and she did not let go her +hold. In spite of Margaret's cold and haughty displeasure, Janetta +kissed her affectionately, and could not refrain from saying, "Dear, I +would do anything for you that I thought right. But don't—don't deceive +your father and mother."</p> + +<p>"I will not, as you shall see," returned Margaret, and she left the +house without again looking at her former friend. Janetta felt very +bitterly, as she watched the graceful figure down the street, that the +old friendship had indeed become impossible in its older sense. Her very +faithfulness to the lines in which it had been laid down now made it an +offence to Margaret.</p> + +<p>Janetta's direct and straightforward dealing had the effect of driving +Margaret, though chiefly out of perversity, to do likewise. Miss Adair +was not accustomed to be withstood, and, during the unexpected +opposition with which her wishes had been met, her mind had turned very +often to Janetta with unswerving faith in her old friend's readiness to +help her at an emergency.</p> + +<p>In this faith she considered that she had been cruelly disappointed. And +her mingled anger, shame, and sorrow so blinded her to the circumstances +in which she stood, that she walked quietly up to Lady Caroline and +Alicia Stone in Beaminster High Street, and did not think of hiding her +escapade at all.</p> + +<p>"My dearest child, where <i>have</i> you been?" cried Lady Caroline, who was +always caressing, if inflexible.</p> + +<p>"I have been to Janetta Colwyn's, mamma," said Margaret, imperturbably, +"to ask her to give a message to Mr. Brand."</p> + +<p>"Margaret! Have you quite forgotten yourself? Oh, that unsuitable +friendship of yours!"</p> + +<p>"I don't think you need call it unsuitable, mamma," Margaret rejoined, +with a weary little smile. "Janetta absolutely refused to give the +message, and told me to obey my parents. I really do not see that <i>you</i> +can blame her."</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline replied only by a look of despair which spoke unutterable +things, and then she walked onward to the spot where she had left the +carriage. The three ladies drove home in complete silence. Lady Caroline +was seriously displeased, Alicia curious, Margaret in rebellion and +disgrace. The state of things was becoming very grave, for the whole +tenor of life at Helmsley Court was disturbed, and Margaret's father and +mother wanted their daughter to be a credit and an ornament to them, not +a cause of disturbance and irritation. Margaret had kept up a gallant +fight: she had borne silence, cold looks, absence of caresses, with +unwavering courage; but she began now to find the situation unendurable. +And a little doubt had lately been creeping into her heart—was it all +worth while? If Wyvis Brand were really as undesirable a <i>parti</i> as he +was represented to be, Margaret was not sure that her lot would be very +happy as his wife. Hitherto she had maintained that the stories told +about him, his habits and his position, were falsehoods. But if—she +began to think—if they were true, and if a marriage with him would +exclude her from the society to which she had been accustomed, was it +worth while to fight as hard as she had done? Perhaps, after all, her +mother and her father were right.</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline, not knowing of these weaknesses in Margaret's defence, +was inclined for once to be more severe than caressing. She went +straight to her husband when she entered the Court, and had a long +conversation with him. Then she proceeded to Margaret's room.</p> + +<p>"I have been talking to your father, Margaret," she said coldly, "and we +are both very much distressed at the course which things are taking."</p> + +<p>"So am I, mamma," said Margaret.</p> + +<p>"Of course we cannot proceed in the mediæval fashion, and lock you up in +your own room until you are reasonable," said Lady Caroline, with a +faint smile. "I should have thought that your own instinct as a lady +would have precluded you from doing anything that would make it +necessary for us to lay any restraint upon you; but to-day's occurrence +really makes me afraid. You have promised not to write to Mr. Brand, I +think?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. But I meant to send him a little note to-day."</p> + +<p>"Indeed? Then what I have to say is all the more necessary. We do not +restrict you to any part of the house, but you must understand that when +you come out of your own room, Margaret, you are never to be alone. +Alicia will sit with you, if I am engaged. She will walk with you, if +you wish to go out into the garden. I have no doubt it will be a little +unpleasant," said Lady Caroline, with a slight, agreeable smile, "to be +constantly under <i>surveillance</i>, and of course it will last only until +we leave home next week; but in the meantime, my dear, unless you will +give up your <i>penchant</i> for Mr. Brand, you must submit to be watched. +You cannot be allowed to run off with messages to this man as if you +were a milliner's girl or a servant maid: <i>we</i> manage these matters +differently."</p> + +<p>And then Lady Caroline withdrew, though not too late to see the girl +sink down into a large arm-chair and burst into a very unwonted passion +of sobs and tears.</p> + +<p>"So tiresome of Margaret to force one to behave in this absurd manner!" +reflected Lady Caroline. "So completely out of date in modern days!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2> + +<h3>THE PLOUGHMAN'S SON.</h3> + + +<p>Two or three days after Margaret's visit to Gwynne Street, Janetta +availed herself of Mrs. Colwyn's temporary absence in Miss Burroughs' +company to pay a visit to the Red House. Her anxiety to know what was +occurring between Wyvis and Margaret had become almost uncontrollable +and, although she was not very likely to hear much about it from Wyvis +or his mother, she vaguely hoped to gather indications at least of the +state of affairs from her cousin's aspect and manners.</p> + +<p>It was plain that Wyvis was not in a happy mood. His brow was dark, his +tone sarcastic; he spoke roughly once or twice to his mother and to his +little son. He evidently repented of his roughness, however, as soon as +the words were out of his mouth, for he went over to Mrs. Brand's side +and kissed her immediately afterwards, and gave some extra indulgence to +Julian by way of making up for his previous severity. Still the +irritation of feeling existed, and could not be altogether repressed +when he spoke; and when he was silent he fell into a condition of gloom +which was even more depressing than his sharpness. Janetta did her best +to be cheerful and talkative to Mrs. Brand, and she fancied that he +liked to listen; for he sat on with them in the blue room long after +Nora and Cuthbert had disappeared into the garden and the children were +romping in the wood. Certainly he did not say much to her, but he seemed +greatly disinclined to move.</p> + +<p>After a time, Mrs. Brand and Janetta adjourned to the hall, which was +always a favorite place of resort on summer evenings. Traces of the +children's presence made the rooms more cheerful than they used to +be—to Janetta's thinking. Tiny's doll and Julian's ball were more +enlivening to the place than even Cuthbert's sketches and Nora's bunches +of wild flowers. And here, too, Wyvis followed them in an aimless, +subdued sort of way; and, having asked and obtained permission to light +a cigarette, he threw himself into a favorite chair, and seemed to +listen dreamily, while Janetta held patient discourse with his mother on +the ailments of the locality and the difficulty of getting the housework +done. Janetta glanced at him from time to time; he sat so quietly that +she would have thought him sleeping but for the faint blue spirals of +smoke that went up from his cigarette. It was six o'clock in the +evening, and the golden lights and long shadows made Janetta long to be +out of doors; but Mrs. Brand had a nervous fear of rheumatism, and did +not want to move.</p> + +<p>"What is that?" said Wyvis, suddenly rousing himself.</p> + +<p>Nobody else had heard anything. He strode suddenly to the door, and +flung it open. Janetta heard the quavering tones of the old man-servant, +an astonished, enraptured exclamation from Wyvis himself; and she +knew—instinctively—what to expect. She turned round; it was as she +had feared. Margaret was there. Wyvis was leading her into the room with +the fixed look of adoration in his eyes which had been so much commented +upon at Lady Ashley's party. When she was present, he evidently saw none +but her. Janetta rose quickly and withdrew a little into the back +ground. She wished for a moment that she had not been there—and then it +occurred to her that she might be useful by and by. But it was perhaps +better for Margaret not to see her too soon. Mrs. Brand, utterly +unprepared for this visit, not even knowing the stranger by sight, and, +as usual, quite unready for an emergency, rose nervously from her seat +and stood, timid, awkward, and anxious, awaiting an explanation.</p> + +<p>"Mother, this is Margaret Adair," said Wyvis, as quietly as if his +mother knew all that was involved in that very simple formula. He was +still holding the girl by the hand and gazing in his former rapt manner +into her face. It was not the look of a lover, to Janetta's eye, half so +much as the worship of a saint. Margaret embodied for Wyvis Brand the +highest aspirations, the purest dreams of his youth.</p> + +<p>As to Margaret, Janetta thought that she was looking exquisitely lovely. +Her thinness added to the impression of ethereal beauty; there was a +delicacy about her appearance which struck the imagination. Her color +fluctuated; her eyes shone like stars; and her whole frame seemed a +little tremulous, as if she were shaken by some strange and powerful +emotion to her very soul. Her broad-brimmed straw hat, white dress, and +long tan gloves belonged, as Janetta knew, only to her ordinary attire +when no visitors were to be seen; but simplicity of dress always seemed +to garnish Margaret's beauty, and to throw it into the strongest +possible relief. She was sufficiently striking in aspect to frighten +poor, timid Mrs. Brand, who was never happy when she found herself in +the company of "fashionable" people. But it was with a perfectly simple +and almost child-like manner that Margaret drew her finger away from +Wyvis' clasp and went up to his mother, holding out both hands as if in +appeal for help.</p> + +<p>"I am Margaret," she said. "I ought not to have come; but what could I +do? They are going to take me away from the Court to-morrow, and I +could not go without seeing you and Wyvis first."</p> + +<p>"Wyvis?" repeated Mrs. Brand, blankly. She had not taken Margaret's +hands, but now she extended her right hand in a stiff, lifeless fashion, +which looked like anything but a welcome. "I do not know—I do not +understand——"</p> + +<p>"It is surely easy enough to understand," said Wyvis, vehemently. "She +loves me—she has promised to be my wife—and you must love her, too, +for my sake, as well as for her own."</p> + +<p>"Won't you love me a little?" said Margaret, letting her eyes rest +pleadingly on Mrs. Brand's impassive face. She was not accustomed to +being met in this exceedingly unresponsive manner. Wyvis made a slight +jesture of impatience, which his mother perfectly understood. She tried, +in her difficult, frozen way, to say something cordial.</p> + +<p>"I am very pleased to see you," she faltered. "You must excuse me if I +did not understand at first. Wyvis did not tell me."</p> + +<p>Then she sank into her chair again, more out of physical weakness than +from any real intention to seat herself. Her hand stole to her side, as +if to still the beating of her heart; her face had turned very pale. +Only Janetta noticed these signs, which betrayed the greatness of the +shock; Margaret, absorbed in her own affairs, and Wyvis absorbed in +Margaret, had no eyes for the poor mother's surprise and agitation. +Janetta made a step forward, but she saw that she could do nothing. Mrs. +Brand was recovering her composure, and the other two were not in a mood +to bear interruption. So she waited, and meanwhile Margaret spoke.</p> + +<p>"Dear Mrs. Brand," she said, kneeling at the side of the trembling +woman, and laying her clasped hands on her lap, "forgive me for +startling you like this." Even Janetta wondered at the marvelous +sweetness of Margaret's tones. "Indeed, I would not have come if there +had been any other way of letting Wyvis know. They made me promise not +to write to him, not to meet him in the wood where we met before you +know, and they watched me, so that I could not get out, or send a +message or anything. It has been like living in prison during the last +few days." And the girl sobbed a little, and laid her forehead for a +moment on her clasped hands.</p> + +<p>"It's a shame—a shame! It must not go on," exclaimed Wyvis, +indignantly.</p> + +<p>"In one way it will not go on," said Margaret, raising her head. "They +are going to take me away, and we are not to come back for the whole +winter—perhaps not next year at all. I don't know where we are going. I +shall never be allowed to write. And I thought it would be terrible to +go without letting Wyvis know that I will never, never forget him. And I +am only nineteen now, and I can't do as I like; but, when I am +twenty-one, nobody can prevent me——"</p> + +<p>"Why should anybody prevent you now?" said Wyvis gloomily. He drew +nearer and laid his hand upon her shoulder. "Why should you wait? You +are safe: you have come to my mother, and she will take care of you. Why +need you go back again?"</p> + +<p>"Is that right, Wyvis?" said Janetta. She could not keep silence any +longer. Wyvis turned on her almost fiercely. Margaret who had not seen +her before started up and faced her, with a look of something like +terror.</p> + +<p>"It is no business of yours," said the man. "This matter is between +Margaret and myself. Margaret must decide it. I do not ask her to +compromise herself in any way. She shall be in my mother's care. All she +will have to do is to trust to me——"</p> + +<p>"I think we need hardly trouble you, Mr. Brand," said another voice. +"Margaret will be better in the care of her own mother than in that of +Mrs. Brand or yourself."</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline Adair stood on the threshold. Lady Caroline addressed the +little group, on which a sudden chill and silence fell for a moment, as +if her appearance heralded some portentous crash of doom. The door had +been left ajar when Margaret entered; it was not easy to say how much of +the conversation Lady Caroline had heard. Mrs. Brand started up; +Margaret turned very pale and drew back, while Wyvis came closer to her +and put his arm round her with an air of protective defiance. Janetta +drew a quick breath of relief. A disagreeable scene would follow she +knew well; and there were probably unpleasant times in store for +Margaret, but these were preferable to the course of rebellion, open or +secret, to which the girl was being incited by her too ardent lover.</p> + +<p>Janetta never admired Lady Caroline so much as she did just then. +Margaret's mother was the last person to show discomposure. She sat down +calmly, although no one had asked her to take a chair, and smilingly +adjusted the lace shawl which she had thrown round her graceful figure. +There were no signs of haste or agitation in her appearance. She wore a +very elegant and becoming dress, a Paris bonnet on her head, a pair of +French gloves on her slender hands. She became at once the centre of the +group, the ornamental point on which all eyes were fixed. Every one else +was distressed, frightened, or angry; but Lady Caroline's pleasing smile +and little air of society was not for one moment to be disturbed.</p> + +<p>"It is really very late for a call," she said, quietly, "but as I found +that my daughter was passing this way, I thought I would follow her +example and take the opportunity of paying a visit to Mrs. Brand. It is +not, however, the first time that we have met."</p> + +<p>She looked graciously towards Mrs. Brand, but that poor woman was +shaking in every limb. Janetta put her arms round Mrs. Brand's +shoulders. What did Lady Caroline mean? She had some purpose to fulfil, +or she would not sit so quietly, pretending not to notice that her +daughter was holding Wyvis Brand by the hand and that one of his arms +was round her waist. There was something behind that fixed, agreeable +smile.</p> + +<p>"No," said Lady Caroline, reflectively, "not the first time. The last +time I saw you, Mrs. Brand——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, my lady, my lady!" Mrs. Brand almost shrieked, "for heaven's sake, +my lady, don't go on!"</p> + +<p>She covered her face with her hands and rocked herself convulsively to +and fro. Wyvis frowned and bit his lip: Margaret started and +unconsciously withdrew her hand. It crossed the minds of both that Mrs. +Brand's tone was that of an inferior, that of a servant to a mistress, +not that of one lady to her equal.</p> + +<p>"Why should I not go on?" said Lady Caroline, glancing from one to +another as if in utter ignorance. "Have I said anything wrong? I only +meant that I was present at Mrs. Brand's <i>first</i> wedding—when she +married your father, Mr. Wyvis—not your adopted father, of course, but +John Wyvis, the ploughman."</p> + +<p>There was a moment's silence. Then Wyvis took a step forward and +thundered. "<i>What?</i>" while the veins stood out upon his forehead and his +eyes seemed to be gathering sombre fire. Mrs. Brand, with her head bowed +upon her hands, still rocked herself and sobbed.</p> + +<p>"I hope I have not been indiscreet," said Lady Caroline, innocently. +"You look a little surprised. It is surely no secret that you are the +son of Mary Wyvis and her cousin, John Wyvis, and that you were brought +up by Mr. Brand as his son simply out of consideration for his wife? I +am sure I beg your pardon if I have said anything amiss. As Mrs. Brand +seems disturbed, I had better go."</p> + +<p>"Not until my mother has contradicted this ridiculous slander," said +Wyvis, sternly. But his mother only shook her head and wailed aloud.</p> + +<p>"I can't, my dear—I can't. It's true every word of it. My lady knows."</p> + +<p>"Of course I know. Come, Mary, don't be foolish," said Lady Caroline, in +the carelessly sharp tone in which one sometimes speaks to an erring +dependant. "I took an interest in you at the time, you will remember, +although I was only a child staying at Helmsley Court at the time with +Mr. Adair's family. I was fourteen, I think; and you were scullery-maid +or something, and told me about your sweetheart, John Wyvis. There is +nothing to be ashamed of: you were married very suitably, and if Wyvis, +the ploughman, had not been run over when he was intoxicated, and killed +before your baby's birth, you might even now have been living down at +Wych End, with half a dozen stalwart sons and daughters—of whom you, +Mr. Wyvis, or Mr. Wyvis Brand, as you are generally known, would have +been the eldest—probably by this time a potman or a pugilist, with a +share in your grandfather's public-house at Roxby. How ridiculous it +seems now, does it not?"</p> + +<p>Astonishment had kept Wyvis silent, but his gathering passion could not +longer be repressed.</p> + +<p>"That is enough," he said. "If you desire to insult me you might have +let it be in other company. Or if you will send your husband to repeat +it——"</p> + +<p>"I said a pugilist, did I not?" said Lady Caroline, smiling, and putting +up her eye-glass. "Your thews and sinews justify me perfectly—and so, I +must say, does your manner of speech." She let her eye run over his +limbs critically, and then she dropped her glass. "You are really +wonderfully like poor Wyvis; he was a very strong sort of man."</p> + +<p>"Will you be so good as to take your leave, Lady Caroline Adair? I wish +to treat you with all due courtesy, as you are Margaret's mother," said +Wyvis, setting his teeth, "but you are saying unpardonable things to a +man in his own house."</p> + +<p>"My dear man, there is nothing to be ashamed of!" cried Lady Caroline, +as if very much surprised. "Your father and mother were very honest +people, and I always thought it greatly to Mark Brand's credit that he +adopted you. The odd thing was that so few people knew that you were not +his son. You were only a month or two old when he married Mary Wyvis, +however; for your father died before your birth; but there was no secret +made of it at the time, I believe. And it is nearly thirty years. Things +get forgotten."</p> + +<p>"Mother, can this be true?" said Wyvis, hoarsely. He was forced into +asking the question by Lady Caroline's cool persistence. He was keenly +conscious of the fact that Margaret, looking scared and bewildered, had +shrunk away from him.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, it is true," said Mrs. Brand, with a burst of despairing +tears. "We did not mean any harm, and nobody made any inquiries. There +was nothing wrong about it—nothing. It was better for you, Wyvis, that +was all."</p> + +<p>"Is it better for anybody to be brought up to believe a lie?" said the +young man. His lips had grown white, and his brow was set in very +ominous darkness. "I shall hear more of this story by and by. I have to +thank you, Lady Caroline, for letting in a little light upon my mind. +Your opposition to my suit is amply explained."</p> + +<p>"I am glad you take it in that way, Mr. Brand," said Lady Caroline, for +the first time giving him his adopted name, and smiling very amicably. +"As I happened to be one of the very few people who knew or surmised +anything about the matter, I thought it better to take affairs into my +own hands—especially when I found that my daughter had come to your +house. But for this freak of hers I should not, perhaps, have +interfered. As you are no doubt prepared now to resign all hope of her, +I am quite satisfied with the result of my afternoon's work. Come, +Margaret."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2> + +<h3>THE FAILURE OF MARGARET.</h3> + + +<p>"Then I am to understand," said Wyvis, a sudden glow breaking out over +his dark face, "that you did not make this communication carelessly, as +at first I thought, but out of malice prepense?"</p> + +<p>"If you like to call it so—certainly," said Lady Caroline, with a +slight shrug of her shoulders.</p> + +<p>"This was your revenge?—when you found that Margaret had come to me!"</p> + +<p>"You use strange words, Mr. Wyvis Brand. Revenge is out of date—a quite +too ridiculous idea. I simply mean that I never wish to intermeddle with +my neighbors' affairs, and should not have thought of bringing this +matter forward if your pretentions could have been settled in an +ordinary way. If Margaret"—glancing at her daughter, who stood white +and thunderstricken at her side—"had behaved with submission and with +modesty, I should not have had to inflict what seems to be considerable +pain upon you. But it is her fault and yours. Young people should submit +to the judgment of their elders: we do not refuse to gratify their +wishes without good reason."</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline spoke with a cold dignity, which she did not usually +assume. Margaret half covered her face with one hand, and turned aside. +The sight of the slow tears trickling through her fingers almost +maddened Wyvis, as he stood before her, looking alternately at her and +at Lady Caroline. Mrs. Brand and Janetta were left in the background of +the little group. The older woman was still weeping, and Janetta was +engaged in soothing and caressing her; but neither of them lost a word +which passed between the man for whom they cared and the woman whom at +that moment they both sincerely hated.</p> + +<p>"But is it a good reason?" said Wyvis at last. His eye flashed beneath +his dark brow, his nostril began to quiver. "If I had been Mark Brand's +son, you mean, you would have given me Margaret?"</p> + +<p>"There would then have been no disqualification of birth," said Lady +Caroline, clearly. "There might then have been disqualifications of +character or of fortune, but these we need hardly consider now. The +other—the primary—fact is conclusive."</p> + +<p>"Mamma, mamma!" broke out Margaret; "don't say these terrible +things—please don't. It isn't Wyvis' fault."</p> + +<p>"God bless you, my darling!" Wyvis muttered between his teeth.</p> + +<p>"No, it is not his fault; it is his misfortune," said Lady Caroline.</p> + +<p>"I am to understand, then, Lady Caroline," said Wyvis, to whom +Margaret's expostulation seemed to have brought sudden calmness and +courage, "that my lowly origin forms an insurmountable barrier to my +marriage with Miss Adair?"</p> + +<p>"Quite so, Mr. Brand."</p> + +<p>"But that there is no other obstacle?"</p> + +<p>"I did not say so. Your domestic relations have been unfortunate, and +Mr. Adair strongly objects to giving his daughter to a man in your +position. But we need not go into that matter; I don't consider it a +subject suitable for discussion in my daughter's presence."</p> + +<p>"Then I appeal to Margaret!" said Wyvis, in a deep, strong voice. "I +call upon <i>her</i> to decide whether my birth is as much of an obstacle as +you say it is."</p> + +<p>"That is not fair," said Lady Caroline, quickly. "She will write to you. +She can say nothing now."</p> + +<p>"She must say something. She was on the point of giving me herself—her +all—when you came in. She had promised to be my wife, and she was +prepared to keep her promise almost immediately. She shall not break her +word because my father was a ploughman instead of a landowner and a +gentleman."</p> + +<p>For once Lady Caroline made a quick, resistant gesture, as if some +impulse prompted her to speak sharply and decisively. Then she recovered +herself, leaned back in her chair, and smiled faintly.</p> + +<p>"Is the battle to be fought out here and now?" she said. "Well, then, do +your worst, Mr. Brand. But I must have a word by and by, when you have +spoken."</p> + +<p>Wyvis seemed scarcely to hear her. He was looking again, at Margaret. +She was not crying now, but one hand still grasped a handkerchief wet +with her tears. She had rested the other on the back of her mother's +chair. Janetta marveled at her irresolute attitude. In Margaret's place +she would have flung her arms round Wyvis Brand's neck, and vowed that +nothing but death should sever her from him. But Margaret was neither +passionately loving nor of indomitable courage.</p> + +<p>Wyvis stepped forward and took her by the hand. Lady Caroline's eyebrows +contracted a little, but she did not interfere. She seemed to hold +herself resolutely aloof—for a time—and listened, Janetta thought, as +if she were present at a very interesting comedy of modern manners.</p> + +<p>"Margaret, look at me!" said the man.</p> + +<p>His deep, vibrating voice compelled the girl to raise her eyes. She +looked up piteously, and seemed half afraid to withdraw her gaze from +Wyvis' dark earnestness of aspect.</p> + +<p>"Margaret—my darling—you said you loved me."</p> + +<p>"Yes—I do love you," she murmured; but she looked afraid.</p> + +<p>"I am not altered, Margaret: I am the same Wyvis that you loved—the +Wyvis that you kissed down by the brook, when you promised to be my +wife. Have you forgotten? Ah no—not so soon. You would not have come +here to-day if you had forgotten."</p> + +<p>"I have not forgotten," she said, in a whisper.</p> + +<p>"Then, darling, what difference does it make? There is no stain upon my +birth. I would not ask you to share a dishonored name. But my parents +were honest if they were poor, and what they were does not affect me. +Margaret, speak, tell me, dear, that you will not give me up!"</p> + +<p>Margaret tried to withdraw her hand. "I do not know what to say," she +whispered.</p> + +<p>"Say that you love me."</p> + +<p>"I—have said it."</p> + +<p>"Then, that you will not give me up?"</p> + +<p>"Mamma!" said Margaret, entreatingly. "You hear what Wyvis says. It is +not his fault. Why—why—won't you let us be happy?"</p> + +<p>"Don't appeal to your mother," said Wyvis, the workings of whose +features showed that he was becoming frightfully agitated. "You know +that she is against me. Listen to your own heart—what does it say? It +speaks to you of my love for you, of your own love for me. Darling, you +know how miserable my life has been. Are you going to scatter all my +hopes again and plunge me down in the depths of gloom? And all for what? +To satisfy a worldly scruple. It is not even as if I had been brought up +in my early years in the station to which my father belonged. I have +never known him—never known any relations but the Brands; and they are +not so very much beneath you. Don't fail me, Margaret! I shall lose all +faith in goodness if I lose faith in you!"</p> + +<p>"I think," said Lady Caroline, in the rather disheartening pause which +followed upon Wyvis' words—disheartening to him, at least, and also to +Janetta, who had counted much upon Margaret's innate nobility of +soul!—"I think that I may now be permitted to say a word to my daughter +before she replies. What Mr. Wyvis Brand asks you to do, Margaret, is to +marry him at once. Well, the time for coercion has gone by. Of course, +we cannot prevent you from marrying him if you choose to do so, but on +the other hand we shall never speak to you again."</p> + +<p>Wyvis uttered a short laugh, as if he were scornfully ready to meet that +contingency, but Margaret's look of startled horror recalled him to +decorum.</p> + +<p>"You would be no longer any child of ours," said Lady Caroline, calmly. +"Your father concurs with me in this. You have known our views so long +and so well that we feel it almost necessary to explain this to you. Mr. +Brand wishes you to choose, as a matter of fact, between his house and +ours. Make your choice—make it now, if you like; but understand—and I +am very sorry to be obliged to say a thing which may perhaps hurt the +feelings of some persons present—that if you marry the son of a +ploughman and a scullery-maid—I do not mean to be more offensive than I +can help—you cannot possibly expect to be received at Helmsley Court."</p> + +<p>"But, mamma! he ranks as one of the Brands of the Red House. Nobody +knows."</p> + +<p>"But everybody <i>will</i> know," said Lady Caroline, calmly. "I shall take +care of that. I don't know how it is that Mr. Brand has got possession +of the family estate—to which he has, of course, no right; but it has +an ugly look of fraud about it, to which public attention had better be +drawn at once. Mr. Brand may have been a party to the deception all +along, for aught I know."</p> + +<p>"That statement needs no refutation," said Wyvis, calmly, though with a +dangerous glitter in his eyes. "I shall prove my integrity by handing +over the Red House to my bro——to Cuthbert Brand, who is of course the +rightful owner of the place."</p> + +<p>"You hear. Margaret?" said Lady Caroline. "You will not even have the +Red House in your portion. You have to choose between your mother and +father and friends, position, wealth, refinement, luxury—and Wyvis +Brand. That is your alternative. He will have no position of his own, no +house to offer you; I am amazed at his selfishness, I must own, at +making such a proposition."</p> + +<p>"No, madam," said Mrs. Brand, breaking into the conversation for the +first time, and seeming to forget her timidity in the defence of her +beloved son Wyvis; "we are not so selfish as you think. The estate was +left to Wyvis by my husband's will. He preferred that Wyvis should be +master here; and we thought that no one knew the truth."</p> + +<p>"But I shall not be master here any longer," said her son. "I will hand +over the place to Cuthbert at once. I will take nothing on false +pretences. So, Margaret, choose between me and the advantages your +mother offers you. It is for you to decide."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I can't, I can't! Why need I decide now?" said Margaret, clasping +her hands. "Let me have time to think!"</p> + +<p>"No, you must decide now, Margaret," said Lady Caroline. "You have done +a very unjustifiable thing in coming here to-day, and you must take the +consequences. If you still wish to marry Mr. Wyvis Brand, you had better +accept the offer of his mother's protection and remain here. If you come +away with me, it must be understood that you give up any thought of such +a marriage. You must renounce Mr. Wyvis Brand from this time forth and +for ever. Pray, don't answer hastily. The question is this—do you mean +to stay here or to come away with me?"</p> + +<p>She rose as she spoke, and began to arrange the details of her dress, +as though preparing to take her departure. Margaret stood pale, +irresolute, miserable between her mother and her lover. Wyvis threw +out his hands to her with an imploring gesture and an almost frenzied +cry—"Margaret—love—come to me!" Janetta held her breath.</p> + +<p>But in that moment of indecision, Margaret's wavering eye fell upon Mrs. +Brand. The mother was an unlovely object in her abject sorrow and +despair. Her previous coldness and awkwardness told against her at that +moment. It suddenly darted through Margaret's mind that she would have +to accept this woman, with her common associations, her obscure origin, +her doubtful antecedents, in a mother's place. The soul of the girl who +had been brought up by Lady Caroline Adair revolted at the thought. +Wyvis she loved, or thought she loved; Wyvis she could accept; but +Wyvis' mother for her own, coupled with exclusion from the home where +she had lived so many smooth and tranquil years, exclusion also from the +society in which she had been taught that it was her right to take a +distinguished place—this was too much. Her dreams fell from her like a +garment. Plain, unvarnished reality unfolded itself instead. To be poor +and obscure and unfriended, to be looked down upon and pitied, to be +snubbed and passed by on the other side—this was what seemed to be the +reality of things to Margaret's mind. It was too much for her to accept. +She looked at it and passed by it.</p> + +<p>She stretched out her hand timidly and touched her mother's arm. +"Mamma," she said falteringly, "I—I will come with you." And then she +burst into tears and fell upon her mother's neck, and over her shoulder +Lady Caroline turned and smiled at Wyvis Brand. She had won her game.</p> + +<p>"Of course you will, darling," she said, caressingly. "I did not think +you could have been so wicked as to give us up. Come with me! this is +nor the place for us."</p> + +<p>And in the heart-struck silence which fell upon the little group that +she left behind, Lady Caroline gravely bowed and led her weeping +daughter from the room.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Margaret, Margaret!" Janetta suddenly cried out; but Margaret never +once looked back. Perhaps if she had seen Wyvis Brand's face just then, +she might have given way. It was a terrible face; hard, bitter, +despairing; with lines of anguish about the mouth, and a lurid light in +the deep-set, haggard-looking eyes. Janetta, in the pity of her heart, +went up to her cousin, and took his clenched hand between her own.</p> + +<p>"Wyvis, dear Wyvis," she said, "do not look so. Do not grieve. Indeed, +she could not have been worthy of you, or she would not have done like +this. All women are not like her, Wyvis. Some would have loved you for +yourself."</p> + +<p>And there she stopped, crimson and ashamed. For surely she had almost +told him that she loved him!—that secret of which she had long been so +much ashamed, and which had given her so much of grief and pain. But she +attached too much importance to her own vague words. They did not betray +her, and Wyvis scarcely listened to what she said. He broke into a +short, harsh laugh, more hideous than a sob.</p> + +<p>"Are not all women like her?" he said. "Then they are worse. She was +innocent, at any rate, if she was weak. But she has sold her soul now, +if she ever had one, to the devil; and, as I would rather be with her in +life and death than anywhere else, I shall make haste to go to the devil +too."</p> + +<p>He shook off her detaining hand, and strode to the door. There he +turned, and looked fixedly at his mother.</p> + +<p>"It is almost worse to be weak than wicked, I think," he said. "If you +had told me the truth long ago, mother, I should have kept out of this +complication. It's been your fault—my misery and my failure have always +been your fault. It would have been better for me if you had left me to +plough the fields like my father before me. As it is, life's over for me +in this part of the world, and I may as well bid it good-bye."</p> + +<p>Before they could stop him, he was gone. And Janetta could not follow, +for Mrs. Brand sank fainting from her chair, and it was long before she +could be recovered from the deathlike swoon into which she fell.</p> + +<p>And throughout that evening, and for days to come, Margaret Adair, +although petted and caressed and praised on every hand, and persuaded +into feeling that she had not only done the thing that was expected of +her, but a very worthy and noble thing, was haunted by an uneasy +consciousness, that the argument which had prevailed with her was not +the love of home or of her parents, which, indeed, might have been a +very creditable motive for her decision, but a shrinking from trouble, a +dislike to effort of any kind, and an utter distaste for obscurity and +humility. Janetta's reproachful call rang in her ears for days. She +knew that she had chosen the baser part. True, as she argued with +herself, it was right to obey one's parents, to be submissive and +straightforward, to shrink from the idea of ingratitude and rebellion; +and, if she had yielded on these grounds, she might have been somewhat +consoled for the loss of her lover by the conviction that she had done +her duty. But for some little time she was distressfully aware that she +had never considered her parents in the matter at all. She had thought +of worldly disadvantage only. She had not felt any desire to stand by +Wyvis Brand in his trouble. She had felt only repugnance and disgust; +and, having some elements of good in her, she was troubled and ashamed +by her failure; for, even if she had done right in the main, she knew +that she had done it in the wrong way.</p> + +<p>But, of course, time changed her estimate of herself. She was so much +caressed and flattered by her family for her "exquisite dutifulness," as +they phrased it, that she ended by believing that she had behaved +beautifully. And this belief was a great support to her during the +winter that she subsequently spent with her parents in Italy.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2> + +<h3>RETROSPECT.</h3> + + +<p>For my part, I am inclined to think that Margaret was more right than +she knew. There was really no inherent fitness between her temperament +and that of Wyvis Brand; and his position in the County was one which +would have fretted her inexpressibly. She, who had been the petted +favorite of a brilliant circle in town and country, to take rank as the +wife of a ploughman's son! It would not have suited her at all; and her +discontent would have ended in making Wyvis miserable.</p> + +<p>He was, he considered, miserable enough already. He was sore all +over—sore and injured and angry. He had been deceived in a manner which +seemed to him unjustifiable from beginning to end. The disclosure of his +parentage explained many little things which had been puzzling to him +in his previous life, but it brought with it a baffling, passionate +sense of having been fooled and duped—not a condition of things which +was easy for him to support. Little by little the whole story became +clear to him. For, when he flung out of the Red House after Margaret's +departure, in a tumult of rage and shame, announcing his determination +to go to the devil, he did not immediately seek out the Prince of +Darkness: he only went to his lawyer. His lawyer told him a good deal, +and Mrs. Brand, in a letter dictated to Janetta, told him more.</p> + +<p>Mary Wyvis, the daughter of the village inn-keeper at Roxby, was brought +up to act as his barmaid, and early became engaged to marry her cousin, +John Wyvis, ploughman. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, when Mark +Brand appeared upon the scene, and fell desperately in love with the +handsome barmaid. She returned his love, but was too conscientious to +elope with him and forget her cousin, as he wished her to do. Her father +supported John's claim, and threatened to horsewhip the fine gentleman +if he visited the Roxby Arms again. By way of change, Mary then went +into domestic service for a few weeks at Helmsley Manor. It was not +expected that she would remain there, and it was thought by her friends +that she distinctly "lowered herself" by accepting this position, for +her father was a well-to-do man in his way; but Mary Wyvis made the +break with Mark Brand by this new departure which she considered it +essential for her to make; and she was thereby delivered from his +attentions for a time. At Helmsley Manor she was treated with much +consideration, being considered a superior young person for her class; +and although only a scullery maid in name, she was allowed a good deal +of liberty, and promoted to attend on Lady Caroline Bertie, who, as a +girl of fourteen, was then visiting Mrs. Adair, the mother of the man +whom she afterward married. Mary Wyvis was lured into confiding one or +two of her little secrets to Lady Caroline; and when she left Helmsley +Court to marry John Wyvis, that young lady took so much interest in the +affair that she attended the wedding and gave the bride a +wedding-present. And as she often visited the Adairs, she seldom failed +to asked after Mary, until that consummation of Mary's fate which +effectually destroyed Lady Caroline's interest in her.</p> + +<p>Wyvis the ploughman was accidentally killed, and Mary's child, named +John after his father, was born shortly after the ploughman's death. It +was then that Mark Brand sought out his old love, and to better purpose +than before. His passion for her had been strengthened by what he was +pleased to call her desertion of him. He proposed marriage, and offered +to adopt the boy. Mary Wyvis accepted both propositions, and left +England with him almost immediately, in order to escape mocking and +slanderous tongues.</p> + +<p>It was inevitable that evil should be said of her. Mark Brand's pursuit +of her before her marriage to Wyvis had been well known. That she should +marry him so soon after her first husband's death seemed to point to +some continued understanding between the two, and caused much gossip in +the neighborhood. Such gossip was really unfounded, for Mary was a good +woman in her way, though not a very wise one; but the charges against +her were believed in many places, and never disproved. It was even +whispered that the little boy was Mark Brand's own son, and that John +Wyvis had met his death through some foul play. Rumors of this kind died +down in course of time. But they were certainly sufficient to account +for the disfavor with which the County eyed the Brands in general, and +Mrs. Brand in particular. Mark Brand lived very little at the Red House +after his marriage. He knew what a storm of indignation had been spent +upon his conduct, and he was well aware of the aspersions on his wife's +character. He was too reckless by nature to try to set things straight: +he considered that he did his best for his family when he left England +behind him, and trained the boys, Wyvis and Cuthbert, to love a foreign +land better than their own.</p> + +<p>He grew very fond of Mary's boy during the first few years of his +married life. This fondness led him to wish that the boy were his own, +and the appearance of Cuthbert did not alter this odd liking for another +man's son. He never cared very much for Cuthbert, who was delicate and +lame from babyhood; but Wyvis was the apple of his eye. The boy was +called John Wyvis: it was easy enough in a foreign country to let him +slip into the position of the eldest of the family as Wyvis Brand. A +baby son was born before Cuthbert, and dying a month old, gave Mark all +the opportunity that he needed. He sent word to old Wyvis at Roxby that +John's boy was dead; and he then quietly substituted Wyvis in place of +his own son. Every year, he argued, would make the real difference of +age between John's boy and the dead child less apparent: it would save +trouble to speak of Wyvis as his own, and troublesome inquiries were not +likely to be made. Time and use made him almost forget that Wyvis did +not really belong to him; and but for his wife's insistence he would not +even have made the will which secured the Red House to his adopted son. +Cuthbert was of course treated with scandalous injustice by this will; +but the secret had been well kept, and the story was fully known to +nobody save the Brands' lawyer and Mary Brand herself.</p> + +<p>The way in which Lady Caroline had ferreted out the secret remained a +mystery to the Brands. But they never gave her half enough credit for +her remarkable cleverness. When she saw Wyvis Brand, she had been struck +almost at once by his likeness to John Wyvis, the man who married her +old favorite, Mary. She leaped quickly to the conviction that he was not +Mark Brand's son. And when Margaret's infatuation for him declared +itself, she went straight to her husband's man of business, and +commissioned him to find out all that could be found out about the +Brands during the period of their early married life in Italy. The task +was surprisingly easy. Mark Brand had taken few precautions, for he had +drifted rather than deliberately steered towards the substitution of +Wyvis for his own eldest son. A very few inquiries elicited all that +Lady Caroline wanted to know. But she had not been quite sure of her +facts when she entered the Red House, and, if Mrs. Brand had been a +little cooler and a little braver, she might have defeated her enemy's +ends, and carried her secret inviolate to her grave.</p> + +<p>But courage and coolness were the last things that could be expected +from Mrs. Brand. She had never possessed a strong mind and the various +chances and changes of her life had enfeebled instead of strengthening +it. Mark Brand had proved by no means a loving or faithful husband, and +did not scruple to taunt her with her inferiority of position, and to +threaten that he would mortify Wyvis' pride some day by a revelation of +his true name and descent. He was too fond of Wyvis to carry his threat +into effect but he made the poor woman, his wife, suffer an infinity of +torture, the greater part of which might have been avoided if she had +chanced to be gifted with a higher spirit and a firmer will.</p> + +<p>Wyvis Brand went immediately to London after the interview with his +lawyer in Beaminster, and from London, in a few days, he wrote to +Cuthbert. The letter was curt, but not unfriendly. He wished, he said, +to repair the injustice that had been done, and to restore to Cuthbert +the inheritance that was his by right. He had already instructed his +lawyers to take the necessary steps, and he was glad to think that +Cuthbert and Nora would now be able to make the Red House what it ought +to be. He hoped that they would be very happy. For himself, he thought +of immigrating: he was heartily sick of modern civilization, and +believed that he would more easily find friends and fellow-workers +amongst the Red Skins of the Choctaw Indians than in "County" +drawing-rooms. And only by this touch did Wyvis betray the bitterness +that filled his heart.</p> + +<p>Cuthbert rushed up to town at once in a white heat of indignation. He +was only just in time to find Wyvis at his hotel, for he had taken his +passage to America, and was going to start almost immediately. But there +was time at least for a very energetic discussion between the two young +men.</p> + +<p>"If you think," said Cuthbert, hotly, "that I'm going to take your +place, you are very much mistaken."</p> + +<p>"It is not my place. It has been mine only by fraud."</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it. It is yours by my father's will. He knew the truth, +and chose to take this course."</p> + +<p>"Very unfair to you, Cuth," said Wyvis, a faint smile showing itself for +the first time on his haggard face.</p> + +<p>Cuthbert shrugged his shoulders. "My dear fellow, do you suppose it's +any news to me that my father cared more for your little finger than for +my whole body? He chose—practically—to disinherit me in your favor; +and a very good thing it's been for me too. I should never have taken to +Art if I had been a landed proprietor."</p> + +<p>"I don't understand it," said Wyvis, meditatively. "One would have +expected him to be jealous of his wife's family—and then you're a much +better fellow than I am."</p> + +<p>"That was the reason," said Cuthbert, sitting down and nursing his lame +leg, after a characteristic fashion of his own "I was a meek child—a +sickly lad who didn't get into mischief. I was afraid of horses, you may +remember, and hated manly exercises of every kind. Now you were never so +happy as when you were on a horse's back——"</p> + +<p>"A strain inherited from my ploughman father, I suppose," said Wyvis, +rather grimly.</p> + +<p>"And you got into scrapes innumerable; for which he liked you all the +better. And you—well you know, old boy, you were never a reproach to +him, as the sight of me was!"</p> + +<p>Cuthbert's voice dropped. He had never spoken of it before, but he and +Wyvis knew well enough that his lameness was the result of his father's +brutal treatment of Mary Brand shortly before the birth of her second +son.</p> + +<p>"He ought to have been more bent on making amends than on sacrificing +you to me," said Wyvis, bitterly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't look at it in that way," Cuthbert answered. The natural +sweetness of his disposition made it painful to him to hear his father +blamed, although that father had done his best to make his life +miserable. "He never meant to hurt me, the poor old man; and when he had +done it, the sight of my infirmity became exquisitely painful to him. I +can forgive him that; I can forgive him everything. There are others +whom it is more difficult to forgive."</p> + +<p>"You mean——"</p> + +<p>"I mean women who have not the courage to be true," said Cuthbert, in a +low voice. He did not look at his brother, but he felt certain that a +thrill of pain passed through him. For a minute or two Wyvis did not +speak.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said at last, forcing an uneasy laugh, "I think that she was +perhaps right. She might not have been very happy. And I doubt, after +all, whether I ought to have asked her. Janetta thought not, at any +rate."</p> + +<p>"Janetta is generally very wise."</p> + +<p>"So she is very wise. I am legally quite free, but she thinks +me—morally—bound."</p> + +<p>"Well, so do I," said Cuthbert, frankly. "On all moral and religious +grounds, I think you are as much bound as ever you were. And if Miss +Adair refused you on those grounds, she has more right on her side than +I thought."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but she did not," answered Wyvis, dryly. "She refused me because I +was not rich, not 'in society,' and a ploughman's son."</p> + +<p>"That's bad," said his brother. And then the two sat for a little time +in silence, which is the way of Englishmen when one wishes to show +sympathy for another.</p> + +<p>"But we are not approaching what I want to say at all," said Cuthbert, +presently. "We must not let our feelings run away with us. We are both +in a very awkward position, old boy, but we shan't make it better by +publishing it to the world. If you throw up the place in this absurd +fashion—excuse the term—you <i>will</i> publish it to the world at large."</p> + +<p>"Do you think that matters to me?" asked Wyvis, sternly.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not to you. But it matters to mother, and to me. And it affects +our father's character."</p> + +<p>"Your father's, not mine."</p> + +<p>"He was the only father you ever knew, and you have no reason to find +fault with him."</p> + +<p>Wyvis groaned impatiently. "One has duties to the living, not to the +dead."</p> + +<p>"One has duties to the dead, too. You can't give up the Red House to +me—even if I would take it, which I won't—without having the whole +story made public. My father hasn't a very good reputation in the +County: people will think no better of him for having lamed me, +disinherited me, and practiced a fraud on them. That's what they will +say about the affair, you know. We can't let the world know."</p> + +<p>"Then I'd better go and shoot myself. It seems to me the only thing I +can do."</p> + +<p>"And what about Julian? The estate would pass to him, of course," said +Cuthbert, coolly. He saw that Wyvis' face changed a little at the +mention of Julian's name.</p> + +<p>"No, I could will it to you—make it over to you, with the condition +that it should go to the Foundling Hospital if you wouldn't accept it."</p> + +<p>"I think that a will of that kind could be easily set aside on the +ground of insanity," said Cuthbert, with a slight smile.</p> + +<p>"I could find a way out of the difficulty, if I tried, I have no +doubt," said Wyvis, frowning gloomily and pulling at his moustache.</p> + +<p>"<i>Don't</i> try," said his brother, leaning forward and speaking +persuasively. "Let things continue much as they are. I am content: Nora +is content. Why should you not be so, too?" Then, as Wyvis shook his +head: "Make your mind easy then if you must do something, by giving me a +sum down, or a slice of your income, old man. Upon my word I wouldn't +live in the old place if you gave it to me. It is picturesque—but damp. +Come let's compromise matters."</p> + +<p>"I love every stick and stone in the place," said Wyvis grimly.</p> + +<p>"I know you do. I don't. I want to live in Paris or Vienna with Nora, +and enjoy myself I don't want to paint pot-boilers. I say like the man +in the parable, 'Give me the portion that belongeth to me,' and I'll go +my way, promising, however, not to spend it in riotous living. Won't +that arrangement suit you?"</p> + +<p>Wyvis demurred at first, but was finally persuaded into making an +arrangement of the kind that Cuthbert desired. He retained the Red +House, but he bestowed on his brother enough to give him an ample income +for the life that Cuthbert and Nora wished to lead. During his absence +from England, Mrs. Brand and Julian were still to inhabit the Red House. +And Wyvis announced his intention of going to South America to shoot big +game, from which Cuthbert inferred that his heart, although bruised, was +not broken yet.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2> + +<h3>FROM DISTANT LANDS.</h3> + + +<p>More than a year had passed away since the events recorded in the last +chapter. Early autumn was beginning to touch the leaves with gold and +crimson; the later flowers were coming into bloom, and the fruit hung +purple and russet-red upon the boughs. The woods about Beaminster had +put on a gorgeous mantle, and the gardens were gay with color, and yet +over all there hung the indefinable brooding melancholy that comes of +the first touch of decay. It was of this that Janetta Colwyn was chiefly +conscious, as she walked in the Red House grounds and looked at the +yellowing leaves that eddied through the still air to the gravelled +walks and unshorn lawns below. Janetta was thinner and paler than in +days of yore, and yet there was a peaceful expression upon her face +which gave it an added charm. She had discarded her black gowns and wore +a pretty dark red dress which suited her admirably. There was a look of +thought and feeling in her dark eyes, a sweetness in her smile, which +would always redeem her appearance from the old charge of insignificance +that used to be brought against it. Small and slight she might be, but +never a woman to be overlooked.</p> + +<p>The past few months had seen several changes in her family. Mrs. Colwyn +was now Mrs. Burroughs, and filled her place with more dignity than had +been expected. She was kept in strict order by her husband and his +sister, and, like many weak persons, was all the better and happier for +feeling a strong hand over her. The children had accommodated themselves +very well to the new life, and were very fond of their stepfather. Nora +and Cuthbert had quitted the Red House almost immediately after their +marriage, and gone to Paris, whence Nora wrote glowing accounts to her +sister of the happiness of her life. And Janetta had taken up her abode +at the Red House, nominally as governess to little Julian, and companion +to Mrs. Brand, but practically ruler of the household, adviser-in-chief +to every one on the estate; teacher, comforter, and confidante in turn, +or all at once. She could not remain long in any place without winning +trust and affection, and there was not a servant in Wyvis Brand's employ +who did not soon learn that the best way of gaining help in need or +redress for any grievance was to address himself or herself to little +Miss Colwyn. To Mrs. Brand, now more weak and ailing than ever, Janetta +was like a daughter. And secure in her love, little Julian never knew +what it was to miss a mother's care.</p> + +<p>Janetta might have her own private cares and worries, but in public, at +any rate, she was seldom anything but cheerful. It was a duty that she +owed the world, she thought, to look bright in it, and especially a duty +to Mrs. Brand and little Julian, who would sorely have missed her ready +playfulness and her tender little jokes if ever she had forgotten +herself so far as to put on a gloomy countenance. And yet she sometimes +felt very much dispirited. She had no prospects of prosperity; she could +not expect to live at the Red House for ever; and yet, when Wyvis came +home and she had to go—which, of course, must happen some time, since +Mrs. Brand was growing old and infirm, and Julian would have to go to +school—what would she do? She asked herself this question many times, +and could never find a very satisfactory answer. She might advertise for +a situation: she might take lodgings in London, and give lessons: she +might go to the house of her stepfather. Each of these attempts to solve +the problem of her future gave her a cold shudder and a sudden sickness +of heart. And yet, as she often severely told herself, what else was +there for her to do?</p> + +<p>She had heard nothing of the Adairs, save through common town gossip, +for many months. The house was shut up, and they were still travelling +abroad. Margaret had evidently quite given up her old friend, Janetta, +and this desertion made Janetta's heart a little sore. Wyvis also was in +foreign lands. He had been to many places, and killed a great many wild +beasts—so much all the world knew, and few people knew anything more. +To his mother he wrote seldom, though kindly. An occasional note to +Julian, or a post card to Cuthbert or his agent, would give a new +address from time to time, but it was to Janetta only that he sometimes +wrote a really long and interesting epistle, detailing some of his +adventures in the friendly and intimate way which his acquaintance with +her seemed to warrant. He did not mention any of his private affairs: he +never spoke of that painful last scene at the Red House, of Margaret, of +his mother, of his wife; but he wrote of the scenes through which he +passed, and the persons whom he met, with an unreserve which Janetta +knew to be the sincerest compliment.</p> + +<p>But on this autumnal day she had received a letter in which another note +was struck. And it was for this reason that she had brought it out into +the garden, so that she might think over it, and read it again in the +shadow of the great beech trees, away from the anxious eyes of Mrs. +Brand and the eager childish questions of Wyvis' boy.</p> + +<p>For three pages Wyvis had written in his usual strain. He was not +perhaps an ideally good letter-writer, but he had a terse, forcible +style of his own, and could describe a scene with some amount of graphic +power. In the midst of an account of certain brigands with whom he had +met in Sicily, however, he had, in this letter, broken off quite +suddenly and struck into a new subject in a new and unexpected way.</p> + +<p>"I had written thus far when I was interrupted: the date of the letter, +you will see, is three weeks ago. I put down my pen and went out: I +found that fever had made its appearance, so I packed up my traps that +afternoon and started for Norway. A sudden change, you will say? Heaven +knows why I went there, but I am glad I did.</p> + +<p>"It was early in July when I reached the hotel at V——. There was +<i>table d'hote</i> and many another sign of civilization, which bored me not +a little. However, I made the best of a bad job, and went down to dinner +with the rest, took my seat without noticing my companions until I was +seated, and then found myself next to—can you guess who, Janetta?—I am +sure you never will.</p> + +<p>"<i>Lady Caroline Adair!!!</i></p> + +<p>"Her daughter was just beyond her, and Mr. Adair beyond the daughter, so +the fair Margaret was well guarded. Of course I betrayed no sign of +recognition, but I wished myself at Jericho very heartily. For, between +ourselves, Janetta, I made such an ass of myself last summer that my +ears burn to think of it, and it was not a particularly honorable or +gentlemanly ass, I believe, so that I deserve to be drowned in the deep +sea for my folly. I can only hope that I did not show what I felt.</p> + +<p>"Miss Adair was blooming: fair, serene, self-possessed as ever. <i>She</i> +did not show any sign of embarrassment, I can tell you. She did not even +blush. She looked at me once or twice with the faint, well-bred +indifference with which the well-brought-up young lady usually eyes a +perfect stranger. It was Mr. Adair who did all the embarrassment for us. +He turned purple when he saw me, and wanted his daughter to come away +from the table. My ears are quick, and I heard what he said to her, and +I heard also her reply. 'Why should I go away, dear papa! I don't mind +in the least.' Kind of her not to mind, wasn't it? And do you think I +was going to 'mind,' after that? I lifted up my head, which I had +hitherto bent studiously over my soup, and began to talk to my neighbor +on the other side, a stalwart English clergyman with a blue ribbon at +his button-hole.</p> + +<p>"But presently, to my surprise, Lady Caroline addressed me. 'I hope you +have not forgotten me, Mr. Brand,' she said, quite graciously. I must +confess, Janetta, that I stared at her. The calm audacity of the woman +took me by surprise. She looked as amiable as if we were close friends +meeting after a long absence. I hope you won't be very angry with me +when I tell you how I answered her. 'Pardon me,' I said, 'my name is +Wyvis—not Brand.' And then I went on talking to my muscular Christian +on the left.</p> + +<p>"She looked just a little bit disconcerted. Not much, you know. It would +take a great deal to disconcert Lady Caroline very much. But she did not +try to talk to me again! I choked her off that time, anyhow.</p> + +<p>"And, now, let me make a confession. I don't admire Margaret Adair in +the very least. I did, I know: and I made a fool of myself, and worse, +perhaps, about her: but she does, not move one fibre of my heart now, +she does not make it beat a bit faster, and she does not give my eye +more pleasure than a wax doll would give me. She is fair and sweet and +tranquil, I know: but what has she done with her heart and her brain? I +suppose her mother has them in her keeping, and will make them over to +her husband when she marries?... I know a woman who is worth a dozen +Margarets....</p> + +<p>"But I have made up my mind to live single, so long as Julian's mother +is alive. Legally, I am not bound; morally, I can scarcely feel myself +free. And I know that you feel with me, Janet. The world may call us +over-scrupulous; but I set your judgment higher than that of the world. +And all I can say about Margaret is that I fell into a passing fit of +madness, and cared for nothing but what my fancy dictated; and that now +I am sane—clothed in my right mind, so to speak—I am disgusted with +myself for my folly. Lady Caroline and her daughter should have taken +higher ground. They were right to send me away—but not right to act on +unworthy motives. In the long nights that I have spent camping out under +the quiet stars, far away from the dwellings of men, I have argued the +thing out with myself, and I say unreservedly that they were right and +I was wrong—wrong from beginning to end, wrong to my mother, wrong to +my wife (as she once was), wrong to Margaret, wrong to myself. Your +influence has always been on the side of right and truth, Janetta, and +you more than once told me that I was wrong.</p> + +<p>"So I make my confession. I do not think that I shall come back to +England just yet. I am going to America next week. You will not leave +the Red House, will you? While you are there I can feel at ease about my +mother and my boy. I trust you with them entirely, Janetta; and I want +you to trust me. Wherever I may go, and whatever I may do, I will +henceforward be worthy of your trust and of your friendship."</p> + +<p>This was the letter that Janetta read under the beech trees; and as she +read it tears gathered in her eyes and fell upon the pages. But they +were not tears of sadness—rather tears of joy and thankfulness. For +Wyvis Brand's aberration of mind—so it had always appeared to her—had +given her much pain and sorrow. And he seemed now to have placed his +foot upon the road to better things.</p> + +<p>She was still holding the letter in her hand when she reached the end of +the beech-tree shaded walk along which she had been slowly walking. The +tears were wet upon her cheeks, but a smile played on her lips. She did +not notice for some time that she was watched from the gate that led +into the pasture-land, at the end of the beech-tree walk, by a woman, +who seemed uncertain whether to speak, to enter, or to go away.</p> + +<p>Janetta saw her at last, and wondered what she was doing there. She put +the letter into her pocket, dashed the tears from her eyes, and advanced +towards the gate.</p> + +<p>"Can I do anything for you?" she said.</p> + +<p>The woman looked about thirty-five years old, and possessed the remains +of great beauty. She was haggard and worn: her cheeks were sunken, +though brilliantly red, and her large, velvety-brown eyes were strangely +bright. Her dark, waving hair had probably once been curled over her +brow: it now hung almost straight, and had a rough, dishevelled look, +which corresponded with the soiled and untidy appearance of her dress. +Her gown and mantle were of rich stuff, but torn and stained in many +places; and her gloves and boots were shabby to the very last degree, +while her bonnet, of cheap and tawdry materials, had at any rate the +one merit of being fresh and new. Altogether she was an odd figure to be +seen in a country place; and Janetta wondered greatly whence she came, +and what her errand was at the Red House.</p> + +<p>"Can I do anything for you?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"This is the Red House, I suppose?" the woman asked, hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is."</p> + +<p>"Wyvis Brand's house?"</p> + +<p>Janetta hesitated in surprise, and then said, "Yes," in a rather distant +tone.</p> + +<p>"Who are <i>you</i>?" said the woman, looking at her sharply.</p> + +<p>"I am governess to Mr. Brand's little boy."</p> + +<p>"Oh, indeed. And he's at home, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Janetta, gravely, "he has been away for more than a year, and +is now, I believe, on his way to America."</p> + +<p>"You lie!" said the woman, furiously; "and you know that you lie!"</p> + +<p>Janetta recoiled a step. Was this person mad?</p> + +<p>"He is at home, and you want to keep me out," the woman went on, wildly. +"You don't want me to set foot in the place, or to see my child again! +He is at home, and I'll see him if I have to trample on your body +first."</p> + +<p>"Nobody wants to keep you out," said Janetta, forcing herself to speak +and look calmly, but tingling with anger from head to foot. "But I +assure you Mr. Brand is away from home. His mother lives here; she is +not very strong, and ought not to be disturbed. If you will give me your +name——"</p> + +<p>"My name?" repeated the other in a tone of mockery. "Oh yes, I'll give +you my name. I don't see why I should hide it; do you? I've been away a +good long time; but I mean to have my rights now. My name is Mrs. Wyvis +Brand: what do you think of that, young lady?"</p> + +<p>She drew herself up as she spoke, looking gaunt and defiant. Her eyes +flamed and her cheeks grew hotter and deeper in tint until they were +poppy-red. She showed her teeth—short, square, white teeth—as if she +wanted to snarl like an angry dog. But Janetta, after the first moment +of repulsion and astonishment, was not dismayed.</p> + +<p>"I did not know," she said, gravely, "that you had any right to call +yourself by that name. I thought that you were divorced from Mr. Wyvis +Brand."</p> + +<p>"Separated for incompatibility of temper; that was all," said Mrs. Brand +coolly. "I told him I'd got a divorce, but it wasn't true. I wanted to +be free from him—that's the truth. I didn't mean him to marry again. I +heard that he was going to be married—is that so! Perhaps he was going +to marry <i>you</i>?"</p> + +<p>"No," Janetta answered, very coldly.</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to put up with it if he is," was her visitor's sullen +reply. "I've borne enough from him in my day, I can tell you. So I've +come for the boy. I'm going to have him back; and when I've got him I've +no doubt but what I can make Wyvis do what I choose. I hear he's fond of +the boy."</p> + +<p>"But what—what—do you want him to do?" said Janetta, startled out of +her reserve. "Do you want—<i>money</i> from him?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wyvis Brand laughed hoarsely. Janetta noticed that her breath was +very short, and that she leaned against the gate-post for support.</p> + +<p>"No, not precisely," she said. "I want more than that. I see that he's +got a nice, comfortable, respectable house; and I'm tired of wandering. +I'm ill, too, I believe. I want a place in which to be quiet and rest, +or die, as it may turn out. I mean Wyvis to take me back."</p> + +<p>She opened the gate as she spoke, and tried to pass Janetta. But the +girl stood in her way.</p> + +<p>"Take you back after you have left him and ill-treated him and deceived +him, you wicked woman!" she broke out, in her old impetuous way. And for +answer, Mrs. Wyvis Brand raised her hand and struck her sharply across +the face.</p> + +<p>A shrill, childish cry rang out upon the air. Janetta stood mute and +trembling, unable for the moment to move or speak, as little Julian +suddenly flung himself into her arms and tried to drag her towards the +house.</p> + +<p>"Oh, come away, come away, dear Janetta!" he cried. "It's mamma, and +she'll take me back to Paris, I know she will! I won't go away from you, +I won't, I won't!" His mother sprung towards him, as if to tear him from +Janetta's arm, and then her strength seemed suddenly to pass from her. +She stopped, turned ghastly white, and then as suddenly very red. Then +she flung up her arms with a gasping, gurgling cry, and, to Janetta's +horror, she saw a crimson tide break from her quivering lips. She was +just in time to catch her in her arms before she sank senseless to the +ground.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2> + +<h3>JULIET.</h3> + + +<p>There was no help for it. Into Wyvis Brand's house Wyvis Brand's wife +must go. Old Mrs. Brand came feebly into the garden, and identified the +woman as the mother of Julian, and the wife of her eldest son. She could +not be allowed to die at their door. She could not be taken to any other +dwelling. There were laborers' cottages only in the immediate vicinity. +She must be brought to the Red House and nursed by Janetta and Mrs. +Brand. A woman with a broken blood-vessel, how unworthy soever she might +be, could not be sent to the Beaminster Hospital three miles away. +Common humanity forbade it. She must, for a time at least, be nursed in +the place where she was taken ill.</p> + +<p>So she was carried indoors and laid in the best bedroom, which was a +gloomy-looking place until Janetta began to make reforms in it. When she +had put fresh curtains to the windows, and set flowers on the +window-sill, and banished some of the old black furniture, the room +looked a trifle more agreeable, and there was nothing on which poor +Juliet Brand's eye could dwell with positive dislike or dissatisfaction +when she came to herself. But for some time she lay at the very point of +death, and it seemed to Janetta and to all the watchers at the bedside +that Mrs. Wyvis Brand could not long continue in the present world.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Brand the elder seldom came into the room. She showed a singular +horror of her daughter-in-law: she would not even willingly speak of +her. She pleaded her ill-health as an excuse for not taking her share of +the nursing; and when it seemed likely that Janetta would be worn out by +it, she insisted that a nurse from the Beaminster Hospital should be +procured. "It will not be for long," she said gloomily, when Janetta +spoke regretfully of the expense. For Janetta was chief cashier and +financier in the household.</p> + +<p>But it appeared as if she were mistaken. Mrs. Brand did not die, as +everybody expected. She lay for a time in a very weak state, and then +began gradually to recover strength. Before long, she was able to +converse, and then she showed a preference for Janetta's society which +puzzled the girl not a little. For Julian she also showed some fondness, +but he sometimes wearied, sometimes vexed her, and a visit of a very few +minutes sufficed for both mother and son. Julian himself exhibited not +only dislike but terror of her. He tried to run away and hide when the +hour came for his daily visit to his mother's room; and when Janetta +spoke to him on the subject rather anxiously, he burst into tears and +avowed he was afraid.</p> + +<p>"Afraid of what?" said Janetta.</p> + +<p>But he only sobbed and would not tell.</p> + +<p>"She can't hurt you, Julian, dear. She is ill and weak and lonely; and +she loves you. It's not kind and loving of you to run away."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to be unkind."</p> + +<p>"Or unloving?" said Janetta.</p> + +<p>"I don't love her," the boy answered, and bit his lip. His eye flashed +for a moment, and then he looked down as if he were ashamed of the +confession.</p> + +<p>"Julian, dear? Your mother?"</p> + +<p>"I can't help it. She hasn't been very much like a mother to me."</p> + +<p>"You should not say that, dear. She loves you very much; and all people +do not love in the same way."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it isn't that," said the boy, as if in desperation. "I know she +loves me, but—but——" And there he broke down in a passion of tears +and sobs, amidst which Janetta could distinguish only a few words, such +as "Suzanne said"—"father"—"make me wicked too."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean," said Janetta, more shocked than she liked to show, "that +you think your father wicked?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, no! Suzanne said mother was not good. Not father."</p> + +<p>"But, my dear boy, you must not say that your mother is not good. You +have no reason to say so, and it is a terrible thing to say."</p> + +<p>"She was unkind to father—and to me, too," Julian burst forth. "And she +struck you; she is wicked and unkind, and I don't love her. And Suzanne +said she would make me wicked, too, and that I was just like her; and I +don't want—to—be—wicked."</p> + +<p>"Nobody can make you wicked if you are certain that you want to be +good," said Janetta, gravely; "and it was very wrong of Suzanne to say +anything that could make you think evil of your mother."</p> + +<p>"Isn't she naughty, then?" Julian asked in a bewildered tone.</p> + +<p>"I do not know," Janetta answered, very seriously. "Only God knows that. +We cannot tell. It is the last thing we ought say."</p> + +<p>"But—but—you call me naughty sometimes?" the child said, fixing a pair +of innocent, inquiring eyes upon her.</p> + +<p>"Ah, but, my dear, I do not love you the less," said Janetta, out of the +fullness of her heart, and she took him in her arms and kissed him.</p> + +<p>"You are more like what I always think a mother ought to be," said +Julian. What stabs children inflict on us sometimes by their artless +words! Janetta shuddered a little as he spoke. "Then ought I to love +her, whether she is good or bad?"</p> + +<p>Janetta paused. She was very anxious to say only what was right.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my darling," she said at last. "Love her always, through +everything. She is your mother, and she has a right to your love."</p> + +<p>And then, in simple words, she talked to him about right and wrong, +about love and duty and life, until, with brimming eyes, he flung his +arms about her, and said——</p> + +<p>"Yes, I understand now. And I will love her and take care of her always, +because God sent me to her to do that."</p> + +<p>And he objected no more to the daily visit to his mother's room.</p> + +<p>The sick woman's restless eyes, sharpened by illness, soon discerned the +change in his demeanor.</p> + +<p>"You've been talking to that boy about me," she said one day to Janetta, +in a quick, sensitive voice.</p> + +<p>"Nothing that would hurt you," Janetta replied, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Oh, indeed, I'm not so sure of that. He used to run away from me, and +now he sits beside me like a lamb. I know what you've been saying."</p> + +<p>"What?" said Janetta.</p> + +<p>"You've been saying that I'm going to die, and that he won't be bothered +with me long. Eh?"</p> + +<p>"No; nothing of that kind."</p> + +<p>"What did you say, then?"</p> + +<p>"I told him," said Janetta, slowly, "that God sent him to you as a +little baby to be a help and comfort to you; and that it was a son's +duty to protect and sustain his mother, as she had once protected and +sustained him."</p> + +<p>"And you think he understood that sort of nonsense?"</p> + +<p>"You see for yourself whether he does or not," said Janetta, gently. "He +likes to come and see you and sit beside you now."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wyvis Brand was silent for a minute or two. A tear gathered in each +of her defiant black eyes, but she did not allow either of them to fall.</p> + +<p>"You're a queer one," she said, with a hard laugh. "I never met anybody +like you before. You're religious, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know: I should like to be," said Janetta, soberly.</p> + +<p>"That's the queerest thing you've said yet. And all you religious people +look down on folks like me."</p> + +<p>"Then I'm not religious, for I don't look down on folks like you at +all," said Janetta, calmly adopting Mrs. Brand's vocabulary.</p> + +<p>"Well, you ought to. I'm not a very good sort myself."</p> + +<p>Janetta smiled, but made no other answer: And presently Juliet Brand +remarked—</p> + +<p>"I dare say I'm not so bad as some people, but I've never been a saint, +you know. And the day I came here I was in an awful temper. I struck +you, didn't I?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, never mind that," said Janetta, hastily. "You were tired: you +hardly knew what you were doing."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did," said Mrs. Brand. "I knew perfectly well. But I hated you, +because you lived here and had care of Julian. I had heard all about you +at Beaminster, you see. And people said that you would probably marry +Wyvis when he came home again. Oh, I've made you blush, have I? It was +true then?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all; and you have no right to say so."</p> + +<p>"Don't be angry, my dear. I don't want to vex you. But it looks to me +rather as though——Well, we won't say any more about it since it vexes +you. I shan't trouble you long, most likely, and then Wyvis can do as he +pleases. But you see it was that thought that maddened me when I came +here, and I felt as if I'd like to fall upon you and tear you limb from +limb. So I struck you on the face when you tried to thwart me."</p> + +<p>"But—I don't understand," said Janetta, tremulously. "I thought you did +not—<i>love</i>—Wyvis."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Brand laughed. "Not in your way," she said in an enigmatic tone. +"But a woman can hate a man and be jealous of him too. And I was jealous +of you, and struck you. And in return for that you've nursed me night +and day, and waited on me, until you're nearly worn out, and the doctor +says I owe my life to you. Don't you think I'm right when I say you're a +queer one?"</p> + +<p>"It would be very odd if I neglected you when you were ill just because +of a moment of passion on your part," said Janetta, rather stiffly. It +was difficult to her to be perfectly natural just then.</p> + +<p>"Would it? Some people wouldn't say so. But come—you say I don't love +Wyvis?"</p> + +<p>"I thought so—certainly."</p> + +<p>"Well, look here," said Wyvis' wife. "I'll tell you something. Wyvis was +tired of me before ever he married me. I soon found that out. And you +think I should be caring for him then? Not I. But there <i>was</i> a time +when I would have kissed the very ground he walked on. But he never +cared for me like that."</p> + +<p>"Then—why——".</p> + +<p>"Why did he marry me? Chiefly because his old fool of a mother egged him +on. She should have let us alone."</p> + +<p>"Did she want him to marry you?" said Janetta, in some amaze.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't seem likely, does it?" said Mrs. Brand, with a sharp, +heartless little laugh. "But she sets up for having a conscience now and +then. I was a girl in a shop, I may tell you, and Wyvis made love to me +without the slightest idea of marrying me. Then Mrs. Brand comes on the +scene: 'Oh, my dear boy, you mustn't make that young woman unhappy. I +was made unhappy by a gentleman when I was a girl, and I don't want you +to behave as he did."</p> + +<p>"And that was very good of Mrs. Brand!" said Janetta, courageously.</p> + +<p>Juliet made a grimace. "After a fashion. She had better have let us +alone. She put Wyvis into a fume about his honor; and so he asked me to +marry him. And I cared for him—though I cared more about his +position—and I said yes. So we were married, and a nice cat and dog +life we had of it together."</p> + +<p>"And then you left him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did. I got tired of it all at last. But I always lived +respectably, except for taking a little too much stimulant now and then; +and I never brought any dishonor on his name. And at last I thought the +best thing for us both would be to set him free. And I wrote to him that +he <i>was</i> free. But there was some hitch—I don't know what exactly. Any +way, we're bound to each other as fast as ever we were, so we needn't +think to get rid of each other just yet."</p> + +<p>Janetta felt a throb of thankfulness, for Margaret's sake. Suppose she +had yielded to Wyvis' solicitations and become his wife, to be proved +only no wife at all? Her want of love for Wyvis had at least saved her +from terrible misery. Mrs. Brand went on, reflectively—</p> + +<p>"When I'm gone, he can marry whom he likes. I only hope it'll be anybody +as good as you. You'd make a capital mother to Julian. And I don't +suppose I shall trouble anybody very long."</p> + +<p>"You are getting better—you will soon be perfectly well."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense: nothing of the kind. But if I am, I know one thing," said +Mrs. Brand, in a petulant tone; "I won't be kept out of my rights any +longer. This house seems to be nice and comfortable: I shall stay here. +I am tired of wandering about the world."</p> + +<p>Janetta was silent and went on with some needle-work.</p> + +<p>"You don't like that, do you?" said Mrs. Brand, peering into her face. +"You think I'd be better away."</p> + +<p>"No," said Janetta. But she could not say more.</p> + +<p>"Do you know where he is?"</p> + +<p>"He? Wyvis?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my husband."</p> + +<p>"I have an address. I do not know whether he is there or not, but he +would no doubt get a letter if sent to the place. Do you wish to write +to him?"</p> + +<p>"No. But I want you to write. Write and say that I am here. Ask him to +come back."</p> + +<p>"You had better write yourself."</p> + +<p>"No. He would not read it. Write for me."</p> + +<p>Janetta could not refuse. But she felt it one of the hardest tasks that +she had ever had to perform in life. She was sorry for Juliet Brand, but +she shrank with all her heart and soul from writing to Wyvis to return +to her. Yet what else could she do?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2> + +<h3>THE FRUITS OF A LIE.</h3> + + +<p>When she told old Mrs. Brand what she had done, she was amazed to mark +the change which came over that sad and troubled countenance. Mrs. +Brand's face flushed violently, her eyes gleamed with a look as near +akin to wrath as any which Janetta had ever seen upon it.</p> + +<p>"You have promised to write to Wyvis?" she cried. "Why? What is it to +you? Why should you write?"</p> + +<p>"Why should I not?" asked Janetta, in surprise.</p> + +<p>"He will never come back to her—never. And it is better so. She spoiled +his life with her violence, her extravagance, her flirtations. He could +not bear it; and why should he be brought back to suffer all again?"</p> + +<p>"She is his wife still," said the girl, in a low tone.</p> + +<p>"They are separated. She tried to get a divorce, even if she did not +succeed. I do not call her his wife."</p> + +<p>Janetta shook her head. "I cannot think of it as you do, then," she +said, quietly. "She and Wyvis are married; and as they separated only +for faults of temper, not for unfaithfulness, I do not believe that they +have any right to divorce each other. Some people may think +differently—I cannot see it in that way."</p> + +<p>"You mean," said Mrs. Brand, with curious agitation of manner; "you mean +that even if she had divorced him in America, you would not think him +free—free to marry again?"</p> + +<p>"No," Janetta answered, "I would not."</p> + +<p>She felt a singular reluctance to answering the question, and she hoped +that Mrs. Brand would ask her nothing more. She was relieved when Wyvis' +mother moved away, after standing perfectly still for a moment, with her +hands clasped before her, a strange ashen shade of color disfiguring her +handsome old face. Janetta thought the face had grown wonderfully tragic +of late; but she hoped that when Juliet had left the house the poor +mother would again recover the serenity of mind which she had gained +during the past few months of Janetta's gentle companionship.</p> + +<p>She wrote her letter to Wyvis, making it as brief and business-like as +possible. She dwelt a good deal on Juliet's weakness, on her love for +the boy, and her desire to see him once again. At the same time she +added her own conviction that Mrs. Wyvis Brand was on the high road to +recovery, and would soon be fairly strong and well. She dared not give +any hint as to a possible reconciliation, but she felt, even as she +penned her letter, that it was to this end that she was working. "And it +is right," she said steadily to herself; "there is nothing to gain in +disunion: everything to lose by unfaithfulness. It will be better for +Julian—for all three—that father and mother should no longer be +divided."</p> + +<p>But although she argued thus, she had a somewhat different and entirely +instinctive feeling in her heart. To begin with, she could not imagine +persons more utterly unsuited to one another than Wyvis and his wife. +Juliet had no principles, no judgment, to guide her: she was impulsive +and passionate; she did not speak the truth, and she seemed in her +wilder moments to care little what she did. Wyvis had faults—who knew +them better than Janetta, who had studied his character with great and +loving care?—but they were nor of the same kind. His mood was +habitually sombre; Juliet loved pleasure and variety: his nature was a +loving one, strong and deep, although undisciplined; but Juliet's light +and fickle temperament made her shrink from and almost dislike +characteristics so different from her own. And Janetta soon saw that in +spite of her open defiance of her husband she was a little afraid of +him; and she could well imagine that when Wyvis was angry he was a man +of whom a woman might very easily be afraid.</p> + +<p>Yet, when the letter was despatched, Janetta felt a sense of relief. She +had at least done her duty, as she conceived of it. She did not know +what the upshot might be; but at any rate, she had done her best to put +matters in train towards the solving of the problem of Wyvis' married +life.</p> + +<p>She was puzzled during the next few days by some curious, indefinable +change in Mrs. Brand's demeanor. The poor woman had of late seemed +almost distraught; she had lost all care, apparently, for appearances, +and went along the corridors moaning Wyvis' name sadly to herself, and +wringing her hands as if in bitter woe. Her dress was neglected, and her +hair unbrushed: indeed, when Janetta was too busy to give her a +daughter's loving care, as it was her custom and her pleasure to do, +poor Mrs. Brand roamed about the house looking like a madwoman. Her +madness was, however, of a gentle kind: it took the form of melancholia, +and manifested itself chiefly by continual restlessness and occasional +bursts of weeping and lament.</p> + +<p>In one of these outbreaks Janetta found her shortly after she had sent +her letter to Wyvis, and tried by all means in her power to soothe and +pacify her.</p> + +<p>"Dear grandmother," she began—for she had caught the word from Julian, +and Mrs. Brand liked her to use it—"why should you be so sad? Wyvis is +coming home, Juliet is better, little Julian is well, and we are all +happy."</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> are not happy," said Mrs. Brand, throwing up her hands with a +curiously tragic gesture. "You are miserable—miserable; and I am the +most unhappy woman living!"</p> + +<p>"No," I said Janetta, gently. "I am not miserable at all. And there are +many women more unhappy than you are. You have a home, sons who love +you, a grandson, friends—see how many things you have that other people +want! Is it right to speak of yourself as unhappy?"</p> + +<p>"Child," said the older woman, impressively, "you are young, and do not +know what you say. Does happiness consist in houses and clothes, or even +in children and friends? I have been happier in a cottage than in the +grandest house. As for friends—what friends have I? None; my husband +would never let me make friends lest I should expose my ignorance, and +disgrace him by my low birth and bringing up. I have never had a woman +friend."</p> + +<p>"But your children," said Janetta, putting her arms tenderly round the +desolate woman's neck.</p> + +<p>"Ah, my children! When they were babies, they were a pleasure to me. But +they have never been a pleasure since. They have been a toil and a pain +and a bondage. That began when Wyvis was a little child, and Mr. Brand +took a fancy to him and wanted to make every one believe that he was +<i>his</i> child, not John's. I foresaw that there would be trouble, but he +would never listen to me. It was just a whim of the moment at first, and +then, when he saw that the deceit troubled me, it became a craze with +him. And whatever he said, I had to seem to agree with. I dared not +contradict him. I hated the deceit, and the more I hated it, the more he +loved it and practiced it in my hearing, until I used to be sick with +misery. Oh, my dear, it is the worst of miseries to be forced into +wrong-doing against your will."</p> + +<p>"But why did you give way?" said Janetta, who could not fancy herself in +similar circumstances being forced into anything at all.</p> + +<p>"My dear, he made me, I dared not cross him. He made me suffer, and he +made the children suffer if ever I opposed him. What could I do?" said +the poor woman, twisting and untwisting her thin hands, and looking +piteously into Janetta's face. "I was obliged to obey him—he was my +husband, and so much above me, so much more of a gentleman than I ever +was a lady. You know that I never could say him nay. He ruled me, as he +used to say, with a rod of iron—for he made a boast of it, my dear—and +he was never so happy, I think, as when he was torturing me and making +me wince with pain."</p> + +<p>"He must have been——" when Janetta stopped short: she could not say +exactly what she thought of Mrs. Brand's second husband.</p> + +<p>"He was cruel, my dear: cruel, that is, to women. Not cruel amongst his +own set—among his equals, as he would have said—not cruel to boys. But +always cruel to women. Some woman must have done him a grievous wrong +one day—I never knew who she was; but I am certain that it was so; and +that soured and embittered him. He was revenging himself on that other +woman, I used to think, when he was cruel to me."</p> + +<p>Janetta dared not speak.</p> + +<p>"I did not mind his cruelty when it meant nothing but bodily pain, you +know, my dear," Mrs. Brand continued patiently. "But it was harder for +me to bear when it came to what might be called moral things. You see I +loved him, and I could not say him nay. If he told me to lie, I had to +do it. I never forgave myself for the lies I told at his bidding. And if +he were here to tell me to do the same things I should do them still. If +he had turned Mohammedan, and told me to trample on the Bible or the +Cross, as I have read in missionary books that Christians have sometimes +been bribed to do, I should have obeyed him. I was his body and soul, +and all my misery has come out of that."</p> + +<p>"How?" Janetta asked.</p> + +<p>"I brought Wyvis up on a lie," the mother answered, her face growing +woefully stern and rigid as she mentioned his name, "and it has been my +punishment that he has always hated lies. I have trembled to hear him +speak against falsehood—to catch his look of scorn when he began to see +that his father did not speak truth. Very early he made me understand +that he would never be likely to forgive us for the deception we +practiced on him. For his good, you will say; but ah, my dear, deception +is never for anybody's good. I never forgave myself, and Wyvis will +never forgive me. And yet he is my child. Now you see the happiness that +lies in having children."</p> + +<p>Janetta tried to dissipate the morbid terror of the past, the morbid +dread of Wyvis' condemnation, which hung like a shadow over the poor +woman's mind, but she was far from being successful.</p> + +<p>"You do not know," was all that Mrs. Brand would say. "You do not +understand." And then she broke out more passionately—</p> + +<p>"I have done him harm all his life. His misery has been my fault. You +heard him tell me so. It is true: there is no use denying it. And he +knows it."</p> + +<p>"He spoke in a moment of anger: he did not know what he said."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, he did, and he meant it too. I have heard him say a similar +thing before. You see it was I that brought about this wretched marriage +of his—because I pitied this woman, and thought her case was like my +own—that she loved Wyvis as I loved Mark Brand. I brought that +marriage about, and Wyvis has cursed me ever since."</p> + +<p>"No, no," said Janetta, kissing her troubled face, "Wyvis would never +curse his mother for doing what she thought right. Wyvis loves you. +Surely you know that—you believe that? Wyvis is not a bad son."</p> + +<p>"No, my dear, not a bad son, but a cruelly injured one," said Mrs. +Brand. "And he blames me. I cannot blame him: it was all my fault for +not opposing Mark when he wanted me to help him to carry out his wicked +scheme."</p> + +<p>"I think," said Janetta, tentatively, "that Cuthbert has more right to +feel himself injured than Wyvis."</p> + +<p>"Cuthbert?" Mrs. Brand repeated, in an indifferent tone. "Oh, Cuthbert +is of no consequence: his father always said so. A lame, sickly, +cowardly child! If we had had a strong, healthy lad of our own, Mark +would not have put Wyvis in Cuthbert's place, but with a boy like +Cuthbert, what would you expect him to do?"</p> + +<p>It seemed to Janetta almost as if her mind were beginning to wander: the +references to Cuthbert's boyish days appeared to be so extraordinarily +clear and defined—almost as though she were living again through the +time when Cuthbert was supplanted by her boy Wyvis. But when she spoke +again, Mrs. Brand's words were perfectly clear, and apparently +reasonable in tone.</p> + +<p>"I often think that if I could do my poor boy some great service, he +would forgive me in heart as well as in deed. I would do anything in the +world for him, Janetta, if only I could give him back the happiness of +which I robbed him."</p> + +<p>Janetta could not exactly see that the poor mother's sins had been so +great against Wyvis as against Cuthbert, but it was evident that Mrs. +Brand could never be brought to look at matters in this light. The +thought that she had injured her first-born son had taken possession of +her completely, and seriously disturbed the balance of her faculties. +The desire to make amends to Wyvis for her wrong-doing had already +reached almost a maniacal point: how much further it might be carried +Janetta never thought of guessing.</p> + +<p>She was anxious about Mrs. Brand, but more so for her physical than for +her mental strength. For her powers were evidently failing in every +direction, and the doctor spoke warningly to Janetta of the weakness of +her heart's action, and the desirability of shielding her from every +kind of agitation. It was impossible to provide against every kind of +shock, but Janetta promised to do her best.</p> + +<p>The winter was approaching before Janetta's letter to Wyvis received an +answer. She was beginning to feel very anxious about it, for his silence +alarmed and also surprised her. She could hardly imagine a man of Wyvis' +disposition remaining unmoved when he read the letter that she had sent +him. His wife's health was, moreover, giving her serious concern. She +had caught cold on one of the foggy autumnal days, and the doctor +assured her that her life would be endangered if she did not at once +seek a warmer climate. But she steadily refused to leave the Red House.</p> + +<p>"I won't go," she said to Janetta, with a red spot of anger on either +cheek, "until I know whether he means to do the proper thing by me or +not."</p> + +<p>"He is sure to do that; you need have no fear," said Janetta, bluntly.</p> + +<p>An angry gleam shot from the sick woman's eyes. "You defend him through +thick and thin, don't you? Wyvis has a knack of getting women to stick +up for him. They say the worst men are often the most beloved."</p> + +<p>Janetta left the room, feeling both sick and sorry, and wondering how +much longer she could bear this kind of life. It was telling upon her +nerves and on her strength in every possible way. And yet she could not +abandon her post—unless, indeed, Wyvis himself relieved her. And from +him for many weary days there came no word.</p> + +<p>But at last a telegram arrived—dated from Liverpool. "I shall be with +you to-morrow. Your letter was delayed, and reached me only by +accident," Wyvis said. And then his silence was explained.</p> + +<p>Janetta carried the news of his approaching arrival to wife and mother +in turn. Mrs. Wyvis took it calmly. "I told you so," she said, with a +triumphant little nod. But Mrs. Brand was terribly agitated, and even, +as it seemed to Janetta, amazed. "I never thought that he would come," +she said, in a loud whisper, with a troubled face and various nervous +movements of her hands. "I never thought that he would come back to her. +I must be quick. I must be quick, indeed." And when Janetta tried to +soothe her, and said that she must now make haste to be well and strong +when Wyvis was returning, she answered only in about the self-same +words—"never thought it, my dear, indeed, I never did. But if he is +coming back, so soon, I must be quick—I must be very quick."</p> + +<p>And Janetta could not persuade her to say why.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2> + +<h3>NIGHT.</h3> + + +<p>It was the night before Wyvis' return. The whole household seemed +somewhat disorganized by the prospect. There was an air of subdued +excitement visible in the oldest and staidest of the servants, for in +spite of Wyvis' many shortcomings and his equivocal position, he was +universally liked by his inferiors, if not by those who esteemed +themselves his superiors, in social station. Mrs. Brand had gone to bed +early, and Janetta hoped that she was asleep; Mrs. Wyvis had kept +Janetta at her bedside until after eleven o'clock, regaling her with an +account of her early experience in Paris. When at last she seemed +sleepy, Janetta said good-night and went to her own room. She was tired +but wakeful. The prospect of Wyvis' return excited her; she felt that it +would be impossible to sleep that night, and she resolved therefore to +establish herself before the fire in her own room, with a book, and to +see, by carefully abstracting her mind from actual fact, whether she +could induce the shy goddess, sleep, to visit her.</p> + +<p>She read for some time, but she had great difficulty in fixing her mind +upon her book. She found herself conning the same words over and over +again, without understanding their meaning in the least; her thoughts +flew continually to Wyvis and his affairs, and to the mother and wife +and son with whom her fate had linked her with such curious closeness. +At last she relinquished the attempt to read, and sat for some time +gazing into the fire. She heard the clock strike one; the quarter and +half-hour followed at intervals, but still she sat on. Anyone who had +seen her at that hour would hardly have recognized her for the +vivacious, sparkling, ever cheerful woman who made the brightness of the +Red House; the sunshine had left her face, her eyes were wistful, almost +sad; the lines of her mouth drooped, and her cheeks had grown very pale. +She felt very keenly that the period of happy, peaceful work and rest +which she had enjoyed for the last few months was coming to an end. She +was trying to picture to herself what her future life would be, and it +was difficult to imagine it when her old ties had all been severed. "It +seems as if I had to give up everybody that I ever cared for," she said +to herself, not complainingly, but as one recognizing the fact that some +persons are always more or less lonely in the world, and that she +belonged to a lonely class. "My father has gone—my brother and sisters +do not need me; Margaret abandoned me; Wyvis and his mother and Julian +are lost to me from henceforth. God forgive me," said Janetta to +herself, burying her face in her hands and shedding some very heartfelt +tears, "if I seem to be repining at my friends' good fortune; I do not +mean it; I wish them every joy. But what I fear is, lest it should not +be for their good—that Wyvis and his mother and Julian should be +unhappy."</p> + +<p>She was roused from her reflection by a sound in the corridor. It was a +creaking board, she knew that well enough; but the board never creaked +unless some one trod upon it. Who could be walking about the house at +this time of night? Mrs. Brand, perhaps; she was terribly restless at +night, and often went about the house, seeking to tire herself so +completely that sleep would be inevitable on her return to bed. On a +cold night, such expeditions were not, however, unattended by danger, as +she was not careful to protect herself against draughts, and it was with +the desire to care for her that Janetta at last rose and took up a soft +warm shawl with which she thought that she might cover Mrs. Brand's +shoulders.</p> + +<p>With the shawl over her arm and a candle in one hand she opened her door +and looked out into the passage. It was unlighted, and the air seemed +very chilly. Janetta stole along the corridor like a thief, and peeped +into Mrs. Brand's bedroom; as was expected, it was empty. Then she +looked into Julian's room, for she had several times found the +grandmother praying by his bed, at dead of night; but Julian slumbered +peacefully, and nobody else was there. Janetta rather wonderingly turned +her attention to the lower rooms of the house. But Mrs. Brand was not to +be found in any of the sitting rooms; and the hall door was securely +locked and bolted, so that she could not have gone out into the garden.</p> + +<p>"She must be upstairs," said Janetta to herself. "But what can she be +doing in that upper storey, where there are only empty garrets and +servants rooms! I did not look into the spare room, however; perhaps she +has gone to see if it is ready for Wyvis, and I did not go to Juliet. +She cannot have gone to <i>her</i>, surely; she never enters the room unless +she is obliged."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, her heart began to beat faster, and she involuntarily +quickened her steps. She did not believe that Mrs. Brand would seek +Juliet's room with any good intent, and as she reached the top of the +stairs her eyes dilated and her face grew suddenly pale with fear. For a +strange whiff of something—was it smoke?—came into her eyes, and an +odd smell of burning assailed her nostrils. Fire, was it fire? She +remembered that Wyvis had once said that the Red House would burn like +tinder if it was ever set alight. The old woodwork was very combustible, +and there was a great deal of it, especially in the upper rooms.</p> + +<p>Juliet's door was open. Janetta stood before it for the space of one +half second, stupefied and aghast. Smoke was rapidly filling the room +and circling into the corridor; the curtains near the window were in a +blaze, and Mrs. Brand, with a lighted candle in her hand, was +deliberately setting fire to the upholstery of the bed where the +unconscious Juliet lay. Janetta never forgot the moment's vision that +she obtained of Mrs. Brand's pale, worn, wildly despairing face—the +face of a madwoman as she now perceived, who was not responsible for the +deed she did.</p> + +<p>Janetta sprang to the window curtains, dragged them down and trampled +upon them. Her thick dressing gown, and the woollen shawl that she +carried all helped in extinguishing the flame. Her appearance had +arrested Mrs. Brand in her terrible work; she paused and began to +tremble, as if she knew in some vague way that she was doing what was +wrong. The flame had already caught the curtains, which were of a light +material, and was creeping up to the woodwork of the old-fashioned bed, +singeing and blackening as it went. These, also, Janetta tore down, +burning her hands as she did so, and then with her shawl she pressed out +the sparks that were beginning to fly dangerously near the sleeping +woman. A heavy ewer of water over the mouldering mass of torn muslin and +lace completed her task; and by that time Juliet had started from her +sleep, and was asking in hysterical accents what was wrong.</p> + +<p>Her screams startled the whole household, and the servants came in +various stages of dress and undress to know what was the matter. Mrs. +Brand had set down her candle and was standing near the door, trembling +from head to foot, and apparently so much overcome by the shock as to be +unable to answer any question. That was thought very natural. "Poor +lady! what a narrow escape! No wonder she was upset," said one of the +maids sympathetically, and tried to lead her back to her own room. But +Mrs. Brand refused to stir.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Juliet was screaming that she was burning, that the whole +house was on fire, that she should die of the shock, and that Wyvis was +alone to blame—after her usual fashion of expressing herself wildly +when she was suffering from any sort of excitement of mind.</p> + +<p>"You are quite safe now," Janetta said at last, rather sharply. "The +fire is out: it was never very much. Come into my room: the bed may be +cold and damp now, and the smoke will make you cough."</p> + +<p>She was right; the lingering clouds of smoke were producing unpleasant +effects on the throat and lungs of Mrs. Wyvis Brand; and she was glad to +be half led, half carried, by two of the servants into Janetta's room. +And no sooner was she laid in Janetta's bed than a little white figure +rushed out of another room and flew towards her, crying out:</p> + +<p>"Mother! Mother! You are not hurt?"</p> + +<p>She was not hurt, but she was shaken and out of breath, and Julian's +caresses were not altogether opportune. Still she did not seem to be +vexed by them. Perhaps they were too rare to be unwelcome. She let him +creep into bed beside her, and lay with her arm round him as if he were +still a baby at her breast, and then for a time they slept together, +mother and child, as they had not slept since the days of Julian's +babyhood. For both it may have been a blessed hour. Julian scarcely knew +what it was to feel a mother's love; and with Juliet, the softer side of +her nature had long been hidden beneath a crust of coldness and +selfishness. But those moments of tenderness which a common danger had +brought to light would live for ever in Julian's memory.</p> + +<p>While these two were sleeping, however, others in the house were busy. +As soon as Juliet was out of the room, Janetta turned anxiously to Mrs. +Brand. "Come with me, dear," she said. "Come back to your room. You will +catch cold."</p> + +<p>She felt no repulsion, nothing but a great pity for the hapless woman +whose nature was not strong enough to bear the strain to which it had +been subjected, and she wished, above all things, to keep secret the +origin of the fire. If Mrs. Brand would but be silent, she did not think +that Juliet could fathom the secret, but she was not sure that poor Mrs. +Brand would not betray herself. At present, she showed no signs of +understanding what had been said to her.</p> + +<p>"She is quite upset by the shock," said the maid who had previously +spoken. "And no wonder. And oh! Miss Colwyn, don't you know how burnt +your hands are! You must have them seen to, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>"Never mind my hands, I don't feel them," said Janetta brusquely. "Help +me to get Mrs. Brand to her room, and then send for a doctor. Go to Dr. +Burroughs, he will know what to do. I want him here as quickly as +possible. And bring me some oil and cotton wool."</p> + +<p>The servants looked at one another, astonished at the strangeness of her +tone. But they were fond of her and always did her bidding gladly, so +they performed her behest, and helped her to lead Mrs. Brand, who was +now perfectly passive in their hands, into her own room.</p> + +<p>But when she was there, the old butler returned to knock at the door and +ask to speak to Miss Colwyn alone. Janetta came out, with a feeling of +curious fear. She held the handle of the door as he spoke to her.</p> + +<p>"I beg pardon, m'm," he said deferentially, "but hadn't I better keep +them gossiping maids out of the room over there?"</p> + +<p>Janetta looked into his face, and saw that he more than suspected the +truth.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"The window curtains are burned, m'm, and the bed-curtains; also the bed +clothes in different places, and one or two other light articles about +the room. It is easy to see that it was not exactly an accident, m'm."</p> + +<p>Then, seeing Janetta's color change, he added kindly, "But there's no +call for you to feel afraid, m'm. We've all known as the poor lady's +been going off her head for a good long time, and this is only perhaps +what might have been expected, seeing what her feelings are. You leave +it all to me, and just keep her quiet, m'm; I'll see to the room, and +nobody else shall put their foot into it. The master will be home this +morning, I hope and trust."</p> + +<p>He hobbled away, and Janetta went back to Mrs. Brand. The reaction was +setting in; her own hurts had not been attended to, and were beginning +to give her a good deal of pain; and she was conscious of sickness and +faintness as well as fatigue. A great dread of Mrs. Brand's next words +and actions was also coming over her.</p> + +<p>But for the present, at least, she need not have been afraid! Mrs. Brand +was lying on the bed in a kind of stupor: her eyes were only half-open; +her hands were very cold.</p> + +<p>Janetta did her best to warm and comfort her physically; and then, +finding that she seemed to sleep more naturally, she got her hands bound +up and sat down to await the coming of the doctor.</p> + +<p>But she was not destined to wait in idleness very long. She was summoned +to Mrs. Wyvis Brand, who had awakened suddenly from her sleep and was +coughing violently. Little Julian had to be hastily sent back to his own +room, for his mother's cough was dangerous as well as distressing to +her, and Janetta was anxious that he should not witness what might prove +to be a painful sight.</p> + +<p>And she was not far wrong. For the violent cough produced on this +occasion one of its most serious results. The shock, the exposure, the +exertion, had proved almost too much for Mrs. Wyvis Brand's strength. +She ruptured a blood-vessel just as the doctor entered the house; and +all that he could do was to check the bleeding with ice, and enjoin +perfect quiet and repose. And when he had seen her, he had to hear from +Janetta the story of that terrible night. She felt that it was wise to +trust Dr. Burroughs entirely, and she told him, in outline, the whole +story of Mrs. Brand's depression of spirits, and of her evident half-mad +notion that she might gain Wyvis' forgiveness for her past mistakes by +some deed that would set him free from his unloved wife, and enable him +to lead a happier life in the future.</p> + +<p>The doctor shook his head when he saw his patient. "It is just as well +for her, perhaps," he said afterwards, "but it is sad for her son and +for those who love her—if any one does! She will probably not recover. +She is in a state of complete prostration; and she will most likely slip +away in sleep."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am sorry," said Janetta, with tears in her eyes.</p> + +<p>The doctor looked at her kindly. "You need not be sorry for her, my +dear. She is best out of a world which she was not fitted to cope with. +You should not wish her to stay."</p> + +<p>"It will be so sad for Wyvis, when he comes home to-day," murmured +Janetta, her lip trembling.</p> + +<p>"He is coming to-day, is he? Early this morning? I will stay with you, +if you like."</p> + +<p>Janetta was glad of the offer, although it gave her an uneasy feeling +that the end was nearer than she thought.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2> + +<h3>THE LAST SCENE.</h3> + + +<p>"She does not know you," Dr. Burroughs said, when, a few hours later, +Wyvis bent over his mother's pillow and looked into her quiet, +care-lined face.</p> + +<p>"Will she never know me?" asked the young man in a tone of deep +distress. "My poor mother! I must tell her how sorry I am for the pain +that I have often given her."</p> + +<p>"She may be conscious for a few minutes by-and-bye," the doctor said. +"But consciousness will only show that the end is near."</p> + +<p>There was a silence in the room. Mrs. Brand had now lain in a stupor for +many hours. Wyvis had been greeted on his arrival with sad news indeed: +his mother and wife were seriously ill, and the doctor acknowledged +that he did not think Mrs. Brand likely to live for many hours.</p> + +<p>Wyvis had not been allowed to enter his wife's room, Juliet had to be +kept very quiet, lest the hæmorrhage should return. He was almost glad +of the respite; he dreaded the meeting, and he was anxious to bestow all +his time upon his mother. Janetta had told him something about what had +passed; he had heard an outline, but only an outline, of the sad story, +and it must be confessed that as yet he could not understand it. It was +perhaps difficult for a man to fathom the depths of a woman's morbid +misery, or of a doating mother's passionate and unreasonable love. He +grieved, however, over what was somewhat incomprehensible to him, and he +thought once or twice with a sudden sense of comfort that Janetta would +explain, Janetta would make him understand. He looked round for her when +this idea occurred to him; but she was not in the room. She did not like +to intrude upon what might be the last interview between mother and son, +for she was firmly persuaded that Mrs. Brand would recover +consciousness, and would tell Wyvis in her own way something of what she +had thought and felt; but she was not far off, and when Wyvis sent her a +peremptory message to the effect that she was wanted, she came at once +and took up her position with him as watcher beside his mother's bed.</p> + +<p>Janetta was right. Mrs. Brand's eyes opened at last, and rested on +Wyvis' face with a look of recognition. She smiled a little, and seemed +pleased that he was there. It was plain that for the moment she had +quite forgotten the events of the last few hours, and the first words +that she spoke proved that the immediate past had completely faded from +her mind.</p> + +<p>"Wyvis!" she faltered. "Are you back again, dear? And is—is your father +with you?"</p> + +<p>"I am here, mother," Wyvis answered. He could say nothing more.</p> + +<p>"But your father——"</p> + +<p>Then something—a gleam of reawakening memory—seemed to trouble her; +she looked round the room, knitted her brows anxiously, and murmured a +few words that Wyvis could not hear.</p> + +<p>"I remember now," she said, in a stronger voice. "I wanted something—I +thought it was your father, but it was something quite different—I +wanted your forgiveness, Wyvis."</p> + +<p>"Mother, mother, don't speak in that way," cried her son. "Have you not +suffered enough to expiate <i>any</i> mistake?"</p> + +<p>"Any mistake, perhaps, not any sin," said his mother feebly. "Now that I +am old and dying, I call things by their right names. I did you a wrong, +and I did Cuthbert a wrong, and I am sorry now."</p> + +<p>"It is all past," said Wyvis softly. "It does not matter now."</p> + +<p>"You forgive me for my part in it? You do not hate me?"</p> + +<p>"Mother! Have I been cold to you then? I have loved you all the time, +and never blamed you in my heart."</p> + +<p>"You said that I was to blame."</p> + +<p>"But I did not mean it. I never thought that you would take an idle word +of mine so seriously, mother. Forgive me, and believe me that I would +not have given you pain for the world if I had thought, if I had only +thought that it would hurt you so much!"</p> + +<p>His mother smiled faintly, and closed her eyes for a moment, as if the +exertion of speaking had been too much for her; but, after a short +pause, she started suddenly, and opened her eyes with a look of extreme +terror.</p> + +<p>"What is it," she said. "What have I done? Where is she?"</p> + +<p>"Who, mother?"</p> + +<p>"Your wife, Juliet. What did I do? Is she dead? The fire—the fire——"</p> + +<p>Wyvis looked helplessly round for Janetta. He could not answer: he did +not know how to calm his mother's rapidly increasing excitement. Janetta +came forward and bent over the pillow.</p> + +<p>"No, Juliet is not dead. She is in her room; you must not trouble +yourself about her," she said.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Brand's eyes were fixed apprehensively on Janetta's face.</p> + +<p>"Tell me what I did," she said in a loud whisper.</p> + +<p>It was difficult to answer. Wyvis hid his face in a sort of desperation. +He wondered what Janetta was going to say, and listened in amazement to +her first words.</p> + +<p>"You were ill," said Janetta clearly. "You did not know what you were +doing, and you set fire to the curtains in her room. Nobody was hurt, +and we all understand that you would have been very sorry to harm +anybody. It is all right, dear grandmother, and you must remember that +you were not responsible for what you were doing then."</p> + +<p>The boldness of her answer filed Wyvis with admiration. He knew that +he—manlike—would have temporized and tried in vain to deny the truth, +it was far wiser for Janetta to acknowledge and explain the facts. Mrs. +Brand pressed the girl's hand and looked fearfully in her face.</p> + +<p>"She—she was not burned?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all."</p> + +<p>"Stoop down," said Mrs. Brand. "Lower. Close to my face. There—listen +to me. I meant to kill her. Do you understand? I meant to set the place +on fire and let her burn. I thought she deserved it for making my boy +miserable."</p> + +<p>Wyvis started up, and turned his back to the bed. It was impossible for +him to hear the confession with equanimity. But Janetta still hung over +the pillow, caressing the dying woman, and looking tenderly into her +face.</p> + +<p>"Yes, you thought so then—I understand," she said. "But that was +because of your illness. You do not think so now."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Brand, in the same loud, hoarse whisper. "I think so +now."</p> + +<p>Then Janetta was silent for a minute or two. The black, ghastly look in +Mrs. Brand's wide-open eyes disconcerted her. She scarcely knew what to +say.</p> + +<p>"I have always hated her. I hate her now," said Wyvis' mother. "She has +done me no harm; no. But she has injured my boy; she made his life +miserable, and I cannot forgive her for that."</p> + +<p>"If Wyvis forgives her," said Janetta gently, "can you not forgive her +too?"</p> + +<p>"Wyvis does not forgive her for making him unhappy," said Mrs. Brand.</p> + +<p>"Wyvis,"—Janetta looked round at him. She could not see his face. He +was standing with his face to the window and his back to the bed. +"Wyvis, you have come back to your wife: does not that show that you are +willing to forget the past and to make a fresh beginning. Tell your +mother so, Cousin Wyvis."</p> + +<p>He turned round slowly, and looked at her, not at his mother, as he +replied:</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am willing to begin again," he said. "I never wished her any +harm."</p> + +<p>"Then, you will forgive her—for Wyvis' sake? For Julian's sake?" said +Janetta.</p> + +<p>A strange contraction of the features altered Mrs. Brand's face for a +moment: her breath came with difficulty and her lips turned white.</p> + +<p>"I forgive," she said at last, in broken tones. "I cannot quite forget. +But I do not want—now—to harm her. It was but for a time—when my head +was bad."</p> + +<p>"We know, we know," said Janetta eagerly. "We understand. Wyvis, tell +her that <i>you</i> understand too."</p> + +<p>She looked at him insistently, and he returned the look. Their eyes said +a good deal to each other in a second's space of time. In hers there was +tenderness, expostulation, entreaty; in his some shade of mingled horror +and regret. But he yielded his will to hers, thinking it nobler than his +own; and, turning to his mother, he stooped and kissed her on the +forehead.</p> + +<p>"I understand, mother. Janetta has made me understand."</p> + +<p>"Janetta—it is always Janetta we have to thank," his mother murmured +feebly. "It was for Janetta as well as for you that I did it. Wyvis—but +it is no use now. And, God forgive me, I did not know what I did."</p> + +<p>She sank into silence and spoke no more for the next few hours. Her life +was quietly ebbing away. Towards midnight, she opened her eyes and spoke +again.</p> + +<p>"Janetta—Wyvis," she said softly, and then the last moment came. Her +eyelids drooped, her head fell aside upon the pillow. There was no more +for her to say or do. Poor Mary Brand's long trial had come to an end at +last.</p> + +<p>Juliet was not told of Mrs. Brand's death until after the funeral, as it +was feared that the news might unduly excite her. As it was, she gave a +hoarse little scream when she heard it, and asked, with every appearance +of horror, whether there was really "a body" in the house. On being +informed by Janetta that "the body" had been removed, she became +immediately tranquil, and remarked confidentially that she was "not +sorry, after all, for the old lady's death: it was such a bore to have +one's husband's mother in the house." Then she became silent and +thoughtful, and Janetta wondered whether some kindlier feeling were not +mixing itself with her self-gratulation. But presently Mrs. Wyvis Brand +broke forth:</p> + +<p>"Look here, I must say this, if I die for it. You know the night when my +room was on fire. Well, now tell me true: wasn't my mother-in-law to +blame for it?"</p> + +<p>Janetta looked at her in speechless dismay. She had no trust in Juliet's +disposition: she did not know whether she might revile Mrs. Brand +bitterly, or be touched by an account of her mental suffering. Wyvis, +however, had recommended her to tell his wife as much of the truth as +seemed necessary; "because, if you don't," he said, "she is quite sharp +enough to find it out for herself. So if she has any suspicion, tell her +something. Anything is better than nothing in such a case."</p> + +<p>And Janetta, taking her courage in both hands, so to speak, answered +courageously:</p> + +<p>"May I speak frankly to you, Juliet?" For Mrs. Wyvis Brand had insisted +that Janetta should always call her by her Christian name.</p> + +<p>"Of course you may. What is it?"</p> + +<p>"It is about Mrs. Brand. You must have known that for some time she had +been very weak and feeble. Her mind was giving way. Indeed, she was far +worse than we ever imagined, and she was not sufficiently watched. On +that night, it was she whom you saw, and it was she who set fire to the +curtains; but you must remember, Juliet, that she was not in her right +mind."</p> + +<p>"Why, I might have been burned alive in my bed," cried Juliet—an +exclamation so thoroughly characteristic that Janetta could hardly +forbear to smile. Mrs. Wyvis Brand looked terribly shocked and +disconcerted, and it was after a pause that she collected herself +sufficiently to say in her usual rapid manner:</p> + +<p>"You may say what you like about her being mad; but Mrs. Brand knew very +well what she was doing. She always hated me, and she wanted to get me +out of the way."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Juliet, don't say so," entreated Janetta.</p> + +<p>"But I do say so, and I will say so, and I have reason on my side. She +hated me like poison, and she loved you dearly. Don't you see what she +wanted? She would have liked you to take my place."</p> + +<p>"If you say such things, Juliet——"</p> + +<p>"You'll go out of the room, won't you, my dear? Why," said Juliet, with +a hard laugh in which there was very little mirth, "you don't suppose I +mind? I have known long enough that she thought bad things of me. Don't +you remember the name you called me when you thought I wanted Julian? +You had learnt every one of them from her, you know you had. Oh, you +needn't apologize. I understand the matter perfectly. I bear no malice +either against her or you, though I don't know that I am quite the black +sheep that you both took me to be."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry if I was unjust," said Janetta slowly. "But all that I meant +amounts to one thing—that you did not make my Cousin Wyvis very happy."</p> + +<p>"Ah, and that's the chief thing, isn't it?" said Juliet, with a keen +look. "Well, don't be frightened, I'm going to change my ways. I've had +a warning if anybody ever had; and I'm not going to get myself turned +out of house and home. If Wyvis will stick to me, I'll stick to him; and +I can't say more than that. I should like to see him now."</p> + +<p>"Now, Juliet?" said Janetta, rather aghast at the idea. The meeting +between husband and wife had not yet taken place, and Janetta shrank +sensitively from the notion that Juliet might inflict fresh pain on +Wyvis on the very day of his mother's funeral. But Mrs. Wyvis Brand +insisted, and her husband was summoned to the room.</p> + +<p>"You needn't go away, Janetta," said Juliet imperatively. "I want you as +a witness. Well, Wyvis, here I am, and I hope you are glad to see me."</p> + +<p>She lifted herself a little from the couch on which she lay, and looked +at him defiantly. Janetta could see that he was shocked at the sight of +her wasted outlines, her hectic color, the unhealthy brilliance of her +eyes; and it was this sight, perhaps, that caused him to say gently:</p> + +<p>"I am sorry not to see you looking better."</p> + +<p>"The politest speech he has made me for years," she said, laughing. +"Well, half a loaf is better than no bread. We didn't hit it off exactly +the last time we saw each other, did we? Suppose we try again: should we +get on any better, do you think?"</p> + +<p>"We might try," said Wyvis slowly.</p> + +<p>He was pale and grave, but, as she saw, not unwilling to make peace.</p> + +<p>"All right," she said, holding out her hand to him with easy, audacious +grace, "let us try then. I own I was aggravating—own in your turn that +you were tyrannical now and then! You witness that he owns up, +Janetta—why, the girl's gone! Never mind: give me a kiss now we are +alone, Wyvis, and take me to the Riviera to-morrow if you want to save +my life."</p> + +<p>Wyvis kissed his wife and promised to do what she asked him, but he did +not look as if he expected to have an easy task.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2> + +<h3>MAKING AMENDS.</h3> + + +<p>"It is pleasant to be home again," said Margaret.</p> + +<p>For two years she had not seen the Court. For two year's she and her +parents had roamed over the world, spending a winter in Egypt or Italy, +a summer in Norway, a spring or autumn at Biarritz, or Pau, or some +other resort of wealthy and idle Englishmen. These wanderings had been +begun with the laudable object of weaning Margaret's heart away from +Wyvis Brand, but they had been continued long after Margaret's errant +fancy had been chided back to its wonted resting place. The habit of +wandering easily grows, and the two years had slipped away so pleasantly +that it was with a feeling almost of surprise that the Adairs reckoned +up the time that had elapsed since they left England. Then Margaret had +a touch of fever, and began to pine for her home; and, as her will was +still law (in all minor points, at least), her parents at once turned +homeward, and arrived at Helmsley Court in the month of May, when the +woods and gardens were at their loveliest, bright with flowers, and +verdant with the exquisite green of the spring foliage, before it +becomes dusty and faded in the summer-heat.</p> + +<p>"It is pleasant to be at home again," said Margaret, standing at the +door of the conservatory one fair May morning and looking at the great +sweep of green sward before her, where elm and beech trees made a +charming shade, and beds of brightly-tinted flowers dotted the grass at +intervals. "I was so tired of foreign towns."</p> + +<p>"Were you, dear? You did not say so until lately," said Lady Caroline.</p> + +<p>"I did not want to bring you and papa home until you were ready to +come," said Margaret gently.</p> + +<p>"Dear child. And you have lost your roses. English country air will soon +bring them back."</p> + +<p>"I never had much color, mama," said Margaret gravely. It was almost as +though she were not quite well pleased by the remark.</p> + +<p>She moved away from the door, and Lady Caroline's eyes followed her with +a solicitude which had more anxiety and less pride than they used to +show. For Margaret had altered during the last few months. She had grown +more slender, more pale than ever, and a certain languor was perceptible +in her movements and the expression of her beautiful eyes. She was not +less fair, perhaps, than she had been before; and the ethereal character +of her beauty had only been increased by time. Lady Caroline had been +seriously distressed lately by the comments made by her acquaintances +upon Margaret's appearance. "Very delicate, surely," said one. "Do you +think that your daughter is consumptive?" said another. "She would be so +very pretty if she looked stronger," remarked a third. Now these were +not precisely the remarks that Lady Caroline liked her friends to make.</p> + +<p>She could not quite understand her daughter. Margaret had of late become +more and more reticent. She was always gentle, always caressing, but she +was not expansive. Something was amiss with her spirits or her health: +nobody could exactly say what it was. Even her father discovered at last +that she did not seem well; but, although he grumbled and fidgeted about +it, he did not know how to suggest a remedy. Lady Caroline hoped that +the return to England would prove efficacious in restoring the girl's +health and spirits, and she was encouraged by hearing Margaret express +her pleasure in her English home. But she felt uneasily that she was not +quite sure as to what was wrong.</p> + +<p>"People are beginning to call very quickly," she said, looking at some +cards that lay in a little silver tray. "The Bevans have been here, +Margaret."</p> + +<p>"Have they? When we were out yesterday, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. And the Accringtons, and—oh, ah, yes—two or three other +people."</p> + +<p>"Who, mamma?" said Margaret, her attention immediately attracted by her +mother's hesitation. She turned away from the door and entered the +morning-room as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"Oh, only Lady Ashley, dear," said Lady Caroline smoothly. She had quite +recovered her self-possession by this time.</p> + +<p>"And Sir Philip Ashley," said Margaret, with equal calmness, as she +glanced at the cards in the little silver dish. But the lovely color +flushed up into her cheeks, and as she stood with her eyes cast down, +still fingering the cards, her face assumed the tint of the deepest +rose-carnation.</p> + +<p>"Is that the reason?" thought Lady Caroline, with a sudden little thrill +of fear and astonishment. "Surely not! After all this time—and after +dismissing him so summarily! Well, there is no accounting for girls' +tastes."</p> + +<p>She said aloud:</p> + +<p>"We ought to return these calls pretty soon, I think. With such old +friends it would be nice to go within the week. Do you not agree with +me, love?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, mamma," said, Margaret dutifully.</p> + +<p>"Shall we go to-morrow then? To the Bevans first, and then to the +Ashleys?"</p> + +<p>Margaret hesitated. "The Accringtons live nearer the Bevans than Lady +Ashley," she said. "You might call on Lady Ashley next day, mamma."</p> + +<p>"Yes, darling," said Lady Caroline. She was reassured. She certainly did +not want Margaret to show any alacrity in seeking out the Ashleys, and +she hoped that that tell-tale blush had been due to mere maiden modesty +and not to any warmer feeling, which would probably be completely thrown +away upon Philip Ashley, who was not the man to offer himself a second +time to a woman who had once refused him.</p> + +<p>She noticed, however, that Margaret showed no other sign of interest in +Sir Philip and his mother; that she did not ask for any account of the +call paid, without her, by Lady Caroline a day or two later. Indeed, she +turned away and talked to Alicia Stone while Lady Caroline was telling +Mr. Adair of the visits that she had made. So the mother was once more +reassured.</p> + +<p>She was made uneasy again by an item of news that reached her ear soon +after her return home. "Mr. Brand is coming back," said Mrs. Accrington +to her, with a meaning smile. "I hear that there are great preparations +at the Red House. His wife is dead, you know."</p> + +<p>"Indeed," said Lady Caroline, stiffly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, died at Nice last spring or summer, I forget which; I suppose he +means to settle at home now. They say he's quite a changed character."</p> + +<p>"I am glad to hear it," said Lady Caroline.</p> + +<p>She felt annoyed as well as anxious. Was it possible that Margaret knew +that Wyvis Brand was coming home? In spite of the inveterate habit of +caressing Margaret and making soft speeches, in spite also of the very +real love that she had for her daughter, Lady Caroline did not +altogether trust her. Margaret had once or twice disappointed her too +much.</p> + +<p>"His little boy," continued Mrs. Accrington in a conversational tone, +"has been spending the time with Mr. Brand's younger brother and his +wife, one of the Colwyn girls, wasn't she? And the eldest Colwyn girl, +the one who sang, has been acting as his governess. She used to be +companion to old Mrs. Brand you know."</p> + +<p>"I remember," said Lady Caroline, and managed to change the subject.</p> + +<p>She would have liked to question Margaret, but she did not dare. She +watched her carefully for the next few days, and she was not satisfied. +Margaret was nervous and uneasy, as she had been about the time when +Wyvis Brand made his indiscreet proposal for her hand; it seemed to Lady +Caroline that she was watching for some person to arrive—some person +who never came. Who was the person for whom she watched? so Lady +Caroline asked herself. But she dared not question Margaret.</p> + +<p>She noticed, too, that Mr. Adair looked once or twice at his daughter in +a curiously doubtful way, as if he were puzzled or distressed. And one +day he said musingly:</p> + +<p>"It is surely time for Margaret to be getting married, is it not?"</p> + +<p>"Somebody has been saying so to you," said Lady Caroline, with less +urbanity than usual.</p> + +<p>"No, no, only Isabel; she wrote this morning expressing some surprise at +not having heard that Margaret was engaged before now. I suppose," Mr. +Adair hesitated a little, "I suppose she <i>will</i> marry?"</p> + +<p>"Reginald, what an idea! Of course Margaret will marry, and marry +brilliantly."</p> + +<p>"I am not so sure of that," said Mr. Adair, who seemed to be in low +spirits. "Look at my two sisters, and lots of other girls. How many men +has Margaret refused? She will take up with some crooked stick at last."</p> + +<p>He went out without waiting for his wife's reply. Lady Caroline, +harassed in mind and considerably weakened of late in body, sat still +and shed a few silent tears. She was angry with him, and yet she shared +his apprehensions. Was it possible that their lovely Margaret was +turning out a social failure? To have Margaret at home, fading, ageing, +growing into an old maid like the sisters of Reginald Adair, that was +not to be thought of for a moment.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Margaret was taking her fate in her own hands.</p> + +<p>She was at that very moment standing in the conservatory opposite a +tall, dark man, who, hat in hand, looked at her expectantly as if he +wished her to open the conversation. She had never made a fairer picture +than she did just then. She was dressed in white, and the exquisite +fairness of her head and face was thrown into strong relief by the dark +background of fronded fern and thickly matted creeper with which the +wall behind her was overgrown. Her face was slightly bent, and her hands +hung clasped before her. To her visitor, who was indeed Sir Philip +Ashley, she appeared more beautiful than ever. But his eye, as it rested +upon her, though attentive, was indifferent and cold.</p> + +<p>"You sent for me, I think?" he said politely, finding that she did not +speak.</p> + +<p>"Yes." Margaret's voice was very low. "I hope you did not mind my +writing that little note?"</p> + +<p>"Mind? Not at all. If there is anything I can do for you——?"</p> + +<p>"It is not that I want you to do anything," said Margaret, whose +self-possession, not easily disturbed, was now returning to her. "It was +simply that I had something to say."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip bowed. His role was that of a listener, it appeared.</p> + +<p>"When I was in England before," Margaret went on, this time with some +effort, "you found fault with me——"</p> + +<p>"Presumption on my part, I am sure," said Sir Philip, smiling a little. +"Such a thing will certainly not occur again."</p> + +<p>"Oh please hear me," said Margaret, rather hurriedly. "Please listen +seriously—I am very serious, and I want you to hear what I have to +say."</p> + +<p>"I will listen," said Sir Philip, gravely; he turned aside a little, and +looked at the flowers as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"I want to tell you that you were right about Janetta Colwyn. The more I +have thought of it, the more sure I have been that you were right. I +ought not to have been angry when you asked me to prevent people from +misjudging her. I ought to have written to Miss Polehampton and set +things straight."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip made an inarticulate sound of assent. She paused for a +moment, and then went on pleadingly.</p> + +<p>"It's such a long time ago now that I do not know what to do. I cannot +ask mamma. She never liked Janetta—she never was just to her. I do not +even know where Janetta is, nor whether I can do anything to help her. +Do you know?"</p> + +<p>"I know where she is. At the Red House just now, with Mr. and Mrs. +Cuthbert Brand."</p> + +<p>"Then—what shall I do?" said Margaret, more urgently. "Would it be of +any use if I wrote to Miss Polehampton or anyone about her now? I will +do anything I can to help her—anything you advise."</p> + +<p>Sir Philip changed his position, as if he were slightly impatient.</p> + +<p>"I do not know that there is anything to be done for Miss Colwyn at +present," he replied. "She is in a very good position, and I do not +think she wants material help. Of course, if you were to see her and +tell her that you regret the manifest injustice with which she was +treated on more than one occasion, I dare say she would be glad, and +that such an acknowledgment from you would draw out the sting from much +that is past and gone. I think that this is all you can do."</p> + +<p>"I will do it," said Margaret submissively. "I will tell her that I am +sorry."</p> + +<p>"You will do well," replied Sir Philip in a kinder tone. "I am only +sorry that you did not see things differently when we spoke of the +matter before."</p> + +<p>"I am older now, I have thought more. I have reflected on what you +said," murmured Margaret.</p> + +<p>"You have done my poor words much honor," said he, with a slight cold +smile. "And I am glad to think that the breach in your friendship is +healed. Miss Colwyn is a true and loyal friend—I could not wish you a +better. I shall feel some pleasure in the thought, when I am far from +England, that you have her for your friend once more."</p> + +<p>"Far from England"—Margaret repeated the words with paling lips.</p> + +<p>"Did you not know? I have accepted a post in Victoria. I shall be out +for five years at least. So great a field of usefulness seems open to me +there that I did not know how to refuse it."</p> + +<p>Margaret was mute for a time. Then, with a tremendous effort, she put +another question. "You go—alone?" she said.</p> + +<p>Sir Philip did not look at her.</p> + +<p>"No," he said, kicking a small pebble off the tesselated pavement with +the toe of his boot, and apparently taking the greatest interest in its +ultimate fate, "no, I don't go quite alone. I am taking with me my +secretary—and—my wife. I suppose you know that next week I am going to +marry Miss Adela Smithies, daughter of Smithies the great brewer? We +sail ten days later."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XL" id="CHAPTER_XL"></a>CHAPTER XL.</h2> + +<h3>MY FAITHFUL JANET.</h3> + + +<p>"Good blood," they say, "does not lie." Margaret was true to her +traditions. She did not faint, she did not weep, over what was complete +ruin to her expectations, if not of her hopes. She held her head a +little more erect than usual, and looked Sir Philip quietly in the face.</p> + +<p>"I am very glad to hear it," she said—it was a very excusable lie, +perhaps. "I hope you will be happy."</p> + +<p>Strange to say, her calmness robbed Sir Philip of his self-possession. +He flushed hotly and looked away, thinking of some words that he had +spoken many months ago to Margaret's mother—a sort of promise to be +"always ready" if Margaret should ever change her mind. Had she changed +it now? But she was not going to leave him in doubt upon this point.</p> + +<p>"You have only just forestalled a similar announcement on my part," she +said, smiling bravely. "I dare say you will hear all about it soon—and +I hope that you will wish me joy."</p> + +<p>He looked up with evident relief.</p> + +<p>"I am exceedingly glad. I may congratulate you then?"</p> + +<p>"Thank you. Yes, we may congratulate each other."</p> + +<p>She still smiled—rather strangely, as he thought. He wondered who the +"happy man" could be? But of that, to tell the truth, Margaret was as +ignorant as he. She had invented her little tale of an engagement in +self-defence.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Margaret," he said, with a sudden impulse of affection, "if only +you could have seen as I saw—two years ago!"</p> + +<p>"But that was impossible," she answered quietly. "And I think it would +be undesirable also. I wanted you to know, however, that I agree with +you about Janetta—I think that you were right."</p> + +<p>"And you have nothing more to tell me?"</p> + +<p>For the moment he was willing to throw up his appointment in Australia, +to fly from the wealthy and sensible Miss Adela Smithies and incur any +odium, any disappointment, and any shame, if only Margaret Adair would +own that she loved him and consent to be his wife. For, although he +liked and esteemed Miss Smithies, who was a rather plain-faced girl with +a large fortune, he was perfectly conscious that Margaret had been the +one love of his life. But Margaret was on her guard.</p> + +<p>"To tell you?" she echoed, as if in mild surprise. "Why no, I think not, +Sir Philip. Except, perhaps, to ask you not to speak—for the present, +at least—of my own prospects, they are not yet generally known, and I +do not want them mentioned just now."</p> + +<p>"Certainly. I will respect your confidence," said Sir Philip. He felt +ashamed of that momentary aberration. Adela was a very suitable wife for +him, and he could not think without remorse that he had ever proposed to +himself to be untrue to her. How fortunate, he reflected, that Margaret +did not seem to care!</p> + +<p>"Will you come in?" she said graciously. "Mamma will be so pleased to +see you, and she will be glad to congratulate you on your good fortune."</p> + +<p>"Thank you very much, but I fear I must be off. I am very busy, and I +really have scarcely any time to spare."</p> + +<p>"I must thank you all the more for giving me some of your valuable +time," said Margaret sweetly. "Must you go?"</p> + +<p>"I really must. And—" as he held out his hand—"we are friends, then, +from henceforth?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course we are," she answered. But her eyes were strangely cold, +and the smile upon her lips was conventional and frosty. The hand that +he held in his own was cold, too, and somewhat limp and flabby.</p> + +<p>"I am so glad," he said, growing warmer as she grew cold, "that you have +resolved to renew your acquaintance with Miss Colwyn. It is what I +should have expected from your generous nature, and it shows that what I +always—always thought of you was true."</p> + +<p>"Please do not say so," said Margaret. She came very near being natural +in that moment. She had a choking sensation in her throat, and her eyes +smarted with unshed tears. But her training stood her in good stead. "It +is very kind of you to be so complimentary," she went on with a light +little laugh. "And I hope that I shall find Janetta as nice as she used +to be. Good-bye. <i>Bon voyage.</i>"</p> + +<p>"I wish you every happiness," he said with a warm clasp of her hand and +a long grave look into her beautiful face; and then he went away and +Margaret was left alone.</p> + +<p>She stole up to her room almost stealthily, and locked the door. She +hoped that no one had seen Sir Philip come and go—that her mother would +not question her, or remark on the length of his visit. She was +thoroughly frightened and ashamed to think of what she had done. She had +been as near as possible to making Sir Philip what would virtually have +been an offer of marriage. What an awful thought! And what a narrow +escape! For of course he would have had to refuse her, and she—what +could she have done then? She would never have borne the mortification. +As it was, she hoped that Sir Philip would accept the explanation of the +little note of summons which she had despatched to him that morning, +and would never inquire what her secret motive had been in writing it.</p> + +<p>She set herself to consider the situation. She did not love Sir Philip. +She was not capable of a great deal of love, and all that she had been +capable of she had given to Wyvis Brand. But the years of girlhood in +her father's house were beginning to pall upon her. She was conscious of +a slight waning of her beauty, of a perceptible diminution in the +attentions which she received, and the admiration that she excited. It +had occurred to her lately, as it had occurred to her parents, that she +ought to think seriously of getting married. The notion of spinsterhood +was odious to Margaret Adair. And Sir Philip Ashley would have been, as +her mother used to say, so <i>suitable</i> a man for her to marry! Margaret +saw it now.</p> + +<p>She wept a few quiet tears for her lost hopes, and then she arrayed +herself becomingly, and, with a look of purpose on her face, went down +to tea.</p> + +<p>"Do you know, mamma," she said, "that Sir Philip Ashley is going to +marry Miss Smithies, the great brewer's daughter, and that he has +accepted a post in Victoria?"</p> + +<p>"Margaret!"</p> + +<p>"It is quite true, mamma, he told me so himself. Why need you look +surprised? We could hardly expect," said Margaret, with a pretty smile, +"that Sir Philip should always remain unmarried for my sake."</p> + +<p>"It is rather sudden, surely!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't think so. By the bye, mamma, shall we not soon feel a +little dull if we are here all alone? It would be very nice to fill the +house with guests and have a little gaiety. Perhaps—" with a faint but +charming blush—"Lord Southbourne would come if he were asked."</p> + +<p>Lord Southbourne was an exceptionable viscount with weak brains and a +large rent-roll whom Margaret had refused six months before.</p> + +<p>"I am sure he would, my darling; I will ask him," said Lady Caroline, +with great satisfaction. And she noticed that Margaret's watch for an +unknown visitor had now come to its natural end.</p> + +<p>It was not more than a month later in the year when Janetta Colwyn, +walking in the plantation near the Red House, came face to face with a +man who was leaning against the trunk of a fir-tree, and had been +waiting for her to approach. She looked astonished; but he was calm, +though he smiled with pleasure, and held out his hands.</p> + +<p>"Well, Janetta!"</p> + +<p>"Wyvis! You have come home at last!"</p> + +<p>"At last."</p> + +<p>"You have not been up to the house yet?"</p> + +<p>"No, I was standing here wishing that I could see you first of all; and, +just as I wished it, you came in sight. I take it as a good omen."</p> + +<p>"I am glad you are back," said Janetta earnestly.</p> + +<p>"Are you? Really? And why?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, for many reasons. The estate wants you, for one thing," said +Janetta, coloring a little, "and Julian wants you——"</p> + +<p>"Don't you want me at all, Janetta?"</p> + +<p>"Everybody wants you, so I do, too."</p> + +<p>"Tell me more about everybody and everybody's wants. How is Julian?"</p> + +<p>"Very well, indeed, and longing to see you before he goes to school."</p> + +<p>"Ah yes, poor little man. How does he like the idea of school?"</p> + +<p>"Pretty well."</p> + +<p>"And how do you like the idea of his going?"</p> + +<p>Janetta's face fell. "I am sure it is good for him," she said rather +wistfully.</p> + +<p>"But not so good for you. What are you going to do? Shall you live with +Mrs. Burroughs, Janet?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed; I think I shall take lodgings in London, and give lessons. +I have saved money during the last few months," said Janetta with +something between a tear in the eye and a smile on the lip, "so that I +shall be able to live even if I get no pupils at first."</p> + +<p>"And shall you like that?"</p> + +<p>She looked at him for a moment without replying, and then said +cheerfully:</p> + +<p>"I shall not like it if I get no pupils."</p> + +<p>"And how are Cuthbert and Nora?"</p> + +<p>"Absorbed in baby-worship," said Janetta. "You will be expected to fall +down and worship also. And your little niece is really very pretty."</p> + +<p>Wyvis shook his head. "Babies are all exactly alike to me, so you had +better instruct me beforehand in what I ought to say. And what about +our neighbors, Janet? Are the Adairs at home?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Janetta, with some reserve of tone.</p> + +<p>"And the Ashleys?"</p> + +<p>"Old Lady Ashley. Sir Philip has married and gone to the Antipodes."</p> + +<p>"Married Margaret? I always thought that would be the end of it."</p> + +<p>"You are quite wrong. He married a Miss Smithies, a very rich girl, I +believe. And Margaret is engaged to a certain Lord Southbourne—who is +also very rich, I believe."</p> + +<p>"Little Southbourne!" exclaimed Wyvis, with a sudden burst of laughter. +"You don't say so! I used to know him at Monaco. Oh, there's no harm in +little South; only he isn't very bright."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry for Margaret," said Janetta.</p> + +<p>"Oh she will be perfectly happy. She will always move in her own circle +of society, and that is paradise for Margaret."</p> + +<p>"You are very hard on her, Wyvis," Janetta said, reprovingly. "She is +capable of higher things than you believe."</p> + +<p>"Capable! Oh, she may be <i>capable</i> of anything," said Wyvis, "but she +does not do the things that she is capable of doing."</p> + +<p>"At any rate she is very kind to me now. She wrote to me a few days ago, +and told me that she was sorry for our past misunderstanding. And she +asked me to go and stay with her when she was married to Lord +Southbourne and had a house of her own."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure that she did not add that it would be such an advantage to +you?"</p> + +<p>"Of course she did not." But Janetta blushed guiltily, nevertheless.</p> + +<p>"And did you promise to accept the invitation?"</p> + +<p>She smiled and shook her head.</p> + +<p>"I thought you were such a devoted friend of hers!"</p> + +<p>"I always tried to be a true friend to her. But you know I think, Wyvis, +that some people have not got it in their nature to be true friends to +anyone. And perhaps it was not—quite—in Margaret's nature."</p> + +<p>"I agree with you," said Wyvis, more gravely than he had spoken +hitherto. "She has not your depth of affection, Janetta—your strength +of will. You have been a very true and loyal friend to those you have +loved."</p> + +<p>Janetta turned away her face. Something in his words touched her very +keenly. After a pause, Wyvis spoke again.</p> + +<p>"I have had reason since I saw you last to know the value of your +friendship," he said seriously. "I want to speak to you for a moment, +Janetta, before we join the others, about my poor Juliet. I had not, as +you know, very many months with her after we left England. But during +those few months I became aware that she was a different creature from +the woman I had known in earlier days. She showed me that she had a +heart—that she loved me and our boy after all—and died craving my +forgiveness, poor soul (though God knows that I needed hers more than +she needed mine), for the coldness she had often shown me. And she said, +Janetta, that <i>you</i> had taught her what love meant, and she charged me +to tell you that your lessons had not been in vain."</p> + +<p>Janetta looked up with swimming eyes. "Poor Juliet! I am glad that she +said that."</p> + +<p>"She is at peace now," said Wyvis, in a lower voice, "and the happiness +of her later days is due to you. But how much is not due to you, +Janetta! Your magic power seemed to change my poor wife's very nature: +it has made my child happy: it gave all possible comfort to my mother on +her dying bed—and what it has done for me no words can ever tell! No +one has been to me what you have been, Janetta; the good angel of my +life, always inspiring and encouraging, always ready to give me hope and +strength and courage in my hours of despair."</p> + +<p>"You must not say so: I have done nothing," she said, but she let her +hand lie unresistingly between his own, as he took it and pressed it +tenderly.</p> + +<p>"Have you not? Then I have been woefully mistaken. And it has come +across me strangely, Janetta, of late, that of all the losses I have +had, one of the greatest is the loss of my kinship with you. No doubt +you have thought of that: John Wyvis, the ploughman's son, is not your +cousin, Wyvis Brand."</p> + +<p>"I never remembered it," said Janetta.</p> + +<p>"Then I must remind you of it now. I cannot call you Cousin Janet any +longer. May I call you something else, dear, so that I may not lose you +out of my life? I want you to be something infinitely closer and dearer +and sweeter than a cousin, Janetta; will you forgive me all my errors +and be my wife?"</p> + +<p>And when she had whispered her reply, he took her in his arms and called +her, as her father used to call her—</p> + +<p>"My faithful Janet!"</p> + +<p>And she thought that she had never borne a sweeter name.</p> + +<p>THE END.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A True Friend, by Adeline Sergeant + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRUE FRIEND *** + +***** This file should be named 23797-h.htm or 23797-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/7/9/23797/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A True Friend + A Novel + +Author: Adeline Sergeant + +Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23797] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRUE FRIEND *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + + + + + + + + + A TRUE FRIEND. + + A NOVEL. + + BY ADELINE SERGEANT + + _Author of "The Luck of the House," "A Life Sentence," etc., etc._ + + + + +MONTREAL: +JOHN LOVELL & SON, +23 ST. NICHOLAS STREET. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. AN UNSUITABLE FRIENDSHIP + + II. LADY CAROLINE'S TACTICS + + III. AT HELMSLEY COURT + + IV. ON THE ROAD. + + V. WYVIS BRAND + + VI. JANETTA AT HOME + + VII. NORA'S NEW ACQUAINTANCE + + VIII. FATHER AND CHILD + + IX. CONSULTATION + + X. MARGARET + + XI. JANETTA'S PROMISES + + XII. JANETTA REMONSTRATES + + XIII. SHADOWS + + XIV. JANETTA'S FAILURE + + XV. A BONE OF CONTENTION + + XVI. SIR PHILIP'S OPINION + + XVII. MARGARET'S FRIENDSHIP + + XVIII. A NEW FRIEND + + XIX. NORA'S PROCEEDINGS + + XX. AN ELDER BROTHER + + XXI. CUTHBERT'S ROMANCE + + XXII. WYVIS BRAND'S IDEAL + + XXIII. FORGET-ME-NOTS + + XXIV. LADY ASHLEY'S GARDEN PARTY + + XXV. SIR PHILIP'S DECISION + + XXVI. "FREE!" + + XXVII. A BIG BRIBE + + XXVIII. "CHANGES MUST COME." + + XXIX. MARGARET'S CONFESSION + + XXX. IN REBELLION + + XXXI. THE PLOUGHMAN'S SON + + XXXII. THE FAILURE OF MARGARET + + XXXIII. RETROSPECT + + XXXIV. FROM DISTANT LANDS + + XXXV. JULIET + + XXXVI. THE FRUITS OF A LIE + + XXXVII. NIGHT + + XXXVIII. THE LAST SCENE + + XXXIX. MAKING AMENDS + + XL. MY FAITHFUL JANET + + + + +A TRUE FRIEND + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +AN UNSUITABLE FRIENDSHIP. + + +Janetta was the music governess--a brown little thing of no particular +importance, and Margaret Adair was a beauty and an heiress, and the only +daughter of people who thought themselves very distinguished indeed; so +that the two had not, you might think, very much in common, and were not +likely to be attracted one to the other. Yet, in spite of differing +circumstances, they were close friends and allies; and had been such +ever since they were together at the same fashionable school where Miss +Adair was the petted favorite of all, and Janetta Colwyn was the +pupil-teacher in the shabbiest of frocks, who got all the snubbing and +did most of the hard work. And great offence was given in several +directions by Miss Adair's attachment to poor little Janetta. + +"It is an unsuitable friendship," Miss Polehampton, the principal of the +school, observed on more than one occasion, "and I am sure I do not know +how Lady Caroline will like it." + +Lady Caroline was, of course, Margaret Adair's mamma. + +Miss Polehampton felt her responsibility so keenly in the matter that at +last she resolved to speak "very seriously" to her dear Margaret. She +always talked of "her dear Margaret," Janetta used to say, when she was +going to make herself particularly disagreeable. For "her dear Margaret" +was the pet pupil, the show pupil of the establishment: her air of +perfect breeding gave distinction, Miss Polehampton thought, to the +whole school; and her refinement, her exemplary behavior, her industry, +and her talent formed the theme of many a lecture to less accomplished +and less decorous pupils. For, contrary to all conventional +expectations, Margaret Adair was not stupid, although she was beautiful +and well-behaved. She was an exceedingly intelligent girl; she had an +aptitude for several arts and accomplishments, and she was remarkable +for the delicacy of her taste and the exquisite discrimination of which +she sometimes showed herself capable. At the same time she was not as +clever--("not as _glaringly_ clever," a friend of hers once expressed +it)--as little Janetta Colwyn, whose nimble wits gathered knowledge as a +bee collects honey under the most unfavorable circumstances. Janetta had +to learn her lessons when the other girls had gone to bed, in a little +room under the roof; a room which was like an ice-house in winter and an +oven in summer; she was never able to be in time for her classes, and +she often missed them altogether; but, in spite of these disadvantages, +she generally proved herself the most advanced pupil in her division, +and if pupil-teachers had been allowed to take prizes, would have +carried off every first prize in the school. This, to be sure, was not +allowed. It would not have been "the thing" for the little +governess-pupil to take away the prizes from the girls whose parents +paid between two and three hundred a year for their tuition (the fees +were high, because Miss Polehampton's school was so exceedingly +fashionable); therefore, Janetta's marks were not counted, and her +exercises were put aside and did not come into competition with those of +the other girls, and it was generally understood amongst the teachers +that, if you wished to stand well with Miss Polehampton, it would be +better not to praise Miss Colwyn, but rather to put forward the merits +of some charming Lady Mary or Honorable Adeliza, and leave Janetta in +the obscurity from which (according to Miss Polehampton) she was fated +never to emerge. + +Unfortunately for the purposes of the mistress of the school, Janetta +was rather a favorite with the girls. She was not adored, like Margaret; +she was not looked up to and respected, as was the Honorable Edith Gore; +she was nobody's pet, as the little Ladies Blanche and Rose Amberley had +been ever since they set foot in the school; but she was everybody's +friend and comrade, the recipient of everybody's confidences, the sharer +in everybody's joys or woes. The fact was that Janetta had the +inestimable gift of sympathy; she understood the difficulties of people +around her better than many women of twice her age would have done; and +she was so bright and sunny-tempered and quick-witted that her very +presence in a room was enough to dispel gloom and ill-temper. She was, +therefore, deservedly popular, and did more to keep up the character of +Miss Polehampton's school for comfort and cheerfulness than Miss +Polehampton herself was ever likely to be aware. And the girl most +devoted to Janetta was Margaret Adair. + +"Remain for a few moments, Margaret; I wish to speak to you," said Miss +Polehampton, majestically, when one evening, directly after prayers, the +show pupil advanced to bid her teachers good-night. + +The girls all sat round the room on wooden chairs, and Miss Polehampton +occupied a high-backed, cushioned seat at a centre table while she read +the portion of Scripture with which the day's work concluded. Near her +sat the governesses, English, French and German, with little Janetta +bringing up the rear in the draughtiest place and the most uncomfortable +chair. After prayers, Miss Polehampton and the teachers rose, and their +pupils came to bid them good-night, offering hand and cheek to each in +turn. There was always a great deal of kissing to be got through on +these occasions. Miss Polehampton blandly insisted on kissing all her +thirty pupils every evening; it made them feel more as if they were at +home, she used to say; and her example was, of course, followed by the +teachers and the girls. + +Margaret Adair, as one of the oldest and tallest girls in the school, +generally came forward first for that evening salute. When Miss +Polehampton made the observation just recorded, she stepped back to a +position beside her teacher's chair in the demure attitude of a +well-behaved schoolgirl--hands crossed over the wrists, feet in +position, head and shoulders carefully erect, and eyes gently lowered +towards the carpet. Thus standing, she was yet perfectly well aware that +Janetta Colwyn gave her an odd, impish little look of mingled fun and +anxiety behind Miss Polehampton's back; for it was generally known that +a lecture was impending when one of the girls was detained after +prayers, and it was very unusual for Margaret to be lectured! Miss Adair +did not, however, look discomposed. A momentary smile flitted across her +face at Janetta's tiny grimace, but it was instantly succeeded by the +look of simple gravity becoming to the occasion. + +When the last of the pupils and the last also of the teachers had filed +out of the room, Miss Polehampton turned and surveyed the waiting girl +with some uncertainty. She was really fond of Margaret Adair. Not only +did she bring credit to the school, but she was a good, nice, lady-like +girl (such were Miss Polehampton's epithets), and very fair to look +upon. Margaret was tall, slender, and exceedingly graceful in her +movements; she was delicately fair, and had hair of the silkiest texture +and palest gold; her eyes, however, were not blue, as one would have +expected them to be; they were hazel brown, and veiled by long brown +lashes--eyes of melting softness and dreaminess, peculiarly sweet in +expression. Her features were a very little too long and thin for +perfect beauty; but they gave her a Madonna-like look of peace and calm +which many were ready enthusiastically to admire. And there was no want +of expression in her face; its faint rose bloom varied almost at a word, +and the thin curved lips were as sensitive to feeling as could be +desired. What was wanting in the face was what gave it its peculiar +maidenly charm--a lack of passion, a little lack, perhaps, of strength. +But at seventeen we look less for these characteristics than for the +sweetness and docility which Margaret certainly possessed. Her dress of +soft, white muslin was quite simple--the ideal dress for a young +girl--and yet it was so beautifully made, so perfectly finished in every +detail, that Miss Polehampton never looked at it without an uneasy +feeling that she was _too_ well-dressed for a schoolgirl. Others wore +muslin dresses of apparently the same cut and texture; but what the +casual eye might fail to observe, the schoolmistress was perfectly well +aware of, namely, that the tiny frills at neck and wrists were of the +costliest Mechlin lace, that the hem of the dress was bordered with the +same material, as if it had been the commonest of things; that the +embroidered white ribbons with which it was trimmed had been woven in +France especially for Miss Adair, and that the little silver buckles at +her waist and on her shoes were so ancient and beautiful as to be of +almost historic importance. The effect was that of simplicity; but it +was the costly simplicity of absolute perfection. Margaret's mother was +never content unless her child was clothed from head to foot in +materials of the softest, finest and best. It was a sort of outward +symbol of what she desired for the girl in all relations of life. + +This it was that disturbed Miss Polehampton's mind as she stood and +looked uneasily for a moment at Margaret Adair. Then she took the girl +by the hand. + +"Sit down, my dear," she said, in a kind voice, "and let me talk to you +for a few moments. I hope you are not tired with standing so long." + +"Oh, no, thank you; not at all," Margaret answered, blushing slightly as +she took a seat at Miss Polehampton's left hand. She was more +intimidated by this unwonted kindness of address than by any imaginable +severity. The schoolmistress was tall and imposing in appearance: her +manner was usually a little pompous, and it did not seem quite natural +to Margaret that she should speak so gently. + +"My dear," said Miss Polehampton, "when your dear mamma gave you into my +charge, I am sure she considered me responsible for the influences under +which you were brought, and the friendships that you made under my +roof." + +"Mamma knew that I could not be hurt by any friendship that I made +_here_," said Margaret, with the softest flattery. She was quite +sincere: it was natural to her to say "pretty things" to people. + +"Quite so," the schoolmistress admitted. "Quite so, dear Margaret, if +you keep within your own grade in society. There is no pupil in this +establishment, I am thankful to say, who is not of suitable family and +prospects to become your friend. You are young yet, and do not +understand the complications in which people sometimes involve +themselves by making friendships out of their own sphere. But _I_ +understand, and I wish to caution you." + +"I am not aware that I have made any unsuitable friendships," said +Margaret, with a rather proud look in her hazel eyes. + +"Well--no, I hope not," said Miss Polehampton with a hesitating little +cough. "You understand, my dear, that in an establishment like mine, +persons must be employed to do certain work who are not quite equal in +position to--to--ourselves. Persons of inferior birth and station, I +mean, to whom the care of the younger girls, and certain menial duties, +must be committed. These persons, my dear, with whom you must +necessarily be brought in contact, and whom I hope you will always treat +with perfect courtesy and consideration, need not, at the same time, be +made your intimate friends." + +"I have never made friends with any of the servants," said Margaret, +quietly. Miss Polehampton was somewhat irritated by this remark. + +"I do not allude to the servants," she said with momentary sharpness. "I +do not consider Miss Colwyn a servant, or I should not, of course, allow +her to sit at the same table with you. But there is a sort of +familiarity of which I do not altogether approve----" + +She paused, and Margaret drew up her head and spoke with unusual +decision. + +"Miss Colwyn is my greatest friend." + +"Yes, my dear, that is what I complain of. Could you not find a friend +in your own rank of life without making one of Miss Colwyn?" + +"She is quite as good as I am," cried Margaret, indignantly. "Quite as +good, far more so, and a great deal cleverer!" + +"She has capabilities," said the schoolmistress, with the air of one +making a concession; "and I hope that they will be useful to her in her +calling. She will probably become a nursery governess, or companion to +some lady of superior position. But I cannot believe, my dear that dear +Lady Caroline would approve of your singling her out as your especial +and particular friend." + +"I am sure mamma always likes people who are good and clever," said +Margaret. She did not fly into a rage as some girls would have done, but +her face flushed, and her breath came more quickly than usual--signs of +great excitement on her part, which Miss Polehampton was not slow to +observe. + +"She likes them in their proper station, my dear. This friendship is not +improving for you, nor for Miss Colwyn. Your positions in life are so +different that your notice of her can but cause discontent and +ill-feeling in her mind. It is exceedingly injudicious, and I cannot +think that your dear mamma would approve of it if she knew the +circumstances." + +"But Janetta's family is not at all badly connected," said Margaret, +with some eagerness. "There are cousins of hers living close to us--the +next property belongs to them----" + +"Do you know them, my dear?" + +"I know _about_ them," answered Margaret, suddenly coloring very deeply, +and looking uncomfortable, "but I don't think I have ever seen them, +they are so much away from home----" + +"I know _about_ them, too," said Miss Polehampton, grimly; "and I do not +think that you will ever advance Miss Colwyn's interests by mentioning +her connection with that family. I have heard Lady Caroline speak of +Mrs. Brand and her children. They are not people, my dear Margaret, whom +it is desirable for you to know." + +"But Janetta's own people live quite near us," said Margaret, reduced to +a very pleading tone. "I know them at home; they live at Beaminster--not +three miles off." + +"And may I ask if Lady Caroline visits them, my dear?" asked Miss +Polehampton, with mild sarcasm, which brought the color again to +Margaret's fair face. The girl could not answer; she knew well enough +that Janetta's stepmother was not at all the sort of person whom Lady +Caroline Adair would willingly speak to, and yet she did not like to say +that her acquaintance with Janetta had only been made at a Beaminster +dancing class. Probably Miss Polehampton divined the fact. "Under the +circumstances," she said, "I think I should be justified in writing to +Lady Caroline and asking her to remonstrate a little with you, my dear +Margaret. Probably she would be better able to make you understand the +impropriety of your behavior than I can do." + +The tears rose to Margaret's eyes. She was not used to being rebuked in +this manner. + +"But--I don't know, Miss Polehampton, what you want me to do," she said, +more nervously than usual. "I can't give up Janetta; I can't possibly +avoid speaking to her, you know, even if I wanted to----" + +"I desire nothing of the sort, Margaret. Be kind and polite to her, as +usual. But let me suggest that you do not make a companion of her in the +garden so constantly--that you do not try to sit beside her in class or +look over the same book. I will speak to Miss Colwyn herself about it. I +think I can make _her_ understand." + +"Oh, please do not speak to Janetta! I quite understand already," said +Margaret, growing pale with distress. "You do not know how kind and good +she has always been to me----" + +Sobs choked her utterance, rather to Miss Polehampton's alarm. She did +not like to see her girls cry--least of all, Margaret Adair. + +"My dear, you have no need to excite yourself. Janetta Colwyn has always +been treated, I hope, with justice and kindness in this house. If you +will endeavor only to make her position in life less instead of more +difficult, you will be doing her the greatest favor in your power. I do +not at all mean that I wish you to be unkind to her. A little more +reserve, a little more caution, in your demeanor, and you will be all +that I have ever wished you to be--a credit to your parents and to the +school which has educated you!" + +This sentiment was so effusive that it stopped Margaret's tears out of +sheer amazement; and when she had said good-night and gone to bed, Miss +Polehampton stood for a moment or two quite still, as if to recover from +the unwonted exertion of expressing an affectionate emotion. It was +perhaps a reaction against it that caused her almost immediately to ring +the bell a trifle sharply, and to say--still sharply--to the maid who +appeared in answer. + +"Send Miss Colwyn to me." + +Five minutes elapsed before Miss Colwyn came, however, and the +schoolmistress had had time to grow impatient. + +"Why did you not come at once when I sent for you?" she said, severely, +as soon as Janetta presented herself. + +"I was going to bed," said the girl, quickly; "and I had to dress myself +again." + +The short, decided accents grated on Miss Polehampton's ear. Miss Colwyn +did not speak half so "nicely," she said to herself, as did dear +Margaret Adair. + +"I have been talking to Miss Adair about you," said the schoolmistress, +coldly. "I have been telling her, as I now tell you, that the difference +in your positions makes your present intimacy very undesirable. I wish +you to understand, henceforward, that Miss Adair is not to walk with you +in the garden, not to sit beside you in class, not to associate with +you, as she has hitherto done, on equal terms." + +"Why should we not associate on equal terms?" said Janetta. She was a +black-browed girl, with a clear olive skin, and her eyes flashed and her +cheeks glowed with indignation as she spoke. + +"You are not equals," said Miss Polehampton, with icy displeasure in her +tone--she had spoken very differently to Margaret. "You have to work for +your bread: there is no disgrace in that, but it puts you on a different +level from that of Miss Margaret Adair, an earl's grand-daughter, and +the only child of one of the richest commoners in England. I have never +before reminded you of the difference in position between yourself and +the young ladies with whom you have hitherto been allowed to associate; +and I really think I shall have to adopt another method--unless you +conduct yourself, Miss Colwyn, with a little more modesty and +propriety." + +"May I ask what your other method would be?" asked Miss Colwyn, with +perfect self-possession. + +Miss Polehampton looked at her for a moment in silence. + +"To begin with," she said, "I could order the meals differently, and +request you to take yours with the younger children, and in other ways +cut you off from the society of the young ladies. And if this failed, I +could signify to your father that our arrangement was not satisfactory, +and that it had better end at the close of this term." + +Janetta's eyes fell and her color faded as she heard this threat. It +meant a good deal to her. She answered quickly, but with some +nervousness of tone. + +"Of course, that must be as you please, Miss Polehampton. If I do not +satisfy you, I must go." + +"You satisfy me very well except in that one respect. However, I do not +ask for any promise from you now. I shall observe your conduct during +the next few days, and be guided by what I see. I have already spoken to +Miss Adair." + +Janetta bit her lips. After a pause, she said-- + +"Is that all? May I go now?" + +"You may go," said Miss Polehampton, with majesty; and Janetta softly +and slowly retired. + +But as soon as she was outside the door her demeanor changed. She burst +into tears as she sped swiftly up the broad staircase, and her eyes were +so blinded that she did not even see a white figure hovering on the +landing until she found herself suddenly in Margaret's arms. In defiance +of all rules--disobedient for nearly the first time in her +life--Margaret had waited and watched for Janetta's coming; and now, +clasped as closely together as sisters, the two friends held a whispered +colloquy on the stairs. + +"Darling," said Margaret, "was she very unkind?" + +"She was very horrid, but I suppose she couldn't help it," said Janetta, +with a little laugh mixing itself with her sobs. "We mustn't be friends +any more, Margaret." + +"But we will be friends--always, Janetta." + +"We must not sit together or walk together----" + +"Janetta, I shall behave to you exactly as I have always done." The +gentle Margaret was in revolt. + +"She will write to your mother, Margaret, and to my father." + +"I shall write to mine, too, and explain," said Margaret with dignity. +And Janetta had not the heart to whisper to her friend that the tone in +which Miss Polehampton would write to Lady Caroline would differ very +widely from the one that she would adopt to Mr. Colwyn. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +LADY CAROLINE'S TACTICS. + + +Helmsley Court was generally considered one of the prettiest houses +about Beaminster; a place which was rich in pretty houses, being a +Cathedral town situated in one of the most beautiful southern counties +of England. The village of Helmsley was a picturesque little group of +black and white cottages, with gardens full of old-fashioned flowers +before them and meadows and woods behind. Helmsley Court was on slightly +higher ground than the village, and its windows commanded an extensive +view of lovely country bounded in the distance by a long low range of +blue hills, beyond which, in clear days, it was said, keen eyes could +catch a glimpse of the shining sea. The house itself was a very fine old +building, with a long terrace stretching before its lower windows, and +flower gardens which were the admiration of half the county. It had a +picture gallery and a magnificent hall with polished floor and stained +windows, and all the accessories of an antique and celebrated mansion; +and it had also all the comfort and luxury that modern civilization +could procure. + +It was this latter characteristic that made "the Court," as it was +commonly called, so popular. Picturesque old houses are sometimes +draughty and inconvenient, but no such defects were ever allowed to +exist at the Court. Every thing went smoothly: the servants were +perfectly trained: the latest improvements possible were always +introduced: the house was ideally luxurious. There never seemed to be +any jar or discord: no domestic worry was ever allowed to reach the ears +of the mistress of the household, no cares or troubles seemed able to +exist in that serene atmosphere. You could not even say of it that it +was dull. For the master of the Court was a hospitable man, with many +tastes and whims which he liked to indulge by having down from London +the numerous friends whose fancies matched his own, and his wife was a +little bit of a fine lady who had London friends too, as well as +neighbors, whom she liked to entertain. The house was seldom free from +visitors; and it was partly for that very reason that Lady Caroline +Adair, being in her own way a wise woman, had arranged that two or three +years of her daughter's life should be spent at Miss Polehampton's very +select boarding-school at Brighton. It would be a great drawback to +Margaret, she reflected, if her beauty were familiar to all the world +before she came out; and really, when Mr. Adair would insist on inviting +his friends constantly to the house, it was impossible to keep the girl +so mewed up in the schoolroom that she would not be seen and talked of; +and therefore it was better that she should go away for a time. Mr. +Adair did not like the arrangement; he was very fond of Margaret, and +objected to her leaving home; but Lady Caroline was gently inexorable +and got her own way--as she generally did. + +She does not look much like the mother of the tall girl whom we saw at +Brighton, as she sits at the head of her breakfast-table in the +daintiest of morning gowns--a marvelous combination of silk, muslin and +lace and pale pink ribbons--with a tiny white dog reposing in her lap. +She is a much smaller woman than Margaret, and darker in complexion: it +is from her, however, that Margaret inherits the large, appealing hazel +eyes, which look at you with an infinite sweetness, while their owner is +perhaps thinking of the _menu_ or her milliner's bill. Lady Caroline's +face is thin and pointed, but her complexion is still clear, and her +soft brown hair is very prettily arranged. As she sits with her back to +the light, with a rose-colored curtain behind her, just tinting her +delicate cheek (for Lady Caroline is always careful of appearance), she +looks quite a young woman still. + +It is Mr. Adair whom Margaret most resembles. He is a tall and +exceedingly handsome man, whose hair and moustache and pointed beard +were as golden once as Margaret's soft tresses, but are now toned down +by a little grey. He has the alert blue eyes that generally go with his +fair complexion, and his long limbs are never still for many minutes +together. His daughter's tranquillity seems to have come from her +mother; certainly it cannot be inherited from the restless Reginald +Adair. + +The third person present at the breakfast-table--and, for the time +being, the only visitor in the house--is a young man of seven or +eight-and-twenty, tall, dark, and very spare, with a coal-black beard +trimmed to a point, earnest dark eyes, and a remarkably pleasant and +intelligent expression. He is not exactly handsome, but he has a face +that attracts one; it is the face of a man who has quick perceptions, +great kindliness of heart, and a refined and cultured mind. Nobody is +more popular in that county than young Sir Philip Ashley, although his +neighbors grumble sometimes at his absorption in scientific and +philanthropic objects, and think that it would be more creditable to +them if he went out with the hounds a little oftener or were a rather +better shot. For, being shortsighted, he was never particularly fond +either of sport or of games of skill, and his interest had always +centred on intellectual pursuits to a degree that amazed the more +countrified squires of the neighborhood. + +The post-bag was brought in while breakfast was proceeding, and two or +three letters were laid before Lady Caroline, who, with a careless word +of apology, opened and read them in turn. She smiled as she put them +down and looked at her husband. + +"This is a novel experience," she said. "For the first time in our +lives, Reginald, here is a formal complaint of our Margaret." + +Sir Philip looked up somewhat eagerly, and Mr. Adair elevated his +eyebrows, stirred his coffee, and laughed aloud. + +"Wonders will never cease," he said. "It is rather refreshing to hear +that our immaculate Margaret has done something naughty. What is it, +Caroline? Is she habitually late for breakfast? A touch of unpunctuality +is the only fault I ever heard of, and that, I believe, she inherits +from me." + +"I should be sorry to think that she was immaculate," said Lady +Caroline, calmly, "it has such an uncomfortable sound. But Margaret is +generally, I must say, a very tractable child." + +"Do you mean that her schoolmistress does not find her tractable?" said +Mr. Adair, with amusement. "What has she been doing?" + +"Nothing very bad. Making friends with a governess-pupil, or something +of, that sort----" + +"Just what a generous-hearted girl would be likely to do!" exclaimed Sir +Philip, with a sudden warm lighting of his dark eyes. + +Lady Caroline smiled at him. "The schoolmistress thinks this girl an +unsuitable friend for Margaret, and wants me to interfere," she said. + +"Pray do nothing of the sort," said Mr. Adair. "I would trust my Pearl's +instinct anywhere. She would never make an unsuitable friend!" + +"Margaret has written to me herself," said Lady Caroline. "She seems +unusually excited about the matter. 'Dear mother,' she writes, 'pray +interpose to prevent Miss Polehampton from doing an unjust and +ungenerous thing. She disapproves of my friendship with dear Janetta +Colwyn, simply because Janetta is poor; and she threatens to punish +Janetta--not me--by sending her home in disgrace. Janetta is a +governess-pupil here, and it would be a great trouble to her if she were +sent away. I hope that you would rather take _me_ away than let such an +injustice be done.'" + +"My Pearl hits the nail on the head exactly," said Mr. Adair, with +complacency. He rose as he spoke, and began to walk about the room. "She +is quite old enough to come home, Caroline. It is June now, and the term +ends in July. Fetch her home, and invite the little governess too, and +you will soon see whether or no she is the right sort of friend for +Margaret." He laughed in his mellow, genial way, and leaned against the +mantel-piece, stroking his yellow moustache and glancing at his wife. + +"I am not sure that that would be advisable," said Lady Caroline, with +her pretty smile. "Janetta Colwyn: Colwyn? Did not Margaret know her +before she went to school? Are there not some Colwyns at Beaminster? The +doctor--yes, I remember him; don't you, Reginald?" + +Mr. Adair shook his head, but Sir Philip looked up hastily. + +"I know him--a struggling man with a large family. His first wife was +rather well-connected, I believe: at any rate she was related to the +Brands of Brand Hall. He married a second time after her death." + +"Do you call that being well-connected, Philip?" said Lady Caroline, +with gentle reproach; while Mr. Adair laughed and whistled, but caught +himself up immediately and apologized. + +"I beg pardon--I forgot where I was: the less any of us have to do with +the Brands of Brand Hall the better, Phil." + +"I know nothing of them," said Sir Philip, rather gravely. + +"Nor anybody else"--hastily--"they never live at home, you know. So this +girl is a connection of theirs?" + +"Perhaps not a very suitable friend: Miss Polehampton may be right," +said Lady Caroline. "I suppose I must go over to Brighton and see +Margaret." + +"Bring her back with you," said Mr. Adair, recklessly. "She has had +quite enough of school by this time: she is nearly eighteen, isn't she?" + +But Lady Caroline smilingly refused to decide anything until she had +herself interviewed Miss Polehampton. She asked her husband to order the +carriage for her at once, and retired to summon her maid and array +herself for the journey. + +"You won't go to-day, will you, Philip?" said Mr. Adair, almost +appealingly. "I shall be all alone, and my wife will not perhaps return +until to-morrow--there's no saying." + +"Thank you, I shall be most pleased to stay," answered Sir Philip, +cordially. After a moment's pause, he added, with something very like a +touch of shyness--"I have not seen--your daughter since she was twelve +years old." + +"Haven't you?" said Mr. Adair, with ready interest. "You don't say so! +Pretty little girl she was then! Didn't you think so?" + +"I thought her the loveliest child I had ever seen in all my life," said +Sir Philip, with curious devoutness of manner. + +He saw Lady Caroline just as she was starting for the train, with man +and maid in attendance, and Mr. Adair handing her into the carriage and +gallantly offering to accompany her if she liked. "Not at all +necessary," said Lady Caroline, with an indulgent smile. "I shall be +home to dinner. Take care of my husband, Philip, and don't let him be +dull." + +"If they are making Margaret unhappy, be sure you bring her back with +you," were Mr. Adair's last words. Lady Caroline gave him a kind but +inscrutable little smile and nod as she was whirled away. Sir Philip +thought to himself that she looked like a woman who would take her own +course in spite of advice or recommendation from her husband or anybody +else. + +He smiled once or twice as the day passed on at her parting injunction +to him not to let her husband be dull. He had known the Adairs for many +years, and had never known Reginald Adair dull under any circumstances. +He was too full of interests, of "fads," some people called them, ever +to be dull. He took Sir Philip round the picture-gallery, round the +stables, to the kennels, to the flower-garden, to his own studio (where +he painted in oils when he had nothing else to do) with never-flagging +energy and animation. Sir Philip's interests lay in different grooves, +but he was quite capable of sympathizing with Mr. Adair's interests, +too. The day passed pleasantly, and seemed rather short for all that the +two men wanted to pack into it; although from time to time Mr. Adair +would say, half-impatiently, "I wonder how Caroline is getting on!" or +"I hope she'll bring Margaret back with her! But I don't expect it, you +know. Carry was always a great one for education and that sort of +thing." + +"Is Miss Adair intellectual--too?" asked Sir Philip, with respect. + +Mr. Adair broke into a sudden laugh. "Intellectual? Our Daisy?--our +Pearl?" he said. "Wait until you see her, then ask the question if you +like." + +"I am afraid I don't quite understand." + +"Of course you don't. It is the partiality of a fond father that speaks, +my dear fellow. I only meant that these young, fresh, pretty girls put +such questions out of one's head." + +"She must be very pretty then," said Sir Philip, with a smile. + +He had seen a great many beautiful women, and told himself that he did +not care for beauty. Fashionable, talkative women were his abomination. +He had no sisters, but he loved his mother very dearly; and upon her he +had founded a very high ideal of womanhood. He had begun to think +vaguely, of late, that he ought to marry: duty demanded it of him, and +Sir Philip was always attentive, if not obedient, to the voice of duty. +But he was not inclined to marry a girl out of the schoolroom, or a girl +who was accustomed to the enervating luxury (as he considered it) of +Helmsley Court: he wanted an energetic, sensible, large-hearted, and +large-minded woman who would be his right hand, his first minister of +state. Sir Philip was fairly wealthy, but by no means enormously so; and +he had other uses for his wealth than the buying of pictures and keeping +up stables and kennels at an alarming expense. If Miss Adair were so +pretty, he mused, it was just as well that she was not at home, for, of +course, it was possible that he might find a lovely face an attraction: +and much as he liked Lady Caroline, he did not want particularly to +marry Lady Caroline's daughter. That she treated him with great +consideration, and that he had once overheard her speak of him as "the +most eligible _parti_ of the neighborhood," had already put him a little +on his guard. Lady Caroline was no vulgar, match-making mother, he knew +that well enough; but she was in some respects a thoroughly worldly +woman, and Philip Ashley was an essentially unworldly man. + +As he went upstairs to dress for dinner that evening, he was struck by +the fact that a door stood open that he had never seen opened before: a +door into a pretty, well-lighted, pink and white room, the ideal +apartment for a young girl. The evening was chilly, and rain had begun +to fall, so a bright little fire was burning in the steel grate, and +casting a cheerful glow over white sheepskin rugs and rose-colored +curtains. A maid seemed to be busying herself with some white +material--all gauze and lace it looked--and another servant was, as Sir +Philip passed, entering with a great white vase filled with red roses. + +"Do they expect visitors to-night?" thought the young man, who knew +enough of the house to be aware that the room was not one in general +use. "Adair said nothing about it, but perhaps some people are coming +from town." + +A budget of letters was brought to him at that moment, and in reading +and answering them he did not note the sound of carriage-wheels on the +drive, nor the bustle of an arrival in the house. Indeed, he left +himself so little time that he had to dress in extraordinary haste, and +went downstairs at last in the conviction that he was unpardonably late. + +But apparently he was wrong. + +For the drawing-room was tenanted by one figure only--that of a young +lady in evening dress. Neither Lady Caroline nor Mr. Adair had appeared +upon the scene; but on the hearthrug, by the small crackling +fire--which, in deference to the chilliness of an English June evening, +had been lighted--stood a tall, fair, slender girl, with pale +complexion, and soft, loosely-coiled masses of golden hair. She was +dressed in pure white, a soft loose gown of Indian silk, trimmed with +the most delicate lace: it was high to the milk-white throat, but showed +the rounded curves of the finely-moulded arm to the elbow. She wore no +ornaments, but a white rose was fastened into the lace frill of her +dress at her neck. As she turned her face towards the new comer, Sir +Philip suddenly felt himself abashed. It was not that she was so +beautiful--in those first few moments he scarcely thought her beautiful +at all--but that she produced on him an impression of serious, virginal +grace and innocence which was almost disconcerting. Her pure complexion, +her grave, serene eyes, her graceful way of moving as she advanced a +little to receive him stirred him to more than admiration--to something +not unlike awe. She looked young; but it was youth in perfection: there +was some marvelous finish, delicacy, polish, which one does not usually +associate with extreme youth. + +"You are Sir Philip Ashley, I think?" she said, offering him her slim +cool hand without embarrassment. + +"You do not remember me, perhaps, but I remember you perfectly well, I +am Margaret Adair." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +AT HELMSLEY COURT. + + +"Lady Caroline has brought you back, then?" said Sir Philip, after his +first pause of astonishment. + +"Yes," said Margaret, serenely. "I have been expelled." + +"Expelled! _You?_" + +"Yes, indeed, I have," said the girl, with a faintly amused little +smile. "And so has my great friend, Janetta Colwyn. Here she is: +Janetta, I am telling Sir Philip Ashley that we have been expelled, and +he will not believe me." + +Sir Philip turned in some curiosity to see the girl of whom he had heard +for the first time that morning. He had not noticed before that she was +present. He saw a brown little creature, with eyes that had been swollen +with crying until they were well-nigh invisible, small, unremarkable +features, and a mouth that was inclined to quiver. Margaret might afford +to be serene, but to this girl expulsion from school had evidently been +a sad trouble. He threw all the more kindness and gentleness into his +voice and look as he spoke to her. + +Janetta might have felt a little awkward if she had not been so entirely +absorbed by her own woes. She had never set foot before in half so grand +a house as this of Helmsley Court, nor had she ever dined late or spoken +to a gentleman in an evening coat in all her previous life. The size and +the magnificence of the room would perhaps have oppressed her if she had +been fully aware of them. But she was for the moment very much wrapped +up in her own affairs, and scarcely stopped to think of the novel +situation in which she found herself. The only thing that had startled +her was the attention paid to her dress by Margaret and Margaret's maid. +Janetta would have put on her afternoon black cashmere and little silver +brooch, and would have felt herself perfectly well dressed; but +Margaret, after a little consultation with the very grand young person +who condescended to brush Miss Colwyn's hair, had herself brought to +Janetta's room a dress of black lace over cherry-colored silk, and had +begged her to put it on. + +"You will feel so hot downstairs if you don't put on something cool," +Margaret had said. "There is a fire in the drawing-room: papa likes the +rooms warm. My dresses would not have fitted you, I am so much taller +than you; but mamma is just your height, and although you are thinner +perhaps----But I don't know: the dress fits you perfectly. Look in the +glass, Janet; you are quite splendid." + +Janetta looked and blushed a little--not because she thought herself at +all splendid, but because the dress showed her neck and arms in a way no +dress had ever done before. "Ought it to be--open--like this?" she said, +vaguely. "Do you wear your dresses like this when you are at home?" + +"Mine are high," said Margaret. "I am not 'out,' you know. But you are +older than I, and you used to teach----I think we may consider that you +_are_ 'out,'" she added, with a little laugh. "You look very nice, +Janetta: you have such pretty arms! Now I must go and dress, and I will +call for you when I am ready to go down." + +Janetta felt decidedly doubtful as to whether she were not a great deal +too grand for the occasion; but she altered her mind when she saw +Margaret's dainty silk and lace, and Lady Caroline's exquisite brocade; +and she felt herself quite unworthy to take Mr. Adair's offered arm when +dinner was announced and her host politely convoyed her to the +dining-room. She wondered whether he knew that she was only a little +governess-pupil, and whether he was not angry with her for being the +cause of his daughter's abrupt departure from school. As a matter of +fact, Mr. Adair knew her position exactly, and was very much amused by +the whole affair; also, as it had procured him the pleasure of his +daughter's return home, he had an illogical inclination to be pleased +also with Janetta. "As Margaret is so fond of her, there must be +something in her," he said to himself, with a critical glance at the +girl's delicate features and big dark eyes. "I'll draw her out at +dinner." + +He tried his best, and made himself so agreeable and amusing that +Janetta lost a good deal of her shyness, and forgot her troubles. She +had a quick tongue of her own, as everybody at Miss Polehampton's was +aware; and she soon found that she had not lost it. She was a good deal +surprised to find that not a word was said at the dinner table about the +cause of Margaret's return: in her own home it would have been the +subject of the evening; it would have been discussed from every point of +view, and she would probably have been reduced to tears before the first +hour was over. But here it was evident that the matter was not +considered of great importance. Margaret looked serene as ever, and +joined quietly in talk which was alarmingly unlike Miss Polehampton's +improving conversation: talk about county gaieties and county magnates: +gossip about neighbors--gossip of a harmless although frivolous type, +for Lady Caroline never allowed any talk at her table that was anything +but harmless, about fashions, about old china, about music and art. Mr. +Adair was passionately fond of music, and when he found that Miss Colwyn +really knew something of it he was in his element. They discoursed of +fugues, sonatas, concertos, quartettes, and trios, until even Lady +Caroline raised her eyebrows a little at the very technical nature of +the conversation; and Sir Philip exchanged a congratulatory smile with +Margaret over her friend's success. For the delight of finding a +congenial spirit had brought the crimson into Janetta's olive cheeks and +the brilliance to her dark eyes: she had looked insignificant when she +went in to dinner; she was splendidly handsome at dessert. Mr. Adair +noticed her flashing, transitory beauty, and said to himself that +Margaret's taste was unimpeachable; it was just like his own; he had +complete confidence in Margaret. + +When the ladies went back to the drawing-room, Sir Philip turned with a +look of only half-disguised curiosity to his host. "Lady Caroline +brought her back then?" he said, longing to ask questions, yet hardly +knowing how to frame them aright. + +Mr. Adair gave a great laugh. "It's been the oddest thing I ever heard +of," he said, in a tone of enjoyment. "Margaret takes a fancy to that +little black-eyed girl--a nice little thing, too, don't you think?--and +nothing must serve but that her favorite must walk with her, sit by +her, and so on--you know the romantic way girls have? The schoolmistress +interfered, said it was not proper, and so on; forbade it. Miss Colwyn +would have obeyed, it seems, but Margaret took the bit in a quiet way +between her teeth. Miss Colwyn was ordered to take her meals at a side +table: Margaret insisted on taking her meals there too. The school was +thrown into confusion. At last Miss Polehampton decided that the best +way out of the difficulty was first to complain to us, and then to send +Miss Colwyn home, straight away. She would not send _Margaret_ home, you +know!" + +"That was very hard on Miss Colwyn," said Sir Philip, gravely. + +"Yes, horribly hard. So Margaret, as you heard, appealed to her mother, +and when Lady Caroline arrived, she found that not only were Miss +Colwyn's boxes packed, but Margaret's as well; and that Margaret had +declared that if her friend was sent away for what was after all _her_ +fault, she would not stay an hour in the house. Miss Polehampton was +weeping: the girls were in revolt, the teachers in despair, so my wife +thought the best way out of the difficulty was to bring both girls away +at once, and settle it with Miss Colwyn's relations afterwards. The joke +is that Margaret insists on it that she has been 'expelled.'" + +"So she told me." + +"The schoolmistress said something of that kind, you know. Caroline says +the woman entirely lost her temper and made an exhibition of herself. +Caroline was glad to get our girl away. But, of course, it's all +nonsense about being 'expelled' as a punishment; she was leaving of her +own accord." + +"One could hardly imagine punishment in connection with her," said Sir +Philip, warmly. + +"No, she's a nice-looking girl, isn't she? and her little friend is a +good foil, poor little thing." + +"This affair may prove of some serious inconvenience to Miss Colwyn, I +suppose?" + +"Oh, you may depend upon it, she won't be the loser," said Mr. Adair, +hastily. "We'll see about that. Of course she will not suffer any injury +through my daughter's friendship for her." + +Sir Philip was not so sure about it. In spite of his intense admiration +for Margaret's beauty, it occurred to him that the romantic partisanship +of the girl with beauty, position, and wealth for her less fortunate +sister had not been attended with very brilliant results. No doubt Miss +Adair, reared in luxury and indulgence, did not in the least realize the +harm done to the poor governess-pupil's future by her summary dismissal +from Miss Polehampton's boarding-school. To Margaret, anything that the +schoolmistress chose to say or do mattered little; to Janetta Colwyn, it +might some day mean prosperity or adversity of a very serious kind. Sir +Philip did not quite believe in the compensation so easily promised by +Mr. Adair. He made a mental note of Miss Colwyn's condition and +prospects, and said to himself that he would not forget her. And this +meant a good deal from a busy man like Sir Philip Ashley. + +Meanwhile there had been another conversation going on in the +drawing-room between the three ladies. Margaret put her arm +affectionately round Janetta's waist as they stood by the hearthrug, and +looked at her mother with a smile. Lady Caroline sank into an easy-chair +on the other side of the fireplace, and contemplated the two girls. + +"This is better than Claremont House, is it not, Janet?" said Margaret. + +"Indeed it is," Janetta answered, gratefully. + +"You found the way to papa's heart by your talk about music--did she +not, mamma? And does not this dress suit her beautifully?" + +"It wants a little alteration in the sleeve," said Lady Caroline, with +the placidity which Janetta had always attributed to Margaret as a +special virtue, but which she now found was merely characteristic of the +house and family in general, "but Markham can do that to-morrow. There +are some people coming in the evening, and the sleeve will look better +shortened." + +The remark sounded a little inconsequent in Janetta's ear, but Margaret +understood and assented. It meant that Lady Caroline was on the whole +pleased with Janetta, and did not object to introducing her to her +friends. Margaret gave her mother a little smile over Janetta's head, +while that young person was gathering up her courage in two hands, so to +speak, before addressing Lady Caroline. + +"I am very much obliged to you," she said at last, with a thrill of +gratitude in her sweet voice which was very pleasant to the ear. "But--I +was thinking--what time would be the most convenient for me to go home +to-morrow?" + +"Home? To Beaminster?" said Margaret. "But you need not go, dear; you +can write a note and tell them that you are staying here." + +"Yes, my dear; I am sure Margaret cannot part with you yet," said Lady +Caroline, amiably. + +"Thank you; it is most kind of you," Janetta answered, her voice +shaking. "But I must ask my father whether I can stay--and hear what he +says; Miss Polehampton will have written to him, and----" + +"And he will be very glad that we have rescued you from her clutches," +said Margaret, with a soft triumphant little laugh. "My poor Janetta! +What we suffered at her hands!" + +Lady Caroline lying back in her easy chair, with the candle light +gleaming upon her silvery grey and white brocade with its touches of +soft pink, and the diamonds flashing on her white hands, so calmly +crossed upon the handle of her ivory fan, did not feel quite so tranquil +as she looked. It crossed her mind that Margaret was acting +inconsiderately. This little Miss Colwyn had her living to earn; it +would be no kindness to unfit her for her profession. So, when she spoke +it was with a shade more decision than usual in her tones. + +"We will drive you over to Beaminster to-morrow, my dear Miss Colwyn, +and you can then see your family, and ask your father if you may spend a +few days with Margaret. I do not think that Mr. Colwyn will refuse us," +she said, graciously. "I wonder when those men are coming, Margaret. +Suppose you open the piano and let us have a little music. You sing, do +you not?" + +"Yes, a little," said Janetta. + +"A little!" exclaimed Margaret, with contempt. "She has a delightful +voice, mamma. Come and sing at once, Janetta, darling, and astonish +mamma." + +Lady Caroline smiled. She had heard a great many singers in her day, and +did not expect to be astonished. A little governess-pupil, an +under-teacher in a boarding-school! Dear Margaret's enthusiasm certainly +carried her away. + +But when Janetta sang, Lady Caroline was, after all, rather surprised. +The girl had a remarkably sweet and rich contralto voice, and it had +been well trained; and, moreover, she sang with feeling and passion +which were somewhat unusual in one so young. It seemed as if some hidden +power, some latent characteristic came out in her singing because it +found no other way of expressing itself. Neither Lady Caroline nor +Margaret understood why Janetta's voice moved them so much; Sir Philip, +who came in with his host while the music was going on, heard and was +charmed also without quite knowing why; it was Mr. Adair alone whose +musical knowledge and experience of the world enabled him, +feather-headed as in some respects he was, to lay his finger directly on +the salient features of Janetta's singing. + +"It's not her voice altogether, you know," he said afterwards to Philip +Ashley, in a moment of confidence; "it's soul. She's got more of that +commodity than is good for a woman. It makes her singing lovely, you +know--brings tears into one's eyes, and all that sort of thing--but upon +my honor I'm thankful that Margaret hasn't got a voice like that! It's +women of that kind that are either heroines of virtue--or go to the +devil. They are always in extremes." + +"Then we may promise ourselves some excitement in watching Miss Colwyn's +career," said Sir Philip, dryly. + +After Janetta, Margaret sang; she had a sweet mezzo-soprano voice, of no +great strength or compass, but perfectly trained and very pleasing to +the ear. The sort of voice, Sir Philip thought, that would be soothing +to the nerves of a tired man in his own house. Whereas, Janetta's +singing had something impassioned in it which disturbed and excited +instead of soothing. But he was quite ready to admire when Margaret +called on him for admiration. They were sitting together on a sofa, and +Janetta, who had just finished one of her songs, was talking to, or +being talked to, by Mr. Adair. Lady Caroline had taken up a review. + +"Is not Miss Colwyn's voice perfectly lovely?" Margaret asked, with +shining eyes. + +"It is very sweet." + +"Don't you think she looks very nice?"--Margaret was hungering for +admiration of her friend. + +"She is a very pretty girl. You are very fond of each other?" + +"Oh, yes, devoted. I am so glad I succeeded!" said the girl, with a +great sigh. + +"In getting her away from the school?" + +"Yes." + +"You think it was for her good?" + +Margaret opened her lovely eyes. + +"For her good?--to come here instead of staying in that close +uncomfortable house to give music lessons, and bear Miss Polehampton's +snubs?----" It had evidently never occurred to her that the change could +be anything but beneficial to Janetta. + +"It is very pleasant for her, no doubt," said Sir Philip, smiling in +spite of his disapproval. "I only wondered whether it was a good +preparation for the life of hard work which probably lies before her." + +He saw that Margaret colored, and wondered whether she would be offended +by his suggestion. After a moment's pause, she answered, gravely, but +quite gently-- + +"I never thought of it in that way before, exactly. I want to keep her +here, so that she should never have to work hard at all." + +"Would she consent to that?" + +"Why not?" said Margaret. + +Sir Philip smiled and said no more. It was curious, he said to himself, +to see how little conception Margaret had of lives unlike and outside +her own. And Janetta's brave but sensitive little face, with its +resolute brows and lips and brilliant eyes, gave promise of a +determination and an originality which, he felt convinced, would never +allow her to become a mere plaything or appendage of a wealthy +household, as Margaret Adair seemed to expect. But his words had made an +impression. At night, when Lady Caroline and her daughter were standing +in the charming little room which had always been appropriated to +Margaret's use, she spoke, with the unconscious habit of saying frankly +anything that had occurred to her, of Sir Philip's remarks. + +"It was so odd," she said; "Sir Philip seemed to think that it would be +bad for Janetta to stay here, mamma. Why should it be bad for her, +mamma, dear?" + +"I don't think it will be at all bad for her to spend a day or two with +us, darling," said Lady Caroline, keeping somewhat careful watch on +Margaret's face as she spoke. "But perhaps it had better be by-and-bye. +You know she wants to go home to-morrow, and we must not keep her away +from her duties or her own sphere of life." + +"No," Margaret answered, "but her duties will not always keep her at +home, you know, mamma, dear." + +"I suppose not, my dearest," said Lady Caroline, vaguely, but in the +caressing tone to which Margaret was accustomed. "Go to bed, my sweetest +one, and we will talk of all these things to-morrow." + +Meanwhile Janetta was wondering at the luxury of the room which had been +allotted to her, and thinking over the events of the past day. When a +tap at the door announced Margaret's appearance to say good-night, +Janetta was standing before the long looking-glass, apparently +inspecting herself by the light of the rose-tinted wax candles in silver +sconces which were fixed on either side of the mirror. She was in her +dressing-gown, and her long and abundant hair fell over her shoulder in +a great curly mass. + +"Oh, Miss Vanity!" cried Margaret, with more gaiety of tone than was +usual with her, "are you admiring your pretty hair?" + +"I was thinking," said Janetta, with the intensity which often +characterized her speech, "that _now_ I understood you--now I know why +you were so different from other girls, so sweet, so calm and beautiful! +You have lived in this lovely place all your life! It is like a fairy +palace--a dream-house--to me; and you are the queen of it, Margaret--a +princess of dreams!" + +"I hope I shall have something more than dreams to reign over some day," +said Margaret, putting her arms round her friend's neck. "And whatever I +am queen over, you must share my queendom, Janet. You know how fond I am +of you--how I want you to stay with me always and be my friend." + +"I shall always be your friend--always, to the last day of my life!" +said Janetta, with fervor. The two made a pretty picture, reflected in +the long mirror; the tall, fair Margaret, still in her soft white silk +frock, with her arm round the smaller figure of the dark girl whose +curly masses of hair half covered her pink cotton dressing-gown, and +whose brown face was upturned so lovingly to her friend's. + +"And I am sure it will be good for you to stay with me," said Margaret, +answering an unspoken objection in her mind. + +"Good for me? It is delicious--it is lovely!" cried Janetta, +rapturously. "I have never had anything so nice in my whole life. Dear +Margaret, you are so good and so kind--if there were only anything that +I could do for you in return! Perhaps some day I shall have the chance, +and if ever I have--_then_ you shall see whether I am true to my friend +or not!" + +Margaret kissed her, with a little smile at Janetta's enthusiasm, which +was so far different from the modes of expression customary at Helmsley +Court, as to be almost amusing. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +ON THE ROAD. + + +Miss Polehampton had, of course, written to Mr. and Mrs. Colwyn when she +made up her mind that Janetta was to be removed from school; and two or +three letters had been interchanged before that eventful day on which +Margaret declared that if Janetta went she should go too. Margaret had +been purposely kept in the dark until almost the last moment, for Miss +Polehampton did not in the least wish to make a scandal, and annoyed as +she was by Miss Adair's avowed preference for Janetta, she had arranged +a neat little plan by which Miss Colwyn was to go away "for change of +air," and be transferred to a school at Worthing kept by a relation of +her own at the beginning of the following term. These plans had been +upset by a foolish and ill-judged letter from Mrs. Colwyn to her +stepdaughter, which Janetta had not been able to keep from Margaret's +eyes. This letter was full of reproaches to Janetta for giving so much +trouble to her friends; "for, of course," Mrs. Colwyn wrote, "Miss +Polehampton's concern for your health is all a blind in order to get you +away: and if it hadn't been for Miss Adair taking you up, she would have +been only too glad to keep you. But knowing Miss Adair's position, she +sees very clearly that it isn't fit for you to be friends with her, and +so she wants to send you away." + +This was in the main true, but Janetta, in the blithe confidence of +youth, would never have discovered it but for that letter. Together she +and Margaret consulted over it, for when Margaret saw Janetta crying, +she almost forced the letter from her hand; and then it was that Miss +Adair vindicated her claim to social superiority. She went straight to +Miss Polehampton and demanded that Janetta should remain; and when the +schoolmistress refused to alter her decision, she calmly replied that in +that case _she_ should go home too. Miss Polehampton was an obstinate +woman, and would not concede the point; and Lady Caroline, on learning +the state of affairs, at once perceived that it was impossible to leave +Margaret at the school where open warfare had been declared. She +accordingly brought both girls away with her, arranging to send Janetta +to her own home next morning. + +"You will stay to luncheon, dear, and I will drive you over to +Beaminster at three o'clock," she said to Janetta at breakfast. "No +doubt you are anxious to see your own people." + +Janetta looked as if she might find it difficult to reply, but Margaret +interposed a remark--as usual at the right moment. + +"We will practice our duets this morning--if Janetta likes, that is; and +we can have a walk in the garden too. Shall we have the landau, mamma?" + +"The victoria, I think, dear," said Lady Caroline, placidly. "Your +father wants you to ride with him this afternoon, so I shall have the +pleasure of Miss Colwyn's society in my drive." + +Margaret assented; but Janetta became suddenly aware, by a flash of keen +feminine intuition, that Lady Caroline had some reason for wishing to go +with her alone, and that she had purposely made the arrangement that she +spoke of. However, there was nothing to displease her in this, for Lady +Caroline had been most kind and considerate to her, so far, and she was +innocently disposed to believe in the cordiality and sincerity of every +one who behaved with common civility. + +So she spent a pleasant morning, singing with Margaret, loitering about +the garden with Mr. Adair, while Margaret and Sir Philip gathered +roses, and enjoying to the full all the sweet influences of peace, +refinement, and prosperity by which she was surrounded. + +Margaret left her in the afternoon with rather a hasty kiss, and an +assurance that she would see her again at dinner. Janetta tried to +remind her that by that time she would have left the Court, but Margaret +did not or would not hear. The tears came into the girl's eyes as her +friend disappeared. + +"Never mind, dear," said Lady Caroline, who was observing her closely, +"Margaret has forgotten at what hour you were going and I would not +remind her--it would spoil her pleasure in her ride. We will arrange for +you to come to us another day when you have seen your friends at home." + +"Thank you," said Janetta. "It was only that she did not seem to +remember that I was going--I had meant to say good-bye." + +"Exactly. She thinks that I am going to bring you back this afternoon. +We will talk about it as we go, dear. Suppose you were to put on your +hat now. The carriage will be here in ten minutes." + +Janetta prepared for her departure in a somewhat bewildered spirit. She +did not know precisely what Lady Caroline meant. She even felt a little +nervous as she took her place in the victoria and cast a last look at +the stately house in which she had spent some nineteen or twenty +pleasant hours. It was Lady Caroline who spoke first. + +"We shall miss your singing to-night," she said, amiably. "Mr. Adair was +looking forward to some more duets. Another time, perhaps----" + +"I am always pleased to sing," said Janetta, brightening at this +address. + +"Yes--ye--es," said Lady Caroline, with a doubtful little drawl. "No +doubt: one always likes to do what one can do so well; but--I confess I +am not so musical as my husband or my daughter. I must explain why dear +Margaret did not say good bye to you, Miss Colwyn. I allowed her to +remain in the belief that she was to see you again to-night, in order +that she might not be depressed during her ride by the thought of +parting with you. It is always my principle to make the lives of those +dear to me as happy as possible," said Margaret's mother, piously. + +"And if Margaret had been depressed during her ride, Mr. Adair and Sir +Philip might have suffered some depression also, and that would be a +great pity." + +"Oh, yes," said Janetta. But she felt chilled, without knowing why. + +"I must take you into my confidence," said Lady Caroline, in her softest +voice. "Mr. Adair has plans for our dear Margaret. Sir Philip Ashley's +property adjoins our own: he is of good principles, kind-hearted, and +intellectual: he is well off, nice-looking, and of a suitable age--he +admires Margaret very much. I need say no more, I am sure." + +Again she looked keenly at Janetta's face, but she read there nothing +but interest and surprise. + +"Oh--does Margaret know?" she asked. + +"She feels more than she knows," said Lady Caroline, discreetly. "She is +in the first stage of--of--emotion. I did not want the afternoon's +arrangements to be interfered with." + +"Oh, no! especially on _my_ account," said Janetta, sincerely. + +"When I go home I shall talk quietly to Margaret," pursued Lady +Caroline, "and tell her that you will come back another day, that your +duties called you home--they do, I am sure, dear Miss Colwyn--and that +you could not return with me when you were so much wanted." + +"I'm afraid I am not much wanted," said Janetta, with a sigh; "but I +daresay it is my duty to go home----" + +"I am sure it is," Lady Caroline declared; "and duty is so high and holy +a thing, dear, that you will never regret the performance of it." + +It occurred dimly to Janetta at that point that Lady Caroline's views of +duty might possibly differ from her own; but she did not venture to say +so. + +"And, of course, you will never repeat to Margaret----" + +Lady Caroline did not complete her sentence. The coachman suddenly +checked the horses' speed: for some unknown reason he actually stopped +short in the very middle of the country road between Helmsley Court and +Beaminster. His mistress uttered a little cry of alarm. + +"What is the matter, Steel?" + +The footman dismounted and touched his hat. + +"I'm afraid there has been an accident, my lady," he said, as +apologetically, as if he were responsible for the accident. + +"Oh! Nothing horrible, I hope!" said Lady Caroline, drawing out her +smelling-bottle. + +"It's a carriage accident, my lady. Leastways, a cab. The 'orse is lying +right across the road, my lady." + +"Speak to the people, Steel," said her ladyship, with great dignity. +"They must not be allowed to block up the road in this way." + +"May I get out?" said Janetta, eagerly. "There is a lady lying on the +path, and some people bathing her face. Now they are lifting her up--I +am sure they ought not to lift her up in that way--oh, please, I must go +just for one minute!" And, without waiting for a reply, she stepped, out +of the victoria and sped to the side of the woman who had been hurt. + +"Very impulsive and undisciplined," said Lady Caroline to herself, as +she leaned back and held the smelling-bottle to her own delicate nose. +"I am glad I have got her out of the house so soon. Those men were wild +about her singing. Sir Philip disapproved of her presence, but he was +charmed by her voice, I could see that; and poor, dear Reginald was +positively absurd about her voice. And dear Margaret does _not_ sing so +well--it is no use pretending that she does--and Sir Philip is trembling +on the verge--oh, yes, I am sure that I have been very wise. What is +that girl doing now?" + +The victoria moved forward a little, so that Lady Caroline could obtain +a clearer view of what was going on. The vehicle which caused the +obstruction--evidently a hired fly from an inn--was uninjured, but the +horse had fallen between the shafts and would never rise again. The +occupants of the fly--a lady, and a much younger man, perhaps her +son--had got out, and the lady had then turned faint, Lady Caroline +heard, but was not in any way hurt. Janetta was kneeling by the side of +the lady--kneeling in the dust, without any regard to the freshness of +her cotton frock, by the way--and had already placed her in the right +position, and was ordering the half-dozen people who had collected to +stand back and give her air. Lady Caroline watched her movements and +gestures with placid amusement, and went so far as to send Steel with +the offer of her smelling salts; but as this offer was rejected she +felt that nothing else could be done. So she sat and looked on +critically. + +The woman--Lady Caroline was hardly inclined to call her a lady, +although she did not exactly know why--was at present of a ghastly +paleness, but her features were finely cut, and showed traces of former +beauty. Her hair was grey, with rebellious waves in it, but her eyebrows +were still dark. She was dressed in black, with a good deal of lace +about her; and on her ungloved hand Lady Caroline's keen sight enabled +her to distinguish some very handsome diamond rings. The effect of the +costume was a little spoiled by a large gaudy fan, of violent rainbow +hues, which hung at her side; and perhaps it was this article of +adornment which decided Lady Caroline in her opinion of the woman's +social status. But about the man she was equally positive in a different +way. He _was_ a gentleman: there could be no doubt of that. She put up +her eye-glass and gazed at him with interest. She almost thought that +she had seen him somewhere before. + +A handsome man, indeed, and a gentleman; but, oh, what an ill-tempered +one, apparently! He was dark, with fine features, and black hair with a +slight inclination to wave or curl (as far at least as could be judged +when the extremely well-cropped state of his head was taken into +consideration); and from these indications Lady Caroline judged him to +be "the woman's" son. He was tall, muscular, and active looking: it was +the way in which his black eyebrows were bent above his eyes which made +the observer think him ill-tempered, for his manner and his words +expressed anxiety, not anger. But that frown, which must have been +habitual, gave him a distinctly ill-humored look. + +At last the lady opened her eyes, and drank a little water, and sat up. +Janetta rose from her knees, and turned to the young man with a smile. +"She will soon be better now," she said. "I am afraid there is nothing +else that I can do--and I think I must go on." + +"I am very much obliged to you for your kind assistance," said the +gentleman, but without any abatement of the gloom of his expression. He +gave Janetta a keen look--almost a bold look--Lady Caroline thought, and +then smiled a little, not very pleasantly. "Allow me to take you to your +carriage." + +Janetta blushed, as if she were minded to say that it was not her +carriage; but returned to the victoria, and was handed to her seat by +the young man, who then raised his hat with an elaborate flourish which +was not exactly English. Indeed, it occurred to Lady Caroline at once +that there was something French about both the travelers. The lady with +the frizzled grey hair, the black lace dress and mantel, the gaudy blue +and scarlet fan, was quite foreign in appearance; the young man with the +perfectly fitting frock-coat, the tall hat, the flower in his +button-hole, was--in spite of his perfectly English accent--foreign too. +Lady Caroline was cosmopolitan enough to feel an access of greater +interest in the pair in consequence. + +"They have sent to the nearest inn for a horse," said Janetta, as the +carriage moved on; "and I dare say they will not have long to wait." + +"Was the lady hurt?" + +"No, only shaken. She is subject to fainting fits, and the accident +quite upset her nerves, her son said." + +"Her son?" + +"The gentleman called her mother." + +"Oh! You did not hear their name, I suppose?" + +"No. There was a big B on their traveling bag." + +"B--B--?" said Lady Caroline, thoughtfully. "I don't know any one in +this neighborhood whose name begins with B, except the Bevans. They must +have been merely passing through; and yet the young man's face seemed +familiar to me." + +Janetta shook her head. "I never saw them before," she said. + +"He has a very bold and unpleasant expression," Lady Caroline remarked, +decidedly. "It spoils him entirely: otherwise he is a handsome man." + +The girl made no answer. She knew, as well as Lady Caroline, that she +had been stared at in a manner that was not quite agreeable to her, and +yet she did not like to endorse that lady's condemnation of the +stranger. For he was certainly very nice-looking--and he had been so +kind to his mother that he could not be entirely bad--and to her also +his face was vaguely familiar. Could he belong to Beaminster? + +As she sat and meditated, the tall spires of Beaminster Cathedral came +into sight, and a few minutes brought the carriage across the grey +stone bridge and down the principal street of the quaint old place which +called itself a city, but was really neither more nor less than a quiet +country town. Here Lady Caroline turned to her young guest with a +question--"You live in Gwynne Street, I believe, my dear?" + +"Yes, at number ten, Gwynne Street," said Janetta, suddenly starting and +feeling a little uncomfortable. The coachman evidently knew the address +already, for at that moment he turned the horse's heads to the left, and +the carriage rolled down a narrow side-street, where the tall red brick +houses had a mean and shabby aspect, and seemed as if constructed to +keep out sun and air as much as possible. + +Janetta always felt the closeness and the shabbiness a little when she +first came home, even from school, but when she came from Helmsley Court +they struck her with redoubled force. She had never thought before how +dull the street was, nor noticed that the railings were broken down in +front of the door with the brass-plate that bore her father's name, nor +that the window-curtains were torn and the windows sadly in need of +washing. The little flight of stone steps that led from the iron gate to +the door was also very dirty; and the servant girl, whose head appeared +against the area railings as the carriage drove up, was more untidy, +more unkempt, in appearance than ever Janetta could have expected. "We +can't be rich, but we might be _clean_!" she said to herself in a +subdued frenzy of impatience, as she fancied (quite unjustly) that she +saw a faint smile pass over Lady Caroline's delicate, impassive face. "No +wonder she thinks me an unfit friend for dear Margaret. But--oh, there +is my dear, darling father! Well, nobody can say anything against him at +any rate!" And Janetta's face beamed with sudden joy as she saw Mr. +Colwyn coming down the dirty steps to the ricketty little iron gate, and +Lady Caroline, who knew the surgeon by sight, nodded to him with +friendly condescension. + +"How are you, Mr. Colwyn?" she said, graciously. "I have brought your +daughter home, you see, and I hope you will not scold her for what has +been _my_ daughter's fault--not your's." + +"I am very glad to see Janetta, under any circumstances," said Mr. +Colwyn, gravely, as he raised his hat. He was a tall spare man, in a +shabby coat, with a careworn aspect, and kindly, melancholy eyes. +Janetta noticed with a pang that his hair was greyer than it had been +when last she went back to school. + +"We shall be glad to see her again at Helmsley Court," said Lady +Caroline. "No, I won't get out, thank you. I have to get back to tea. +Your daughter's box is in front. I was to tell you from Miss +Polehampton, Mr. Colwyn, that her friend at Worthing would be glad of +Miss Colwyn's services after the holidays." + +"I am much obliged to your ladyship," said Mr. Colwyn, with grave +formality. "I am not sure that I shall let my daughter go." + +"Won't you? Oh, but she ought to have all possible advantages! And can +you tell me, Mr. Colwyn, by any chance, _who_ are the people whom we +passed on the road to Beaminster--an oldish lady in black and a young +man with very dark hair and eyes? They had B on their luggage, I +believe." + +Mr. Colwyn looked surprised. + +"I think I can tell you," he said, quietly. "They were on their way from +Beaminster to Brand Hall. The young man was a cousin of my wife's: his +name is Wyvis Brand, and the lady in black was his mother. They have +come home after an absence of nearly four-and-twenty years." + +Lady Caroline was too polite to say what she really felt--that she was +sorry to hear it. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +WYVIS BRAND. + + +On the evening of the day on which Lady Caroline drove with Janetta +Colwyn to Beaminster, the lady who had fainted by the wayside was +sitting in a rather gloomy-looking room at Brand Hall--a room known in +the household as the Blue Drawing-room. It had not the look of a +drawing-room exactly: it was paneled in oak, which had grown black with +age, as had also the great oak beams that crossed the ceiling and the +polished floor. The furniture also was of oak, and the hangings of dark +but faded blue, while the blue velvet of the chairs and the square of +Oriental carpet, in which blue tints also preponderated, did not add +cheerfulness to the scene. One or two great blue vases set on the carved +oak mantel-piece, and some smaller blue ornaments on a sideboard, +matched the furniture in tint; but it was remarkable that on a day when +country gardens were overflowing with blossom, there was not a single +flower or green leaf in any of the vases. No smaller and lighter +ornaments, no scrap of woman's handiwork--lace or embroidery--enlivened +the place: no books were set upon the table. A fire would not have been +out of season, for the evenings were chilly, and it would have had a +cheery look; but there was no attempt at cheeriness. The woman who sat +in one of the high-backed chairs was pale and sad: her folded hands lay +listlessly clasped together on her lap, and the sombre garb that she +wore was as unrelieved by any gleam of brightness as the room itself. In +the gathering gloom of a chilly summer evening, even the rings upon her +fingers could not flash. Her white face, in its setting of rough, wavy +grey hair, over which she wore a covering of black lace, looked almost +statuesque in its profound tranquillity. But it was not the tranquillity +of comfort and prosperity that had settled on that pale, worn, +high-featured face--it was rather the tranquillity that comes of +accepted sorrow and inextinguishable despair. + +She had sat thus for fully half an hour when the door was roughly +opened, and the young man whom Mr. Colwyn had named as Wyvis Brand came +lounging into the room. He had been dining, but he was not in evening +dress, and there was something unrestful and reckless in his way of +moving round the room and throwing himself in the chair nearest his +mother's, which roused Mrs. Brand's attention. She turned slightly +towards him, and became conscious at once of the fumes of wine and +strong tobacco with which her son had made her only too familiar. She +looked at him for a moment, then clasped her hands tightly together and +resumed her former position, with her sad face turned to the window. She +may have breathed a sigh as she did so, but Wyvis Brand did not hear it, +and if he had heard it, would not perhaps have very greatly cared. + +"Why do you sit in the dark?" he said at last, in a vexed tone. + +"I will ring for lights," Mrs. Brand answered quietly. + +"Do as you like: I am not going to stay: I am going out," said the young +man. + +The hand that his mother had stretched out towards the bell fell to her +side: she was a submissive woman, used to taking her son at his word. + +"You are lonely here," she ventured to remark, after a short silence: +"you will be glad when Cuthbert comes down." + +"It's a beastly hole," said her son, gloomily. "I would advise Cuthbert +to stay in Paris. What he will do with himself here, I can't imagine." + +"He is happy anywhere," said the mother, with a stifled sigh. + +Wyvis uttered a short, harsh laugh. + +"That can't be said of us, can it?" he exclaimed, putting his hand on +his mother's knee in a rough sort of caress. "We are generally in the +shadow while Cuthbert is in the sunshine, eh? The influence of this old +place makes me poetical, you see." + +"_You_ need not be in the shadow," said Mrs. Brand. But she said it with +an effort. + +"Needn't I?" said Wyvis. He thrust his hands into his pockets and leaned +back in his chair with another laugh. "I have such a lot to make me +cheerful, haven't I?" + +His mother turned her eyes upon him with a look of yearning tenderness +which, even if the room had been less dimly lighted, he would not have +seen. He was not much in the habit of looking for sympathy in other +people's faces. + +"Is the place worse than you expected?" she asked, with a tremor in her +voice. + +"It is mouldier--and smaller," he replied, curtly. "One's childish +impressions don't go for much. And it is in a miserable state--roof out +of repair--fences falling down--drainage imperfect. It has been allowed +to go to rack and ruin while we were away." + +"Wyvis, Wyvis," said his mother, in a tone of pain, "I kept you away for +your own sake. I thought you would be happier abroad." + +"Oh--happier!" said the young man, rather scornfully. "Happiness isn't +meant for me: it isn't in my line. It makes no difference to me whether +I am here or in Paris. I should have been here long ago if I had had +any idea that things were going wrong in this way." + +"I suppose," said Mrs. Brand, carefully controlling her voice, "that you +will not have the visitors you spoke of if the house is in so bad a +state." + +"Not have visitors? Of course I shall have visitors. What else is there +for me to do with myself? We shall get the house put pretty straight by +the 12th. Not that there will be any shooting worth speaking of on _my_ +place." + +"If nobody comes before the 12th, I think we can make the house +habitable. I will do my best, Wyvis." + +Wyvis laughed again, but in a softer key. "You!" he said. "You can't do +much, mother. It isn't the sort of thing you care about. You stay in +your own rooms and do your needle-work; I'll see to the house. Some men +are coming long before the 12th--the day after to-morrow, I believe." + +"Who?" + +"Oh, Dering and St. John and Ponsonby, I expect. I don't know whether +they will bring any one else." + +"The worst men of the worst set you know!" sighed his mother, under her +breath. "Could not you have left them behind?" + +She felt rather than saw how he frowned--how his hand twitched with +impatience. + +"What sort of friends am I likely to have?" he said. "Why not those that +amuse me most?" + +Then he rose and went over to the window, where he stood for some time +looking out. Turning round at last, he perceived from a slight familiar +movement of his mother's hand over her eyes that she was weeping, and it +seemed as if his heart smote him at the sight. + +"Come, mother," he said, kindly, "don't take what I say and do so much +to heart. You know I'm no good, and never shall do anything in the +world. You have Cuthbert to comfort you--" + +"Cuthbert is nothing to me--_nothing_--compared with you, Wyvis." + +The young man came to her side and put his hand on her shoulder. The +passionate tone had touched him. + +"Poor mother!" he said, softly. "You've suffered a good deal through me, +haven't you? I wish I could make you forget all the past--but perhaps +you wouldn't thank me if I could." + +"No," she said, leaning forward so as to rest her forehead against his +arm. "No. For there has been brightness in the past, but I see little +brightness in the future either for you or for me." + +"Well, that is my own fault," said Wyvis, lightly but bitterly. "If it +had not been for my own youthful folly I shouldn't be burdened as I am +now. I have no one but myself to thank." + +"Yes, yes, it was my fault. I pressed you to do it--to tie yourself for +life to the woman who has made you miserable!" said Mrs. Brand, in a +tone of despairing self-accusation. "I fancied--then--that we were doing +right." + +"I suppose we were doing right," said Wyvis Brand sternly, but not as if +the thought gave him any consolation. "It was better perhaps that I +should marry the woman whom I thought I loved--instead of leaving her or +wronging her--but I wish to God that I had never seen her face!" + +"And to think that I persuaded you into marrying her," moaned the +mother, rocking herself backward and forward in the extremity of her +regretful anguish; "I--who ought to have been wiser--who might have +interfered----" + +"You couldn't have interfered to much purpose. I was mad about her at +the time," said her son, beginning to walk about the room in a restless, +aimless manner. "I wish, mother, that you would cease to talk about the +past. It seems to me sometimes like a dream; if you would but let it lie +still, I think that I could fancy it was a dream. Remember that I do not +blame you. When I rage against the bond, I am perfectly well aware that +it was one of my own making. No remonstrance, no command would have +availed with me for a moment. I was determined to go my own way, and I +went." + +It was curious to remark that the roughness and harshness of his first +manner had dropped away from him as it did drop now and then. He spoke +with the polished utterance of an educated man. It was almost as though +he at times put on a certain boorishness of demeanor, feeling it in some +way demanded of him by circumstances--but not natural to him after all. + +"I will try not to vex you, Wyvis," said his mother, wistfully. + +"You do not vex me exactly," he answered, "but you stir my old memories +too often. I want to forget the past. Why else did I come down here, +where I have never been since I was a child? where Juliet never set +foot, and where I have no association with that miserable passage in my +life?" + +"Then why do you bring those men down, Wyvis? For _they_ know the past: +_they_ will recall old associations----" + +"They amuse me. I cannot be without companions. I do not pretend to cut +myself off from the whole world." + +As he spoke thus briefly and coldly, he stopped to strike a match, and +then lighted the wax candles that stood on the black sideboard. By this +act he meant perhaps to put a stop to the conversation of which he was +heartily tired. But Mrs. Brand, in the half-bewildered condition of mind +to which long anxiety and sorrow had reduced her, did not know the +virtue of silence, and did not possess the magic quality of tact. + +"You might find companions down here," she said, pertinaciously, "people +suited to your position--old friends of your father's, perhaps----" + +"Will they be so willing to make friends with my father's son?" Wyvis +burst out bitterly. Then, seeing from her white and stricken face that +he had hurt her, he came to her side and kissed her penitently. "Forgive +me, mother," he said, "if I say what you don't like. I've been hearing +about my father ever since I came to Beaminster two days ago. I have +heard nothing but what confirmed my previous idea about his character. +Even poor old Colwyn couldn't say any good of him. He went to the devil +as fast as ever he could go, and his son seems likely to follow in his +footsteps. That's the general opinion, and, by George, I think I shall +soon do something to justify it." + +"You need not live as your father did, Wyvis," said his mother, whose +tears were flowing fast. + +"If I don't, nobody will believe it," said the young man, moodily. +"There is no fighting against fate. The Brands are doomed, mother: we +shall die out and be forgotten--all the better for the world, too. It is +time we were done with: we are a bad lot." + +"Cuthbert is not bad. And you--Wyvis, you have your child." + +"Have I? A child that I have not seen since it was six months old! +Brought up by its mother--a woman without heart or principle or anything +that is good! Much comfort the child is likely to be to me when I get +hold of it." + +"When will that be?" said Mrs. Brand, as if speaking to herself rather +than to him. But Wyvis replied: + +"When she is tired of it--not before. I do not know where she is." + +"Does she not draw her allowance?" + +"Not regularly. And she refused her address when she last appeared at +Kirby's. I suppose she wants to keep the child away from me. She need +not trouble. The last thing I want is her brat to bring up." + +"Wyvis!" + +But to his mother's remonstrating exclamation Wyvis paid no attention in +the least: his mood was fitful, and he was glad to step out of the +ill-lighted room into the hall, and thence to the silence and solitude +of the grounds about the house. + +Brand Hall had been practically deserted for the last few years. A +tenant or two had occupied it for a little time soon after its late +master's withdrawal from the country; but the house was inconvenient and +remote from towns, and it was said, moreover, to be damp and unhealthy. +A caretaker and his wife had, therefore, been its only inhabitants of +late, and a great deal of preparation had been required to make it fit +for its owner when he at last wrote to his agents in Beaminster to +intimate his intention of settling at the Hall. + +The Brands had for many a long year been renowned as the most unlucky +family in the neighborhood. They had once possessed a great property in +the county; but gambling losses and speculation had greatly reduced +their wealth, and even in the time of Wyvis Brand's grandfather the +prestige of the family had sunk very low. In the days of Mark Brand, the +father of Wyvis, it sank lower still. Mark Brand was not only "wild," +but weak: not only weak, but wicked. His career was one of riotous +dissipation, culminating in what was generally spoken of as "a low +marriage"--with the barmaid of a Beaminster public-house. Mary Wyvis had +never been at all like the typical barmaid of fiction or real life: she +was always pale, quiet, and refined-looking, and it was not difficult to +see how she had developed into the sorrowful, careworn woman whom Wyvis +Brand called mother; but she came of a thoroughly bad stock, and was not +untouched in reputation. The county people cut Mark Brand after his +marriage, and never took any notice of his wife; and they were horrified +when he insisted on naming his eldest son after his wife's family, as if +he gloried in the lowliness of her origin. But when Wyvis was a small +boy, his father resolved that neither he nor his children should be +flouted and jeered at by county magnates any longer. He went abroad, and +remained abroad until his death, when Wyvis was twenty years of age and +Cuthbert, the younger son, was barely twelve. Some people said that the +discovery of some particularly disgraceful deed was imminent when he +left his native shores, and that it was for this reason that he had +never returned to England; but Mark Brand himself always spoke as if his +health were too weak, his nerves too delicate, to bear the rough breezes +of his own country and the brusque manners of his compatriots. He had +brought up his son according to his own ideas; and the result did not +seem entirely satisfactory. Vague rumors occasionally reached Beaminster +of scrapes and scandals in which the young Brands figured; it was said +that Wyvis was a particularly black sheep, and that he did his best to +corrupt his younger brother Cuthbert. The news that he was coming back +to Brand Hall was not received with enthusiasm by those who heard it. + +Wyvis' own story had been a sad one--perhaps more sad than scandalous; +but it was a story that the Beaminster people were never to hear aright. +Few knew it, and most of those who knew it had agreed to keep it secret. +That his wife and child were living, many persons in Paris were aware; +that they had separated was also known, but the reason of that +separation was to most persons a secret. And Wyvis, who had a great +dislike to chatterers, made up his mind when he came to Beaminster that +he would tell to nobody the history of the past few years. Had it not +been for his mother's sad face, he fancied that he could have put it out +of his mind altogether. He half resented the pertinacity with which she +seemed to brood upon it. The fact that she had forwarded--had almost +insisted upon--the unfortunate marriage, weighed heavily upon her mind. +There had been a point at which Wyvis would have given it up. But his +mother had espoused the side of the girl, persuaded the young man to +fulfill his promises to her--and repented it ever since. Mrs. Wyvis +Brand had developed an uncontrollable love for strong drink, as well as +a temper that made her at times more like a mad woman than an ordinary +human being; and when she one day disappeared from her husband's home, +carrying his child with her, and announcing in a subsequent letter that +she did not mean to return, it could hardly be wondered at if Wyvis drew +a long breath of relief, and hoped that she never would. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +JANETTA AT HOME. + + +When Lady Caroline drove away from Gwynne Street, Janetta was left by +the tumble-down iron gate with her father, in whose hand she had laid +both her own. He looked at her interrogatively, smiled a little and +said--"Well, my dear?" with a softening of his whole face which made him +positively beautiful in Janetta's eyes. + +"Dear, dearest father!" said the girl, with an irrepressible little sob. +"I am so glad to see you again!" + +"Come in, my dear," said Mr. Colwyn, who was not an emotional man, +although a sympathetic one. "We have been expecting you all day. We did +not think that they would keep you so long at the Court." + +"I'll tell you all about it when I get in," said Janetta, trying to +speak cheerily, with an instinctive remembrance of the demands usually +made upon her fortitude in her own home. "Is mamma in?" She always spoke +of the present Mrs. Colwyn, as "mamma," to distinguish her from her own +mother. "I don't see any of the children." + +"Frightened away by the grand carriage, I expect," said Mr. Colwyn, with +a grim smile. "I see a head or two at the window. Here, Joey, Georgie, +Tiny--where are you all? Come and help to carry your sister's things +upstairs." He went to the front door and called again; whereupon a side +door opened, and from it issued a slip-shod, untidy-looking woman in a +shawl, while over her shoulder and under her arm appeared a little +troop of children in various stages of growth and untidiness. Mrs. +Colwyn had the peculiarity of never being ready for any engagement, much +less for any emergency: she had been expecting Janetta all day, and with +Janetta some of the Court party; but she was nevertheless in a state of +semi-undress, which she tried to conceal underneath her shawl; and on +the first intimation of the approach of Lady Caroline's carriage she had +shut herself and the children into a back room, and declared her +intention of fainting on the spot if Lady Caroline entered the front +door. + +"Well, Janetta," she said, as she advanced towards her stepdaughter and +presented one faded cheek to be kissed, "so your grand friends have +brought you home! Of course they wouldn't come in; I did not expect +them, I am sure. Come into the front room--and children, don't crowd so; +your sister will speak to you by-and-bye." + +"Oh, no, let me kiss them now," said Janetta, who was receiving a series +of affectionate hugs that went far to blind her eyes to the general +deficiency of orderliness and beauty in the house to which she had come. +"Oh, darlings, I am so glad to see you again! Joey, how you have grown! +And Tiny isn't Tiny any longer! Georgie, you have been plaiting your +hair! And here are Curly and Jinks! But where is Nora?" + +"Upstairs, curling her hair," shouted the child who was known by the +name of Jinks. While Georgie, a well-grown girl of thirteen, added in a +lower tone, + +"She would not come down until the Court people had gone. She said _she_ +didn't want to be patronized." + +Janetta colored, and turned away. Meanwhile Mrs. Colwyn had dropped into +the nearest arm-chair, and Mr. Colwyn strayed in and out of the room +with the expression of a dog that has lost its master. Georgie hung upon +Janetta's arm, and the younger children either clung to their elder +sister, or stared at her with round eyes and their fingers in their +mouths. Janetta felt uncomfortably conscious of being more than usually +interesting to them all. Joe, the eldest boy, a dusty lad of fourteen, +all legs and arms, favored her with a broad grin expressive of delight, +which his sister did not understand. It was Tiny, the most gentle and +delicate of the tribe, who let in a little light on the subject. + +"Did they send you away from school for being naughty?" she asked, with +a grave look into Janetta's face. + +A chuckle from Joey, and a giggle from Georgie, were instantly repressed +by Mr. Colwyn's frown and Mrs. Colwyn's acid remonstrance. + +"What are you thinking of, children? Sister is never naughty. We do not +yet quite understand why she has left Miss Polehampton's so suddenly, +but of course she has some good reason. She'll explain it, no doubt, to +her papa and me. Miss Polehampton has been a great deal put out about it +all, and has written a long letter to your papa, Janetta; and, indeed, +it seems to _me_ as if it would have been more becoming if you had kept +to your own place and not tried to make friends with those above +you----" + +"Who are those above her, I should like to know?" broke in the +grey-haired surgeon with some heat. "My Janet's as good as the best of +them any day. The Adairs are not such grand people as Miss Polehampton +makes out--I never heard of such insulting distinctions!" + +"Fancy Janetta being sent away--regularly expelled!" muttered Joey, with +another chuckle. + +"You are very unkind to talk in that way!" said Janetta, addressing him, +because at that moment she could not bear to look at Mr. Colwyn. "It was +not _that_ that made Miss Polehampton angry. It was what she called +insubordination. Miss Adair did not like to see me having meals at a +side-table--though I didn't mind one single bit!--and she left her own +place and sat by me--and then Miss Polehampton was vexed--and everything +followed naturally. It was not just my being friends with Miss Adair +that made her send me away." + +"It seems to me," said Mr. Colwyn, "that Miss Adair was very +inconsiderate." + +"It was all her love and friendship, father," pleaded Janetta. "And she +had always had her own way; and of course she did not think that Miss +Polehampton really meant----" + +Her weak little excuses were cut short by a scornful laugh from her +stepmother. + +"It's easy to see that you have been made a cat's-paw of, Janetta," she +said. "Miss Adair was tired of school, and took the opportunity of +making a to-do about you, so as to provoke the schoolmistress and get +sent away. It does not matter to her, of course: _she_ hasn't got her +living to earn. And if you lose your teaching, and Miss Polehampton's +recommendations by it, it doesn't affect her. Oh, I understand these +fine ladies and their ways." + +"Indeed," said Janetta, in distress, "you quite misunderstand Miss +Adair, mamma. Besides, it has not deprived me of my teaching: Miss +Polehampton had told me that I might go to her sister's school at +Worthing if I liked; and she only let me go yesterday because she became +irritated at--at--some of the things that were said----" + +"Yes, but I shall not let you go to Worthing," said Mr. Colwyn, with +sudden decisiveness. "You shall not be exposed to insolence of this kind +any longer. Miss Polehampton had no right to treat you as she did, and I +shall write and tell her so." + +"And if Janetta stays at home," said his wife complainingly, "what is to +become of her career as a music-teacher? She can't get lessons here, and +there's the expense----" + +"I hope I can afford to keep my daughter as long as I am alive," said +Mr. Colwyn with some vehemence. "There, don't be vexed, my dear child," +and he laid his hand tenderly on Janetta's shoulder, "nobody blames you; +and your friend erred perhaps from over-affection; but Miss +Polehampton"--with energy--"is a vulgar, self-seeking, foolish old +woman, and I won't have you enter into relations with her again." + +And then he left the room, and Janetta, forcing back the tears in her +eyes, did her best to smile when Georgie and Tiny hugged her +simultaneously and Jinks beat a tattoo upon her knee. + +"Well," said Mrs. Colwyn, lugubriously, "I hope everything will turn out +for the best; but it is not at all nice, Janetta, to think that Miss +Adair has been expelled for your sake, or that you are thrown out of +work without a character, so to speak. I should think the Adairs would +see that, and would make some compensation. If they don't offer to do +so, your papa might suggest it----" + +"I'm sure father would never suggest anything of the kind," Janetta +flashed out; but before Mrs. Colwyn could protest, a diversion was +effected by the entrance of the missing Nora, and all discussion was +postponed to a more fitting moment. + +For to look at Nora was to forget discussion. She was the eldest of the +second Mrs. Colwyn's children--a girl just seventeen, taller than +Janetta and thinner, with the thinness of immature girlhood, but with a +fair skin and a mop of golden-brown hair, which curled so naturally that +her younger brother's statement concerning those fair locks must surely +have been a libel. She had a vivacious, narrow, little face, with large +eyes like a child's--that is to say, they had the transparent look that +one sees in some children's eyes, as if the color had been laid on in a +single wash without any shadows. They were very pretty eyes, and gave +light and expression to a set of rather small features, which might have +been insignificant if they had belonged to an insignificant person. But +Nora Colwyn was anything but insignificant. + +"Have your fine friends gone?" she said, peeping into the room in +pretended alarm. "Then I may come in. How are you, Janetta, after your +sojourn in the halls of dazzling light?" + +"Don't be absurd, Nora," said her sister, with a sudden backward dart of +remembrance to the tranquil beauty of the rooms at Helmsley Court and +the silver accents of Lady Caroline. "Why didn't you come down before?" + +"My dear, I thought the nobility and gentry were blocking the door," +said Nora, kissing her. "But since they are gone, you might as well come +upstairs with me and take off your things. Then we can have tea." + +Obediently Janetta followed her sister to the little room which they +always shared when Janetta was at home. It might have looked very bare +and desolate to ordinary eyes, but the girl felt the thrill of pleasure +that all young creatures feel to anything that bears the name of home, +and became aware of a satisfaction such as she had not experienced in +her luxurious bedroom at Helmsley Court. Nora helped her to take off her +hat and cloak, and to unpack her box, insisting meanwhile on a detailed +relation of all the events that had led to Janetta's return three weeks +before the end of the term, and shrieking with laughter over what she +called "Miss Poley's defeat." + +"But, seriously, Nora, what shall I do with myself, if father will not +let me go to Worthing?" + +"Teach the children at home," said Nora, briskly; "and save me the +trouble of looking after them. I should like that. Or get some pupils in +the town. Surely the Adairs will recommend you!" + +This constant reference to possible aid from the Adairs troubled Janetta +not a little, and it was with some notion of combatting the idea that +she repaired to the surgery after tea, in order to get a few words on +the subject with her father. But his first remark was on quite a +different matter. + +"Here's a pretty kettle of fish, Janet! The Brands are back again!" + +"So I heard you say to Lady Caroline." + +"Mark Brand was a cousin of your mother's," said Mr. Colwyn, abruptly; +"and a bad lot. As for these sons of his, I know nothing about +them--absolutely nothing. But their mother----" he shook his head +significantly. + +"We saw them to day," said Janetta. + +"Ah, an accident of that kind would be a shock to her: she does not look +strong. They wrote to me from the 'Clown,' where they had stayed for the +last two days; some question relative to the drainage of Brand Hall. I +went to the 'Crown' and saw them. He's a fine-looking man." + +"He has not altogether a pleasant expression," remarked Janetta, +thinking of Lady Caroline's strictures; "but I--liked--his face." + +"He looks ill-tempered," said her father. "And I can't say that he +showed me much civility. He did not even know that your poor mother was +dead. Never asked whether she had left any family or anything." + +"Did you tell him?" asked Janetta, after a pause. + +"No. I did not think it worth while. I am not anxious to cultivate his +acquaintance." + +"After all, what does it matter?" said the girl coaxingly, for she +thought she saw a shadow of disappointment upon his face. + +"No, what does it matter?" said her father, brightening up at once. "As +long as we are happy with each other, these outside people need not +disturb us, need they?" + +"Not a bit," said Janetta. "And--you are not angry with me, are you, +father, dear?" + +"Why should I be, my Janet? You have done nothing wrong that I know of. +If there is any blame it attaches to Miss Adair, not to you." + +"But I do not want you to think so, father. Miss Adair is the greatest +friend that I have in all the world." + +And she found a good many opportunities of repeating; this conviction of +hers during the next few days, for Mrs. Colwyn and Nora were not slow to +repeat the sentiment with which they had greeted her--that the Adairs +were "stuck-up" fine people, and that they did not mean to take any +further notice of her now that they had got what they desired. + +Janetta stood up gallantly for her friend, but she did feel it a little +hard that Margaret had not written or come to see her since her return +home. She conjectured--and in the conjecture she was nearly right--that +Lady Caroline had sacrificed her a little in order to smooth over things +with her daughter: that she had represented Janetta as resolved upon +going, resolved upon neglecting Margaret and not complying with her +requests; and that Margaret was a little offended with her in +consequence. She wrote an affectionate note of excuse to her friend, but +Margaret made no reply. + +In the first ardor of a youthful friendship, Janetta's heart ached over +this silence, and she meditated much as she lay nights upon her little +white bed in Nora's attic (for she had not time to meditate during the +day) upon the smoothness of life which seemed necessary to the Adairs +and the means they took for securing it. On the whole, their life seemed +to her too artificial, too much like the life of delicate hot-house +flowers under glass; and she came to the conclusion that she preferred +her own mode of existence--troublous and hurried and common as it might +seem in the eyes of the world to be. After all, was it not pleasant to +know that while she was at home, there was a little more comfort than +usual for her over-worked, hardly-driven, careworn father; she could see +that his meals were properly cooked and served when he came in from long +and weary expeditions into the country or amongst the poor of +Beaminster; she could help Joey and Georgie in the evenings with their +respective lessons; she could teach and care for the younger children +all day long. To her stepmother she did not feel that she was very +useful; but she could at any rate make new caps for her, new lace +fichus and bows, which caused Mrs. Colwyn occasionally to remark with +some complacency that Janetta had been quite _wasted_ at Miss +Polehampton's school: her proper destiny was evidently to be a milliner. + +Nora was the one person of the family who did not seem to want Janetta's +help. Indirectly, however, the elder sister was more useful to her than +she knew; for the two went out together and were companions. Hitherto +Nora had walked alone, and had made one or two undesirable girl +acquaintances. But these were dropped when she had Janetta to talk to, +dropped quietly, without a word, much to their indignation, and without +Janetta's knowing of their existence. + +It became a common thing for the two girls to go out together in the +long summer evenings, when the work of the day was over, and stroll +along the country roads, or venture into the cool shadow of the +Beaminster woods. Sometimes the children went with them: sometimes +Janetta and Nora went alone. And it was when they were alone one evening +that a somewhat unexpected incident came to pass. + +The Beaminster woods ran for some distance in a northerly direction +beyond Beaminster, and there was a point where only a wire fence divided +them from the grounds of Brand Hall. Near this fence Janetta and her +sister found themselves one evening--not that they had purposed to reach +the boundary, but that they had strayed a little from the beaten path. +As they neared the fence they looked at each other and laughed. + +"I did not know that we were so near the lordly dwelling of your +relations!" said Nora, who loved to tease, and knew that she could +always rouse Janetta's indignation by a reference to her "fine friends." + +"I did not know either," returned Janetta, good-humoredly. "We can see +the house a little. Look at the great red chimneys." + +"I have been over it," said Nora, contemptuously. "It's a poor little +place, after all--saving your presence, Netta! I wonder if the Brands +mean to acknowledge your existence? They----" + +She stopped short, for her foot had caught on something, and she nearly +stumbled. Janetta stopped also, and the two sisters uttered a sudden +cry of surprise. For what Nora had stumbled over was a wooden horse--a +child's broken toy--and deep in the bracken before them, with one hand +beneath his flushed and dimpled cheek, there lay the loveliest of all +objects--a sleeping child. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +NORA'S NEW ACQUAINTANCE. + + +"He must have lost his way," said Janetta, bending over him. "Poor +little fellow!" + +"He's a pretty little boy," said Nora, carelessly. "His nurse or his +mother or somebody will be near, I dare say--perhaps gone up to the +house. Shall I look about?" + +"Wait a minute--he is awake--he will tell us who he is." + +The child, roused by the sound of voices, turned a little, stretched +himself, then opened his great dark eyes, and fixed them full on +Janetta's face. What he saw there must have reassured him, for a dreamy +smile came to his lips, and he stretched out his little hands to her. + +"You darling!" cried Janetta. "Where did you come from, dear? What is +your name?" + +The boy raised himself and looked about him. He looked about five years +old, and was a remarkably fine and handsome child. It was in perfectly +clear and distinct English--almost free from any trace of baby +dialect--that he replied-- + +"Mammy brought me. She said I should find my father here. I don't want +my father," he remarked, decidedly. + +"Who is your father? What is your name?" Nora asked. + +"My name is Julian Wyvis Brand," said the little fellow, sturdily; "and +I want to know where my father lives, if you please, 'cause it'll soon +be my bed-time, and I'm getting very hungry." + +Janetta and her sister exchanged glances. + +"Is your father's name Wyvis Brand, too?" asked Janetta. + +"Yes, same as mine," said the boy, nodding. He stood erect now, and she +noticed that his clothes, originally of fashionable cut and costly +material, were torn and stained and shabby. He had a little bundle +beside him, tied up in a gaudy shawl; and the broken toy-horse seemed to +have fallen out of it. + +"But where is your mother?" + +"Mammy's gone away. She told me to go and find my father at the big red +house there. I did go once; but they thought I was a beggar, and they +sent me away. I don't know what to do, I don't. I wish mammy would +come." + +"Will she come soon?" + +"She said no. Never, never, never. She's gone over the sea again," said +the boy, with the abstracted, meditative look which children sometimes +assume when they are concocting a romance, and which Janetta was quick +to remark. "I think she's gone right off to America or London. But she +said that I was to tell my father that she would never come back." + +"What are we to do?" said Nora, in an under tone. + +"We must take him to Brand Hall," Janetta answered, "and ask to see +either Mrs. Brand or Mr. Wyvis Brand." + +"Won't it be rather dreadful?" + +Janetta turned hastily on her sister. "Yes," she said, with decision, +"it is very awkward, indeed, and it may be much better that you should +not be mixed up in the matter at all. You must stay here while I go up +to the house." + +"But, Janetta, wouldn't you rather have some one with you?" + +"I think it will be easier alone," Janetta answered. "You see, I have +seen Mrs. Brand and her son already, and I feel as if I knew what they +would be like. Wait for me here: I daresay I shall not be ten minutes. +Come, dear, will you go with me to see if we can find your father?" + +"Yes," said the boy, promptly putting his hand in hers. + +"Are these your things in the bundle?" + +"Yes; mammy put them there. There's my Sunday suit, and my book of +'Jack, the Giantkiller,' you know. And my wooden horse; but it's broke. +Will you carry the horse for me?--and I'll carry the bundle." + +"Isn't it too heavy for you?" + +"Not a bit," and the little fellow grasped it by both bands, and swung +it about triumphantly. + +"Come along, then," said Janetta, with a smile. "Wait for me here, Nora, +dear: I shall then find you easily when I come back." + +She marched off, the boy stumping after her with his burden. Nora +noticed that after a few minutes' walk her sister gently relieved him of +the load and carried it herself. + +"Just like Janetta," she soliloquized, as the two figures disappeared +behind a clump of tall trees; "she was afraid of spoiling the moral if +she did not let him _try_ at least to carry the bundle. She always is +afraid of spoiling the moral: I never knew such a conscientious person +in my life. I am sure, as mamma says, she sets an excellent example." + +And then Nora balanced herself on the loose wire of the fence, which +made an excellent swing, and poising herself upon it she took off her +hat, and resigned herself to waiting for Janetta's return. Naturally, +perhaps, her meditations turned upon Janetta's character. + +"I wish I were like her," she said to herself. "Wherever she is she +seems to find work to do, and makes herself necessary and useful. Now, I +am of no use to anybody. I don't think I was ever meant to be of use. I +was meant to be ornamental!" She struck the wire with the point of her +little shoe, and looked at it regretfully. "I have no talent, mamma +says. I can look nice, I believe, and that is all. If I were Margaret +Adair I am sure I should be very much admired! But being only Nora +Colwyn, the doctor's daughter, I must mend socks and make puddings, and +eat cold mutton and wear old frocks to the end of the chapter! What a +mercy I am taller than Janetta! My old dresses are cut down for her, but +she can't leave me _her_ cast-off ones. That little wretch, Georgie, +will soon be as tall as I am, I believe. Thank goodness, she will never +be as pretty." And Miss Nora, who was really excessively vain, drew out +of her pocket a small looking-glass, and began studying her features as +therein reflected: first her eyes, when she pulled out her eyelashes and +stroked her eyebrows; then her nose, which she pinched a little to make +longer; then her mouth, of which she bit the lips in order to increase +the color and judge of the effect. Then she took some geranium petals +from the flowers in her belt and rubbed them on her cheeks: the red +stain became her mightily, she thought, and was almost as good as rouge. + +Thus engaged, she did not hear steps on the pathway by which she and +Janetta had come. A man, young and slim, with a stoop and a slight halt +in his walk, with bright, curling hair, worn rather longer than +Englishmen usually wear it, with thin but expressive features, and very +brilliant blue eyes--this was the personage who now appeared upon the +scene. He stopped short rather suddenly when he became aware of the +presence of a young lady upon the fence--perhaps it was to him a +somewhat startling one: then, when he noted how she was engaged, a smile +broke gradually over his countenance. He once made a movement to +advance, then restrained himself and waited; but some involuntary rustle +of the branches above him or twigs under his feet revealed him. Nora +gave a little involuntary cry, dropped her looking-glass, and colored +crimson with vexation at finding that some one was watching her. + +"What ought I to do, I wonder?" Such was the thought that flashed +through the young man's mind. He was remarkably quick in receiving +impressions and in drawing conclusions. "She is not a French girl, thank +goodness, fresh from a convent, and afraid to open her lips! Neither is +she the conventional young English lady, or she would not sit on a fence +and look at herself in a pocket looking-glass. At least, I suppose she +would not: how should I know what English girls would do? At any rate, +here goes for addressing her." + +All these ideas passed through his mind in the course of the second or +two which elapsed while he courteously raised his hat, and advanced to +pick up the fallen hand-glass. But Nora was too quick for him. She had +slipped off the fence and secured her mirror before he could reach it; +and then, with a look of quite unnecessary scorn and anger, she almost +turned her back upon him, and stood looking at the one angle of the +house which she could see. + +The young man brushed his moustache to conceal a smile, and ventured on +the remark that he had been waiting to make. + +"I beg your pardon; I trust that I did not startle you." + +"Not at all," said Nora, with dignity. But she did not turn round. + +"If you are looking for the gate into the grounds," he resumed, with +great considerateness of manner, "you will find it about twenty yards +further to your left. Can I have the pleasure of showing you the way?" + +"No, thank you," said Miss Nora, very ungraciously. "I am waiting for my +sister." She felt that some explanation was necessary to account for the +fact that she did not immediately walk away. + +"Oh, I beg your pardon," said the young man once more, but this time in +a rather disappointed tone. Then, brightening--"But if your sister has +gone up to our house why won't you come in too?" + +"_Your_ house?" said Nora, unceremoniously, and facing him with an air +of fearless incredulity, which amused him immensely. "But _you_ are not +Mr. Brand?" + +"My name is Brand," said the young fellow, smiling the sunniest smile in +the world, and again raising his hat, with what Nora now noticed to be a +rather foreign kind of grace: "and if you know it, I feel that it is +honored already." + +Nora knitted her brows. "I don't know what you mean," she said, +impatiently, "but you are not Mr. Brand of the Hall, are you?" + +"I live at the Hall, certainly, and my name is Brand--Cuthbert Brand, at +your service." + +"Oh, I see. Not Wyvis Brand?" said Nora impulsively. "Not the father of +the dear little boy that we found here just now?" + +Cuthbert Brand's fair face colored. He looked excessively surprised. + +"The father--a little boy? I am afraid," he said, with some +embarrassment of manner, "that I do not exactly know what you mean----" + +"It is just this," said Nora, losing her contemptuous manner and coming +closer to the speaker; "when my sister and I were walking this way we +saw a little boy lying here fast asleep. He woke up and told us that his +name was Julian Wyvis Brand, and that his mother had left him here, and +told him to find his father, who lived at that red house." + +"Good heavens! And the woman--what became of her?" + +"The boy said she had gone away and would not come back." + +"I trust she may not," muttered Cuthbert angrily to himself. A red +flush colored his brow as he went on. "My brother's wife," he said +formally, "is not--at present--on very friendly terms with him; we did +not know that she intended to bring the child home in this manner: we +thought that she desired to keep it--where is the boy, by the way?" + +"My sister has taken him up to the Hall. She said that she would see Mr. +Brand." + +Cuthbert raised his eyebrows. "See my brother?" he repeated as if +involuntarily. "My brother!" + +"She is his second cousin, you know: I suppose that gives her courage," +said Nora smiling at the tone of horror which she fancied must be +simulated for the occasion. But Cuthbert was in earnest--he knew Wyvis +Brand's temper too well to anticipate anything but a rough reception for +any one who seemed inclined to meddle with his private affairs. And if +Nora's sister were like herself! For Nora did not look like a person who +would bear roughness or rudeness from any one. + +"Then are you my cousin, too?" he asked, suddenly struck by an idea that +sent a gleam of pleasure to his eye. + +"Oh, no," said Nora, demurely. "I'm no relation. It is only Janetta--her +mother was Mr. Brand's father's cousin. But that was not my +mother--Janetta and I are stepsisters." + +"Surely that makes a relationship, however," said Cuthbert, +courageously. "If your stepsister is my second cousin, you must be a +sort of step-second-cousin to me. Will you not condescend to acknowledge +the connection?" + +"Isn't the condescension all on your side?" said Nora coolly. "It may be +a connection, but it certainly isn't a relationship." + +"I am only too glad to hear you call it a connection," said Cuthbert, +with gravity. And then the two laughed--Nora rather against her +will--Cuthbert out of amusement at the situation, and both out of sheer +light-heartedness. And when they had laughed the ice seemed to be +broken, and they felt as if they were old friends. + +"I did not know that any of our relations were living in Beaminster," he +resumed, after a moment's pause. + +"I suppose you never even heard our name," said Nora, saucily. + +"I don't--know----" he began, in some confusion. + +"Of course you don't. Your father had a cousin and she married a +doctor--a poor country surgeon, and so of course you forgot all about +her existence. She was not _my_ mother, so I can speak out, you know. +Your father never spoke to her again after she married _my_ father." + +"More shame to him! I remember now. Your father is James Colwyn." + +Nora nodded. "I think it was a very great shame," she said. + +"And so do I," said Cuthbert, heartily. + +"It was all the worse," Nora went on, quite forgetting in her eagerness +whom she was talking to, "because Mr. Brand was not himself so very much +thought of, you know--people did not think--oh, I forgot! I beg your +pardon!" she suddenly ejaculated, turning crimson as she remembered that +the man to whom she was speaking was the son of the much-abused Mr. +Brand, who had been considered the black sheep of the county. + +"Don't apologize, pray," said Cuthbert, lightly. "I'm quite accustomed +to hearing my relations spoken ill of. What was it that people did not +think?" + +"Oh," said Nora, now covered with confusion, "of course I could not tell +you." + +"It was so very bad, was it?" said the young man, laughing. "You need +not be afraid. Really and seriously, I have been told that my poor +father was not very popular about here, and I don't much wonder at it, +for although he was a good father to us he was rather short in manner, +and, perhaps, I may add, in temper. Wyvis is like him exactly, I +believe." + +"And are you?" asked Nora. + +Cuthbert raised his hat and gave it a tremendous flourish. +"Mademoiselle, I have not that honor," he replied. + +"I suppose I ought not to have asked," said Nora to herself, but this +time she restrained herself and did not say it aloud. "I wonder where +Janetta is?" she murmured after a moment's silence. "I did not think +that she would be so long." + +If Cuthbert thought the remark ungracious, as he might well have done, +he made no sign of discomfiture. "Can I do anything?" he asked. "Shall I +go to the house and find out whether she has seen my brother? But then I +shall have to leave you." + +"Oh, that doesn't matter," said Nora, innocently. + +"Doesn't it? But I hardly like the idea of leaving you all alone. There +might be tramps about. If you are like all the other young ladies I have +known, you will have an objection to tramps." + +"I am sure," said Nora, with confidence, "that I am not at all like the +other young ladies you know; but at the same time I must confess that I +don't like tramps." + +"I knew it. And I saw a tramp--I am sure I did--a little while ago in +this very wood. He was ragged and dirty, but picturesque. I sketched +him, but I think he would not be a pleasant companion for you." + +"Do you sketch?" said Nora quickly. + +"Oh, yes, I sketch a little," he answered in a careless sort of way--for +what was the use of telling this little girl that his pictures had been +hung in the Salon and the Academy, or that he had hopes of one day +rising to fame and fortune in his recently adopted profession? He was +not given to boasting of his own success, and besides, this child--with +her saucy face and guileless eyes--would not understand either his +ambitions or his achievements. + +But Nora's one talent was for drawing, and although the instruction she +had received was by no means of the best, she had good taste and a great +desire to improve her skill. So Cuthbert's admission excited her +interest at once. + +"Have you been sketching now?" she asked. "Oh, do let me see what you +have done?" + +Cuthbert's portfolio was under his arm. He laughed, hesitated, then +dropped on one knee beside her and began to exhibit his sketches. It was +thus--side by side, with heads very close together--that Janetta, much +to her amazement, found them on her return. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FATHER AND CHILD. + + +Janetta had set off on her expedition to Brand Hall out of an impulse of +mingled pity and indignation--pity for the little boy, indignation +against the mother who could desert him, perhaps against the father +too. This feeling prevented her from realizing all at once the difficult +position in which she was now placing herself; the awkwardness in which +she would be involved if Mr. Brand declared that he knew nothing of the +child, or would have nothing to do with it. "In that case," she said to +herself, with an admiring glance at the lovely little boy, "I shall have +to adopt him, I think! I wonder what poor mamma would say!" + +She found her way without difficulty to the front-door of the long, low, +rambling red house which was dignified by the name of Brand Hall. The +place had a desolate look still, in spite of its being inhabited. +Scarcely a window was open, and no white blinds or pretty curtains could +be seen at the casements. The door was also shut; and as it was one of +those wide oaken doors, mantled with creepers, and flanked with seats, +which look as if they should always stand hospitably open, it gave the +stranger a sense of coldness and aloofness to stand before it. And, +also, there was neither bell nor a knocker--a fact which showed that few +visitors ever made their appearance at Brand Hall. Janetta looked about +her in dismay, and then tapped at the door with her fingers, while the +child followed her every movement with his great wondering eyes, and +finally said, gravely-- + +"I think they have all gone to sleep in this house, like the people in +the 'Sleeping Beauty' story." + +"Then you must be the Fairy Prince to wake them all up," said Janetta, +laughingly. + +The boy looked at her as if he understood; then, suddenly stooping, he +picked up a fallen stick and proceeded to give the door several smart +raps upon its oaken panels. + +This summons procured a response. The door was opened, after a good deal +of ineffectual fumbling at bolts and rattling of chains, by an old, +white-haired serving man, who looked as if he had stepped out of the +story to which Julian had alluded. He was very deaf, and it was some +time before Janetta could make him understand that she wanted to see +Mrs. Brand. Evidently Mrs. Brand was not in the habit of receiving +visitors. At last he conducted her to the dark little drawing-room where +the mistress of the house usually sat, and here Janetta was received by +the pale, grey-haired woman whom she had seen fainting on the +Beaminster road. It was curious to notice the agitation of this elderly +lady on Janetta's appearance. She stood up, crushed her handkerchief +between her trembling fingers, took a step towards her visitor, and then +stood still, looking at her with such extraordinary anxiety that Janetta +was quite confused and puzzled by it. Seeing that her hostess could not +in any way assist her out of her difficulty, she faced it boldly by +introducing herself. + +"My name is Janetta Colwyn," she began. "I believe that my mother was a +relation of Mr. Brand's--a cousin----" + +"Yes, a first cousin," said Mrs. Brand, nervously. "I often heard him +speak of her--I never saw her----" + +She paused, looked suspiciously at Janetta, and colored all over her +thin face. Janetta paused also, being taken somewhat by surprise. + +"No, I don't suppose you ever saw her," she said, "but then you went +abroad, and my dear mother died soon after I was born. Otherwise, I +daresay you would have known her." + +Mrs. Brand gave her a strange look. "You think so?" she said. "But +no--you are wrong: she always looked down on me. She never would have +been friendly with me if she had lived." + +"Indeed," said Janetta, very much astonished. "I always heard that it +was the other way--that Mr. Brand was angry with _her_ for marrying a +poor country surgeon, and would not speak to her again." + +"That is what they may have said to you. But you were too young to be +told the truth," said the sad-faced woman, beginning to tremble all over +as she spoke. "No, your mother would not have been friends with me. I +was not her equal--and she knew I was not." + +"Oh, indeed, you make a mistake: I am sure you do," cried Janetta, +becoming genuinely distressed as this view of her mother's character and +conduct was fixed upon her. "My mother was always gentle and kind, they +tell me; I am sure she would have been your friend--as I will be, if you +will let me." She held out her hands and drew those of the trembling +woman into her warm young clasp. "I am a cousin too," she said, blushing +a little as she asserted herself in this way, "and I hope you will let +me come to see you sometimes and make you less lonely." + +"I am always lonely, and I always shall be lonely to the end of time," +said Mrs. Brand, slowly and bitterly. "However"--with an evident attempt +to recover her self-possession--"I shall always be pleased to see you. +Did--did--your father send you here to-night?" + +"No," said Janetta, remembering her errand. "He does not know----" + +"Does not know?" The pale woman again looked distressed. "Oh," she said, +turning away with a sigh and biting her lip, "then I shall not see you +again." + +"Indeed you will," said Janetta, warmly. "My father would never keep me +away from any one who wanted me--and one of my mother's relations too. +But I came to-night because I found this dear little boy outside your +grounds. He tells me that his name is Julian Wyvis Brand, and that he is +your son's little boy." + +For the first time Mrs. Brand turned her eyes upon the child. Hitherto +she had not noticed him much, evidently thinking that he belonged to +Janetta, and was also a visitor. But when she saw the boy's sweet little +face and large dark eyes, she turned pale, and made a gesture as of +warning or dislike. + +"Take him away! take him away," she said. "Yes, I can see that it is +_her_ child--and his child too. She must be here too, and she has been +the ruin of my boy's life!" And then she sank into a chair and burst +into an agony of tears. + +Janetta felt, with an inexpressible pang, that she had set foot in the +midst of some domestic tragedy, the like of which had never come within +her ken before. She was conscious of a little recoil from it, such as is +natural to a young girl who has not learnt by experience the meaning of +sorrow; but the recoil was followed by a rush of that sympathy for which +she had always shown a great capacity. Her instinct led her instantly to +comfort and console. She knelt down beside the weeping woman and put one +arm round her, drawing the little boy forward with her left hand as she +spoke. + +"Oh, don't cry--don't cry!" she murmured. "He has come to be a joy and a +comfort to you, and he wants you to love him too." + +"Won't you love me, grandmamma?" said the sweet childish voice. And +Julian laid his hand on the poor woman's shaking knee. "Don't cry, +grandmamma." + +It was this scene which met the eyes of Wyvis Brand when he turned the +handle of the drawing-room door and walked into the room. His mother +weeping, with a child before her, and a dark-haired girl on her knees +with one arm round the weeping woman and one round the lovely child. It +was a pretty picture, and Wyvis Brand was not insensible to its beauty. + +He stood, looking prom one to another of the group. + +"What does all this mean?" he asked, in somewhat harsh tones. + +His mother cried aloud and caught the child to her breast. + +"Oh, Wyvis, be kind--be merciful," she gasped. "This is your child--your +child. You will not drive him away. She has left him at our door." + +Wyvis walked into the room, shut the door behind him, and leaned against +it. + +"Upon my word," he said, sarcastically, "you will give this lady--whose +name I haven't the pleasure of knowing--a very fine idea of our domestic +relations. I am not such a brute, I hope, as to drive away my own child +from my door; but I certainly should like to know first whether it is my +child; and more particularly whether it is my son and heir, as I have no +doubt that this young gentleman is endeavoring to persuade you. Did +_you_ bring the child here?" he said, turning sharply to Janetta. + +"I brought him into the house, certainly," she said, rising from her +knees and facing him. "I found him outside your fence; and he told me +that his name was Julian Wyvis Brand." + +"Pretty evidence," said Mr. Brand, very rudely, as Janetta thought. "Who +can tell whether the child is not some beggar's brat that has nothing to +do with me?" + +"Don't you know your own little boy when you see him?" Janetta demanded, +indignantly. + +"Not I. I have not set eyes on him since he was a baby. Turn round, +youngster, and let me have a look at you." + +The child faced him instantly, much as Janetta herself had done. There +was a fearless look in the baby face, an innocent, guileless courage in +the large dark eyes, which must surely, thought Janetta, touch a +father's heart. But Wyvis Brand looked as if it would take a great deal +to move him. + +"Where do you come from?" said Mr. Brand, sternly. + +"From over the sea." + +"That's no answer. Where from?--what place?" + +The boy looked at him without answering. + +"Are you dumb?" said Wyvis Brand, harshly. "Or have you not been taught +what to say to that question? Where do you come from, I say?" + +Mrs. Brand murmured an inarticulate remonstrance; Janetta's eyes flashed +an indignant protest. Both women thought that the boy would be dismayed +and frightened. But he, standing steady and erect, did not flinch. His +color rose and his hands clenched themselves at his side, but he did not +take his eyes from his father's face as he replied. + +"I come with mammy from Paris." + +"And pray where is your mother?" + +"Gone back again. She told me to find my father. Are you my father?" +said the child, with the utmost fearlessness. + +"What is your name?" asked Wyvis, utterly disregarding the question. + +"Julian Wyvis Brand." + +"He's got the name pat enough," said Wyvis, with a sardonic laugh. +"Well, where did you live in Paris? What sort of a house had you?" + +"It was near the church," said the little boy, gravely. "The church with +the big pillars round it. There was a bonnet shop under our rooms, and +the rooms were all pink and white and gold--prettier than this," he +said, wistfully surveying the gloomy room in which he stood. + +"And who took care of you when your mother was out?" asked Mr. Brand. +Even Janetta could see, by the swift, subtle change that had passed over +his face, that he recognized the description of the room. + +"Susan. She was my nurse and mammy's maid as well. She was English." + +The man nodded and set his lips. "He knows what to say," he remarked. + +"Oh, Wyvis!" exclaimed his mother, as if she could repress her feelings +no longer; "don't you see how like he is to you!--don't you _feel_ that +he is your own child?" + +"I confess the paternal feelings are not very strong in me," said her +son, dryly, "but I have a fancy the boy is mine for all that. Haven't +you a letter or a remembrance of some sort to give me, young man?" + +The boy shook his head. + +"There may be something amongst his things--some book or trinket that +you would remember," said Janetta, speaking with timidity. Mr. Brand +gave her a keen look, and Mrs. Brand accepted the suggestion with +eagerness. + +"Oh, yes, yes, let us look. Have you a box, my dear, or a bag?--oh, a +bundle, only: give it me, and let me see what is inside." + +"It is unnecessary, mother," said Wyvis, coldly. "I am as convinced as +you can wish me to be that this is Juliet's child." + +But Mrs. Brand, with trembling fingers and parted lips, was helping +Janetta to unfasten the knots of the big handkerchief in which the +child's worldly goods were wrapped up. Wyvis Brand stood silently beside +the two women, while little Julian pressed closer and pointed out his +various treasures as they were one by one disclosed. + +"That's my book," he said; "and that's my best suit. And that's--oh, I +don't know what _that_ is. I don't know why mammy put it in." + +"_I_ know," said Wyvis Brand, half under his breath. + +The object that called forth this remark was a small morocco box, +loosely wrapped in tissue-paper. Wyvis took it out of his mother's hand, +opened it, and stood silently gazing at its contents. It held a ring, as +Janetta could easily see--a hoop of gold in which were three opals--not +a very large or costly-looking trinket, but one which seemed to have +memories or associations connected with it--to judge, at least, by the +look on Wyvis Brand's dark face. The women involuntarily held their +breath as they glanced at him. + +At last with a short laugh, he slipped the little case into his pocket, +and turned upon his heel. + +"I suppose that this is evidence enough," he said. "It is a ring I once +gave her--our engagement ring. Not one of much value, or you may be sure +that she would never have sent it back." + +"Then you are convinced--you are certain----" His mother did not finish +the sentence, but her son knew what she meant. + +"That he is my son? my wife's child? Oh, yes, I am pretty sure of that. +He had better be put to bed," said Wyvis, carelessly. "You can find a +room for him somewhere, I dare say." + +"There is the old nursery," said Mrs. Brand, in breathless eagerness. "I +looked into it yesterday; it is a nice, cheerful room--but it has not +been used for a long time----" + +"Do as you like; don't consult me," said her son. "I know nothing about +the matter." And he turned to the door, without another look towards his +son. + +But little Julian was not minded to be treated in this way. His large +eyes had been fixed upon his father with a puzzled and rather wistful +expression. He now suddenly started from his position at Mrs. Brand's +knee, and pursued his father to the door. + +"Say good-night, please," he said, pulling at Mr. Brand's coat with a +fearlessness which amused Janetta and startled Mrs. Brand. + +Wyvis looked down at him with a curious and indescribable expression. +"You're not shy, at any rate," he said, drily. "Well, good-night, young +man. What?"--the boy had held up his face to be kissed. + +The father hesitated. Then a better and softer feeling seemed to pass +over his face. He stooped down and let the child put his arms round his +neck, and press a warm kiss on his cheek. A short laugh then escaped his +lips, as if he were half-ashamed of his own action. He went out of the +room and shut the door behind him without looking round, and little +Julian returned to his grandmother's knee, looking well satisfied with +himself. + +Janetta felt that she ought to go, and yet that she hardly liked +trusting the child to the sole care of Mrs. Brand, who was evidently so +much unnerved as to be of little use in deciding what was to be done +with him. And at the first hint of departure grandmother and child both +clung to her as if they felt her to be their sheet-anchor in storm. She +was not allowed to go until she had inspected the nursery and pronounced +it too damp for Julian's use, and seen a little bed made up for the +child in Mrs. Brand's own room, where a fire was lighted, and everything +looked cosey and bright. Poor little Julian was by this time half-dead +with sleep; and Janetta could not after all make up her mind to leave +him until she had seen him tucked up and fast asleep. Then she +bethought herself of Nora, and turned to go. Mrs. Brand, melted out of +her coldness and shy reserve, caught her by the hand. + +"My dear," she said, "what should we have done without you?" + +"I don't think that I have done very much," said Janetta, smiling. + +"You have done more than I could ever do. If I had brought that child to +my son he would never have acknowledged it." + +"He does not look so hard," said the girl involuntarily. + +"He _is_ hard, my dear--hard in his way--but he is a good son for all +that--and he has had sore trouble, which has made him seem harder and +sterner than he is. I cannot thank you enough for all that you have done +to-day." + +"Oh, Mrs. Brand, I have done nothing," said Janetta, blushing at the +elder woman's praise. "But may I come to see you and little Julian +again? I should like so much to know how he gets on." + +"You may come, dear, if your father will let you," said Mrs. Brand, with +rather a troubled look. "It would be a blessing--a charity--to me: but I +don't know whether it would be right to let you--your father must +decide." + +And then Janetta took her leave. + +She was surprised to find that Mr. Brand was lounging about the hall as +she came out, and that he not only opened the door for her but +accompanied her to the garden gate. He did not speak for a minute or +two, and Janetta, not seeing her way clear to any remarks of her own, +wondered whether they were to walk side by side to the gate in utter +silence. Presently, however, he said, abruptly. + +"I have not yet heard to whom I am indebted for the appearance of that +little boy in my house." + +"I am not exactly responsible," said Janetta, "I only found him outside +and brought him in to make inquiries. My name is Janetta Colwyn." + +"Colwyn? What? the doctor's daughter?" + +"Yes, the doctor's daughter," said Janetta, smiling frankly at him, "and +your second cousin." + +Wyvis Brand's hand went up to his hat, which he lifted ceremoniously. + +"I wish I had had the introduction earlier," he said, in a much +pleasanter tone. + +Janetta could not exactly echo the sentiment, and therefore maintained a +discreet silence. + +"You must have thought me a great brute," said Wyvis, with some +sensitiveness in his tone. + +"Oh, no: I quite saw how difficult it was for you to understand who I +was, and how it had all come about." + +"You saw a great deal, then." + +"Oh, I know that it sounds impertinent to say so," Janetta answered, +blushing a little and walking a trifle faster, "but I did not mean it +rudely, I assure you." + +He seemed to take no notice. He was looking straight before him, with a +somewhat sombre expression in his fine dark eyes. + +"What you could not see," he said, perhaps more to himself than to her, +"was what no one will ever guess. Nobody knows what the last few years +have been to me. My mother has seen more of it than any one else, but +even to her my life has been something of a mystery--a sealed book. You +should remember this--remember all that I have passed through--before +you blame me for the way in which I received that child to-day." + +"I did not blame you," said Janetta, eagerly. "I only felt that there +was a great deal which I could not understand." + +He turned his gloomy eyes upon her. "Just so," he said. "You cannot +understand. And it is useless for you to try." + +"I am very sorry," Janetta faltered, scarcely knowing why she said so. + +Wyvis laughed. "Don't trouble to be sorry over my affairs," he said. +"They are not worth sorrow, I assure you. But--if I may make one +request--will you kindly keep silence (except, of course, to your +parents) about this episode? I do not want people to begin gossiping +about that unhappy woman who has the right, unfortunately, to call +herself my wife." + +Janetta promised, and with her promise the garden gate was reached, and +the interview came to an end. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +CONSULTATION. + + +Janetta was rather surprised that Mr. Wyvis Brand did not offer to +accompany her for at least part of her way homewards, but she set down +his remissness to absorption in his own rather complicated affairs. In +this she was not mistaken. Wyvis was far more depressed, and far more +deeply buried in the contemplation of his difficulties, than anybody +knew, and it completely escaped his memory until afterwards that he +ought to have offered Miss Colwyn an escort. Janetta, however, was well +used to going about the world alone, and she proceeded briskly to the +spot where she had left Nora, and was much astonished to find that young +person deep in conversation with a strange young man. + +But the young man had such an attractive face, such pleasant eyes, so +courteous a manner, that she melted towards him before he had got +through his first sentence. Nora, of course, ought to have introduced +him; but she was by no means well versed in the conventionalities of +society, and therefore left him to do what he pleased, and to introduce +himself. + +"I find that I am richer than I thought," said Cuthbert Brand, "in +possessing a relative whom I never heard of before! Miss Colwyn, are we +not cousins? My name is Brand--Cuthbert Brand." + +Janetta's face lighted up. "I have just seen Mrs. Brand and your +brother," she said, offering him her hand. + +"And, oh, Janetta!" cried Nora at once, "do tell us what happened. Have +you left the little boy at Brand Hall? And is it really Mr. Brand's +little boy?" + +"Yes, it is, and I have left him with his father," said Janetta, +gravely. "As it is getting late, Nora, we had better make the best of +our way home." + +"You will let me accompany you?" said Cuthbert, eagerly, while Nora +looked a little bit inclined to pout at her sister's serious tone. "It +is, as you say, rather late; and you have a long walk before you." + +"Thank you, but I could not think of troubling you. My sister and I are +quite accustomed to going about by ourselves. We escort each other," +said Janetta, smiling, so that he should not set her down as utterly +ungracious. + +"I am a good walker," said Cuthbert, coloring a little. He was half +afraid that they thought his lameness a disqualification for +accompanying them. "I do my twenty miles a day quite easily." + +"Thank you," Janetta said again. "But I could not think of troubling +you. Besides, Nora and I are so well used to these woods, and to the +road between them and Beaminster, that we really do not require an +escort." + +A compromise was finally effected. Cuthbert walked with them to the end +of the wood, and the girls were to be allowed to pursue their way +together along the Beaminster road. He made himself very agreeable in +their walk through the wood, and did not leave them, without a hope that +he might be allowed one day to call upon his newly-discovered cousins. + +"He has adopted us, apparently, as well as yourself," said Nora, as the +two girls tramped briskly along the Beaminster road. "He seems to forget +that _we_ are not his relations." + +"He is very pleasant and friendly," said Janetta. + +"But why did you say he might call?" pursued Nora. "I thought that you +would say that we did not have visitors--or something of that sort." + +"My dear Nora! But we do have visitors." + +"Yes; but not of that kind." + +"Don't you want him to come?" said Janetta, in some wonderment; for it +had struck her that Nora had shown an unusual amount of friendliness to +Mr. Cuthbert Brand. + +"No, I don't," said Nora, almost passionately. "I _don't_ want to see +him down in our shabby, untidy little drawing-room, to hear mamma talk +about her expenses and papa's difficulties--to see all that tribe of +children in their old frocks--to see the muddle in which we live! I +don't want him there at all." + +"Dear Nora, I don't think that the Brands have been accustomed to live +in any very grand way. I am sure the rooms I went into this evening were +quite shabby--nearly as shabby as ours, and much gloomier. What does it +matter?" + +"It does not matter to you," said Nora; "because you are their relation. +It is different for us. You belong to them and we don't." + +"I think you are quite wrong to talk in that way. It is nothing so very +great and grand to be related to the Brands." + +"They are '_County_' people," said Nora, with a scornful little emphasis +on the word. "They are like your grand Adairs: they would look down on a +country doctor and his family, except just now and then when they could +make them useful." + +"Look down on father? What are you thinking of?" cried Janetta, warmly. +"Nobody looks down on father, because he does good, honest work in the +world, and everybody respects him; but I am afraid that a good many +people look down on the Brands. You know that as well as I do, Nora; for +you have heard people talk about them. They are not at all well thought +of in this neighborhood. I don't suppose there is much honor and glory +to be gained by relationship to them." + +In which Janetta was quite right, and showed her excellent sense. But +Nora was not inclined to be influenced by her more sagacious sister. + +"You may say what you like," she observed; "but I know very well that it +is a great advantage to be related to 'the County.' Poor papa has no +connections worth speaking of, and mamma's friends are either +shopkeepers or farmers; but your mother was the Brands' cousin, and see +how the Adairs took you up! They would never have made a fuss over +_me_." + +"What nonsense you talk, Nora!" said Janetta, in a disgusted tone. + +"Nonsense or not, it is true," said Nora, doggedly; "and as long as +people look down upon us, I don't want any of your fine friends and +relations in Gwynne Street." + +Janetta did not condescend to argue the point; she contented herself +with telling her sister of Wyvis Brand's desire that the story of his +wife's separation from him should not be known, and the two girls agreed +that it would be better to mention their evening's adventure only to +their father. + +It was quite dark when they reached home, and they entered the house in +much trepidation, fearing a volley of angry words from Mrs. Colwyn. But +to their surprise and relief Mrs. Colwyn was not at home. The children +explained that an invitation to supper had come to her from a neighbor, +and that "after a great deal of fuss," as one of them expressed it, she +had accepted it and gone, leaving word that she should not be back until +eleven o'clock, and that the children were to go to bed at their usual +hour. It was past the younger children's hour already, and they of +course were jubilant. + +The elder sisters set to work instantly to get the young ones into their +beds, but this was a matter of some difficulty. A general inclination to +uproariousness prevailed in Mrs. Colwyn's absence, and it must be +confessed that neither Janetta nor Nora tried very hard to repress the +little ones' noise. It was a comfort to be able, for once, to enjoy +themselves without fear of Mrs. Colwyn's perpetual snarl and grumble. A +most exciting pillow-fight was going on in the upstairs regions, and +here Janetta was holding her own as boldly as the boldest, when the +sound of an opening door made the combatants pause in their mad career. + +"What's that? The front door? It's mamma!" cried Georgie, with +conviction. + +"Get into bed, Tiny!" shouted Joey. Tiny began to cry. + +"Nonsense, children," said Nora, with an air of authority. "You know +that it can't be mamma. It is papa, of course, coming in for his supper. +And one of us must go down." + +"I'll go," said Janetta, hurriedly. "I want a little talk with him, you +know." + +There was a general chorus of "Oh, don't go, Janetta!" "Do stay!" "It +will be no fun when you are gone!" which stimulated Nora to a retort. + +"Well, I must say you are all very polite," she said. "One would think +that I was not here at all!" + +"You are not half such good fun as Janetta," said Joey. "You don't throw +yourself into everything as she does." + +"I must throw myself into giving father his supper, I'm afraid," said +Janetta, laughing, "so good-night, children, and do go to bed quietly +now, for I don't think father will like such a dreadful noise." + +She was nearly choked by the fervent embraces they all bestowed upon her +before she went downstairs. Nora, who stood by, rolling up the ribbon +that she had taken from Tiny's hair, felt a little pang of jealousy. Why +was it that everyone loved Janetta and valued her so much? Not for what +she did, because her share of household duty was not greater than that +of Nora, but for the way in which she did it. It always seemed such a +pleasure to her to do anything for any one--to serve another: never a +toil, never a hardship, always a deep and lasting pleasure. To Nora it +was often a troublesome matter to help her sister or her schoolboy +brother, to attend on her mother, or to be thoughtful of her father's +requirements; but it was never troublesome to Janetta. And as Nora +thought of all this, the tears came involuntarily to her eyes. It seemed +so _easy_ to Janetta to be good, she thought! But perhaps it was no +easier to Janetta than to other people. + +Janetta ran down to the dining-room, where she found her father +surveying with a rather dissatisfied air the cold and scanty repast +which was spread out for him. Mr. Colwyn was so much out that his meals +had to be irregular, and he ate them just when he had a spare half hour. +On this occasion he had been out since two o'clock in the afternoon, and +had not had time even for a cup of tea. He had been attending a hopeless +case, moreover, and one about which he had been anxious for some weeks. +Fagged, chilled, and dispirited, it was no wonder that he had returned +home in not the best of tempers, and that he was a little disposed to +find fault when Janetta made her appearance. + +"Where is mamma?" he began. "Out, I suppose, or the children would not +be making such a racket overhead." + +"They are going to be quiet now, dear father," said his daughter, +kissing him, "and mamma has gone out to supper at Mrs. Maitland's. I am +going to have mine with you if you will let me." + +"And is this what you are going to have for your supper?" said Mr. +Colwyn, half ruefully, half jestingly, as he glanced again at the table, +where some crusts of bread reposed peacefully on one dish, and a scrag +of cold mutton on another. "After your sojourn at Miss Polehampton's and +among the Adairs, I suppose you don't know how to cook, Jenny?" + +"Indeed I do, father, and I'm going to scramble some eggs, and make some +coffee this very minute. I am sorry the table is not better arranged, +but I have been out, and was just having a little game with the children +before they went to bed. If you will sit down by the fire, I shall be +ready in a very few minutes, and then I can tell you about a wonderful +adventure that Nora and I had this evening in the Beaminster wood." + +"You should not roam about those woods so much by yourselves; they are +too lonely," said Mr. Colwyn; but he said it very mildly, and dropped +with an air of weariness into the arm-chair that Janetta had wheeled +forward for him. "Well, well! don't hurry yourself, child. I shall be +glad of a few minutes' rest before I begin my supper." + +Janetta in a big white apron, Janetta flitting backwards and forwards +between kitchen and dining-room, with flushed cheeks and brightly +shining eyes, was a pretty sight--"a sight to make an old man young," +thought Mr. Colwyn, as he watched her furtively from beneath his +half-closed eyelids. She looked so trim, so neat, so happy in her work, +that he would be hard to satisfy who did not admire her, even though she +was not what the world calls strictly beautiful. She succeeded so well +in her cooking operations, with which she would not allow the servant to +intermeddle, that in a very short time a couple of dainty dishes and +some coffee smoked upon the board; and Janetta bidding her father come +to the table, placed herself near him, and smilingly dispensed the +savory concoction. + +She would not enter upon any account of her evening's work until she +felt sure that the wants of her father's inner man were satisfied; but +when supper was over, and his evening pipe--the one luxury in the day he +allowed himself--alight, she drew up a hassock beside his chair and +prepared for what she called "a good long chat." + +Opportunities for such a chat with her father were rather rare in that +household, and Janetta meant to make the most of this one. Nora had +good-naturedly volunteered to stay away from the dining-room, so as to +give Janetta the chance that she wished for; and as it was now barely +ten o'clock, Janetta knew that she might perhaps have an hour of her +father's companionship--if, at least, he were not sent for before eleven +o'clock. At eleven he would probably go to Mrs. Maitland's to fetch his +wife home. + +"Well, Janet, and what have you to tell me?" he said kindly, as he +stretched out his slippered feet to the blaze, and took down his pipe +from the mantel-piece. The lines had cleared away from his face as if by +magic; there was a look of rest and peace upon his face that his +daughter liked to see. She laid her hand on his knee and kept it there +while she told him of her experiences that evening at Brand Hall. + +Mr. Colwyn's eyebrows went up as he listened. His face expressed +astonishment, and something very like perplexity. But he heard the whole +story out before he said a word. + +"Well, you have put your head into the lion's den!" he said at last, in +a half-humorous tone. + +"What I want to know is," said Janetta, "why it is thought to be a +lion's den! I don't mean that I have heard the expression before, but I +have gathered in different ways an impression that people avoid the +house----" + +"The family, not the house, Janet!" + +"Of course I _mean_ the family, father, dear. What have they done that +they should be shunned?" + +"There is a good deal against them in the eyes of the world. Your poor +mother, Janetta, always stood up for them, and said that they were more +sinned against than sinning." + +"_They?_ But these young men were not grown up then?" + +"No; it was their father and----" + +Mr. Colwyn stopped short and seemed as if he did not like to go on. + +"Tell me, father," said Janetta, coaxingly. + +"Well, child, I don't know that you ought to hear old scandals. But you +are too wise to let them harm you. Brand, the father of these two young +fellows, married a barmaid, the daughter of a low publican in the +neighborhood." + +"What! The Mrs. Brand that I saw to-day? _She_ a barmaid--that quiet, +pale, subdued-looking woman?" + +"She has had trouble enough to make her look subdued, poor soul! She was +a handsome girl then; and I daresay the world would have overlooked the +marriage in time if her character had been untarnished. But stories +which I need not repeat were afloat; and from what I have lately heard +they are not yet forgotten." + +"After all these years! Oh, that does seem hard," said Janetta, +sympathetically. + +"Well--there are some things that the world does not forgive, Janet. I +have no doubt that the poor woman is much more worthy of respect and +kindness than her wild sons; and yet the fact remains that if Wyvis +Brand had come here with his brother alone, he would have been received +everywhere, and entertained and visited and honored like any other young +man of property and tolerable repute; but as he has brought his mother +with him, I am very much afraid that many of the nicest people in the +county mean to 'cut' him." + +"It is very unfair, surely." + +"Yes, it is unfair; but it is the way of the world, Janetta. If a +woman's reputation is ever so slightly blackened, she can never get it +fair and white again. Hence, my dear, I am a little doubtful as to +whether you must go to Brand Hall again, as long as poor Mrs. Brand is +there." + +"Oh, father, and I promised to go!" + +"You must not make rash promises another time, my child." + +"But she wants me, father--she is so lonely and so sad?" + +"I am sorry, my Janet, but I don't know----" + +"Oh, do let me, father. I shall not be harmed; and I don't mind what the +world says." + +"But perhaps _I_ mind," said Mr. Colwyn, quaintly. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +MARGARET. + + +Janetta looked so rueful at this remark that her father laughed a little +and pulled her ear. + +"I am not given to taking much notice of what the world says," he told +her, "and if I thought it right for you to go to Brand Hall I should +take no notice of town talk; but I think that I can't decide this matter +without seeing Mrs. Brand for myself." + +"I thought you had seen her, father?" + +"For ten minutes or so, only. They wanted to ask me a question about the +healthiness of Brand Hall, drains, and all that kind of thing. That +young Brand struck me as a very sullen-looking fellow." + +"His face lightens up when he talks," said Janetta, coloring and feeling +hurt for a moment, she could not have told why. + +"He did not talk to me," said her father, drily. "I am told that the +other son has pleasanter manners." + +"Cuthbert? Oh, yes," Janetta said, quickly. "He is much more amiable at +first sight; he made himself very agreeable to Nora and me." And +forthwith she related how the second son had made acquaintance with her +sister and herself. + +Mr. Colwyn did not look altogether pleased. + +"H'm!--they seem very ready to cultivate us," he said, with a slight +contraction of the brow. "Their father used not to know that I existed. +Janet, I don't care for Nora to see much of them. You I can trust; but +she is a bit of a featherbrain, and one never knows what may happen. +Look to it." + +"I will, father." + +"And I will call on Mrs. Brand and have a chat with her. Poor soul! I +daresay she has suffered. Still that does not make her a fit companion +for my girls." + +"If I could be of any use to her, father----" + +"I know that's all you think of, Janet. You are a good child--always +wanting to help others. But we must not let the spirit of self-sacrifice +run away with you, you know." + +He pinched her cheek softly as he spoke, and his daughter carried the +long supple fingers of his hand to her lips and kissed them tenderly. + +"Which reminds me," he went on rather inconsequently, "that I saw +another of your friends to-day. A friend whom you have not mentioned for +some time, Janetta." + +"Who was that?" asked Janetta, a little puzzled by his tone. + +"Another friend whom I don't quite approve of," said her father, in the +same half-quizzical way, "though from a different reason. If poor Mrs. +Brand is not respectable enough, this friend of yours, Janet, is more +than respectable; ultra-respectable--aristocratic even----" + +"Margaret Adair!" cried Janetta, flushing to the very roots of her hair. +"Did you see her, father? Has she quite forgotten me?" And the tears +stood in her eyes. + +"I did not see Miss Margaret Adair, my dear," said her father kindly. "I +saw her mother, Lady Caroline." + +"Did you speak to her, father?" + +"She stopped her ponies and spoke to me in the High Street, Janet. She +certainly has very winning manners." + +"Oh, has she not, father!" Janetta's cheeks glowed. "She is perfectly +charming, I think. I do not believe that she could do anything +disagreeable or unkind." + +Mr. Colwyn shook his head, with a little smile. "I am not so sure of +that, Janetta. These fine ladies sometimes do very cold and cruel things +with a perfectly gracious manner." + +"But Lady Caroline would not," said Janetta, coaxingly. "She was quite +kind and sweet to me all the time that I stayed at her house, +although----" + +"Although afterwards," said Mr. Colwyn, shrewdly, "she could let you +stay here for weeks without seeming to remember you, or coming near you +for an hour!" + +Janetta's cheeks crimsoned, but she did not reply. Loyal as she was to +her friend, she felt that there was not much to be said for her at that +moment. + +"You are a good friend," said her father, in a half-teasing, +half-affectionate tone. "You don't like me to say anything bad of her, +do you? Well, my dear, for your comfort I must tell you that she did her +best to-day to make up for past omissions. She spoke very pleasantly +about you." + +"Did she say why--why----" Janetta could not complete the sentence. + +"Why they had not written or called? Well, she gave some sort of an +explanation. Miss Adair had been unwell--she had had a cold or something +which looked as if it might turn to fever, and they did not like to +write until she was better." + +"I knew there was some good reason!" said Janetta fervently. + +"It is well to take a charitable view of things," returned her father, +rather drily; but, seeing her look of protest, he changed his tone. +"Well, Lady Caroline spoke very kindly, my dear, I must acknowledge +that. She wants you to go over to Helmsley Court to-morrow." + +"Can I go, father?" + +Mr. Colwyn made a grimace. "Between your disreputable friends and your +aristocratic ones, I'm in a difficulty, Janet." + +"Don't say so, father dear!" + +"Well, I consented," said Mr. Colwyn, in rather a grudging tone. "She +said that she would send her carriage for you to-morrow at noon, and +that she would send you back again between six and seven. Her daughter +was most anxious to see you, she said." + +Janetta lifted up a happy face. "I knew that Margaret would be true to +me. I never doubted her." + +Mr. Colwyn watched her silently for a moment, then he put his hand upon +her head, and began smoothing the thick black locks. "You have a very +faithful nature, my Janet," he said, tenderly, "and I am afraid that it +will suffer a great many shocks in this work-a-day world of ours. Don't +let it lead you astray, my child. Remember there is a point at which +faithfulness may degenerate into sheer obstinacy." + +"I don't think it will ever do so with me." + +"Well, perhaps not, for you have a clear head on those young shoulders +of yours. But you must be careful." + +"And I may go to Lady Caroline's, father?" + +"Yes, my dear, you may. And now I must go: my time is up. I have had a +very pleasant hour, my Janet." + +As she raised herself to receive her father's kiss, she felt a glow of +pleasure at his words. It was not often that he spoke so warmly. He was +a man of little speech on ordinary occasions: only when he was alone +with his best-loved daughter, Janetta, did he ever break forth into +expressions of affection. His second marriage had been in some respects +a failure; and it did not seem as if he regarded his younger children +with anything approaching the tenderness which he bestowed upon Janetta. +Good-humored tolerance was all that he gave to them: a deep and almost +passionate love had descended from her mother to Janetta. + +He went out to fetch his wife home from her supper-party; and Janetta +hastened up to her room, not being anxious to meet her stepmother on her +return, in the state of rampant vanity and over-excitement to which an +assembly of her friends usually brought her. It could not be said that +Mrs. Colwyn actually drank too much wine or beer or whisky; and yet +there was often a sensation abroad that she had taken just a little more +than she could bear; and her stepdaughter was sensitively aware of the +fact. From Nora's slighting tone when she had lately spoken of her +mother, Janetta conjectured that the sad truth of Mrs. Colwyn's danger +had dawned upon the girl's mind also, and it certainly accounted for +some new lines in Mr. Colwyn's face, and for some additional streaks of +white in his silvering hair. Not a word had been said on the subject +amongst the members of the family, but Janetta had an uneasy feeling +that there were possibly rocks ahead. + +At this moment, however, the prospect of seeing her dear Margaret again +completely obliterated any thought of her stepmother from Janetta's +mind; and when she was snugly ensconced in her own little, white bed, +she could not help shedding a few tears of relief and joy. For +Margaret's apparent fickleness had weighed heavily on Janetta's mind; +and she now felt proud of the friend in whom she had believed in spite +of appearances, and of whose faithfulness she had steadily refused to +hear a doubt. These feelings enabled her to bear with cheerfulness some +small unpleasantnesses next morning from her stepmother on the subject +of her visit. "Of course you'll be too grand to do a hand's turn about +the house when you come back again from Helmsley Court!" said Mrs. +Colwyn, snappishly. + +"Dear mamma, when I am only going for half a day!" + +"Oh, I know the ways of girls. Because Miss Adair, your fine friend, +does nothing but sit in a drawing-room all day, you'll be sure to think +that you must needs follow her example!" + +"I hope Margaret will do something beside sit in a drawing-room," said +Janetta, with her cheery laugh; "because I am afraid that she might find +that a little dull." + +But in spite of her cheeriness her spirits were perceptibly lowered when +she set foot in the victoria that was sent for her at noon. Her +stepmother's way of begrudging her the friendship which school-life had +bestowed upon Janetta was as distasteful to her as Miss Polehampton's +conviction of its unsuitability had been. And for one moment the tears +of vexation gathered in her brown eyes as she was driving away from the +shabby little house in Gwynne Street; and she had resolutely to drive +away unwelcome thoughts before she could resign herself to enjoyment of +her visit. + +The day was hot and close, and the narrow streets of old Beaminster were +peculiarly oppressive. It was delightful to bowl swiftly along the +smooth high road, and to enter the cool green shades of the park round +Helmsley Court. "How pleasant for Margaret to live here always!" Janetta +said to herself with generous satisfaction in her friend's good fortune. +"I wonder what she would do in Gwynne Street!" And then Janetta laughed, +and felt that what suited _her_ would be very inappropriate to Margaret +Adair. + +Janetta's unselfish admiration for her friend was as simple as it was +true, and it was never alloyed by envy or toadyism. She would have been +just as pleased to see Margaret in a garret as in a palace, supposing +that Margaret were pleased with the garret. And it was with almost +passionate delight that she at length flung herself into her friend's +arms, and felt Margaret's soft lips pressed to her brown flushed cheeks. + +"Margaret! Oh, it is delightful to see you again!" she exclaimed. + +"You poor darling: did you think that we were never going to meet?" said +Margaret. "I have been so sorry, dear----" + +"I knew that you would come to see me, or send for me as soon as you +could," said Janetta quickly. "I trusted you, Margaret." + +"I have had such a bad cold," Margaret went on, still excusing herself a +little, as it seemed to Janetta. "I have had to stay in two rooms for +nearly a fortnight, and I went down to the drawing-room only last +night." + +"I wish I could have nursed you! Don't you remember how I nursed you +through one of your bad colds at school?" + +"Yes, indeed. I wish you could have nursed me now; but mamma was afraid +that I had caught measles or scarlet fever or something, and she said it +would not be right to send for you." + +Janetta was almost pained by the accent of continued excuse. + +"Of course, dear, I understand," she said, pressing her friend's arm +caressingly. "I am so sorry you have been ill. You look quite pale, +Margaret." + +The two girls were standing in Margaret's sitting-room, adjoining her +bedroom. Margaret was dressed completely in white, with long white +ribbons floating amongst the dainty folds of her attire; but the white +dress, exquisitely as it was fashioned, was less becoming to her than +usual, for her face had lost a little of its shell-like bloom. She +turned at Janetta's words and surveyed herself a little anxiously in a +long glass at her side. + +"I do look pale in this dress," she said. "Shall I change it, Janetta?" + +"Oh, no, dear," Janetta answered, in some surprise. "It is a charming +dress." + +"But I do not like to look so pale," said Margaret, gravely. "I think I +will ring for Villars." + +"You could not look nicer--to me--in any dress!" exclaimed her ardent +admirer. + +"You dear--oh, yes; but there may be visitors at luncheon." + +"I thought you would be alone," faltered Janetta, with a momentary +glance at her own neat and clean, but plain, little cotton frock. + +"Well, perhaps there will be only one person beside yourself," said +Margaret, turning aside her long neck to catch a glimpse of the shining +coils behind. "And I don't know that it matters--it is only Sir Philip +Ashley." + +"Oh, I remember him. He was here when we came back from Brighton." + +"He is often here." + +"What lovely flowers!" Janetta exclaimed, rather to break a pause that +followed than because she had looked particularly at a bouquet that +filled a large white vase on a table. But the flowers really were +lovely, and Margaret's face expressed some satisfaction. "Did they come +out of your garden?" + +"No, Sir Philip sent them." + +"Oh, how nice!" said Janetta. But she was a little surprised too. Had +not the Adairs plenty of flowers without receiving contributions from +Sir Philip's conservatories? + +"And you have a dog, Margaret?"--as a pretty little white Esquimaux dog +came trotting into the room. "What a darling! with a silver collar, +too!" + +"Yes, I like a white dog," said Margaret, tranquilly. "Mamma's poodle +snaps at strangers, so Sir Philip thought that it would be better for me +to have a dog of my own." + +Sir Philip again! Janetta felt as if she must ask another question or +two, especially when she saw that her friend's white eyelids had been +lowered, and that a delicate flush was mantling the whiteness of her +cheek; but she paused, scarcely knowing how to begin; and in the pause, +the gong for luncheon sounded, and she was (somewhat hastily, she +fancied) led downstairs. + +Lady Caroline and Mr. Adair received their visitor with great civility. +Sir Philip came forward to give her a very kindly greeting. Their +behavior was so cordial that Janetta could hardly believe that she had +doubted their liking for her. She was not experienced enough as yet to +see that all this apparent friendliness did not mean anything but the +world's way of making things pleasant all round. She accepted her host's +attentions with simple pleasure, and responded to his airy talk so +brightly that he lost no time in assuring his wife after luncheon that +his daughter's friend was really "a very nice little girl." + +After luncheon, Janetta thought at first that she was again going to be +defrauded of a talk with her friend. Margaret was taken possession of by +Sir Philip, and walked away with him into a conservatory to gather a +flower; Mr. Adair disappeared, and Janetta was left for a few moments' +conversation with Lady Caroline. Needless to remark, Lady Caroline had +planned this little interview; she had one or two things that she wanted +to say to Miss Colwyn. And she really did feel kindly towards the girl, +because--after all--she was Margaret's friend, and the mother was ready +to allow Margaret her own way to a very great extent. + +"Dear Miss Colwyn," she began, "I have been so sorry that we could not +see more of you while our poor Margaret was ill. _Now_ I hope things +will be different." + +Janetta remarked that Lady Caroline was very kind. + +"I have been thinking of a method by which I hoped to bring you together +a little more--after the holidays. Of course we are going away very soon +now--to Scotland; and we shall probably not return until October; but +when that time comes--my dear Miss Colwyn, I am sure you will not be +offended by the question I am going to ask?" + +"Oh, no," said Janetta, hastily. + +"Are you intending to give any singing or music lessons in the +neighborhood?" + +"If I can get any pupils, I shall be only too glad to do so." + +"Then _will_ you begin with dear Margaret?" + +"Margaret?" said Janetta, in some astonishment. "But Margaret has had +the same teaching that I have had, exactly!" + +"She needs somebody to help her. She has not your talent or your +perseverance. And she would so much enjoy singing with you. I trust that +you will not refuse us, Miss Colwyn." + +"I shall be very glad to do anything that I can for Margaret," said +Janetta, flushing. + +"Thank you so much. Once a week then--when we come back again. And about +terms----" + +"Oh, Lady Caroline, I shall be only too glad to sing with Margaret at +any time without----" + +"Without any talk about terms?" said Lady Caroline, with a charming +smile of comprehension. "But that, my dear, I could not possibly +allow. No, we must conduct the matter on strictly business-like +principles, or Mr. Adair would be very much displeased with me. Suppose +we say----" And she went on to suggest terms which Janetta was too much +confused to consider very attentively, and agreed to at once. It was only +afterwards that she discovered that they were lower than any which she +should ever have thought of suggesting for herself, and that she should +have to blush for Lady Caroline's meanness in mentioning them to her +father! But at present she saw nothing amiss. + +Lady Caroline went on smoothly. "I want her to make the most of her +time, because she may not be able to study up by-and-bye. She will come +out this winter, and I shall take her to town in the spring. I do not +suppose that I shall ever have another opportunity--if, at least, she +marries as early as she seems likely to do." + +"Margaret! Marry!" ejaculated Janetta. She had scarcely thought of such +a possibility. + +"It is exceedingly probable," said Lady Caroline, rather coldly, "that +she will marry Sir Philip Ashley. It is a perfectly suitable alliance." + +It sounded as if she spoke of a royal marriage! + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +JANETTA'S PROMISES. + + +"But please," Lady Caroline proceeded, "do not mention what I have said +to anyone, least of all to Margaret. She is so sensitive that I should +not like her to know what I have said." + +"I will not say anything," said Janetta. + +And then Lady Caroline's desire for conversation seemed to cease. She +proposed that they should go in search of her daughter, and Janetta +followed her to the conservatory in some trouble and perplexity of mind. +It struck her that Margaret was not looking very well pleased when they +arrived--perhaps, she thought, because of their appearance--and that Sir +Philip had a very lover-like air. He was bending forward a little to +take a white flower from Margaret's hand, and Janetta could not help a +momentary smile when she saw the expression of his face. The earnest +dark eyes were full of tenderness, which possibly he did not wish to +conceal. Janetta could never doubt but that he loved her "rare pale +Margaret" from the very bottom of his heart. + +The two moved apart as Lady Caroline and Janetta came in. Lady Caroline +advanced to Sir Philip and walked away with him, while Margaret laid her +hand on Janetta's arm and led her off to her own sitting-room. She +scarcely spoke until they were safely ensconced there together and then, +with a half-pouting, mutinous expression on her softly flushed face-- + +"Janetta," she began, "there is something I must tell you." + +"Yes, dear?" + +"You saw Sir Philip in the conservatory?" + +"Yes." + +"I can't think why he is so foolish," said Margaret; "but actually, +Janetta--he wants to marry me." + +"Am I to call him foolish for that?" + +"Yes, certainly. I am too young. I want to see a little more of the +world. He is not at all the sort of man that I want to marry." + +"Why not?" said Janetta, after waiting a little while. + +"Oh," said Margaret, with an intonation that--for her--was almost +petulant; "he is so absurdly suitable!" + +"_Absurdly_ suitable, dear Margaret?" + +"Yes. Everything is so neatly arranged for us. He is the right age, he +has the right income, the right views, the right character--he is +even"--said Margaret, with increasing indignation--"even the right +_height_! It is absurd. I am not to have any will of my own in the +matter, because it is all so beautifully suitable. I am to be disposed +of like a slave!" + +Here was indeed a new note of rebellion. + +"Your father and mother would never make you marry a man whom you did +not like," said Janetta, a little doubtfully. + +"I don't know. Papa would not; but mamma!----I am afraid mamma will try. +And it is very hard to do what mamma does not like." + +"But you could explain to her----" + +"I have nothing to explain," said Margaret, arching her delicate brows. +"I like Sir Philip very well. I respect him very much. I think his house +and his position would suit me exceedingly well; and yet I do not want +to marry him. It is so unreasonable of me, mamma says. And I feel that +it is; and yet--what can I do?" + +"There is--nobody--else?" hazarded Janetta. + +Margaret opened her lovely eyes to their fullest extent. + +"Dearest Janetta, who else could there be? Who else have I seen? I have +been kept in the schoolroom until now--when I am to be married to this +most suitable man! Now, confess, Janetta, would you like it? Do your +people want to marry you to anybody?" + +"No, indeed," said Janetta, smiling. "Nobody has expressed any desire +that way. But really I don't know what to say, Margaret; because Sir +Philip does seem so perfectly suitable--and you say you like him?" + +"Yes, but I only like him; I don't love him." Margaret leaned back in +her chair, crossed her hands behind her golden head, and looked dreamily +at the opposite wall. "You know I think one ought to love the man one +marries--don't you think so? I have always thought of loving once and +once only--like Paul and Virginia, you know, or even Romeo and +Juliet--and of giving _all_ for love! That would be beautiful!" + +"Yes, it would. But it would be very hard too," said Janetta, thinking +how lovely Margaret looked, and what a heroine of romance--what a +princess of dreams--she would surely be some day. And she, poor, plain, +brown, little Janetta! There was probably no romance in store for her at +all. + +But Life holds many secrets in her hand; and perhaps it was Janetta and +not Margaret for whom a romance was yet in store. + +"Hard? Do you call it hard?" Margaret asked, with a curiously exalted +expression, like that of a saint absorbed in mystic joys. "It would be +most easy, Janetta, to give up everything for love." + +"I don't know," said Janetta--for once unsympathetic. "Giving up +everything means a great deal. Would you like to go away from Helmsley +Court, for instance, and live in a dingy street with no lady's +maid--only a servant of all-work--on three hundred a year?" + +"I think I could do anything for a man whom I loved," sighed Margaret; +"but I cannot feel as if I should ever care enough for Sir Philip Ashley +to do it for him." + +"What sort of a man would you prefer for a husband, then?" asked +Janetta. + +"Oh, a man with a history. A man about whom there hung a melancholy +interest--a man like Rochester in 'Jane Eyre'----" + +"Not a very good-tempered person, I'm afraid!" + +"Oh, who cares about good temper?" + +"I do, for one. Really, Margaret, you draw a picture which is just like +my cousin, Wyvis Brand." + +Janetta was sorry when she had said the words. Margaret's arms came down +from behind her head, and her eyes were turned to her friend's face with +an immediate awakening of interest. + +"Mr. Brand, of Brand Hall, you mean? I remember you told me that he was +your cousin. So you have met him? And he is like Rochester?" + +"I did not say that exactly," said Janetta, becoming provoked with +herself. "I only said that you spoke of a rather melancholy sort of +man, with a bad temper, and I thought that the description applied very +well to Mr. Brand." + +"What is he like? Dark?" + +"Yes." + +"Handsome?" + +"I suppose so. I do not like any face, however handsome, that is +disfigured by a scowl." + +"Oh, Janetta, how charming! Tell me some more about him; I am so much +interested." + +"Margaret, don't be silly! Wyvis Brand is a very disagreeable man--not a +good man either, I believe--and I hope you will never know him." + +"On the contrary," said Margaret, with a new wilful light in her eyes, +"I intend mamma to call." + +"Lady Caroline will be too wise." + +"Why should people not call upon the Brands? I hear the same story +everywhere--'Oh, no, we do not intend to call.' Is there really anything +wrong about them?" + +Janetta felt some embarrassment. Had not she put nearly the same +question to her own father the night before? But she could not tell +Margaret Adair what her father had said to her. + +"If there were--and I do not know that there is--you could hardly expect +me to talk about it, Margaret," she said, with some dignity. + +Margaret's good breeding came to her aid at once. "I beg your pardon, +dear Janetta. I was talking carelessly. I will say no more about the +Brands. But I must remark that it was _you_ who piqued my curiosity. +Otherwise there is nothing extraordinary in the fact of two young men +settling down with their mother in a country house, is there?" + +"Nothing at all." + +"And I am not likely to see anything of them. But, Janetta," said +Margaret, reverting to her own affairs, "you do not sympathize with me +as I thought you would. Would not you think it wrong to marry where you +did not love? Seriously, Janetta?" + +"Yes, seriously, I should," said Janetta, her face growing graver, and +her eyes lighting up. "It is a profanation of marriage to take for your +husband a man whom you don't love with your whole heart. Oh, yes, +Margaret, you are quite, quite right in that--but I am sorry too, +because Sir Philip seems so nice." + +"And, Janetta, dear, you will help me, will you not?" + +"Whenever I can, Margaret? But what can I do for you?" + +"You can help me in many ways, Janetta. You don't know how hard it is +sometimes"--and Margaret's face resumed a wistful, troubled look. "Mamma +is so kind; but she wants me sometimes to do things that I do not like, +and she is so _surprised_ when I do not wish to do them." + +"You will make her understand in time," said Janetta, almost +reverentially. Her ardent soul was thrilled with the conception of the +true state of things as she imagined it; of Margaret's pure, sweet +nature being dragged down to Lady Caroline's level of artificial +worldliness. For, notwithstanding all Lady Caroline's gentleness of +manner, Janetta was beginning to find her out. She began to see that +this extreme softness and suavity covered a very persistent will, and +that it was Lady Caroline who ruled the house and the family with an +iron hand in a velvet glove. + +"I am afraid not," said Margaret, submissively. "She is so much more +determined than I am. Neither papa nor I could ever do anything against +her. And in most things I like her to manage for me. But not my +marriage!" + +"No, indeed." + +"Will you stand by me, Janetta, dear?" + +"Always, Margaret." + +"You will always be my friend?" + +"Always dear." + +"You make me feel strong when you say 'always' so earnestly, Janetta." + +"Because I believe," said Janetta, quickly, "that friendship is as +strong a tie as any in the world. I don't think it ought to be any less +binding than the tie between sisters, between parents and child, +even"--and her voice dropped a little--"even between husband and wife. I +have heard it suggested that there should be a ceremony--a sort of +form--for the making of a friendship as there is for other relations in +life; a vow of truth and fidelity which two friends could promise to +observe. Don't you think that it would be rather a useless thing, even +if the thought is a pretty one? Because we make and keep or break our +vows in our own heart, and no promise would bind us more than our own +hearts can do." + +"I hope yours binds you to me, Janetta?" said Margaret, half playfully, +half sadly. + +"It does, indeed." + +And then the two girls kissed each other after the manner of impulsive +and affectionate girls, and Margaret wiped away a tear that had gathered +in the corner of her eye. Her face soon became as tranquil as ever; but +Janetta's brow remained grave, her lips firmly pressed together long +after Margaret seemed to have forgotten what had been said. + +Things went deeper with Janetta than with Margaret. Girlish and +unpractical as some of their speeches may appear, they were spoken or +listened to by Janetta with the utmost seriousness. She was not of a +nature to take things lightly. And during the pause that followed the +conversation about friendship, she was mentally registering a very +serious and earnest resolution, worthy indeed of being ranked as the +promise or the vow of which she spoke, that she would always remain +Margaret's true and faithful friend, in spite of all the chances and +changes of this transitory world. A youthful foolish thing to do, +perhaps; but the world is so constituted that the things done or said by +very young and even very foolish persons sometimes dominate the whole +lives of much older and wiser persons. And more came out of that silent +vow of Janetta's than even she anticipated. + +The rest of the day was very delightful to her. She and Margaret were +left almost entirely to themselves, and they formed a dozen plans for +the winter when Margaret should be back again and could resume her +musical studies. Janetta tried to express her natural reluctance at the +thought of giving lessons to her old school-companion, but Margaret +laughed her to scorn. "As if you could not teach me?" she said. "Why, I +know nothing about the theory of music--nothing at all. And you were far +ahead of anybody at Miss Polehampton's! You will soon have dozens of +pupils, Janetta. I expect all Beaminster to be flocking to you before +long." + +She did not say, but it crossed her mind that the fact of _her_ taking +lessons from Janetta would probably serve as a very good advertisement. +For Miss Adair was herself fairly proficient in the worldly wisdom which +did not at all gratify her when exhibited by her mother. + +Janetta was sent home in the gathering twilight with a delightfully +satisfied feeling. She was sure that Margaret's friendship was as +faithful as her own. And why should there not be two women as faithful +to each other in friendship as ever Damon and Pythias, David and +Jonathan, had been of old? "Margaret will always be her own sweet, +high-souled self," Janetta mused. "It is I who may perhaps fall away +from my ideal--I hope not; oh, I hope not! I hope that I shall always be +faithful and true!" + +There was a very tender look upon her face as she sat in Lady Caroline's +victoria, her hands clasped together upon her lap, her mouth firmly +closed, her eyes wistful. The expression was so lovely that it +beautified the whole of her face, which was not in itself strictly +handsome, but capable of as many changes as an April day. She was so +deeply absorbed in thought that she did not see a gentleman lift his hat +to her in passing. It was Cuthbert Brand, and when the carriage had +passed him he stood still for a moment and looked back at it. + +"I should like to paint that girl's face," he said to himself. "There is +soul in it--character--passion. Her sister is prettier by far; but I +doubt whether she is capable of so much." + +But the exalted beauty had faded away by the time Janetta reached her +home, and when she entered the house she was again the bright, sensible, +energetic, and affectionate sister and daughter that they all knew and +loved: no great beauty, no genius, no saint, but a generous-hearted +English girl, who tried to do her duty and to love her neighbor as +herself. + +Her father met her in the hall. + +"Here you are," he said. "I hardly expected you home as yet. Everybody +is out, so you must tell _me_ your experiences and adventures if you +have any to tell." + +"I have not many," said Janetta, brightly. "Only everybody has been +very, very kind." + +"I'm glad to hear of it; but I should be surprised if people were not +kind to my Janet." + +"Nobody is half so kind as you are," said Janetta, fondly. "Have you +been very busy to-day, father?" + +"Very, dear. And I have been to Brand Hall." + +He drew her inside his consulting-room as he spoke. It was a little room +near the hall-door, opposite the dining-room. Janetta did not often go +there, and felt as if some rather serious communication were to be made. + +"Did you see the little boy, father?" + +"Yes--and his grandmother." + +"And may I go to see Mrs. Brand?" + +Mr. Colwyn paused for a moment, and when he spoke his voice was broken +by some emotion. "If you can do anything to help and comfort that poor +woman, my Janet," he said at length, "God forbid that I should ever +hinder you! I will not heed what the world says in face of sorrow such +as she has known. Do what you can for her." + +"I will, father; I promise you I will." + +"It is the second promise that I have made to-day," said Janetta, rather +thoughtfully, as she was undressing herself that night; "and each of +them turns on the same subject--on being a friend to some one who needs +friendship. The vocation of some women is to be a loving daughter, a +true wife, or a good mother; mine, perhaps, is to be above everything +else a true friend. I don't think my promises will be hard to keep!" + +But even Janetta, in her wisdom, could not foresee what was yet to come. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +JANETTA REMONSTRATES. + + +It was with a beating heart that Janetta, a few days later, crossed once +more the threshold of her cousin's house. Her father's words about Mrs. +Brand had impressed her rather painfully, and she felt some shyness and +constraint at the thought of the reason which he had given her for +coming. How she was to set about helping or comforting Mrs. Brand she +had not the least idea. + +These thoughts were, however, put to flight by an un-looked-for scene, +which broke upon her sight as she entered the hall. This hall had to be +crossed before any of the other rooms could be reached; it was +low-ceiled, paneled in oak, and lighted by rather small windows, with +stained glass in the lower panes. Like most rooms in the house it had a +gloomy look, which was not relieved by the square of faded Turkey +carpet in the centre of the black polished boards of the floor, or by +the half-dozen dusky portraits in oak frames which garnished the walls. +When Janetta was ushered in she found this ante-room or entrance chamber +occupied by three persons and a child. These, as she speedily found, +consisted of Wyvis Brand and his little boy, and two gentlemen, one of +whom was laughing immoderately, while the other was leaning over the +back of the chair and addressing little Julian. + +Janetta halted for a moment, for the old servant who had admitted her +seemed to think that his work was done when he had uttered her name, and +had already retreated; and his voice being exceedingly feeble, the +announcement had passed unnoticed by the majority of the persons +present, if not by all. Wyvis Brand had perhaps seen her, for his eyes +were keen, and the shadow in which she stood was not likely to veil her +from his sight; but he gave no sign of being conscious of her presence. +He was standing with his back to the mantel-piece, his arms crossed +behind his head; there was a curious expression on his face, half-smile, +half-sneer, but it was evident that he was merely looking and listening, +not interfering with what was going on. + +It needed only a glance to see that little Julian was in a state of +extraordinary excitement. His face was crimson, his eyes were sparkling +and yet full of tears; his legs were planted sturdily apart, and his +hands were clenched. His head was drawn back, and his whole body also +seemed as if it wanted to recoil, but placed as he was against a strong +oaken table he could evidently go back no further. The gentleman on the +chair was offering him something--Janetta could not at first see +what--and the boy was vehemently resisting. + +"I won't have it! I won't have it!" he was crying, with the whole force +of his lungs. "I won't touch it! Take the nasty stuff away!" + +Janetta wondered whether it were medicine he was refusing, and why his +father did not insist upon obedience. But Wyvis Brand, still standing by +the mantel-piece, only laughed aloud. + +"No shirking! Drink it up!" said the strange gentleman, in what Janetta +thought a curiously unpleasant voice. "Come, come, it will make a man of +you----" + +"I don't want to be made a man of! I won't touch it! I promised I never +would! You can't make me!" + +"You must be taught not to make rash promises," said the man, laughing. +"Come now----" + +But little Julian had suddenly caught sight of Janetta's figure at the +door, and with a great bound he escaped from his tormentor and flung +himself upon her, burying his face in her dress, and clutching its folds +as if he would never let them go. + +"It's the lady! the lady!" he gasped out. "Oh, please don't let them +make me drink it! Indeed, I promised not." + +Janetta came forward a little, and at her appearance every one looked +more or less discomfited. The gentleman on the chair she recognized as a +Mr. Strangways, a man of notoriously evil life, who had a house near +Beaminster, and was generally shunned by respectable people in the +neighborhood. He started up, and looked at her with what she felt to be +a rather insolent gaze. Wyvis Brand stood erect, and looked sullen. The +other gentleman, who was a stranger, rose from his chair in a civiller +manner than his friend had done. + +Janetta put her arms round the little fellow, and turned a rather +bewildered face towards Mr. Brand. "Was it--was it--medicine?" she +asked. + +"Of a kind," said Wyvis, with a laugh. + +"It was brandy--_eau-de-vie_--horrid hot stuff that _maman_ used to +drink," said little Julian, with a burst of angry sobs, "and I promised +not--I promised old Susan that I never would!" + +"It was only a joke," said the master of the house, coming forward now, +and anxious perhaps to avert the storm threatened by a sudden indignant +flash of Janetta's great dark eyes. "We were not in earnest of course." +(A smothered laugh and ejaculation from Mr. Strangways passed without +notice.) "The boy does not know how to take a joke--he's a milksop." + +"I'm not! I'm not!" said little Julian, still struggling with violent +sobs. "I'm not a milksop! Oh, say that I'm not! Do tell father that I'm +not--not----" + +"Certainly you are not. You are a very brave little boy, and know how to +keep your word," said Janetta, with decision. "And now you must come +with me to your grandmother; I came to see _her_ this afternoon." + +She gathered him into her strong, young arms as if she would have +carried him from the room, but he struggled manfully to keep his feet, +although he still held her dress. Without a word, Wyvis strode to the +door and held it open for the pair. Janetta forgot to thank him, or to +greet him in any way. She swept past him in a transport of silent fury, +flashing upon him one look of indignation which Wyvis Brand did not +easily forget. It even deafened him for a moment to the sneering comment +of Mr. Strangways, which fell on Janetta's ears just as she was leaving +the room. + +"That's a regular granny's boy. Well for him if he always gets a pretty +girl to help him out of a difficulty." + +Wyvis, who had stood for a moment as if transfixed by Janetta's glance, +hastily shut the door. + +Janetta paused in the corridor outside. She was flushed and panting; she +felt that she could not present herself to Mrs. Brand in that state. She +held the boy close to her, and listened while he poured forth his story +in sobbing indistinctness. + +"Old Susan--she was their English servant--she had been always with +_maman_--she had told him that brandy made people mad and wicked--and he +did not want to be mad and wicked--and he had promised Susan never to +drink brandy; and the naughty gentleman wanted him to take it, and he +would not--would not--would not!----" + +"Hush, dear," said Janetta, gently. "There is no need to cry over it. +You know you kept your word as a gentleman should." + +The boy's eyes flashed through his tears. "Father thinks I'm a--I'm a +milksop," he faltered. + +"Show him that you are not," said Janetta. She saw that it was no use to +talk to Julian as to a baby. "If you are always brave and manly he won't +think so." + +"I _will_ be always brave," said the little fellow, choking back his +sobs and regarding her with the clear, fearless gaze which she had +noticed in him from the first. And at this moment a door opened, and +Mrs. Brand, who had heard voices, came out in some surprise to see what +was the matter. + +Janetta was glad to see the loving way in which the boy ran into his +grandmother's arms, and the tenderness with which she received him. Mrs. +Brand courteously invited her guest into the drawing-room, but her +attention was given far more to little Julian than to Janetta, and in +two minutes he had poured the whole story into her ear. Mrs. Brand did +not say much; she sat with him in her lap looking excessively pained and +grieved; and that frozen look of pain upon her face made Janetta +long--but long in vain--to comfort her. Tea was brought in by-and-bye, +and then Julian was dismissed to his nursery--whither he went +reluctantly, holding his face up to be kissed by Janetta, and asking her +to "come back soon." And when he was gone, Mrs. Brand seemed unable to +contain herself any longer, and broke forth passionately. + +"A curse is on us all--I am sure of that. The boy will be ruined, and by +his father too." + +"Oh, no," Janetta said, earnestly. "His father would not really hurt +him, I feel sure." + +"You do not know my son. He is like his own father, my husband--and that +is the way my husband began with Wyvis." + +"But--he did not succeed?" + +"Not altogether, because Wyvis had a strong head, and drew back in time; +but his father did him harm--untold harm. His father was a bad man. I do +not scruple to say so, although he was my husband; and there is a taint, +a sort of wild strain, in the blood. Even the boy inherits it; I see +that too clearly. And Wyvis--Wyvis will not hold himself in for long. He +is falling amongst those racing and betting men again--the Strangways +were always to be feared--and before long he will tread in his father's +steps and break my heart, and bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to +the grave." + +She burst into a passion of tears as she spoke. Janetta felt +inexpressibly shocked and startled. This revelation of a dark side of +life was new and appalling to her. She could hardly understand Mrs. +Brand's dark anticipations. + +She took the mother's hand and held it gently between her own, uttering +some few soothing sentences as she did so. Presently the poor woman's +sobs grew quieter, and she returned the pressure of Janetta's hand. + +"Thank you, my dear," she said at last. "You have a very kind heart. But +it is no use telling me to be comforted. I understand my sons, as I +understood my husband before them. They cannot help it. What is in the +blood will come out." + +"Surely," said Janetta, in a very low tone, "there is always the might +and the mercy of God to fall back upon--to help us when we cannot help +ourselves." + +"Ah, my dear, if I could believe in that I should be a happier woman," +said Mrs. Brand, sorrowfully. + +Janetta stayed a little longer, and when she went the elder woman +allowed herself to be kissed affectionately, and asked in a wistful +tone, as Julian had done, when she would come again. + +The girl was glad to find that the hall was empty when she crossed it +again. She had no fancy for encountering the insolent looks (as she +phrased it to herself) of Wyvis Brand and his hateful friends. But she +had reckoned without her host. For when she reached the gate into the +high-road, she found Mr. Brand leaning against it with his elbows +resting on the topmost bar, and his eyes gloomily fixed on the distant +landscape. He started when he saw her, raised his hat and opened the +gate with punctilious politeness. Janetta bowed her thanks, but without +any smile; she was not at all in charity with her cousin, Wyvis Brand. + +He allowed her to pass him, but before she had gone half a dozen yards, +he strode after her and caught her up. "Will you let me have a few words +with you?" he said, rather hoarsely. + +"Certainly, Mr. Brand." Janetta turned and faced him, still with the +disapproving gravity upon her brow. + +"Can't we walk on for a few paces?" said Wyvis, with evident +embarrassment. "I can say what I want to say better while we are +walking. Besides, they can see us from the house if we stand here." + +Privately Janetta thought that this would be no drawback, but she did +not care to make objections, so turned once more and walked on silently. + +"I want to speak to you," said the man, presently, with something of a +shamefaced air, "about the little scene you came upon this +afternoon----" + +"Yes," said Janetta. She did not know how contemptuously her lips curled +as she said the word. + +"You came at an unfortunate moment," he went on, awkwardly enough. "I +was about to interpose; I should not have allowed Jack Strangways to go +too far. Of course you thought that I did not care." + +"Yes," said Janetta, straightforwardly. Wyvis bit his lip. + +"I am not quite so thoughtless of my son's welfare," he said, in a +firmer tone. "There was enough in that glass to madden a child--almost +to kill him. You don't suppose I would have let him take that?" + +"I don't know. You were offering no objection to it when I came in." + +"Do you doubt my word?" said Wyvis, fiercely. + +"No. I believe you, if you mean really to say that you were not going to +allow your little boy to drink what Mr. Strangways offered him." + +"I do mean to say it"--in a tone of hot anger. + +Janetta was silent. + +"Have you nothing to say, Miss Colwyn?" + +"I have no right to express any opinion, Mr. Brand." + +"But I wish for it!" + +"I do not see why you should wish for it," said Janetta, coldly, +"especially when it may not be very agreeable to you to hear." + +"Will you kindly tell me what you mean?" The words were civil, but the +tone was imperious in the extreme. + +"I mean that whether you were going to make Julian drink that poisonous +stuff or not, you were inflicting a horrible torture upon him," said +Janetta, as hotly as Wyvis himself could have spoken. "And I cannot +understand how you could allow your own child to be treated in that +cruel way. I call it wicked to make a child suffer." + +Had she looked at her companion, she would have seen that his face had +grown a little whiter than usual, and that he had the pinched look about +his nostrils which--as his mother would have known--betokened rage. But +she did not look; and, although he paused for a moment before replying, +his voice was quite calm when he spoke again. + +"Torture? Suffering? These are very strong words when applied to a +little harmless teasing." + +"I do not call it harmless teasing when you are trying to make a child +break a promise that he holds sacred." + +"A very foolish promise!" + +"I am not so sure of that." + +"Do you mean to insult me?" said Wyvis, flushing to the roots of his +hair. + +"Insult you? No; certainly not. I don't know why you should say so!" + +"Then I need not explain," he answered drily, though still with that +flush of annoyance on his face. "Perhaps if you think over what you have +heard of that boy's antecedents, you will know what I mean." + +It was Janetta's turn to flush now. She remembered the stories current +respecting old Mr. Brand's drinking habits, and the rumors about Mrs. +Wyvis Brand's reasons for living away from her husband. She saw that her +words had struck home in a manner which she had not intended. + +"I beg your pardon," she said involuntarily; "I never meant--I never +thought--anything--I ought not to have spoken as I did." + +"You had much better say what you mean," was the answer, spoken with +bitter brevity. + +"Well, then, I will." Janetta raised her eyes and looked at him bravely. +"After all, I am a kinswoman of yours, Mr. Brand, and little Julian is +my cousin too; so I _have_ some sort of a right to speak. I never +thought of his antecedents, as you call them, and I do not know much +about them; but if they were--if they had been not altogether what you +wish them to be--don't you see that this very promise which you tried to +make him break was one of his best safeguards?" + +"The promise made by a child is no safeguard," said Wyvis, doggedly. + +"Not if he is forced to break it!" exclaimed Janetta, with a touch of +fire. + +They walked on in silence for a minute or two, and then Wyvis said, + +"Do you believe in a promise made by a child of that age?" + +"Little Julian has made me believe in it. He was so thoroughly in +earnest. Oh, Mr. Brand, do you think that it was right to force him to +do a thing against his conscience in that way?" + +"You use hard words for a very simple thing, Miss Colwyn," said Wyvis, +in a rather angry tone. "The boy was not forced--I had no intention of +letting him drink the brandy." + +"No," said Janetta, indignantly. "You only let him think that he was to +be forced to do it--you only made him lose faith in you as his natural +protector, and believe that you wished him to do what he thought wrong! +And you say there was no cruelty in that?" + +Wyvis Brand kept silence for some minutes. He was impressed in spite of +himself by Janetta's fervor. + +"I suppose," he said, at last, "that the fact is--I don't know what to +do with a child. I never had any teaching or training when I was a +child, and I don't know how to give it. I know I'm a sort of heathen and +savage, and the boy must grow up like me--that is all." + +"It is often said to be a heathen virtue to keep one's word," said +Janetta, with a half smile. + +"Therefore one that I can practice, you mean? Do you always keep your +word when you give it?" + +"I try to." + +"I wish I could get you to give your word to do one thing." + +"What is that?" + +Wyvis spoke slowly. "You see how unfit I am to bring up a child--I +acknowledge the unfitness--and yet to send him away from us would almost +break my mother's heart--you see that." + +"Yes." + +"Will not you sometimes look in on us and give us a word of advice +or--or--rebuke? You are a cousin, as you reminded me, and you have the +right. Will you help us a little now and then?" + +"You would not like it if I did." + +"Was I so very savage? I have an awful temper, I know. But I am not +quite so black as I'm painted, Miss Colwyn. I do want to do the best for +that boy--if I knew how----" + +"Witness this afternoon," said Janetta, with good-humored satire. + +"Well, that shows that I _don't_ know how. Seriously, I am sorry--I +can't say more. Won't you stand our friend, Cousin Janetta?" + +It was the first time he had addressed her in that way. + +"How often am I to be asked to be somebody's friend, I wonder!" said +Janetta to herself, with a touch of humor. But she answered, quite +gravely, "I should like to do what I can--but I'm afraid there is +nothing that I can do, especially"--with a sudden flush--"if your +friends--the people who come to your house--are men like Mr. +Strangways." + +Wyvis looked at her sideways, with a curious look upon his face. + +"You object to Mr. Strangways?" + +"He is a man whom most people object to." + +"Well--if I give up Mr. Strangways and his kind----" + +"Oh, _will_ you, Cousin Wyvis?" + +She turned an eager, sparkling face upon him. It occurred to him, almost +for the first time, to admire her. With that light in her eye, that +color in her cheek, Janetta was almost beautiful. He smiled. + +"I shall be only too glad of an excuse," he said, with more simplicity +and earnestness than she had as yet distinguished in his voice. "And +then--you will come again?" + +"I will--gladly." + +"Shake hands on it after your English fashion," he said, stopping short, +and holding out his own hand. "I have been so long abroad that I almost +forget the way. But it is a sign of friendliness, is it not?" + +Janetta turned and laid her hand in his with a look of bright and +trustful confidence. Somehow it made Wyvis Brand feel himself unworthy. +He said almost nothing more until they parted at Mr. Colwyn's door. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +SHADOWS. + + +But Janetta had not much chance of keeping her promise for some time to +come. She was alarmed to find, on her return home that evening, that her +father had come in sick and shivering, with all the symptoms of a +violent cold, followed shortly by high fever. He had caught a chill +during a long drive undertaken in order to see a motherless child who +had been suddenly taken ill, and in whose case he took a great interest. +The child rapidly recovered, but Mr. Colwyn's illness had a serious +termination. Pleurisy came on, and made such rapid inroads upon his +strength that in a very few days his recovery was pronounced impossible. +Gradually growing weaker and weaker, he was not able even to give +counsel or direction to his family, and could only whisper to Janetta, +who was his devoted nurse, a few words about "taking care" of the rest. + +"I will always do my very best for them, father; you may be sure of +that," said Janetta, earnestly. The look of anxious pain in his eyes +gave her the strength to speak firmly--she must set his mind at ease at +any cost. + +"My faithful Janet," she heard him whisper; and then he spoke no more. +With his hand still clasped in hers he died in the early morning of a +chill October day, and the world of Beaminster knew him no more. + +The world seemed sadly changed for Janetta when her father had gone +forth from it; and yet it was not she who made the greatest +demonstration of mourning. Mrs. Colwyn passed from one hysterical fit +into another, and Nora sobbed herself ill; but Janetta went about her +duties with a calm and settled gravity, a sober tearlessness, which +caused her stepmother to dub her cold and heartless half a dozen times a +day. As a matter of fact the girl felt as if her heart were breaking, +but there was no one but herself to bear any of the commonplace little +burdens of daily life which are so hard to carry in the time of trouble; +and but for her thoughtful presence of mind the whole house would have +degenerated into a state of chaos. She wrote necessary letters, made +arrangements for the sad offices which were all that could be rendered +to her father now, interviewed the dressmaker, and ordered meals for the +children. It was to her that the servants and tradespeople came for +orders; it was she who kept her mother's room quiet, and nursed Nora, +and provided necessary occupation for the awed and bewildered children. + +"You don't seem to feel it a bit, Janetta," Mrs. Colwyn said to her on +the day before the funeral. "And I'm sure you were always your father's +favorite. He never cared half so much for any of the children as he did +for you, and now you can't even give him a tributary tear." + +Mrs. Colwyn was fond of stilted expressions, and the thought of "a +tributary tear" seemed so incongruous to Janetta when compared with her +own deep grief, that--much to Mrs. Colwyn's horror--she burst into an +agitated little laugh, as nervous people sometimes do on the most solemn +occasions. + +"To laugh when your father is lying dead in the house!" ejaculated Mrs. +Colwyn, with awful emphasis. "And you that he thought so loving and +dutiful----!" + +Then poor Janetta collapsed. She was worn out with watching and working, +and from nervous laughter she passed to tears so heart-broken and so +exhausting that Mrs. Colwyn never again dared to accuse her openly of +insensibility. And perhaps it was a good thing for Janetta that she did +break down in this way. The doctor who had attended her father was +growing very uneasy about her. He had not been deceived by her apparent +calmness. Her white face and dark-ringed eyes had told him all that +Janetta could not say. "A good thing too!" he muttered when, on a +subsequent call, Tiny told him, with rather a look of consternation, +that her sister "had been crying." "A good thing too! If she had not +cried she would have had a nervous fever before long, and then what +would become of you all?" + +During these dark days Janetta was inexpressibly touched by the marks of +sympathy that reached her from all sides. Country people trudged long +distances into town that they might gaze once more on the worn face of +the man who had often assuaged not only physical but mental pain, and +had been as ready to help and comfort as to prescribe. Townsfolk sent +flowers for the dead and dainties for the living; but better than all +their gifts was the regret that they expressed for the death of a man +whom everyone liked and respected. Mr. Colwyn's practice, though never +very lucrative, had been an exceedingly large one; and only when he had +passed away did his townsfolk seem to appreciate him at his true worth. + +In the sad absorption of mind which followed upon his death, Janetta +almost forgot her cousins, the Brands. But when the funeral took place, +and she went with her brother Joe to the grave, as she insisted upon +doing in spite of her stepmother's tearful remonstrances, it was a sort +of relief and satisfaction to her to see that both Wyvis and Cuthbert +Brand were present. They were her kinsmen, after all, and it was right +for them to be there. It made her feel momentarily stronger to know of +their presence in the church. + +But at the grave she forgot them utterly. The beautiful and consoling +words of the Burial Service fell almost unheeded on her ear. She could +only think of the blank that was made in her life by the absence of +that loving voice, that tender sympathy, which had never failed her +once. "My faithful Janet!" he had called her. There was no one to call +her "my faithful Janet" now. + +She was shaken by a storm of silent sobs as these thoughts came over +her. She made scarcely a sound, but her figure was swayed by the tempest +as if it would have fallen. Joe, the young brother, who could as yet +scarcely realize the magnitude of the loss which he had sustained, +glanced at her uneasily; but it was not he, but Wyvis Brand, who +suddenly made a step forward and gave her--just in time--the support of +his strong arm. The movement checked her and recalled her to herself. +Her weeping grew less violent, and although strong shudders still shook +her frame, she was able to walk quietly from the grave to the +carriage-door, and to shake hands with Wyvis Brand with some attempt at +calmness of demeanor. + +He came to the house a few days after the funeral, but Janetta happened +to be out, and Mrs. Colwyn refused to see him. Possibly he thought that +some slight lurked within this refusal, for he did not come again, and a +visit at a later date from Mrs. Brand was so entirely embarrassing and +unsatisfactory that Janetta could hardly wish for its repetition. Mrs. +Colwyn, in the deepest of widow's weeds, with a white handkerchief in +her hand, was yet not too much overcome by grief to show that she +esteemed herself far more respectable than Mrs. Brand, and could "set +her down," if necessary; while poor Mrs. Brand, evidently comprehending +the reason of Mrs. Colwyn's bridlings and tossings, was nervous and +flurried, sat on the edge of a chair, and looked--poor, helpless, +elderly woman--as if she had never entered a drawing-room before. + +The only comfort Janetta had out of the visit was a moment's +conversation in the hall when Mrs. Brand took her leave. + +"My dear--my dear," said Mrs. Brand, taking the girl's hand in hers, "I +am so sorry, and I can't do anything to comfort you. Your father was +very kind to me when I was in great trouble, years ago. I shall never +forget his goodness. If there is anything I can ever do for you, you +must let me do it for his sake." + +Janetta put up her face and kissed the woman to whom her father had been +"very kind." It comforted her to hear of his goodness once again. She +loved Mrs. Brand for appreciating it. + +That little sentence or two did her more good than the long letters +which she was receiving every few days from Margaret, her chosen friend. +Margaret was sincerely grieved for Janetta's loss, and said many +consoling things in her sweet, tranquil, rather devotional way; but she +had not known Mr. Colwyn, and she could not say the words that Janetta's +heart was aching for--the words of praise and admiration of a nobly +unselfish life which alone could do Janetta any good. Yes, Margaret's +letters were distinctly unsatisfactory--not from want of feeling, but +from want of experience of life. + +Graver necessities soon arose, however, than those of consolation in +grief. Mr. Colwyn had always been a poor man, and the sum for which he +had insured his life was only sufficient to pay his debts and funeral +expenses, and to leave a very small balance at his banker's. He had +bought the house in Gwynne Street in which he lived, and there was no +need, therefore, to seek for another home; and Mrs. Colwyn had fifty +pounds a year of her own, but of course it was necessary that the two +elder girls should do something for themselves. Nora obtained almost +immediately a post as under-teacher in a school not far from Beaminster, +and Georgie was taken in as a sort of governess-pupil, while Joe was +offered--chiefly out of consideration for his father's memory--a +clerkship in a mercantile house in the town, and was considered to be +well provided for. Curly, one of the younger boys, obtained a nomination +to a naval school in London. Thus only Mrs. Colwyn, Tiny, and "Jinks" +remained at home--with Janetta. + +With Janetta!--That was the difficulty. What was Janetta to do? She +might probably with considerable ease have obtained a position as +resident governess in a family, but then she would have to be absent +from home altogether. And of late the Colwyns had found it best to +dispense with the maid-servant who had hitherto done the work of the +household--a fact which meant that Janetta, with the help of a charity +orphan of thirteen, did it nearly all herself. + +"I might send home enough money for you to keep an efficient servant, +mamma," she said one day, "if I could go away and find a good +situation." + +It never occurred either to her or to her stepmother that any of her +earnings were to belong to Janetta, or be used for her behoof. + +"It would have to be a very good situation indeed, then," said Mrs. +Colwyn, with sharpness. "I don't suppose you could get more than fifty +pounds a year--if so much. And fifty pounds would not go far if we had a +woman in the house to feed and pay wages to. No, you had better stay at +home and get some daily teaching in the neighborhood. With your +recommendations it ought to be easy enough for you to do so." + +"I am afraid not," said Janetta, with a little sigh. + +"Nonsense! You could get some if you tried--if you had any energy, any +spirit: I suppose you would like to sit with your hands before you, +doing nothing, while I slaved my fingers to the bone for you," said Mrs. +Colwyn, who never got up till noon, or did anything but gossip and read +novels when she was up; "but I would be ashamed to do that if I were a +well-educated girl, whose father spent I don't know how much on her +voice, and expected her to make a living for herself by the time she was +one-and-twenty! I must say, Janetta, that I think it very wrong of you +to be so slack in trying to earn a little money, when Nora and Georgie +and Joey are all out in the world doing for themselves, and you sitting +here at home doing nothing at all." + +"I am sorry, mamma," said Janetta, meekly. "I will try to get something +to do at once." + +She did not think of reminding Mrs. Colwyn that she had been up since +six o'clock that morning helping the charity orphan to scrub and scour, +cooking, making beds, sewing, teaching Tiny between whiles, and scarcely +getting five minutes' rest until dinner-time. She only began to wonder +how she could manage to get all her tasks into the day if she had +lessons to give as well. "I suppose I must sit up at night and get up +earlier in the morning," she thought to herself. "It is a pity I am such +a sleepy person. But use reconciles one to all things." + +Mrs. Colwyn meanwhile went on lecturing. + +"And above all things, Janetta, remember that you ask high terms and get +the money always in advance. You are just like your poor father in the +way you have about money; I never saw anyone so unpractical as he was. +I'm sure half his bills are unpaid yet, and never will be paid. I hope +you won't be like _him_, I'm sure----" + +"I hope I shall be like him in every possible respect," said Janetta, +with compressed lips. She rose as she spoke and caught up the basket of +socks that she was mending. "I don't know how you can bear to speak of +him in that slighting manner," she went on, almost passionately. "He was +the best, the kindest of men, and I cannot bear to hear it." And then +she hurriedly left the room and went into her father's little +surgery--as it had once been called--to relieve her overcharged heart +with a burst of weeping. It was not often that Janetta lost patience, +but a word against her father was sufficient to upset her self-command +nowadays. She rested her head against the well-worn arm-chair where he +used to sit, and kissed the back of it, and bedewed it with her tears. + +"Poor father! dear father!" she murmured. "Oh, if only you were here, I +could bear anything! Or if she had loved you as you deserved, I could +bear with her and work for her willingly--cheerfully. But when she +speaks against you, father dear, how _can_ I live with her? And yet he +told me to take care of her, and I said I would. He called me 'his +faithful Janet.' I do not want to be unfaithful, but--oh father, father, +it is hard to live without you!" + +The gathering shades of the wintry day began to gather round her; but +Janetta, her face buried in the depths of the arm-chair, was oblivious +of time. It was almost dark before little Tiny came running in with +cries of terror to summon her sister to Mrs. Colwyn's help. + +"Mamma's ill--I think she's dying. Come, Janet, come," cried the child. +And Janetta hurried back to the dining-room. + +She found Mrs. Colwyn on the sofa in a state of apparent stupor. For +this at first Janetta saw no reason, and was on the point of sending for +a doctor, when her eye fell upon a black object which had rolled from +the sofa to the ground. Janetta looked at it and stood transfixed. + +There was no need to send for a doctor. And Janetta saw at once that she +could not be spared from home. The wretched woman had found a solace +from her woes, real and imaginary, in the brandy bottle. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +JANETTA'S FAILURE. + + +The terrible certainty that Janetta had now acquired of Mrs. Colwyn's +inability to control herself decided her in the choice of an occupation. +She knew that she must, if possible, earn something; but it was equally +impossible for her to leave home entirely, or even for many hours at a +stretch; she was quite convinced that constant watching, and even gentle +restraint, could alone prevail in checking the tendency which her +stepmother evinced. She understood now better than she had ever done why +her father's brow had been so early wrinkled and his hair grey before +its time. Doubtless, he had discovered his wife's unfortunate tendency, +and, while carefully concealing it or keeping it within bounds, had +allowed it often to weigh heavily upon his mind. Janetta realized with a +great shock that _she_ could not hope to exert the influence or the +authority of her father, that all her efforts might possibly be +unavailing unless they were seconded by Mrs. Colwyn herself, and that +public disgrace might yet be added to the troubles and anxieties of +their lives. + +There is something so particularly revolting in the spectacle of this +kind of degradation in a woman, that Janetta felt as if the discovery +that she had made turned her positively ill. She had much ado to behave +to the children and the servant as if nothing were amiss; she got her +stepmother to bed, and kept Tiny out of the room, but the effort was +almost more than she knew how to bear. She passed a melancholy evening +with the children--melancholy in spite of herself, for she did her best +to be cheerful--and spent a sleepless night, rising in the morning with +a bad headache and a conviction as of the worthlessness of all things +which she did not very often experience. + +She shrank sensitively from going to Mrs. Colwyn's room. Surely the poor +woman would be overcome with pain and shame; surely she would understand +how terrible the exposure of her disgrace had been to Janetta. But at +last Mrs. Colwyn's bell sounded sharply, and continued to ring, and the +girl was obliged to run upstairs and enter her stepmother's room. + +Mrs. Colwyn was sitting up in bed, with the bell-rope in her hand, an +aggrieved expression upon her face. + +"Well, I'm sure! Nine o'clock and no breakfast ready for me! I suppose I +may wait until everybody else in the house is served first; I must say, +Janetta, that you are very thoughtless of my comfort." + +Contrary to her usual custom Janetta offered no word of excuse or +apology. She was too much taken aback to speak. She stood and looked at +her stepmother with slightly dilated eyes, and neither moved nor spoke. + +"What _are_ you staring at?" said Mrs. Colwyn, sinking back on her +pillows with a faint--very faint--touch of uneasiness in her tones. "If +you are in a sulky mood, Janetta, I wish you would go away, and send my +breakfast up by Ph[oe]be and Tiny. I have a wretched headache this +morning and can't be bothered." + +"What would you like?" said Janetta, with an effort. + +"Oh, anything. Some coffee and toast, perhaps. I dare say you won't +believe it--you are so unsympathetic--but I was frightfully ill last +night. I don't know how I got to bed; I was quite insensible for a +time--all from a narcotic that I had taken for neuralgia----" + +"I'll go and get your breakfast ready," said Janetta abruptly. "I will +send it up as soon as I can." + +She left the room, unheeding some murmured grumbling at her selfishness, +and shut the door behind her. On the landing it must be confessed that +she struck her foot angrily on the floor and clenched her hands, while +the color flushed into her mobile, sensitive little face. There was +nothing that Janetta hated more than a lie. And her stepmother was lying +to her now. + +She sent up the breakfast tray, and did not re-enter the room for some +time. When at last she came up, Mrs. Colwyn had had the fire lighted and +was sitting beside it in a rocking-chair, with a novel on her lap. She +looked up indolently as Janetta entered. + +"Going out?" she said, noticing that the girl was in her out-door wraps. +"You are always gadding." + +"I came to speak to you before I went out," said Janetta, patiently. "I +am going to the stationer's, and to the Beaminster _Argus_ Office. I +mean to make it well known in the town that I want to give music and +singing-lessons. And, if possible, I shall give them here--at our own +house." + +"You'll do nothing of the sort!" said Mrs. Colwyn, shrilly. "I'll not +have a pack of children about the house playing scales and singing their +Do, Re, Mi, till my head is fit to split. You'll remember, Miss, that +this is _my_ house, and that you are living on _my_ money, and behave +yourself." + +"Mamma," said Janetta, steadily, advancing a step nearer, and turning a +shade paler than she had been before, "please think what you are saying. +I am willing to work as hard as I can, and earn as much as I can. But I +dare not go away from home--at any rate for long--unless I can feel sure +that--that what happened last night--will not occur again." + +"What happened!--what happened last night?--I don't know what you mean." + +"Don't say that, mamma: you know--you know quite well. And think what a +grief it would have been to dear father--what a disgrace it will be to +Joe and Nora and the little ones and all of us--if it ever became known! +Think of yourself, and the shame and the sin of it!" + +"I've not the least notion what you are talking about, Janetta, and I +beg that you will not address me in that way," said Mrs. Colwyn, with an +attempt at dignity. "It is very undutiful indeed, and I hope that I +shall hear no more of it." + +"I'll never speak of it again, mamma, unless you make it necessary. All +I mean is that you must understand--I cannot feel safe now--I must be at +home as much as possible to see that Tiny is safe, and that everything +is going on well. You must please let me advertise for pupils in our own +house." + +Mrs. Colwyn burst into tears. "Oh, well, have your own way! I knew that +you would tyrannize, you always do whenever you get the chance, and very +foolish I have been to give you the opportunity. To speak in that way to +your father's wife--and all because she had to take a little something +for her nerves, and because of her neuralgia! But I am nobody now: +nobody, even in my own house, where I'm sure I ought to be mistress if +anybody is!" + +Janetta could do or say nothing more. She gave her stepmother a dose of +sal volatile, and went away. She had already searched every room and +every cupboard in the house, except in Mrs. Colwyn's own domain, and had +put every bottle that she could find under lock and key; but she left +the house with a feeling of terrible insecurity upon her, as if the +earth might open at any moment beneath her feet. + +She put advertisements in the local papers and left notices at some of +the Beaminster shops, and, when these attempts produced no results, she +called systematically on all the people she knew, and did her best--very +much against the grain--to ask for pupils. Thanks to her perseverance +she soon got three or four children as music pupils, although at a very +low rate of remuneration. Also, she gave two singing lessons weekly to +the daughter of the grocer with whom the Colwyns dealt. But these were +not paid for in money, but in kind. And then for a time she got no more +pupils at all. + +Janetta was somewhat puzzled by her failure. She had fully expected to +succeed as a teacher in Beaminster. "When the Adairs come back it will +be better," she said, hopefully, to herself. "They have not written for +a long time, but I am sure that they will come home soon. Perhaps +Margaret is going to be married and will not want any singing lessons. +But I should think that they would recommend me: I should think that I +might refer to Lady Caroline, and surely people would think more of my +abilities then." + +But it was not confidence in her abilities that was lacking so much as +confidence in her amiability and discretion, she soon found. She called +one day at the house of a schoolmistress, who was said to want +assistance in the musical line, and was received with a stiffness which +did not encourage her to make much of her qualifications. + +"The fact is, Miss Colwyn," said the preceptress at length, "I have +heard of you from Miss Polehampton." + +Janetta was on her feet in a moment. "I know very well what that means," +she said, rather defiantly. + +"Exactly. I see that Miss Polehampton's opinion of you is justifiable. +You will excuse my mentioning to you, as it is all for your own good, +Miss Colwyn, that Miss Polehampton found in you some little weakness of +temper, some want of the submissiveness and good sense which ought to +characterize an under-teacher's demeanor. I have great confidence in +Miss Polehampton's opinion." + +"The circumstances under which I left Miss Polehampton's could be easily +explained if you would allow me to refer you to Lady Caroline Adair," +said Janetta, with mingled spirit and dignity. + +"Lady Caroline Adair? Oh, yes, I have heard all about that," said the +schoolmistress, in a tone of depreciation. "I do not need to hear any +other version of the story. You must excuse my remarking, Miss Colwyn, +that temper and sense are qualities as valuable in music-teaching as in +any other; and that your dismissal from Miss Polehampton's will, in my +opinion, be very much against you, in a place where Miss Polehampton's +school is so well known, and she herself is so much respected." + +"I am sorry to have troubled you," said Janetta, not without +stateliness, although her lips trembled a little as she spoke. "I will +wish you good-morning." + +The schoolmistress bowed solemnly, and allowed the girl to depart. +Janetta hastened out of the house--glad to get away before the tears +that had gathered in her eyes could fall. + +At an ordinary time she would have been equally careful that they did +not fall when she was in the street; but on this occasion, dazed, +wounded, and tormented by an anxiety about the future, which was +beginning to take the spring out of her youth, she moved along the +side-walk with perfect unconsciousness that her eyes were brimming over, +and that two great tears were already on her cheeks. + +It was a quiet road, and there was little likelihood of encountering any +one whom she knew. Therefore Janetta was utterly abashed when a +gentleman, who had met her, took off his hat, glanced at her curiously, +and then turned back as if by a sudden impulse, and addressed her by +name. + +"Miss Colwyn, I think?" + +She looked up at him through a blinding haze of tears, and recognized +the tall, spare figure, the fine sensitive face, the kind, dark eyes and +intellectual forehead. The coal-black beard and moustache nearly hid +his mouth, but Janetta felt instinctively that this tell-tale feature +would not belie the promise of the others. + +"Sir Philip Ashley," she murmured, in her surprise. + +"I beg your pardon," he said, with the courtesy that she so well +remembered; "I stopped you on impulse, I fear, because I felt a great +desire to express to you my deep sympathy with you in your loss. It may +seem impertinent for me to speak, but I knew your father and respected +and trusted him. We had some correspondence about sanitary matters, and +I was greatly relying on his help in certain reforms that I wish to +institute in Beaminster. He is a great loss to us all." + +"Thank you," Janetta said unsteadily. + +"Will you let me ask whether there is anything in which I can help you +just now." + +"Oh, no, nothing, thank you." She had brushed away the involuntary tear, +and smiled bravely as she replied. "I did not think that I should meet +anybody: it was simply that I was disappointed about--about--some +lessons that I hoped to get. Quite a _little_ disappointment, you see." + +"Was it a little disappointment? Do you want to give lessons--singing +lessons?" + +"Yes; but nobody will have me to teach them," said Janetta, laughing +nervously. + +Sir Philip looked back at the house which they had just passed. "That is +Miss Morrison's school: you came out of it, did you not? Does she not +need your help?" + +"I do not suit her." + +"Why? Did she try your voice?" + +"Oh, no. It was for other reasons. She was prejudiced against me," said +Janetta, with a little gulp. + +"Prejudiced? But why?--may I ask?" + +"Oh, she had heard something she did not like. It does not matter: I +shall get other pupils by-and-bye." + +"Is it important to you to have pupils?" Sir Philip asked, as seriously +and anxiously as if the fate of the empire depended on his reply. + +"Oh, most important." Janetta's face and voice were more pathetic than +she knew. Sir Philip was silent for a moment. + +"I have heard you sing," he said at length, in his grave, earnest way. +"I am sure that I should have no hesitation in recommending you--if my +recommendation were of any use. My mother may perhaps hear of somebody +who wants lessons, if you will allow me to mention the matter to her." + +"I shall be very much obliged to you," said Janetta, feeling grateful +and yet a little startled--it did not seem natural to her in her sweet +humility that Sir Philip and his mother should interest themselves in +her welfare. "Oh, _very_ much obliged." + +Sir Philip raised his hat and smiled down kindly upon her as he said +good-bye. He had been interested from the very first in Margaret's +friend. And he had always been vaguely conscious that Margaret's +friendship was not likely to produce any very desirable results. + +Janetta went on her way, feeling for the moment a little less desolate +than she had felt before. Sir Philip turned homewards to seek his +mother, who was a woman of whom many people stood in awe, but whose +kindness of heart was never known to fail. To her Sir Philip at once +poured out his story with the directness and Quixotic ardor which some +of his friends found incomprehensible, not to say absurd. But Lady +Ashley never thought so. + +She smiled very kindly as her son finished his little tale. + +"She is really a good singer, you say? Mr. Colwyn's daughter. I have +seen him once or twice." + +"He was a good fellow." + +"Yes, I believe so. Miss Morrison's school, did you mention? Why, Mabel +Hartley is there." Mabel Hartley was a distant cousin of the Ashleys. "I +will call to-morrow, Philip, and find out what the objection is to Miss +Colwyn. If it can be removed I don't see why she should not teach Mabel, +who, I remember, has a voice." + +Lady Ashley carried out her intention, and announced the result to her +son the following evening. + +"I have not succeeded, dear. Miss Morrison has been prejudiced by some +report from Miss Polehampton, with whom Miss Colwyn and Margaret Adair +were at school. She said that the two girls were expelled together." + +Sir Philip was silent for a minute or two. His brows contracted. "I was +afraid," he said, "that Miss Adair's championship of her friend had not +been conducted in the wisest possible manner. She has done Miss Colwyn +considerable harm." + +Lady Ashley glanced at him inquiringly. She was particularly anxious +that he should marry Margaret Adair. + +"Is Lady Caroline at home?" her son asked, after another and a longer +pause. + +"Yes. She came home yesterday--with dear Margaret. I am sure, Philip, +that Margaret does not know it if she has done harm." + +"I don't suppose she does, mother. I am sure she would not willingly +injure any one. But I think that she ought to know the circumstances of +the case." + +And then he opened a book and began to read. + +Lady Ashley never remonstrated. But she raised her eyebrows a little +over this expression of Sir Philip's opinion. If he were going to try to +tutor Margaret Adair, whose slightest wish had never yet known +contradiction, she thought it probable that the much-wished for marriage +would never take place at all. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +A BONE OF CONTENTION. + + +Poor Janetta, plodding away at her music lessons and doing the household +work of her family, never guessed that she was about to become a bone of +contention. But such she was fated to be, and that between persons no +less distinguished than Lady Caroline Adair and Sir Philip Ashley--not +to speak of Sir Philip and Margaret! + +Two days after Janetta's unexpected meeting with Sir Philip, that +gentleman betook himself to Helmsley Court in a somewhat warm and +indignant mood. He had seen a good deal of Margaret during the autumn +months. They had been members of the same house-party in more than one +great Scottish mansion: they had boated together, fished together, +driven and ridden and walked together, until more than one of Lady +Caroline's acquaintances had asked, with a covert smile, "how soon she +might be allowed to congratulate".... The sentence was never quite +finished, and Lady Caroline never made any very direct reply. Margaret +was too young to think of these things, she said. But other people were +very ready to think of them for her. + +The acquaintance had therefore progressed a long way since the day of +Margaret's return from school. And yet it had not gone quite so far as +onlookers surmised, or as Lady Caroline wished. Sir Philip was most +friendly, most attentive, but he was also somewhat absurdly unconscious +of remark. His character had a simplicity which occasionally set people +wondering. He was perfectly frank and manly: he spoke without +_arriere-pensee_, he meant what he said, and was ready to believe that +other people meant it too. He had a pleasant and courteous manner in +society, and liked to be on friendly terms with every one he met; but at +the same time he was not at all like the ordinary society man, and had +not the slightest idea that he differed from any such person--as indeed +he did. He had very high aims and ideals, and he took it for granted, +with a really charming simplicity, that other people had similar aims +and similar (if not higher) ideals. Consequently he now and then ran his +head against a wall, and was laughed at by commonplace persons; but +those who knew him well loved him all the better for his impracticable +schemes and expectations. + +But to Margaret he seemed rather like a firebrand. He took interest in +things of which she had never heard, or which she regarded with a little +delicate disdain. A steam-laundry in Beaminster, for example--what had a +man like Sir Philip Ashley to do with a steam-laundry? And yet he was +establishing one in the old city, and actually assuring people that it +would "pay." He had been exerting himself about the drainage of the +place and the dwellings of the poor. Margaret was sorry in a vague way +for the poor, and supposed that drainage had to be "seen to" from time +to time, but she did not want to hear anything about it. She liked the +pretty little cottages in the village of Helmsley, and she did not mind +begging for a holiday for the school children (who adored her) now and +then; and she had heard with pleasure of Lady Ashley's pattern +alm-houses and dainty orphanage, where the old women wore red cloaks, +and the children were exceedingly picturesque; but as a necessary +consequence of her life-training, she did not want to know anything +about disease or misery or sin. And Sir Philip could not entirely keep +these subjects out of his conversation, although he tried to be very +careful not to bring a look that he knew well--a look of shocked +repulsion and dislike--to Margaret's tranquil face. + +She welcomed him with her usual sweetness that afternoon. He thought +that she looked lovelier than ever. The day was cold, and she wore a +dark-green dress with a good deal of gold embroidery about it, which +suited her perfectly. Lady Caroline, too, was graciousness itself. She +received him in her own little sitting-room--a gem of a room into which +only her intimate friends were admitted, and made him welcome with all +the charm of manner for which she was distinguished. And to add to her +virtues, she presently found that she had letters to write, and retired +into an adjoining library, leaving the door open between the two rooms, +so that Margaret might still be considered as under her chaperonage, +although conversation could be conducted without any fear of her +overhearing what was said. Lady Caroline knew so exactly what to do and +what to leave undone! + +As soon as she was gone, Sir Philip put down his tea-cup and turned with +an eager movement to Margaret. + +"I have been wanting to speak to you," he said. "I have something +special--something important to say." + +"Yes?" said Margaret, sweetly. She flushed a little and looked down. She +was not quite ignorant of what every one was expecting Sir Philip Ashley +to say. + +"Can you listen to me for a minute or two?" he said, with the +gentle eagerness of manner, the restrained ardor which he was +capable--unfortunately for him--of putting into his most trivial +requests. "You are sure you will not be impatient?" + +Margaret smiled. Should she accept him? she was thinking. After all, he +was very nice, in spite of his little eccentricities. And really--with +his fine features, his tall stature, his dark eyes, and coal-black hair +and beard--he was an exceedingly handsome man. + +"I want you to help me," said Sir Philip, in almost a coaxing tone. "I +want you to carry out a design that I have formed. Nobody can do it but +you. Will you help me?" + +"If I can," said Margaret, shyly. + +"You are always good and kind," said Sir Philip, warmly. "Margaret--may +I call you Margaret? I have known you so long." + +This seemed a little irregular, from Miss Adair's point of view. + +"I don't know whether mamma----" she began, and stopped. + +"Whether she would like it? I don't think she would mind: she suggested +it the other day, in fact. She always calls me 'Philip,' you know: +perhaps you would do the same?" + +Again Margaret smiled; but there was a touch of inquiry in her eyes as +she glanced at him. She did not know very much about proposals of +marriage, but she fancied that Sir Philip's manner of making one was +peculiar. And she had had it impressed upon her so often that he was +about to make one that it could hardly be considered strange if his +manner somewhat bewildered her. + +"I want to speak to you," said the young man, lowering his earnest voice +a little, "about your friend, Miss Colwyn." + +Now, why did the girl flush scarlet? Why did her hand tremble a little +as she put down her cup? Philip lost the thread of the conversation for +a minute or two, and simply looked at her. Then Margaret quietly took +down a screen from the mantel-piece and began to fan herself. "It is +rather hot here, don't you think?" she said, serenely. "The fire makes +one feel quite uncomfortable." + +"It _is_ a large one," said Sir Philip, with conviction. "Shall I take +any of the coal off for you? No? Well, as I was saying, I wished to +speak to you about your friend, Miss Colwyn." + +"She has lost her father lately, poor thing," said Margaret, +conversationally. "She has been very unhappy." + +"Yes, and for more reasons than one. You have not seen her, I conclude, +since his death?" + +"No, he died in August or September, did he not? It is close upon +December now--what a long time we have been away! Poor Janetta!--how +glad she will be to see me!" + +"I am sure she will. But it would be just as well for you to hear +beforehand that her father's death has brought great distress upon the +family. I have had some talk with friends of his, and I find that he +left very little money behind." + +"How sad for them! But--they have not removed?--they are still at their +old house: I thought everything was going on as usual," said Margaret, +in a slightly puzzled tone. + +"The house belongs to them, so they might as well live in it. Two or +three of the family have got situations of some kind--one child is in a +charitable institution, I believe." + +"Oh, how dreadful! Like Lady Ashley's Orphanage?" said Margaret, +shrinking a little. + +"No, no; nothing of that kind--an educational establishment, to which he +has got a nomination. But the mother and the two or three children are +still at home, and I believe that their income is not more than a +hundred a year." + +Sir Philip was considerably above the mark. But the mention of even a +hundred a year, though not a large income, produced little impression +upon Margaret. + +"That is not very much, is it?" she said, gently. + +"Much! I should think not," said Sir Philip, driven almost to +discourtesy by the difficulty of making her understand. "Four or five +people to live upon it and keep up a position! It is semi-starvation and +misery." + +"But, Sir Philip, does not Janetta give lessons? I should have thought +she could make a perfect fortune by her music alone. Hasn't she tried to +get something to do?" + +"Yes, indeed, poor girl, she has. My mother has been making inquiries, +and she finds that Miss Colwyn has advertised and done everything she +could think of--with very little result. I myself met her three or four +days ago, coming away from Miss Morrison's, with tears in her eyes. She +had failed to get the post of music-teacher there." + +"But why had she failed? She can sing and play beautifully!" + +"Ah, I wanted you to ask me that! She failed--because Miss Morrison was +a friend of Miss Polehampton's, and she had heard some garbled and +distorted account of Miss Colwyn's dismissal from that school." + +Sir Philip did not look at her as he spoke: he fancied that she would be +at once struck with horror and even with shame, and he preferred to +avert his eyes during the moment's silence that followed upon his +account of Janetta's failure to get work. But, when Margaret spoke, a +very slight tone of vexation was the only discoverable trace of any such +emotion. + +"Why did not Janetta explain?" + +Sir Philip's lips moved, but he said nothing. + +"That affair cannot be the reason why she has obtained so little work, +of course?" + +"I am afraid that to some extent it is." + +"Janetta could so easily have explained it!" + +"May I ask how she could explain it? Write a letter to the local paper, +or pay a series of calls to declare that she had not been to blame? Do +you think that any one would have believed her? Besides--you call her +your friend: could she exculpate herself without blaming you; and do you +think that she would do that?" + +"Without blaming _me_?" repeated Margaret. She rose to her full height, +letting the fan fall between her hands, and stood silently confronting +him. "But," she said, slowly--"I--I was not to blame." + +Sir Philip bowed. + +"You think that I was to blame?" + +"I think that you acted on impulse, without much consideration for Miss +Colwyn's future. I think that you have done her an injury--which I am +sure you will be only too willing to repair." + +He began rather sternly, he ended almost tenderly--moved as he could not +fail to be by the soft reproach of Margaret's eyes. + +"I cannot see that I have done her any injury at all; and I really do +not know how I can repair it," said the girl, with a cold stateliness +which ought to have warned Sir Philip that he was in danger of +offending. But Philip was rash and warm-hearted, and he had taken up +Janetta's cause. + +"Your best way of repairing it," he said, earnestly, "would be to call +on Miss Morrison yourself and explain the matter to her, as Miss Colwyn +cannot possibly do--unless she is a very different person from the one I +take her for. And if that did not avail, go to Miss Polehampton and +persuade her to write a letter----" + +He stopped somewhat abruptly. The look of profound astonishment on +Margaret's face recalled him to a sense of limitations. "Margaret!" he +said, pleadingly, "won't you be generous? You can afford to do this +thing for your friend!" + +"Go to Miss Morrison and explain! _Persuade_ Miss Polehampton!--after +the way she treated us! But really it is too ridiculous, Sir Philip. You +do not know my friend, Miss Colwyn. She would be the last person to wish +me to humiliate myself to Miss Polehampton!" + +"I do not see that what she wishes has much to do with it," said Sir +Philip, very stiffly. "Miss Colwyn is suffering under an injustice. I +ask you to repair that injustice. I really do not see how you can +refuse." + +Margaret looked as if she were about to make some mutinous reply; then +she compressed her lips and lowered her eyes for a few seconds. + +"I will ask mamma what she thinks," she said at last, in her usual even +tones. + +"Why should you ask her?" said Sir Philip, impetuously. "What +consultation is needed, when I simply beg you to be your own true +self--that noble, generous self that I am sure you are! Margaret, don't +disappoint me!" + +"I didn't know," said the girl, with proud deliberateness, "that you had +any special interest in the matter, Sir Philip." + +"I have this interest--that I love you with all my heart, Margaret, and +hope that you will let me call you my wife one day. It is this love, +this hope, which makes me long to think of you as perfect--always noble +and self-sacrificing and just! Margaret, you will not forbid me to +hope?" + +He had chosen a bad time for his declaration of love. He saw this, and +his accent grew more and more supplicating, for he perceived that the +look of repulsion, which he knew and hated, was already stealing into +Margaret's lovely eyes. She stood as if turned into stone, and did not +answer a word. And it was on this scene that Lady Caroline broke at that +moment--a scene which, at first sight, gave the mother keen pleasure, +for it had all the orthodox appearance of love-making: the girl, silent, +downcast, embarrassed; the man passionate and earnest, with head bent +towards her fair face, and hands outstretched in entreaty. + +But poor Lady Caroline was soon to be undeceived, and her castle in the +air to come tumbling down about her ears. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +SIR PHILIP'S OPINION. + + +"Is anything the matter?" said Lady Caroline, suavely. + +She had been undecided for a minute as to whether she had not better +withdraw unseen, but the distressed expression on her-daughter's face +decided her to speak. She might at least prevent Margaret from saying +anything foolish. + +Sir Philip drew back a little. Margaret went--almost hurriedly--up to +her mother, and put her hand into Lady Caroline's. + +"Will you tell him? will you explain to him, please?" she said. "I do +not want to hear any more: I would rather not. We could never understand +each other, and I should be very unhappy." + +Sir Philip made an eager gesture, but Lady Caroline silenced him by an +entreating glance and then looked straight into her daughter's eyes. +Their limpid hazel depths were troubled now: tears were evidently very +near, and Lady Caroline detested tears. + +"My darling child," she said, "you must not agitate yourself. You shall +hear nothing that you do not want to hear. Sir Philip would never say +anything that would pain you." + +"I have asked her to be my wife," said Sir Philip, very quietly, "and I +hope that she will not refuse to hear me say that, at least." + +"But that was not all," said Margaret, suddenly turning on him her +grieving eyes--eyes that always looked so much more grieved than their +owner felt--and her flushing, quivering face: "You told me first that I +was wrong--selfish and unjust; and you want me to humiliate myself--to +say that it was my fault----" + +"My dearest Margaret!" exclaimed Lady Caroline, in amaze, "what can you +mean? Philip, are we dreaming?--Darling child, come with me to your +room: you had better lie down for a little time while I talk to Sir +Philip. Excuse me a moment, Sir Philip--I will come back." + +Margaret allowed herself to be led from the room. This outbreak of +emotion was almost unprecedented in her history; but then Sir Philip had +attacked her on her tenderest side--that of her personal dignity. +Margaret Adair found it very hard to believe that she was as others are, +and not made of a different clay from them. + +Some little time elapsed before Lady Caroline's return. She had made +Margaret lie down, administered sal volatile, covered her with an +eiderdown quilt, and seen her maid bathing the girl's forehead with eau +de Cologne and water before she came back again. And all this took time. +She apologized very prettily for her delay, but Sir Philip did not seem +to heed her excuses: he was standing beside the fire, meditatively +tugging at his black beard, and Lady Caroline had some difficulty in +thinking that she could read the expression of his face. + +"I do not quite understand all this," she said, with her most amiable +expression of countenance, as she seated herself on the other side of +the soft white hearthrug. "Margaret mentioned Miss Colwyn's name: I am +quite at a loss to imagine how Miss Colwyn comes to be mixed up in the +matter." + +"I am very sorry," said Sir Philip, ruefully. "I never thought that +there would be any difficulty. I seem to have offended Margaret most +thoroughly." + +Lady Caroline smiled. "Girls soon forget a man's offences," she said, +consolingly. "What did you say?" + +And then Sir Philip, with some hesitation, told the story of his plea +for Janetta Colwyn. + +The smile was frozen on Lady Caroline's lips. She sat up straight, and +stared at her visitor. When he had quite ended his explanation, she +said, as icily as she knew how to speak-- + +"And you asked my daughter to justify Miss Colwyn at the cost of her own +feelings--I might almost say, of her own social standing in the +neighborhood!----" + +"Isn't that a little too strong, Lady Caroline? Your daughter's social +standing would not be touched in the least by an act of common justice. +No one who heard of it but would honor her for exculpating her friend!" + +"Exculpating! My dear Philip, you are too Quixotic! Nobody accuses +either of the girls of anything but a little thoughtlessness and +defiance of authority----" + +"Exactly," said Philip, with some heat, "and therefore while the report +of it will not injure your daughter, it may do irreparable harm to a +girl who has her own way to make in the world. The gossip of Beaminster +tea-tables is not to be despised. The old ladies of Beaminster are all +turning their backs on Miss Colwyn, because common report declares her +to have been expelled--or dismissed--in disgrace from Miss Polehampton's +school. The fact that nobody knows exactly _why_ she was dismissed adds +weight to the injury. It is so easy to say, 'They don't tell why she was +sent away--something too dreadful to be talked about,' and so on. My +mother tells me that there is a general feeling abroad that Miss Colwyn +is not a person to be trusted with young girls. Now that is a terrible +slur upon an innocent woman who has to earn her own living, Lady +Caroline; and I really must beg that you and Margaret will set +yourselves to remove it." + +"Really, Philip! Quite a tirade!" + +Lady Caroline laughed delicately as she spoke, and passed a lace +handkerchief across her lips as though to brush away a smile. She was a +little puzzled and rather vexed, but she did not wish to show her true +opinion of Sir Philip and his views. + +"And so," she went on, "you said all this to my poor child; harrowed her +feelings and wounded her self-respect, and insisted on it that she +should go round Beaminster explaining that it was her fault and not +Janetta Colwyn's that Miss Polehampton acted in so absurdly arbitrary a +manner!" + +"You choose to put it in that way," said Sir Philip, drawing down his +brows, "and I cannot very well contradict you; but I venture to think, +Lady Caroline, that you know quite well what I mean." + +"I should be glad if you would put it into plain words. You wish +Margaret--to do--what?" + +"I very much wish that she would go to Miss Morrison and explain to her +why Miss Colwyn left school. There is no need that she should take any +blame upon herself. You must confess that it was she who took the law +into her own hands, Lady Caroline; Miss Colwyn was perfectly ready to +submit. And I think that as this occurrence has been made the ground for +refusing to give Miss Colwyn the work that she urgently needs, it is +Miss Adair's plain duty to try at least to set the matter right. I do +not see why she should refuse." + +"You have no pride yourself, I suppose? Do you suppose that Mr. Adair +would allow it?" + +"Then you might do it for her, Lady Caroline," said Sir Philip, turning +round on her, with his winning, persuasive manner, of which even at that +moment she felt the charm. "It would be so easy for you to explain it +quietly to Miss Morrison, and ask her to give that poor girl a place in +her school! Who else could do it better? If Margaret is not--not quite +strong enough for the task, then will you not help us out of our +difficulty, and do it for her?" + +"Certainly not, Sir Philip. Your request seems to me exceedingly +unreasonable. I do not in the least believe that Miss Morrison has +refused to take her for that reason only. There is some other, you may +depend upon it. I shall not interfere." + +"You could at least give her a strong recommendation." + +"I know nothing about the girl except that she sings fairly well," said +Lady Caroline, in a hard, determined voice. "I do not want to know +anything about her--she has done nothing but make mischief and cause +contention ever since I heard her name. I begin to agree with Miss +Polehampton--it was a most unsuitable friendship." + +"It has been a disastrous friendship for Miss Colwyn, I fear. You must +excuse me if I say that it is hardly generous--after having been the +means of the loss of her first situation--to refuse to help her in +obtaining another." + +"I think I am the best judge of that. If you mean to insinuate, Sir +Philip, that your proposal for Margaret's hand which we have talked over +before, hinges on her compliance with your wishes in this instance, you +had better withdraw it at once." + +"You must be aware that I have no such meaning," said Sir Philip, in a +tone that showed him to be much wounded. + +"I am glad--for your own sake--to hear it. Neither Mr. Adair nor myself +could permit Margaret to lower herself by going to explain her past +conduct to a second-rate Beaminster schoolmistress." + +Sir Philip stood silent, downcast, his eyebrows contracting over his +eyes until--as Lady Caroline afterwards expressed it--he positively +scowled. + +"You disagree with me, I presume?" she inquired, with some irony in her +tone. + +"Yes, Lady Caroline, I do disagree with you. I thought that you--and +Margaret--would be more generous towards a fatherless girl." + +"You must excuse me if I say that your interest in 'a fatherless girl' +is somewhat out of place, Sir Philip. You are a young man, and it is not +quite seemly for you to make such a point of befriending a little music +governess. I am sorry to have to speak so plainly, but I must say that I +do not think such interest befits a gentleman, and especially one who +has been asking us for our daughter." + +"My love for Margaret," said Sir Philip, gravely, "cannot blind me to +other duties." + +"There are duties in the world," rejoined Lady Caroline, "between which +we sometimes have to choose. It seems to me that you may have to choose +between your love for Margaret and your 'interest' in Janetta Colwyn." + +"I hardly think," said her guest, "that I deserve this language, Lady +Caroline. However, since these are your opinions, I can but say that I +deeply regret them--and take my leave. If you or Miss Adair should wish +to recall me you have but to send me a word--a line: I shall be ready to +come. Your daughter knows my love for her. I am not yet disposed to give +up all hope of a recall." + +And then he took his leave with a manner of punctilious politeness +which, oddly enough, made Lady Caroline feel herself in the wrong more +than anything that he had said. She was more ruffled than Margaret had +ever seen her when at last she sought the girl's room shortly before the +ringing of the dressing-bell. + +She found Margaret looking pale and a little frightened, but perfectly +composed. She came up to Lady Caroline and put her arms round her +mother's neck with a caressing movement. + +"Dear mamma," she said, "I am afraid I was not quite polite to Sir +Philip." + +"I think, dear, that Sir Philip was scarcely polite to you. I am not at +all satisfied with his conduct. He is quite unreasonable." + +Margaret slowly withdrew her arms from her mother's neck, looked at her +uneasily, and looked down again. + +"He thinks that I ought to do something for Janetta--to make people +think well of her, I suppose." + +"He is utterly preposterous," said Lady Caroline. + +"Do you think I ought to go to Miss Morrison about Janetta, mamma?" + +"No, indeed, my dearest. Your father would never hear of it." + +"I should like to do all that I could for her. I am very fond of her, +indeed I am, although Sir Philip thinks me so selfish." And Margaret's +soft hazel eyes filled with tears, which fell gently over her delicate +cheeks without distorting her features in the least. + +"Don't cry, my darling; please don't cry," said her mother, anxiously. +"Your eyelids will be red all the evening, and papa will ask what is the +matter. Have you any rose water?--Of course you will do all you can for +your poor little friend: you are only too fond of her--too +generous!--Sir Philip does not understand you as I do; he has +disappointed me very much this afternoon." + +"He was very unkind," said Margaret, with the faintest possible touch of +resentment in her soft tones. + +"Think no more of him for the present, dear. I dare say he will be here +to-morrow, penitent and abashed. There goes the dressing-bell. Are you +ready for Markham now? Put on your pink dress." + +She spoke pleasantly, and even playfully, but she gave Margaret a +searching glance, as though she would have read the girl's heart if she +could. But she was reassured. Margaret was smiling now; she was as calm +as ever; she had brushed the tears from her eyes with a filmy +handkerchief and looked perfectly serene. "I am rather glad that you +have found Sir Philip unreasonable, mamma," she said, placidly; "I +always thought so, but you did not quite agree with me." + +"The child's fancy is untouched," said Lady Caroline to herself as she +went back to her room, "and I am thankful for it. She is quite capable +of a little romantic folly if nobody is near to put some common-sense +into her sometimes. And Philip Ashley has no common-sense at all." + +She was glad to see that at dinner Margaret's serenity was still +unruffled. When Mr. Adair grumbled at the absence of Sir Philip, whom he +had expected to see that evening, the girl only looked down at her plate +without a blush or a word of explanation. Lady Caroline drew her +daughter's arm through her own as they left the dining-room with a +feeling that she was worthy of the race to which she belonged. + +But she was not in the least prepared for the first remark made by +Margaret when they reached the drawing-room. + +"Mamma, I must go to see Janetta to-morrow." + +"Indeed, dear? And why?" + +"To find out whether the things that Sir Philip has been saying are +true." + +"No, Margaret, dear, you really must not do that, darling. It would not +be wise. What Sir Philip says does not matter to us. I cannot have you +interfering with Miss Colwyn's concerns in that way." + +Margaret was very docile. She only said, after a moment's pause-- + +"May I not ask her to give me the singing lessons we arranged for me to +take?" + +Lady Caroline considered for a minute or two and then said-- + +"Yes, dear, you may ask her about the singing lessons. In doing that you +will be benefiting her, and giving her a practical recommendation that +ought to be very valuable to her." + +"Shall I drive over to-morrow?" + +"No, write and ask her to come here to lunch. Then we can arrange about +hours. I have not the least objection to your taking lessons from +her ... especially as they are so cheap," said Lady Caroline to herself, +"but I do not wish you to talk to her about Miss Polehampton's conduct. +There is no use in such discussions." + +"No, mamma," said the dutiful Margaret. + +"And Sir Philip will be pleased to hear that his favorite is being +benefited," said her mother, with a slightly sarcastic smile. + +Margaret held up her stately head. "It matters very little to me whether +Sir Philip is pleased or not," she said with a somewhat lofty accent, +not often heard from the gentle lips of Margaret Adair. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +MARGARET'S FRIENDSHIP. + + +Margaret wrote her note to Janetta, and put her friend into something of +a dilemma. She always felt it difficult to leave Mrs. Colwyn alone for +many hours at a time. She had done her best to prevent her from +obtaining stimulants, but it was no easy thing to make it impossible; +and it was always dangerous to remove a restraining influence. At last +she induced an old friend, a Mrs. Maitland, to spend the day with her +stepmother, while she went to Helmsley Court; and having thus provided +against emergencies, she was prepared to spend some pleasant hours with +Margaret. + +The day was cold and frosty, with a blue sky overhead, and the ground +hard as iron underfoot. A carriage was sent for Janetta, and the girl +was almost sorry that she had to be driven to her destination, for a +brisk walk would have been more to her taste on this brilliant December +day. But she was of course bound to make use of the carriage that came +for her, and so she drove off in state, while Tiny and Jinks danced +wildly on the doorstep and waved their hands to her in hilarious +farewells. Mrs. Colwyn was secluding herself upstairs in high +indignation at Janetta's presumption--first, in going to Helmsley Court +at all, and, secondly, in having invited Mrs. Maitland to come to +dinner--but Janetta did her best to forget the vexations and anxieties +of the day, and to prepare herself as best she might for the serene +atmosphere of Helmsley Court. + +It was more than three months since her father's death, and she had not +seen Margaret for what seemed to her like a century. In those three +months she had had some new and sad experiences, and she almost wondered +whether Margaret would not think her changed beyond knowledge by the +troubles of the past. But in this fancy Janetta only proved herself +young at heart; in later years she found, as we all find, that the outer +man is little changed by the most terrible and heart-rending calamities. +It was almost a surprise to Janetta that Margaret did not remark on her +altered appearance. But Margaret saw nothing very different in her +friend. Her black mourning garments certainly made her look pale, but +Margaret was not a sufficiently keen observer to note the additional +depth of expression in Janetta's dark eyes, or the slightly pathetic +look given to her features by the thinning of her cheeks and the droop +of her finely curved mouth. Lady Caroline, however, noticed all these +points, and was quite aware that these changes, slight though they were, +gave force and refinement to the girl's face. Secretly, she was +embittered against Janetta, and this new charm of hers only added to her +dislike. But, outwardly, Lady Caroline was sweetness and sympathy +personified. + +"You poor darling," said Margaret, when she stood with Janetta in Miss +Adair's own little sitting-room, awaiting the sound of the luncheon +bell; "what you must have suffered! I have felt for you, Janetta--oh, +more than I can tell! You are quite pale, dear; I do hope you are better +and stronger than you were?" + +"I am quite well, thank you," said Janetta. + +"But you must have had so much to bear! If I lost my friends--my dear +father or mother--I know I should be broken-hearted. You are so brave +and good, Janetta, dear." + +"I don't feel so," said Janetta, sorrowfully. "I wish I did. It would be +rather a comfort sometimes." + +"You have a great deal of trouble and care, I am afraid," said Margaret, +softly. She was resolved to be staunch to her friend, although Sir +Philip had been so disagreeable about Janetta. She was going to show him +that she could take her own way of showing friendship. + +"There have been a good many changes in the family, and changes always +bring anxieties with them," said Janetta, firmly. She had particularly +resolved that she would not complain of her troubles to the Adairs; it +would seem like asking them to help her--"sponging upon them," as she +disdainfully thought. Janetta had a very fair share of sturdy pride and +independence with which to make her way through the world. + +Margaret would have continued the subject, but at that moment the bell +rang, and Janetta was glad to go downstairs. + +It was curious, as she remembered afterwards, to find that the splendors +of the house, the elaboration of service, now produced not the slightest +impression upon her. She had grown out of her former girlish feeling of +insignificance in the presence of powdered footmen and fashionable +ladies' maids. The choice flowers, the silver plate, the dainty +furniture and hangings, which had once excited and almost awed her +imagination, were perceived by her with comparative indifference. She +was a woman, not a child, and these things were but as toys to one who +had stood so lately face to face with the larger issues of life and +death. Mr. Adair and Lady Caroline talked pleasantly to her, utterly +ignoring, of course, any change in her circumstances or recent source of +trouble, and Janetta did her best to respond. It was by way of trying to +introduce a pleasant subject of conversation that she said at length to +her hostess-- + +"I met Sir Philip Ashley the other day. He is so kind as to say that he +will try to find me some pupils." + +"Indeed," said Lady Caroline, drily. She did not approve of the +introduction of Sir Philip's name or of Janetta's professional +employment. Margaret flushed a little, and turned aside to give her +mother's poodle a sweet biscuit. + +"Sir Philip is a kind, good fellow," said Mr. Adair, who had not been +admitted behind the scenes; "and I am sure that he will do what he can. +Do you know his mother yet? No? Ah, she's like an antique chatelaine: +one of the stateliest, handsomest old ladies of the day. Is she not, +Caroline?" + +"She is very handsome," said Lady Caroline, quietly, "but difficult to +get on with. She is the proudest woman I ever knew." + +The servants were out of the room, or she would not have said so much. +But it was just as well to let this presuming girl know what she might +expect from Sir Philip's mother if she had any designs upon him. +Unfortunately her intended warning fell unheeded upon Janetta's ear. + +"Is she, indeed?" said Mr. Adair, with interest. He was the greatest +gossip of the neighborhood. "She is one of the Beauchamps, and of course +she has some pride of family. But otherwise--I never noticed much pride +about her. Now, how does it manifest itself, do you think?" + +"Really, Reginald," said Lady Caroline, with her little smile; "how can +I tell you? You must surely have noticed it for yourself. With her +equals she is exceedingly pleasant; but I never knew anyone who could +repress insolence or presumption with a firmer hand." + +"What a pleasant person!" said Mr. Adair, laughing and looking +mirthfully at Margaret. "We shall have to be on our good behavior when +we see her, shall we not, my Pearl?" + +This turn of conversation seemed to Lady Caroline so unfortunate that +she rose from the table as soon as possible, and adjourned further +discussion of the Ashleys to another period. And it was after luncheon +that she found occasion to say to Janetta, in her softiest, silkiest +tones-- + +"Perhaps it would be better, dear Miss Colwyn, if you would be so very +kind as not to mention Sir Philip Ashley to Margaret unless she speaks +of him to you. There is some slight misunderstanding between them, and +Sir Philip has not been here for a day or two; but that it will be all +cleared up very shortly, I have not the slightest doubt." + +"Oh, I am sure I hope so! I am very sorry." + +"There is scarcely any occasion to be sorry; it is quite a temporary +estrangement, I am sure." + +Janetta looked at Margaret with some concern when she had an opportunity +of seeing her closely and alone, but she could distinguish no shade upon +the girl's fair brow, no sadness in her even tones. Margaret talked +about Janetta's brothers and sisters, about music, about her recent +visits, as calmly as if she had not a care in the world. It was almost a +surprise to Janetta when, after a little pause, she asked with some +hesitation-- + +"You said you saw Sir Philip Ashley the other day?" + +"Yes," answered Janetta, blushing out of sympathy, and looking away, so +that she did not see the momentary glance of keen inquiry which was +leveled at her from Margaret's hazel eyes. + +"What did he say to you, dear?" asked Miss Adair. + +"He spoke of my father--he was very kind," said Janetta, unconscious +that her answer sounded like a subterfuge in her friend's ears. "He +asked me if I wanted pupils; and he said that he would recommend me." + +"Oh," said Margaret. Then, after another little pause--"I daresay you +have heard that we are not friends now?" + +"Yes," Janetta replied, not liking to say more. + +For a moment Margaret raised her beautiful eyebrows. + +"So Sir Philip had told her _already_!" she said to herself, with a +little surprise. And she was not pleased with this mark of confidence on +Sir Philip's part. It did not occur to her that Lady Caroline had been +Janetta's informant. + +"I refused him," she said, quietly. "Mamma is vexed about it, but she +does not wish to force me to marry against my will, of course." + +"Oh, but surely, Margaret, dear, you will change your mind?" said +Janetta. + +"No, indeed," Margaret answered, slightly lifting her graceful head. +"Sir Philip is not a man whom I would ever marry." + +And then she changed the subject. "See what a dear little piano I have +in my sitting-room. Papa gave it to me the other day, so that I need not +practice in the drawing-room. And what about our singing lessons, +Janetta? Could you begin them at once, or would you rather wait until +after the Christmas holidays?" + +Janetta reflected. "I should like to begin them at once, dear, if I can +manage it." + +"Have you so many pupils, then?" Margaret asked quickly. + +"Not so very many; but I mean--I am afraid I cannot spare time to come +to Helmsley Court to give them. Do you go to Beaminster? Would you very +much mind coming to our house in Gwynne Street?" + +"Not at all," said Margaret, ever courteous and mindful of her friend's +feelings. "But I must speak to mamma. It may be a little difficult to +have the horses out sometimes ... that will be the only objection, I +think." + +But it seemed as if there were other objections. For Lady Caroline +received the proposition very coldly. It really took her aback.. It was +one thing to have little Miss Colwyn to lunch once a week, and quite +another to send Margaret to that shabby little house in Gywnne Street. +"Who knows whether the drains are all right, and whether she may not get +typhoid fever?" said Lady Caroline to herself, with a shudder. "There +are children in the house--they may develop measles or chicken-pox at +any moment--you never know when children of that class are free from +infection. And I heard an odd report about Mrs. Colwyn's habits the +other day. Oh, I think it is too great a risk." + +But when she said as much after Janetta's departure, she found Margaret +for once recalcitrant. Margaret had her own views of propriety, and +these were quite as firmly grounded as those of Lady Caroline. She had +treated Janetta, she considered, with the greatest magnanimity, and she +meant to be magnanimous to the end. She had made the gardener cut Miss +Colwyn a basket of his best flowers and his choicest forced fruit; she +had herself directed the housekeeper to see that some game was placed +under the coachman's box when Miss Colwyn was driven home; and she had +sent a box of French sweets to Tiny, although she had never seen that +young lady in her life, and had a vague objection to all Janetta's +relations. She felt, therefore, perfectly sure that she had done her +duty, and she was not to be turned aside from the path of right. + +"I don't think that I shall run into any danger, mamma," she said, +quietly. "The children are to be kept out of the way, and I shall see +nobody but Janetta. She said so, very particularly. I daresay she +thought of these things." + +"I don't see why she should not come here." + +"No, nor I. But she says that she has so much to do." + +"Then it could not be true that she had no pupils, as she told Sir +Philip," said Lady Caroline, looking at her daughter. + +Margaret was silent for a little time. Then she said, very +deliberately-- + +"I am almost afraid, mamma, that Janetta is not quite straightforward." + +"That was always my own idea," said Lady Caroline, rather eagerly. "I +never quite trusted her, darling." + +"We always used to think her so truthful and courageous," said Margaret, +with regret. "But I am afraid----You know, mamma, I asked her what Sir +Philip said to her, and she did not say a single word about having +talked to him of our leaving Miss Polehampton's. She said he had spoken +of her father, and of getting pupils for her, and so on." + +"Very double-faced!" commented Lady Caroline. + +"And--mamma, she must have seen Sir Philip again, because he had told +her that we--that I--that we had quarreled a little, you know." And +Margaret really believed that she was speaking the truth. + +"I think it is quite shocking," said Lady Caroline. "And I really do not +understand, dearest, why you still persist in your infatuation for her. +You could drop her easily now, on the excuse that you cannot go to +Beaminster so often." + +"Yes, I know I could, mamma," said Margaret, quietly. "But if you do not +mind, I would rather not do so. You see, she is really in rather +difficult circumstances. Her father has left them badly off, I suppose, +and she has not many advanced pupils in Beaminster. We always promised +that she should give me lessons; and if we draw back now, we may be +doing her real harm; but if I take--say, a dozen lessons, we shall be +giving her a recommendation, which, no doubt, will do her a great deal +of good. And after that, when she is 'floated,' we can easily drop her +if we wish. But it would be hardly kind to do it just now, do you +think?" + +"My darling, you are quite too sweet," said Lady Caroline, languidly. +"Come and kiss me. You shall have your way--until Easter, at any rate." + +"We should be giving Sir Philip no reason to blame us for want of +generosity, either," said Margaret. + +"Exactly, my pet." + +There was again a silence, which Margaret broke at last by saying, with +gentle pensiveness-- + +"Do you think that she will ask me to be her bridesmaid, mamma, if she +marries Sir Philip? I almost fancy that I should decline." + +"I should think that you would," said Lady Caroline. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +A NEW FRIEND. + + +Margaret's presents of fruit, flowers, and game conciliated Mrs. +Colwyn's good-will, and she made no objection when Janetta informed her +a few days later that Miss Adair's singing lessons were about to begin. +There was time for two lessons only before Christmas Day, but they were +to be continued after the first week in the New Year until Margaret went +to town. Janetta was obliged, out of sheer shame, to hide from Mrs. +Colwyn the fact that Lady Caroline had tried to persuade her to lower +the already very moderate terms of payment, on the ground that her +daughter would have to visit Gwynne Street for her lessons. + +However, the first lesson passed off well enough. Margaret brought more +gifts of flowers and game, and submitted gracefully to Janetta's +instructions. There was no time for conversation, for the carriage came +punctually when an hour had elapsed, and Margaret, as she dutifully +observed, did not like to keep the horses waiting. She embraced Janetta +very affectionately at parting, and was able to assure Lady Caroline +afterwards that she had not seen any other member of the family. + +Just as Miss Adair's carriage drove away from Mrs. Colwyn's door, +another--a brougham this time--was driven up. "The Colwyns must be +having a party," said a rather censorious neighbor, who was sitting with +a friend in the bow-window of the next house. "Or else they are having +very fine pupils indeed." "That's not a pupil," said her companion, +craning forward to get a better view of the visitor; "that's Lady +Ashley, Sir Philip Ashley's mother. What's she come for, I wonder?" + +Janetta wondered too. + +She was greatly impressed by Lady Ashley's personality. The lofty +forehead, the aquiline nose, the well-marked eyebrows, the decided chin, +the fine dark eyes, all recalled Sir Philip to her mind, and she said to +herself that when his hair became silvery too, the likeness between him +and his mother would be more striking still. The old lady's dignified +manner did not daunt her as Lady Caroline's caressing tones often did. +There was a sincerity, a grave gentleness in Lady Ashley's way of +speaking which Janetta thoroughly appreciated. "Lady Ashley is a true +_grande dame_, while Lady Caroline is only a fine lady," she said to +herself, when analyzing her feelings afterwards. "And I know which I +like best." + +Lady Ashley, on her side, was pleased with Janetta's demeanor. She liked +the plainness of her dress, the quiet independence of her manner, and +the subdued fire of her great dark eyes. She opened proceedings in a +very friendly way. + +"My son has interested me in your career, Miss Colwyn," she said, "and I +have taken the liberty of calling in order to ask what sort of teaching +you are willing to undertake. I may hear of some that will suit you." + +"You are very kind," Janetta answered. "I was music governess at Miss +Polehampton's, and I think that music is my strong point; but I should +be quite willing to teach other things--if I could get any pupils." + +"And how is it that you do not get any pupils?" + +Janetta hesitated, but a look into the old lady's benevolent face +invited confidence. She answered steadily-- + +"I am afraid that my sudden departure from Miss Polehampton's school has +prejudiced some people against me." + +"And could not somebody write to Miss Polehampton and get her to give +you a testimonial?" + +"I am afraid she would refuse." + +"And that is all Margaret Adair's fault, is it not?" said Lady Ashley, +shrewdly but kindly. + +She was amused to see the flush of indignation in Janetta's face. +"Margaret's fault? Oh no, Lady Ashley. It was not _Margaret's_ fault any +more than mine. We were both not very--not very respectful, perhaps, but +I was, if anything, much worse than Margaret. And she shared my fate +with me; she left when I did." + +"You are a staunch friend, I see. And are you friendly with her still?" + +"Oh yes," said Janetta, with enthusiasm. "She is so good--so kind--so +beautiful! She has been here to-day to have a singing lesson--perhaps +you saw her drive away just as you came up? She brought me these lovely +flowers this afternoon." + +There was a kindly look in Lady Ashley's eyes. + +"I am very glad to hear it," she said. "And now, my dear, would you mind +singing me something? I shall be better able to speak of your +qualifications when I have heard you." + +"I shall be very pleased to sing to you," said Janetta, and she sat down +to the piano with a readiness which charmed Lady Ashley as much as the +song she sang, although she sang it delightfully. + +"That is very nice--very nice indeed," murmured Lady Ashley. Then she +deliberated for a moment, and nodded her head once or twice. "You have +been well taught," she said, "and you have a very sympathetic voice. +Would you mind singing at an evening party for me in the course of the +winter? You will be seen and heard; and you may get pupils in that way." + +Janetta could but falter out a word of thanks. An introduction of this +sort was certainly not to be despised. + +"I will let you know when it takes place," said Lady Ashley, "and give +you a hint or two about the songs. Will two guineas an evening satisfy +you as you are a beginner?--for two songs, I mean? Very well, then, I +shall count upon you for my next evening party." + +She was rising to go, when the door was suddenly thrown open, and a +tall, untidy figure made its appearance in the aperture. The daylight +had almost faded, and the fire gave a very uncertain light--perhaps it +was for that reason that Mrs. Colwyn took no notice of Lady Ashley, and +began to speak in a thick, broken voice. + +"It's shameful, shameful!" she said. "Visitors all afternoon--never +brought them--t'see me--once. Singing and squalling all the time--not +able to get a wink--wink o' sleep----" + +"Oh, please, come away," said Janetta, going hurriedly up to the swaying +figure in the faded dressing-gown, and trying gently to force her +backwards. "I will tell you all about it afterwards; please come away +just now." + +"I'll not come away," said Mrs. Colwyn, thickly. "I want some +money--money--send Ph[oe]be for a drop o' gin----" + +"I'll go, my dear Miss Colwyn," said Lady Ashley, kindly. She was +touched by the despair in Janetta's face. "I can't do any good, I am +afraid. You shall hear from me again. Don't come to the door. Shall I +send my servants to you?" + +"Who's that? Who's that?" screamed the half-maddened woman, beginning to +fling herself wildly out of Janetta's restraining arms. "Let me get at +her, you bad girl! letting people into my house----" + +"Can you manage? Do you want help?" said Lady Ashley, quickly. + +"No, no, nothing; I can manage if you will only please go," Janetta +cried, in her desperation. And Lady Ashley, seeing that her departure +was really wished for, hurried from the house. And Janetta, after some +wrestling and coaxing and argument, at last succeeded in putting her +stepmother to bed, and then sat down and wept heartily. + +What would Lady Ashley think? And how could she now recommend pupils to +go to a house where a drunken woman was liable at any moment to appear +upon the scene? + +As a matter of fact, this was just what Lady Ashley was saying at that +moment to her son. + +"She is a thorough little gentlewoman, Philip, and a good musician; but, +with _such_ a connection, how can I send any one to the house?" + +"It was unlucky, certainly," said Sir Philip, "but you must remember +that you came unexpectedly. Her pupils' hours will be guarded, most +probably, from interruption." + +"One could never be sure. I have been thinking of sending Miss Bevan to +her. But suppose a _contretemps_ of this kind occurred! Poor Mary Bevan +would never get over it." + +"It is her stepmother, not her own mother," said Sir Philip, after a +little pause. "Not that that makes it much better for her, poor little +thing!" + +"I assure you, Philip, it went to my heart to see that fragile girl +struggling with that big woman. I would have helped her, but she +entreated me to go, and so I came away. What else could I do?" + +"Nothing, I suppose. There may be murder committed in that house any +day, if this state of things goes on." + +Lady Ashley sighed. Sir Philip walked about the room, with his hands in +his pockets and his head bent on his breast. + +"Margaret Adair had been there to-day," said his mother, watching him. + +Sir Philip looked up. + +"Why?" he said, keenly. + +"To take a singing lesson. She had brought flowers. Miss Colwyn spoke of +her very warmly, and when I touched on the subject of Miss Polehampton's +treatment, would not allow that Margaret had anything to do with it. She +is a very faithful little person, I should think." + +"Far more generous than Margaret," muttered her son. Then, sombrely, "I +never told you what happened at Helmsley Court the other day. Margaret +refused me." + +"Refused you--entirely?" + +"No appeal possible." + +"On what grounds?" + +"Chiefly, I think, because I wanted her to make reparation to Miss +Colwyn." + +"Then, Philip, she is not worthy of you." + +"She has had a bad training," he said, slowly. "A fine nature ruined by +indulgence and luxury. She has never been crossed in her life." + +"She will find out what it is to be crossed some day. My poor Phil! I am +very sorry." + +"We need not talk about it, mother, dear. You will be all in all to me +now." + +He sat down beside her, and took her hand in his, then kissed it with a +mingling of tenderness and respect which brought the tears to Lady +Ashley's eyes. + +"But I do not want to be all in all to you, you foolish boy," she +assured him. "I want to see you with a wife, with children of your own, +with family ties and interests and delights." + +"Not yet, mother," he answered in a low tone. "Some day, perhaps." + +And from the pained look in his dark eyes she saw that he suffered more +than he would have liked to own for the loss of Margaret. She said no +more, but her heart ached for her boy, and she was hardly able to +comfort herself with the recollection that Time heals all wounds--even +those that have been made by Love. + +Sir Philip had accepted Margaret's refusal as final. He had no reason to +hope that she would ever change her mind towards him. Perhaps if he had +known how large a part of her thoughts he occupied, in spite of her +declaration that she did not like him, he might have had some hope of a +more favorable hearing in the future. But he had no conception of any +under-current of feeling in Margaret Adair. She had always seemed to him +so frank, with a sweet, maidenly frankness, so transparent--without +shallowness, that he was thrown into despair when she dismissed him. He +was singularly ignorant of the nature of women, and more especially of +young girls. His mother's proud, upright, rather inflexible character, +conjoined with great warmth of affection and rare nobility of mind, had +given him a high standard by which to judge other women. He had never +had a sister, and was not particularly observant of young girls. It was +therefore a greater disappointment to him than it would have been to +many men to find that Margaret could be a little bit obstinate, a little +bit selfish, and not at all disposed to sacrifice herself for others. +She lowered his whole conception of womankind. + +At least, so he said to himself, as he sat that evening after dinner +over his library fire, and fell into a mood of somewhat sombre hue. What +poets and philosophers had said of the changeful, capricious, shallow, +and selfish nature of women was then true? His mother was a grand +exception to the rule, 'twas true; but there were no women like her now. +These modern girls thought of nothing but luxury, comfort, +self-indulgence. They had no high ideals, no thought of the seriousness +of life. + +But even as he made his hot accusation against women of the present day, +his heart smote him a little for his injustice. He certainly did know +one girl who was eminently faithful and true; who worked hard, and, as +he had just found out, suffered greatly--a girl whose true nobility of +mind and life was revealed to him as if by a lightning flash of +intuition. + +What a helpmate Janetta Colwyn would be to any man! Her bright +intelligence, her gift of song, her piquante, transitory beauty, her +honesty and faithfulness, made up an individuality of distinct +attractiveness. And yet he was not very much attracted. He admired her, +he respected her; but his pulses did not quicken at the thought of her +as they quickened when he thought of Margaret. Why should they indeed? +She was a country surgeon's daughter, of no particular family; she had +very undesirable connections, and she was very poor--there was nothing +in Janetta's outer circumstances to make her a fitting wife for him. And +yet the attraction of _character_ was very great. He wanted a wife who +would be above all things able to help him in his work--work of reform +and of philanthropy: a selfish, luxurious, indolent woman could be no +mate for him. Janetta Colwyn was the woman that he had been seeking +since first he thought of marriage; and yet--ah, there was nothing wrong +with her except that she was not Margaret. But of Margaret he must think +no more. + +Lady Ashley would have been very much astonished if she had known how +far her idolized son had gone that night along the road of a resolution +to ask Janetta Colwyn to be his wife. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +NORA'S PROCEEDINGS. + + +Janetta scarcely expected to hear from Lady Ashley again, and was not +surprised that days and weeks passed on in silence as regarded her +engagement to sing at the evening party. She did not reflect that +Christmas brought its own special duties and festivities, and that she +was not likely to be wanted until these were over. In the meantime, the +holidays began, and she had to prepare as best she could, though with a +heavy heart, for the homecoming of her brothers and sisters. There was +very little to "keep Christmas" upon; and she could not but be grateful +when her scanty store was enlarged by gifts from the Adairs, and also +(to her great astonishment) from Sir Philip Ashley and from Wyvis Brand. + +"Game, of course!" said Nora, whom she told of these windfalls on the +first night of the sisters' arrival from their school. "Well, I'm not +sorry: we don't often have grouse and woodcock at the luxurious table +of Miss Peacock & Co.; but from three people at once! it will surely be +monotonous." + +"Don't be ridiculous, Nora. Lady Caroline has sent me a turkey, and the +Brands have presented us with fowls and a side of home-cured bacon--very +acceptable too, I can tell you! It is only Sir Philip who has sent +game." + +"Ah, he is the fine gentleman of them all," said Nora, whose spirits +were high in spite of the depression that occasionally overcast the +whole family when they remembered that this Christmas would be spent +without their father's loving presence in their home. "The others are +commonplace! Have they been here lately?" + +"Wyvis Brand called when I was out, and did not come in. Mrs. Brand has +been." + +"Not the other one--Cuthbert?" said Nora, with great carelessness. + +"No. I think he has been in Paris." + +"And haven't you been there at all?" + +"I couldn't go, Nora. I have been too busy. Besides--there is something +that I must tell you--I wish I could put it off, but I want you to help +me." + +The two girls were in their bedroom, and in the darkness and stillness +of the night Janetta put her arms round Nora's neck and told her of her +mother's besetting weakness. She was surprised and almost alarmed at the +effect upon her stepsister. Nora shuddered two or three times and drew +several painful breaths; but she did not cry, and Janetta had expected +an agony of tears. It was in a low, strained voice that the girl said at +last-- + +"You say you have tried to hide it. Even if you have succeeded, it is +not a thing that can be hidden long. Everybody will soon know. And it +will go on from bad to worse. And--oh, Janetta, she is not your own +mother, but she is mine!" + +And then she burst at last into the fit of weeping for which Janetta had +been waiting. But it was more piteous than violent, and she seemed to +listen while Janetta tried to comfort her, and passively endured rather +than returned the elder sister's caresses. Finally the two girls fell +asleep in each other's arms. + +The effect upon Nora of this communication was very marked. She looked +pale and miserable for the next few days, and was irritable when her +depression was remarked. For the children's sakes, Janetta tried to make +a few mild festivities possible: she had a tiny Christmas tree in the +back dining-room, and a private entertainment of snapdragon on Christmas +Eve; and on Christmas Day afternoon the younger ones roasted chestnuts +in the kitchen and listened to the tales that nobody could tell half so +well as "dear old Janet." But Mrs. Colwyn openly lamented the +hard-heartedness thus displayed, and locked herself into her bedroom +with (Janetta feared) some private stores of her own; and Nora refused +to join the subdued joviality in the kitchen, and spent the afternoon +over a novel in the front sitting-room. From the state of her eyes and +her handkerchief at tea-time, however, Janetta conjectured that she had +been crying for the greater part of the time. + +It was useless to remonstrate with Mrs. Colwyn, but Janetta thought that +something might be done with her daughter. When Nora's depression of +spirits had lasted for some days, Janetta spoke out. + +"Nora," she said, "I told you of our trouble, because I thought that you +would help me to bear it; but you are making things worse instead of +better." + +"What do you mean?" asked Nora. + +"It is no use fretting over what cannot be helped, dear. If we are +careful we can do much to lessen the danger and the misery of it all. +Mamma has been much better lately: there has been nothing--no +outbreak--since Lady Ashley came. It is possible that things may be +better. But we must keep home cheerful, dear Nora: it does nobody any +good for you and me to look miserable." + +"But I feel so miserable," said Nora, beginning to cry again. + +"And is that the only thing we have to think of?" demanded Janetta, with +severity. + +"She is not _your_ mother," murmured the girl. + +"I know that, darling, but I have felt the trouble of it as much as I +think you can do." + +"That is impossible!" said Nora, sitting up, and pushing back the +disheveled blonde curls from her flushed face--she had been lying on her +bed when Janetta found her and remonstrated; "quite impossible. Because +you are not of her blood, not of her kith and kin: and for me--for all +of us--it is worse, because people can always point to us, and say, 'The +taint is in their veins: their mother drank--they may drink, too, one +day,' and we shall be always under a ban!" + +Janetta was struck by the fact that Nora looked at the matter entirely +from her own point of view--that very little affection for her mother +was mingled with the shame and the disgrace that she felt. Mrs. Colwyn +had never gained her children's respect; and when the days of babyhood +were over she had not retained their love. Nora was hurt, indignant, +ashamed; but she shrank from her mother more than she pitied her. + +"What do you mean by 'under a ban?'" Janetta asked, after a little +silence. + +Nora colored hotly. + +"I mean," she said, looking down and fingering her dress nervously; "I +mean--that--if any of us wanted to get married----" + +Janetta laughed a little. "Hadn't we better wait until the opportunity +arises" she said, half-satirically, half affectionately. + +"Oh, you don't know!" exclaimed Nora, giving her shoulders a little +impatient twist. "I may have had the opportunity already, for all you +know!" + +Janetta's tone changed instantly. "Nora, dear, have you anything of that +sort to tell me? Won't you trust me?" + +"Oh, there's nothing to tell. It's only--Cuthbert." + +"Cuthbert Brand! Nora! what do you know of him?" + +"Didn't you know?" said Nora, demurely. "He teaches drawing at Mrs. +Smith's school." + +"Teaches--but, Nora, why does he teach?" + +"He is an artist: I suppose he likes it." + +"How long has he been teaching there?" + +"Soon after I went first," said Nora, casting down her eyes. There was a +little smile upon her face, as though she were not at all displeased at +the confession. But a cold chill crept into Janetta's heart. + +"Has it been a scheme--a plot, then? Did you suggest to him that he +should come--and pretend that he was a stranger." + +"Oh, Janetta, don't look so solemn! No, I did not suggest it. He met me +one day when I was out with Georgie shopping, and he walked with us for +a little way and found out where we lived, and all about us. And then I +heard from Mrs. Smith that she had arranged with him to teach drawing to +the girls. She did not know who he was, except that he had all sorts of +medals and certificates and things, and that he had exhibited in the +Royal Academy." + +"And you did not say to her openly that he was a connection of yours?" + +"He isn't," said Nora, petulantly. "He is _your_ connection, not mine. +There was no use in saying anything, only Georgie used to giggle so +dreadfully when he came near her that I was always afraid we should be +found out." + +"You might at least have left Georgie out of your plot," said Janetta, +who was very deeply grieved at Nora's revelations. "I always thought +that _she_ was straightforward." + +"You needn't be so hard on us, Janetta," murmured Nora. "I'm sure we did +not mean to be anything but straightforward." + +"It was not straightforward to conceal your acquaintance with Mr. +Cuthbert Brand from Mrs. Smith. Especially," said Janetta, looking +steadily at her sister, "if you had any idea he came there to see you." + +She seemed to wait for an answer, and Nora felt obliged to respond. + +"He never said so. But, of course"--with a little pout--"Georgie and I +knew quite well. He used to send me lovely flowers by post--he did not +write to me, but I knew where they came from, for he would sometimes put +his initials inside the lid; and he always looked at my drawings a great +deal more than the others--and he--he looked at me too, Janetta, and you +need not be so unbelieving." + +There was such a curious little touch of Mrs. Colwyn's irritability in +Nora's manner at that moment that Janetta stood and looked at her +without replying, conscious only of a great sinking at the heart. Vain, +affected, irresponsible, childish!--were all these qualities to appear +in Nora, as they had already appeared in her mother, to lead her to +destruction? Mr. Colwyn's word of warning with respect to Nora flashed +into her mind. She brought herself to say at last, with dry lips-- + +"This must not go on." + +Nora was up in arms in a moment. "What must not go on? There is nothing +to stop. We have done nothing wrong!" + +"Perhaps not," said Janetta, slowly. "Perhaps there is nothing worse +than childish folly and deceit on _your_ part, but I think that Mr. +Cuthbert Brand is not acting in an honorable manner at all. Either you +must put a stop to it, Nora, or I shall." + +"What can I do, I should like to know?" + +"You had better tell Mrs. Smith," said the elder sister, "that Mr. Brand +is a second-cousin of mine. That the connection was so distant that you +had not thought of mentioning it until I pointed out to you that you +ought to do so, and that you hope she will pardon you for what will +certainly seem to her very underhand conduct." + +Nora shrank a little. "Oh, I can't do that, Janetta: I really can't. She +would be so angry!" + +"There is another way, then: you must tell Cuthbert Brand not to send +you any more flowers, and ask him to give no more drawing lessons at +that school." + +"Oh, Janetta, I _can't_. He has never said that he came to see me, and +it would look as if I thought----" + +"What you do think in your heart," said Janetta. Then, thinking that she +had been a little brutal, she added, more gently--"But there is perhaps +no need to decide to-day or to-morrow what we are to do. We can think +over it and see if there is a better way. All that I am determined upon +is that your doings must be fair and open." + +"And you won't speak to anybody else about it, will you?" said Nora, +rather relieved by this respite, and hoping to elude Janetta's vigilance +still. + +"I shall promise nothing," Janetta answered. "I must think about it." + +She turned to leave the room, but was arrested by a burst of sobbing and +a piteous appeal. + +"You are very unkind, Janetta. I thought that you would have +sympathized." + +Janetta stood still and sighed. "I don't know what to say, Nora," she +said. + +"You are very cold--very hard. You do not care one bit what I feel." + +Perhaps, thought Janetta, the reproach had some truth in it. At any rate +she went quietly out of the room and closed the door, leaving Nora to +cry as long and as heartily as she pleased. + +The elder sister went straight to Georgie. That young person, frank and +boisterous by nature, was not given to deceit, and, although she was +reluctant at first to betray Nora's confidence, she soon acknowledged +that it was a relief to her to speak the truth and the whole truth to +Janetta. Her account tallied in the main with the one given by Nora. +There did not seem to have been more than a little concealment, a little +flirting, a little folly; but Janetta was aghast to think of the extent +to which Nora might have been compromised, and indignant at Cuthbert +Brand's culpable thoughtlessness--if it was nothing worse. + +"What people have said of the Brands is true," she declared vehemently +to herself. "They work mischief wherever they go; they have no goodness, +no pity, no feeling of right and wrong. I thought that Cuthbert looked +good, but he is no better than the others, and there is nothing to be +hoped from any of them. And father told me to take care of his +children--and I promised. What can I do? His 'faithful Janetta' cannot +leave them to take their own way--to go to ruin if they please! Oh, my +poor Nora! You did not mean any harm, and perhaps I _was_ hard on you!" + +She relieved herself by a few quiet but bitter tears; and then she was +forced to leave the consideration of the matter for the present, as +there were many household duties to attend to which nobody could manage +but herself. + +When she was again able to consider the matter, however, she began to +make up her mind that she must act boldly and promptly if she meant to +act at all. Nora had no father, and practically no mother: Janetta must +be both at once, if she would fulfil her ideal of duty. And by degrees a +plan of action formed itself in her mind. She would go to the Brands' +house, and ask for Cuthbert himself. Certainly she had heard that he was +in Paris, but surely he would have returned by this time--for New Year's +Day if not for Christmas Day! She would see him and ask him to +forbear--ask him not to send flowers to her little sister, who was too +young for such attentions--to herself Janetta added, "and too silly." He +could be only amusing himself--and he should not amuse himself at Nora's +expense. He had a nice face, too, she could not help reflecting, he did +not look like a man who would do a wanton injury to a fatherless girl. +Perhaps, after all, there was some mistake. + +And if she could not see him, she would see Mrs. Brand. The mother +would, no doubt, help her: she had been always kind. Of Wyvis Brand she +scarcely thought. She hoped that she might not see him--she had never +spoken to him, she remembered, since the day when he had asked her to be +his friend. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +AN ELDER BROTHER. + + +She did not say a word to Nora about her scheme. The next day--it was +the third of January, as she afterwards remembered--was bright and +clear, a good day for walking. She told her sisters that she had +business abroad, and gave them the directions respecting the care of +their house and their mother that she thought they needed; then set +forth to walk briskly from Gwynne Street to the old Red House. + +She purposely chose the morning for her expedition. She was not making a +call--she was going on business. She did not mean to ask for Mrs. Brand +even, first of all; she intended to ask for Mr. Cuthbert Brand. Wyvis +would probably be out; but Cuthbert, with his sedentary habits and his +slight lameness, was more likely to be at home painting in the brilliant +morning light than out of doors. + +It was nearly twelve o'clock when she reached her destination. She went +through the leafless woods, for that was the shortest way and the +pleasantest--although she had thought little of pleasantness when she +came out, but still it was good to hear the brittle twigs snap under her +feet, and note the slight coating of frost that made the rims of the +dead leaves beautiful--and it was hardly a surprise to her to hear a +child's laugh ring out on the air at the very spot where, months before, +she and Nora had found little Julian Brand. A moment later the boy +himself came leaping down the narrow woodland path towards her with a +noisy greeting; and then--to Janetta's vexation and dismay--instead of +nurse or grandmother, there emerged from among the trees the figure of +the child's father, Wyvis Brand. He had a healthier and more cheerful +look than when she saw him last: he was in shooting coat and +knickerbockers, and he had a gun in his hand and a couple of dogs at his +heels. He lifted his hat and smiled, as if suddenly pleased when he saw +her, but his face grew grave as he held out his hand. Both thought +instinctively of their last meeting at her father's grave, and both +hastened into commonplace speech in order to forget it. + +"I am glad to see you again. I hope you are coming to our place," he +said. And she-- + +"I hope Mrs. Brand is well. Is she at home?" + +"No, she's not," said little Julian, with the frank fearlessness of +childhood. "She's gone out for the whole day with Uncle Cuthbert, and +father and I are left all by ourselves; and father has let me come out +with him; haven't you, father?" He looked proudly at his father, and +then at Janetta, while he spoke. + +"So it appears," said Wyvis, with a queer little smile. + +"Grandmother said I was to take care of father, so I'm doing it," Julian +announced. "Father thinks I'm a brave boy now--not a milksop. He said I +was a milksop, you know, the last time you came here." + +"Come, young man, don't you chatter so much," said his father, with a +sort of rough affectionateness, which struck Janetta as something new. +"You run on with the dogs, and tell the servants to get some wine or +milk or something ready for Miss Colwyn. I'm sure you are tired," he +said to her, in a lower tone, with a searching glance at her pale face. + +It was hardly fatigue so much as disappointment that made Janetta pale. +She had not expected to find both Mrs. Brand and Cuthbert out, and the +failure of her plan daunted her a little, for she did not often find it +an easy thing to absent herself from home for several hours. + +"I am not tired," said Janetta, unsteadily, "but I thought I should find +them in--Mrs. Brand, I mean----" + +"Did you want to see them--my mother, I mean--particularly?" asked +Wyvis, either by accident or intention seeming to parody her words. + +"I have not seen her for a long time." Janetta evaded giving a direct +answer. "I thought that I should have had a little talk with her. If she +is out, I think that I had better turn back." + +"You had better rest for a little while," he said. "It is a long walk, +and in spite of what you may say, you do look tired. If you have +business with my mother, perhaps I may do as well. She generally leaves +all her business to me." + +"No," said Janetta, with considerable embarrassment of manner. "It is +nothing--I can come another time." + +He looked at her for a moment as if she puzzled him. + +"You have been teaching music in Beaminster, I believe?" + +"Yes--and other things." + +"May I ask what other things?" + +Janetta smiled. "I have a little sister, Tiny," she said, "and I teach +her everything she learns. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, you know. +And a neighbor's little boy comes in and learns with her." + +"I have been wondering," said Wyvis, "whether you would care to do +anything with that boy of mine." + +"That dear little Julian? Oh, I should be glad," said Janetta, more +freely than she had yet spoken. "He is such a sweet little fellow." + +"He has a spirit of his own, as you know," said the father, with rather +an unwilling smile. "He is not a bad little chap; but he has lately +attached himself a good deal to me, and I have to go into the stables +and about the land a good deal, and I don't think it's altogether good +for him. I found him"--apologetically--"using some very bad language the +other day. Oh, you needn't be afraid; he won't do it again; I think I +thrashed it out of him--" + +"Oh, that's worse!" said Janetta, reproachfully. + +"What do you mean?" + +"To strike a little fellow like that, when he did not know that what he +was saying was wrong! And why did you take him where he would hear +language of that kind? Wasn't it more your fault than his?" + +Wyvis bent his head and shrugged his shoulders. "If the truth were +known, I dare say he heard me use it," he said dryly. "I'm not +mealy-mouthed myself. However, I've taught him that he must not do it." + +"Have you, indeed? And don't you think that example will prove stronger +than precept, or even than thrashing?" said Janetta. "If you want to +teach him not to use bad words, you had better not use them yourself, +Mr. Brand." + +"Mr. Brand?" said Wyvis; "I thought it was to be Cousin Wyvis. But I've +disgusted you; no wonder. I told you long ago that I did not know how to +bring up a child. I asked you to help us--and you have not been near the +place for months." + +"How could I help you, if you mean to train him by oaths and blows?" +asked Janetta. + +"That's plain speaking, at any rate," he said. "Well, I don't mind; in +fact, I might say that I like you the better for it, if you'll allow me +to go so far. I don't know whether you're right or not. Of course it +won't do for him to talk as I do while he's a baby, but later on it +won't signify; and a thrashing never did a boy any harm." + +"Do you mean that you are in the habit of swearing?" said Janetta, with +a direct simplicity, which made Wyvis smile and wince at the same time. + +"No, I don't," he said. "I always disliked the habit, and I was +determined that Julian shouldn't contract it. But I've lived in a set +that was not over particular; and I suppose I fell into their ways now +and then." + +"Apart from the moral point of view, no _gentleman_ ever does it!" said +Janetta, hotly. + +"Perhaps not. Perhaps I'm not a gentleman. My relations, the publicans +of Roxby, certainly were not. The bad strain in us will out, you see." + +"Oh, Cousin Wyvis, I did not mean that," said Janetta, now genuinely +distressed. "It is only that--I do wish you would not talk in that +way--use those words, I mean. Julian is sure to catch them up, and you +see yourself that that would be a pity." + +"I am to govern my tongue then for Julian's sake?" + +"Yes, and for your own." + +"Do you _care_ whether I govern it or not, Janetta?" + +How oddly soft and tender his voice had grown! + +"Yes, I do care," she answered, not very willingly, but compelled to +truthfulness by her own conscience and his constraining gaze. + +"Then I swear I will," he exclaimed, impetuously. "It is something to +find a woman caring whether one is good or bad, and I won't prove myself +utterly unworthy of your care." + +"There is your mother: _she_ cares." + +"Oh, yes, she cares, poor soul, but she cries over my sins instead of +fighting them. Fighting is not her _metier_, you know. Now, you--you +fight well." + +"That is a compliment, I suppose?" said Janetta, laughing a little and +coloring--not with displeasure--at his tone. + +"Yes," he said; "I like the fighting spirit." + +They had been walking slowly along the path, and now they had reached +the gate that opened into the grounds. Here, as he opened it, Janetta +hesitated, and then stopped short. + +"I think I had better make the best of my way back," she said. "It is +getting late." + +"Not much after twelve. Are we not friends again?" + +"Oh yes." + +"And will you think over what I said about my boy?" + +"Do you really mean it?" + +"Most decidedly. You couldn't come here, I suppose--you wouldn't leave +home?" + +"No, I could not do that. How would he get to me every day?" + +"I would bring him myself, or send him in the dog-cart. I or my brother +would look after that." Then, seeing a sudden look of protest in +Janetta's face, he added quickly--"You don't like that?" + +"It is nothing," said Janetta, looking down. + +"Is it to me or to my brother that you object?" + +He smiled as he spoke, but, a little to his surprise, Janetta kept +silence, and did not smile. Wyvis Brand was a man of very quick +perceptions, and he saw at once that if she seemed troubled she had a +reason for it. + +"Has Cuthbert offended you?" he asked. + +"I have only spoken to him once--four months ago." + +"That is no answer. What has he been about? I have some idea, you know," +said Wyvis, coolly, "because I came across some sketches of his which +betrayed where his thoughts were straying. Your pretty sister quite +captivated him, I believe. Has he been getting up a flirtation?" + +"I suppose it is a joke to him and to you," said Janetta, almost +passionately, "but it is no joke to us. Yes, I came to speak to him or +to your mother about it. Either she must leave the school where she is +teaching, or he must let her alone." + +"You had better not speak to my mother; it will only worry her. Come in, +and tell me about it," said Wyvis, opening the gate, and laying his hand +gently on her arm. + +She did not resent his tone of mastery. In spite of the many faults and +errors that she discerned in him, it always seemed to her that a warmer +and finer nature lay below the outside trappings of roughness and +coldness than was generally perceptible. And when this better nature +came to the front, it brought with it a remembrance of the tie of +kinship, and Janetta's heart softened to him at once. + +He took her into a room which she guessed to be his own private +sanctum--a thoroughly untidy place, littered with books, papers, tools, +weapons, gardening implements, pipes and tobacco jars, in fine +confusion. He had to clear away a pile of books from a chair before she +could sit down. Then he planted himself on a corner of the solid, square +oak table in the middle of the room, and prepared to listen to her +story. Julian, who interrupted them once, was ordered out of the room +again in such a peremptory tone that Janetta was somewhat startled. But +really the boy did not seem to mind. + +By dint of leading questions he drew from her an outline of the facts of +the case, but she softened them, for Nora's sake, as much as possible. +She looked at him anxiously when she had done, to see whether he was +angry. + +"You know," she said, "I don't want to sow dissension of any kind +between you." + +Wyvis smiled. "I know you don't. But I assure you Cuthbert and I never +quarreled in our lives. That is not one of the sins you can lay to my +charge. He is a whimsical fellow, and I suspect that this has been one +of his freaks--not meaning to hurt anybody. If you leave him to me, I'll +stop the drawing-lessons at any rate, and probably the flowers." + +"Don't let him think that Nora cares," she said. "She is quite a +child--if he had sent her bonbons she would have liked them even better +than flowers." + +"I understand. I will do my best--as you are so good as to trust me," he +answered, lowering his voice. + +A little silence fell between them. Something in the tone had made +Janetta's heart beat fast. Then there rose up before her--she hardly +knew why--the vision of a woman, an imaginary woman, one whom she had +never seen--the woman with Julian's eyes, the woman who called herself +the wife of Wyvis Brand. The thought had power to bring her to her feet. + +"And now I must really go." + +"Not yet," he said, smiling down at her with a very kindly look in his +stern dark eyes. "Do you know you have given me a great deal of pleasure +to-day? You have trusted me to do a commission for you--a delicate bit +of work too--and that shows that you don't consider me altogether +worthless." + +"You may be sure that I do not." + +"Yes, we are friends. I have some satisfaction in that thought. Do you +know that you are the first woman who has ever made a _friend_ of me? +who has ever trusted me, and taught me--for a moment or two--to respect +myself? It is the newest sensation I have had for years." + +"Not the sensation of respecting yourself, I hope?" + +"Yes, indeed. You don't know--you will never know--how I've been +handicapped in life. Can you manage to be friendly with me even when I +don't do exactly as you approve? You are at liberty to tell me with +cousinly frankness what you dislike." + +"On that condition we can be friends," said Janetta, smiling and +tendering her hand. She meant to say good-bye, but he retained the +little hand in his own and went on talking. + +"How about the boy? You'll take him for a few hours every day?" + +"You really mean it?" + +"I do, indeed. Name your own terms." + +She blushed a little, but was resolved to be business-like. + +"You know I can't afford to do it for nothing," she said. "He can come +from ten to one, if you like to give me----" and and then she mentioned +a sum which Wyvis thought miserably inadequate. + +"Absurd!" he cried. "Double that, and then take him! When can he come?" + +"Next week, if you like. But I mean what I say----" + +"So do I, and as my will is stronger than yours I shall have my own +way." + +Janetta shook her head, and, having by this time got her hand free, she +managed to say good-bye, and left the house much more cheerfully than +she had entered it. Strange to say, she had a curious feeling of trust +in Wyvis Brand's promise to help her; it seemed to her that he was a man +who would endeavor at all costs to keep his word. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +CUTHBERT'S ROMANCE. + + +Janetta was hardly surprised when, two days later, she was asked to give +a private audience to Mr. Cuthbert Brand. She had not yet told Nora of +the course that she had pursued, for she was indeed rather unnecessarily +ashamed of it. "It was just like a worldly mamma asking a young man his +intentions about her daughter," she said to herself, with a whimsical +smile. "Probably nothing will come of it but a cessation of these silly +little attentions to Nora." But she felt a little shy and constrained +when she entered the drawing-room, and, while shaking hands with her +cousin, she did not lift her eyes to his face. + +When she had taken a seat, however, and managed to steal a glance at +him, she was half-provoked, half-reassured. Cuthbert's mobile face was +full of a merry, twinkling humor, and expressed no penitence at all. She +was so much astonished that she forgot her shyness, and looked at him +inquiringly without opening her lips. + +Cuthbert laughed--an irrepressible little laugh, as if he could not help +it. "Look here, Cousin Janetta," he said, "I'm awfully sorry, but I +really can't help it. The idea of you as a duenna and of Wyvis as a +heavy father has been tickling me ever since yesterday, and I shall have +to have it out sooner or later. I assure you it's only a nervous +affection. If I didn't laugh, I _might_ cry or faint, and that would be +worse, you know." + +"I don't quite see the joke," said Janetta, gravely. + +"The joke," said Cuthbert, "lies in the contrast between yourself and +the role you have taken upon you." + +"It is a role that I am obliged to take upon me," interposed Janetta; +"because my sisters have no father, and a mother whose health makes it +impossible for her to guard them as she would like to do." + +"Now you're going to be severe," said Cuthbert; "and indeed I am +guiltless of anything but a little harmless fooling. I can but tender my +humblest apologies, and assure you that I have resigned my post in Mrs. +Smith's educational establishment, and that I will keep my flowers in +future to myself, unless I may send them with your consent and that of +my authoritative elder brother." + +Janetta was not mollified. "It is easy for you to talk of it so +lightly," she said, "but you forget that you might have involved both my +sisters in serious trouble." + +"Don't you think I should have been able to get them out again?" said +Cuthbert, with all the lightness to which she objected. "Don't you think +that I could have pacified the schoolmistress? There is one thing that I +must explain. My fancy for teaching was a fad, undertaken for its own +sake, which led me accidentally at first to Mrs. Smith's school. I did +not know that your sisters were there until I had made my preliminary +arrangements." + +Janetta flushed deeply, and did not reply. Nora's imagination had been +more active than she expected. Cuthbert, who was watching her, saw the +flush and the look of surprise, and easily guessed what had passed +between the sisters. + +"Did you ever read Sheridan's 'Rivals?'" he asked, quietly. "Don't you +remember the romantic heroine who insisted on her romance? She would +hardly consent to marry a man unless he had a history, and would help +her to make one for herself?" + +"I don't think that Nora is at all like Lydia Languish." + +"Possibly not, in essentials. But she loves romance and mystery and +excitement, as Lydia Languish did. It is a very harmless romance that +consists in sending a few cut flowers by Parcel Post, Cousin Janetta." + +"I know--it sounds very little," Janetta said, "but it may do harm for +all that." + +"Has it done harm to your sister, then?" Cuthbert inquired, with +apparent-innocence, but with the slight twinkle of his eye, which told +of inward mirth. Janetta was again growing indignant, and was about to +answer rather sharply, when he once more changed his tone. "There," he +said, "I have teased you quite enough, haven't I? I have been presuming +on our relationship to be as provoking as I could, because--honestly--I +thought that you might have trusted me a little more. Now, shall I be +serious?" + +"If you can," said Janetta. + +"That's awfully severe. By nature, I must tell you, I am the most +serious, not to say melancholy, person in creation. But on a fine day my +spirits run away with me. Now, Janetta--I may call you Janetta, may not +I?--I am going to be serious, deadly serious, as serious as if it were a +wet day in town. And the communication that I wish to make to you as the +head of the family, which you seem to be, is that I am head over ears in +love with your sister Nora, and that I beg for the honor of her hand." + +"You are joking," said his hearer, reproachfully. + +"Never was joking further from my thoughts. Getting married is an +exceedingly solemn business, I believe. I want to marry Nora and take +her to Paris." + +"Oh, this is ridiculous: you can't mean it," said Janetta. + +"Why ridiculous? Did I not tell you that I admired Miss Lydia Languish? +Her desire for a romance was quite praiseworthy: it is what every woman +cherishes in her heart of hearts: only Nora, being more naive and frank +and child-like than most women, let me see the desire more clearly than +women mostly do. That's why I love her. She is natural and lovable and +lovely. Don't tell me that I can't win her heart. I know I may have +touched her fancy, but that is not enough. Let me have the chance, and I +think that I can go deeper still." + +"You said that you would be serious, but you don't know how serious this +is to me," said Janetta, the tears rising to her eyes. "My father told +me to take care of her: she is very young--and not very wise; and how am +I to know whether you mean what you say?" + +"I do mean it, indeed!" said Cuthbert, in a much graver tone. "I have +got into the habit of talking as if I felt very little--a ridiculous +habit, I acknowledge--but, in this matter, I mean it from the bottom of +my heart." + +"I suppose, then," said Janetta, tremulously, "that you must speak to +mamma--and to Nora. I am not at all the head of the house, although you +are pleased--in fun--to call me so. I am only Nora's half-sister, fond +of her and anxious about her, and ready to do all that I can do for her +good." + +Cuthbert looked at her intently. Her face was pale, and the black dress +that she wore was not altogether becoming to her dark eyes and +complexion, but there was something pathetic to him in the weight of +care which seemed to sit upon those young brows and bear down the +slender shoulders of the girl. The new sensation thus given caused him +to say, with sudden earnestness-- + +"Will you forgive me for having spoken and acted so thoughtlessly? I +never meant to cause you so much anxiety. You see, I am not very well +acquainted with English ways, and I may have made more mistakes than I +knew. When Nora is my wife you shall not have to fear for her +happiness." + +"You speak very confidently of making her your wife," said Janetta, +forgiving him in her heart, nevertheless. "But you have no house--no +profession, have you?" + +"No income, you mean?" said Cuthbert, with his merry smile. "Oh, yes, I +have a profession. It does not pay me quite so well as it might do, but +I think I shall do better by-and-bye. Then I have a couple of hundreds a +year of my own. Is it too much of a pittance to begin upon?" + +"Nora is quite too young to begin upon anything. If only you would leave +her alone for a year or two!--till she is a little more staid and +sensible!" + +"But that's too late, don't you see? That's where my apologies have to +come in. I have disturbed the peace already, haven't I?" + +"Mr. Brand," said Janetta, gravely, in spite of an exclamation of +protest from her cousin, "I don't think that we are going quite deeply +enough into the matter. There are one or two things that I must say: +there is no one else to say them. Nora is young and foolish, but she is +affectionate and sensitive, and if she once cares for you, you may make +the happiness or the misery of her life. Our dear father told me to take +care of her. And I am not sure that he would have sanctioned her +engagement to you." + +"I'd better send Wyvis to talk to you," said Cuthbert, starting up and +nearly upsetting a chair in his eagerness. "I knew he could manage +and--and explain things better than I could. He's well up in the family +affairs. Will you see him now?" + +"Now?" + +"He's outside waiting. He wouldn't come in. I'll go and send him to you. +No, don't object: there are ever so many things that you two elders had +better talk over together. I must say," said Cuthbert, beginning to +laugh again in his light-hearted way, "that, when I think of Wyvis as a +family man, bent on seeing his younger brother _se ranger_, and you as +Nora's stern guardian, I am seized with an access of uncontrollable +mirth." + +He caught up his hat and left the room so quickly that Janetta, taken by +surprise, could not stop him. She tried to follow, but she was too late: +he had rushed off, leaving the hall-door open, and a draught of cold air +was ascending the stairs and causing her stepmother peevishly to remark +that Janetta's visitors were really intolerable. "Who _was_ it, this +time?" she asked of her second daughter Georgie, who was standing at the +window--the mother and her girls being assembled in Mrs. Colwyn's +bedroom, her favorite resort on cold afternoons. + +Georgie gave a little giggle--her manners were not perfect, in spite of +a term at Mrs. Smith's superior seminary for young ladies--and answered, +under her breath-- + +"It was Mr. Cuthbert Brand." + +Nora's book fell from her knee. When she picked it up her cheeks were +crimson and her eyes were flashing fire. + +"Don't be absurd, Georgie. It was _not_." + +"Indeed it was, Nora. I suppose he came to see Janetta, and Janetta has +sent him away. Oh, how he's running, although he is a little lame! He +has caught some one--his brother, I believe it is; and now the brother's +walking back with him." + +"I shall go down," said Mrs. Colwyn, with dignity. "It is not at all +proper for a young person like Janetta to receive gentlemen alone. I +shall go and sit in the drawing-room myself." + +"Then Janetta will take her visitors into the dining-room," said Nora, +abruptly. "She has only business with these people, mamma: they don't +come to visit us because they like us--it is only when they want us to +do something for them; so I would not put myself out for them if I were +you. And as for Janetta's being young, she is the oldest person amongst +us." And then Nora turned to her book, which she held upside down +without being at all aware of it. + +"I do not know what you mean, Nora," was Mrs. Colwyn's fretful response; +"and if the other brother is coming here, I shall certainly not disturb +myself, for I believe him to be a wild, dissipated, immoral, young man." + +"Just the sort of man for Janet to receive alone," murmured Georgie, +maliciously. Georgie was the member of the family who "had a tongue." + +Meanwhile Wyvis had come into the house, though without Cuthbert, who +had thought it better to disappear into the gathering darkness; and +Janetta received him in the hall. + +He laughed a little as he took her hand. "Cuthbert is a little +impatient, is he not? Well, he has persuaded me into talking this matter +over with you. I'm to come in here, am I?" as Janetta silently opened +the sitting-room door for him. "This looks pleasant," he added after a +moment's pause. + +In the gathering evening gloom the shabbiness of the furniture could not +be seen, and the fire-light danced playfully over the worn, +comfortable-looking chairs drawn up to the hearth, on the holly and +mistletoe which decorated the walls, and the great cluster of geranium +and Christmas roses which the Adairs had sent to Janetta the day before. +Everything looked homelike and comfortable, and perhaps it was no wonder +that Wyvis--accustomed to the gloom of his own home, or the garish +splendor of a Paris hotel--felt that he was entering a new sphere, or +undergoing some new experience. + +"Don't light the lamp," he said, in his imperious way: "let us talk in +this half-light, if you don't mind? it's pleasanter." + +"And easier," said Janetta, softly. + +"Easier? Does it need an effort?" + +"I am afraid I have something unpleasant to say." + +"So have I. We are quits, then. You can begin." + +"Your brother has been asking if he maybe engaged to Nora----" + +"If he may marry her out of hand, you mean. That's what he wants to do." + +"We know very little of him," said Janetta, rather unsteadily, "or of +you. Things have been said against you in Beaminster--you have yourself +told me things that I did not like--indeed, my father almost warned me +against you----" + +A murmur from Wyvis Brand sounded uncommonly like "the devil he +did!"--but Janetta did not stop to listen. + +"I never heard anything but vague generalities against _him_, but then I +never heard anything particularly good. I don't like the way in which he +has pursued his acquaintance with Nora. I have no authority with +her--not much influence with her mother--and, therefore, I throw myself +on you for help," said Janetta, her musical voice taking a pathetically +earnest cadence; "and I ask you to beg your brother to wait--to let Nora +grow older and know her own mind a little better--to give us the chance +of knowing him before he asks to take her away." + +"You have not said either of the things that I was expecting to hear," +said Wyvis. + +"What were those?" + +"How much money he had a year!" + +"Oh, he told me about that." + +"Or--an allusion to his forbears: his father's character and his +mother's relations--the two bugbears of Beaminster." + +"I think nothing of those, if Cuthbert himself is good." + +"Well, he _is_ good. He is as different from me as light is from +darkness. He is a little thoughtless and unpractical sometimes, but he +is sweet-tempered, honest, true, clean-living, and God-fearing. Will +that suit you?" + +"If he is all that----" + +"He is that and more. We are not effusive, Cuthbert and I, but I think +him one of the best fellows in the world. She'll be lucky who gets him, +in my opinion." + +"All the more reason, then, why I must say a still more unpleasant thing +than ever," she replied. "Nora is in great trouble, because she has been +told what I have known for some time. Her mother does not always control +herself; you know what I mean? She must not marry without telling +this--we cannot deceive the man who is to be her husband--he must know +the possible disgrace." + +"If every woman were as straightforward and honorable as you, Janetta, +there would be fewer miserable marriages," said Wyvis, slowly. "You are, +no doubt, right to speak; but, on the other hand, _our_ family record is +much worse than yours. If one of you can condescend to take one of us, I +think we shall have the advantage." + +Janetta drew a long breath. + +"Then, will you help me in what I ask?" + +"Yes, I will. I'll speak to Cuthbert and point out how reasonable you +are. Then--you'll let him cultivate your sister's acquaintance, I +suppose? In spite of your disclaimers, I believe you are supreme in the +house. I wish there were more like you to be supreme, Janetta. I +wish--to God I wish--that I had met you--a woman like you--eight years +ago." + +And before she could realize the meaning of what he had said to her, the +man was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +WYVIS BRAND'S IDEAL. + + +Everything was satisfactorily settled. Cuthbert was put on his +probation; Nora was instructed in the prospect that lay before her, and +was allowed to correspond with her "semi-betrothed," as he insisted on +calling himself. Mrs. Colwyn was radiant with reflected glory, for +although she despised and hated Mrs. Brand, she was not blind to the +advantages that would accrue to herself through connection with a County +family. She was not, however, as fully informed in the details of the +little love-affair as she imagined herself to be. Janetta's share in +bringing about a _denouement_ and retarding its further development was +quite unknown to her. The delay, which some of Mr. Colwyn's old friends +urged with great vigor, was ascribed by her chiefly to the hostile +influences of Wyvis Brand, and she made a point of being openly uncivil +to that gentleman when, on fine mornings, he brought his boy to Gwynne +Street or fetched him away on a bright afternoon. For it had been +decided that little Julian should not only come every day at ten, but on +two days of the week should stay until four o'clock in the afternoon, in +order to enjoy the advantages of Tiny's society. He had been living so +unchild-like a life of late that Janetta begged to keep him for play as +well as for lessons with other children. + +Nora went back to her school somewhat sobered by the unexpected turn of +events, and rather ashamed of her assumption (dispelled by Janetta) that +Cuthbert Brand had given drawing lessons at Mrs. Smith's in order to be +near her. Mr. Cuthbert Brand discontinued these lessons, but opened a +class in Beaminster at the half-deserted Art School, and made himself +popular wherever he went. Janetta was half inclined to doubt the +genuineness of his affection for Nora when she heard of his innocent, +but quite enthusiastic, flirtations with other girls. But he always +solemnly assured her that Nora had his heart, and Nora only; and as long +as he made Nora happy Janetta was content. And so the weeks passed on. +She had more to do now that Julian came every day, but she got no new +music pupils, and she heard nothing about the evening parties at Lady +Ashley's. She concluded that Sir Philip and his mother had forgotten +her, but such was not the case. There had been a death in the family, +and the consequent period of mourning had prevented Lady Ashley from +giving any parties--that was all. + +For some little time, therefore, Janetta's life seemed likely to flow on +in a very peaceful way. Mrs. Colwyn "broke out" only once between +Christmas and Easter, and was more penitent and depressed after her +outbreak than Janetta had ever seen her. Matters went on more quietly +than ever after this event. Easter came, and brought Nora and Georgie +home again, and then there was a period of comparative excitement and +jollity, for the Brands began to come with much regularity to the little +house in Gwynne Street, and there were merry-makings almost every day. + +But when the accustomed routine began again, Janetta, in her +conscientious way, took herself seriously to task. She had not been +governing herself, her thoughts, her time, her temper, as she conceived +that it was right for her to do. On reflection, it seemed to her that +one person lately filled up the whole of her mental horizon. And this +person she was genuinely shocked to find was Wyvis Brand. + +Why should she concern herself so much about him? He was married; he had +a child; his mother and brother lived with him, and supplied his need of +society. He went out into the world about Beaminster more than he used +to do, and might have been fairly popular if he had exerted himself, but +this he would never do. There were fewer reports current about his bad +companions, or his unsteady way of life; and Janetta gathered from +various sources that he had entirely abandoned that profane and +reckless method of speech for which she had rebuked him. He was +improving, certainly. Well, was that any reason why she should think +about him so much, or consider his character and his probable fate so +earnestly? She saw no reason in it, she told herself; and perhaps she +was right. + +There was another reason even more potent for making her think of him. +He had had an unsatisfactory, troublous sort of life; he had been +unfortunate in his domestic relations, and he was most decidedly an +unhappy man. Many a woman before Janetta has found reasons of this kind +suffice for love of a man. Certainly, in Janetta's case, they formed the +basis of a good deal of interest. She told herself that she could not +help thinking of him. He came very often, on pretext of bringing or of +fetching Julian--especially on the days when Julian stayed until four +o'clock, for then he would stray in and sit down to chat with Janetta +and her mother until it was sheer incivility not to offer him a cup of +tea. Softened by the pleasures of hospitality, Mrs. Colwyn would be +quite gracious to him at these times. But now and then she left him to +be entertained by Janetta, saying rather sharply that she did not care +to meet the man who chose to behave "so brutally to her darling Nora." + +So that Janetta got into the way of sitting with him, talking with him +on all subjects, of giving him her sage advice when he asked for it, and +listening with interest to the stories that he told her of his past +life. It was natural that she should think about him a good deal, and +about his efforts to straighten the tangled coil of his life, and to +make himself a worthier father for his little son than his own father +had been to him. There was nothing in the world more likely than this +sort of intercourse to bring these two kinsfolk upon terms of closest +friendship. And as Janetta indignantly told herself--there was +nothing--nothing more. + +She always remembered that his wife was living; she never forgot it for +a moment. He was, of course, not a man whom she ever thought of +loving--she was angry with herself for the very suggestion--but he was +certainly a man who interested her more than any one whom she had ever +met. And he was interested in her too. He liked to talk to her, to ask +her advice and listen to her pet theories. She was friend, comrade, +sister, all in one. Nothing more. But the position was, whether they +knew it or not, a rather dangerous one, and an innocent friendship might +have glided into something closer and more harmful had not an unexpected +turn been given to the events of both their lives. + +For some time Janetta had seen little of the Adairs. They were very much +occupied--visiting and receiving visits--and Margaret's lessons were not +persevered in. But one afternoon, shortly after Easter, she called at +Mrs. Colwyn's house between three and four, and asked when she might +begin again. Before the day was settled, however, they drifted into talk +about other things, and Margaret was soon deeply engaged in an account +of her presentation at Court. + +"I thought you were going to stay in town for the season?" Janetta +asked. + +Margaret shook her head. "It was so hot and noisy," she murmured. "Papa +said the close rooms spoiled my complexion, and I am sure they spoiled +my temper!" She smiled bewitchingly as she spoke. + +She was charmingly dressed in cream-colored muslin, with a soft +silk sash of some nondescript pink hue tied round her waist, and a +bunch of roses at her throat to match the Paris flowers in her +broad-brimmed, slightly tilted, picturesque straw hat. A wrap for the +carriage-fawn-colored, with silk-lining of rose-pink toned by an +under-tint of grey--carried out the scheme of color suggested by her +dress, and suited her fair complexion admirably. She had thrown this +wrap over the back of a chair and removed her hat, so that Janetta might +see whether she was altered or not. + +"You are just a trifle paler," Janetta confessed. + +As a matter of fact there were some tired lines under Margaret's eyes, +and a distinct waning of the fresh faint bloom upon her cheek--changes +which made of her less the school girl than the woman of the world. And +yet, to Janetta's thinking, she was more beautiful than ever, for she +was acquiring a little of the dignity given by experience without losing +the simple tranquillity of the exquisite child. + +"I am a little tired," Margaret said. "One sees so much--one goes to so +many places. I sighed for Helmsley Court, and dear mamma brought me +home." + +At this moment a crash, as of some falling body, resounded through the +house, followed by a clatter of breaking crockery, and the cries of +children. Janetta started up, with changing color, and apologized to her +guest. + +"Dear Margaret, will you excuse me for a moment? I am afraid that one of +the children must have fallen. I will be back in a minute or two." + +"Go, dear, by all means," said Margaret, placidly. "I know how necessary +you are." + +Janetta ran off, being desperately afraid that Mrs. Colwyn had been the +cause of this commotion. But here she was mistaken. Mrs. Colwyn was safe +in her room, but Ph[oe]be, the charity orphan, had been met, while +ascending the kitchen stair with the tea-tray in her hands, by a raid of +nursery people--Tiny and Curly and Julian Brand, to wit--had been +accidentally knocked down, had broken the best tea-set and dislocated +her own collar-bone; while Julian's hand was severely cut and Curly's +right eye was black and blue. Tiny had fortunately escaped without +injury, and it was she, therefore, who was sent to Margaret with a +modified version of the disaster. + +"Please, Janetta says, will you stay for a little minute or two till she +comes back again? Curly's gone for the doctor because Ph[oe]be's done +something to one of her bones; and Janetta's tying up Julian's thumb +because it's bleeding so dreadfully." + +"I have never seen you before, have I?" said Margaret, smiling at the +slim little girl with the delicate face and great blue eyes. "You are +Tiny; I have often heard of you. Do you know me?" + +"Yes," said Tiny. "You are the beautiful lady who sends us flowers and +things--Janetta's friend." + +"Yes, that is right. And how long will Janetta be?" + +"Oh, not long, she said; and she hoped you would not mind waiting for a +little while?" + +"Not at all. Is that the doctor?" as a knock resounded through the +little house. + +"I dare say it is," said Tiny, running to the door; and then after a +moment's pause, she added, in a rather disappointed tone, "No, it's +Julian's father. It's Mr. Brand." + +"Mr. Brand!" said Margaret, half-astonished and half-amused. "Oh, I have +heard of him." And even as she spoke, the door opened, and Wyvis Brand +walked straight into the room. + +He gave a very slight start as his eyes fell upon Margaret, but betrayed +no other sign of surprise. Tiny flew to him at once, dragged at his +hand, and effected some sort of informal introduction, mingled with an +account of the accident which had happened to Julian. + +"Don't you want to go and ascertain the amount of the injury?" said +Margaret, with a little smile. + +"Not at all," said Wyvis, emphatically, and took up his position by the +mantel-piece, whence he got the best view of her graceful figure and +flower-like face. Margaret felt the gaze and was not displeased by it, +admiration was no new thing to her; she smiled vaguely and slightly +lowered her lovely eyes. And Wyvis stood and looked. + +In spite of his apparent roughness Wyvis Brand was an impressionable +man. He had come into the room cold, tired, not quite in his usual +health, and more than usually out of humor; and instead of the ordinary +sight of Janetta--a trim, pleasant, household-fairy sort of sight, it +was true, but not of the wildly exciting kind--he found a vision, as it +seemed to him, of the most ethereal beauty--a woman whose every movement +was full of grace, whose exquisitely modulated voice expressed +refinement as clearly as her delicately moulded features; whose whole +being seemed to exhale a sort of perfume of culture, as if she were in +herself the most perfect product of a whole civilization. + +Wyvis had been in many drawing-rooms and known many women, more or less +intimately, but he had never, in all his purposeless Bohemian life, come +across exactly this type of woman--a type in which refinement counts for +more than beauty, culture for more than grace. With a sudden leap of +memory, he recalled some scenes of which he had been witness years +before, when a woman, hot, red, excited with wine and with furious +jealousy, had reviled him in the coarsest terms, had struck him in the +face and had spat out foul and vindictive words of abuse. That +woman--ah, that woman was his wife--had been for many years to him the +type of what women must always be when stripped of the veneer of +society's restraints. Janetta had of late shaken his conviction on this +point; it was reserved for Margaret Adair to shatter it to the winds. + +She looked so fair, so dainty, so delicate--he would have been a marvel +amongst men who believed that her body was anything but "an index to a +most fair mind"--that Wyvis said to himself that he had never seen any +woman like her. He was fascinated and enthralled. The qualities which +made her so different from his timid, underbred, melancholy mother, or +his coarse and self-indulgent wife, were those in which Margaret showed +peculiar excellence. And before these--for the first time in his +life--Wyvis Brand fell down and worshipped. + +It was unfortunate; it was wrong; but it was one of those things that +will happen sometimes in everyday life. Wyvis was separated from his +wife, and hated as much as he despised her. Almost without knowing what +he did, he laid his whole heart and soul, suddenly and unthinkingly, at +Margaret's feet. And Margaret, smiling and serene, utterly ignorant of +his past, and not averse to a little romance that might end more +flatteringly than Sir Philip's attentions had done, was quite ready to +accept the gift. + +Before Janetta had bound up Julian's hand, and made some fresh tea, +which she was obliged to carry upstairs herself, Mr. Brand had obtained +information from Margaret as to the day and hour on which she was likely +to come to Janetta for her singing-lesson, and also as to several of her +habits in the matter of walks and drives. Margaret gave the information +innocently enough; Wyvis had no direct purpose in extracting it; but the +attraction which the two felt towards each other was sufficient to make +such knowledge of her movements undesirable, and even dangerous for +both. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +FORGET-ME-NOTS. + + +Lady Caroline, always mindful of her daughter's moods, could not quite +understand Margaret's demeanor when she returned home that afternoon. +She fancied that some news about Sir Philip might have reached the +girl's ear and distressed her mind. But when she skilfully led the +conversation in that direction, Margaret said at once, with a complete +absence of finesse that rather disconcerted her mother-- + +"No, mamma, I heard nothing about the Ashleys--mother or son." + +"Dear Margaret," thought Lady Caroline, "is surely not learning +_brusquerie_ and bad manners from that tiresome Miss Colwyn. What a very +unlucky friendship that has been!" + +She did not seize the clue which Margaret unconsciously held out to her +in the course of the same evening. The girl was sitting in a shady +corner of the drawing-room holding a feather fan before her face, when +she introduced what had hitherto been, at Helmsley Court, a forbidden +topic--the history of the Brands. + +"Papa," she said, quietly, "did you never know anything of the Red House +people?" + +Lady Caroline glanced at her husband. Mr. Adair seemed to find it +difficult to reply. + +"Yes, of course, I did--in the old days," he answered, less suavely than +usual. "When the father was alive, I used to go to the house, but, of +course, I was a mere lad then." + +"You do not know the sons, then?" said Margaret. + +"My dear child, I do not hunt. Mr. Brand's only appearance in society is +on the hunting field." + +"But there is another brother--one who paints, I believe." + +"He teaches drawing in some of the schools of the neighborhood," Lady +Caroline interposed, rather dryly. "I suppose you do not want drawing +lessons, dear?" + +"Oh, no," said Margaret, indifferently. "I only thought it seemed odd +that we never met them anywhere." + +"Not very suitable acquaintances," murmured Lady Caroline, almost below +her breath. Mr. Adair was looking at an illustrated magazine and did not +seem to hear, but, after a moment's pause, Margaret said, + +"Why, mamma?" + +Lady Caroline hesitated for a moment. Mr. Adair shrugged his shoulders. +Then she said slowly: + +"His father married beneath him, my love. Mrs. Brand is a quite +impossible person. If the young men would pension her off and send her +away, the County would very likely take them up. But we cannot receive +the mother." + +"That is another of what Sir Philip Ashley would call +class-distinctions, is it not?" said Margaret, placidly. "The sort of +thing which made Miss Polehampton so anxious to separate me from poor +Janetta." + +"Class-distinctions are generally founded on some inherent law of +character or education, dear," said Lady Caroline, softly. "They are not +so arbitrary as young people imagine. I hope the day will never come +when the distinction of class will be done away with. I"--piously--"hope +that I may be in my grave before that day comes." + +"Oh, of course they are very necessary," said Margaret, comfortably. +"And, if old Mrs. Brand were to go away, I suppose her sons would be +received everywhere?" + +"Oh, I suppose so. The property is fairly good, is it not, Reginald?" + +"Not very," said Mr. Adair. "The father squandered a good deal, and I +fancy the present owner is economizing for the sake of his boy." + +"His boy?" A faint color stole into Margaret's cheeks. "Is he married, +papa?" + +"Oh, the wife's dead," said Mr. Adair, hastily. It was part of Lady +Caroline's system that Margaret should not hear more than was absolutely +necessary of what she termed "disagreeable" subjects. Elopements, +separation and divorce cases all came under that head. So that when Mr. +Adair, who knew more of Mr. Brand's domestic history than he chose to +say, added immediately--"At least I heard so: I believe so," he did not +think that he was actually departing from fact, but only that he was +coloring the matter suitably for Margaret's infant understanding. He +really believed that Mrs. Wyvis Brand was divorced from her husband, and +it was "the same thing as being dead, you know," he would have replied +if interrogated on the subject. + +Margaret did not respond, and Lady Caroline never once suspected that +she had any real interest in the matter. But the very fact that Wyvis +Brand was represented to her as a widower threw a halo of romance around +his head in Margaret's eyes. A man who has "loved and lost" is often +invested with a peculiar kind of sanctity in the eyes of a young girl. +Wyvis Brand's handsome face and evident admiration of herself did not +prepossess Margaret in his favor half so much as the fact that he had +known loss and sorrow, and was temporarily ostracized by County society +because his mother was "an impossible person." This last deprivation +appealed to Margaret's imagination more than the first. It seemed to her +a terrible thing to remain unvisited by the "County." What a good thing +it would be, she reflected, if Mr. Brand could marry some nice girl, who +would persuade him to send his mother back to France, and for whose sake +the County magnates would extend to him the right hand of fellowship. To +reinstate him in his proper position--the position which Margaret told +herself he deserved and would adorn--seemed to her an ambition worthy of +any woman in the world. For Margaret's nature was curiously mixed. From +her father she had inherited a great love of the beautiful and the +romantic--there was a thoroughly unworldly strain in him which had +descended to her; but, then, it was counteracted by the influences which +she had imbibed from Lady Caroline. Margaret used sometimes to rebel +against her mother's maxims of worldly wisdom, but they gradually +permeated her mind, and the gold was so mingled with alloy that it was +difficult to separate one from the other. She thought herself a very +unworldly person. We all have ideals of ourselves; and Margaret's ideal +of herself was of a rather saint-like creature, with high aspirations +and pure motives. Where her weakness really lay she had not the faintest +notion. + +It was strange even to herself to note the impression that Wyvis Brand +had produced on her. He was certainly of the type that tends to attract +impressionable girls, for he was dark and handsome, with the indefinable +touch of melancholy in his eyes which lends a subtler interest to the +face than mere beauty. The little that she knew of his history had +touched her. She constructed a great deal from the few facts or fancies +that had been given to her, and the result was sufficiently unlike the +real man to be recognizable by nobody but Margaret herself. + +It has already been said that the Adair property and that of Wyvis Brand +lay side by side. The Adair estate was a large one: that of the Brands' +comparatively small; but at one point the two properties were separated +for some little distance only by a narrow fishing stream, on one side +of which stretched an outlying portion of Mr. Adair's park; while on the +other side lay a plantation, approached through the Beaminster woods, +and not very far from the Red House itself. It was in this +plantation--which was divided from the woods only by a wire fence--that +Janetta had found little Julian and had afterwards encountered Wyvis +Brand. + +In spring the plantation was a particularly pleasant place. It was +starred with primroses and anemones in the earlier months of the year, +and blue with hyacinths at a later date. At a little distance the +flowers looked like a veil of color spread between the trees. The brook +between the park and the plantation was a merry little stream, dancing +gaily over golden pebbles, and brightly responsive to the sunshine that +flickered between the lightly-clothed branches of the trees bordering it +on either side. It was famous in the neighborhood for the big blue +forget-me-nots that grew there; but it could hardly have been in search +of forget-me-nots that Margaret Adair wandered along its side one +morning, for they were scarcely in season, and her dreamy eyes did not +seem to be looking for them on the bank. + +From amongst the trees of the plantation there appeared suddenly a man, +who doffed his cap to Miss Adair with a look of mingled pleasure and +surprise. + +"Oh, good-morning, Mr. Brand." + +"Good-morning, Miss Adair." No greeting could have been more +conventional. "May I ask if you are looking for forget-me nots? There +are some already out lower down the stream. I will show you where they +are if you will turn to the left." + +"Thank you," said Margaret. + +They moved down the slight slope together, but on different sides of the +stream. At last they reached the spot where a gleam of blue was visible +at the water's edge. + +"It is on your side," Margaret said, with a little smile. + +"I will get them for you," he replied. And she stood waiting while he +gathered the faintly-tinted blossoms. + +"And now," she said, as he rose to his feet again, "how will you give +them to me? I am afraid I cannot reach across." + +"I could come over to you," said Wyvis, his dark eyes resting upon her +eagerly. "Will you ask me to come?" + +She paused. "Why should I ask you?" she said, with a smile, as if +between jest and earnest. + +"You are standing on your ground, and I on mine. I have never in my life +been asked to cross the boundary." + +"I ask you then," said Margaret coloring prettily. She was +half-frightened at the significance of her own words, when she had +spoken them. But it was too late to retract. It took Wyvis Brand a +moment only to leap the brook, and to find himself at her side. Then, +taking off his hat and bowing low, he presented her with the flowers +that he had gathered. She thanked him with a blush. + +"Will you give me one?" he asked, his eyes fixed upon her lovely face. +"Just one!----" + +"Why did you not keep one?" she said, bending over her nosegay as if +absorbed in its arrangement. "They are so rare that I hardly know how to +spare any." Which was a bit of innocent coquetry on Margaret's part. + +"Just one," he pleaded. "As a reward. As a memento." + +"A memento of what?" she asked, separating one or two flowers from the +bunch as she spoke. + +"Of this occasion." + +"It is such an important occasion, is it not?" she said, with a sweet, +mocking little laugh. + +"A very important occasion to me. Have I not met you?" + +"That is a most charming compliment," said Margaret, who was not unused +to hearing words of this kind in London drawing-rooms, and was quite in +her native element. "In reward for it I will give you a flower--which of +course you will throw away as soon as I am out of sight." + +"No, not when you are out of sight: when you are out of mind," he said, +significantly. + +"The two are synonymous," said Margaret. + +"Are they? Not with me. Throw it away? I will show you that it shall not +be thrown away." + +He produced a little pocket-book and put the forget-me-nots into it, +carefully pressing them down against a blank page. + +"There," he said, as he made a note in pencil at the bottom of the page, +"that will be always with me now." + +"The poor forget-me-not!" said Margaret, smiling. "What a sad fate for +it! To be torn from its home by the brook, taken away from the sun and +the air, to languish out its life in a pocket-book." + +"It should feel itself honored," Said Wyvis, "because it is dying for +you." + +As we have said, this strain of half-jesting compliment was not +unfamiliar to Margaret; but she could hardly remain unconscious of the +fact that a deeper note had crept into his voice during the last few +words, and that his eyes glowed with a fire more ardent than she usually +saw. She drew back a little, and looked down: she was not exactly +displeased, but she was embarrassed. He noticed and understood the +expression of her face; and changed his tone immediately. + +"This is a pretty place," he said, indicating the park and the distant +woods by a wave of his hand. "I always regret that I have been away from +it so long." + +"You have lived a great deal in France, I believe?" + +"Yes, and in Italy, too. But I tired of foreign lands at last, and +persuaded my mother to come home with me. I am glad that I came." + +"You like the neighborhood?" said Margaret, in a tone of conventional +interest. + +Wyvis laughed. "I don't see much of my neighbors," he said, rather +drily. "They don't approve of my family. But I like the scenery--and I +have a friend or two--Miss Colwyn, for instance, who is a kinswoman of +mine, you know." + +"Oh, yes!" said Margaret, eagerly. Her momentary distrust of him +vanished when she remembered Janetta. Of course, Janetta's cousin _must_ +be "nice!"--"I am so fond of Janetta: she is so clever and so good." + +"It is a great thing for her to have a friend like you," said Wyvis, +looking at her wistfully. In very truth, she was a wonderment to him; +she seemed so ethereal, so saint-like, so innocent! And Margaret smiled +pensively in return: unlimited admiration was quite to her taste. + +"Do you often walk here?" he inquired, when at last she said that she +must return home. + +And she said--"Sometimes." + +"Sometimes" is a very indefinite and convenient word. It may mean +anything or nothing. In a very short time, it meant that Margaret took a +book out with her and walked down to the boundary stream about three +times a week, if not oftener, and that Wyvis Brand was always there to +bear her company. Before long a few stepping-stones were dropped into +the brook, so that she could cross it without wetting her dainty feet. +It was shadier and cooler in the closely-grown plantation than in the +open park. And meetings in the plantation were less likely to be +discovered than in a more public place. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +LADY ASHLEY'S GARDEN PARTY. + + +It may be wondered that Margaret had so much idle time upon her hands, +and was not more constantly supervised in her comings and goings by Lady +Caroline. But certain occurrences in the Adair family made it easy just +then for her to go her own way. Mr. Adair was obliged to stay in London +on business, and while he was away very little was doing at Helmsley +Court. Lady Caroline took the opportunity of his absence to "give way" a +little: she suffered occasionally from neuralgia, and the doctor +recommended her not to rise much before noon. Margaret's comfort and +welfare were not neglected. A Miss Stone, a distant relation of Lady +Caroline's, came to spend a few weeks at the Court as a companion for +Margaret. Miss Stone was not at all a disagreeable person. She could +play tennis, dance, and sing; she could accompany Margaret's songs: she +could talk or be silent, as seemed good to her; and she was a model of +tact and discretion. She was about thirty-five, but looked younger: she +dressed well, and had pleasing manners, and without being absolutely +handsome was sufficiently good-looking. Miss Alicia Stone was almost +penniless, and did not like to work; but she generally found herself +provided for as "sheep-dog" or chaperon in some house of her numerous +aristocratic friends. She was an amusing talker, and Margaret liked her +society well enough, but Miss Stone was too clever not to know when she +was not wanted. It soon became evident to the companion that for some +reason Margaret liked to walk in the park alone in a morning; and what +Margaret liked was law. Alicia knew how to efface herself on such +occasions, so that when Lady Caroline asked at luncheon what the two had +been doing all the morning, it was easy and natural for Miss Stone to +reply, "Oh, we have been out in the park," although this meant only that +she had been sitting at the conservatory door with a novel, while +Margaret had been wandering half a mile away. Lady Caroline used to +smile, and was satisfied. + +And Margaret's conscience was very little troubled. She had never been +told, she sometimes said to herself, that she was not to speak to Mr. +Brand. And she was possessed with the fervent desire to save his soul +(and social reputation), which sometimes leads young women into follies +which they afterwards regret. He told her vaguely that he had had a +miserable, unsatisfactory sort of life, and that he wished to amend. He +did not add that his first impulses towards amendment had come from +Janetta Colwyn. Margaret thought that she was responsible for them, one +and all. And she felt it incumbent upon her to foster their growth, even +at the price of a small concealment--although it would, as she very well +knew, be a great one in her parents' eyes. + +As the days went on towards summer, it seemed to Janetta as though some +interest, some brightness perhaps, had died out of her life. Her +friends--her two chief friends, to whom her vow of friendship and +service had been sworn--were, in some inexplicable manner, alienated +from her. Margaret came regularly for her singing-lesson, but never +lingered to talk as she had done at first. She seemed pensive, languid, +preoccupied. Wyvis Brand had left off calling for little Julian, except +on rare occasions. Perhaps his frequent loitering in the plantation left +him but scant time for his daily work; he always pleaded business when +his boy reproached him for his remissness, or when Janetta questioned +him somewhat mournfully with her earnest eyes. Certainly he too seemed +preoccupied, and when he was beguiled into the Colwyns' little +drawing-room he would sit almost silent in Janetta's company, never once +asking her counsel or opinion as he had done in earlier days. It was +possible that in her presence he felt a sort of compunction, a sort of +conscience-stricken shame. And his silence and apparent estrangement lay +upon Janetta's heart like lead. + +Poor Janetta was going through a time of depression and disappointment. +Mrs. Colwyn had had two or three terrible relapses, and her condition +could no longer be kept quite a secret from her friends. Janetta had +been obliged to call in the aid of the doctor who had been her father's +best friend, and he recommended various changes of diet and habits which +gave the girl far more trouble than he knew. Where poverty is present in +a home, it is sometimes hard to do the best either for the sinning or +the suffering; and so Mrs. Colwyn's weakness was one of the heaviest +burdens that Janetta had to bear. The only gleams of brightness in her +lot lay in the love and gentleness of the children that she taught, and +in her satisfaction with Nora's engagement to Cuthbert. In almost all +other respects she began to feel aware that she was heavily handicapped. + +It was nearly the end of June before she received the long-expected +invitation from Lady Ashley. But it was not to an evening party. It was +a sort of combination entertainment--a garden-party for the young, and +music for those elder persons who did not care to watch games at tennis +all the afternoon. And Janetta was asked to sing. + +The day of the party was cloudlessly fine, but not too warm, as a +pleasant little summer breeze was blowing. Janetta donned a thin black +dress of some gauzy material, and thought that she looked very careworn +and dowdy in her little bedroom looking-glass. But when she reached Lady +Ashley's house, excitement had brought a vivid color to her face; and +when her hostess, after an appreciative glance at her dress, quietly +pinned a cluster of scarlet geranium blooms at her neck, the little +songstress presented an undeniably distinguished appearance. If she was +not exactly pretty, she was more than pretty--she was striking and +original. + +Margaret Adair looked up and smiled at her from a corner, when Janetta +first came forward to sing. She was one of the very few girls who were +present, for most of the young people were in the garden; but she had +insisted on coming in to hear Janetta's song. She did not care about +playing tennis; it made her hot, and ruffled her pretty Paris gown, +which was not suitable for violent exertion of any kind; she left +violent exertion to Alicia Stone, who was always ready to join in other +people's amusements. Lady Caroline was not present; her neuralgia was +troublesome, and she had every confidence in Alicia's chaperonage and +Margaret's discretion. Poor Lady Caroline was sometimes terribly +mistaken in her reading of character. + +To the surprise of a good many people, the Brands were there. Not Mrs. +Brand--only the two young men; but the fact was a good deal commented +upon, as hitherto "the County" had taken very little notice of the owner +of the Red House. It was perhaps this fact that had impelled Sir Philip +to show the Brands some courtesy. He declared that he knew nothing bad +of these men, and that they ought not to be blamed for their father's +sins. Personally he liked them both, and he had no difficulty in +persuading his mother to call on Mrs. Brand, and then to send +invitations for the garden party. But Mrs. Brand, as usual, declined to +go out, and was represented only by her sons. + +What Sir Philip had not calculated on was the air of possession and +previous acquaintance with which Wyvis Brand greeted Miss Adair. He had +hardly expected that Margaret would come; and, indeed, Margaret had been +loath to accept Lady Ashley's invitation, especially without the escort +of her mother. On the other hand, Lady Caroline was very anxious that +the world should not know the extent of the breach between the two +families; and she argued that it would be very marked if Margaret stayed +away from a large garden party to which "everybody" went, and where it +would be very easy to do nothing more than exchange a mere passing +salutation with Sir Philip. So she had rather insisted on Margaret's +going; and the girl had had her own reasons for not protesting too much. +She knew that Wyvis Brand would be there; and she had a fancy for seeing +him amongst other men, and observing how he bore himself in other +people's society. + +She was perfectly satisfied with the result. His appearance was +faultless--far better than that of Sir Philip, who sometimes wore a coat +until it was shiny at the shoulders, and was not very particular about +his boots. Upright, handsome, well-dressed, with the air of distinction +which Margaret much preferred to beauty in a man, he was a distinctly +noticeable figure, and Margaret innocently thought that there was no +reason why she should not show, in a well-bred and maidenly way, of +course, her liking for him. + +She had never had much resistant power, this "rare, pale Margaret" of +Sir Philip's dreams, and it seemed quite natural to her that Wyvis +should hover at her side and attend to all her wants that afternoon. She +did not notice that he was keeping off other men by his air of +proprietorship, and that women, old and young, were eyeing her with +surprise and disapprobation as she walked up and down the lawn with him +and allowed him to provide her with tea or strawberries and cream. She +was under a charm, and could not bear the idea of sending him away. +While Wyvis--for his excuse let it be said that his air of +proprietorship was unconscious, and came simply out of his intense +admiration for the girl and his headlong absorption in the interest of +the moment. He did not at all know how intently and exclusively he +looked at her; how reverential and yet masterful was his attitude; and +the sweet consciousness that sat on her down-dropped eyelids and +tenderly flushed cheeks acted as no warning to him, but only as an +incentive to persevere. + +The situation became patent to Janetta, when she stood up to sing. +Margaret looked, nodded, and smiled at her with exquisite shy +friendliness. Janetta returned the greeting; and then--as people +noticed--suddenly flushed scarlet and as suddenly turned pale. Many +persons set this change of color down to nervousness; but Sir Philip +Ashley followed the direction of her eyes and knew what she had seen. + +Miss Adair was sitting in a corner of the room, where perhaps she hoped +to be unremarked; but her fair beauty and her white dress made it +difficult for her to remain obscure. Wyvis Brand stood beside her, +leaning against the wall, with arms folded across his breast. He was +more in shadow than was she, for he was touched by the folds of a heavy +velvet curtain; but his attitude was significant. He was not looking at +the singer, or at the room; his whole attention was visibly concentrated +upon Margaret. He was looking at her, some one remarked quite audibly, +as if he never meant to look away again. The close, keen absorption of +that gaze was unusual enough to shock conventional observers. There +would have been nothing insolent or overbold about it were he her +husband or her lover; but from a man who--as far as "the County" +knew--was a comparative stranger in the land, and almost an outsider, +it was positively shocking. And yet Miss Adair looked as if she were +only pleasantly conscious of this rude man's stare. + +Fortunately for Margaret's reputation, it was currently believed that +Wyvis Brand's wife was dead. Those who had some notion that she was +living thought that he had divorced her. The general impression was that +he was at any rate free to marry; and that he was laying siege to the +heart of the prettiest girl in the County now seemed an indisputable +fact. Perhaps Janetta only, of all the persons assembled together in the +room, knew the facts of Wyvis Brand's unhappy marriage. And to Janetta, +as well as to other people, it became plain that afternoon that he had +completely lost his heart--perhaps his head as well--to Margaret Adair. + +The chatter of the crowd would have revealed as much to Janetta, even if +her own observation had not told her a good deal. "How that man does +stare at that girl! Is he engaged to her?" "Young Brand's utterly gone +on Miss Adair; that's evident." "Is Lady Caroline not here? Do you think +that she _knows_?" "Margaret Adair is certainly very pretty, but I +should not like one of _my_ girls to let herself be made so +conspicuous!" Such were some of the remarks that fell on Janetta's ear, +and made her face burn with shame and indignation. Not that she exactly +believed in the reality even of the things that she had seen. That Wyvis +should admire Margaret was so natural! That Margaret should accept the +offered admiration in her usual serene manner was equally to be +expected. But that either of them should be unwise enough to give rise +to idle gossip, about so natural a state of mind was what Janetta could +not understand. It was not Margaret's fault; she was very sure of that. +It must be Wyvis Brand's. He was her cousin, and she might +surely--perhaps--ask him what he meant by putting Margaret in such a +false position! Oh, but she could not presume to do that. What would he +think of her? And yet--and yet--the look with which he had regarded +Margaret seemed to be stamped indelibly upon Janetta's faithful, aching +heart. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +SIR PHILIP'S DECISION. + + +"Philip," said Lady Ashley that evening, with some hesitation in her +speech; "Philip--did you--did you notice Mr. Brand--much--to-day?" + +The guests had all gone; dinner was over; mother and son were sitting in +wicker chairs on the terrace, resting after the fatigues of the day. Sir +Philip was smoking a very mild cigarette: he was not very fond of +tobacco, for, as the Adairs sometimes expressed it, he "had no small +vices." Lady Ashley was wrapped in a white shawl, and her delicate, +blue-veined hands were crossed upon her lap in unaccustomed idleness. + +"I did notice him," said her son, quietly. "He seemed to be paying a +great deal of attention to Miss Adair." + +"Oh, Philip, dear, it distressed me so much!" + +"Why should it distress you, mother?--it is nothing to us." + +"Well, if you feel in that way about it--still, I am grieved for the +Adairs' sake. After all, they are old friends of ours. And I had +hoped----" + +"Our hopes are not often realized, are they?" said Sir Philip, in the +gentle, persuasive tones that his mother thought so winning. "Perhaps it +is best. At any rate, it is best to forget the hopes that never _can_ be +realized." + +"Do you think it is really so, Philip? Everyone was talking about his +manner this afternoon." + +"She was giving him every encouragement," said her son, looking away. + +"Such an undesirable match! Poor Lady Caroline!" + +"We do not know how things are being arranged, mother. Possibly Lady +Caroline and Mr. Adair are favoring an engagement. Miss Adair is hardly +likely to act against their will." + +"No, she has scarcely resolution enough for that. Then you don't think +that they met for the first time this afternoon?" + +"Gracious heavens, no!" said Sir Philip, roused a little out of his +apparent indifference. "They met quite as old acquaintances--old +friends. I suppose the Adairs have renewed the friendship. The +properties lie side by side. That may be a reason." + +"I am very sorry we asked him here," said Lady Ashley, almost viciously. +"I had no idea that he was paying attention to _her_. I hope there is +nothing wrong about it--such a very undesirable match!" + +"I don't really know why," said her son, with a forced smile. "Wyvis +Brand is a fine, handsome fellow, and the property, though small, is a +nice one. Miss Adair might do worse." + +"I believe her mother thinks that she might marry a duke." + +"And so she might. She is a great beauty, and an heiress." And there was +a ring of bitterness in his tone which pained his mother's heart. + +"Ah, Philip," she said--not very, wisely--"you need not regret her. 'A +fair woman without discretion,' she would not be the wife for you." + +"I beg that you will not say that again, mother." He did not turn his +face towards her, and his voice was studiously gentle, but it was +decided too. "She is, as you say, 'a fair woman,' but she has not shown +herself as yet 'without discretion,' and it is hardly kind to condemn +her before she has done any wrong." + +"I do not think that she behaved well to you, Philip. But I beg your +pardon, my son: we will not discuss the matter. It seems hard to me, of +course, that you should have suffered for any woman's sake." + +"Ah, mother, every one does not see me with your kind eyes," he said, +bringing his face round with a smile, and laying his right hand over one +of hers. But the smile thinly disguised the pain that lingered like a +shadow in his eyes. "Let us hope, at any rate, that Margaret may be +happy." + +Lady Ashley sighed and pressed his hand. "If you could but meet some one +else whom you cared for as much, Philip!" And then she paused, for he +had--involuntarily as it seemed--shaken his head, and she did not like +to proceed further. + +A pause of some minutes followed; and then she determined to change the +subject. + +"The music went very well this afternoon, I think," she said. "Miss +Colwyn was in very good voice. Do you not like her singing?" + +"Yes, very much." + +"The Watertons were asking me about her. And the Bevans. I fancy she +will get several engagements. Poor girl, I hope she will." + +Sir Philip threw away the end of his cigarette, and got up rather +abruptly, Lady Ashley thought. Without a word he began to pace up and +down the terrace, and finally, turning his back on her, he stared at the +garden and the distant view, now faintly illumined by a rising moon, as +if he had forgotten his mother's very existence. Lady Ashley was +surprised. He usually treated her with such marked distinction that to +appear for a moment unconscious of her presence was almost a slight. She +was too dignified, however, to try to recall his attention, and she +waited quietly until her son turned round again and suddenly faced her +with an air of calm determination. + +"Mother," he said, "I have something important to say." + +"Well, Philip?" + +"You have often said that you wanted me to marry." + +"Yes, dearest, I do wish it." + +"I also see the expediency of marriage. The woman whom I loved, who +seemed to us as suitable as she is lovely, will not marry me. What shall +I look for in my second choice? Character rather than fortune, health +rather than beauty. This seems to me the wiser way." + +"And love rather than expediency," said his mother quickly. + +"Ah!" he drew a long breath. "But we can't always have love. The other +requisites are perhaps more easily found." + +"Have you found them, Philip?" The mother's voice quivered as she asked +the question. He did not answer it immediately--he stood looking at the +ground for some little time. + +"My mind is made up," he said at last, slowly and quietly; "I know what +I want, and I think that I have found it. Mother, I am going to ask Miss +Colwyn to be my wife." + +If a thunderbolt had fallen at her feet, Lady Ashley could not have been +more amazed. She sat silent, rigid, incapable of a reply. + +"I have seen something of her, and I have heard more," her son went on, +soberly. "She is of sterling worth. She has intellect, character, +affection: what can we want more? She is attractive, if not exactly +beautiful, and she is good--thoroughly good and true." + +"But her connections, Philip--her relations," gasped Lady Ashley. + +"It will be easy enough to do something for them. Of course they will +have to be provided for--away from Beaminster, if possible. She is an +orphan, remember: these are only her half sisters and brothers." + +"There is the dreadful stepmother!" + +"I think we can manage her. These points do not concern the main issue, +mother. Will you receive her as your daughter if I bring Janetta Colwyn +here as my wife?" + +Lady Ashley had put her handkerchief to her eyes. "I will do anything to +please you, Philip," she said, almost inaudibly; "but I cannot pretend +that this is anything but a disappointment." + +"I have thought the matter well over. I am convinced that she will make +a good wife," said the young man; and from his voice and manner Lady +Ashley felt that his resolution was invulnerable. "There is absolutely +_no_ objection except the one concerning her relations--and that may be +got over. Mother, you wish for my happiness: tell me that you will not +disapprove." + +Lady Ashley got up from her basket chair, and laid her arms round +Philip's neck. + +"My dear son," she said, "I will do my best. I wish for nothing but your +happiness, and I should never think of trying to thwart your intentions. +But you must give me a little time in which to accustom myself to this +new idea." + +And then she wept a little, and kissed and blessed him, and they parted +on the most cordial of terms. Nevertheless, neither of them was very +happy. Lady Ashley was, as she had said, disappointed in the choice that +he had made; and Sir Philip, in spite of his brave words, was very sore +at heart. + +Janetta, all unconscious of the honor preparing for her, was meanwhile +passing some miserable hours. She could not sleep that night--she knew +not why. It was the excitement of the party, she supposed. But +something beside excitement was stirring in her heart. She tried to +give it a name, but she would not look the thing fairly in the face, +and, therefore, she was not very successful in her nomenclature. She +called it friendly interest in others, a desire for their happiness, a +desire also for their good. What made the burning pain and unrest of +these desires? Why should they cause her such suffering? She did not +know--or, more correctly, she refused to know. + +She rose in the morning feeling haggard and unrefreshed. The day was a +very hot one; the breeze had died away, and there was not a cloud in the +deep blue sky. Julian Brand came in the dog-cart with the groom. He had +not seen his father that morning, he said, and he thought that he had +gone away, but he did not know. Gone away? Janetta sat down to her work +with a heavy heart. It seemed to her that she must speak either to him +or to Margaret. He was compromising her friend, and for Margaret's sake +she must not hold her peace. Well, it was the day for Miss Adair's +singing lesson. When she came that afternoon, Janetta made up her mind +that she would say a needful word. + +But Margaret did not come. She sent a note, asking to be excused. She +had a headache, and could not sing that afternoon. + +"She is afraid to come!" said Janetta, passionately, and for almost the +first time she felt a thrill of anger against her friend. + +Another visitor came, if Margaret did not. About four o'clock, just as +Julian was beginning to wonder when he would be fetched away, a +thundering peal at the door knocker announced the appearance of Wyvis +Brand. Janetta was in the drawing-room putting away some music when he +came in. She saw that he glanced eagerly round the room, as if expecting +to see someone else--perhaps Margaret Adair--and her heart hardened to +him a little as she gave him her hand. Had he come at that hour because +Margaret generally took her lesson then? + +"How cold you are!" cried Wyvis, holding the little hand for the moment +in his own. "On this hot day! How _can_ you manage to keep so cool??" + +If his heart had been throbbing and his head burning as Janetta's were +just then, he might have known how to answer the question. + +"You have come for Julian, I suppose?" she said, a little coldly. + +"Yes--in a minute or two. Won't you let me rest for a few minutes after +my walk in the broiling sun?" + +"Oh, certainly; you shall have some tea, if you like. I am at liberty +this afternoon," said Janetta, with a little malice, "as my pupil has +just sent me word that she has a headache, and cannot come." + +"Who is your pupil this afternoon?" said Wyvis, stroking his black +moustache. + +"Miss Adair." + +He gave her a quick, keen glance, then turned away. She read vexation in +his eyes. + +"Don't let me trouble you," he said, in a different tone, as she moved +towards the door; "I really ought not to stay--I have an engagement or +two to fulfill. No tea, thanks. Is Julian ready?" + +"In a minute or two I will call him. I want to ask you a question +first--if you will let me?" + +"All right; go on. That's the way people begin disagreeable subjects, do +you know?" + +"I don't know whether you will consider this a disagreeable question. I +suppose you will," said Janetta, with an effort. "I promised you once to +say nothing to my friends about your affairs--about Julian's mother, and +I have kept my word. But I must ask you now--does Miss Adair know that +you are married?" + +There was a moment's pause. They stood opposite one another, and, +lifting her eyes to his face, she saw that he was frowning heavily and +gnawing his moustache. + +"What does that matter to _you_?" he said, angrily, at last. + +She shrank a little, but answered steadily-- + +"Margaret is my friend." + +"Well, what then?" + +The color rose to Janetta's face. "I don't believe you knew what you were +doing yesterday," she said; "but I knew--I heard people talking, and I +knew what people thought. They said that you were paying attention to +Miss Adair. They supposed you were going to marry her soon. None of them +seemed to know that--that--your wife was still alive. And of course I +could not tell them." + +"Of course not," he assented, with curious eagerness; "I knew you would +keep your word." + +"You made Margaret conspicuous," Janetta continued, with some warmth. +"You placed her in a very false position. If _she_ thinks, as other +people thought, that you want to marry her, she ought to be told the +truth at once. You must tell her--yourself--that you were only amusing +yourself--only playing with her, as no man has a right to play with a +girl," said Janetta, with such vehemence that the tears rose to her +great dark eyes and the scarlet color to her cheeks--"that you were +flirting, in fact, and that Julian's mother--_your wife_, Cousin +Wyvis--is still alive." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +"FREE!" + + +"And what if I refuse to tell her this?" said Wyvis Brand. + +"Then I shall tell her myself." + +"And break your word to me?" + +"And break my word." + +He stood looking at her for a minute in silence, and then an ironical +smile curled his lip as he turned aside. + +"Women are all alike," he said. "They cannot possibly hold their +tongues. I thought _you_ were superior to most of your sex. I remember +that your father once spoke of you to me as 'his faithful Janet.' Is +this your faithfulness?" + +"Yes, it is, it is," she cried; and then, sitting down, she suddenly +burst into tears. She was unnerved and agitated, and so she wept, as +girls will weep--for nothing at all sometimes, and sometimes in the very +crisis of their fate. + +Wyvis looked on, uncomprehending, a little touched, though rather +against his will, by Janetta's tears. He knew that she did not often +cry. He waited for the paroxysm to pass--waited grimly, but with +"compunctuous visitings." And presently he was rewarded for his +patience. She dried her eyes, lifted up her head, and spoke. + +"I don't know why I should make such a fool of myself," she said. "I +suppose it was because you mentioned my father. Yes, he used to call me +his faithful Janet very often. I have always tried--to--to _deserve_ +that name." + +"Forgive me, Janetta," said her cousin, more moved than he liked to +appear. "I did not want to hurt you; but, indeed, my dear girl, you must +let me manage my affairs for myself. You are not responsible for +Margaret Adair as you were for Nora; and you can't, you know, bring me +to book as you did my brother, Cuthbert." + +"You mean that I interfere too much in other people's business?" said +poor Janetta, with quivering lips. + +"I did not say so. I only say, '_Don't_ interfere.'" + +"It is very hard to do right," said Janetta, looking at him with wistful +eyes. "One's duty seems so divided. Margaret is not my sister--that is +true, but she is my friend; and I always believed that one had +responsibilities and duties towards friends as well as towards +relations." + +"Possibly"--in a very dry tone. "But you need not meddle with what is no +concern of yours." + +"It is my concern, if you--my cousin--are not acting rightly to my +friend." + +"I say it is no concern of yours at all." + +They had come to a deadlock. He faced her, with the dark, haughty, +imperious look which she knew so well upon his fine features; she stood +silent, angry too, and almost as imperious. But, womanlike, she yielded +first. + +"You asked me once to be your friend, Cousin Wyvis. I want to be yours +and Margaret's too. Won't you let me see what you mean?" + +Wyvis Brand's brow relaxed a little. + +"I don't understand your views of friendship: it seems to mean a right +to intermeddle with all the affairs of your acquaintances," he said, +cuttingly; "but since you are so good as to ask my intentions----" + +"If you talk like that, I'll never speak to you again!" cried Janetta, +who was not remarkable for her meekness. + +Wyvis actually smiled. + +"Come," he said, "be friends, Janetta. I assure you I don't mean any +harm. You must not be straight-laced. Your pretty friend is no doubt +well able to take care of herself." + +But he looked down as he said this and knitted his brows. + +"She has never had occasion to do it," said Janetta, epigrammatically. + +"Then don't you think it is time she learns?" + +"You have no right to be her teacher." + +"Right! right!" cried Wyvis, impatiently "I am tired of this cuckoo-cry +about my rights! I have the right to do what I choose, to get what +pleasure out of life I can, to do my best for myself. It is everybody's +right, and he is only a hypocrite who denies it." + +"There is one limitation," said Janetta. "Get what you can for yourself, +if you like--it seems to me a somewhat selfish view--as long as you +don't injure anybody else." + +"Whom do I injure?" he asked, looking at her defiantly in the face. + +"Margaret." + +He dropped his eyes, and the defiance went suddenly out of his look and +voice. + +"Injure her?" he said, in a very low tone. "Surely, you know, I wouldn't +do _that_--to save my life." + +Janetta looked at him mutely. The words were a revelation. There was a +pause, during which she heard, as in a dream, the sound of children's +voices and children's feet along the passages of the house. Julian and +Tiny were running riot; but she felt, for the time being, as if she had +nothing to do with them: their interests did not touch her: she dwelt in +a world apart. Hitherto Wyvis had stood, hat in hand, as if he were +ready to go at a moment's notice; but now he changed his attitude. He +seated himself determinedly, put down his hat, and looked back at her. + +"Well," he said, "I see that I must explain myself if I mean to make my +peace with you, Janetta. I am, perhaps, not so bad as you think me. I +have not mentioned to Miss Adair that Julian's mother is alive, because +I consider myself a free man. Julian's mother, once my wife, has +divorced me, and is, I believe, on the point of marrying again. Surely +in that case I am free to marry too." + +"Divorced you?" Janetta repeated, with dilating eyes. + +"Yes, divorced me. She has gone out to America and managed it there. It +is easy enough in some of the States to get divorced from an absent wife +or husband, as no doubt you know. Incompatibility of temper was the +alleged reason. I believe she is going to marry a Chicago man--something +in pork." + +"And you are legally free?" + +"She says so. I fancy there is a legal hitch somewhere but I have not +yet consulted my lawyers. We were married by the Catholic rite in +France, and the Catholic Church will probably consider us married still. +But Margaret is not a Catholic--nor am I." + +"And you think," said Janetta, very slowly, "of marrying Margaret?" + +He looked up at her and laughed, a little uneasily. + +"You think she won't have me?" + +"I don't know. I think you don't know her yet, Wyvis." + +"I dare say not," said her cousin. Then he broke out in quite a +different tone: "No wonder I don't; she's a perpetual revelation to me. +I never saw anything like her--so pure, so spotless, so exquisite. It's +like looking at a work of art--a bit of delicate china, or a picture by +Francia or Guido. Something holy and serene about her--something that +sets her apart from the ordinary world. I can't define it: but it's +there. I feel myself made of a coarse, common clay in her presence: I +want to go down on my knees and serve her like a queen. That's how I +feel about Margaret." + +"Ah!" said Janetta, "my princess of dreams. That is what I used to call +her. That is what I--used to feel." + +"Don't you feel it now?" said Wyvis, sitting up and staring at her. + +Janetta hesitated. "Margaret is my dear friend, and I love her. But I am +older--perhaps I can't feel exactly in that way about her now." + +"You talk as if you were a sexagenarian," said Wyvis, exploding into +genial laughter. He looked suddenly brighter and younger, as if his +outburst of emotion had wonderfully relieved him. "I am much older than +you, and yet I see her in the same light. What else is there to say +about her? She is perfect--there is not much to discuss in perfection." + +"She is most lovely--most sweet," said Janetta, warmly. "And yet--the +very things you admire may stand in your way, Wyvis. She is very +innocent of the world. And if you have won her--her--affection before +you have told her your history----" + +"You think this wretched first marriage of mine will stand in the way?" + +"I do. With Margaret and with her parents." + +Wyvis frowned again. "I had better make sure of her--marry her at once, +and tell her afterwards," he said. But perhaps he said it only to see +what Janetta would reply. + +"You would not do that, Wyvis?" + +"I don't know." + +"But you want to be worthy of her?" + +"I shall never be that so it's no good trying." + +"She would never forgive you if you married her without telling her the +truth." + +Wyvis laughed scornfully. "You know nothing about it. A woman will +forgive anything to the man she loves." + +"Not a meanness!" said the girl, sharply. + +"Yes, meanness, deceit, lies, anything--so long as it was done for her +sake." + +"I don't believe that would be the case with Margaret. Once disgust her, +and you lose her love." + +"Then she can't have much to give," retorted Wyvis. + +Janetta was silent. In her secret heart she did not think that Margaret +_could_ love very deeply--that, indeed, she had not much to give. + +"Well, what's the upshot?" said her cousin, at last, in a dogged tone. +"Are you satisfied at last?" + +"I shall be better satisfied when you make things plain to the Adairs. +You have no right to win Margaret's heart in this secret way. You blamed +Cuthbert for making love to Nora. It is far worse for you to do it to +Margaret Adair." + +"I am so much beneath her, am I not?" said Wyvis, with a sneer. And then +he once more spoke eagerly. "I _am_ beneath her: I am as the dust under +her feet. Don't you think I know that? I'll tell you what, Janetta, when +I first saw her and spoke to her--here, in this room, if you remember--I +thought that she was like a being from another world. I had never seen +anyone like her. She is the fairest, sweetest of women, and I would not +harm her for the world." + +"I don't know whether I ought even to listen to you," said Janetta, in a +troubled voice and with averted head. "You know, many people would say +that you were in the wrong altogether--that you were not free----" + +"Then they would say a lie! I am legally free, I believe, and morally +free, I am certain. I thank God for it. I have suffered enough." + +He looked so stern, so uncompromising, that Janetta hastened to take +refuge in concrete facts. + +"But you will tell Margaret everything?" + +"In my own good time." + +"Do promise me that you will not marry her without letting her know--if +ever it comes, to a talk of your marriage." + +"_If ever?_ It will come very soon, I hope. But I'll promise nothing. +And you must not make mischief." + +"I am like you--I will promise nothing." + +"I shall never forgive you, if you step between Margaret and me," said +Wyvis. + +"I shall never step between you, I hope," said Janetta, in a dispirited +tone. "But it is better for me to promise nothing more." + +Wyvis shrugged his shoulders, as if he thought it useless to argue with +her. She was sorry for the apparently unfriendly terms on which they +seemed likely to part; and it was a relief to her when, as they were +saying good-bye, he looked into her face rather wistfully and said, +"Wish me success, Janetta, after all." + +"I wish you every happiness," she said. But whether that meant success +or not it would have been hard to say. + +She saw him take his departure, with little Julian clinging to his hand, +and then she set about her household duties in her usual self-contained +and steadfast way. But her heart ached sadly--she did not quite know +why--and when she went to bed that night she lay awake for many weary +hours, weeping silently, but passionately, over the sorrow that, she +foresaw for her dearest friends, and, perhaps, also for herself. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +A BIG BRIBE. + + +It seemed to Janetta as if she had almost expected to see Lady Caroline +Adair drive up to her door about four o'clock next day, in the very +victoria wherein the girl had once sat side by side with Margaret's +mother, and from which she had first set eyes on Wyvis Brand. She had +expected it, and yet her heart beat faster, and her color went and came, +as she disposed of her pupils in the little dining-room, and met her +visitor just as she crossed the hall. + +"Can I speak to you for five minutes, Miss Colwyn?" said Lady Caroline, +in so suave a voice that for a moment Janetta felt reassured. Only for a +moment, however. When she had shut the drawing-room door, she saw that +her visitor's face was for once both cold and hard. Janetta offered a +chair, and Lady Caroline took it, but without a word of thanks. She had +evidently put on the "fine lady" manner, which Janetta detested from her +heart. + +"I come to speak on a very painful subject," said Lady Caroline. Her +voice was pitched a little higher than usual, but she gave no other sign +of agitation. "You were at Lady Ashley's garden party the day before +yesterday I believe?" + +Janetta bowed assent. + +"May I ask if you observed anything remarkable in my daughter's +behavior? You are supposed to be Margaret's friend: you must have +noticed what she was doing all the afternoon." + +"I do not think that Margaret _could_ behave unsuitably," said Janetta, +suddenly flushing up. + +"I am obliged to you for your good opinion of my daughter. But that is +not the point. Did you notice whether she was talking or walking a great +deal with one person, or----" + +"Excuse me, Lady Caroline," said Janetta, "but I did not spend the +afternoon in watching Margaret, and I am quite unable to give you any +information on the subject." + +"I really do not see the use of beating about the bush," said Lady +Caroline, blandly. "You must know perfectly well to what I refer. Mr. +Wyvis Brand is a connection of yours, I believe. I hear on all sides +that he and my daughter were inseparable all the afternoon. Greatly to +my astonishment, I confess." + +"Mr. Brand is a second cousin of mine, and his brother is engaged to my +half-sister," said Janetta; "but I have nothing to do with his +acquaintance with Margaret." + +"Indeed!" exclaimed Lady Caroline. She put up her eye-glass, and +carefully inspected Janetta from head to foot. "Nothing to do with their +acquaintance, you say! May I ask, then, _where_ my daughter met Mr. +Brand? Not in _my_ house, I think." + +Janetta gave a slight start. She had for the moment utterly forgotten +that it was in Gwynne Street that Wyvis Brand and Margaret had first +met. + +"I beg your pardon: I forgot," she said. "Of course--Margaret no doubt +told you--she came here one day for her singing-lesson, and Mr. Brand +called for his little boy. It was the first time they had seen each +other." + +"And how often have they met here since, may I ask?" + +"Never again, Lady Caroline." + +"I was of course to blame in letting my daughter go out without a +chaperon," said Lady Caroline, disagreeably. "I never thought of danger +in _this_ quarter, certainly. I can quite appreciate your motive, Miss +Colwyn. No doubt it would be very pleasant for _you_ if Margaret were to +marry your cousin; but we have prejudices that must be consulted." + +"I hope you did not come here meaning to insult me," said Janetta, +starting to her feet; "but I think you cannot know what you are saying, +Lady Caroline. _I_ want my cousin to marry your daughter? I never +thought of such a thing--until yesterday!" + +"And what made you think of it yesterday, pray? Please let us have no +heroics, no hysterics: these exhibitions of temper are so unseemly. What +made you think so yesterday?" + +"Mr. Brand came here," said Janetta, suddenly growing very white, "and +told me that he cared for Margaret. I do not know how they had met. He +did not tell me. He--he--cares very much for her." + +"Cares for her! What next? He came here--when? At Margaret's +lesson-time, I suppose?" + +She saw from Janetta's face that her guess was correct. + +"I need hardly say that Margaret will not come here again," said Lady +Caroline, rising and drawing her laces closely around her. "There is the +amount due to you, Miss Colwyn. I calculated it before I came out, and I +think you will find it all right. There is one more question I must +really ask before I go: there seems some uncertainty concerning the fate +of Mr. Brand's first wife; perhaps you can tell me whether she is alive +or dead?" + +Poor Janetta scarcely knew what to say. But she told herself that truth +was always best. + +"I believe he--he--is divorced from her," she stammered, knowing full +well how very condemnatory her words must sound in Lady Caroline's ear. +They certainly produced a considerable effect. + +"_Divorced?_ And you introduced him to Margaret? Of course I know that a +_divorce_ is often received in society, and so on, but I always set my +face against the prevalent lax views of marriage, and I hoped that I had +brought up my daughter to do the same. I suppose"--satirically--"you did +not think it worth while to tell Margaret this little fact?" + +"I did not know it then," Janetta forced herself to say. + +"Indeed?" Lady Caroline's "indeed" was very crushing. "Well, either your +information or your discretion must have been very much at fault. I must +say, Miss Polehampton _now_ strikes me as a woman of great +discrimination of character. I will say good-morning, Miss Colwyn, and I +think the acquaintance between my daughter and yourself had better be +discontinued. It has certainly been, from beginning to end, an +unsuitable and disastrous friendship." + +"Before you go, Lady Caroline, will you kindly take the envelope away +that you have left upon the table?" said Janetta, as haughtily as Lady +Caroline herself could have spoken. "I certainly shall not take money +from you if you believe such evil things of me. I have known nothing of +the acquaintance between my cousin and Miss Adair; but after what you +have said I will not accept anything at your hands." + +"Then I am afraid it will have to remain on the table," said Lady +Caroline, as she swept out of the room, "for I cannot take it back +again." + +Janetta caught up the envelope. One glance showed her that it contained +a cheque. She tore it across and across, and was in time to place the +fragments on the seat beside Lady Caroline, just before the carriage was +driven away. She went back into the house with raised head and flaming +cheeks, too angry and annoyed to settle down to work, too much hurt to +be anything but restless and preoccupied. The reaction did not set in +for some hours; but by six o'clock, when the children were all out of +doors and her stepmother had gone to visit a friend, and Janetta had +the house to herself, she lay down on a couch in the drawing-room with a +feeling of intense exhaustion and fatigue. She was too tired almost to +cry, but a tear welled up now and then, and was allowed to trickle +quietly down her pale cheek. She was utterly wretched and depressed: the +world seemed a dark place to her, especially when she considered that +she had already lost one friend whom she had so long and so tenderly +loved, and that she was not unlikely to lose another. For Wyvis might +blame her--_would_ blame her, probably--for what she had said to Lady +Caroline. + +A knock at the front door aroused her. It was a knock that she did not +know; and she wondered at first whether one of the Adairs or one of the +Brands were coming to visit her. She sat up and hastily rearranged her +hair and dried her eyes. The charity orphan was within hearing and had +gone to the door: it was she who presently flung open the door and +announced, in awe-stricken tones-- + +"Sir Philip Hashley." + +Janetta rose in some consternation. What did this visit portend? Had +_he_ also come to reproach her for her conduct to Margaret and Wyvis? +For she surmised--chiefly from the way in which she had seen him follow +Margaret with his eyes at the garden-party--that his old love was not +dead. + +He greeted her with his usual gentleness of manner, and sat down--not +immediately facing her, as she was glad to think, scarcely realizing +that he had at once seen the trouble in her face, and did not wish to +embarrass her by a straightforward gaze. He gave her a little time in +which to recover herself, too; he spoke of indifferent subjects in an +indifferent tone, so that when five minutes had elapsed Janetta was +quite herself again, and had begun to speculate upon her chance of an +engagement to sing at another musical party. + +"I hope Lady Ashley is well," she said, when at last a short pause came. + +"Quite well, I thank you, and hoping to see you soon." + +"Oh, I am so grateful to you for saying that," said Janetta, +impulsively. "I felt that I did not know whether she was satisfied with +my singing or not. You know I am a beginner." + +"I am sure I may say that she was perfectly satisfied," said Sir Philip, +courteously. "But it was not in allusion to your singing that she spoke +of wishing to see you again." + +"Lady Ashley is very kind," said Janetta, feeling rather surprised. + +"She would like to see more of you," Sir Philip went on in a somewhat +blundering fashion. "She is very much alone: it would be a great comfort +to her to have some one about her--some one whom she liked--some one who +would be like a daughter to her----" + +A conviction as to the cause of his visit flashed across Janetta's mind. +He was going to ask her to become Lady Ashley's companion! With her +usual quickness she forgot to wait for the proposition, and answered it +before it was made. + +"I wish I could be of some use to Lady Ashley," she said, with the warm +directness that Sir Philip had always liked. "I have never seen any one +like her--I admire her so much! You will forgive me for saying so, I +hope? But I could not be spared from home to do anything for her +regularly. If she wants a girl who can read aloud and play nicely, I +think I know of one, but perhaps I had better ask Lady Ashley more +particularly about the qualifications required?" + +"I did not say anything about a companion, did I?" said Sir Philip, with +a queer little smile. "Not in your sense of the word, at any rate." + +"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Janetta, suddenly flushing scarlet: "I +thought--I understood----" + +"You could not possibly know what I meant: I was not at all clear," said +Sir Philip, decidedly. "I had something else in my mind." + +She looked at him inquiringly. He rose from his chair and moved about +the room a little, with an appearance of agitation which excited her +deepest wonderment. He averted his eyes from her, and there was +something like a flush on his naturally pale cheek. He seemed really +nervous. + +"Is there anything that I can do for Lady Ashley?" said Janetta, at +last, when the silence had lasted as long as she thought desirable. + +"There is something you can do for me." + +"For you, Sir Philip?" + +Sir Philip faced her resolutely. "For me, Miss Colwyn. If I tell you in +very few words, will you forgive my abruptness? I don't think it is any +use beating about the bush in these matters. Will you be my wife? That +is what I came to say." + +Janetta sat gazing at him with wide open eyes, as if she thought that he +had taken leave of his senses. + +"Don't answer at once; take time," said Sir Philip, quickly. "I know +that I may perhaps have startled you: but I don't want you to answer +hastily. If you would like time for reflection, pray take it. I hope +that reflection will lead you to say that you will at least try to like +me enough to become my wife." + +Janetta felt that he was very forbearing. Some men in his position would +have thought it sufficient to indicate their choice, and then to expect +the favored lady, especially if she were small and brown and plain, and +worked for her bread, to fall at his feet in an ecstasy of joy. Janetta +had never yet felt inclined to fall at anybody's feet. But Sir Philip's +forbearance seemed to call for additional care and speed in answering +him. + +"But--I am sure Lady Ashley----" she began, and stopped. + +"My mother will welcome you as a daughter," said Sir Philip, gently. +"She sends her love to you to-day, and hopes that you will consent to +make me happy." + +Janetta sat looking at her crossed hands. "Oh, it is +impossible--impossible," she murmured. + +"Why so? If there is no obstacle in--in your own affections, it seems to +me that it would be quite possible," said Sir Philip, standing before +her in an attitude of some urgency. "But perhaps you have a dislike to +me?" + +"Oh, no." She could not say more--she could not look up. + +"I think I could make your life a happy one. You would not find me +difficult. And you need have no further anxiety about your family; we +could find some way of managing that. You think as I do about so many +subjects that I am sure we should be happy together." + +It was a big bribe. That was how Janetta looked at it in that moment. +She was certain that Sir Philip did not love her: she knew that she did +not love Sir Philip; and yet--it did seem that she might have a happy, +easy, honored life if she consented to marry him--a life that would make +her envied by many who had previously scorned her, and which would be, +she hoped, productive of good to those whom she deeply loved. It was a +bribe--a temptation. She was tempted, as any girl might have been, to +exchange her life of toil and anxiety for one of luxury and peace; but +there was something that she would also have to lose--the clear, upright +conscience, the love of truth, the conviction of well-doing. She could +not keep these and become Sir Philip's wife. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +"CHANGES MUST COME." + + +She raised her eyes at length, and looked Sir Philip in the face. What a +manly, honest, intelligent face it was! One that a woman might well be +proud of in her husband: the face of a man whom she might very safely +trust. Janetta thought all this, as she made her answer. + +"I am very sorry, Sir Philip, but I cannot be your wife." + +"You are answering me too hastily. Think again--take a day, a week--a +month if you like. Don't refuse without considering the matter, I beg of +you." + +Janetta shook her head. "No consideration will make any difference." + +"I know that I am not attractive," said her suitor, after a moment's +pause, in a somewhat bitter tone. "I have not known how to woo--how to +make pretty speeches and protestations--but for all that, I should make, +I believe, a very faithful and loving husband. I am almost certain that +I could make you happy, Janetta--if you will let me call you so--may I +not try?" + +"I should not feel that I was doing right," said Janetta, simply. + +It was the only answer that could have made Sir Philip pause. He was +quite prepared for hesitation and reluctance of a sort; but a scruple of +conscience was a thing that he respected. "Why not?" he said, in a +surprised tone. + +"I have two or three reasons. I don't think I can tell them to you, Sir +Philip; but they are quite impossible for me to forget." + +"Then I think you would be doing better to tell me," said he, gently. He +pulled a chair forward, sat down close to Janetta, and quietly laid his +hand upon hers. "Now, what are they--these reasons?" he asked. + +Her seat was lower than his chair, and she was obliged to lift her eyes +when she looked at him. His face compelled truthfulness. And Janetta was +wise enough to know whom she might trust. + +"If I speak frankly, will you forgive me?" she said. + +"If you will speak frankly, I shall esteem it a great honor." + +"Then," said Janetta, bravely, "one of my reasons is this. You are most +kind, and I know that you would be always good to me. I might even, as +you say, be very happy after a time, but you do not--care for me--you do +not love me, and"--here she nearly broke down--"and--I think you love +some one else." + +Sir Philip made a movement as if to take away his hand; but he +restrained himself and grasped hers still more closely. + +"And who is it that I am supposed to care for?" he asked, in a light +tone. + +"Margaret," Janetta answered, almost in a whisper. Then there was a +silence, and this time Sir Philip did slowly withdraw his hand. But he +did not look angry. + +"I see," he said, "you are a friend of hers: you doubtless heard about +my proposition to her concerning the Miss Polehampton business." + +Janetta looked surprised. "No, I heard nothing of that. And indeed I +heard very little from Margaret. I heard a good deal from Lady +Caroline." + +"Ah, that woman!" cried Sir Philip, getting up and making a little +gesture with his hand, expressive of contempt. "She is worldly to the +core. Did she tell you why Margaret refused me?" + +"I did not know--exactly--that she had. Lady Caroline said that it was a +misunderstanding," said Janetta, the startled look growing in her eyes. + +"Just like her. She wanted to bring me back. Forgive me for speaking so +hotly, but I am indignant with Lady Caroline Adair. She has done +Margaret incalculable harm." + +"But Margaret herself is so sweet and generous and womanly," said +Janetta, watching his face carefully, "that she would recover from all +that harm if she were in other hands." + +"Yes, yes; I believe she would," he answered, eagerly. "It only needs to +take her from her mother, and she would be perfect." He stopped, +suddenly abashed by Janetta's smile. "In her way, of course, I mean," he +added, rather confusedly. + +"Ah," said Janetta, "it is certain that I should never be perfect. And +after Margaret!" + +"I esteem you, I respect you, much more than Margaret." + +"But esteem is not enough, Sir Philip. No, you do not love me; and I +think--if I may say so--that you do love Margaret Adair." + +Sir Philip reddened distressfully, and bit his lip. + +"I am quite sure, Miss Colwyn, that I have no thoughts of her that would +do you an injustice. I did love Margaret--perhaps--but I found that I +was mistaken in her. And she is certainly lost to me now. She loves +another." + +"And you will love another one day, if you do not win her yet," said +Janetta, with decision. "But you do not love _me_, and I certainly will +never marry any one who does not. Besides--I should have a feeling of +treachery to Margaret." + +"Which would be quite absurd and unwarrantable. Think of some better +reason if you want to convince me. I hope still to make you believe that +I do care for you." + +Janetta shook her head. "It's no use, Sir Philip. I should be doing very +wrong if I consented, knowing what I do. And besides, there _is_ another +reason. I cannot tell it to you, but indeed there is a good reason for +my not marrying you." + +"Has it anything to do with position--or--or money, may I ask? Because +these things are immaterial to me." + +"And I'm afraid I did not think about them," said Janetta, with a frank +blush, which made him like her better than ever. "I ought to have +remembered how great an honor you were doing me and been grateful!--no, +it was not that." + +"Then you care for some one else? That is what it is." + +"I suppose it is," said Janetta. + +And then a very different kind of blush began--a blush of shame, which +dyed her forehead and ears and neck with so vivid a crimson hue that Sir +Philip averted his eyes in honest sympathy. + +"I'm afraid, then," he said, ruefully, but kindly, "that there's nothing +more to be said." + +"Nothing," said Janetta, wishing her cheeks would cool. + +Sir Philip rose from his chair, and stood for a moment as if not knowing +whether to go or stay. Janetta rose too. + +"If you were to change your mind----" he said. + +"This is a thing about which I could not possibly change my mind, Sir +Philip." + +"I am sorry for it." And then he took his leave, and Janetta went to her +room to bathe her hot face and to wonder at the way in which the +whirligig of Time brings its revenges. + +"Who would have thought it?" she said to herself, half diverted and half +annoyed. "When Miss Polehampton used to lecture me on the difference of +Margaret's position and mine, and when Lady Caroline patronized me, I +certainly never thought that I should be asked to become Lady Ashley. To +take Margaret's place! I have a feeling--and I always had--that he is +the proper husband for her, and that everything will yet come right +between them. If I had said 'yes'--if I only _could_ have said 'yes,' +for the children's sake--I should never have got over the impression +that Margaret was secretly reproaching me! And as it is, she may +reproach me yet. For Wyvis will not make her happy if he marries her: +and she will not make Wyvis happy. And as for me, although he is, I +suppose, legally divorced from his wife, I do not think that I could +bear to marry him under such circumstances. But Margaret is different, +perhaps, from me." + +But the more she meditated upon the subject, the more was Janetta +surprised at Margaret's conduct. It seemed unlike her; it was +uncharacteristic. Margaret might be for a time under the charm of Wyvis +Brand's strong individuality; but if she married him, a miserable +awakening was almost sure to come to her at last. To exchange the +smooth life, the calm and the luxury, of Helmsley Court for the gloom, +the occasional tempests, and the general crookedness of existence at the +Red House would be no agreeable task for Margaret. Of the two, Janetta +felt that life at the Red House would be far the more acceptable to +herself: she did not mind a little roughness, and she had a great +longing to bring mirth and sunshine into the gloomy precincts of her +cousin's house. Janetta agreed with Lady Caroline as to the +inadvisability of Margaret's attachment to Wyvis far more than Lady +Caroline gave her credit for. + +Lady Caroline was almost angrier than she had ever been in her life. She +had had some disagreeable experiences during the last few hours. She had +had visitors, since Lady Ashley's garden-party, and amongst them had +been numbered two or three of her intimate friends who had "warned" her, +as they phrased it, against "Margaret's infatuation for that wild Mr. +Brand." Lady Caroline listened with her most placid smile, but raged +inwardly. That her peerless Margaret should have been indiscreet! She +was sure that it was only indiscretion--nothing more--but even that was +insufferable! And what had Alicia Stone been doing? Where had her eyes +been? Had she been bribed or coaxed into favoring the enemy? + +Miss Stone had had a very unpleasant half-hour with her patroness that +morning. It had ended in her going away weeping to pack up her boxes; +for Lady Caroline literally refused to condone the injury done to +Margaret by any carelessness of chaperonage on Miss Stone's part. "You +must be quite unfit for your post, Alicia," she said, severely. "I am +sorry that I shall not be able to recommend you for Lord Benlomond's +daughters. I never thought you particularly wise, but such gross +carelessness I certainly never did expect." Now this was unfortunate for +Alicia, who had been depending on Lady Caroline's good offices to get +her a responsible position as chaperon to three motherless girls in +Scotland. + +Lady Caroline had as yet not said a single word to Margaret. She had not +even changed her caressing manner for one of displeasure. But she had +kept the girl with her all the morning, and had come out alone only +because Margaret had gone for a drive with two maiden aunts who had +just arrived for a week, and with whom Lady Caroline felt that she would +be absolutely safe. She was glad that she had the afternoon to herself. +It gave her an opportunity of seeing Janetta Colwyn, and of conducting +some business of her own as well. For after seeing Janetta she ordered +the coachman to drive to the office of her husband's local solicitor, +and in this office she remained for more than half an hour. The lawyer, +Mr. Greggs by name, accompanied her with many smiles and bows to the +carriage. + +"I am sure we shall be able to do all that your ladyship wishes," he +said, politely. "You shall have information in a day or two." Whereat +Lady Caroline looked satisfied. + +It was nearly six o'clock when she reached home, and her absence had +caused some astonishment in the house. Tea had been carried out as usual +to the seats under the cedar-tree on the lawn, and Mr. Adair's two +sisters were being waited on by Margaret, fair and innocent-looking as +usual, in her pretty summer gown. Lady Caroline's white eyelids veiled a +glance of sudden sharpness, as she noticed her daughter's unruffled +serenity. Margaret puzzled her. For the first time in her life she +wondered whether she had been mistaken in the girl, who had always +seemed to reproduce so accurately the impressions that her teachers and +guardians wished to make. Had it been, all seeming? and was Margaret +mentally and morally an ugly duckling, hatched in a hen's nest? + +"Dear mamma, how tired you look," said the girl, softly. "Some fresh tea +is coming for you directly. I took Alicia a cup myself, but she would +not let me in. She said she had a headache." + +"I dare say," replied Lady Caroline, a little absently. "At least--I +will go to see her presently: she may be better before dinner. I hope +you enjoyed your drive, dear Isabel." + +Isabel was the elder of Mr. Adair's two sisters. + +"Oh, exceedingly. Margaret did the honors of her County so well: she +seems to know the place by heart." + +"She has ridden with Reginald a good deal," said the mother. + +Margaret had seated herself beside the younger of the aunts--Miss +Rosamond Adair--and was talking to her in a low voice. + +"How lovely she is!" Miss Adair murmured to her sister-in-law. "She +ought to marry well, Caroline." + +"I hope so," said Lady Caroline, placidly. "But I always think that +Margaret will be difficult to satisfy." It was not her _role_ to confide +in her husband's sisters, of all people in the world. + +"We heard something about Sir Philip Ashley: was there anything in it?" + +Lady Caroline smiled. "I should have thought him everything that was +desirable," she said, "but Margaret did not seem to see it in that +light. Poor dear Sir Philip was very much upset." + +"Ah, well, she may do better!" + +"Perhaps so. Of course we should never think of forcing the dear child's +inclinations," said Lady Caroline. + +And yet she was conscious that she had laid her hand on a weapon with +which she meant to beat down Margaret's inclinations to the ground. But +it was natural to her to talk prettily. + +Wheels were heard at that moment coming up the drive. Lady Caroline, +raising her eyes, saw that Margaret started as the sound fell upon her +ear. + +"A bad sign!" she said to herself. "Girls do not start and change color +when nothing is wrong. Margaret used not to be nervous. I wonder how far +that man went with her. She may be unconscious of his intentions--he may +not have any; and then she will have been made conspicuous for nothing! +I wish the Brands had stayed away for another year or two." + +The sound of wheels had proceeded from a dog-cart in which Mr. Adair, +after an absence of a fortnight, was driving from the station. In a very +few minutes he had crossed the lawn, greeted his wife, sisters and +daughter, and thrown himself lazily into a luxurious lounging-chair. + +"Ah, this is delightful!" he said. "London is terribly smoky and grimy +at this time of year. And you all look charming--and so exactly the same +as ever! Nothing changes down here, does it, my Pearl?" + +He was stroking Margaret's hand, which lay upon his knee, as he spoke. +The girl colored and dropped her eyes. + +"Changes must come to us all," she said, in a low voice. + +"A very trite remark, my dear," said Lady Caroline, smiling, "but we +need not anticipate changes _before_ they come. We are just as we were +when you went away, Reginald, and nothing at all has happened." + +She thought that Margaret looked at her oddly, but she did not care to +meet her daughter's eyes just then. Lady Caroline was not an unworldly +woman, not a very conscientious one, or apt to set a great value on fine +moral distinctions; but she did regret just then that she had not +impressed on her daughter more deeply the virtue of perfect +truthfulness. + +"By-the-by," said Mr. Adair, "I saw some letters on the hall table and +brought them out with me. Will you excuse me if I open them? Why--that's +the Brands' crest." + +Lady Caroline wished that he had left the words unsaid. Margaret's face +went crimson and then turned very pale. Her mother saw her embarrassment +and hastened to relieve it. + +"Margaret, dear, will you take Alicia my smelling salts? I think they +may relieve her headache. Tell her not to get up--I will come and see +her soon." + +And as Margaret departed, Mr. Adair with lifted eyebrows and in +significant silence handed an envelope to his wife. She glanced at it +with perfectly unmoved composure. It was what she had been expecting: a +letter from Wyvis Brand asking for the hand of their daughter, Margaret +Adair. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +MARGARET'S CONFESSION. + + +Margaret heard nothing of her lover's letter that night. It was not +thought desirable that the tranquillity of the evening should be +disturbed. Lady Caroline would have sacrificed a good deal sooner than +the harmonious influences of a well-appointed dinner and the passionless +refinement of an evening spent with her musical and artistic friends. +Mr. Adair's sisters were women of cultured taste, and she had asked two +gentlemen to meet them, therefore it was quite impossible (from her +point of view) to discuss any difficult point before the morning. +Margaret, who knew pretty well what was coming, spent a rather feverish +half-hour in her room before the ringing of the dinner-bell, expecting +every minute that her mother would appear, or that she would be summoned +to a conference with her father in the library. But when the dinner hour +approached without any attempt at discussion of the matter, and she +perceived that it was to be left until the morrow, it must be confessed +that she drew long breath of relief. She was quite sufficiently well +versed in Lady Caroline's tactics to appreciate the force and wisdom of +this reserve. "It is so much better, of course," she said to herself, as +her maid dressed her hair, "that we should not have any agitating scene +just before dinner. I dare say I should cry--if they were all very grave +and solemn I am sure I should cry!--and it would be so awkward to come +down with red eyes. And, of course, I could not stay upstairs to-night +Perhaps mamma will come to me to-night when every one is gone." + +And armed with this anticipation, she went downstairs, looking only a +little more flushed than usual, and able to bear her part in the +conversation and the amusements as easily as if no question as to her +future fate were hanging undecided in the air. + +But Lady Caroline did not stay when she visited Margaret that night as +usual in her pretty room. She caressed and kissed her with more than +customary warmth, but she did not attempt to enter into conversation +with her in spite of the soft appeal of Margaret's inquiring eyes. "My +dear child, I cannot possibly stay with you to-night," she said. "Your +Aunt Isabel has asked me to go into her room for a few minutes. +Good-night, my own sweetest: you looked admirable to-night in that lace +dress, and your singing was simply charming. Mr. Bevan was saying that +you ought to have the best Italian masters. Good-night, my darling," and +Margaret was left alone. + +She was a little disturbed--a little, not very much. She was not apt to +be irritable or impatient, and she had great confidence in her parents' +love for her. She had never realized that she lived under a yoke. +Everything was made so smooth and easy that she imagined that she had +only to express her will in order to have it granted. That there might +be difficulties she foresaw: her parents might hesitate and parley a +good deal, but she had not the slightest fear of overcoming their +reluctance in course of time. She had always been a young princess, and +nobody had ever seriously combated her will. + +"I am sure that if I am resolute enough I shall be allowed to do as I +choose," she said to herself; and possibly this was true enough. But +Margaret had never yet had occasion to measure her resolution against +that of her father and mother. + +She went to bed and to sleep, therefore, quite peacefully, and slept +like a child until morning, while Wyvis Brand was frantically pacing up +and down his old hall for the greater part of the night, and Janetta was +wetting her pillow with silent tears, and Philip Ashley, sleepless like +these others, vainly tried to forget his disappointment in the perusal +of certain blue-books. Margaret was the cause of all this turmoil of +mind, but she knew nothing of it, and most certainly did not partake in +it. + +She suspected that she was to be spoken to on the subject of Mr. Brand's +letter, when, after breakfast, next morning, she found that her father +was arranging to take his sisters and Miss Stone for a long drive, and +that she was to be left alone with her mother. Lady Caroline had +relented, so far as Alicia was concerned. It would not look well, she +had reflected, to send away her own kinswoman in disgrace, and although +she still felt exceedingly, angry with Alicia, she had formally received +her back into favor, cautioning her only not to speak to Margaret about +Wyvis Brand. When every one was out of the way Lady Caroline knew that +she could more easily have a conversation with her daughter, and +Margaret was well aware of her intent. The girl looked mild and +unobservant as usual, but she was busily engaged in watching for +danger-signals. Her father's manner was decidedly flurried: so much was +evident to her: the very way in which he avoided her eye and glanced +uneasily at her mother spoke volumes to Margaret. It did not surprise +her to see that Lady Caroline's face was as calm, her smile as sweet as +ever: Lady Caroline always masked her emotion well; but there was still +something visible in her eyes (which, in spite of herself, _would_ look +anxious and preoccupied) that made Margaret uncomfortable. Was she going +to have a fight with her parents? She hoped not: it would be quite too +uncomfortable! + +"Come here, darling," said Lady Caroline, when the carriage had driven +away; "come to my morning-room and talk to me a little. I want you." + +Margaret faintly resisted. "It is my practicing time, mamma." + +"But if I want you, dearest----" + +"Oh, of course it does not matter," said Margaret, with her usual +instinct of politeness. "I would much rather talk than practice." + +The mother laid her hand lightly within her tall daughter's arm, and led +her towards the morning-room, a place of which she was especially fond +in summer, as it was cool, airy, and looked out upon a conservatory full +of blossoming plants. Lady Caroline sank down upon a low soft couch, and +motioned to the girl to seat herself beside her; then, possessing +herself of one of Margaret's hands and stroking it gently, she said with +a smile-- + +"You have another admirer, Margaret?" + +This opening differed so widely from any which the girl had expected +that she opened her eyes with a look of intense surprise. + +"Why should you be astonished, darling?" said Lady Caroline, with some +amusement in her light tones. "You have had a good many already, have +you not? And, by the by, you have had one or two very good offers, +Margaret, and you have refused everything. You must really begin to +think a little more seriously of your eligible suitors! This last one, +however, is not an eligible one at all." + +"Who, mamma?" said Margaret, faintly. + +"The very last man whom I should have expected to come forward," said +her mother. "Indeed, I call it the greatest piece of presumption I ever +heard of. Considering that we are not on visiting terms, even." + +"Oh, mamma, do tell me who you mean!" + +Lady Adair arched her pencilled eyebrows over this movement of +impatience. "Really, Margaret, darling! But I suppose I must be lenient: +a girl naturally desires to hear about her suitors; but you must not +interrupt me another time, love. It is that most impossible man, Mr. +Brand of the Red House." + +Margaret's face flushed from brow to chin. "Why impossible, mamma?" + +"Dear child! You are so unworldly! But there is a point at which +unworldliness becomes folly. We must stop short of that. Poor Mr. Brand +is, for one thing, quite out of society." + +"Not in Paris or London, mamma. Only in this place, where people are +narrow and bigoted and censorious." + +"And where, unfortunately, he has to live," said Lady Caroline, with +gentle firmness. "It matters to _us_ very little what they say of him in +Paris or London: it matters a great deal what the County says." + +"But if the County could be induced to take him up!" said Margaret, +rather breathlessly. "He was at Lady Ashley's the other day, and he +seemed to know a great many people. And if you--we--received him, it +would make all the difference in the world." + +"Oh, no doubt we could float him if we chose," said Lady Caroline, +indifferently; "but would it really be worth the trouble? Even if he +went everywhere, dear, he would not be a man that I should care to +cultivate; he has not a nice reputation at all." + +"Nobody knows of anything wrong that he has done," Margaret averred, +with burning cheeks. + +"Well, I have heard of one or two things that are not to his credit. I +am told that he drinks and plays a good deal, that his language to his +groom is something awful, and that he makes his poor little boy drunk +every night." In this version had Wyvis Brand's faults and weaknesses +gone forth to the world near Beaminster! "Then he has very disagreeable +people to visit him, and his mother is not in the least a lady--a +publican's daughter, and not, I am afraid, quite respectable in her +youth." Lady Caroline's voice sank to a whisper. "Some very unpleasant +things have been said about Mrs. Brand. Nobody calls on her. I am very +sorry for her, poor thing, but what could one do? I would not set foot +in the house while she was in it--I really would not. Mr. Brand ought to +send her away." + +"But what has she done, mamma?" + +"There is no necessity for you to hear, Margaret. I like your mind to be +kept innocent of evil, dear. Surely it is enough if I tell you that +there is something wrong." + +The girl was silent for a minute or two: she was beginning to feel +abashed and ashamed. It was in a very low voice that she said at last-- + +"Mr. Brand would probably find another home for her if he married." + +"Oh, most likely. But I do not know that what he would do affects us +particularly. He is quite a poor man: even his family is not very good, +although it is an old one, and it has been the proverb of the +country-side for dissipation and extravagance for upwards of a century." + +"But if he had quite reformed," Margaret murmured. + +"My darling, what difference would it make? I am sure I do not know why +we discuss the matter: it is a little too ridiculous to speak of it +seriously. Your father will give Mr. Wyvis Brand his answer, and in such +a way that he will not care to repeat his presumptuous and insolent +proposal, and there will be an end of it. I hope, dearest, you have not +been annoyed by the man? I heard something of his pursuing you with his +attentions at Lady Ashley's party." + +"Mamma," said Margaret, in a tragic tone, "this must not go on. You must +not speak to me as you are doing now. You do not understand the position +of affairs at all. I----" + +"I beg your pardon, darling--one moment. Will you give me that palm-leaf +fan from the mantel-piece? It is really rather a hot morning. Thanks, +dear. What was it you were saying?" + +Lady Caroline knew the value of an adroit interruption. She had checked +the flow of Margaret's indignation for the moment, and was well aware +that the girl would not probably begin her speech in quite the same tone +a second time. At the same time she saw that she had given her daughter +a momentary advantage. Margaret did not reseat herself after handing her +mother the fan--she remained standing, a pale, slender figure, somewhat +impressive in the shadows of the half-darkened room, with hands clasped +and head slightly lifted as if in solemn protest. + +"Mamma," she began, in a somewhat subdued voice, "I must tell you. Mr. +Brand spoke to me before he wrote to papa. I told him to write." + +Lady Caroline put her eye-glass and looked curiously at her daughter. +"You told him to write, my dear child? And how did that come about? +Don't you know that it was equivalent to accepting him?" + +"Yes, mamma. And I did accept him." + +"My dear Margaret!" The tone was that of pitying contempt. "You must +have been out of your senses! Well, we can easily rectify the +matter--that is one good thing. Why, my darling, when did he find time +to speak to you? At Lady Ashley's?" + +"In the park, near the forget-me-not brook," murmured Margaret, with +downcast eyes. + +"He met you there?" + +"Yes." + +"More than once? And you allowed him to meet you? Oh, Margaret!" + +Lady Caroline's voice was admirably managed. The gradual surprise, +shocked indignation, and reproach of her tones made the tears come to +Margaret's eyes. + +"Indeed, mamma," she said, "I am very sorry. I did not know at first--at +least I did not think--that I was doing what you would not like. He used +to meet me when I went into the park, sometimes--when Alicia was +reading. Alicia did not know. And he was very nice, he was always _nice_ +mamma. He told me a great deal about himself--how discontented he was +with his life, and how I might help him to make it better. And I should +like to help him, mamma: it seems to me it would be a good thing to do. +And if you and papa would help him too, he might take quite a different +position in the County." + +"My poor child!" said Caroline. "My poor deluded child!" + +She lay silent for a few moments, thinking how to frame the argument +which she felt was most likely to appeal to Margaret's tenderer +feelings. "Of course," she said at last, very slowly, "of course, if he +told you so much about his past life, he told you about his +marriage--about that little boy's mother." + +"He said that he had been very unhappy. I do not think," said Margaret +with simplicity, "that he loved his first wife as he loves me." + +"No doubt he made you think so, dear. His first wife, indeed! Did he +tell you that his first wife was alive?" + +"Mamma!" + +"He says he is divorced from her," said Lady Caroline, sarcastically, +"and seems to think it is no drawback to have been divorced. I and your +father think differently. I do not mean there is any legal obstacle; but +he took a very unfair advantage of your youth and inexperience by never +letting you know that fact--or, at any rate, letting us know it before +he paid you any attention. That stamps him as not being a gentleman, +Margaret." + +"Who told you, mamma?" + +"His cousin and your friend," said Lady Caroline, coldly: "Miss Janetta +Colwyn." + +Margaret's color had fluctuated painfully for the last few minutes; she +now sat down on a chair near the open window, and turned so pale that +her mother thought her about to faint. Lady Caroline was on her feet +immediately, and began to fan her, and to hold smelling salts to her +nostrils; but in a very short time the girl's color returned, and she +declined any further remedies. + +"I did not know this," she said at last, rather piteously, "but it is +too late to make any difference, mamma, it really is. I love Wyvis +Brand, and he loves me. Surely you won't refuse to let us love one +another?" + +She caught her mother's hand, and Lady Caroline put her arms around her +daughter's shoulders and kissed her as fondly as ever. + +"My poor dear, romantic Child!" she said. "Do you think we can let you +throw yourself quite away?" + +"But I have given my promise!" + +"Your father must tell Mr. Brand that you cannot keep your promise, my +darling. It is quite out of the question." + +And Lady Caroline thought she had settled the whole matter by that +statement. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +IN REBELLION. + + +Janetta was naturally very anxious to know something of the progress of +affairs between Wyvis and Margaret, but she heard little for a rather +considerable space of time. She was now entirely severed from Helmsley +Court, and had no correspondence with Margaret. As the summer holidays +had begun, little Julian did not come every morning to Gwynne Street, +but Tiny and Curly were invited to spend a month at the Red House in +charge of Nora, who was delighted to be so much with Cuthbert, and who +had the power of enlivening even the persistent gloom of Mrs. Brand. +Janetta was thus obliged to live a good deal at home, and Wyvis seemed +to shun her society. His relations at home had heard nothing of his +proposal for Margaret's hand, and Janetta, like them, did not know that +it had ever been actually made. Another event drove this matter into the +background for some little time--for it was evidently fated that Janetta +should never be quite at peace. + +Mrs. Colwyn summoned her rather mysteriously one afternoon to a +conference in her bedroom. + +"Of course I know that you will be surprised at what I am going to say, +Janetta," began the good lady, with some tossings of the head and +flourishings of a handkerchief which rather puzzled Janetta by their +demonstrativeness; "and no doubt you will accuse me of want of respect +of your father's memory and all that sort of thing; though I'm sure I +don't know why, for _he_ married a second time, and I am a young woman +still and not without admirers." + +"Do you mean," said Janetta, "that you think----?" + +She could go no further: she stood and looked helplessly at her +stepmother. + +"Do I think of marrying again? Well, yes, Janetta, I do; and more for +the children's good than for my own. Poor things, they need a father: +and I am tired of this miserable, scraping, cheeseparing life that you +are so fond of. I have been offered a comfortable home and provision for +my children, and I have decided to accept it." + +"So soon!" + +"It will not be announced just yet, of course. Not until the end of the +summer. But it is really no use to wait." + +Janetta stood pale and wide-eyed: she did not dare to let herself speak +just yet. Mrs. Colwyn grew fretful under what she felt to be silent +condemnation. + +"I should like to know what harm it can do to you?" she said. "I've +waited quite as long as many widows do, and toiled and suffered more +than most. Poor James was the last man to grudge me a little rest and +satisfaction as a reward for all that I have undergone. My own children +will not repine, I am sure, and I look to you, Janetta, to explain to +them how much for their good it will be, and how advantageous for them +all." + +"You can hardly expect me to try to explain away an act of disrespect to +my father's memory," said Janetta, coldly. + +"There is no disrespect to the dead in marrying a second time." + +"After a decent interval." + +Mrs. Colwyn burst into tears. "It's the first time in my life that I've +ever been told that I was going to do a thing that wasn't decent," she +moaned. "And when it's all for his dear children's good, too! Ah, well! +I'll give it up, I'll say no, and we will all starve and go down into +the grave together, and then perhaps you will be satisfied." + +"Mamma, please do not talk such nonsense. Who is it that has asked you +to be his wife?" + +"Dr. Burroughs," said Mrs. Colwyn, faintly. + +Janetta uttered an involuntary exclamation. Dr. Burroughs was certainly +a man of sixty-five, but he was strong and active still; he had a good +position in the town, and a large private income. His sister, who kept +his house, was a good and sensible woman, and Dr. Burroughs himself was +reputed to be a sagacious man. His fondness for children was well known, +and a little thought convinced Janetta that his choice of a wife had +been partly determined by his liking for Tiny and Curly, to say nothing +of the elder children. He had been a close friend of Mr. Colwyn, and it +was not likely that Mrs. Colwyn's infirmity had remained a secret from +him: he must have learned it from common town-talk long ago. Angry as +Janetta was, and petrified with surprise, she could not but acknowledge +in her heart that such a marriage was a very good one for Mrs. Colwyn, +and would probably be of immense advantage to the children. And the old +physician and his sister would probably be able to keep Mrs. Colwyn in +check: Janetta remembered that she had heard of one or two cases of +intemperance which had been cured under his roof. As soon as she could +get over her intense feeling that a slur was thrown on her father's +memory by this very speedy second marriage of his widow, her +common-sense told her that she might be very glad. But it was difficult +to rid herself all at once of her indignation of what she termed "this +indecent haste." + +She made an effort to calm Mrs. Colwyn's fretful sobbing, and assured +her with as much grace as she had at command that the marriage would not +at all displease her if it took place at a somewhat later date. And she +reflected that Dr. and Miss Burroughs might be depended upon not to +violate conventionalities. Her own soreness with regard to the little +affection displayed by Mrs. Colwyn to her late husband must be disposed +of as best it might: there was no use in exhibiting it. + +And as Mrs. Colwyn had hinted, it fell to Janetta to inform the rest of +the family of their mother's intention, and to quell symptoms of +indignation and discontent. After all, things might have been worse. The +children already liked Dr. Burroughs, and soon reconciled themselves to +the notion of living in a large, comfortable house, with a big garden, +and unlimited treats and pleasures provided by their future stepfather +and aunt. And when Janetta had had an interview with these two good +people, her mind was considerably relieved. They were kind and generous; +and although she could not help feeling that Dr. Burroughs was marrying +for the sake of the children rather than their mother, she saw that he +would always be thoughtful and affectionate to her, and that she would +probably have a fairly happy and luxurious life. One thing was also +evident--that he would be master in his own house, as James Colwyn had +never been. + +The marriage was to take place at Christmas, and the house in Gwynne +Street was then to be let. Cuthbert and Nora began to talk of marrying +at the same time, for Nora was somewhat violently angry at her mother's +proceeding, and did not wish to go to Dr. Burroughs' house. The younger +members of the family would all, however, migrate to The Cedars, as Dr. +Burroughs' house was called; and there Miss Burroughs was still to +maintain her sway. On this point Dr. Burroughs had insisted, and Janetta +was thankful for it, and Miss Burroughs was quite able and willing to +perform the duty of guardian not only to her brother's step-children, +but to her brother's wife. + +"And of course you will come to us, too, dear?" Miss Burroughs said to +Janetta. "This will be your home always: Andrew particularly wished me +to say so." + +"It is very kind of Dr. Burroughs," said Janetta, gratefully. "I have no +claim on him at all: I am not Mrs. Colwyn's daughter." + +"As if that made any difference! James Colwyn was one of Andrew's best +friends, and for his sake, if for no other, you will be always welcome." + +"I am very much obliged to you," Janetta replied, "and I shall be +pleased to come to you now and then as a visitor; but I have made up my +mind that now--now that my duty seems to be done, I had better go out +into the world and try to make a career for myself. I shall be happier +at work than leading an idle, easy life. But please do not think me +ungrateful--only I _must_ get away." + +And Miss Burroughs, looking into the girl's worn face, and noticing the +peculiar significance of her tone, refrained from pressing the point. +She was sure from both that some hidden pain existed, that there was +some secret reason why Janetta felt that she "_must_ get away." She was +anxious to help the girl, but she saw that it would be no true kindness +to keep her in Beaminster against her will. + +These matters took some time to arrange, and it was while some of them +were still pending that Janetta was startled by a visit from Margaret +Adair. + +It was a sultry day towards the end of July, and Miss Adair looked for +once hot and dusty. She was much thinner than she had been, and had a +harassed expression which Janetta could not fail to remark. As she +hurriedly explained, she had walked some little distance, leaving Alicia +Stone at the Post Office, and it afterwards transpired, giving her +mother the slip at a confectioner's, in order to see Janetta once again. + +"It is very kind of you, dear," said Janetta, touched, rather against +her will, by so unwonted a proof of affection. "But I am afraid that +Lady Caroline would not be pleased." + +"I know she would not," said Margaret, a little bitterly. "She did not +want me to see any more of you. I told her how unjust it was to blame +you, but she would not believe me." + +"It does not matter, Margaret, dear, I do not much mind." + +"I thought I should like to see you once again." Margaret spoke with +unusual haste, and almost in a breathless manner. "I want to know if you +would do something for me. You used to say you would do anything for +me." + +"So I will, if I can." + +"We were going abroad in a few days. I don't know where, exactly: they +won't tell me. They are angry with me, Janetta, and I can't bear it," +cried Margaret, breaking suddenly into tears which were evidently very +heartfelt, although they did not disfigure that fair and placid face of +hers in the slightest degree; "they were never angry with me before, and +it is terrible. They may take me away and keep me away for years, and I +don't know what to do. The only thing I can think of is to ask you to +help me. I want to send a message to Wyvis--I want to write to him if +you will give him the letter." + +"But why do you not write him through the post?" + +"Oh, because I promised not to post anything to him. Mamma said she must +supervise my correspondence unless I promised not to write to him. And +so I keep my word--but a few lines through you, Janet, darling, would +not be breaking my word at all, for it would not be a letter exactly. +And I want to arrange when I can see him again." + +Janetta drew back a little. "It would be breaking the spirit of your +promise, Margaret. No, I cannot help you to do that." + +"Oh, Janetta, you would never be so hard as to refuse me! I only want to +tell Wyvis that I am true to him, and that I don't mind what the world +says one bit, because I know how people tell lies about him! You know +you always promised to stand by me and to be my best friend." + +"Yes, but I never promised to do a dishonorable action for you," said +Janetta, steadily. + +Margaret started up, her face a-flame directly. + +"How dare you say such a thing to me, Janetta?" she exclaimed. + +"I cannot help it, Margaret, you know that I am right." + +The two looked at each other for a moment, and then Margaret turned away +with the mien of an insulted princess. + +"I was wrong to come. I thought that you would be true to the old bond +of friendship between us. I shall never come to you again." + +Poor Janetta's heart was very tender, although her resolution was +impregnable. She ran after Margaret, putting her hands on her arm, and +imploring her with tears to forgive her for her refusal. "If it were +only anything else, Margaret, dear! If only you did not want me to do +what your father and mother do not wish! Don't you see that you are +trying to deceive them? If you were acting openly it would be a +different thing! Don't be angry with me for wanting to do right!" + +"I am not at all angry," said Margaret, with stateliness. "I am very +disappointed, that is all. I do not see that I am deceiving anybody by +sending a message to Wyvis. But I will not ask you again." + +"If only I could!" sighed Janetta, in deep distress and confusion of +mind. But her anchor of truth and straightforwardness was the thing of +all others that she relied on for safety, and she did not let go her +hold. In spite of Margaret's cold and haughty displeasure, Janetta +kissed her affectionately, and could not refrain from saying, "Dear, I +would do anything for you that I thought right. But don't--don't deceive +your father and mother." + +"I will not, as you shall see," returned Margaret, and she left the +house without again looking at her former friend. Janetta felt very +bitterly, as she watched the graceful figure down the street, that the +old friendship had indeed become impossible in its older sense. Her very +faithfulness to the lines in which it had been laid down now made it an +offence to Margaret. + +Janetta's direct and straightforward dealing had the effect of driving +Margaret, though chiefly out of perversity, to do likewise. Miss Adair +was not accustomed to be withstood, and, during the unexpected +opposition with which her wishes had been met, her mind had turned very +often to Janetta with unswerving faith in her old friend's readiness to +help her at an emergency. + +In this faith she considered that she had been cruelly disappointed. And +her mingled anger, shame, and sorrow so blinded her to the circumstances +in which she stood, that she walked quietly up to Lady Caroline and +Alicia Stone in Beaminster High Street, and did not think of hiding her +escapade at all. + +"My dearest child, where _have_ you been?" cried Lady Caroline, who was +always caressing, if inflexible. + +"I have been to Janetta Colwyn's, mamma," said Margaret, imperturbably, +"to ask her to give a message to Mr. Brand." + +"Margaret! Have you quite forgotten yourself? Oh, that unsuitable +friendship of yours!" + +"I don't think you need call it unsuitable, mamma," Margaret rejoined, +with a weary little smile. "Janetta absolutely refused to give the +message, and told me to obey my parents. I really do not see that _you_ +can blame her." + +Lady Caroline replied only by a look of despair which spoke unutterable +things, and then she walked onward to the spot where she had left the +carriage. The three ladies drove home in complete silence. Lady Caroline +was seriously displeased, Alicia curious, Margaret in rebellion and +disgrace. The state of things was becoming very grave, for the whole +tenor of life at Helmsley Court was disturbed, and Margaret's father and +mother wanted their daughter to be a credit and an ornament to them, not +a cause of disturbance and irritation. Margaret had kept up a gallant +fight: she had borne silence, cold looks, absence of caresses, with +unwavering courage; but she began now to find the situation unendurable. +And a little doubt had lately been creeping into her heart--was it all +worth while? If Wyvis Brand were really as undesirable a _parti_ as he +was represented to be, Margaret was not sure that her lot would be very +happy as his wife. Hitherto she had maintained that the stories told +about him, his habits and his position, were falsehoods. But if--she +began to think--if they were true, and if a marriage with him would +exclude her from the society to which she had been accustomed, was it +worth while to fight as hard as she had done? Perhaps, after all, her +mother and her father were right. + +Lady Caroline, not knowing of these weaknesses in Margaret's defence, +was inclined for once to be more severe than caressing. She went +straight to her husband when she entered the Court, and had a long +conversation with him. Then she proceeded to Margaret's room. + +"I have been talking to your father, Margaret," she said coldly, "and we +are both very much distressed at the course which things are taking." + +"So am I, mamma," said Margaret. + +"Of course we cannot proceed in the mediaeval fashion, and lock you up in +your own room until you are reasonable," said Lady Caroline, with a +faint smile. "I should have thought that your own instinct as a lady +would have precluded you from doing anything that would make it +necessary for us to lay any restraint upon you; but to-day's occurrence +really makes me afraid. You have promised not to write to Mr. Brand, I +think?" + +"Yes. But I meant to send him a little note to-day." + +"Indeed? Then what I have to say is all the more necessary. We do not +restrict you to any part of the house, but you must understand that when +you come out of your own room, Margaret, you are never to be alone. +Alicia will sit with you, if I am engaged. She will walk with you, if +you wish to go out into the garden. I have no doubt it will be a little +unpleasant," said Lady Caroline, with a slight, agreeable smile, "to be +constantly under _surveillance_, and of course it will last only until +we leave home next week; but in the meantime, my dear, unless you will +give up your _penchant_ for Mr. Brand, you must submit to be watched. +You cannot be allowed to run off with messages to this man as if you +were a milliner's girl or a servant maid: _we_ manage these matters +differently." + +And then Lady Caroline withdrew, though not too late to see the girl +sink down into a large arm-chair and burst into a very unwonted passion +of sobs and tears. + +"So tiresome of Margaret to force one to behave in this absurd manner!" +reflected Lady Caroline. "So completely out of date in modern days!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +THE PLOUGHMAN'S SON. + + +Two or three days after Margaret's visit to Gwynne Street, Janetta +availed herself of Mrs. Colwyn's temporary absence in Miss Burroughs' +company to pay a visit to the Red House. Her anxiety to know what was +occurring between Wyvis and Margaret had become almost uncontrollable +and, although she was not very likely to hear much about it from Wyvis +or his mother, she vaguely hoped to gather indications at least of the +state of affairs from her cousin's aspect and manners. + +It was plain that Wyvis was not in a happy mood. His brow was dark, his +tone sarcastic; he spoke roughly once or twice to his mother and to his +little son. He evidently repented of his roughness, however, as soon as +the words were out of his mouth, for he went over to Mrs. Brand's side +and kissed her immediately afterwards, and gave some extra indulgence to +Julian by way of making up for his previous severity. Still the +irritation of feeling existed, and could not be altogether repressed +when he spoke; and when he was silent he fell into a condition of gloom +which was even more depressing than his sharpness. Janetta did her best +to be cheerful and talkative to Mrs. Brand, and she fancied that he +liked to listen; for he sat on with them in the blue room long after +Nora and Cuthbert had disappeared into the garden and the children were +romping in the wood. Certainly he did not say much to her, but he seemed +greatly disinclined to move. + +After a time, Mrs. Brand and Janetta adjourned to the hall, which was +always a favorite place of resort on summer evenings. Traces of the +children's presence made the rooms more cheerful than they used to +be--to Janetta's thinking. Tiny's doll and Julian's ball were more +enlivening to the place than even Cuthbert's sketches and Nora's bunches +of wild flowers. And here, too, Wyvis followed them in an aimless, +subdued sort of way; and, having asked and obtained permission to light +a cigarette, he threw himself into a favorite chair, and seemed to +listen dreamily, while Janetta held patient discourse with his mother on +the ailments of the locality and the difficulty of getting the housework +done. Janetta glanced at him from time to time; he sat so quietly that +she would have thought him sleeping but for the faint blue spirals of +smoke that went up from his cigarette. It was six o'clock in the +evening, and the golden lights and long shadows made Janetta long to be +out of doors; but Mrs. Brand had a nervous fear of rheumatism, and did +not want to move. + +"What is that?" said Wyvis, suddenly rousing himself. + +Nobody else had heard anything. He strode suddenly to the door, and +flung it open. Janetta heard the quavering tones of the old man-servant, +an astonished, enraptured exclamation from Wyvis himself; and she +knew--instinctively--what to expect. She turned round; it was as she +had feared. Margaret was there. Wyvis was leading her into the room with +the fixed look of adoration in his eyes which had been so much commented +upon at Lady Ashley's party. When she was present, he evidently saw none +but her. Janetta rose quickly and withdrew a little into the back +ground. She wished for a moment that she had not been there--and then it +occurred to her that she might be useful by and by. But it was perhaps +better for Margaret not to see her too soon. Mrs. Brand, utterly +unprepared for this visit, not even knowing the stranger by sight, and, +as usual, quite unready for an emergency, rose nervously from her seat +and stood, timid, awkward, and anxious, awaiting an explanation. + +"Mother, this is Margaret Adair," said Wyvis, as quietly as if his +mother knew all that was involved in that very simple formula. He was +still holding the girl by the hand and gazing in his former rapt manner +into her face. It was not the look of a lover, to Janetta's eye, half so +much as the worship of a saint. Margaret embodied for Wyvis Brand the +highest aspirations, the purest dreams of his youth. + +As to Margaret, Janetta thought that she was looking exquisitely lovely. +Her thinness added to the impression of ethereal beauty; there was a +delicacy about her appearance which struck the imagination. Her color +fluctuated; her eyes shone like stars; and her whole frame seemed a +little tremulous, as if she were shaken by some strange and powerful +emotion to her very soul. Her broad-brimmed straw hat, white dress, and +long tan gloves belonged, as Janetta knew, only to her ordinary attire +when no visitors were to be seen; but simplicity of dress always seemed +to garnish Margaret's beauty, and to throw it into the strongest +possible relief. She was sufficiently striking in aspect to frighten +poor, timid Mrs. Brand, who was never happy when she found herself in +the company of "fashionable" people. But it was with a perfectly simple +and almost child-like manner that Margaret drew her finger away from +Wyvis' clasp and went up to his mother, holding out both hands as if in +appeal for help. + +"I am Margaret," she said. "I ought not to have come; but what could I +do? They are going to take me away from the Court to-morrow, and I +could not go without seeing you and Wyvis first." + +"Wyvis?" repeated Mrs. Brand, blankly. She had not taken Margaret's +hands, but now she extended her right hand in a stiff, lifeless fashion, +which looked like anything but a welcome. "I do not know--I do not +understand----" + +"It is surely easy enough to understand," said Wyvis, vehemently. "She +loves me--she has promised to be my wife--and you must love her, too, +for my sake, as well as for her own." + +"Won't you love me a little?" said Margaret, letting her eyes rest +pleadingly on Mrs. Brand's impassive face. She was not accustomed to +being met in this exceedingly unresponsive manner. Wyvis made a slight +jesture of impatience, which his mother perfectly understood. She tried, +in her difficult, frozen way, to say something cordial. + +"I am very pleased to see you," she faltered. "You must excuse me if I +did not understand at first. Wyvis did not tell me." + +Then she sank into her chair again, more out of physical weakness than +from any real intention to seat herself. Her hand stole to her side, as +if to still the beating of her heart; her face had turned very pale. +Only Janetta noticed these signs, which betrayed the greatness of the +shock; Margaret, absorbed in her own affairs, and Wyvis absorbed in +Margaret, had no eyes for the poor mother's surprise and agitation. +Janetta made a step forward, but she saw that she could do nothing. Mrs. +Brand was recovering her composure, and the other two were not in a mood +to bear interruption. So she waited, and meanwhile Margaret spoke. + +"Dear Mrs. Brand," she said, kneeling at the side of the trembling +woman, and laying her clasped hands on her lap, "forgive me for +startling you like this." Even Janetta wondered at the marvelous +sweetness of Margaret's tones. "Indeed, I would not have come if there +had been any other way of letting Wyvis know. They made me promise not +to write to him, not to meet him in the wood where we met before you +know, and they watched me, so that I could not get out, or send a +message or anything. It has been like living in prison during the last +few days." And the girl sobbed a little, and laid her forehead for a +moment on her clasped hands. + +"It's a shame--a shame! It must not go on," exclaimed Wyvis, +indignantly. + +"In one way it will not go on," said Margaret, raising her head. "They +are going to take me away, and we are not to come back for the whole +winter--perhaps not next year at all. I don't know where we are going. I +shall never be allowed to write. And I thought it would be terrible to +go without letting Wyvis know that I will never, never forget him. And I +am only nineteen now, and I can't do as I like; but, when I am +twenty-one, nobody can prevent me----" + +"Why should anybody prevent you now?" said Wyvis gloomily. He drew +nearer and laid his hand upon her shoulder. "Why should you wait? You +are safe: you have come to my mother, and she will take care of you. Why +need you go back again?" + +"Is that right, Wyvis?" said Janetta. She could not keep silence any +longer. Wyvis turned on her almost fiercely. Margaret who had not seen +her before started up and faced her, with a look of something like +terror. + +"It is no business of yours," said the man. "This matter is between +Margaret and myself. Margaret must decide it. I do not ask her to +compromise herself in any way. She shall be in my mother's care. All she +will have to do is to trust to me----" + +"I think we need hardly trouble you, Mr. Brand," said another voice. +"Margaret will be better in the care of her own mother than in that of +Mrs. Brand or yourself." + +Lady Caroline Adair stood on the threshold. Lady Caroline addressed the +little group, on which a sudden chill and silence fell for a moment, as +if her appearance heralded some portentous crash of doom. The door had +been left ajar when Margaret entered; it was not easy to say how much of +the conversation Lady Caroline had heard. Mrs. Brand started up; +Margaret turned very pale and drew back, while Wyvis came closer to her +and put his arm round her with an air of protective defiance. Janetta +drew a quick breath of relief. A disagreeable scene would follow she +knew well; and there were probably unpleasant times in store for +Margaret, but these were preferable to the course of rebellion, open or +secret, to which the girl was being incited by her too ardent lover. + +Janetta never admired Lady Caroline so much as she did just then. +Margaret's mother was the last person to show discomposure. She sat down +calmly, although no one had asked her to take a chair, and smilingly +adjusted the lace shawl which she had thrown round her graceful figure. +There were no signs of haste or agitation in her appearance. She wore a +very elegant and becoming dress, a Paris bonnet on her head, a pair of +French gloves on her slender hands. She became at once the centre of the +group, the ornamental point on which all eyes were fixed. Every one else +was distressed, frightened, or angry; but Lady Caroline's pleasing smile +and little air of society was not for one moment to be disturbed. + +"It is really very late for a call," she said, quietly, "but as I found +that my daughter was passing this way, I thought I would follow her +example and take the opportunity of paying a visit to Mrs. Brand. It is +not, however, the first time that we have met." + +She looked graciously towards Mrs. Brand, but that poor woman was +shaking in every limb. Janetta put her arms round Mrs. Brand's +shoulders. What did Lady Caroline mean? She had some purpose to fulfil, +or she would not sit so quietly, pretending not to notice that her +daughter was holding Wyvis Brand by the hand and that one of his arms +was round her waist. There was something behind that fixed, agreeable +smile. + +"No," said Lady Caroline, reflectively, "not the first time. The last +time I saw you, Mrs. Brand----" + +"Oh, my lady, my lady!" Mrs. Brand almost shrieked, "for heaven's sake, +my lady, don't go on!" + +She covered her face with her hands and rocked herself convulsively to +and fro. Wyvis frowned and bit his lip: Margaret started and +unconsciously withdrew her hand. It crossed the minds of both that Mrs. +Brand's tone was that of an inferior, that of a servant to a mistress, +not that of one lady to her equal. + +"Why should I not go on?" said Lady Caroline, glancing from one to +another as if in utter ignorance. "Have I said anything wrong? I only +meant that I was present at Mrs. Brand's _first_ wedding--when she +married your father, Mr. Wyvis--not your adopted father, of course, but +John Wyvis, the ploughman." + +There was a moment's silence. Then Wyvis took a step forward and +thundered. "_What?_" while the veins stood out upon his forehead and his +eyes seemed to be gathering sombre fire. Mrs. Brand, with her head bowed +upon her hands, still rocked herself and sobbed. + +"I hope I have not been indiscreet," said Lady Caroline, innocently. +"You look a little surprised. It is surely no secret that you are the +son of Mary Wyvis and her cousin, John Wyvis, and that you were brought +up by Mr. Brand as his son simply out of consideration for his wife? I +am sure I beg your pardon if I have said anything amiss. As Mrs. Brand +seems disturbed, I had better go." + +"Not until my mother has contradicted this ridiculous slander," said +Wyvis, sternly. But his mother only shook her head and wailed aloud. + +"I can't, my dear--I can't. It's true every word of it. My lady knows." + +"Of course I know. Come, Mary, don't be foolish," said Lady Caroline, in +the carelessly sharp tone in which one sometimes speaks to an erring +dependant. "I took an interest in you at the time, you will remember, +although I was only a child staying at Helmsley Court at the time with +Mr. Adair's family. I was fourteen, I think; and you were scullery-maid +or something, and told me about your sweetheart, John Wyvis. There is +nothing to be ashamed of: you were married very suitably, and if Wyvis, +the ploughman, had not been run over when he was intoxicated, and killed +before your baby's birth, you might even now have been living down at +Wych End, with half a dozen stalwart sons and daughters--of whom you, +Mr. Wyvis, or Mr. Wyvis Brand, as you are generally known, would have +been the eldest--probably by this time a potman or a pugilist, with a +share in your grandfather's public-house at Roxby. How ridiculous it +seems now, does it not?" + +Astonishment had kept Wyvis silent, but his gathering passion could not +longer be repressed. + +"That is enough," he said. "If you desire to insult me you might have +let it be in other company. Or if you will send your husband to repeat +it----" + +"I said a pugilist, did I not?" said Lady Caroline, smiling, and putting +up her eye-glass. "Your thews and sinews justify me perfectly--and so, I +must say, does your manner of speech." She let her eye run over his +limbs critically, and then she dropped her glass. "You are really +wonderfully like poor Wyvis; he was a very strong sort of man." + +"Will you be so good as to take your leave, Lady Caroline Adair? I wish +to treat you with all due courtesy, as you are Margaret's mother," said +Wyvis, setting his teeth, "but you are saying unpardonable things to a +man in his own house." + +"My dear man, there is nothing to be ashamed of!" cried Lady Caroline, +as if very much surprised. "Your father and mother were very honest +people, and I always thought it greatly to Mark Brand's credit that he +adopted you. The odd thing was that so few people knew that you were not +his son. You were only a month or two old when he married Mary Wyvis, +however; for your father died before your birth; but there was no secret +made of it at the time, I believe. And it is nearly thirty years. Things +get forgotten." + +"Mother, can this be true?" said Wyvis, hoarsely. He was forced into +asking the question by Lady Caroline's cool persistence. He was keenly +conscious of the fact that Margaret, looking scared and bewildered, had +shrunk away from him. + +"Yes, yes, it is true," said Mrs. Brand, with a burst of despairing +tears. "We did not mean any harm, and nobody made any inquiries. There +was nothing wrong about it--nothing. It was better for you, Wyvis, that +was all." + +"Is it better for anybody to be brought up to believe a lie?" said the +young man. His lips had grown white, and his brow was set in very +ominous darkness. "I shall hear more of this story by and by. I have to +thank you, Lady Caroline, for letting in a little light upon my mind. +Your opposition to my suit is amply explained." + +"I am glad you take it in that way, Mr. Brand," said Lady Caroline, for +the first time giving him his adopted name, and smiling very amicably. +"As I happened to be one of the very few people who knew or surmised +anything about the matter, I thought it better to take affairs into my +own hands--especially when I found that my daughter had come to your +house. But for this freak of hers I should not, perhaps, have +interfered. As you are no doubt prepared now to resign all hope of her, +I am quite satisfied with the result of my afternoon's work. Come, +Margaret." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +THE FAILURE OF MARGARET. + + +"Then I am to understand," said Wyvis, a sudden glow breaking out over +his dark face, "that you did not make this communication carelessly, as +at first I thought, but out of malice prepense?" + +"If you like to call it so--certainly," said Lady Caroline, with a +slight shrug of her shoulders. + +"This was your revenge?--when you found that Margaret had come to me!" + +"You use strange words, Mr. Wyvis Brand. Revenge is out of date--a quite +too ridiculous idea. I simply mean that I never wish to intermeddle with +my neighbors' affairs, and should not have thought of bringing this +matter forward if your pretentions could have been settled in an +ordinary way. If Margaret"--glancing at her daughter, who stood white +and thunderstricken at her side--"had behaved with submission and with +modesty, I should not have had to inflict what seems to be considerable +pain upon you. But it is her fault and yours. Young people should submit +to the judgment of their elders: we do not refuse to gratify their +wishes without good reason." + +Lady Caroline spoke with a cold dignity, which she did not usually +assume. Margaret half covered her face with one hand, and turned aside. +The sight of the slow tears trickling through her fingers almost +maddened Wyvis, as he stood before her, looking alternately at her and +at Lady Caroline. Mrs. Brand and Janetta were left in the background of +the little group. The older woman was still weeping, and Janetta was +engaged in soothing and caressing her; but neither of them lost a word +which passed between the man for whom they cared and the woman whom at +that moment they both sincerely hated. + +"But is it a good reason?" said Wyvis at last. His eye flashed beneath +his dark brow, his nostril began to quiver. "If I had been Mark Brand's +son, you mean, you would have given me Margaret?" + +"There would then have been no disqualification of birth," said Lady +Caroline, clearly. "There might then have been disqualifications of +character or of fortune, but these we need hardly consider now. The +other--the primary--fact is conclusive." + +"Mamma, mamma!" broke out Margaret; "don't say these terrible +things--please don't. It isn't Wyvis' fault." + +"God bless you, my darling!" Wyvis muttered between his teeth. + +"No, it is not his fault; it is his misfortune," said Lady Caroline. + +"I am to understand, then, Lady Caroline," said Wyvis, to whom +Margaret's expostulation seemed to have brought sudden calmness and +courage, "that my lowly origin forms an insurmountable barrier to my +marriage with Miss Adair?" + +"Quite so, Mr. Brand." + +"But that there is no other obstacle?" + +"I did not say so. Your domestic relations have been unfortunate, and +Mr. Adair strongly objects to giving his daughter to a man in your +position. But we need not go into that matter; I don't consider it a +subject suitable for discussion in my daughter's presence." + +"Then I appeal to Margaret!" said Wyvis, in a deep, strong voice. "I +call upon _her_ to decide whether my birth is as much of an obstacle as +you say it is." + +"That is not fair," said Lady Caroline, quickly. "She will write to you. +She can say nothing now." + +"She must say something. She was on the point of giving me herself--her +all--when you came in. She had promised to be my wife, and she was +prepared to keep her promise almost immediately. She shall not break her +word because my father was a ploughman instead of a landowner and a +gentleman." + +For once Lady Caroline made a quick, resistant gesture, as if some +impulse prompted her to speak sharply and decisively. Then she recovered +herself, leaned back in her chair, and smiled faintly. + +"Is the battle to be fought out here and now?" she said. "Well, then, do +your worst, Mr. Brand. But I must have a word by and by, when you have +spoken." + +Wyvis seemed scarcely to hear her. He was looking again, at Margaret. +She was not crying now, but one hand still grasped a handkerchief wet +with her tears. She had rested the other on the back of her mother's +chair. Janetta marveled at her irresolute attitude. In Margaret's place +she would have flung her arms round Wyvis Brand's neck, and vowed that +nothing but death should sever her from him. But Margaret was neither +passionately loving nor of indomitable courage. + +Wyvis stepped forward and took her by the hand. Lady Caroline's eyebrows +contracted a little, but she did not interfere. She seemed to hold +herself resolutely aloof--for a time--and listened, Janetta thought, as +if she were present at a very interesting comedy of modern manners. + +"Margaret, look at me!" said the man. + +His deep, vibrating voice compelled the girl to raise her eyes. She +looked up piteously, and seemed half afraid to withdraw her gaze from +Wyvis' dark earnestness of aspect. + +"Margaret--my darling--you said you loved me." + +"Yes--I do love you," she murmured; but she looked afraid. + +"I am not altered, Margaret: I am the same Wyvis that you loved--the +Wyvis that you kissed down by the brook, when you promised to be my +wife. Have you forgotten? Ah no--not so soon. You would not have come +here to-day if you had forgotten." + +"I have not forgotten," she said, in a whisper. + +"Then, darling, what difference does it make? There is no stain upon my +birth. I would not ask you to share a dishonored name. But my parents +were honest if they were poor, and what they were does not affect me. +Margaret, speak, tell me, dear, that you will not give me up!" + +Margaret tried to withdraw her hand. "I do not know what to say," she +whispered. + +"Say that you love me." + +"I--have said it." + +"Then, that you will not give me up?" + +"Mamma!" said Margaret, entreatingly. "You hear what Wyvis says. It is +not his fault. Why--why--won't you let us be happy?" + +"Don't appeal to your mother," said Wyvis, the workings of whose +features showed that he was becoming frightfully agitated. "You know +that she is against me. Listen to your own heart--what does it say? It +speaks to you of my love for you, of your own love for me. Darling, you +know how miserable my life has been. Are you going to scatter all my +hopes again and plunge me down in the depths of gloom? And all for what? +To satisfy a worldly scruple. It is not even as if I had been brought up +in my early years in the station to which my father belonged. I have +never known him--never known any relations but the Brands; and they are +not so very much beneath you. Don't fail me, Margaret! I shall lose all +faith in goodness if I lose faith in you!" + +"I think," said Lady Caroline, in the rather disheartening pause which +followed upon Wyvis' words--disheartening to him, at least, and also to +Janetta, who had counted much upon Margaret's innate nobility of +soul!--"I think that I may now be permitted to say a word to my daughter +before she replies. What Mr. Wyvis Brand asks you to do, Margaret, is to +marry him at once. Well, the time for coercion has gone by. Of course, +we cannot prevent you from marrying him if you choose to do so, but on +the other hand we shall never speak to you again." + +Wyvis uttered a short laugh, as if he were scornfully ready to meet that +contingency, but Margaret's look of startled horror recalled him to +decorum. + +"You would be no longer any child of ours," said Lady Caroline, calmly. +"Your father concurs with me in this. You have known our views so long +and so well that we feel it almost necessary to explain this to you. Mr. +Brand wishes you to choose, as a matter of fact, between his house and +ours. Make your choice--make it now, if you like; but understand--and I +am very sorry to be obliged to say a thing which may perhaps hurt the +feelings of some persons present--that if you marry the son of a +ploughman and a scullery-maid--I do not mean to be more offensive than I +can help--you cannot possibly expect to be received at Helmsley Court." + +"But, mamma! he ranks as one of the Brands of the Red House. Nobody +knows." + +"But everybody _will_ know," said Lady Caroline, calmly. "I shall take +care of that. I don't know how it is that Mr. Brand has got possession +of the family estate--to which he has, of course, no right; but it has +an ugly look of fraud about it, to which public attention had better be +drawn at once. Mr. Brand may have been a party to the deception all +along, for aught I know." + +"That statement needs no refutation," said Wyvis, calmly, though with a +dangerous glitter in his eyes. "I shall prove my integrity by handing +over the Red House to my bro----to Cuthbert Brand, who is of course the +rightful owner of the place." + +"You hear. Margaret?" said Lady Caroline. "You will not even have the +Red House in your portion. You have to choose between your mother and +father and friends, position, wealth, refinement, luxury--and Wyvis +Brand. That is your alternative. He will have no position of his own, no +house to offer you; I am amazed at his selfishness, I must own, at +making such a proposition." + +"No, madam," said Mrs. Brand, breaking into the conversation for the +first time, and seeming to forget her timidity in the defence of her +beloved son Wyvis; "we are not so selfish as you think. The estate was +left to Wyvis by my husband's will. He preferred that Wyvis should be +master here; and we thought that no one knew the truth." + +"But I shall not be master here any longer," said her son. "I will hand +over the place to Cuthbert at once. I will take nothing on false +pretences. So, Margaret, choose between me and the advantages your +mother offers you. It is for you to decide." + +"Oh, I can't, I can't! Why need I decide now?" said Margaret, clasping +her hands. "Let me have time to think!" + +"No, you must decide now, Margaret," said Lady Caroline. "You have done +a very unjustifiable thing in coming here to-day, and you must take the +consequences. If you still wish to marry Mr. Wyvis Brand, you had better +accept the offer of his mother's protection and remain here. If you come +away with me, it must be understood that you give up any thought of such +a marriage. You must renounce Mr. Wyvis Brand from this time forth and +for ever. Pray, don't answer hastily. The question is this--do you mean +to stay here or to come away with me?" + +She rose as she spoke, and began to arrange the details of her dress, +as though preparing to take her departure. Margaret stood pale, +irresolute, miserable between her mother and her lover. Wyvis threw +out his hands to her with an imploring gesture and an almost frenzied +cry--"Margaret--love--come to me!" Janetta held her breath. + +But in that moment of indecision, Margaret's wavering eye fell upon Mrs. +Brand. The mother was an unlovely object in her abject sorrow and +despair. Her previous coldness and awkwardness told against her at that +moment. It suddenly darted through Margaret's mind that she would have +to accept this woman, with her common associations, her obscure origin, +her doubtful antecedents, in a mother's place. The soul of the girl who +had been brought up by Lady Caroline Adair revolted at the thought. +Wyvis she loved, or thought she loved; Wyvis she could accept; but +Wyvis' mother for her own, coupled with exclusion from the home where +she had lived so many smooth and tranquil years, exclusion also from the +society in which she had been taught that it was her right to take a +distinguished place--this was too much. Her dreams fell from her like a +garment. Plain, unvarnished reality unfolded itself instead. To be poor +and obscure and unfriended, to be looked down upon and pitied, to be +snubbed and passed by on the other side--this was what seemed to be the +reality of things to Margaret's mind. It was too much for her to accept. +She looked at it and passed by it. + +She stretched out her hand timidly and touched her mother's arm. +"Mamma," she said falteringly, "I--I will come with you." And then she +burst into tears and fell upon her mother's neck, and over her shoulder +Lady Caroline turned and smiled at Wyvis Brand. She had won her game. + +"Of course you will, darling," she said, caressingly. "I did not think +you could have been so wicked as to give us up. Come with me! this is +nor the place for us." + +And in the heart-struck silence which fell upon the little group that +she left behind, Lady Caroline gravely bowed and led her weeping +daughter from the room. + +"Oh, Margaret, Margaret!" Janetta suddenly cried out; but Margaret never +once looked back. Perhaps if she had seen Wyvis Brand's face just then, +she might have given way. It was a terrible face; hard, bitter, +despairing; with lines of anguish about the mouth, and a lurid light in +the deep-set, haggard-looking eyes. Janetta, in the pity of her heart, +went up to her cousin, and took his clenched hand between her own. + +"Wyvis, dear Wyvis," she said, "do not look so. Do not grieve. Indeed, +she could not have been worthy of you, or she would not have done like +this. All women are not like her, Wyvis. Some would have loved you for +yourself." + +And there she stopped, crimson and ashamed. For surely she had almost +told him that she loved him!--that secret of which she had long been so +much ashamed, and which had given her so much of grief and pain. But she +attached too much importance to her own vague words. They did not betray +her, and Wyvis scarcely listened to what she said. He broke into a +short, harsh laugh, more hideous than a sob. + +"Are not all women like her?" he said. "Then they are worse. She was +innocent, at any rate, if she was weak. But she has sold her soul now, +if she ever had one, to the devil; and, as I would rather be with her in +life and death than anywhere else, I shall make haste to go to the devil +too." + +He shook off her detaining hand, and strode to the door. There he +turned, and looked fixedly at his mother. + +"It is almost worse to be weak than wicked, I think," he said. "If you +had told me the truth long ago, mother, I should have kept out of this +complication. It's been your fault--my misery and my failure have always +been your fault. It would have been better for me if you had left me to +plough the fields like my father before me. As it is, life's over for me +in this part of the world, and I may as well bid it good-bye." + +Before they could stop him, he was gone. And Janetta could not follow, +for Mrs. Brand sank fainting from her chair, and it was long before she +could be recovered from the deathlike swoon into which she fell. + +And throughout that evening, and for days to come, Margaret Adair, +although petted and caressed and praised on every hand, and persuaded +into feeling that she had not only done the thing that was expected of +her, but a very worthy and noble thing, was haunted by an uneasy +consciousness, that the argument which had prevailed with her was not +the love of home or of her parents, which, indeed, might have been a +very creditable motive for her decision, but a shrinking from trouble, a +dislike to effort of any kind, and an utter distaste for obscurity and +humility. Janetta's reproachful call rang in her ears for days. She +knew that she had chosen the baser part. True, as she argued with +herself, it was right to obey one's parents, to be submissive and +straightforward, to shrink from the idea of ingratitude and rebellion; +and, if she had yielded on these grounds, she might have been somewhat +consoled for the loss of her lover by the conviction that she had done +her duty. But for some little time she was distressfully aware that she +had never considered her parents in the matter at all. She had thought +of worldly disadvantage only. She had not felt any desire to stand by +Wyvis Brand in his trouble. She had felt only repugnance and disgust; +and, having some elements of good in her, she was troubled and ashamed +by her failure; for, even if she had done right in the main, she knew +that she had done it in the wrong way. + +But, of course, time changed her estimate of herself. She was so much +caressed and flattered by her family for her "exquisite dutifulness," as +they phrased it, that she ended by believing that she had behaved +beautifully. And this belief was a great support to her during the +winter that she subsequently spent with her parents in Italy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +RETROSPECT. + + +For my part, I am inclined to think that Margaret was more right than +she knew. There was really no inherent fitness between her temperament +and that of Wyvis Brand; and his position in the County was one which +would have fretted her inexpressibly. She, who had been the petted +favorite of a brilliant circle in town and country, to take rank as the +wife of a ploughman's son! It would not have suited her at all; and her +discontent would have ended in making Wyvis miserable. + +He was, he considered, miserable enough already. He was sore all +over--sore and injured and angry. He had been deceived in a manner which +seemed to him unjustifiable from beginning to end. The disclosure of his +parentage explained many little things which had been puzzling to him +in his previous life, but it brought with it a baffling, passionate +sense of having been fooled and duped--not a condition of things which +was easy for him to support. Little by little the whole story became +clear to him. For, when he flung out of the Red House after Margaret's +departure, in a tumult of rage and shame, announcing his determination +to go to the devil, he did not immediately seek out the Prince of +Darkness: he only went to his lawyer. His lawyer told him a good deal, +and Mrs. Brand, in a letter dictated to Janetta, told him more. + +Mary Wyvis, the daughter of the village inn-keeper at Roxby, was brought +up to act as his barmaid, and early became engaged to marry her cousin, +John Wyvis, ploughman. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, when Mark +Brand appeared upon the scene, and fell desperately in love with the +handsome barmaid. She returned his love, but was too conscientious to +elope with him and forget her cousin, as he wished her to do. Her father +supported John's claim, and threatened to horsewhip the fine gentleman +if he visited the Roxby Arms again. By way of change, Mary then went +into domestic service for a few weeks at Helmsley Manor. It was not +expected that she would remain there, and it was thought by her friends +that she distinctly "lowered herself" by accepting this position, for +her father was a well-to-do man in his way; but Mary Wyvis made the +break with Mark Brand by this new departure which she considered it +essential for her to make; and she was thereby delivered from his +attentions for a time. At Helmsley Manor she was treated with much +consideration, being considered a superior young person for her class; +and although only a scullery maid in name, she was allowed a good deal +of liberty, and promoted to attend on Lady Caroline Bertie, who, as a +girl of fourteen, was then visiting Mrs. Adair, the mother of the man +whom she afterward married. Mary Wyvis was lured into confiding one or +two of her little secrets to Lady Caroline; and when she left Helmsley +Court to marry John Wyvis, that young lady took so much interest in the +affair that she attended the wedding and gave the bride a +wedding-present. And as she often visited the Adairs, she seldom failed +to asked after Mary, until that consummation of Mary's fate which +effectually destroyed Lady Caroline's interest in her. + +Wyvis the ploughman was accidentally killed, and Mary's child, named +John after his father, was born shortly after the ploughman's death. It +was then that Mark Brand sought out his old love, and to better purpose +than before. His passion for her had been strengthened by what he was +pleased to call her desertion of him. He proposed marriage, and offered +to adopt the boy. Mary Wyvis accepted both propositions, and left +England with him almost immediately, in order to escape mocking and +slanderous tongues. + +It was inevitable that evil should be said of her. Mark Brand's pursuit +of her before her marriage to Wyvis had been well known. That she should +marry him so soon after her first husband's death seemed to point to +some continued understanding between the two, and caused much gossip in +the neighborhood. Such gossip was really unfounded, for Mary was a good +woman in her way, though not a very wise one; but the charges against +her were believed in many places, and never disproved. It was even +whispered that the little boy was Mark Brand's own son, and that John +Wyvis had met his death through some foul play. Rumors of this kind died +down in course of time. But they were certainly sufficient to account +for the disfavor with which the County eyed the Brands in general, and +Mrs. Brand in particular. Mark Brand lived very little at the Red House +after his marriage. He knew what a storm of indignation had been spent +upon his conduct, and he was well aware of the aspersions on his wife's +character. He was too reckless by nature to try to set things straight: +he considered that he did his best for his family when he left England +behind him, and trained the boys, Wyvis and Cuthbert, to love a foreign +land better than their own. + +He grew very fond of Mary's boy during the first few years of his +married life. This fondness led him to wish that the boy were his own, +and the appearance of Cuthbert did not alter this odd liking for another +man's son. He never cared very much for Cuthbert, who was delicate and +lame from babyhood; but Wyvis was the apple of his eye. The boy was +called John Wyvis: it was easy enough in a foreign country to let him +slip into the position of the eldest of the family as Wyvis Brand. A +baby son was born before Cuthbert, and dying a month old, gave Mark all +the opportunity that he needed. He sent word to old Wyvis at Roxby that +John's boy was dead; and he then quietly substituted Wyvis in place of +his own son. Every year, he argued, would make the real difference of +age between John's boy and the dead child less apparent: it would save +trouble to speak of Wyvis as his own, and troublesome inquiries were not +likely to be made. Time and use made him almost forget that Wyvis did +not really belong to him; and but for his wife's insistence he would not +even have made the will which secured the Red House to his adopted son. +Cuthbert was of course treated with scandalous injustice by this will; +but the secret had been well kept, and the story was fully known to +nobody save the Brands' lawyer and Mary Brand herself. + +The way in which Lady Caroline had ferreted out the secret remained a +mystery to the Brands. But they never gave her half enough credit for +her remarkable cleverness. When she saw Wyvis Brand, she had been struck +almost at once by his likeness to John Wyvis, the man who married her +old favorite, Mary. She leaped quickly to the conviction that he was not +Mark Brand's son. And when Margaret's infatuation for him declared +itself, she went straight to her husband's man of business, and +commissioned him to find out all that could be found out about the +Brands during the period of their early married life in Italy. The task +was surprisingly easy. Mark Brand had taken few precautions, for he had +drifted rather than deliberately steered towards the substitution of +Wyvis for his own eldest son. A very few inquiries elicited all that +Lady Caroline wanted to know. But she had not been quite sure of her +facts when she entered the Red House, and, if Mrs. Brand had been a +little cooler and a little braver, she might have defeated her enemy's +ends, and carried her secret inviolate to her grave. + +But courage and coolness were the last things that could be expected +from Mrs. Brand. She had never possessed a strong mind and the various +chances and changes of her life had enfeebled instead of strengthening +it. Mark Brand had proved by no means a loving or faithful husband, and +did not scruple to taunt her with her inferiority of position, and to +threaten that he would mortify Wyvis' pride some day by a revelation of +his true name and descent. He was too fond of Wyvis to carry his threat +into effect but he made the poor woman, his wife, suffer an infinity of +torture, the greater part of which might have been avoided if she had +chanced to be gifted with a higher spirit and a firmer will. + +Wyvis Brand went immediately to London after the interview with his +lawyer in Beaminster, and from London, in a few days, he wrote to +Cuthbert. The letter was curt, but not unfriendly. He wished, he said, +to repair the injustice that had been done, and to restore to Cuthbert +the inheritance that was his by right. He had already instructed his +lawyers to take the necessary steps, and he was glad to think that +Cuthbert and Nora would now be able to make the Red House what it ought +to be. He hoped that they would be very happy. For himself, he thought +of immigrating: he was heartily sick of modern civilization, and +believed that he would more easily find friends and fellow-workers +amongst the Red Skins of the Choctaw Indians than in "County" +drawing-rooms. And only by this touch did Wyvis betray the bitterness +that filled his heart. + +Cuthbert rushed up to town at once in a white heat of indignation. He +was only just in time to find Wyvis at his hotel, for he had taken his +passage to America, and was going to start almost immediately. But there +was time at least for a very energetic discussion between the two young +men. + +"If you think," said Cuthbert, hotly, "that I'm going to take your +place, you are very much mistaken." + +"It is not my place. It has been mine only by fraud." + +"Not a bit of it. It is yours by my father's will. He knew the truth, +and chose to take this course." + +"Very unfair to you, Cuth," said Wyvis, a faint smile showing itself for +the first time on his haggard face. + +Cuthbert shrugged his shoulders. "My dear fellow, do you suppose it's +any news to me that my father cared more for your little finger than for +my whole body? He chose--practically--to disinherit me in your favor; +and a very good thing it's been for me too. I should never have taken to +Art if I had been a landed proprietor." + +"I don't understand it," said Wyvis, meditatively. "One would have +expected him to be jealous of his wife's family--and then you're a much +better fellow than I am." + +"That was the reason," said Cuthbert, sitting down and nursing his lame +leg, after a characteristic fashion of his own "I was a meek child--a +sickly lad who didn't get into mischief. I was afraid of horses, you may +remember, and hated manly exercises of every kind. Now you were never so +happy as when you were on a horse's back----" + +"A strain inherited from my ploughman father, I suppose," said Wyvis, +rather grimly. + +"And you got into scrapes innumerable; for which he liked you all the +better. And you--well you know, old boy, you were never a reproach to +him, as the sight of me was!" + +Cuthbert's voice dropped. He had never spoken of it before, but he and +Wyvis knew well enough that his lameness was the result of his father's +brutal treatment of Mary Brand shortly before the birth of her second +son. + +"He ought to have been more bent on making amends than on sacrificing +you to me," said Wyvis, bitterly. + +"Oh, don't look at it in that way," Cuthbert answered. The natural +sweetness of his disposition made it painful to him to hear his father +blamed, although that father had done his best to make his life +miserable. "He never meant to hurt me, the poor old man; and when he had +done it, the sight of my infirmity became exquisitely painful to him. I +can forgive him that; I can forgive him everything. There are others +whom it is more difficult to forgive." + +"You mean----" + +"I mean women who have not the courage to be true," said Cuthbert, in a +low voice. He did not look at his brother, but he felt certain that a +thrill of pain passed through him. For a minute or two Wyvis did not +speak. + +"Well," he said at last, forcing an uneasy laugh, "I think that she was +perhaps right. She might not have been very happy. And I doubt, after +all, whether I ought to have asked her. Janetta thought not, at any +rate." + +"Janetta is generally very wise." + +"So she is very wise. I am legally quite free, but she thinks +me--morally--bound." + +"Well, so do I," said Cuthbert, frankly. "On all moral and religious +grounds, I think you are as much bound as ever you were. And if Miss +Adair refused you on those grounds, she has more right on her side than +I thought." + +"Ah, but she did not," answered Wyvis, dryly. "She refused me because I +was not rich, not 'in society,' and a ploughman's son." + +"That's bad," said his brother. And then the two sat for a little time +in silence, which is the way of Englishmen when one wishes to show +sympathy for another. + +"But we are not approaching what I want to say at all," said Cuthbert, +presently. "We must not let our feelings run away with us. We are both +in a very awkward position, old boy, but we shan't make it better by +publishing it to the world. If you throw up the place in this absurd +fashion--excuse the term--you _will_ publish it to the world at large." + +"Do you think that matters to me?" asked Wyvis, sternly. + +"Perhaps not to you. But it matters to mother, and to me. And it affects +our father's character." + +"Your father's, not mine." + +"He was the only father you ever knew, and you have no reason to find +fault with him." + +Wyvis groaned impatiently. "One has duties to the living, not to the +dead." + +"One has duties to the dead, too. You can't give up the Red House to +me--even if I would take it, which I won't--without having the whole +story made public. My father hasn't a very good reputation in the +County: people will think no better of him for having lamed me, +disinherited me, and practiced a fraud on them. That's what they will +say about the affair, you know. We can't let the world know." + +"Then I'd better go and shoot myself. It seems to me the only thing I +can do." + +"And what about Julian? The estate would pass to him, of course," said +Cuthbert, coolly. He saw that Wyvis' face changed a little at the +mention of Julian's name. + +"No, I could will it to you--make it over to you, with the condition +that it should go to the Foundling Hospital if you wouldn't accept it." + +"I think that a will of that kind could be easily set aside on the +ground of insanity," said Cuthbert, with a slight smile. + +"I could find a way out of the difficulty, if I tried, I have no +doubt," said Wyvis, frowning gloomily and pulling at his moustache. + +"_Don't_ try," said his brother, leaning forward and speaking +persuasively. "Let things continue much as they are. I am content: Nora +is content. Why should you not be so, too?" Then, as Wyvis shook his +head: "Make your mind easy then if you must do something, by giving me a +sum down, or a slice of your income, old man. Upon my word I wouldn't +live in the old place if you gave it to me. It is picturesque--but damp. +Come let's compromise matters." + +"I love every stick and stone in the place," said Wyvis grimly. + +"I know you do. I don't. I want to live in Paris or Vienna with Nora, +and enjoy myself I don't want to paint pot-boilers. I say like the man +in the parable, 'Give me the portion that belongeth to me,' and I'll go +my way, promising, however, not to spend it in riotous living. Won't +that arrangement suit you?" + +Wyvis demurred at first, but was finally persuaded into making an +arrangement of the kind that Cuthbert desired. He retained the Red +House, but he bestowed on his brother enough to give him an ample income +for the life that Cuthbert and Nora wished to lead. During his absence +from England, Mrs. Brand and Julian were still to inhabit the Red House. +And Wyvis announced his intention of going to South America to shoot big +game, from which Cuthbert inferred that his heart, although bruised, was +not broken yet. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +FROM DISTANT LANDS. + + +More than a year had passed away since the events recorded in the last +chapter. Early autumn was beginning to touch the leaves with gold and +crimson; the later flowers were coming into bloom, and the fruit hung +purple and russet-red upon the boughs. The woods about Beaminster had +put on a gorgeous mantle, and the gardens were gay with color, and yet +over all there hung the indefinable brooding melancholy that comes of +the first touch of decay. It was of this that Janetta Colwyn was chiefly +conscious, as she walked in the Red House grounds and looked at the +yellowing leaves that eddied through the still air to the gravelled +walks and unshorn lawns below. Janetta was thinner and paler than in +days of yore, and yet there was a peaceful expression upon her face +which gave it an added charm. She had discarded her black gowns and wore +a pretty dark red dress which suited her admirably. There was a look of +thought and feeling in her dark eyes, a sweetness in her smile, which +would always redeem her appearance from the old charge of insignificance +that used to be brought against it. Small and slight she might be, but +never a woman to be overlooked. + +The past few months had seen several changes in her family. Mrs. Colwyn +was now Mrs. Burroughs, and filled her place with more dignity than had +been expected. She was kept in strict order by her husband and his +sister, and, like many weak persons, was all the better and happier for +feeling a strong hand over her. The children had accommodated themselves +very well to the new life, and were very fond of their stepfather. Nora +and Cuthbert had quitted the Red House almost immediately after their +marriage, and gone to Paris, whence Nora wrote glowing accounts to her +sister of the happiness of her life. And Janetta had taken up her abode +at the Red House, nominally as governess to little Julian, and companion +to Mrs. Brand, but practically ruler of the household, adviser-in-chief +to every one on the estate; teacher, comforter, and confidante in turn, +or all at once. She could not remain long in any place without winning +trust and affection, and there was not a servant in Wyvis Brand's employ +who did not soon learn that the best way of gaining help in need or +redress for any grievance was to address himself or herself to little +Miss Colwyn. To Mrs. Brand, now more weak and ailing than ever, Janetta +was like a daughter. And secure in her love, little Julian never knew +what it was to miss a mother's care. + +Janetta might have her own private cares and worries, but in public, at +any rate, she was seldom anything but cheerful. It was a duty that she +owed the world, she thought, to look bright in it, and especially a duty +to Mrs. Brand and little Julian, who would sorely have missed her ready +playfulness and her tender little jokes if ever she had forgotten +herself so far as to put on a gloomy countenance. And yet she sometimes +felt very much dispirited. She had no prospects of prosperity; she could +not expect to live at the Red House for ever; and yet, when Wyvis came +home and she had to go--which, of course, must happen some time, since +Mrs. Brand was growing old and infirm, and Julian would have to go to +school--what would she do? She asked herself this question many times, +and could never find a very satisfactory answer. She might advertise for +a situation: she might take lodgings in London, and give lessons: she +might go to the house of her stepfather. Each of these attempts to solve +the problem of her future gave her a cold shudder and a sudden sickness +of heart. And yet, as she often severely told herself, what else was +there for her to do? + +She had heard nothing of the Adairs, save through common town gossip, +for many months. The house was shut up, and they were still travelling +abroad. Margaret had evidently quite given up her old friend, Janetta, +and this desertion made Janetta's heart a little sore. Wyvis also was in +foreign lands. He had been to many places, and killed a great many wild +beasts--so much all the world knew, and few people knew anything more. +To his mother he wrote seldom, though kindly. An occasional note to +Julian, or a post card to Cuthbert or his agent, would give a new +address from time to time, but it was to Janetta only that he sometimes +wrote a really long and interesting epistle, detailing some of his +adventures in the friendly and intimate way which his acquaintance with +her seemed to warrant. He did not mention any of his private affairs: he +never spoke of that painful last scene at the Red House, of Margaret, of +his mother, of his wife; but he wrote of the scenes through which he +passed, and the persons whom he met, with an unreserve which Janetta +knew to be the sincerest compliment. + +But on this autumnal day she had received a letter in which another note +was struck. And it was for this reason that she had brought it out into +the garden, so that she might think over it, and read it again in the +shadow of the great beech trees, away from the anxious eyes of Mrs. +Brand and the eager childish questions of Wyvis' boy. + +For three pages Wyvis had written in his usual strain. He was not +perhaps an ideally good letter-writer, but he had a terse, forcible +style of his own, and could describe a scene with some amount of graphic +power. In the midst of an account of certain brigands with whom he had +met in Sicily, however, he had, in this letter, broken off quite +suddenly and struck into a new subject in a new and unexpected way. + +"I had written thus far when I was interrupted: the date of the letter, +you will see, is three weeks ago. I put down my pen and went out: I +found that fever had made its appearance, so I packed up my traps that +afternoon and started for Norway. A sudden change, you will say? Heaven +knows why I went there, but I am glad I did. + +"It was early in July when I reached the hotel at V----. There was +_table d'hote_ and many another sign of civilization, which bored me not +a little. However, I made the best of a bad job, and went down to dinner +with the rest, took my seat without noticing my companions until I was +seated, and then found myself next to--can you guess who, Janetta?--I am +sure you never will. + +"_Lady Caroline Adair!!!_ + +"Her daughter was just beyond her, and Mr. Adair beyond the daughter, so +the fair Margaret was well guarded. Of course I betrayed no sign of +recognition, but I wished myself at Jericho very heartily. For, between +ourselves, Janetta, I made such an ass of myself last summer that my +ears burn to think of it, and it was not a particularly honorable or +gentlemanly ass, I believe, so that I deserve to be drowned in the deep +sea for my folly. I can only hope that I did not show what I felt. + +"Miss Adair was blooming: fair, serene, self-possessed as ever. _She_ +did not show any sign of embarrassment, I can tell you. She did not even +blush. She looked at me once or twice with the faint, well-bred +indifference with which the well-brought-up young lady usually eyes a +perfect stranger. It was Mr. Adair who did all the embarrassment for us. +He turned purple when he saw me, and wanted his daughter to come away +from the table. My ears are quick, and I heard what he said to her, and +I heard also her reply. 'Why should I go away, dear papa! I don't mind +in the least.' Kind of her not to mind, wasn't it? And do you think I +was going to 'mind,' after that? I lifted up my head, which I had +hitherto bent studiously over my soup, and began to talk to my neighbor +on the other side, a stalwart English clergyman with a blue ribbon at +his button-hole. + +"But presently, to my surprise, Lady Caroline addressed me. 'I hope you +have not forgotten me, Mr. Brand,' she said, quite graciously. I must +confess, Janetta, that I stared at her. The calm audacity of the woman +took me by surprise. She looked as amiable as if we were close friends +meeting after a long absence. I hope you won't be very angry with me +when I tell you how I answered her. 'Pardon me,' I said, 'my name is +Wyvis--not Brand.' And then I went on talking to my muscular Christian +on the left. + +"She looked just a little bit disconcerted. Not much, you know. It would +take a great deal to disconcert Lady Caroline very much. But she did not +try to talk to me again! I choked her off that time, anyhow. + +"And, now, let me make a confession. I don't admire Margaret Adair in +the very least. I did, I know: and I made a fool of myself, and worse, +perhaps, about her: but she does, not move one fibre of my heart now, +she does not make it beat a bit faster, and she does not give my eye +more pleasure than a wax doll would give me. She is fair and sweet and +tranquil, I know: but what has she done with her heart and her brain? I +suppose her mother has them in her keeping, and will make them over to +her husband when she marries?... I know a woman who is worth a dozen +Margarets.... + +"But I have made up my mind to live single, so long as Julian's mother +is alive. Legally, I am not bound; morally, I can scarcely feel myself +free. And I know that you feel with me, Janet. The world may call us +over-scrupulous; but I set your judgment higher than that of the world. +And all I can say about Margaret is that I fell into a passing fit of +madness, and cared for nothing but what my fancy dictated; and that now +I am sane--clothed in my right mind, so to speak--I am disgusted with +myself for my folly. Lady Caroline and her daughter should have taken +higher ground. They were right to send me away--but not right to act on +unworthy motives. In the long nights that I have spent camping out under +the quiet stars, far away from the dwellings of men, I have argued the +thing out with myself, and I say unreservedly that they were right and +I was wrong--wrong from beginning to end, wrong to my mother, wrong to +my wife (as she once was), wrong to Margaret, wrong to myself. Your +influence has always been on the side of right and truth, Janetta, and +you more than once told me that I was wrong. + +"So I make my confession. I do not think that I shall come back to +England just yet. I am going to America next week. You will not leave +the Red House, will you? While you are there I can feel at ease about my +mother and my boy. I trust you with them entirely, Janetta; and I want +you to trust me. Wherever I may go, and whatever I may do, I will +henceforward be worthy of your trust and of your friendship." + +This was the letter that Janetta read under the beech trees; and as she +read it tears gathered in her eyes and fell upon the pages. But they +were not tears of sadness--rather tears of joy and thankfulness. For +Wyvis Brand's aberration of mind--so it had always appeared to her--had +given her much pain and sorrow. And he seemed now to have placed his +foot upon the road to better things. + +She was still holding the letter in her hand when she reached the end of +the beech-tree shaded walk along which she had been slowly walking. The +tears were wet upon her cheeks, but a smile played on her lips. She did +not notice for some time that she was watched from the gate that led +into the pasture-land, at the end of the beech-tree walk, by a woman, +who seemed uncertain whether to speak, to enter, or to go away. + +Janetta saw her at last, and wondered what she was doing there. She put +the letter into her pocket, dashed the tears from her eyes, and advanced +towards the gate. + +"Can I do anything for you?" she said. + +The woman looked about thirty-five years old, and possessed the remains +of great beauty. She was haggard and worn: her cheeks were sunken, +though brilliantly red, and her large, velvety-brown eyes were strangely +bright. Her dark, waving hair had probably once been curled over her +brow: it now hung almost straight, and had a rough, dishevelled look, +which corresponded with the soiled and untidy appearance of her dress. +Her gown and mantle were of rich stuff, but torn and stained in many +places; and her gloves and boots were shabby to the very last degree, +while her bonnet, of cheap and tawdry materials, had at any rate the +one merit of being fresh and new. Altogether she was an odd figure to be +seen in a country place; and Janetta wondered greatly whence she came, +and what her errand was at the Red House. + +"Can I do anything for you?" she asked. + +"This is the Red House, I suppose?" the woman asked, hoarsely. + +"Yes, it is." + +"Wyvis Brand's house?" + +Janetta hesitated in surprise, and then said, "Yes," in a rather distant +tone. + +"Who are _you_?" said the woman, looking at her sharply. + +"I am governess to Mr. Brand's little boy." + +"Oh, indeed. And he's at home, I suppose?" + +"No," said Janetta, gravely, "he has been away for more than a year, and +is now, I believe, on his way to America." + +"You lie!" said the woman, furiously; "and you know that you lie!" + +Janetta recoiled a step. Was this person mad? + +"He is at home, and you want to keep me out," the woman went on, wildly. +"You don't want me to set foot in the place, or to see my child again! +He is at home, and I'll see him if I have to trample on your body +first." + +"Nobody wants to keep you out," said Janetta, forcing herself to speak +and look calmly, but tingling with anger from head to foot. "But I +assure you Mr. Brand is away from home. His mother lives here; she is +not very strong, and ought not to be disturbed. If you will give me your +name----" + +"My name?" repeated the other in a tone of mockery. "Oh yes, I'll give +you my name. I don't see why I should hide it; do you? I've been away a +good long time; but I mean to have my rights now. My name is Mrs. Wyvis +Brand: what do you think of that, young lady?" + +She drew herself up as she spoke, looking gaunt and defiant. Her eyes +flamed and her cheeks grew hotter and deeper in tint until they were +poppy-red. She showed her teeth--short, square, white teeth--as if she +wanted to snarl like an angry dog. But Janetta, after the first moment +of repulsion and astonishment, was not dismayed. + +"I did not know," she said, gravely, "that you had any right to call +yourself by that name. I thought that you were divorced from Mr. Wyvis +Brand." + +"Separated for incompatibility of temper; that was all," said Mrs. Brand +coolly. "I told him I'd got a divorce, but it wasn't true. I wanted to +be free from him--that's the truth. I didn't mean him to marry again. I +heard that he was going to be married--is that so! Perhaps he was going +to marry _you_?" + +"No," Janetta answered, very coldly. + +"I'm not going to put up with it if he is," was her visitor's sullen +reply. "I've borne enough from him in my day, I can tell you. So I've +come for the boy. I'm going to have him back; and when I've got him I've +no doubt but what I can make Wyvis do what I choose. I hear he's fond of +the boy." + +"But what--what--do you want him to do?" said Janetta, startled out of +her reserve. "Do you want--_money_ from him?" + +Mrs. Wyvis Brand laughed hoarsely. Janetta noticed that her breath was +very short, and that she leaned against the gate-post for support. + +"No, not precisely," she said. "I want more than that. I see that he's +got a nice, comfortable, respectable house; and I'm tired of wandering. +I'm ill, too, I believe. I want a place in which to be quiet and rest, +or die, as it may turn out. I mean Wyvis to take me back." + +She opened the gate as she spoke, and tried to pass Janetta. But the +girl stood in her way. + +"Take you back after you have left him and ill-treated him and deceived +him, you wicked woman!" she broke out, in her old impetuous way. And for +answer, Mrs. Wyvis Brand raised her hand and struck her sharply across +the face. + +A shrill, childish cry rang out upon the air. Janetta stood mute and +trembling, unable for the moment to move or speak, as little Julian +suddenly flung himself into her arms and tried to drag her towards the +house. + +"Oh, come away, come away, dear Janetta!" he cried. "It's mamma, and +she'll take me back to Paris, I know she will! I won't go away from you, +I won't, I won't!" His mother sprung towards him, as if to tear him from +Janetta's arm, and then her strength seemed suddenly to pass from her. +She stopped, turned ghastly white, and then as suddenly very red. Then +she flung up her arms with a gasping, gurgling cry, and, to Janetta's +horror, she saw a crimson tide break from her quivering lips. She was +just in time to catch her in her arms before she sank senseless to the +ground. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +JULIET. + + +There was no help for it. Into Wyvis Brand's house Wyvis Brand's wife +must go. Old Mrs. Brand came feebly into the garden, and identified the +woman as the mother of Julian, and the wife of her eldest son. She could +not be allowed to die at their door. She could not be taken to any other +dwelling. There were laborers' cottages only in the immediate vicinity. +She must be brought to the Red House and nursed by Janetta and Mrs. +Brand. A woman with a broken blood-vessel, how unworthy soever she might +be, could not be sent to the Beaminster Hospital three miles away. +Common humanity forbade it. She must, for a time at least, be nursed in +the place where she was taken ill. + +So she was carried indoors and laid in the best bedroom, which was a +gloomy-looking place until Janetta began to make reforms in it. When she +had put fresh curtains to the windows, and set flowers on the +window-sill, and banished some of the old black furniture, the room +looked a trifle more agreeable, and there was nothing on which poor +Juliet Brand's eye could dwell with positive dislike or dissatisfaction +when she came to herself. But for some time she lay at the very point of +death, and it seemed to Janetta and to all the watchers at the bedside +that Mrs. Wyvis Brand could not long continue in the present world. + +Mrs. Brand the elder seldom came into the room. She showed a singular +horror of her daughter-in-law: she would not even willingly speak of +her. She pleaded her ill-health as an excuse for not taking her share of +the nursing; and when it seemed likely that Janetta would be worn out by +it, she insisted that a nurse from the Beaminster Hospital should be +procured. "It will not be for long," she said gloomily, when Janetta +spoke regretfully of the expense. For Janetta was chief cashier and +financier in the household. + +But it appeared as if she were mistaken. Mrs. Brand did not die, as +everybody expected. She lay for a time in a very weak state, and then +began gradually to recover strength. Before long, she was able to +converse, and then she showed a preference for Janetta's society which +puzzled the girl not a little. For Julian she also showed some fondness, +but he sometimes wearied, sometimes vexed her, and a visit of a very few +minutes sufficed for both mother and son. Julian himself exhibited not +only dislike but terror of her. He tried to run away and hide when the +hour came for his daily visit to his mother's room; and when Janetta +spoke to him on the subject rather anxiously, he burst into tears and +avowed he was afraid. + +"Afraid of what?" said Janetta. + +But he only sobbed and would not tell. + +"She can't hurt you, Julian, dear. She is ill and weak and lonely; and +she loves you. It's not kind and loving of you to run away." + +"I don't want to be unkind." + +"Or unloving?" said Janetta. + +"I don't love her," the boy answered, and bit his lip. His eye flashed +for a moment, and then he looked down as if he were ashamed of the +confession. + +"Julian, dear? Your mother?" + +"I can't help it. She hasn't been very much like a mother to me." + +"You should not say that, dear. She loves you very much; and all people +do not love in the same way." + +"Oh, it isn't that," said the boy, as if in desperation. "I know she +loves me, but--but----" And there he broke down in a passion of tears +and sobs, amidst which Janetta could distinguish only a few words, such +as "Suzanne said"--"father"--"make me wicked too." + +"Do you mean," said Janetta, more shocked than she liked to show, "that +you think your father wicked?" + +"Oh, no, no! Suzanne said mother was not good. Not father." + +"But, my dear boy, you must not say that your mother is not good. You +have no reason to say so, and it is a terrible thing to say." + +"She was unkind to father--and to me, too," Julian burst forth. "And she +struck you; she is wicked and unkind, and I don't love her. And Suzanne +said she would make me wicked, too, and that I was just like her; and I +don't want--to--be--wicked." + +"Nobody can make you wicked if you are certain that you want to be +good," said Janetta, gravely; "and it was very wrong of Suzanne to say +anything that could make you think evil of your mother." + +"Isn't she naughty, then?" Julian asked in a bewildered tone. + +"I do not know," Janetta answered, very seriously. "Only God knows that. +We cannot tell. It is the last thing we ought say." + +"But--but--you call me naughty sometimes?" the child said, fixing a pair +of innocent, inquiring eyes upon her. + +"Ah, but, my dear, I do not love you the less," said Janetta, out of the +fullness of her heart, and she took him in her arms and kissed him. + +"You are more like what I always think a mother ought to be," said +Julian. What stabs children inflict on us sometimes by their artless +words! Janetta shuddered a little as he spoke. "Then ought I to love +her, whether she is good or bad?" + +Janetta paused. She was very anxious to say only what was right. + +"Yes, my darling," she said at last. "Love her always, through +everything. She is your mother, and she has a right to your love." + +And then, in simple words, she talked to him about right and wrong, +about love and duty and life, until, with brimming eyes, he flung his +arms about her, and said---- + +"Yes, I understand now. And I will love her and take care of her always, +because God sent me to her to do that." + +And he objected no more to the daily visit to his mother's room. + +The sick woman's restless eyes, sharpened by illness, soon discerned the +change in his demeanor. + +"You've been talking to that boy about me," she said one day to Janetta, +in a quick, sensitive voice. + +"Nothing that would hurt you," Janetta replied, smiling. + +"Oh, indeed, I'm not so sure of that. He used to run away from me, and +now he sits beside me like a lamb. I know what you've been saying." + +"What?" said Janetta. + +"You've been saying that I'm going to die, and that he won't be bothered +with me long. Eh?" + +"No; nothing of that kind." + +"What did you say, then?" + +"I told him," said Janetta, slowly, "that God sent him to you as a +little baby to be a help and comfort to you; and that it was a son's +duty to protect and sustain his mother, as she had once protected and +sustained him." + +"And you think he understood that sort of nonsense?" + +"You see for yourself whether he does or not," said Janetta, gently. "He +likes to come and see you and sit beside you now." + +Mrs. Wyvis Brand was silent for a minute or two. A tear gathered in each +of her defiant black eyes, but she did not allow either of them to fall. + +"You're a queer one," she said, with a hard laugh. "I never met anybody +like you before. You're religious, aren't you?" + +"I don't know: I should like to be," said Janetta, soberly. + +"That's the queerest thing you've said yet. And all you religious people +look down on folks like me." + +"Then I'm not religious, for I don't look down on folks like you at +all," said Janetta, calmly adopting Mrs. Brand's vocabulary. + +"Well, you ought to. I'm not a very good sort myself." + +Janetta smiled, but made no other answer: And presently Juliet Brand +remarked-- + +"I dare say I'm not so bad as some people, but I've never been a saint, +you know. And the day I came here I was in an awful temper. I struck +you, didn't I?" + +"Oh, never mind that," said Janetta, hastily. "You were tired: you +hardly knew what you were doing." + +"Yes, I did," said Mrs. Brand. "I knew perfectly well. But I hated you, +because you lived here and had care of Julian. I had heard all about you +at Beaminster, you see. And people said that you would probably marry +Wyvis when he came home again. Oh, I've made you blush, have I? It was +true then?" + +"Not at all; and you have no right to say so." + +"Don't be angry, my dear. I don't want to vex you. But it looks to me +rather as though----Well, we won't say any more about it since it vexes +you. I shan't trouble you long, most likely, and then Wyvis can do as he +pleases. But you see it was that thought that maddened me when I came +here, and I felt as if I'd like to fall upon you and tear you limb from +limb. So I struck you on the face when you tried to thwart me." + +"But--I don't understand," said Janetta, tremulously. "I thought you did +not--_love_--Wyvis." + +Mrs. Brand laughed. "Not in your way," she said in an enigmatic tone. +"But a woman can hate a man and be jealous of him too. And I was jealous +of you, and struck you. And in return for that you've nursed me night +and day, and waited on me, until you're nearly worn out, and the doctor +says I owe my life to you. Don't you think I'm right when I say you're a +queer one?" + +"It would be very odd if I neglected you when you were ill just because +of a moment of passion on your part," said Janetta, rather stiffly. It +was difficult to her to be perfectly natural just then. + +"Would it? Some people wouldn't say so. But come--you say I don't love +Wyvis?" + +"I thought so--certainly." + +"Well, look here," said Wyvis' wife. "I'll tell you something. Wyvis was +tired of me before ever he married me. I soon found that out. And you +think I should be caring for him then? Not I. But there _was_ a time +when I would have kissed the very ground he walked on. But he never +cared for me like that." + +"Then--why----". + +"Why did he marry me? Chiefly because his old fool of a mother egged him +on. She should have let us alone." + +"Did she want him to marry you?" said Janetta, in some amaze. + +"It doesn't seem likely, does it?" said Mrs. Brand, with a sharp, +heartless little laugh. "But she sets up for having a conscience now and +then. I was a girl in a shop, I may tell you, and Wyvis made love to me +without the slightest idea of marrying me. Then Mrs. Brand comes on the +scene: 'Oh, my dear boy, you mustn't make that young woman unhappy. I +was made unhappy by a gentleman when I was a girl, and I don't want you +to behave as he did." + +"And that was very good of Mrs. Brand!" said Janetta, courageously. + +Juliet made a grimace. "After a fashion. She had better have let us +alone. She put Wyvis into a fume about his honor; and so he asked me to +marry him. And I cared for him--though I cared more about his +position--and I said yes. So we were married, and a nice cat and dog +life we had of it together." + +"And then you left him?" + +"Yes, I did. I got tired of it all at last. But I always lived +respectably, except for taking a little too much stimulant now and then; +and I never brought any dishonor on his name. And at last I thought the +best thing for us both would be to set him free. And I wrote to him that +he _was_ free. But there was some hitch--I don't know what exactly. Any +way, we're bound to each other as fast as ever we were, so we needn't +think to get rid of each other just yet." + +Janetta felt a throb of thankfulness, for Margaret's sake. Suppose she +had yielded to Wyvis' solicitations and become his wife, to be proved +only no wife at all? Her want of love for Wyvis had at least saved her +from terrible misery. Mrs. Brand went on, reflectively-- + +"When I'm gone, he can marry whom he likes. I only hope it'll be anybody +as good as you. You'd make a capital mother to Julian. And I don't +suppose I shall trouble anybody very long." + +"You are getting better--you will soon be perfectly well." + +"Nonsense: nothing of the kind. But if I am, I know one thing," said +Mrs. Brand, in a petulant tone; "I won't be kept out of my rights any +longer. This house seems to be nice and comfortable: I shall stay here. +I am tired of wandering about the world." + +Janetta was silent and went on with some needle-work. + +"You don't like that, do you?" said Mrs. Brand, peering into her face. +"You think I'd be better away." + +"No," said Janetta. But she could not say more. + +"Do you know where he is?" + +"He? Wyvis?" + +"Yes, my husband." + +"I have an address. I do not know whether he is there or not, but he +would no doubt get a letter if sent to the place. Do you wish to write +to him?" + +"No. But I want you to write. Write and say that I am here. Ask him to +come back." + +"You had better write yourself." + +"No. He would not read it. Write for me." + +Janetta could not refuse. But she felt it one of the hardest tasks that +she had ever had to perform in life. She was sorry for Juliet Brand, but +she shrank with all her heart and soul from writing to Wyvis to return +to her. Yet what else could she do? + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +THE FRUITS OF A LIE. + + +When she told old Mrs. Brand what she had done, she was amazed to mark +the change which came over that sad and troubled countenance. Mrs. +Brand's face flushed violently, her eyes gleamed with a look as near +akin to wrath as any which Janetta had ever seen upon it. + +"You have promised to write to Wyvis?" she cried. "Why? What is it to +you? Why should you write?" + +"Why should I not?" asked Janetta, in surprise. + +"He will never come back to her--never. And it is better so. She spoiled +his life with her violence, her extravagance, her flirtations. He could +not bear it; and why should he be brought back to suffer all again?" + +"She is his wife still," said the girl, in a low tone. + +"They are separated. She tried to get a divorce, even if she did not +succeed. I do not call her his wife." + +Janetta shook her head. "I cannot think of it as you do, then," she +said, quietly. "She and Wyvis are married; and as they separated only +for faults of temper, not for unfaithfulness, I do not believe that they +have any right to divorce each other. Some people may think +differently--I cannot see it in that way." + +"You mean," said Mrs. Brand, with curious agitation of manner; "you mean +that even if she had divorced him in America, you would not think him +free--free to marry again?" + +"No," Janetta answered, "I would not." + +She felt a singular reluctance to answering the question, and she hoped +that Mrs. Brand would ask her nothing more. She was relieved when Wyvis' +mother moved away, after standing perfectly still for a moment, with her +hands clasped before her, a strange ashen shade of color disfiguring her +handsome old face. Janetta thought the face had grown wonderfully tragic +of late; but she hoped that when Juliet had left the house the poor +mother would again recover the serenity of mind which she had gained +during the past few months of Janetta's gentle companionship. + +She wrote her letter to Wyvis, making it as brief and business-like as +possible. She dwelt a good deal on Juliet's weakness, on her love for +the boy, and her desire to see him once again. At the same time she +added her own conviction that Mrs. Wyvis Brand was on the high road to +recovery, and would soon be fairly strong and well. She dared not give +any hint as to a possible reconciliation, but she felt, even as she +penned her letter, that it was to this end that she was working. "And it +is right," she said steadily to herself; "there is nothing to gain in +disunion: everything to lose by unfaithfulness. It will be better for +Julian--for all three--that father and mother should no longer be +divided." + +But although she argued thus, she had a somewhat different and entirely +instinctive feeling in her heart. To begin with, she could not imagine +persons more utterly unsuited to one another than Wyvis and his wife. +Juliet had no principles, no judgment, to guide her: she was impulsive +and passionate; she did not speak the truth, and she seemed in her +wilder moments to care little what she did. Wyvis had faults--who knew +them better than Janetta, who had studied his character with great and +loving care?--but they were nor of the same kind. His mood was +habitually sombre; Juliet loved pleasure and variety: his nature was a +loving one, strong and deep, although undisciplined; but Juliet's light +and fickle temperament made her shrink from and almost dislike +characteristics so different from her own. And Janetta soon saw that in +spite of her open defiance of her husband she was a little afraid of +him; and she could well imagine that when Wyvis was angry he was a man +of whom a woman might very easily be afraid. + +Yet, when the letter was despatched, Janetta felt a sense of relief. She +had at least done her duty, as she conceived of it. She did not know +what the upshot might be; but at any rate, she had done her best to put +matters in train towards the solving of the problem of Wyvis' married +life. + +She was puzzled during the next few days by some curious, indefinable +change in Mrs. Brand's demeanor. The poor woman had of late seemed +almost distraught; she had lost all care, apparently, for appearances, +and went along the corridors moaning Wyvis' name sadly to herself, and +wringing her hands as if in bitter woe. Her dress was neglected, and her +hair unbrushed: indeed, when Janetta was too busy to give her a +daughter's loving care, as it was her custom and her pleasure to do, +poor Mrs. Brand roamed about the house looking like a madwoman. Her +madness was, however, of a gentle kind: it took the form of melancholia, +and manifested itself chiefly by continual restlessness and occasional +bursts of weeping and lament. + +In one of these outbreaks Janetta found her shortly after she had sent +her letter to Wyvis, and tried by all means in her power to soothe and +pacify her. + +"Dear grandmother," she began--for she had caught the word from Julian, +and Mrs. Brand liked her to use it--"why should you be so sad? Wyvis is +coming home, Juliet is better, little Julian is well, and we are all +happy." + +"_You_ are not happy," said Mrs. Brand, throwing up her hands with a +curiously tragic gesture. "You are miserable--miserable; and I am the +most unhappy woman living!" + +"No," I said Janetta, gently. "I am not miserable at all. And there are +many women more unhappy than you are. You have a home, sons who love +you, a grandson, friends--see how many things you have that other people +want! Is it right to speak of yourself as unhappy?" + +"Child," said the older woman, impressively, "you are young, and do not +know what you say. Does happiness consist in houses and clothes, or even +in children and friends? I have been happier in a cottage than in the +grandest house. As for friends--what friends have I? None; my husband +would never let me make friends lest I should expose my ignorance, and +disgrace him by my low birth and bringing up. I have never had a woman +friend." + +"But your children," said Janetta, putting her arms tenderly round the +desolate woman's neck. + +"Ah, my children! When they were babies, they were a pleasure to me. But +they have never been a pleasure since. They have been a toil and a pain +and a bondage. That began when Wyvis was a little child, and Mr. Brand +took a fancy to him and wanted to make every one believe that he was +_his_ child, not John's. I foresaw that there would be trouble, but he +would never listen to me. It was just a whim of the moment at first, and +then, when he saw that the deceit troubled me, it became a craze with +him. And whatever he said, I had to seem to agree with. I dared not +contradict him. I hated the deceit, and the more I hated it, the more he +loved it and practiced it in my hearing, until I used to be sick with +misery. Oh, my dear, it is the worst of miseries to be forced into +wrong-doing against your will." + +"But why did you give way?" said Janetta, who could not fancy herself in +similar circumstances being forced into anything at all. + +"My dear, he made me, I dared not cross him. He made me suffer, and he +made the children suffer if ever I opposed him. What could I do?" said +the poor woman, twisting and untwisting her thin hands, and looking +piteously into Janetta's face. "I was obliged to obey him--he was my +husband, and so much above me, so much more of a gentleman than I ever +was a lady. You know that I never could say him nay. He ruled me, as he +used to say, with a rod of iron--for he made a boast of it, my dear--and +he was never so happy, I think, as when he was torturing me and making +me wince with pain." + +"He must have been----" when Janetta stopped short: she could not say +exactly what she thought of Mrs. Brand's second husband. + +"He was cruel, my dear: cruel, that is, to women. Not cruel amongst his +own set--among his equals, as he would have said--not cruel to boys. But +always cruel to women. Some woman must have done him a grievous wrong +one day--I never knew who she was; but I am certain that it was so; and +that soured and embittered him. He was revenging himself on that other +woman, I used to think, when he was cruel to me." + +Janetta dared not speak. + +"I did not mind his cruelty when it meant nothing but bodily pain, you +know, my dear," Mrs. Brand continued patiently. "But it was harder for +me to bear when it came to what might be called moral things. You see I +loved him, and I could not say him nay. If he told me to lie, I had to +do it. I never forgave myself for the lies I told at his bidding. And if +he were here to tell me to do the same things I should do them still. If +he had turned Mohammedan, and told me to trample on the Bible or the +Cross, as I have read in missionary books that Christians have sometimes +been bribed to do, I should have obeyed him. I was his body and soul, +and all my misery has come out of that." + +"How?" Janetta asked. + +"I brought Wyvis up on a lie," the mother answered, her face growing +woefully stern and rigid as she mentioned his name, "and it has been my +punishment that he has always hated lies. I have trembled to hear him +speak against falsehood--to catch his look of scorn when he began to see +that his father did not speak truth. Very early he made me understand +that he would never be likely to forgive us for the deception we +practiced on him. For his good, you will say; but ah, my dear, deception +is never for anybody's good. I never forgave myself, and Wyvis will +never forgive me. And yet he is my child. Now you see the happiness that +lies in having children." + +Janetta tried to dissipate the morbid terror of the past, the morbid +dread of Wyvis' condemnation, which hung like a shadow over the poor +woman's mind, but she was far from being successful. + +"You do not know," was all that Mrs. Brand would say. "You do not +understand." And then she broke out more passionately-- + +"I have done him harm all his life. His misery has been my fault. You +heard him tell me so. It is true: there is no use denying it. And he +knows it." + +"He spoke in a moment of anger: he did not know what he said." + +"Oh, yes, he did, and he meant it too. I have heard him say a similar +thing before. You see it was I that brought about this wretched marriage +of his--because I pitied this woman, and thought her case was like my +own--that she loved Wyvis as I loved Mark Brand. I brought that +marriage about, and Wyvis has cursed me ever since." + +"No, no," said Janetta, kissing her troubled face, "Wyvis would never +curse his mother for doing what she thought right. Wyvis loves you. +Surely you know that--you believe that? Wyvis is not a bad son." + +"No, my dear, not a bad son, but a cruelly injured one," said Mrs. +Brand. "And he blames me. I cannot blame him: it was all my fault for +not opposing Mark when he wanted me to help him to carry out his wicked +scheme." + +"I think," said Janetta, tentatively, "that Cuthbert has more right to +feel himself injured than Wyvis." + +"Cuthbert?" Mrs. Brand repeated, in an indifferent tone. "Oh, Cuthbert +is of no consequence: his father always said so. A lame, sickly, +cowardly child! If we had had a strong, healthy lad of our own, Mark +would not have put Wyvis in Cuthbert's place, but with a boy like +Cuthbert, what would you expect him to do?" + +It seemed to Janetta almost as if her mind were beginning to wander: the +references to Cuthbert's boyish days appeared to be so extraordinarily +clear and defined--almost as though she were living again through the +time when Cuthbert was supplanted by her boy Wyvis. But when she spoke +again, Mrs. Brand's words were perfectly clear, and apparently +reasonable in tone. + +"I often think that if I could do my poor boy some great service, he +would forgive me in heart as well as in deed. I would do anything in the +world for him, Janetta, if only I could give him back the happiness of +which I robbed him." + +Janetta could not exactly see that the poor mother's sins had been so +great against Wyvis as against Cuthbert, but it was evident that Mrs. +Brand could never be brought to look at matters in this light. The +thought that she had injured her first-born son had taken possession of +her completely, and seriously disturbed the balance of her faculties. +The desire to make amends to Wyvis for her wrong-doing had already +reached almost a maniacal point: how much further it might be carried +Janetta never thought of guessing. + +She was anxious about Mrs. Brand, but more so for her physical than for +her mental strength. For her powers were evidently failing in every +direction, and the doctor spoke warningly to Janetta of the weakness of +her heart's action, and the desirability of shielding her from every +kind of agitation. It was impossible to provide against every kind of +shock, but Janetta promised to do her best. + +The winter was approaching before Janetta's letter to Wyvis received an +answer. She was beginning to feel very anxious about it, for his silence +alarmed and also surprised her. She could hardly imagine a man of Wyvis' +disposition remaining unmoved when he read the letter that she had sent +him. His wife's health was, moreover, giving her serious concern. She +had caught cold on one of the foggy autumnal days, and the doctor +assured her that her life would be endangered if she did not at once +seek a warmer climate. But she steadily refused to leave the Red House. + +"I won't go," she said to Janetta, with a red spot of anger on either +cheek, "until I know whether he means to do the proper thing by me or +not." + +"He is sure to do that; you need have no fear," said Janetta, bluntly. + +An angry gleam shot from the sick woman's eyes. "You defend him through +thick and thin, don't you? Wyvis has a knack of getting women to stick +up for him. They say the worst men are often the most beloved." + +Janetta left the room, feeling both sick and sorry, and wondering how +much longer she could bear this kind of life. It was telling upon her +nerves and on her strength in every possible way. And yet she could not +abandon her post--unless, indeed, Wyvis himself relieved her. And from +him for many weary days there came no word. + +But at last a telegram arrived--dated from Liverpool. "I shall be with +you to-morrow. Your letter was delayed, and reached me only by +accident," Wyvis said. And then his silence was explained. + +Janetta carried the news of his approaching arrival to wife and mother +in turn. Mrs. Wyvis took it calmly. "I told you so," she said, with a +triumphant little nod. But Mrs. Brand was terribly agitated, and even, +as it seemed to Janetta, amazed. "I never thought that he would come," +she said, in a loud whisper, with a troubled face and various nervous +movements of her hands. "I never thought that he would come back to her. +I must be quick. I must be quick, indeed." And when Janetta tried to +soothe her, and said that she must now make haste to be well and strong +when Wyvis was returning, she answered only in about the self-same +words--"never thought it, my dear, indeed, I never did. But if he is +coming back, so soon, I must be quick--I must be very quick." + +And Janetta could not persuade her to say why. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +NIGHT. + + +It was the night before Wyvis' return. The whole household seemed +somewhat disorganized by the prospect. There was an air of subdued +excitement visible in the oldest and staidest of the servants, for in +spite of Wyvis' many shortcomings and his equivocal position, he was +universally liked by his inferiors, if not by those who esteemed +themselves his superiors, in social station. Mrs. Brand had gone to bed +early, and Janetta hoped that she was asleep; Mrs. Wyvis had kept +Janetta at her bedside until after eleven o'clock, regaling her with an +account of her early experience in Paris. When at last she seemed +sleepy, Janetta said good-night and went to her own room. She was tired +but wakeful. The prospect of Wyvis' return excited her; she felt that it +would be impossible to sleep that night, and she resolved therefore to +establish herself before the fire in her own room, with a book, and to +see, by carefully abstracting her mind from actual fact, whether she +could induce the shy goddess, sleep, to visit her. + +She read for some time, but she had great difficulty in fixing her mind +upon her book. She found herself conning the same words over and over +again, without understanding their meaning in the least; her thoughts +flew continually to Wyvis and his affairs, and to the mother and wife +and son with whom her fate had linked her with such curious closeness. +At last she relinquished the attempt to read, and sat for some time +gazing into the fire. She heard the clock strike one; the quarter and +half-hour followed at intervals, but still she sat on. Anyone who had +seen her at that hour would hardly have recognized her for the +vivacious, sparkling, ever cheerful woman who made the brightness of the +Red House; the sunshine had left her face, her eyes were wistful, almost +sad; the lines of her mouth drooped, and her cheeks had grown very pale. +She felt very keenly that the period of happy, peaceful work and rest +which she had enjoyed for the last few months was coming to an end. She +was trying to picture to herself what her future life would be, and it +was difficult to imagine it when her old ties had all been severed. "It +seems as if I had to give up everybody that I ever cared for," she said +to herself, not complainingly, but as one recognizing the fact that some +persons are always more or less lonely in the world, and that she +belonged to a lonely class. "My father has gone--my brother and sisters +do not need me; Margaret abandoned me; Wyvis and his mother and Julian +are lost to me from henceforth. God forgive me," said Janetta to +herself, burying her face in her hands and shedding some very heartfelt +tears, "if I seem to be repining at my friends' good fortune; I do not +mean it; I wish them every joy. But what I fear is, lest it should not +be for their good--that Wyvis and his mother and Julian should be +unhappy." + +She was roused from her reflection by a sound in the corridor. It was a +creaking board, she knew that well enough; but the board never creaked +unless some one trod upon it. Who could be walking about the house at +this time of night? Mrs. Brand, perhaps; she was terribly restless at +night, and often went about the house, seeking to tire herself so +completely that sleep would be inevitable on her return to bed. On a +cold night, such expeditions were not, however, unattended by danger, as +she was not careful to protect herself against draughts, and it was with +the desire to care for her that Janetta at last rose and took up a soft +warm shawl with which she thought that she might cover Mrs. Brand's +shoulders. + +With the shawl over her arm and a candle in one hand she opened her door +and looked out into the passage. It was unlighted, and the air seemed +very chilly. Janetta stole along the corridor like a thief, and peeped +into Mrs. Brand's bedroom; as was expected, it was empty. Then she +looked into Julian's room, for she had several times found the +grandmother praying by his bed, at dead of night; but Julian slumbered +peacefully, and nobody else was there. Janetta rather wonderingly turned +her attention to the lower rooms of the house. But Mrs. Brand was not to +be found in any of the sitting rooms; and the hall door was securely +locked and bolted, so that she could not have gone out into the garden. + +"She must be upstairs," said Janetta to herself. "But what can she be +doing in that upper storey, where there are only empty garrets and +servants rooms! I did not look into the spare room, however; perhaps she +has gone to see if it is ready for Wyvis, and I did not go to Juliet. +She cannot have gone to _her_, surely; she never enters the room unless +she is obliged." + +Nevertheless, her heart began to beat faster, and she involuntarily +quickened her steps. She did not believe that Mrs. Brand would seek +Juliet's room with any good intent, and as she reached the top of the +stairs her eyes dilated and her face grew suddenly pale with fear. For a +strange whiff of something--was it smoke?--came into her eyes, and an +odd smell of burning assailed her nostrils. Fire, was it fire? She +remembered that Wyvis had once said that the Red House would burn like +tinder if it was ever set alight. The old woodwork was very combustible, +and there was a great deal of it, especially in the upper rooms. + +Juliet's door was open. Janetta stood before it for the space of one +half second, stupefied and aghast. Smoke was rapidly filling the room +and circling into the corridor; the curtains near the window were in a +blaze, and Mrs. Brand, with a lighted candle in her hand, was +deliberately setting fire to the upholstery of the bed where the +unconscious Juliet lay. Janetta never forgot the moment's vision that +she obtained of Mrs. Brand's pale, worn, wildly despairing face--the +face of a madwoman as she now perceived, who was not responsible for the +deed she did. + +Janetta sprang to the window curtains, dragged them down and trampled +upon them. Her thick dressing gown, and the woollen shawl that she +carried all helped in extinguishing the flame. Her appearance had +arrested Mrs. Brand in her terrible work; she paused and began to +tremble, as if she knew in some vague way that she was doing what was +wrong. The flame had already caught the curtains, which were of a light +material, and was creeping up to the woodwork of the old-fashioned bed, +singeing and blackening as it went. These, also, Janetta tore down, +burning her hands as she did so, and then with her shawl she pressed out +the sparks that were beginning to fly dangerously near the sleeping +woman. A heavy ewer of water over the mouldering mass of torn muslin and +lace completed her task; and by that time Juliet had started from her +sleep, and was asking in hysterical accents what was wrong. + +Her screams startled the whole household, and the servants came in +various stages of dress and undress to know what was the matter. Mrs. +Brand had set down her candle and was standing near the door, trembling +from head to foot, and apparently so much overcome by the shock as to be +unable to answer any question. That was thought very natural. "Poor +lady! what a narrow escape! No wonder she was upset," said one of the +maids sympathetically, and tried to lead her back to her own room. But +Mrs. Brand refused to stir. + +Meanwhile Juliet was screaming that she was burning, that the whole +house was on fire, that she should die of the shock, and that Wyvis was +alone to blame--after her usual fashion of expressing herself wildly +when she was suffering from any sort of excitement of mind. + +"You are quite safe now," Janetta said at last, rather sharply. "The +fire is out: it was never very much. Come into my room: the bed may be +cold and damp now, and the smoke will make you cough." + +She was right; the lingering clouds of smoke were producing unpleasant +effects on the throat and lungs of Mrs. Wyvis Brand; and she was glad to +be half led, half carried, by two of the servants into Janetta's room. +And no sooner was she laid in Janetta's bed than a little white figure +rushed out of another room and flew towards her, crying out: + +"Mother! Mother! You are not hurt?" + +She was not hurt, but she was shaken and out of breath, and Julian's +caresses were not altogether opportune. Still she did not seem to be +vexed by them. Perhaps they were too rare to be unwelcome. She let him +creep into bed beside her, and lay with her arm round him as if he were +still a baby at her breast, and then for a time they slept together, +mother and child, as they had not slept since the days of Julian's +babyhood. For both it may have been a blessed hour. Julian scarcely knew +what it was to feel a mother's love; and with Juliet, the softer side of +her nature had long been hidden beneath a crust of coldness and +selfishness. But those moments of tenderness which a common danger had +brought to light would live for ever in Julian's memory. + +While these two were sleeping, however, others in the house were busy. +As soon as Juliet was out of the room, Janetta turned anxiously to Mrs. +Brand. "Come with me, dear," she said. "Come back to your room. You will +catch cold." + +She felt no repulsion, nothing but a great pity for the hapless woman +whose nature was not strong enough to bear the strain to which it had +been subjected, and she wished, above all things, to keep secret the +origin of the fire. If Mrs. Brand would but be silent, she did not think +that Juliet could fathom the secret, but she was not sure that poor Mrs. +Brand would not betray herself. At present, she showed no signs of +understanding what had been said to her. + +"She is quite upset by the shock," said the maid who had previously +spoken. "And no wonder. And oh! Miss Colwyn, don't you know how burnt +your hands are! You must have them seen to, I'm sure." + +"Never mind my hands, I don't feel them," said Janetta brusquely. "Help +me to get Mrs. Brand to her room, and then send for a doctor. Go to Dr. +Burroughs, he will know what to do. I want him here as quickly as +possible. And bring me some oil and cotton wool." + +The servants looked at one another, astonished at the strangeness of her +tone. But they were fond of her and always did her bidding gladly, so +they performed her behest, and helped her to lead Mrs. Brand, who was +now perfectly passive in their hands, into her own room. + +But when she was there, the old butler returned to knock at the door and +ask to speak to Miss Colwyn alone. Janetta came out, with a feeling of +curious fear. She held the handle of the door as he spoke to her. + +"I beg pardon, m'm," he said deferentially, "but hadn't I better keep +them gossiping maids out of the room over there?" + +Janetta looked into his face, and saw that he more than suspected the +truth. + +"What do you mean?" she asked. + +"The window curtains are burned, m'm, and the bed-curtains; also the bed +clothes in different places, and one or two other light articles about +the room. It is easy to see that it was not exactly an accident, m'm." + +Then, seeing Janetta's color change, he added kindly, "But there's no +call for you to feel afraid, m'm. We've all known as the poor lady's +been going off her head for a good long time, and this is only perhaps +what might have been expected, seeing what her feelings are. You leave +it all to me, and just keep her quiet, m'm; I'll see to the room, and +nobody else shall put their foot into it. The master will be home this +morning, I hope and trust." + +He hobbled away, and Janetta went back to Mrs. Brand. The reaction was +setting in; her own hurts had not been attended to, and were beginning +to give her a good deal of pain; and she was conscious of sickness and +faintness as well as fatigue. A great dread of Mrs. Brand's next words +and actions was also coming over her. + +But for the present, at least, she need not have been afraid! Mrs. Brand +was lying on the bed in a kind of stupor: her eyes were only half-open; +her hands were very cold. + +Janetta did her best to warm and comfort her physically; and then, +finding that she seemed to sleep more naturally, she got her hands bound +up and sat down to await the coming of the doctor. + +But she was not destined to wait in idleness very long. She was summoned +to Mrs. Wyvis Brand, who had awakened suddenly from her sleep and was +coughing violently. Little Julian had to be hastily sent back to his own +room, for his mother's cough was dangerous as well as distressing to +her, and Janetta was anxious that he should not witness what might prove +to be a painful sight. + +And she was not far wrong. For the violent cough produced on this +occasion one of its most serious results. The shock, the exposure, the +exertion, had proved almost too much for Mrs. Wyvis Brand's strength. +She ruptured a blood-vessel just as the doctor entered the house; and +all that he could do was to check the bleeding with ice, and enjoin +perfect quiet and repose. And when he had seen her, he had to hear from +Janetta the story of that terrible night. She felt that it was wise to +trust Dr. Burroughs entirely, and she told him, in outline, the whole +story of Mrs. Brand's depression of spirits, and of her evident half-mad +notion that she might gain Wyvis' forgiveness for her past mistakes by +some deed that would set him free from his unloved wife, and enable him +to lead a happier life in the future. + +The doctor shook his head when he saw his patient. "It is just as well +for her, perhaps," he said afterwards, "but it is sad for her son and +for those who love her--if any one does! She will probably not recover. +She is in a state of complete prostration; and she will most likely slip +away in sleep." + +"Oh, I am sorry," said Janetta, with tears in her eyes. + +The doctor looked at her kindly. "You need not be sorry for her, my +dear. She is best out of a world which she was not fitted to cope with. +You should not wish her to stay." + +"It will be so sad for Wyvis, when he comes home to-day," murmured +Janetta, her lip trembling. + +"He is coming to-day, is he? Early this morning? I will stay with you, +if you like." + +Janetta was glad of the offer, although it gave her an uneasy feeling +that the end was nearer than she thought. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +THE LAST SCENE. + + +"She does not know you," Dr. Burroughs said, when, a few hours later, +Wyvis bent over his mother's pillow and looked into her quiet, +care-lined face. + +"Will she never know me?" asked the young man in a tone of deep +distress. "My poor mother! I must tell her how sorry I am for the pain +that I have often given her." + +"She may be conscious for a few minutes by-and-bye," the doctor said. +"But consciousness will only show that the end is near." + +There was a silence in the room. Mrs. Brand had now lain in a stupor for +many hours. Wyvis had been greeted on his arrival with sad news indeed: +his mother and wife were seriously ill, and the doctor acknowledged +that he did not think Mrs. Brand likely to live for many hours. + +Wyvis had not been allowed to enter his wife's room, Juliet had to be +kept very quiet, lest the haemorrhage should return. He was almost glad +of the respite; he dreaded the meeting, and he was anxious to bestow all +his time upon his mother. Janetta had told him something about what had +passed; he had heard an outline, but only an outline, of the sad story, +and it must be confessed that as yet he could not understand it. It was +perhaps difficult for a man to fathom the depths of a woman's morbid +misery, or of a doating mother's passionate and unreasonable love. He +grieved, however, over what was somewhat incomprehensible to him, and he +thought once or twice with a sudden sense of comfort that Janetta would +explain, Janetta would make him understand. He looked round for her when +this idea occurred to him; but she was not in the room. She did not like +to intrude upon what might be the last interview between mother and son, +for she was firmly persuaded that Mrs. Brand would recover +consciousness, and would tell Wyvis in her own way something of what she +had thought and felt; but she was not far off, and when Wyvis sent her a +peremptory message to the effect that she was wanted, she came at once +and took up her position with him as watcher beside his mother's bed. + +Janetta was right. Mrs. Brand's eyes opened at last, and rested on +Wyvis' face with a look of recognition. She smiled a little, and seemed +pleased that he was there. It was plain that for the moment she had +quite forgotten the events of the last few hours, and the first words +that she spoke proved that the immediate past had completely faded from +her mind. + +"Wyvis!" she faltered. "Are you back again, dear? And is--is your father +with you?" + +"I am here, mother," Wyvis answered. He could say nothing more. + +"But your father----" + +Then something--a gleam of reawakening memory--seemed to trouble her; +she looked round the room, knitted her brows anxiously, and murmured a +few words that Wyvis could not hear. + +"I remember now," she said, in a stronger voice. "I wanted something--I +thought it was your father, but it was something quite different--I +wanted your forgiveness, Wyvis." + +"Mother, mother, don't speak in that way," cried her son. "Have you not +suffered enough to expiate _any_ mistake?" + +"Any mistake, perhaps, not any sin," said his mother feebly. "Now that I +am old and dying, I call things by their right names. I did you a wrong, +and I did Cuthbert a wrong, and I am sorry now." + +"It is all past," said Wyvis softly. "It does not matter now." + +"You forgive me for my part in it? You do not hate me?" + +"Mother! Have I been cold to you then? I have loved you all the time, +and never blamed you in my heart." + +"You said that I was to blame." + +"But I did not mean it. I never thought that you would take an idle word +of mine so seriously, mother. Forgive me, and believe me that I would +not have given you pain for the world if I had thought, if I had only +thought that it would hurt you so much!" + +His mother smiled faintly, and closed her eyes for a moment, as if the +exertion of speaking had been too much for her; but, after a short +pause, she started suddenly, and opened her eyes with a look of extreme +terror. + +"What is it," she said. "What have I done? Where is she?" + +"Who, mother?" + +"Your wife, Juliet. What did I do? Is she dead? The fire--the fire----" + +Wyvis looked helplessly round for Janetta. He could not answer: he did +not know how to calm his mother's rapidly increasing excitement. Janetta +came forward and bent over the pillow. + +"No, Juliet is not dead. She is in her room; you must not trouble +yourself about her," she said. + +Mrs. Brand's eyes were fixed apprehensively on Janetta's face. + +"Tell me what I did," she said in a loud whisper. + +It was difficult to answer. Wyvis hid his face in a sort of desperation. +He wondered what Janetta was going to say, and listened in amazement to +her first words. + +"You were ill," said Janetta clearly. "You did not know what you were +doing, and you set fire to the curtains in her room. Nobody was hurt, +and we all understand that you would have been very sorry to harm +anybody. It is all right, dear grandmother, and you must remember that +you were not responsible for what you were doing then." + +The boldness of her answer filed Wyvis with admiration. He knew that +he--manlike--would have temporized and tried in vain to deny the truth, +it was far wiser for Janetta to acknowledge and explain the facts. Mrs. +Brand pressed the girl's hand and looked fearfully in her face. + +"She--she was not burned?" + +"Not at all." + +"Stoop down," said Mrs. Brand. "Lower. Close to my face. There--listen +to me. I meant to kill her. Do you understand? I meant to set the place +on fire and let her burn. I thought she deserved it for making my boy +miserable." + +Wyvis started up, and turned his back to the bed. It was impossible for +him to hear the confession with equanimity. But Janetta still hung over +the pillow, caressing the dying woman, and looking tenderly into her +face. + +"Yes, you thought so then--I understand," she said. "But that was +because of your illness. You do not think so now." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Brand, in the same loud, hoarse whisper. "I think so +now." + +Then Janetta was silent for a minute or two. The black, ghastly look in +Mrs. Brand's wide-open eyes disconcerted her. She scarcely knew what to +say. + +"I have always hated her. I hate her now," said Wyvis' mother. "She has +done me no harm; no. But she has injured my boy; she made his life +miserable, and I cannot forgive her for that." + +"If Wyvis forgives her," said Janetta gently, "can you not forgive her +too?" + +"Wyvis does not forgive her for making him unhappy," said Mrs. Brand. + +"Wyvis,"--Janetta looked round at him. She could not see his face. He +was standing with his face to the window and his back to the bed. +"Wyvis, you have come back to your wife: does not that show that you are +willing to forget the past and to make a fresh beginning. Tell your +mother so, Cousin Wyvis." + +He turned round slowly, and looked at her, not at his mother, as he +replied: + +"Yes, I am willing to begin again," he said. "I never wished her any +harm." + +"Then, you will forgive her--for Wyvis' sake? For Julian's sake?" said +Janetta. + +A strange contraction of the features altered Mrs. Brand's face for a +moment: her breath came with difficulty and her lips turned white. + +"I forgive," she said at last, in broken tones. "I cannot quite forget. +But I do not want--now--to harm her. It was but for a time--when my head +was bad." + +"We know, we know," said Janetta eagerly. "We understand. Wyvis, tell +her that _you_ understand too." + +She looked at him insistently, and he returned the look. Their eyes said +a good deal to each other in a second's space of time. In hers there was +tenderness, expostulation, entreaty; in his some shade of mingled horror +and regret. But he yielded his will to hers, thinking it nobler than his +own; and, turning to his mother, he stooped and kissed her on the +forehead. + +"I understand, mother. Janetta has made me understand." + +"Janetta--it is always Janetta we have to thank," his mother murmured +feebly. "It was for Janetta as well as for you that I did it. Wyvis--but +it is no use now. And, God forgive me, I did not know what I did." + +She sank into silence and spoke no more for the next few hours. Her life +was quietly ebbing away. Towards midnight, she opened her eyes and spoke +again. + +"Janetta--Wyvis," she said softly, and then the last moment came. Her +eyelids drooped, her head fell aside upon the pillow. There was no more +for her to say or do. Poor Mary Brand's long trial had come to an end at +last. + +Juliet was not told of Mrs. Brand's death until after the funeral, as it +was feared that the news might unduly excite her. As it was, she gave a +hoarse little scream when she heard it, and asked, with every appearance +of horror, whether there was really "a body" in the house. On being +informed by Janetta that "the body" had been removed, she became +immediately tranquil, and remarked confidentially that she was "not +sorry, after all, for the old lady's death: it was such a bore to have +one's husband's mother in the house." Then she became silent and +thoughtful, and Janetta wondered whether some kindlier feeling were not +mixing itself with her self-gratulation. But presently Mrs. Wyvis Brand +broke forth: + +"Look here, I must say this, if I die for it. You know the night when my +room was on fire. Well, now tell me true: wasn't my mother-in-law to +blame for it?" + +Janetta looked at her in speechless dismay. She had no trust in Juliet's +disposition: she did not know whether she might revile Mrs. Brand +bitterly, or be touched by an account of her mental suffering. Wyvis, +however, had recommended her to tell his wife as much of the truth as +seemed necessary; "because, if you don't," he said, "she is quite sharp +enough to find it out for herself. So if she has any suspicion, tell her +something. Anything is better than nothing in such a case." + +And Janetta, taking her courage in both hands, so to speak, answered +courageously: + +"May I speak frankly to you, Juliet?" For Mrs. Wyvis Brand had insisted +that Janetta should always call her by her Christian name. + +"Of course you may. What is it?" + +"It is about Mrs. Brand. You must have known that for some time she had +been very weak and feeble. Her mind was giving way. Indeed, she was far +worse than we ever imagined, and she was not sufficiently watched. On +that night, it was she whom you saw, and it was she who set fire to the +curtains; but you must remember, Juliet, that she was not in her right +mind." + +"Why, I might have been burned alive in my bed," cried Juliet--an +exclamation so thoroughly characteristic that Janetta could hardly +forbear to smile. Mrs. Wyvis Brand looked terribly shocked and +disconcerted, and it was after a pause that she collected herself +sufficiently to say in her usual rapid manner: + +"You may say what you like about her being mad; but Mrs. Brand knew very +well what she was doing. She always hated me, and she wanted to get me +out of the way." + +"Oh, Juliet, don't say so," entreated Janetta. + +"But I do say so, and I will say so, and I have reason on my side. She +hated me like poison, and she loved you dearly. Don't you see what she +wanted? She would have liked you to take my place." + +"If you say such things, Juliet----" + +"You'll go out of the room, won't you, my dear? Why," said Juliet, with +a hard laugh in which there was very little mirth, "you don't suppose I +mind? I have known long enough that she thought bad things of me. Don't +you remember the name you called me when you thought I wanted Julian? +You had learnt every one of them from her, you know you had. Oh, you +needn't apologize. I understand the matter perfectly. I bear no malice +either against her or you, though I don't know that I am quite the black +sheep that you both took me to be." + +"I am sorry if I was unjust," said Janetta slowly. "But all that I meant +amounts to one thing--that you did not make my Cousin Wyvis very happy." + +"Ah, and that's the chief thing, isn't it?" said Juliet, with a keen +look. "Well, don't be frightened, I'm going to change my ways. I've had +a warning if anybody ever had; and I'm not going to get myself turned +out of house and home. If Wyvis will stick to me, I'll stick to him; and +I can't say more than that. I should like to see him now." + +"Now, Juliet?" said Janetta, rather aghast at the idea. The meeting +between husband and wife had not yet taken place, and Janetta shrank +sensitively from the notion that Juliet might inflict fresh pain on +Wyvis on the very day of his mother's funeral. But Mrs. Wyvis Brand +insisted, and her husband was summoned to the room. + +"You needn't go away, Janetta," said Juliet imperatively. "I want you as +a witness. Well, Wyvis, here I am, and I hope you are glad to see me." + +She lifted herself a little from the couch on which she lay, and looked +at him defiantly. Janetta could see that he was shocked at the sight of +her wasted outlines, her hectic color, the unhealthy brilliance of her +eyes; and it was this sight, perhaps, that caused him to say gently: + +"I am sorry not to see you looking better." + +"The politest speech he has made me for years," she said, laughing. +"Well, half a loaf is better than no bread. We didn't hit it off exactly +the last time we saw each other, did we? Suppose we try again: should we +get on any better, do you think?" + +"We might try," said Wyvis slowly. + +He was pale and grave, but, as she saw, not unwilling to make peace. + +"All right," she said, holding out her hand to him with easy, audacious +grace, "let us try then. I own I was aggravating--own in your turn that +you were tyrannical now and then! You witness that he owns up, +Janetta--why, the girl's gone! Never mind: give me a kiss now we are +alone, Wyvis, and take me to the Riviera to-morrow if you want to save +my life." + +Wyvis kissed his wife and promised to do what she asked him, but he did +not look as if he expected to have an easy task. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +MAKING AMENDS. + + +"It is pleasant to be home again," said Margaret. + +For two years she had not seen the Court. For two year's she and her +parents had roamed over the world, spending a winter in Egypt or Italy, +a summer in Norway, a spring or autumn at Biarritz, or Pau, or some +other resort of wealthy and idle Englishmen. These wanderings had been +begun with the laudable object of weaning Margaret's heart away from +Wyvis Brand, but they had been continued long after Margaret's errant +fancy had been chided back to its wonted resting place. The habit of +wandering easily grows, and the two years had slipped away so pleasantly +that it was with a feeling almost of surprise that the Adairs reckoned +up the time that had elapsed since they left England. Then Margaret had +a touch of fever, and began to pine for her home; and, as her will was +still law (in all minor points, at least), her parents at once turned +homeward, and arrived at Helmsley Court in the month of May, when the +woods and gardens were at their loveliest, bright with flowers, and +verdant with the exquisite green of the spring foliage, before it +becomes dusty and faded in the summer-heat. + +"It is pleasant to be at home again," said Margaret, standing at the +door of the conservatory one fair May morning and looking at the great +sweep of green sward before her, where elm and beech trees made a +charming shade, and beds of brightly-tinted flowers dotted the grass at +intervals. "I was so tired of foreign towns." + +"Were you, dear? You did not say so until lately," said Lady Caroline. + +"I did not want to bring you and papa home until you were ready to +come," said Margaret gently. + +"Dear child. And you have lost your roses. English country air will soon +bring them back." + +"I never had much color, mama," said Margaret gravely. It was almost as +though she were not quite well pleased by the remark. + +She moved away from the door, and Lady Caroline's eyes followed her with +a solicitude which had more anxiety and less pride than they used to +show. For Margaret had altered during the last few months. She had grown +more slender, more pale than ever, and a certain languor was perceptible +in her movements and the expression of her beautiful eyes. She was not +less fair, perhaps, than she had been before; and the ethereal character +of her beauty had only been increased by time. Lady Caroline had been +seriously distressed lately by the comments made by her acquaintances +upon Margaret's appearance. "Very delicate, surely," said one. "Do you +think that your daughter is consumptive?" said another. "She would be so +very pretty if she looked stronger," remarked a third. Now these were +not precisely the remarks that Lady Caroline liked her friends to make. + +She could not quite understand her daughter. Margaret had of late become +more and more reticent. She was always gentle, always caressing, but she +was not expansive. Something was amiss with her spirits or her health: +nobody could exactly say what it was. Even her father discovered at last +that she did not seem well; but, although he grumbled and fidgeted about +it, he did not know how to suggest a remedy. Lady Caroline hoped that +the return to England would prove efficacious in restoring the girl's +health and spirits, and she was encouraged by hearing Margaret express +her pleasure in her English home. But she felt uneasily that she was not +quite sure as to what was wrong. + +"People are beginning to call very quickly," she said, looking at some +cards that lay in a little silver tray. "The Bevans have been here, +Margaret." + +"Have they? When we were out yesterday, I suppose?" + +"Yes. And the Accringtons, and--oh, ah, yes--two or three other +people." + +"Who, mamma?" said Margaret, her attention immediately attracted by her +mother's hesitation. She turned away from the door and entered the +morning-room as she spoke. + +"Oh, only Lady Ashley, dear," said Lady Caroline smoothly. She had quite +recovered her self-possession by this time. + +"And Sir Philip Ashley," said Margaret, with equal calmness, as she +glanced at the cards in the little silver dish. But the lovely color +flushed up into her cheeks, and as she stood with her eyes cast down, +still fingering the cards, her face assumed the tint of the deepest +rose-carnation. + +"Is that the reason?" thought Lady Caroline, with a sudden little thrill +of fear and astonishment. "Surely not! After all this time--and after +dismissing him so summarily! Well, there is no accounting for girls' +tastes." + +She said aloud: + +"We ought to return these calls pretty soon, I think. With such old +friends it would be nice to go within the week. Do you not agree with +me, love?" + +"Yes, mamma," said, Margaret dutifully. + +"Shall we go to-morrow then? To the Bevans first, and then to the +Ashleys?" + +Margaret hesitated. "The Accringtons live nearer the Bevans than Lady +Ashley," she said. "You might call on Lady Ashley next day, mamma." + +"Yes, darling," said Lady Caroline. She was reassured. She certainly did +not want Margaret to show any alacrity in seeking out the Ashleys, and +she hoped that that tell-tale blush had been due to mere maiden modesty +and not to any warmer feeling, which would probably be completely thrown +away upon Philip Ashley, who was not the man to offer himself a second +time to a woman who had once refused him. + +She noticed, however, that Margaret showed no other sign of interest in +Sir Philip and his mother; that she did not ask for any account of the +call paid, without her, by Lady Caroline a day or two later. Indeed, she +turned away and talked to Alicia Stone while Lady Caroline was telling +Mr. Adair of the visits that she had made. So the mother was once more +reassured. + +She was made uneasy again by an item of news that reached her ear soon +after her return home. "Mr. Brand is coming back," said Mrs. Accrington +to her, with a meaning smile. "I hear that there are great preparations +at the Red House. His wife is dead, you know." + +"Indeed," said Lady Caroline, stiffly. + +"Yes, died at Nice last spring or summer, I forget which; I suppose he +means to settle at home now. They say he's quite a changed character." + +"I am glad to hear it," said Lady Caroline. + +She felt annoyed as well as anxious. Was it possible that Margaret knew +that Wyvis Brand was coming home? In spite of the inveterate habit of +caressing Margaret and making soft speeches, in spite also of the very +real love that she had for her daughter, Lady Caroline did not +altogether trust her. Margaret had once or twice disappointed her too +much. + +"His little boy," continued Mrs. Accrington in a conversational tone, +"has been spending the time with Mr. Brand's younger brother and his +wife, one of the Colwyn girls, wasn't she? And the eldest Colwyn girl, +the one who sang, has been acting as his governess. She used to be +companion to old Mrs. Brand you know." + +"I remember," said Lady Caroline, and managed to change the subject. + +She would have liked to question Margaret, but she did not dare. She +watched her carefully for the next few days, and she was not satisfied. +Margaret was nervous and uneasy, as she had been about the time when +Wyvis Brand made his indiscreet proposal for her hand; it seemed to Lady +Caroline that she was watching for some person to arrive--some person +who never came. Who was the person for whom she watched? so Lady +Caroline asked herself. But she dared not question Margaret. + +She noticed, too, that Mr. Adair looked once or twice at his daughter in +a curiously doubtful way, as if he were puzzled or distressed. And one +day he said musingly: + +"It is surely time for Margaret to be getting married, is it not?" + +"Somebody has been saying so to you," said Lady Caroline, with less +urbanity than usual. + +"No, no, only Isabel; she wrote this morning expressing some surprise at +not having heard that Margaret was engaged before now. I suppose," Mr. +Adair hesitated a little, "I suppose she _will_ marry?" + +"Reginald, what an idea! Of course Margaret will marry, and marry +brilliantly." + +"I am not so sure of that," said Mr. Adair, who seemed to be in low +spirits. "Look at my two sisters, and lots of other girls. How many men +has Margaret refused? She will take up with some crooked stick at last." + +He went out without waiting for his wife's reply. Lady Caroline, +harassed in mind and considerably weakened of late in body, sat still +and shed a few silent tears. She was angry with him, and yet she shared +his apprehensions. Was it possible that their lovely Margaret was +turning out a social failure? To have Margaret at home, fading, ageing, +growing into an old maid like the sisters of Reginald Adair, that was +not to be thought of for a moment. + +Meanwhile Margaret was taking her fate in her own hands. + +She was at that very moment standing in the conservatory opposite a +tall, dark man, who, hat in hand, looked at her expectantly as if he +wished her to open the conversation. She had never made a fairer picture +than she did just then. She was dressed in white, and the exquisite +fairness of her head and face was thrown into strong relief by the dark +background of fronded fern and thickly matted creeper with which the +wall behind her was overgrown. Her face was slightly bent, and her hands +hung clasped before her. To her visitor, who was indeed Sir Philip +Ashley, she appeared more beautiful than ever. But his eye, as it rested +upon her, though attentive, was indifferent and cold. + +"You sent for me, I think?" he said politely, finding that she did not +speak. + +"Yes." Margaret's voice was very low. "I hope you did not mind my +writing that little note?" + +"Mind? Not at all. If there is anything I can do for you----?" + +"It is not that I want you to do anything," said Margaret, whose +self-possession, not easily disturbed, was now returning to her. "It was +simply that I had something to say." + +Sir Philip bowed. His role was that of a listener, it appeared. + +"When I was in England before," Margaret went on, this time with some +effort, "you found fault with me----" + +"Presumption on my part, I am sure," said Sir Philip, smiling a little. +"Such a thing will certainly not occur again." + +"Oh please hear me," said Margaret, rather hurriedly. "Please listen +seriously--I am very serious, and I want you to hear what I have to +say." + +"I will listen," said Sir Philip, gravely; he turned aside a little, and +looked at the flowers as she spoke. + +"I want to tell you that you were right about Janetta Colwyn. The more I +have thought of it, the more sure I have been that you were right. I +ought not to have been angry when you asked me to prevent people from +misjudging her. I ought to have written to Miss Polehampton and set +things straight." + +Sir Philip made an inarticulate sound of assent. She paused for a +moment, and then went on pleadingly. + +"It's such a long time ago now that I do not know what to do. I cannot +ask mamma. She never liked Janetta--she never was just to her. I do not +even know where Janetta is, nor whether I can do anything to help her. +Do you know?" + +"I know where she is. At the Red House just now, with Mr. and Mrs. +Cuthbert Brand." + +"Then--what shall I do?" said Margaret, more urgently. "Would it be of +any use if I wrote to Miss Polehampton or anyone about her now? I will +do anything I can to help her--anything you advise." + +Sir Philip changed his position, as if he were slightly impatient. + +"I do not know that there is anything to be done for Miss Colwyn at +present," he replied. "She is in a very good position, and I do not +think she wants material help. Of course, if you were to see her and +tell her that you regret the manifest injustice with which she was +treated on more than one occasion, I dare say she would be glad, and +that such an acknowledgment from you would draw out the sting from much +that is past and gone. I think that this is all you can do." + +"I will do it," said Margaret submissively. "I will tell her that I am +sorry." + +"You will do well," replied Sir Philip in a kinder tone. "I am only +sorry that you did not see things differently when we spoke of the +matter before." + +"I am older now, I have thought more. I have reflected on what you +said," murmured Margaret. + +"You have done my poor words much honor," said he, with a slight cold +smile. "And I am glad to think that the breach in your friendship is +healed. Miss Colwyn is a true and loyal friend--I could not wish you a +better. I shall feel some pleasure in the thought, when I am far from +England, that you have her for your friend once more." + +"Far from England"--Margaret repeated the words with paling lips. + +"Did you not know? I have accepted a post in Victoria. I shall be out +for five years at least. So great a field of usefulness seems open to me +there that I did not know how to refuse it." + +Margaret was mute for a time. Then, with a tremendous effort, she put +another question. "You go--alone?" she said. + +Sir Philip did not look at her. + +"No," he said, kicking a small pebble off the tesselated pavement with +the toe of his boot, and apparently taking the greatest interest in its +ultimate fate, "no, I don't go quite alone. I am taking with me my +secretary--and--my wife. I suppose you know that next week I am going to +marry Miss Adela Smithies, daughter of Smithies the great brewer? We +sail ten days later." + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +MY FAITHFUL JANET. + + +"Good blood," they say, "does not lie." Margaret was true to her +traditions. She did not faint, she did not weep, over what was complete +ruin to her expectations, if not of her hopes. She held her head a +little more erect than usual, and looked Sir Philip quietly in the face. + +"I am very glad to hear it," she said--it was a very excusable lie, +perhaps. "I hope you will be happy." + +Strange to say, her calmness robbed Sir Philip of his self-possession. +He flushed hotly and looked away, thinking of some words that he had +spoken many months ago to Margaret's mother--a sort of promise to be +"always ready" if Margaret should ever change her mind. Had she changed +it now? But she was not going to leave him in doubt upon this point. + +"You have only just forestalled a similar announcement on my part," she +said, smiling bravely. "I dare say you will hear all about it soon--and +I hope that you will wish me joy." + +He looked up with evident relief. + +"I am exceedingly glad. I may congratulate you then?" + +"Thank you. Yes, we may congratulate each other." + +She still smiled--rather strangely, as he thought. He wondered who the +"happy man" could be? But of that, to tell the truth, Margaret was as +ignorant as he. She had invented her little tale of an engagement in +self-defence. + +"Ah, Margaret," he said, with a sudden impulse of affection, "if only +you could have seen as I saw--two years ago!" + +"But that was impossible," she answered quietly. "And I think it would +be undesirable also. I wanted you to know, however, that I agree with +you about Janetta--I think that you were right." + +"And you have nothing more to tell me?" + +For the moment he was willing to throw up his appointment in Australia, +to fly from the wealthy and sensible Miss Adela Smithies and incur any +odium, any disappointment, and any shame, if only Margaret Adair would +own that she loved him and consent to be his wife. For, although he +liked and esteemed Miss Smithies, who was a rather plain-faced girl with +a large fortune, he was perfectly conscious that Margaret had been the +one love of his life. But Margaret was on her guard. + +"To tell you?" she echoed, as if in mild surprise. "Why no, I think not, +Sir Philip. Except, perhaps, to ask you not to speak--for the present, +at least--of my own prospects, they are not yet generally known, and I +do not want them mentioned just now." + +"Certainly. I will respect your confidence," said Sir Philip. He felt +ashamed of that momentary aberration. Adela was a very suitable wife for +him, and he could not think without remorse that he had ever proposed to +himself to be untrue to her. How fortunate, he reflected, that Margaret +did not seem to care! + +"Will you come in?" she said graciously. "Mamma will be so pleased to +see you, and she will be glad to congratulate you on your good fortune." + +"Thank you very much, but I fear I must be off. I am very busy, and I +really have scarcely any time to spare." + +"I must thank you all the more for giving me some of your valuable +time," said Margaret sweetly. "Must you go?" + +"I really must. And--" as he held out his hand--"we are friends, then, +from henceforth?" + +"Oh, of course we are," she answered. But her eyes were strangely cold, +and the smile upon her lips was conventional and frosty. The hand that +he held in his own was cold, too, and somewhat limp and flabby. + +"I am so glad," he said, growing warmer as she grew cold, "that you have +resolved to renew your acquaintance with Miss Colwyn. It is what I +should have expected from your generous nature, and it shows that what I +always--always thought of you was true." + +"Please do not say so," said Margaret. She came very near being natural +in that moment. She had a choking sensation in her throat, and her eyes +smarted with unshed tears. But her training stood her in good stead. "It +is very kind of you to be so complimentary," she went on with a light +little laugh. "And I hope that I shall find Janetta as nice as she used +to be. Good-bye. _Bon voyage._" + +"I wish you every happiness," he said with a warm clasp of her hand and +a long grave look into her beautiful face; and then he went away and +Margaret was left alone. + +She stole up to her room almost stealthily, and locked the door. She +hoped that no one had seen Sir Philip come and go--that her mother would +not question her, or remark on the length of his visit. She was +thoroughly frightened and ashamed to think of what she had done. She had +been as near as possible to making Sir Philip what would virtually have +been an offer of marriage. What an awful thought! And what a narrow +escape! For of course he would have had to refuse her, and she--what +could she have done then? She would never have borne the mortification. +As it was, she hoped that Sir Philip would accept the explanation of the +little note of summons which she had despatched to him that morning, +and would never inquire what her secret motive had been in writing it. + +She set herself to consider the situation. She did not love Sir Philip. +She was not capable of a great deal of love, and all that she had been +capable of she had given to Wyvis Brand. But the years of girlhood in +her father's house were beginning to pall upon her. She was conscious of +a slight waning of her beauty, of a perceptible diminution in the +attentions which she received, and the admiration that she excited. It +had occurred to her lately, as it had occurred to her parents, that she +ought to think seriously of getting married. The notion of spinsterhood +was odious to Margaret Adair. And Sir Philip Ashley would have been, as +her mother used to say, so _suitable_ a man for her to marry! Margaret +saw it now. + +She wept a few quiet tears for her lost hopes, and then she arrayed +herself becomingly, and, with a look of purpose on her face, went down +to tea. + +"Do you know, mamma," she said, "that Sir Philip Ashley is going to +marry Miss Smithies, the great brewer's daughter, and that he has +accepted a post in Victoria?" + +"Margaret!" + +"It is quite true, mamma, he told me so himself. Why need you look +surprised? We could hardly expect," said Margaret, with a pretty smile, +"that Sir Philip should always remain unmarried for my sake." + +"It is rather sudden, surely!" + +"Oh, I don't think so. By the bye, mamma, shall we not soon feel a +little dull if we are here all alone? It would be very nice to fill the +house with guests and have a little gaiety. Perhaps--" with a faint but +charming blush--"Lord Southbourne would come if he were asked." + +Lord Southbourne was an exceptionable viscount with weak brains and a +large rent-roll whom Margaret had refused six months before. + +"I am sure he would, my darling; I will ask him," said Lady Caroline, +with great satisfaction. And she noticed that Margaret's watch for an +unknown visitor had now come to its natural end. + +It was not more than a month later in the year when Janetta Colwyn, +walking in the plantation near the Red House, came face to face with a +man who was leaning against the trunk of a fir-tree, and had been +waiting for her to approach. She looked astonished; but he was calm, +though he smiled with pleasure, and held out his hands. + +"Well, Janetta!" + +"Wyvis! You have come home at last!" + +"At last." + +"You have not been up to the house yet?" + +"No, I was standing here wishing that I could see you first of all; and, +just as I wished it, you came in sight. I take it as a good omen." + +"I am glad you are back," said Janetta earnestly. + +"Are you? Really? And why?" + +"Oh, for many reasons. The estate wants you, for one thing," said +Janetta, coloring a little, "and Julian wants you----" + +"Don't you want me at all, Janetta?" + +"Everybody wants you, so I do, too." + +"Tell me more about everybody and everybody's wants. How is Julian?" + +"Very well, indeed, and longing to see you before he goes to school." + +"Ah yes, poor little man. How does he like the idea of school?" + +"Pretty well." + +"And how do you like the idea of his going?" + +Janetta's face fell. "I am sure it is good for him," she said rather +wistfully. + +"But not so good for you. What are you going to do? Shall you live with +Mrs. Burroughs, Janet?" + +"No, indeed; I think I shall take lodgings in London, and give lessons. +I have saved money during the last few months," said Janetta with +something between a tear in the eye and a smile on the lip, "so that I +shall be able to live even if I get no pupils at first." + +"And shall you like that?" + +She looked at him for a moment without replying, and then said +cheerfully: + +"I shall not like it if I get no pupils." + +"And how are Cuthbert and Nora?" + +"Absorbed in baby-worship," said Janetta. "You will be expected to fall +down and worship also. And your little niece is really very pretty." + +Wyvis shook his head. "Babies are all exactly alike to me, so you had +better instruct me beforehand in what I ought to say. And what about +our neighbors, Janet? Are the Adairs at home?" + +"Yes," said Janetta, with some reserve of tone. + +"And the Ashleys?" + +"Old Lady Ashley. Sir Philip has married and gone to the Antipodes." + +"Married Margaret? I always thought that would be the end of it." + +"You are quite wrong. He married a Miss Smithies, a very rich girl, I +believe. And Margaret is engaged to a certain Lord Southbourne--who is +also very rich, I believe." + +"Little Southbourne!" exclaimed Wyvis, with a sudden burst of laughter. +"You don't say so! I used to know him at Monaco. Oh, there's no harm in +little South; only he isn't very bright." + +"I am sorry for Margaret," said Janetta. + +"Oh she will be perfectly happy. She will always move in her own circle +of society, and that is paradise for Margaret." + +"You are very hard on her, Wyvis," Janetta said, reprovingly. "She is +capable of higher things than you believe." + +"Capable! Oh, she may be _capable_ of anything," said Wyvis, "but she +does not do the things that she is capable of doing." + +"At any rate she is very kind to me now. She wrote to me a few days ago, +and told me that she was sorry for our past misunderstanding. And she +asked me to go and stay with her when she was married to Lord +Southbourne and had a house of her own." + +"Are you sure that she did not add that it would be such an advantage to +you?" + +"Of course she did not." But Janetta blushed guiltily, nevertheless. + +"And did you promise to accept the invitation?" + +She smiled and shook her head. + +"I thought you were such a devoted friend of hers!" + +"I always tried to be a true friend to her. But you know I think, Wyvis, +that some people have not got it in their nature to be true friends to +anyone. And perhaps it was not--quite--in Margaret's nature." + +"I agree with you," said Wyvis, more gravely than he had spoken +hitherto. "She has not your depth of affection, Janetta--your strength +of will. You have been a very true and loyal friend to those you have +loved." + +Janetta turned away her face. Something in his words touched her very +keenly. After a pause, Wyvis spoke again. + +"I have had reason since I saw you last to know the value of your +friendship," he said seriously. "I want to speak to you for a moment, +Janetta, before we join the others, about my poor Juliet. I had not, as +you know, very many months with her after we left England. But during +those few months I became aware that she was a different creature from +the woman I had known in earlier days. She showed me that she had a +heart--that she loved me and our boy after all--and died craving my +forgiveness, poor soul (though God knows that I needed hers more than +she needed mine), for the coldness she had often shown me. And she said, +Janetta, that _you_ had taught her what love meant, and she charged me +to tell you that your lessons had not been in vain." + +Janetta looked up with swimming eyes. "Poor Juliet! I am glad that she +said that." + +"She is at peace now," said Wyvis, in a lower voice, "and the happiness +of her later days is due to you. But how much is not due to you, +Janetta! Your magic power seemed to change my poor wife's very nature: +it has made my child happy: it gave all possible comfort to my mother on +her dying bed--and what it has done for me no words can ever tell! No +one has been to me what you have been, Janetta; the good angel of my +life, always inspiring and encouraging, always ready to give me hope and +strength and courage in my hours of despair." + +"You must not say so: I have done nothing," she said, but she let her +hand lie unresistingly between his own, as he took it and pressed it +tenderly. + +"Have you not? Then I have been woefully mistaken. And it has come +across me strangely, Janetta, of late, that of all the losses I have +had, one of the greatest is the loss of my kinship with you. No doubt +you have thought of that: John Wyvis, the ploughman's son, is not your +cousin, Wyvis Brand." + +"I never remembered it," said Janetta. + +"Then I must remind you of it now. I cannot call you Cousin Janet any +longer. May I call you something else, dear, so that I may not lose you +out of my life? I want you to be something infinitely closer and dearer +and sweeter than a cousin, Janetta; will you forgive me all my errors +and be my wife?" + +And when she had whispered her reply, he took her in his arms and called +her, as her father used to call her-- + +"My faithful Janet!" + +And she thought that she had never borne a sweeter name. + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A True Friend, by Adeline Sergeant + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRUE FRIEND *** + +***** This file should be named 23797.txt or 23797.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/7/9/23797/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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