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
relu