ion?"

"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 ha