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