he
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.