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 a.s.sure 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. n.o.body 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sure 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 pa.s.sionately. "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.
"n.o.body 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.