JANETTA REMONSTRATES.
It was with a beating heart that Janetta, a few days later, crossed once
more the threshold of her cousin's house. Her father's words about Mrs.
Brand had impressed her rather painfully, and she felt some shyness and
constraint at the thought of the reason which he had given her for
coming. How she was to set about helping or comforting Mrs. Brand she
had not the least idea.
These thoughts were, however, put to flight by an un-looked-for scene,
which broke upon her sight as she entered the hall. This hall had to be
crossed before any of the other rooms could be reached; it was
low-ceiled, paneled in oak, and lighted by rather small windows, with
stained glass in the lower panes. Like most rooms in the house it had a
gloomy look, which was not relieved by the square of faded Turkey
carpet in the centre of the black polished boards of the floor, or by
the half-dozen dusky portraits in oak frames which garnished the walls.
When Janetta was ushered in she found this ante-room or entrance chamber
occupied by three persons and a child. These, as she speedily found,
consisted of Wyvis Brand and his little boy, and two gentlemen, one of
whom was laughing immoderately, while the other was leaning over the
back of the chair and addressing little Julian.
Janetta halted for a moment, for the old servant who had admitted her
seemed to think that his work was done when he had uttered her name, and
had already retreated; and his voice being exceedingly feeble, the
announcement had passed unnoticed by the majority of the persons
present, if not by all. Wyvis Brand had perhaps seen her, for his eyes
were keen, and the shadow in which she stood was not likely to veil her
from his sight; but he gave no sign of being conscious of her presence.
He was standing with his back to the mantel-piece, his arms crossed
behind his head; there was a curious expression on his face, half-smile,
half-sneer, but it was evident that he was merely looking and listening,
not interfering with what was going on.
It needed only a glance to see that little Julian was in a state of
extraordinary excitement. His face was crimson, his eyes were sparkling
and yet full of tears; his legs were planted sturdily apart, and his
hands were clenched. His head was drawn back, and his whole body also
seemed as if it wanted to recoil, but placed as he was against a strong
oaken table he could evidently go back no further. The gentleman on the
chair was offering him something--Janetta could not at first see
what--and the boy was vehemently resisting.
"I won't have it! I won't have it!" he was crying, with the whole force
of his lungs. "I won't touch it! Take the nasty stuff away!"
Janetta wondered whether it were medicine he was refusing, and why his
father did not insist upon obedience. But Wyvis Brand, still standing by
the mantel-piece, only laughed aloud.
"No shirking! Drink it up!" said the strange gentleman, in what Janetta
thought a curiously unpleasant voice. "Come, come, it will make a man of
you----"
"I don't want to be made a man of! I won't touch it! I promised I never
would! You can't make me!"
"You must be taught not to make rash promises," said the man, laughing.
"Come now----"
But little Julian had suddenly caught sight of Janetta's figure at the
door, and with a great bound he escaped from his tormentor and flung
himself upon her, burying his face in her dress, and clutching its folds
as if he would never let them go.
"It's the lady! the lady!" he gasped out. "Oh, please don't let them
make me drink it! Indeed, I promised not."
Janetta came forward a little, and at her appearance every one looked
more or less discomfited. The gentleman on the chair she recognized as a
Mr. Strangways, a man of notoriously evil life, who had a house near
Beaminster, and was generally shunned by respectable people in the
neighborhood. He started up, and looked at her with what she felt to be
a rather insolent gaze. Wyvis Brand stood erect, and looked sullen. The
other gentleman, who was a stranger, rose from his chair in a civiller
manner than his friend had done.
Janetta put her arms round the little fellow, and turned a rather
bewildered face towards Mr. Brand. "Was it--was it--medicine?" she
asked.
"Of a kind," said Wyvis, with a laugh.
"It was brandy--_eau-de-vie_--horrid hot stuff that _maman_ used to
drink," said little Julian, with a burst of angry sobs, "and I promised
not--I promised old Susan that I never would!"
"It was only a joke," said the master of the house, coming forward now,
and anxious perhaps to avert the storm threatened by a sudden indignant
flash of Janetta's great dark eyes. "We were not in earnest of course."
(A smothered laugh and ejaculation from Mr. Strangways passed without
notice.) "The boy does not know how to take a joke--he's a milksop."
"I'm not! I'm not!" said little Julian, still struggling with violent
sobs. "I'm not a milksop! Oh, say that I'm not! Do tell father that I'm
not--not----"
"Certainly you are not. You are a very brave little boy, and know how to
keep your word," said Janetta, with decision. "And now you must come
with me to your grandmother; I came to see _her_ this afternoon."
She gathered him into her strong, young arms as if she would have
carried him from the room, but he struggled manfully to keep his feet,
although he still held her dress. Without a word, Wyvis strode to the
door and held it open for the pair. Janetta forgot to thank him, or to
greet him in any way. She swept past him in a transport of silent fury,
flashing upon him one look of indignation which Wyvis Brand did not
easily forget. It even deafened him for a moment to the sneering comment
of Mr. Strangways, which fell on Janetta's ears just as she was leaving
the room.
"That's a regular granny's boy. Well for him if he always gets a pretty
girl to help him out of a difficulty."
Wyvis, who had stood for a moment as if transfixed by Janetta's glance,
hastily shut the door.
Janetta paused in the corridor outside. She was flushed and panting; she
felt that she could not present herself to Mrs. Brand in that state. She
held the boy close to her, and listened while he poured forth his story
in sobbing indistinctness.
"Old Susan--she was their English servant--she had been always with
_maman_--she had told him that brandy made people mad and wicked--and he
did not want to be mad and wicked--and he had promised Susan never to
drink brandy; and the naughty gentleman wanted him to take it, and he
would not--would not--would not!----"
"Hush, dear," said Janetta, gently. "There is no need to cry over it.
You know you kept your word as a gentleman should."
The boy's eyes flashed through his tears. "Father thinks I'm a--I'm a
milksop," he faltered.
"Show him that you are not," said Janetta. She saw that it was no use to
talk to Julian as to a baby. "If you are always brave and manly he won't
think so."
"I _will_ be always brave," said the little fellow, choking back his
sobs and regarding her with the clear, fearless gaze which she had
noticed in him from the first. And at this moment a door opened, and
Mrs. Brand, who had heard voices, came out in some surprise to see what
was the matter.
Janetta was glad to see the loving way in which the boy ran into his
grandmother's arms, and the tenderness with which she received him. Mrs.
Brand courteously invited her guest into the drawing-room, but her
attention was given far more to little Julian than to Janetta, and in
two minutes he had poured the whole story into her ear. Mrs. Brand did
not say much; she sat with him in her lap looking excessively pained and
grieved; and that frozen look of pain upon her face made Janetta
long--but long in vain--to comfort her. Tea was brought in by-and-bye,
and then Julian was dismissed to his nursery--whither he went
reluctantly, holding his face up to be kissed by Janetta, and asking her
to "come back soon." And when he was gone, Mrs. Brand seemed unable to
contain herself any longer, and broke forth passionately.
"A curse is on us all--I am sure of that. The boy will be ruined, and by
his father too."
"Oh, no," Janetta said, earnestly. "His father would not really hurt
him, I feel sure."
"You do not know my son. He is like his own father, my husband--and that
is the way my husband began with Wyvis."
"But--he did not succeed?"
"Not altogether, because Wyvis had a strong head, and drew back in time;
but his father did him harm--untold harm. His father was a bad man. I do
not scruple to say so, although he was my husband; and there is a taint,
a sort of wild strain, in the blood. Even the boy inherits it; I see
that too clearly. And Wyvis--Wyvis will not hold himself in for long. He
is falling amongst those racing and betting men again--the Strangways
were always to be feared--and before long he will tread in his father's
steps and break my heart, and bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to
the grave."
She burst into a passion of tears as she spoke. Janetta felt
inexpressibly shocked and startled. This revelation of a dark side of
life was new and appalling to her. She could hardly understand Mrs.
Brand's dark anticipations.
She took the mother's hand and held it gently between her own, uttering
some few soothing sentences as she did so. Presently the poor woman's
sobs grew quieter, and she returned the pressure of Janetta's hand.
"Thank you, my dear," she said at last. "You have a very kind heart. But
it is no use telling me to be comforted. I understand my sons, as I
understood my husband before them. They cannot help it. What is in the
blood will come out."
"Surely," said Janetta, in a very low tone, "there is always the might
and the mercy of God to fall back upon--to help us when we cannot help
ourselves."
"Ah, my dear, if I could believe in that I should be a happier woman,"
said Mrs. Brand, sorrowfully.
Janetta stayed a little longer, and when she went the elder woman
allowed herself to be kissed affectionately, and asked in a wistful
tone, as Julian had done, when she would come again.
The girl was glad to find that the hall was empty when she crossed it
again. She had no fancy for encountering the insolent looks (as she
phrased it to herself) of Wyvis Brand and his hateful friends. But she
had reckoned without her host. For when she reached the gate into the
high-road, she found Mr. Brand leaning against it with his elbows
resting on the topmost bar, and his eyes gloomily fixed on the distant
landscape. He started when he saw her, raised his hat and opened the
gate with punctilious politeness. Janetta bowed her thanks, but without
any smile; she was not at all in charity with her cousin, Wyvis Brand.
He allowed her to pass him, but before she had gone half a dozen yards,
he strode after her and caught her up. "Will you let me have a few words
with you?" he said, rather hoarsely.
"Certainly, Mr. Brand." Janetta turned and faced him, still with the
disapproving gravity upon her brow.
"Can't we walk on for a few paces?" said Wyvis, with evident
embarrassment. "I can say what I want to say better while we are
walking. Besides, they can see us from the house if we stand here."
Privately Janetta thought that this would be no drawback, but she did
not care to make objections, so turned once more and walked on silently.
"I want to speak to you," said the man, presently, with something of a
shamefaced air, "about the little scene you came upon this
afternoon----"
"Yes," said Janetta. She did not know how contemptuously her lips curled
as she said the word.
"You came at an unfortunate moment," he went on, awkwardly enough. "I
was about to interpose; I should not have allowed Jack Strangways to go
too far. Of course you thought that I did not care."
"Yes," said Janetta, straightforwardly. Wyvis bit his lip.
"I am not quite so thoughtless of my son's welfare," he said, in a
firmer tone. "There was enough in that glass to madden a child--almost
to kill him. You don't suppose I would have let him take that?"
"I don't know. You were offering no objection to it when I came in."
"Do you doubt my word?" said Wyvis, fiercely.
"No. I believe you, if you mean really to say that you were not going to
allow your little boy to drink what Mr. Strangways offered him."
"I do mean to say it"--in a tone of hot anger.
Janetta was silent.
"Have you nothing to say, Miss Colwyn?"
"I have no right to express any opinion, Mr. Brand."
"But I wish for it!"
"I do not see why you should wish for it," said Janetta, coldly,
"especially when it may not be very agreeable to you to hear."
"Will you kindly tell me what you mean?" The words were civil, but the
tone was imperious in the extreme.
"I mean that whether you were going to make Julian drink that poisonous
stuff or not, you were inflicting a horrible torture upon him," said
Janetta, as hotly as Wyvis himself could have spoken. "And I cannot
understand how you could allow your own child to be treated in that
cruel way. I call it wicked to make a child suffer."
Had she looked at her companion, she would have seen that his face had
grown a little whiter than usual, and that he had the pinched look about
his nostrils which--as his mother would have known--betokened rage. But
she did not look; and, although he paused for a moment before replying,
his voice was quite calm when he spoke again.
"Torture? Suffering? These are very strong words when applied to a
little harmless teasing."
"I do not call it harmless teasing when you are trying to make a child
break a promise that he holds sacred."
"A very foolish promise!"
"I am not so sure of that."
"Do you mean to insult me?" said Wyvis, flushing to the roots of his
hair.
"Insult you? No; certainly not. I don't know why you should say so!"
"Then I need not explain," he answered drily, though still with that
flush of annoyance on his face. "Perhaps if you think over what you have
heard of that boy's antecedents, you will know what I mean."
It was Janetta's turn to flush now. She remembered the stories current
respecting old Mr. Brand's drinking habits, and the rumors about Mrs.
Wyvis Brand's reasons for living away from her husband. She saw that her
words had struck home in a manner which she had not intended.
"I beg your pardon," she said involuntarily; "I never meant--I never
thought--anything--I ought not to have spoken as I did."
"You had much better say what you mean," was the answer, spoken with
bitter brevity.
"Well, then, I will." Janetta raised her eyes and looked at him bravely.
"After all, I am a kinswoman of yours, Mr. Brand, and little Julian is
my cousin too; so I _have_ some sort of a right to speak. I never
thought of his antecedents, as you call them, and I do not know much
about them; but if they were--if they had been not altogether what you
wish them to be--don't you see that this very promise which you tried to
make him break was one of his best safeguards?"
"The promise made by a child is no safeguard," said Wyvis, doggedly.
"Not if he is forced to break it!" exclaimed Janetta, with a touch of
fire.
They walked on in silence for a minute or two, and then Wyvis said,
"Do you believe in a promise made by a child of that age?"
"Little Julian has made me believe in it. He was so thoroughly in
earnest. Oh, Mr. Brand, do you think that it was right to force him to
do a thing against his conscience in that way?"
"You use hard words for a very simple thing, Miss Colwyn," said Wyvis,
in a rather angry tone. "The boy was not forced--I had no intention of
letting him drink the brandy."
"No," said Janetta, indignantly. "You only let him think that he was to
be forced to do it--you only made him lose faith in you as his natural
protector, and believe that you wished him to do what he thought wrong!
And you say there was no cruelty in that?"
Wyvis Brand kept silence for some minutes. He was impressed in spite of
himself by Janetta's fervor.
"I suppose," he said, at last, "that the fact is--I don't know what to
do with a child. I never had any teaching or training when I was a
child, and I don't know how to give it. I know I'm a sort of heathen and
savage, and the boy must grow up like me--that is all."
"It is often said to be a heathen virtue to keep one's word," said
Janetta, with a half smile.
"Therefore one that I can practice, you mean? Do you always keep your
word when you give it?"
"I try to."
"I wish I could get you to give your word to do one thing."
"What is that?"
Wyvis spoke slowly. "You see how unfit I am to bring up a child--I
acknowledge the unfitness--and yet to send him away from us would almost
break my mother's heart--you see that."
"Yes."
"Will not you sometimes look in on us and give us a word of advice
or--or--rebuke? You are a cousin, as you reminded me, and you have the
right. Will you help us a little now and then?"
"You would not like it if I did."
"Was I so very savage? I have an awful temper, I know. But I am not
quite so black as I'm painted, Miss Colwyn. I do want to do the best for
that boy--if I knew how----"
"Witness this afternoon," said Janetta, with good-humored satire.
"Well, that shows that I _don't_ know how. Seriously, I am sorry--I
can't say more. Won't you stand our friend, Cousin Janetta?"
It was the first time he had addressed her in that way.
"How often am I to be asked to be somebody's friend, I wonder!" said
Janetta to herself, with a touch of humor. But she answered, quite
gravely, "I should like to do what I can--but I'm afraid there is
nothing that I can do, especially"--with a sudden flush--"if your
friends--the people who come to your house--are men like Mr.
Strangways."
Wyvis looked at her sideways, with a curious look upon his face.
"You object to Mr. Strangways?"
"He is a man whom most people object to."
"Well--if I give up Mr. Strangways and his kind----"
"Oh, _will_ you, Cousin Wyvis?"
She turned an eager, sparkling face upon him. It occurred to him, almost
for the first time, to admire her. With that light in her eye, that
color in her cheek, Janetta was almost beautiful. He smiled.
"I shall be only too glad of an excuse," he said, with more simplicity
and earnestness than she had as yet distinguished in his voice. "And
then--you will come again?"
"I will--gladly."
"Shake hands on it after your English fashion," he said, stopping short,
and holding out his own hand. "I have been so long abroad that I almost
forget the way. But it is a sign of friendliness, is it not?"
Janetta turned and laid her hand in his with a look of bright and
trustful confidence. Somehow it made Wyvis Brand feel himself unworthy.
He said almost nothing more until they parted at Mr. Colwyn's door.