AN ELDER BROTHER.
She did not say a word to Nora about her scheme. The next day--it was
the third of January, as she afterwards remembered--was bright and
clear, a good day for walking. She told her sisters that she had
business abroad, and gave them the directions respecting the care of
their house and their mother that she thought they needed; then set
forth to walk briskly from Gwynne Street to the old Red House.
She purposely chose the morning for her expedition. She was not making a
call--she was going on business. She did not mean to ask for Mrs. Brand
even, first of all; she intended to ask for Mr. Cuthbert Brand. Wyvis
would probably be out; but Cuthbert, with his sedentary habits and his
slight lameness, was more likely to be at home painting in the brilliant
morning light than out of doors.
It was nearly twelve o'clock when she reached her destination. She went
through the leafless woods, for that was the shortest way and the
pleasantest--although she had thought little of pleasantness when she
came out, but still it was good to hear the brittle twigs snap under her
feet, and note the slight coating of frost that made the rims of the
dead leaves beautiful--and it was hardly a surprise to her to hear a
child's laugh ring out on the air at the very spot where, months before,
she and Nora had found little Julian Brand. A moment later the boy
himself came leaping down the narrow woodland path towards her with a
noisy greeting; and then--to Janetta's vexation and dismay--instead of
nurse or grandmother, there emerged from among the trees the figure of
the child's father, Wyvis Brand. He had a healthier and more cheerful
look than when she saw him last: he was in shooting coat and
knickerbockers, and he had a gun in his hand and a couple of dogs at his
heels. He lifted his hat and smiled, as if suddenly pleased when he saw
her, but his face grew grave as he held out his hand. Both thought
instinctively of their last meeting at her father's grave, and both
hastened into commonplace speech in order to forget it.
"I am glad to see you again. I hope you are coming to our place," he
said. And she--
"I hope Mrs. Brand is well. Is she at home?"
"No, she's not," said little Julian, with the frank fearlessness of
childhood. "She's gone out for the whole day with Uncle Cuthbert, and
father and I are left all by ourselves; and father has let me come out
with him; haven't you, father?" He looked proudly at his father, and
then at Janetta, while he spoke.
"So it appears," said Wyvis, with a queer little smile.
"Grandmother said I was to take care of father, so I'm doing it," Julian
announced. "Father thinks I'm a brave boy now--not a milksop. He said I
was a milksop, you know, the last time you came here."
"Come, young man, don't you chatter so much," said his father, with a
sort of rough affectionateness, which struck Janetta as something new.
"You run on with the dogs, and tell the servants to get some wine or
milk or something ready for Miss Colwyn. I'm sure you are tired," he
said to her, in a lower tone, with a searching glance at her pale face.
It was hardly fatigue so much as disappointment that made Janetta pale.
She had not expected to find both Mrs. Brand and Cuthbert out, and the
failure of her plan daunted her a little, for she did not often find it
an easy thing to absent herself from home for several hours.
"I am not tired," said Janetta, unsteadily, "but I thought I should find
them in--Mrs. Brand, I mean----"
"Did you want to see them--my mother, I mean--particularly?" asked
Wyvis, either by accident or intention seeming to parody her words.
"I have not seen her for a long time." Janetta evaded giving a direct
answer. "I thought that I should have had a little talk with her. If she
is out, I think that I had better turn back."
"You had better rest for a little while," he said. "It is a long walk,
and in spite of what you may say, you do look tired. If you have
business with my mother, perhaps I may do as well. She generally leaves
all her business to me."
"No," said Janetta, with considerable embarrassment of manner. "It is
nothing--I can come another time."
He looked at her for a moment as if she puzzled him.
"You have been teaching music in Beaminster, I believe?"
"Yes--and other things."
"May I ask what other things?"
Janetta smiled. "I have a little sister, Tiny," she said, "and I teach
her everything she learns. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, you know.
And a neighbor's little boy comes in and learns with her."
"I have been wondering," said Wyvis, "whether you would care to do
anything with that boy of mine."
"That dear little Julian? Oh, I should be glad," said Janetta, more
freely than she had yet spoken. "He is such a sweet little fellow."
"He has a spirit of his own, as you know," said the father, with rather
an unwilling smile. "He is not a bad little chap; but he has lately
attached himself a good deal to me, and I have to go into the stables
and about the land a good deal, and I don't think it's altogether good
for him. I found him"--apologetically--"using some very bad language the
other day. Oh, you needn't be afraid; he won't do it again; I think I
thrashed it out of him--"
"Oh, that's worse!" said Janetta, reproachfully.
"What do you mean?"
"To strike a little fellow like that, when he did not know that what he
was saying was wrong! And why did you take him where he would hear
language of that kind? Wasn't it more your fault than his?"
Wyvis bent his head and shrugged his shoulders. "If the truth were
known, I dare say he heard me use it," he said dryly. "I'm not
mealy-mouthed myself. However, I've taught him that he must not do it."
"Have you, indeed? And don't you think that example will prove stronger
than precept, or even than thrashing?" said Janetta. "If you want to
teach him not to use bad words, you had better not use them yourself,
Mr. Brand."
"Mr. Brand?" said Wyvis; "I thought it was to be Cousin Wyvis. But I've
disgusted you; no wonder. I told you long ago that I did not know how to
bring up a child. I asked you to help us--and you have not been near the
place for months."
"How could I help you, if you mean to train him by oaths and blows?"
asked Janetta.
"That's plain speaking, at any rate," he said. "Well, I don't mind; in
fact, I might say that I like you the better for it, if you'll allow me
to go so far. I don't know whether you're right or not. Of course it
won't do for him to talk as I do while he's a baby, but later on it
won't signify; and a thrashing never did a boy any harm."
"Do you mean that you are in the habit of swearing?" said Janetta, with
a direct simplicity, which made Wyvis smile and wince at the same time.
"No, I don't," he said. "I always disliked the habit, and I was
determined that Julian shouldn't contract it. But I've lived in a set
that was not over particular; and I suppose I fell into their ways now
and then."
"Apart from the moral point of view, no _gentleman_ ever does it!" said
Janetta, hotly.
"Perhaps not. Perhaps I'm not a gentleman. My relations, the publicans
of Roxby, certainly were not. The bad strain in us will out, you see."
"Oh, Cousin Wyvis, I did not mean that," said Janetta, now genuinely
distressed. "It is only that--I do wish you would not talk in that
way--use those words, I mean. Julian is sure to catch them up, and you
see yourself that that would be a pity."
"I am to govern my tongue then for Julian's sake?"
"Yes, and for your own."
"Do you _care_ whether I govern it or not, Janetta?"
How oddly soft and tender his voice had grown!
"Yes, I do care," she answered, not very willingly, but compelled to
truthfulness by her own conscience and his constraining gaze.
"Then I swear I will," he exclaimed, impetuously. "It is something to
find a woman caring whether one is good or bad, and I won't prove myself
utterly unworthy of your care."
"There is your mother: _she_ cares."
"Oh, yes, she cares, poor soul, but she cries over my sins instead of
fighting them. Fighting is not her _métier_, you know. Now, you--you
fight well."
"That is a compliment, I suppose?" said Janetta, laughing a little and
coloring--not with displeasure--at his tone.
"Yes," he said; "I like the fighting spirit."
They had been walking slowly along the path, and now they had reached
the gate that opened into the grounds. Here, as he opened it, Janetta
hesitated, and then stopped short.
"I think I had better make the best of my way back," she said. "It is
getting late."
"Not much after twelve. Are we not friends again?"
"Oh yes."
"And will you think over what I said about my boy?"
"Do you really mean it?"
"Most decidedly. You couldn't come here, I suppose--you wouldn't leave
home?"
"No, I could not do that. How would he get to me every day?"
"I would bring him myself, or send him in the dog-cart. I or my brother
would look after that." Then, seeing a sudden look of protest in
Janetta's face, he added quickly--"You don't like that?"
"It is nothing," said Janetta, looking down.
"Is it to me or to my brother that you object?"
He smiled as he spoke, but, a little to his surprise, Janetta kept
silence, and did not smile. Wyvis Brand was a man of very quick
perceptions, and he saw at once that if she seemed troubled she had a
reason for it.
"Has Cuthbert offended you?" he asked.
"I have only spoken to him once--four months ago."
"That is no answer. What has he been about? I have some idea, you know,"
said Wyvis, coolly, "because I came across some sketches of his which
betrayed where his thoughts were straying. Your pretty sister quite
captivated him, I believe. Has he been getting up a flirtation?"
"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 hardly
knew why--the vision of a woman, an imaginary woman, one whom she had
never seen--the woman with Julian's eyes, the woman who called herself
the wife of Wyvis Brand. The thought had power to bring her to her feet.
"And now I must really go."
"Not yet," he said, smiling down at her with a very kindly look in his
stern dark eyes. "Do you know you have given me a great deal of pleasure
to-day? You have trusted me to do a commission for you--a delicate bit
of work too--and that shows that you don't consider me altogether
worthless."
"You may be sure that I do not."
"Yes, we are friends. I have some satisfaction in that thought. Do you
know that you are the first woman who has ever made a _friend_ of me?
who has ever trusted me, and taught me--for a moment or two--to respect
myself? It is the newest sensation I have had for years."
"Not the sensation of respecting yourself, I hope?"
"Yes, indeed. You don't know--you will never know--how I've been
handicapped in life. Can you manage to be friendly with me even when I
don't do exactly as you approve? You are at liberty to tell me with
cousinly frankness what you dislike."
"On that condition we can be friends," said Janetta, smiling and
tendering her hand. She meant to say good-bye, but he retained the
little hand in his own and went on talking.
"How about the boy? You'll take him for a few hours every day?"
"You really mean it?"
"I do, indeed. Name your own terms."
She blushed a little, but was resolved to be business-like.
"You know I can't afford to do it for nothing," she said. "He can come
from ten to one, if you like to give me----" and and then she mentioned
a sum which Wyvis thought miserably inadequate.
"Absurd!" he cried. "Double that, and then take him! When can he come?"
"Next week, if you like. But I mean what I say----"
"So do I, and as my will is stronger than yours I shall have my own
way."
Janetta shook her head, and, having by this time got her hand free, she
managed to say good-bye, and left the house much more cheerfully than
she had entered it. Strange to say, she had a curious feeling of trust
in Wyvis Brand's promise to help her; it seemed to her that he was a man
who would endeavor at all costs to keep his word.