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 teach