upon his death, Janetta
almost forgot her cousins, the Brands. But when the funeral took place,
and she went with her brother Joe to the grave, as she insisted upon
doing in spite of her stepmother's tearful remonstrances, it was a sort
of relief and satisfaction to her to see that both Wyvis and Cuthbert
Brand were present. They were her kinsmen, after all, and it was right
for them to be there. It made her feel momentarily stronger to know of
their presence in the church.

But at the grave she forgot them utterly. The beautiful and consoling
words of the Burial Service fell almost unheeded on her ear. She could
only think of the blank that was made in her life by the absence of
that loving voice, that tender sympathy, which had never failed her
once. "My faithful Janet!" he had called her. There was no one to call
her "my faithful Janet" now.

She was shaken by a storm of silent sobs as these thoughts came over
her. She made scarcely a sound, but her figure was swayed by the tempest
as if it would have fallen. Joe, the young brother, who could as yet
scarcely realize the magnitude of the loss which he had sustained,
glanced at her uneasily; but it was not he, but Wyvis Brand, who
suddenly made a step forward and gave her--just in time--the support of
his strong arm. The movement checked her and recalled her to herself.
Her weeping grew less violent, and although strong shudders still shook
her frame, she was able to walk quietly from the grave to the
carriage-door, and to shake hands with Wyvis Brand with some attempt at
calmness of demeanor.

He came to the house a few days after the funeral, but Janetta happened
to be out, and Mrs. Colwyn refused to see him. Possibly he thought that
some slight lurked within this refusal, for he did not come again, and a
visit at a later date from Mrs. Brand was so entirely embarrassing and
unsatisfactory that Janetta could hardly wish for its repetition. Mrs.
Colwyn, in the deepest of widow's weeds, with a white handkerchief in
her hand, was yet not too much overcome by grief to show that she
esteemed herself far more respectable than Mrs. Brand, and could "set
her down," if necessary; while poor Mrs. Brand, evidently comprehending
the reason of Mrs. Colwyn's bridlings and tossings, was nervous and
flurried, sat on the edge of a chair, and looked--poor, helpless,
elderly woman--as if she had never entered a drawing-room before.

The only comfort Janetta had out of the visit was