But you see it was that thought that maddened me when I came
here, and I felt as if I'd like to fall upon you and tear you limb from
limb. So I struck you on the face when you tried to thwart me."

"But--I don't understand," said Janetta, tremulously. "I thought you did
not--_love_--Wyvis."

Mrs. Brand laughed. "Not in your way," she said in an enigmatic tone.
"But a woman can hate a man and be jealous of him too. And I was jealous
of you, and struck you. And in return for that you've nursed me night
and day, and waited on me, until you're nearly worn out, and the doctor
says I owe my life to you. Don't you think I'm right when I say you're a
queer one?"

"It would be very odd if I neglected you when you were ill just because
of a moment of passion on your part," said Janetta, rather stiffly. It
was difficult to her to be perfectly natural just then.

"Would it? Some people wouldn't say so. But come--you say I don't love
Wyvis?"

"I thought so--certainly."

"Well, look here," said Wyvis' wife. "I'll tell you something. Wyvis was
tired of me before ever he married me. I soon found that out. And you
think I should be caring for him then? Not I. But there _was_ a time
when I would have kissed the very ground he walked on. But he never
cared for me like that."

"Then--why----".

"Why did he marry me? Chiefly because his old fool of a mother egged him
on. She should have let us alone."

"Did she want him to marry you?" said Janetta, in some amaze.

"It doesn't seem likely, does it?" said Mrs. Brand, with a sharp,
heartless little laugh. "But she sets up for having a conscience now and
then. I was a girl in a shop, I may tell you, and Wyvis made love to me
without the slightest idea of marrying me. Then Mrs. Brand comes on the
scene: 'Oh, my dear boy, you mustn't make that young woman unhappy. I
was made unhappy by a gentleman when I was a girl, and I don't want you
to behave as he did."

"And that was very good of Mrs. Brand!" said Janetta, courageously.

Juliet made a grimace. "After a fashion. She had better have let us
alone. She put Wyvis into a fume about his honor; and so he asked me to
marry him. And I cared for him--though I cared more about his
position--and I said yes. So we were married, and a nice cat and dog
life we had of it together."

"And then you left him?"

"Yes, I did. I got tired of it all at last. But I always lived
respectably, except for taking a little too much stimulant now and the