"You're a queer one," she said, with a hard laugh. "I never met anybody like you before. You're religious, aren't you?" "I don't know: I should like to be," said Janetta, soberly. "That's the queerest thing you've said yet. And all you religious people look down on folks like me." "Then I'm not religious, for I don't look down on folks like you at all," said Janetta, calmly adopting Mrs. Brand's vocabulary. "Well, you ought to. I'm not a very good sort myself." Janetta smiled, but made no other answer: And presently Juliet Brand remarked-- "I dare say I'm not so bad as some people, but I've never been a saint, you know. And the day I came here I was in an awful temper. I struck you, didn't I?" "Oh, never mind that," said Janetta, hastily. "You were tired: you hardly knew what you were doing." "Yes, I did," said Mrs. Brand. "I knew perfectly well. But I hated you, because you lived here and had care of Julian. I had heard all about you at Beaminster, you see. And people said that you would probably marry Wyvis when he came home again. Oh, I've made you blush, have I? It was true then?" "Not at all; and you have no right to say so." "Don't be angry, my dear. I don't want to vex you. But it looks to me rather as though----Well, we won't say any more about it since it vexes you. I shan't trouble you long, most likely, and then Wyvis can do as he pleases. 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.