Janet threw back her head, which was smaller--as she was smaller in every part--than that of her tall pupil. There is nothing so fearless in life as a girl who is without fear. It is true that the kind of dauntless courage she possesses is largely made up of ignorance, and also comes a little perhaps from the conventional precautions which defend her, though she does not know it. However, the quality is absolute, and Janet had it. She feared nothing, as she said. Julia, from under her puckered eyebrows, glared into the clear brown eyes, which had something in them like the sparkle of a Highland stream, and admired the valor which she did not possess: for she was afraid of the coercion which she was always fighting against. She stared, but she said nothing in reply. “You see,” said Janet, “I will do what I’ve promised: and if I were you I’d say I will too. It’s much nicer than to have to say I must----” Still Julia stared; her lips moved as if she would have spoken, but she uttered no sound. “Downstairs,” said Janet, “they expect us to fight. I am afraid you have been so silly that they think you are a fool, and don’t understand anything about what is expected from a gentlewoman. That’s not my opinion, as I told you: but as I shall not give in, whatever you do, it would be very silly to go on fighting forever. We can make something better of it: if you will be convinced that I never shall be afraid of you--no, nor of anyone else,” Janet repeated, with the color mounting in her cheeks. Julia continued silent for some time; then, with a sudden burst of harsh sound, asked, “What do you want of me?” and was abruptly silent again, as if a spring had been touched to give forth that voice. “I want you to speak when you are spoken to,” said Janet. The girl, who evidently expected something of much larger scope, cried “Oh!” but said no more. “I want you to do as I tell you--for so many hours in the day--from ten to one, is it? That’s not very long. You can be a demon after that, if you please, and dance your war-dance.” “What do you mean by--dancing my war-dance?” “Behaving like a fiend, or a Red Indian, or a tramp in the roads: so long as you are in your senses from ten to one.” Julia stared again, but made no reply. “But you must remember,” said Janet, “that in the place I come from, where there are no Red Indians, there is a point of honor; and whatever one undertakes to do one does. If you see the sense of what I say, and give me your word, it is once and forever; not promise one day and break it the next. That is a sort of thing I don’t understand. One promises, and it is for life and death. It does not matter what comes in the way. If you were to be killed for it, it would have to be done.” Julia stared for a few moments more, and then---- “I can see the sense of that,” she said.