"A very foolish promise!"
"I 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.