Janet

“ In a little, Marian slept. Janet did not resume her work immediately, but sat gazing at her with eyes as full of wistful tenderness as ever a mother’s could have been. At length, with a sigh, she turned to her basket again.
“Miss Graeme,” said she, in a little, “I dinna like to hear you speak that way about changes, as though they did not come from God, and as though He hadna a right to send them to His people when He pleases.”
“I canna help it, Janet. No change that can come to us can be for the better.” ”

“ Among all Janet’s neighbourly pleasures, there was nothing she liked better than to take an early tea at the White House, and to stroll with Mr. Jerome round the old-fashioned garden and orchard. There was endless matter for talk between her and the good old man, for Janet had that genuine delight in human fellowship which gives an interest to all personal details that come warm from truthful lips; and, besides, they had a common interest in good-natured plans for helping their poorer neighbours. ”

“ For the winter that had been so full of enjoyment to all the rest had been a time of trial to Janet.
To the young people, the winter had brought numberless pleasures. The lads had gone to the school, where they were busy and happy, and the little ones had been busy and happy at home. None had enjoyed the winter more than Graeme. The change had been altogether beneficial to Rose; and never since their mother’s death had the elder sister been so much at ease about her. ”

“ To Janet, the Argyles' sudden departure for Montreal had brought a mood of mingled joy and woe. It was a relief to escape for a few days out of the atmosphere of smothered war, to be able to laugh and gossip and to make merry with Ronald over their meals. It was also a relief not to have to sit by and watch Day's overflowing delight in the rich Christmas gifts which were bound to fall to her share. Janet Leslie, as a rule, was above all petty envyings. Nevertheless, she was human, and not quite fifteen. ”

“ Alas! she is nothing but Lady Janet’s companion and reader. Her head, crowned with its lovely light brown hair, bends with a gentle respect when Lady Janet speaks. Her fine firm hand is easily and incessantly watchful to supply Lady Janet’s slightest wants. The old lady—affectionately familiar with her—speaks to her as she might speak to an adopted child. But the gratitude of the beautiful companion has always the same restraint in its acknowledgment of kindness; the smile of the beautiful companion has always the same underlying sadness when it responds to Lady Janet’s hearty laugh. ”

“ Mechanically Janet ascended the stairs; her thoughts elsewhere. A caress from Miss Hilliard, rare, but expressing a real affection, was always something to be remembered. Janet “adored” Miss Hilliard as she occasionally said to Allie May Loring or Lina Marcy. Then, here was this box. In her heart Janet felt that it was for her.
“That quaint old Dutch name!” she thought. “Can it be that my mother—”, but Janet grew confused. There was no use in conjecture. She must open the box. ”

“ I pity us. That's just like you, Janet. You are always ready to pity anything from a mangy cat or a spider to an erudite professor. You'll find the one to be pitied is your precious self."
"Allee samee, I don't believe he'll find it an easy berth," persisted Janet.
"Well, I am sorry enough to give up Professor Gaines. He is such a well-meaning old soul, and one doesn't have to fight for every inch of the way in his class. I never heard him say a sarcastic thing in my life."
"I never heard Professor Satterthwaite say a sarcastic thing, but—" Janet paused tellingly. ”

“ Janet and the dog, however, still continued the best of friends.
The morning that Janet had gone with her mother’s work, she had dressed herself in a short skirt of her mother’s and an old straw hat with a bit of black ribbon round the crown, while over her shoulders was a coarse woollen shawl. These garments were patched and mended, but they were better than the rags the poor child wore when we first saw her, dancing on the pavement.
The winter passed away, and the blessed summer, which is so much easier for the poor, came in its turn. Then Janet could sleep out-of-doors under some shed. ”

“ Janet,” said Graeme, with a sigh, “I shall never be able to make you understand.”
“You might try, however. You havena tried yet,” said Janet, gently. “It is not that you are growing too proud to eat bread of your brother’s winning, is it?”
“I don’t think it is pride. I know that Arthur considers that what belongs to him belongs to us all. But, even when that is true, it may be better, for many reasons, that I should eat bread of my own winning than of his. Everybody has something to do in the world. ”

“ Janet is a winsome thing. We have already become great chums, although she is a few years older than your lonesome. She is short and plump, with a white, satiny skin, and apple-blossom cheeks that make you feel that you want to kiss the pink of them. Her eyes fairly beam with kindliness as she looks at you from under her short, wavy brown hair. She’s a pacifist and a suffragist, and aims to be a farmerette. ”

“ And you, Miss Janet, you are a thorough lady; anybody can see that, and her ladyship will see it as soon as anybody. She will like you none the worse for being a gentlewoman. But here am I preaching away like any old gadabout, and you not as much as taken your bonnet off yet. Get your things off, dearie, and I'll have a cup of tea ready in no time, and you'll feel ever so much better when you have had it."
Dance could scarcely take her eyes off Janet's face, so attracted was she by the likeness which had wrung from her an exclamation on entering the room. ”

“ Janet is living still. Her black hair is grey, and her step is no longer buoyant; but the sweetness of her smile remains, the love is not gone from her eyes; and strangers sometimes ask, Who is that noble-looking elderly woman, that walks about holding a little boy by the hand? The little boy is the son of Janet's adopted daughter, and Janet in her old age has children about her knees, and loving young arms round her neck. ”

“ He had grown older and graver, and more silent than he used to be, but he had grown to something higher, purer, holier than of old, and like a sudden gleam of light breaking through the darkness, there flashed into Janet’s mind the promise, “All things shall work together for good to them that love God.” ”

“ To suppose that this reasoning would appeal to Sally, to expect that she would assimilate Janet's point of view, adopt Janet's attitude of mind, is beyond all imagination. The whole aspect that Janet had revealed, depressed her, weighed—a heavy drag—upon her spirits. But she was not convinced.
To call things by their names—albeit that language has been evolved these many thousands of years, and during all that time human beings have sat in the dust and worked and played with its cunning symbols—is no easy matter. ”

“ It is the frivolity of the outside world that tires us."
"Oh, me, what a virtuous remark from Janet Ferguson," cried Lee. "Do they make you have seasons of self-examination at fraternity meetings? A silent hour, for example, when you are supposed to be thinking of your sins and your frailties, and instead you spend the time in thinking how you will have your new hat made?"
Janet smiled. "What nonsense, Lee. I am not such an idiot as to begin posing for a saint. I was only defending the absent. My, but that smells good, Cordelia. Is it hard enough yet to eat?" ”

“ Nor did Louise know that it was Janet and not Polly who put the finishing touches to the work. Even Teddy did not find it out, for Janet meant that she should not.
"You must get the roses back into your cheeks," she said to Polly. "You are too pale for a country girl. Are you working very hard, Polly? Don't do it, dear."
The blue eyes which met Janet's, had shadowy circles around them, but the girl's face wore a happy expression. "I don't believe the hard work hurts me," she said in her slow, sweet voice, "for I have so much play; more good times than I ever had in my life. ”

“ One day, after we came back to town I was reading, not thinking of anything but the book—Janey least of all. Nothing in that book could have reminded me of her. I read it over afterwards to see. I looked up all of a sudden, thinking of Janet—thinking of her as if I had been with her an hour before. I dropped the book and felt as if I had just seen her, standing at the door in a familiar kimono, and heard her addressing me for the first time by that ridiculous nickname that she had just invented. I had heard through some people from her town that she was going to be married soon. ”

“ Poor Janet, you know dressing her is like hanging clothes on a wooden peg, and a peg that won’t stand still, and has curious theories of the beautiful, carried out in a still more curious way. So when, in terror of our aunt, the whole female household have done their best to turn out Miss Janet respectable, between this house and Kencroft, she contrives to give herself some twitch, or else is seized with an idea of the picturesque, which sets every one wondering that I let her go about such a figure. Then Ellen and Jessie put a tie here, and a pin there, and reduce the chaotic mass to order. ”

“ She looks as if she needed something to do her good. What ails you, Graeme?”
“My dear,” remonstrated Janet, “rise up when I bid you; and go to the sofa, and I’ll go up the stair for the bottle.”
Marian laid herself wearily down. In a moment Mrs Nasmyth reappeared with a bottle and spoon in one hand, and a pillow in the other, and when the bitter draught was fairly swallowed, Marian was laid down and covered and caressed with a tenderness that struck Graeme as strange; for though Janet loved them all well, she was not in the habit of showing her tenderness by caresses. ”

“ Janet stared at Rob, Day at Ronald, while Sir George Porteous stared at all four of them in turn, stared and smiled his pleased contentment with the scene. Then, just as the pause was growing too long for Sir George's perfect pleasure, just as there was dawning upon him the need to break it, Rob rallied from his stupefaction and dashed forward to meet the emergency.
"Hullo, old man!" he hailed Ronald, with disrespectful cordiality. "Delighted to see you! We had no notion that you were coming, too. Hullo, Janet! How stunning you look! I speak to take you out to dinner." ”

“ Janet's love for Captain George was as yet a timid callow fledgling that could do nothing but flutter in the nest where it was born. Very pretty to look at, but not to be looked at too often, for fear lest its hiding-place should be found out and some rude hand should take it unawares. Her love for Sister Agnes was of a different texture, and made up the real quiet happiness of her life. She felt like a plant that has been lifted out of the cold corner in which it has found the elements of a stunted growth and set to bask in a flood of gracious sunshine. ”

“ But oh, Janet! it is sad that we cannot keep all trouble away from those we love.”
“I canna agree with you, my dear. It would be ill done to keep anything from her that will do her good and not evil, as you say yourself. But well or ill, you canna do it, and it is foolish and wrong of you to vex yourself more than is needful.”
“But I do not, indeed. Just now it was her restless, aimless walking up and down that vexed me. I am foolish, I suppose, but it always does.”
“I daresay it may tell of an uneasy mind, whiles,” said Mrs Snow, gravely. ”

“ Murmuring an inarticulate prayer, he bowed his head in the awful presence, and when he looked again, he saw no more those bonny eyes, but Janet’s toil-worn hand laid over them.
Graeme’s cheek still lay on her sister’s stiffening hand, and when they all rose up, and her father, passing round the couch put his arm about her, she did not move.
“There is no need. Let her rest! it is all over now, the long watching and waiting! let the tired eyelids close, and thank God for the momentary forgetfulness which He has given her.” ”

“ In consequence of this decision, twelve pleased freshmen found themselves selected for special attention from as many seniors, and eleven eagerly accepted the invitations proffered them.
Janet had picked out a pretty, inoffensive, little lass named Lillie Starr, who was in a fluster of excitement when Janet made a visit to her room. Lillie being fair, blue-eyed, short and plump, greatly admired Janet's dark tresses and eyes, her superior height and elegant slimness, and felt it a supreme honor when Janet asked if she would attend a garden fête with her at Florence Worthington's. ”

“ Janet sat up straight.
"So I did. It was afterwards, and it almost killed me," she confessed. "I didn't care about Day so much; but it has worried me into mental cramps, this fuss with Rob. I was all to blame, and he is such a dear. I can see him now, poor old boy, stooping down to get his stick and then getting up and looking at me, as if he thought I had gone crazy. Perhaps I had." Again Janet's laugh threatened to become hysterical.
With rare patience, Ronald waited until she was quiet once more. Then he said gently,
"Tell me all about it, Janet; that is, if you don't mind." ”

“ Lily would have been "suffered" to go to Him. It was a ray of comfort—just a ray of that "Light that lighteth every man"—the first that had shone into Janet's heart. But the rays of that Sun have a most wonderful power of increasing and brightening. Janet soon read her Bible for other things besides a need of comfort. She was not clever, but she had plenty of good sense; and before long, she was a different woman, and her two little boys were carefully taught and trained. ”