Bunny broke into a sudden laugh.  “Oh, she’s decided to reserve judgment.  You’ll have to come and see her.  You really must.  And the kids too—­four of ’em now.  The eldest is a darling.”

“Eileen!  Oh, I know Eileen,” said Saltash.  “I was actually allowed to have her to tea once at the Castle.  I am not supposed to have such a venomous effect upon quite small girls as upon young men of two or three and twenty.”

“Oh, shut up!” Bunny growled again.  “There’s Jake, look!  Come and speak to him!”

There was nothing ornamental about Jake Bolton.  Short, thick-set, powerful as a bull and with something of a bull’s unswerving contempt for all obstacles in his path, with red-brown eyes that were absolutely level in their regard and mercilessly keen, such was the man who had married Maud Brian eight years before, practically in the teeth of Saltash who had wooed her in her girlhood.  There was no feud between them.  Their enmity was long since dead and buried.  Saltash could be intolerably malicious and even vindictive when the mood took him, but his moods never lasted.  And as for Bolton, since he had won and still possessed his heart’s desire, he could afford to be generous.

His greeting was generous now, but it was not wholly without reserve.  He gave Saltash a square hand-grip before he uttered a word.

Then:  “Glad you’re safe and sound, my lord,” he said, in a voice that was curiously soft and deliberate.

“That’s uncommon kind of you, Jake,” laughed Saltash, with his royal air of graciousness.  “I share the sentiment.  I know you would all have been heart-broken if I hadn’t turned up again.  How is Maud?”

“Very well—­if she doesn’t work too hard.  I have to keep her in order in that respect,” said Jake Bolton with a sudden smile that swept all the somewhat dominant lines from his face.

Saltash grinned in sympathy.  “You always were a bully, but I’ll bet she gets her own way all the same.  So you’ve got a boy at last!  Hope it’s a good one!”

“He’d better be, hadn’t he, Jake?” struck in Bunny.  “The imp is six months old now and goes for a canter on The Hundredth Chance every day when I’m at home.  You actually haven’t seen him yet, Charlie?  What a rotter you were to be away all the winter!”

“Well, I’m home now anyway,” said Saltash, with a comical glance at Jake.  “Am I to be allowed to call and view the latest acquisition?”

Jake was looking straight at him.  “Are you—­alone at the Castle, my lord?” he asked after a moment.

Saltash began to laugh.  “Of course I’m alone!  What did you expect?  Ah, I see!” His glance flashed to Bunny.  “Yes, I am quite alone—­most conspicuously and virtuously unaccompanied.  Come and see for yourself!  Search the Castle from turret-chamber to dungeon!  You will find nothing but the most monastic emptiness.  I’ve turned into a hermit.  Haven’t they made that discovery yet?  My recent deliverance from what I must admit was a decidedly awkward predicament in the Channel has sobered me to such an extent that on my life I begin to doubt if I shall ever be anything but a dull dog again.  Yes, that’s the truth, Jake.  You can take it or leave it.  But I’m coming to see Maud in any case.  When is my presence least likely to cause you inconvenience?”