CHAPTER II

MAUD BOLTON

Someone was singing a baby lullaby very softly in the beautiful room with the bay window that looked straight over the rolling down.  It was a very sweet voice that sang, and sometimes the low notes were a little tremulous as though some tender emotion thrilled through the song.  The singer was lying back in a rocking-chair close to the bay-window with her baby in her arms.

Beyond the long, undulating slope there stretched a silver line of sea that gleamed with a still radiance in the light of the dying day.  And Maud Bolton, who once had been that proud and desolate girl Maud Brian, gazed out upon it with happy, dreaming eyes.  It had been a hot spring day and she was tired, but it was a pleasant weariness, and the little body that nestled on her breast brought sheer rapture to her woman’s heart.  It was the baby boy for whom for years she had longed in vain.

There came a slight sound at an open door behind her that led to another room.  She turned her head with a quick smile.

“Jake!”

He came, treading softly, and stood beside her.  The failing light on his rugged face showed it strangely softened, almost transformed.

He stooped after a moment and kissed her.  “Why isn’t the little ’un in bed?” he said, with his eyes on the sleeping baby-face.

The smile still lingered about her lips.  “I thought he and I would both of us have a little treat tonight.  Do you know he is six months old today?”

Jake’s square fingers caressed the baby’s placid forehead.  “Yes, I know,” he said.

Maud uttered a faint sigh.  “And so—­according to the law of the Medes and Persians—­he is not going to sleep with his mother any longer.  He is to be banished to the nursery.  But I thought I would put him to sleep first.”

Jake’s look came to her face.  “There’s no law that I know of,” he said in his slow way.  “Keep him in here if you want to!”

She lifted her eyes to his—­beautiful eyes, deeply violet.  “Thank you, Jake.  But it’s all settled, and he won’t mind.”

“He doesn’t matter so much,” said Jake.

She smiled and laid her cheek against his arm.  “No, it’s all right.  Nurse understands him.  I won’t have him again unless he’s ill.  I should have to then.”

“Of course,” said Jake.  He bent down.  “Let me have him!  I’ll take him to the nursery.”

“Ah, don’t wake him!” she said.

Jake’s arms encompassed the little bundle and lifted it from her.  The baby made a small noise that sounded like a protest, but he did not open his eyes.

“Don’t you come!” said Jake.  “I’ll fix him.”

And with light tread he bore his son away.  Maud looked after him with a touch of wistfulness, but she did not move, and in a few minutes he came back to her, knelt beside her, and gathered her strongly into his arms.