“Not even Saltash?” smiled Jake.

“Not even—­Bunny!” said Maud, still breathing resentment.

He took her gently by the shoulder.  “Look here, my girl!  I won’t have you say a word to the boy about this, see?  I didn’t know you’d flare up like that or I shouldn’t have spoken.  He didn’t mean it that way.  If he had, I’d have punched his head.  And after all,” his eyes smiled suddenly into hers, “I do live on my wife’s bounty, don’t I?  Wouldn’t I be driving cows on the other side of the Atlantic without it?”

“No,” Maud said.  “You’d be owning your own ranch by this time, and—­and—­and generally licking creation, Jake, as only you know how.”

“Oh, shucks!” said Jake softly, and kissed her again upon the lips.  “I’d sooner be here anyway.  Well, Saltash is coming, so we’ve got to make the best of it.  I shouldn’t care a cuss if it weren’t for young Bunny.  But he’s always been keener on his lordship’s company than I’ve thought advisable.”

“Oh, Jake,” she said, colouring a little, “I don’t believe Charlie would do him any harm.”

“Not intentionally perhaps,” said Jake.  “I’ve no ill feeling for him, heaven knows, but I can’t say I think his society likely to have a very improving effect upon anyone.”

“I don’t think you quite understand him,” Maud said thoughtfully.

Whereat Jake laughed so suddenly that she looked at him with raised brows.  He got to his feet, still laughing.

“Very likely not.  We’ve had a good many misunderstandings, he and I, from the day I cowhided him for a scoundrel to the day I nearly shot him for a blackguard.”

“Oh, but that was all so long ago,” Maud said quickly.  “He wasn’t much more than a boy in those days.  He has grown a lot since then.”

Jake grunted.  “Which way, think you?  Well, I must dress.  He may be here before we’re ready for him.”

He turned to go back to his own room, but Maud stayed him for a moment.  “Jake,” she said almost wistfully, “you know—­with all his faults—­he always had—­possibilities.”

“I know,” Jake said, looking down at her.  “He’s made the most of ’em too.”

Her face quivered.  “Don’t,” she said.  “It—­isn’t it rather ungenerous to condemn a man unheard?”

Jake made a faint sound of contempt or scepticism, but no reply in words.

She drew herself up out of her chair by his arm.  “Jake, I want you to do something for me.”

“Well?” said Jake uncompromisingly.

She met his look unswervingly.  “Let me be a friend to him tonight!  Let me be alone with him and find out—­if he will tell me—­whether there is any truth in this rumour that there was a woman on board the yacht.”

“And when you’ve found out?” said Jake.

She made a little gesture of appeal.  “Will you leave that to me?  I have sometimes felt that I might be—­a help to him if ever there came an opportunity.  Jake, you don’t mind my trying to help him?  I have a feeling that I understand him better than most people do.”