He returned a few minutes later, faintly smiling, sat down by her side and drew Eileen between his knees.

“Well,” he said.  “I guess it’s all fixed up.  We’re going to give you a nursery governess, Innocence.  I hope you’ll treat her with respect.”

“Oh, but, Jake—­” protested Maud.

He turned to her.  “Yes, she’s going to make herself useful.  I don’t believe in anyone living in idleness.  We’ll begin as we mean to go on, and she’s got to help.  I told his lordship so.  If she doesn’t suit,—­well, I guess she’ll go back where she came from.  I told him that too.”

“What did he say?” questioned Maud.

“He agreed of course.”  Jake’s tone was ironical.  “Said she was nothing but a child herself.  He was very emphatic on that point.”

“Don’t you believe him?” asked Maud with a hint of sharpness.

“Not as a rule,” said Jake.  “Mostly never—­when he’s emphatic.  However, time will prove.  She will be here to lunch, and I’ve told Bunny to meet her with the dog-cart.”

“Are we going to have lessons?” asked Eileen.

He looked into the soft eyes and the irony went out of his smile.  “I don’t know if I can bear to have you taught anything, Innocence,” he said.  “You’re just right as you are.”

It was his own especial name for her and he always uttered it with tenderness.  Eileen smiled up at him, and pressed against his knee.

“I would like to learn some lessons, Daddy,” she said.  “I’m sure I’m big enough, and I’m growing too.”

“Maybe you are,” said Jake.  “But don’t grow too fast, little ’un!  Don’t get so big that you look down on your poor old daddy!”

“She’ll never do that!” said Maud quickly.  “No child of mine will ever do that, Jake.”

He smiled at her whimsically.  “Oh, I guess I’ll hold my own among ’em whatever they do.  Now you go to sleep, my girl, and put all worries out of your head!  I must be moving, but I’ll look in presently to see how you are.  So long!”

He bent and laid his cheek for a moment against her hand, then turned and softly left her.

Maud watched the door close behind him, then spoke to the child beside her.  “Eileen darling, always remember that your daddy is the best and dearest man who ever lived!”

“Yes, Mummy, I know,” said Eileen, with earnest shining eyes.

Jake went out to the stables and immersed himself in the day’s work.  He had always been a busy man, and time passed swiftly with him.  He and his right-hand man, Sam Vickers, had brought the stud to a pitch of perfection that had earned for his animals a high place in the opinion of the racing community.  He had, moreover, a reputation for straightness so unimpeachable that it had become almost a proverb up and down the country.  Men said of Jake Bolton that his honour was such that it could stand by itself.  Certainly no one ever questioned it.

One of his horses was running at Graydown that afternoon, and at the end of the morning he returned to the house for a hasty lunch before leaving for the race-course.  All memory of Saltash’s protege had left him, but it returned to his mind as he saw the extra place laid at the table.  He looked at his watch and realized that she ought to have arrived half an hour before.  Bunny was also absent, presumably waiting for her.