He hesitated to interrupt the game, but in an instant Betty the youngest had spied him and uttered a shrill cry of welcome.  The heap upon the floor swiftly resolved itself into four separate beings, and the newcomer sprang up with the litheness of a squirrel and met him with a free grace that was not without a suggestion of defiance.

He held out his hand to her.  He understood the defiance and replied to it with characteristic directness.

“Guess you thought me a rough sort of animal when we met in the paddock this afternoon,” he said.  “I’m sorry.  It was Bunny I was up against—­not you.”

“Not me?” said Toby, her wide eyes lifted quite openly to his.  “Sure?”

He pinched the slim young hand without ceremony.  Somehow she took him by storm—­this girl with the open brow and curiously pathetic face.  “Well, not so much you,” he said.  “Bunny knows that gambling on a big scale is against the law for children of his age.”

“Oh, I see,” said Toby.  She smiled and slipped her hand free.  “Well, I’m years older than he is, so that doesn’t apply to me.  Bunny wasn’t doing any gambling either.”

“I gathered that,” said Jake.

She stopped and lifted Molly the second child, partially veiling her own face with the little girl’s soft curls.  “Then you are up against me,” she said.

“No, I’m not,” Jake’s voice held a queer, compassionate note.  “We won’t quarrel till we know each other better anyway.  I see you’re pretty intimate with the youngsters already.”

“Oh, that’s easy, isn’t it?” said Toby.  “Babies always take you at your face value.  They are never prejudiced beforehand.  There’s never any handicap of that sort with babies.”

Betty was clamouring at her knees.  She bent and lifted her also, bracing her slight form to a double burden of which Jake instantly relieved her, gathering both children into his own strong arms.

“You’re not to do that ever again,” he said, with the authority of the man accustomed to obedience.  “Understand?”

“Why not?” said Toby.

He turned to carry the two babies to the nursery.  “Because I say it,” he said briefly.

“Oh, but that’s no reason,” said Toby, with light assurance.

Eileen at her side looked up in shocked amazement.  “Not if Daddy says so?” she questioned.

Toby stooped and swung her up to her shoulder.  “You little featherweight!  Daddy’s only a man!” she said.

“Quite true,” said Jake deliberately.  “The sort of man who means what he says—­always, and sees that he gets it.”

“What a frightful undertaking!” laughed Toby.  “Then if you told me to go to blazes you’d see that I went?”

There was a pause.  Eileen’s little hands locked themselves nervously under Toby’s chin.  Perhaps she was aware of a certain electricity in the atmosphere.  She was plainly not at her ease.

Jake’s voice sounded, very quiet and distinct, from the nursery door as he entered.  “I reckon that’s just one of the things I’ve learnt not to say.”