Her hand gave his a little confiding squeeze, and Bunny’s fingers gripped in answer.  He realized suddenly that she was nervous, and all the ready chivalry of his nature rose up to protect her.  For a moment or two he kept her hand close in his own.

Then Saltash airily took it from him.  “Come!” he said lightly.  “Here is someone else you ought to know!”

He wheeled her round with the words.  She came face to face with Larpent.  There was an instant of dead silence, then Toby uttered a little quivering laugh.

“Hullo—­Captain!” she said

“Hullo!” said Larpent, paused a moment, then abruptly took her by the chin, and, stooping, touched the wide brow with his lips.  “All right?” he asked gruffly.

Toby gave a little gasp; she seemed to be trembling.  But in a second she laughed again, with more assurance.  “Yes, all right, captain,” she said.  “I—­I—­I’m glad to see you again.  You all right too?”

Bunny, looking on, made the abrupt discovery that Larpent also was embarrassed.  It was Saltash who answered for him, covering the moment’s awkwardness with the innate ease of manner which never seemed to desert him.

“Of course he’s all right.  Don’t you worry about him!  We’re going to buy him another boat as soon as the insurance Company have done talking.  Maud, this is my captain, the finest yachtsman you’ve ever met and my very good friend.”

He threw his merry, dare-devil glance at Larpent as he made the introduction, and turned immediately to Jake.

“You two ought to get on all right.  He disapproves of me almost as strongly as you do, and—­like you—­he endures me, he knows not wherefore!”

Jake’s red-brown eyes held a smile that made his rugged face look kindly as he made reply.  “Maybe we both have the sense to spot a winner when we see one, my lord.”

Saltash’s brows went up derisively.  “And maybe you’ll both lose good money on the gamble before you’ve done.”

“I think not,” said Jake, in his steady drawl.  “I’ve known many a worse starter than you get home on the straight.”

Saltash laughed aloud, and Toby turned with flushed cheeks and lifted eyes, alight and ardent, to her hero’s face.

Saltash’s glance flashed round to her, the monkeyish grin still about his mouth, and from her to Bunny who stood behind.  He did not speak for a moment.  Then:  “No; you’ve never known a worse starter, Jake,” he said; “and if I do get home on the straight it will be thanks to you.”

Very curiously from that moment Bunny found his brief resentment dead.

CHAPTER XII

THE OGRE’S CASTLE

“Let’s go out into the garden!” said Bunny urgently.

Dinner was over, and Maud and Saltash were at the piano at the far end of the great room.  Jake and Larpent were smoking in silent companionship at a comfortable distance.  Toby, who had been very quiet the whole evening, sat silently apart in a low chair with her hands clasped about her knees.  Bunny alone was restless.