you ever since I heard of your
escape."

He bent and kissed the hand she gave him. "Gracious as ever!" he
commented lightly. "Had you begun to wear mourning for me, I wonder? It
was a very cold bath, I assure you. We didn't enjoy it, any of us."

"I am sure you didn't." Her eyes still dwelt upon the dark face with its
half-mocking smile with a species of maternal tenderness. "And you lost
your yacht too! That was desperately unlucky."

He made a comic grimace. "I am past the age for crying over spilt milk,
Maud of the Roses." He uttered his old name for her with daring
assurance. "I have had worse losses than that in my time."

"And still you smile," she said.

He bowed. "A smile can conceal so much." He turned to his host as he came
up behind him. "Well, Jake, I've taken you at your word, you see, and
intruded into your virtuous household. How are Eileen and Molly and Betty
and--last but not least--the son and heir?"

Maud laughed softly. "Well done, Charlie! How clever of you to remember
them all!"

"Oh yes, I am quite clever," said Saltash, as again his hand met Jake's.
"Too clever sometimes. I needn't ask if all goes well with you, Jake.
Your prosperity is obvious, but don't wax fat on it. Bunny now--he's as
lean as a giraffe. Can't you do something to him? He looks as if he'd
melt into thin air at a touch."

"Oh, don't be an ass!" protested Bunny. "I'm as strong as a horse anyway.
Jake, tell him not to be an ass!"

"No good, I'm afraid," said Jake, with his sudden smile. "Come inside, my
lord! The children are all flourishing, but in bed at the present moment.
The baby--"

"Oh, I must see the baby!" declared Saltash, turning back to Maud.

She laid a hand on his arm. "I will take you to see him after dinner."

"Will you?" He smiled into her eyes. "I shall like that. But I shall
probably want to shoot Jake when I come down again. Think it's safe?"

She smiled back at him with confidence. "Yes, I think so. Anyhow, I'm not
afraid."

"Come and feed!" said Jake.

They sat down in the pretty oak-panelled dining-room with its windows
opening upon the terrace and the long dim line of down. Saltash talked
freely of Valrosa, of his subsequent voyaging, of the wreck of _The Night
Moth_, but no word did he utter of the gift that had been flung to him on
that night of stars in the Mediterranean. He was always completely at his
ease in Jake's household, but it was not his way to touch at any time in
Maud's pr