Maud uttered a sharp sigh. "I don’t see anything great in doing what one must," she said rather sadly. "It is very nice of you to admire women, but I expect it is chiefly because you don’t understand them."
Jake’s frank smile appeared at her words. "I’m not disputing that most women need a burden of some sort," he said gently. "I guess that’s just a woman’s way. She wouldn’t be happy if she hadn’t one."
"And yet you want to take mine away!" The words were out almost before she knew it. She repented them even as they fell.
Jake’s smile passed, and an odd, dogged look took its place. "I reckon that’s different," he said. "You’ve carried too heavy a burden all your life. Do you know, Maud"--his voice softened though his face remained unchanged--"that first time I saw you, I recognized that look of desperate endurance in your eyes that my mother used to have? It cut right through me. And you were so young, which made it worse."
"I know," he made answer. "You’ve missed it all. But when you’re stronger--happier--you’ll find you’re not so old. There are quite a lot of good things in the world even for middle-aged folk like you and me."
"Yes, that’s so," he asserted, in that calm, confident drawl of his. "And that brings me round to what I’ve been wanting to say to you. I don’t want to deprive you of anything worth having, but I am wanting--real badly--to make a sound man of Bunny as soon as may be. Reckon you’re wanting that too?"
Her heart gave a thick, hard throb. "Of course," she said rather breathlessly.
"Yes, of course," agreed Jake imperturbably. "Well, I had a letter last night from Capper, one of the biggest surgeons in the world. I had the good luck to do him a small service, once, and he can’t somehow forget it. Now he’s coming to England in a few weeks, and he’ll look me up. I’ve told him about Bunny, and he’s sort of interested. Say, Maud, it would be a mighty big thing to let him examine the little chap and see what he thinks."
Maud’s face was very pale. She walked in silence.
Jake glanced at her. "You’d be afraid?" he suggested.
"I don’t know," she said, in that same breathless tone. "It--it seems rather soon. And suppose--suppose he failed!"
"My dear," Jake said gently. "Capper won’t fail. He’ll either tackle the job and carry it through, or he won’t attempt it. That’s the sort of man he is."