Then there came a movement from Bunny, and she sat up.
"Are you awake, Maud?" asked his voice out of the shadows. "Has Jake gone?"
"Yes, darling," she made answer. "Are you wanting anything?"
She was by his side with the words; she bent over him. He wanted his pillows rearranged, and when she had done it he said, "I say, when did you wake up?"
He chuckled a little. "Weren’t you surprised to find me in bed?"
"Yes, I was," she said. "How did you get there?"
Bunny seemed to regard the matter as a joke. "That fellow Jake--he went over and looked at you, came back and said you were fast asleep, asked what I generally had done, and if he couldn’t do it for me. He managed very well and was jolly quick about it too. I thought you would be sure to wake, but you didn’t. And when I was settled, he asked if I didn’t want anything, and I said, ’Yes, hot milk’, and he crept off and got it. He brought a glass for you too. He stuck it in the fender. Have you had it?"
"Yes," Maud said. "But Bunny, didn’t he hurt you at all? You nearly always cry out when you’re lifted."
"I didn’t that time," said Bunny proudly. "I told him I should probably squeal, and he said if I so much as squeaked he’d throttle me. He’s a brick, do you know, Maud. And he seemed to know how to get hold of me without being told."
Maud’s amazement was growing. The man must be a genius indeed to manage Bunny in that fashion.
"After that," said Bunny, "he sat down by me and got hold of my hand and said, ’Now I’m going to send you to sleep.’ I told him I never slept the first part of the night, and he grinned and said, ’You’ll be asleep in five minutes from now if you let yourself go.’ And I said, ’Rats!’ And he said, ’Shut up!’ So I did. And he held my hand tight and sat staring across the room like a mute till somehow he got all blurred up and then I suppose I went to sleep. I never knew when he went. Did you?"
"No," said Maud. She had an uncanny feeling that Jake had somehow left his influence behind him in the atmosphere. His personality seemed to dominate it still. She was sure he had meant to be kind, but a queer sense of antagonism made her resent his kindness. She did not like Bunny’s whole-hearted admiration.
"He’s a brick," the boy said again, "and do you know he’s done almost everything under the sun? He’s been a sailor, and he’s dug for gold, and he’s kept a Californian store, and he’s been a cow-boy on a ranch. He says the last suited him best because he’s so keen on the wilds and horses. It was out in the wilds somewhere that Lord Saltash came on him and brought him home to be his trainer. But he’s British-born all the same. I knew he was that the first time I saw him."