"My dear!" said Maud, momentarily disconcerted.

"Well, it's no good pretending I do when I don't, is it?" said Toby, and suddenly smiled at her with winning gracelessness. "It isn't my fault We're not friends--never have been. Why," she made a little gesture of the hands, "we hardly know each other. I'd never been on _The Night Moth_ before."

"And you'll never go again," commented Bunny, entering at the moment, "Maud, do you know I took--Miss Larpent--" he turned deliberately to Toby who snapped her fingers in airy acknowledgment--"to see the races instead of coming straight back--according to the boss's instructions."

"Oh! So that's where you've been!" said Maud.

"Exactly so." Bunny pulled up a chair and disposed his long legs astride it. "We saw several events, and made a bit. Then Forest Fire let us down badly and we lost the lot. After that we went into the paddock to cool ourselves and met the boss, who at once--somewhat rudely--ordered us home. I have an impression he's feeling waxy with me for some reason,"

Bunny ended, stroking his chin reflectively. "Daresay I shall get over it, however."

"What a pity you went!" said Maud.

"Not at all," said Bunny. "We enjoyed it. It's fun doing naughty things sometimes, isn't it,--er--Miss Larpent?"

"Don't be an a.s.s!" said Toby tersely.

Maud raised her brows, but Bunny grinned with delight. "Thank you Toby! I take the hint. There shall be no more ceremony between us. Ah! There come the children along the path by the summerhouse!" he sprang to the window and sent forth a yell, turning back almost instantly to say, "Sorry, Maud! I'm afraid I forgot your head. How is it?"

He did not wait for her reply, but leaned out again immediately to address the advancing children with noisy gayety.

Toby looked up at Maud, hesitated, and rose. "Let us go and have tea with the children!" she said. "It will be quieter for you."

Maud put out a gentle hand to her. "No, dear. You stay with me. Bunny may if he likes!"

This time Toby's fingers closed tightly upon her own. "Sure?" said Toby.

"Quite sure," said Maud, smiling at her.

Toby turned sharply and pinched Bunny's elbow as he leaned from the window. He drew himself in and stared at her.

"You're making too much noise," she told him curtly. "You go and racket downstairs!"

Bunny's eyes widened for a second in indignant amazement, then abruptly he threw up his chin and laughed. "I like you!" he declared. "You're the c.o.c.kiest thing in girls I've ever seen!"

Toby pulled at his elbow like a small, persistent dog. "Go on!" she commanded. "Go down to them! Mrs. Bolton and I want to have our tea alone. I'll come and play with you presently--if you're good."

It was spoken wholly without coquetry, much as an elder brother might speak to a younger. It was plain that she meant to have her way, though Maud, who knew that there was a very strong mixture of stubbornness in Bunny, wondered much if she would get it. Amus.e.m.e.nt, however, kept the upper hand with him. Toby's treatment evidently appealed strongly to his sense of humour. Perhaps her determination also made its impression upon him, for after a little more chaff on his part and brisk insistence on hers he departed, laughing, to join the children.

Toby saw him to the door and returned calm and triumphant.

"Well done!" said Maud. "You know how to deal with spoilt children evidently."

Toby looked at her sharply as she sat down, almost as if she expected a double meaning to the words.

"Do you mean men?" she said, and for an instant her childish face wore a look of contempt. "Oh, anyone can manage men--given a fair chance.

There's not much cleverness needed for that."

She spoke with the decision of one who knew, and in spite of the difference of years between them Maud could not question her confidence.

She had a curious feeling that--either by experience or intuition--this girl knew more than she.

She made no comment therefore, and after a moment Toby spoke her last word on the subject with characteristic brevity.

"There's only one rule to follow with men--that is, if you want any peace at all. Make up your mind and stick to it! If they don't like it, let 'em go to--" She checked suddenly, and coloured deeply under Maud's eyes--"I mean, let 'em do the other thing," she ended, on a note that somehow seemed to ask for pardon.

"I see," said Maud gently, in a tone that conveyed it.

Toby threw her a little smile, half-grateful and half-mischievous; and curiously in that moment a bond was formed between them which was destined to endure.

CHAPTER VII

THE PROMISE

There was undoubtedly a frown on Jake's usually serene countenance when he walked up the great stable-yard a little later that evening and came upon Bunny lounging in a doorway with his hands in his pockets talking to one of the men.

"Look here, young feller, I want a word with you," he said, with his customary directness, and laid a somewhat peremptory hand upon the boy's shoulder.

Bunny, with a cigarette between his lips, turned and laughed at him without a hint of discomfiture. "All right, boss. I'll come," he said, and linked his arm in Jake's with boyish friendliness.

He was half-a-head taller than Jake, but the look of power that was so apparent in the older man was wholly absent in him. He moved his long limbs with a loose swing that lacked energy though it seemed to denote a certain restlessness.

"Wonder what you'll do without me here when I go to Charlie," he remarked, as Jake did not immediately speak.

"I should say the sooner you go the better," said Jake rather brutally, "if I were only sure you were going to the right place."

"Have a smoke!" said Bunny with unruffled amiability, proffering his case.

Jake pushed it from him with a curt sound of dissatisfaction.

"All right. Don't!" said Bunny, with instant haughtiness, and returned it to his pocket.

He would have withdrawn his hand from his brother-in-law's arm, but Jake retained it there forcibly, steering for his own private office at the end of the stable-yard.

Bunny submitted, but his face grew ominously dark as they pa.s.sed in silence between the long rows of loose-boxes in the soft spring twilight.

As they neared Jake's room he drew himself together with the action of a man who braces his muscles for a sudden strain, and in a moment he was older, less defiant, more dignified.

"That's better," Jake said, making him enter first. "There are times, Sir Bernard Brian, when I want to lick you, as you never--unfortunately--were licked in your early youth. Other times--like the present--when the breed gets the better of me, and I can only stand outside--and admire."

"Oh, don't be a blithering idiot, Jake!" said Bunny in hot discomfiture.

Jake's hand grasped his shoulder. "Sit down, and bring yourself to my level for a minute! Maybe I am a blithering idiot, maybe I'm not. But I could take you by the heels and dip you in the horse-pond round the corner if I felt that way. So you'd better keep as civil as possible. It won't make a mite of difference to me, but it may to you."

Bunny sat down, breathing hard. His cigarette fell to the ground and he stooped for it, but Jake, still holding his shoulder, stooped also, picked it up and flung it straight out of the window.

"You smoke too many of 'em," he said, as he did it.

"d.a.m.n you!" said Bunny in a voice of concentrated fury.