"My dear boy, nothing has happened. Don’t look so suspicious! There! Come and let me look at you! Do you know I hardly know you? You seem so young."
Bunny pushed an arm about her neck, and gave the kiss for which she yearned. "You look years older than you did," he said, with brotherly candour. "I thought you’d get on like a house on fire when you hadn’t me to worry you, but you look more down in the mouth than ever."
"I shan’t now I’ve got you," she whispered, clinging to him. "I’ve missed you--horribly, dear."
"I thought you would," said Bunny with complacence. "I missed you too at first. When they gave me that beastly massage, I used to howl for you."
"Was it so terribly bad?" she murmured, holding him faster.
"It was--unspeakable," said Bunny. "I shouldn’t have stuck to it if you’d been there. As it was,--well, I couldn’t help myself. But they were awfully kind too. No one ever pitched into me for behaving badly. They all seemed to take it for granted that I should. And when I began to get better, they were so jolly encouraging. But I’d rather be flogged every day for a year," ended Bunny, "than go through it all again."
"Dr. Capper didn’t tell me it would be so bad," said Maud.
"No. Capper’s a deep one. He didn’t tell me either. He laughs about it now," said Bunny, "and says the end has fully justified the means. He’s rather a card, but he’s a fine chap. He is coming to see us before he leaves England. I made him promise. He’ll be off before the end of August." Bunny stretched himself luxuriously. "How’s the mother getting on?" he enquired.
"I haven’t seen her for quite a long time. I believe she is very busy," Maud said. "They have discharged some of the servants at ’The Anchor.’ I don’t believe it answers. She was looking rather worried the last time we met. But she didn’t tell me anything, except that times were bad."
"They always are with some people," said Bunny. "I suppose Jake is quite prosperous, is he?"
"Oh, quite, I think," she said in surprise. "Of course he is Charlie’s paid man. Why do you ask?"
"He looks a bit bothered," said Bunny. "P’raps it isn’t that though. Come along! Let’s go upstairs!"
He twined his arm in hers. They went up side by side.
A little later they separated, and Maud went to her own room. Down in the training-field below the orchard a solitary horseman was riding a young, untamed animal that fought savagely against his mastery, striving by every conceivable artifice to unseat him. She paused at the casement window and watched the struggle, marked the man’s calm assurance, his inflexible strength of purpose, his ruthless self-assertion. And, as she watched, that evil thing that she nourished in her heart opened its first poisonous flowers and bloomed in rank profusion. She hoped with a sickening intensity that the animal would win the day, and that Jake Bolton would be killed.