Only Jake’s presence held her to the present, and when at the end of dinner he rose to carry out his suggestion with regard to fetching her mother in the dog-cart she felt, as soon as the door closed upon him, that the old life she knew and loved had wholly returned. She and Bunny and Saltash were just children together, and they settled down to enjoy themselves as such.
Lord Saltash’s desire to see the stud evaporated completely during the afternoon. He stayed and made himself extremely charming to Mrs. Sheppard, who returned with Jake, very fluttered and arch, to spend an hour--only an hour or Giles would be so cross--in her daughter’s new home. And when she left again under Jake’s escort it was already growing dark.
"I’ve got to talk business with Jake so I may as well wait till he comes back," said Lord Saltash comfortably, and they gathered round the blazing fire and sat in luxurious enjoyment.
Undoubtedly Bunny had enjoyed himself that afternoon, but he had begun to grow restless and irritable, signs which Maud had learned to recognize as the heralds of a wakeful night. She wondered with some uneasiness if Jake would be able to manage him with his usual success.
"You haven’t got a piano here, have you?" asked Saltash in a pause.
In the old days they had sung duets together. She wondered if he remembered.
He went lightly on. "You will have to use the one at the Castle. You mustn’t let your talents run to seed. Come up any day, you and Bunny. The place will always be open to you, whether I am there or not."
She thanked him for the thought. "We should love to come; I have had no opportunities for playing for months, not since we left London."
"No?" he said. "I say, what made your mother come to Fairharbour? It’s a hole of a place to live in."
She felt her face burn in the firelight. She hesitated, and at once Bunny cut in.
"The mother always has an eye on the main chance," he said. "And she is a great believer in friendship. When things look black she always likes to hunt up old friends and give them their opportunity."
His meaning was not obscure. Maud made a quick movement of protest; but Lord Saltash’s inconsequent laugh covered her discomfiture on the instant.
"Poor Lady Brian! I am afraid her luck and mine are made of the same rotten material. It tears at a touch. But I should have thought she might have chosen a sounder man than Sheppard of ’The Anchor’ for a husband."