Jake glanced at the fire, pushed the poker into it, and got to his feet. He came to her side.
"Don’t be mad with me!" he pleaded humbly. "Someone had to light the fire, and old Lovelace is busy."
He smiled as he said it, and when Jake smiled he was hard to resist. Maud suddenly found the difficulties of the situation swept away. With Jake in a docile mood she found it comparatively easy to deal.
"Thank you," she said after a moment, and with slight hesitation extended a hand to him. "It was kind of you to light the fire though I could have done very well without it."
He took the hand very respectfully. She even had a faint suspicion that he also was secretly embarrassed. "The room faces due north," he said. "It had to be done, though I hoped you wouldn’t wake."
"Thank you," she said again, and withdrew her hand from his steady, all-enveloping grasp. "How--how is Bunny?"
He smiled again with more assurance. His strong white teeth were very good to see. "He had a splendid night. I’ve got him up and dressed. He is downstairs, waiting for you to take him out."
This piece of diplomacy obviously came to Jake as an inspiration. His smile broadened at the brightening of her face.
Maud raised herself on her elbow and pushed the thick hair back from her forehead. "You are very good," she said gratefully. "Please, will you go now, and let me get up?"
He turned at once to the door, but paused as he reached it. "Say, Maud," he said tentatively; "there’s a breakfast-tray waiting for you. May I bring it up?"
"Oh, please don’t!" she said hurriedly. "I never breakfast in bed. Besides----"
"I’ll put it outside the door then," said Jake, and was gone.
She heard him clatter down the uncarpeted stairs, whistling as if well-pleased with himself, and as she reviewed his unceremonious behaviour she decided to treat it with the simplicity with which he evidently regarded it himself. There was that advantage in the situation at least. His character and his conduct were wholly without subtleties--or so she imagined. When he dumped down the breakfast-tray in the passage a little later she called her thanks to him through the closed door as though he had been an old and intimate friend. Perhaps after all she had been over-fanciful the night before!