repeated the words with the impressiveness of a judge pronouncing sentence.
Maud was trembling, though she tried to conceal the fact. "And then there is Bunny to be thought of," she said.
"Bunny? Who is Bunny? Oh, your brother, is it? And he's a hopeless cripple, I understand? Is it for his sake that you've hatched this mad scheme?"
"In a great measure. You see, he and-and Jake Bolton are very fond of one another."
"Pshaw!" the old man exclaimed. "So this Jake Bolton is to have the boy, with you thrown in as a makeweight; is that it? And you think you're all going to be happy together, do you? Never heard such a tomfool scheme in my life. Where does this Jake Bolton hang out? I'll go and have a talk to him."
"Oh, please don't!" Maud begged. "He'll think I sent you. And really-really there is nothing to discuss."
"We'll see about that," he rejoined grimly. "Seems to me it's high time somebody came along and interfered. Now, look here, what's your name? – Maud! I'm going to get you out of this mess. You shan't marry a man you don't love just because there was no other way out. There is another way out, and you're to take it. You're to come and live with me, do you hear? You and your precious Bunny too! And when I die, I'll leave you both provided for. See? Come, I can't say fairer than that."
He was still gripping her hand, and looking at her with shrewd eyes under their beetling brows as though prepared to beat down all opposition. There was a look of Bunny about those eyes, Bunny in a difficult mood. She recognized it with a sigh. It seemed her fate to be continually doing battle with someone, and she felt wholly unfitted for it. All she asked of life was peace and quietness.
"My home is a dingy one," said her uncle, "but you may be able to make it more cheerful. I shan't interfere with either of you. Come, now, you're going to be a sensible girl, hey? I'm sorry I didn't turn up before. But the knot isn't tied, so I'm not too late. We must explain the situation to the young man. Unless he's an absolute bounder, he'll be amenable to reason."
But Maud shook her head. "I can't do it, Uncle Edward. I know you mean to be kind. I am very grateful. But-I can't."
He rasped his throat aggressively. "That's nonsense," he said with decision. "Plainly the man is beneath you. You say you don't love him, and never could."
"I am not-altogether-sure that he is beneath me," she said rather wistfully.
"But you don't love him?" her uncle insisted, scanning her piercingly.
She bent her head with an instinctive desire to avoid his eyes. "No."
"Or anyone else?" he pursued.
She made a small movement of protest.
"Ha!" he exclaimed, in the tone of one who has discovered something. "Your mother hinted as much. And you think you're going to make things better for yourself by marriage with a rank outsider. Is that it? Is that it? Then take my word for it, you're going to make the biggest mistake of your life. And if you persist in it, I've done with you. At least, no, I haven't done; for I'm going straight to that young man of yours to tell him the sort of bargain he's going to make."
He paused, for suddenly Maud had drawn herself up very straight and proud. "If you wish to do so, you must," she said, and her pale face was very regal and composed. "But it will not make the smallest difference to either of us. Jake has my promise. I have his."
It was at this point that the door opened again to admit the landlady with a note on a salver.
"Mr. Bolton's compliments," she said, "and will you be good enough to send back an answer?"
CHAPTER XVI
THE CHAMPION
Maud took the note with a glance at her uncle.
"Open it!" he said. "Don't mind me!" and stumped irately to the bay-window and pulled aside the blind.
Maud opened the note. Her hands were not very steady. The envelope contained a half-sheet of notepaper with a few words scrawled thereupon, and a short length of string.
"Sorry to trouble you," ran the note. "But will you tie a knot in the enclosed to show me the size of your wedding finger? Yours, Jake."
She looked up from the note as her uncle came tramping back. "Is it the young man himself?" he demanded.
"It's Mr. Bolton, sir," said the landlady.
"Then show him in!" ordered the old man autocratically. "Show him in, and we'll get it over! No time like the present."
A swift remonstrance rose to Maud's lips, but she did not utter it. The landlady looked to her for confirmation of the order, but she did not utter a single word.
"Get along!" commanded Uncle Edward. "Or I'll fetch him in myself!"
A whiff of tobacco-smoke came in through the open door. Maud stood very still, listening. A moment later there came the sound of a pipe being tapped on the heel of a boot, and then the firm, quiet tread of Jake's feet in the passage.
He entered. "I didn't mean to disturb you again, but I'd forgotten this little detail and I've got to catch an early train." He turned with no sign of surprise and regarded Maud's visitor. "Good evening, sir!" he said.
Mr. Warren gave him a brief nod. Maud still stood mute, Jake's note with the piece of string dangling therefrom in her hand.
He went quietly to her. "Say! Let me fix that for you!" he said.
She suffered him to take her hand. It lay cold and quivering in his. He wound the string round her third finger and knotted it. Then he slipped it off, and took the hand closely and warmly into his own.
"I hope you haven't come to forbid the banns," he said, calmly returning the grim scrutiny that the old man had levelled at him from the moment of his entrance.
Uncle Edward uttered a sound indicative of intense disgust. "I? Oh, I've no authority," he said. "I disapprove-if that's what you mean. Any decent person would disapprove of the sort of alliance you two are determined to make. But I don't expect my opinion to be deferred to. If you choose to marry a woman who doesn't care two straws about you, it's your affair, not mine."
Jake turned in his deliberate fashion to Maud. "Your uncle, I presume?" he said.
"Yes," she made answer.
His face wore a smile that baffled her, as he said: "It's my opinion that we should get on better alone together, though it's for you to decide."
She looked at him rather piteously, and as if in answer to that look Jake slipped a steady arm about her.
"What about the head of the family?" he said, speaking softly almost as if to a child. "Reckon he'll be wanting you. Won't you go to him?"
The slight pressure of his arm directed her towards the door. She yielded to it instinctively, with an abrupt feeling that the matter had been taken out of her hands.
He went with her into the passage, and they stood for a moment together under the flickering lamp.
"Bunny in bed?" he asked.
"Yes," she said.
He was still faintly smiling. "You go
