THE MAGICIAN
"Oh, Maud! I thought you were never coming!"
Bunny's face, pale and drawn, wearing the irritable frown so habitual to
it, turned towards the opening door.
"I have brought you a visitor," his sister said.
Her voice was low and nervous. She looked by no means sure of Bunny's
reception of the news. Behind her came Jake Bolton the trainer, alert
and self-assured. It was quite evident that he had no doubts whatever
upon the subject. His thick mat of chestnut hair shone like copper in
the brilliant electric light, such hair as would have been a woman's
glory, but that Jake kept very closely cropped.
"What on earth for?" began Bunny querulously; and then magically his
face changed, and he smiled. "Hullo! You?" he said.
Bolton came to his side and took the small, eager hand thrust out to
him. "Yes, it's me," he said. "No objection, I hope?"
"I should think not!" The boy's face was glowing with pleasure. "Sit
down!" he said. "Maud, get a chair!"
Bolton turned sharply, found her already bringing one and took it
swiftly from her.
He sat down by Bunny's side, and took the little thin hand back into
his. "Do you know, I've been thinking a lot about you," he said.
Bunny was vastly flattered. He liked the grasp of the strong fingers
also, though he would not probably have tolerated such a thing from any
but this stranger.
"Yes," pursued Jake, in his soft, level voice. "I reckon I've taken a
fancy to you, little chap--I beg your pardon--Sir Bernard. How have you
been to-day?"
"Don't call me that!" said Bunny, turning suddenly red.
"What?" Jake smiled upon him, his magic, kindly smile. "Am I to call you
Bunny--like your sister--then?"
"Yes. And you can call her Maud," said Bunny autocratically. "Can't
he, Maud?"
Jake turned his head and looked at her. She was standing before the
fire, the red glow all about her, very slim, very graceful, very
stately. She did not so much as glance at Jake, only bent a little
towards the blaze so that he could not see her face.
"I don't think I dare," said Jake.
"Maud!" Peremptorily Bunny's voice accosted her. "Come over here! Come
and sit on my bed!"
It was more of a command than an invitation. Maud straightened herself
and turned.
But as she did so, their visitor intervened. "No, don't!" he said.
"Sit down right there, Miss Brian, in that easy-chair, and have a rest!"
His voice was peremptory too, but in a different way. Bunny stared at
him wide-eyed.
Jake met the stare with an admonitory shake of the head. "Guess Bunny's
not wanting you," he said. "Don't listen to anything he says!"
Bunny's mouth opened to protest, remained open for about five seconds,
and finally he said, "All right, Maud. You can stay by the fire while we
talk."
And Maud, much to her own surprise, sat down in the low chair on the
hearth and leaned her aching head back upon the cushion.
She had her back to Bunny and his companion, and the soft murmur of the
latter's voice held nought disturbing. It seemed in fact to possess
something of a soothing quality, for very soon her heavy eyelids began
to droop and the voice to recede into ever growing distance. For a
space she still heard it, dim and remote as the splash of the waves on
the shore; then very softly it was blotted out. Her cares and her
troubles all fell away from her. She sank into soundless billows of
sleep.
It was a perfectly dreamless repose, serene as a child's and it seemed
to last indefinitely. She lay in complete content, unconscious of all
the world, lapped in peace and blissfully free from the goading anxiety
that usually disturbed her rest. It was the calmest slumber she had
known for many years.
From it she awoke at length with a guilty start. The fall of a piece of
coal had broken the happy spell. She sat up, to find herself in
firelight only.
Her first thought was for Bunny, and she turned in her chair and looked
across the unfamiliar room. He was lying very still in the shadows.
Softly she rose and stepped across to him.
Yes, he was asleep also, lying among his pillows. The chair by his side
was empty, the visitor vanished.
Very cautiously she bent over him. He had been lying dressed outside
the bed. Now--with a thrill of amazement she realized it--he was
undressed and lying between the sheets. He was breathing very quietly,
and his attitude was one of easy rest. Surely some magic had been at
work!
On a chest of drawers near stood a glass that had contained milk. He
always had some hot milk last thing, but she had not procured it for
him. She had in fact been wondering how she would obtain it to-night.
Another coal fell, and she crept back to replace it. Stooping she caught
sight of another glass in the fender, full of milk. It must have been
there a long time, for it was barely warm. Clearly it had been intended
for her. She put it to her lips and drank.
Who could have put it there? Her mother? No; she was sure that her
mother would have roused her from her sleep if she had entered. She was
moreover quite incapable of getting Bunny to bed now that he had grown
out of childhood.
The house was very quiet. She wondered if the guests had all gone. The
room was situated at the end of a long passage, so that the noise of the
party had scarcely reached it. But the utter silence without as well as
within made her think that it was very late.
She dared not switch on the light, but as the fire burned up again she
held her watch to the blaze. Half-past two!
In utter amazement she began to undress.
There was no second bed in the room; only a horse-hair sofa that was far
less comfortable than the chair by the fire. She lay down upon it,
however, pulling over her an ancient fur travelling-rug belonging to her
mother, and here she lay dozing and waking, turning over the mystery in
her mind, while another quiet hour slipped away.
Then there came a movement from Bunny, and she sat up.
"Are you awake, Maud?" asked his voice out of the shadows. "Has Jake
gone?"
"Yes, darling," she made answer. "Are you wanting anything?"
She was by his side with the words; she bent over him. He wanted his
pillows rearranged, and when she had done it he said, "I say, when did
you wake up?"
"About an hour ago," she said.
He chuckled a little. "Weren't you surprised to find me in bed?"
"Yes, I was," she said. "How did you get there?"
Bunny seemed to regard the matter as a joke. "That fellow Jake--he went
over and looked at you, came back and said you were fast asleep, asked
what I generally had done, and if he couldn't do it for me. He managed
very well and was jolly quick about it too. I thought you would be sure
to wake, but you didn't. And when I was settled, he asked if I didn't
want anything, and I said, 'Yes, hot milk', and he crept off and got it.
He brought a glass for you too. He stuck it in the fender. Have you
had it?"
"Yes," Maud said. "But Bunny, didn't he hurt you at all? You nearly
always cry out when you're lifted."
"I didn't that time," said Bunny proudly. "I told him I should probably
squeal, and he said if I so much as squeaked he'd throttle me. He's a
brick, do you know, Maud. And he seemed to know how to get hold of me
without being told."
Maud's amazement was growing. The man must be a genius indeed to manage
Bunny in that fashion.
"After that," said Bunny, "he sat down by me and got hold of my hand and
said, 'Now I'm going to send you to sleep.' I told him I never slept
the first part of the night, and he grinned and said, 'You'll be asleep
in five minutes from now if you let yourself go.' And I said, 'Rats!'
And he said, 'Shut up!' So I did. And he held my hand tight and sat
staring across the room like a mute till somehow he got all blurred up
and then I suppose I went to sleep. I never knew when he went. Did
you?"
"No," said Maud. She had an uncanny feeling that Jake had somehow left
his influence behind him in the atmosphere. His personality seemed to
dominate it still. She was sure he had meant to be kind, but a queer
sense of antagonism made her resent his kindness. She did not like
Bunny's whole-hearted admiration.
"He's a brick," the boy said again, "and do you know he's done almost
everything under the sun? He's been a sailor, and he's dug for gold,
and he's kept a Californian store, and he's been a cow-boy on a ranch.
He says the last suited him best because he's so keen on the wilds and
horses. It was out in the wilds somewhere that Lord Saltash came on him
and brought him home to be his trainer. But he's British-born all the
same. I knew he was that the first time I saw him."
He was evidently a paragon of all the virtues in Bunny's estimation, and
Maud did not attempt to express her own feelings, which were, in fact,
somewhat complex.
Very deep down in her woman's soul a warning voice had begun to make
itself heard, but she could not tell Bunny that. Scarcely even to
herself dared she admit that the straight, free gaze of those red-brown
eyes possessed the power to set her heart a-fluttering in wild rebellion
like the wings of a captive bird.