She quivered at the question. He was looking past her into the fire. She had a feeling that he was deliberately compelling himself to do so.
"I have always mothered Bunny," she said rather piteously. "I--shouldn't feel easy about him if--if I were not within reach."
"Is that quite true?" said Jake.
"True!" she echoed.
He nodded two or three times. "Is it quite true that you wouldn't feel easy--absolutely easy--about leaving the boy in my charge?"
She hesitated.
"Now, don't mind me!" he said. "Be honest! I'm honest myself."
She hesitated still.
He turned his head slowly and looked at her, "It's not--quite--true, is it?" he said.
Her eyes fell before his. "Very well," she said, her voice very low. "We will say it is entirely for my own sake. I want to be with him at night."