Saltash remained seated, still swinging an idle leg. "On the contrary, I am anxious to make everything as pleasant as possible," he said.
But there was a slightly malicious twist to his smile and his voice was suavely mocking, notwithstanding.
Maud moved from him to the window and stood before it very still, with a queenly pose of bearing wholly unconscious, unapproachably aloof.
He watched her for a space, an odd, dancing gleam in his strange eyes. At length, as she made no movement, he spoke again, not wholly lightly.
"See here, Maud! As a proof of my goodness of heart where you are concerned, I am going to make you an offer. This doctor man will probably want to perform an operation on Bunny, and it couldn't possibly take place here. So if it comes to that, will you let it be done at the Castle? There's room for an army of nurses there. The whole place is at your disposal--and Bunny's. And I'll undertake not to get in the way. Come, be friends with me! You know I am as harmless as a dove in your sweet company."
He stood up with the words, came impulsively to her, took her hand and, bending with a careless grace, kissed it.
She started at his touch, seemed as it were to emerge from an evil dream. She met his laughing eyes, and smiled as though in spite of herself.
"You are going to be friends with me," said Saltash, with pleased conviction.
She left her hand in his. "If you don't suggest--impossible things," she said.
He laughed carelessly, satisfied that he had scored a point. "Nonsense! Why should I? Is life so hard?"