Maud said nothing. She took the violets and held them up to her face.
Jake glanced at her momentarily, and thence to Mrs. Lovelace who had come forward to help Mrs. Wright into her cloak.
"Is Lord Saltash at the door?" he asked.
Mrs. Lovelace gave a start, as if something in the query surprised her. "No sir, the flowers was brought by a groom," she said.
Jake said no more, but something in his silence sent the ever-ready colour flooding Maud's face and neck. She bent a little lower over the violets, saying no word.
Mrs. Wright came clumsily into the breach. "But aren't they lovely, to be sure? Never did I see such beauties. And the scent of 'em, why, the room is full of it! Isn't that kind of Lord Saltash now?"
"They have a great quantity at the Castle," Maud said in muffled tones.
She held the flowers for Mrs. Wright to smell, and at the same moment Jake reached forth and took them from her outstretched hand.
"You take 'em if you like 'em, Mother. We get more of 'em than we want," he said, in leisurely tones, and thrust the bouquet forthwith into her astonished grasp.
"Oh, my dear!" cried Mrs. Wright, between dismay and delight. "But--but they was a present to Mrs. Bolton. I couldn't really! No, that I couldn't!"