He grunted and pulled at his yellow beard. "Do you realize that you've lost pounds of flesh since it was first my privilege to meet you?"
She shook her head protestingly. "Oh no, really. It is your imagination."
Capper shook his head also. "My imagination feeds on facts only. Jake is not looking after you properly. It's my belief he is treating you to slow starvation."
"Oh indeed--indeed," she broke in with vehemence, "Jake has had nothing to do with me lately. I have been much too busy with Bunny, and he has had the good sense not to interfere."
"Is that good sense?" said Capper, in the tone of one who does not require an answer.
"Besides," she went on rather breathlessly, "it's not Jake's business to look after me."
"I thought that was what husbands were for," said Capper, with his whimsical smile. "It's a fool policy anyway to leave a woman to look after herself, and you're just a living illustration of that fact."
Her hands clasped his arm almost unconsciously. "Please--please don't ever discuss me again with Jake!" she begged in tones of distress.
He patted her hand with fatherly reassurance and passed the matter by. "What are you going to do when Bunny is gone?" he asked.
Her face paled again. "You are really going to take him away?" she said.