Quietly he resumed. "That brings me to what I set out to tell you about the Stud. There is a chance--I think it's a good one--that it may be kept together after all. There is also a chance--a less promising one--that I may be retained as trainer. If I am offered the post, I shall accept it. If I am not offered the post, well, I shall have to start again at the beginning. I shall have to rough it. So if that happens, you will have to go your way and I mine."
He ceased to speak, and his hand relinquished hers.
Maud stood up. She was no longer trembling, but she was very pale.
"I hope you will get the post," she said, after a moment. "You--I think you would feel it if you had to part with the horses. They mean--so much to you."
"I belong to 'em," Jake said simply.
She smiled a little with lips that quivered. "Then I hope you will have them always," she said. "Good night--and thank you for being so--explicit." She looked at his bent head, stretched a hand above it almost as if she would touch it, then drew it swiftly back and turned to go.
A few seconds later she was ascending the stairs, still piteously smiling, with the tears running down her face.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE DUTIFUL WIFE
"Well, my dearie, this is the biggest treat I've had for I don't know how long. Sit you down and tell me all your news! Is it true, what my Tom tells me, as you've come into a pot of money? Well, there now, I am pleased! Put your feet on the fender, my dear! There's a cruel wind blowing to-day. We'll have some hot buttered toast for tea."