The question was passionate, but yet he did not look at her as he uttered it. He was gazing downwards at his clenched hands.
He was formidable at that moment, but she did not shrink from him. Rather she drew nearer. "Of course I don't think so," she said. "But--but--am I first with you, Jake? Am I really first?"
He made a choked sound in his throat as if many emotions struggled for utterance. Then, almost under his breath, "An easy first!" he muttered. "An easy first!"
Her bandaged hand slipped on to his arm. Her eyes were shining. "Oh, Jake, thank you for telling me that," she said. "You--I know you didn't want to tell me. And--now--I've got to tell you something--that I don't want to tell you either--that I don't know how to tell you. Oh, Jake, do help me! Don't--don't be angry!"
He turned towards her, but he did not lift his eyes. He seemed almost afraid to look her in the face. "My girl, you've no call to be afraid of me," he said.
But there was constraint in his tone, constraint in his attitude, and her heart sank.
"I'm so--horribly afraid--of hurting you," she said.
A faint, faint gleam of humour crossed his face. "Oh, I guess I'm down," he said. "You needn't be afraid of that either."
She tried to clasp his arm. "Jake, if--if I really come first with you, perhaps--perhaps--you'll be able to forgive me. It's because you came first with me too--a very, very long way first--" her voice shook--"that I was able to do it. It's because I wanted you to have what you wanted without--without feeling under an obligation to me or anyone. It's because--because your happiness is more to me--a thousand times more--than anything else in the world!" Her breast began to heave; Jake's eyes were suddenly upon her, but it was she who could not, dared not meet their look. "Ah, I haven't told you yet!" she said brokenly. "How shall I tell you? It's--it's the animals, Jake. It's the Stud!"
"What about the Stud?" he said. His voice was sunk very low, it sounded stern.