He smiled a little. "What if he had? Think I can't stand up to a loss?"
She lifted her eyes to his for a moment, but they fell almost immediately. "No. To use your own language, I think you're just fine. But--but all the same, I've been saving up a little consolation for you in case you needed it."
"That so?" said Jake. He spoke very softly through lips that were suddenly tender. "Well, let's imagine I'm in need of consolation! I'd enjoy to be consoled by you."
She laughed again that faint, shy laugh, and, freeing one hand, began to feel over the keys of the piano, striking a soft chord here and there.
Jake stood for a moment or two, then squarely bent, bringing his face on a level with hers.
She made a slight gesture of protest, and then very suddenly, as if compelled, she raised her eyes fully to his.
"You once told me you'd enjoy--something quite different," she said.
The red-brown eyes gazed deeply into hers. "And--good land--how shocked you were!" he said. "You didn't view yourself as a plain man's wife in those days, my princess. Reckon you hated the plain man pretty badly for teaching you the meaning of the word."
She laid one hand against his breast. Her eyes were of that intense blueness that comes from the heart of a sapphire. "And now," she said, "I love him better every day--every night."
His big hand closed upon her wrist. He drew a great breath. "Ah!" he said.