Nan was
returning a few odds and ends to their places. Bud had already lit his
evening pipe preparatory to settling down for the brief interim before
turning in for the night.
There was no preamble. There was no sign of emotion, even at the
moment of his arrival. Jeff launched his request at father and
daughter in a voice such as he might have used in the most commonplace
of affairs.
It was a request to be put up for the night.
But both Bud and Nan were startled. Nan's cheeks paled, and
imagination gripped her. She said nothing. With Bud to be startled
was to instantly resort to verbal expression.
"Wot's wrong?" he demanded.
Then the storm broke. It broke almost immoderately before these two
who were the intimates of Jeff's life. All that had been withheld
before Dug McFarlane, all which he had refused to display before the
wife he had set up for his worship, Jeff had no scruples in laying
before these two. It was the sure token of the relations between them,
relations of perfect trust and sympathy.
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