You havent made a bad case, I conceded; but I differ as to your last inference.
You dont think we shall find Brenda at home?
I do not, I replied aggressively.
I expected him to bear me down under a new weight of argument founded on the psychology of Anyone, and I was startled when he suddenly dropped the lawyer and let out a whole-hearted Damnation, that had a ring of fine sincerity.
I changed my tone instantly in response to that agreeably human note.
I may be quite mistaken, of course, I said. I hope to goodness I am. By the way, do you know if she has taken any luggage with her?
Cant be sure, Jervaise said. Olives been looking and there doesnt seem to be anything missing, but weve no idea what things she brought down from town with her. If shed been making plans beforehand
We came out of the wood at that point in our discussion, and almost at the same moment the last barrier of cloud slipped away from before the moon. She was in her second quarter, and seemed to be indolently rolling down towards the horizon, the whole pose of the scene giving her the effect of being half-recumbent.
I turned and looked at Jervaise and found him facing me with the full light of the moon on his face. He was frowning, not with the domineering scowl of the cross-examining counsel, but with a perplexed, inquiring frown that revealed all the boy in him.
Once at Oakstone he had got into a serious scrape that had begun in bravado and ended by a public thrashing. He had poached a trout from the waters of a neighbouring landowner, who had welcomed the opportunity to make himself more than usually objectionable. And on the morning before his thrashing, Jervaise had come into my study and confessed to me that he was dreading the coming ordeal. He was not afraid of the physical pain, he told me, but of the shame of the thing. We were near to becoming friends that morning. He confessed to no one but me. But when the affair was overhe bore himself very wellhe resumed his usual airs of superiority, and snubbed me when I attempted to sympathise with him.
And I saw, now, just the same boyish dread and perplexity that I had seen when he made his confession to me at Oakstone. He looked to me, indeed, absurdly unchanged by the sixteen years that had separated the two experiences.
You know, Melhuish, he said; Im not altogether blaming Brenda in one way.
Do you think shes really in love with Banks? I asked.
I dont know, he said. How can any one know? But it has been going on a long timeweeks, anyhow. They were all getting nervous about it at home. The mater told me when I came down this afternoon. She wanted me to talk to B. about it. I was going to. She doesnt take any notice of Olive. Never has. He stopped and looked at me with an appeal in his face that begged contradiction.
We were standing still in the moonlight at the edge of the wood and the accident of our position made me wonder if Jervaises soul also hesitated between some gloomy prison of conventional success and the freedom of beautiful desires. I could find no words, however, to press that speculation and instead I attempted, rather nervously, to point the way towards what I regarded as the natural solution of the immediate problem. Come, I said, the idea of a marriage between Banks and your sister doesnt appear so unreasonable. The Bankses are evidently good old yeoman stock on the fathers side. It is a mere accident of luck that you should be the owners of the land and not they.
Theoretically, yes! he said with a hint of impatience. But weve got to consider the opinionsprejudices, if you likeof all my peopleto say nothing of the neighbours.
Oh! put the neighbours first, I exclaimed. Its what we think other people will think that counts with most of us.
It isnt, Jervaise returned gloomily. You dont understand what the idea of family means to people like my father and mother. Theyve been brought up in it. It has more influence with them than religion. Theyd prefer any scandal to a mésalliance.
In your sisters case? I put in, a trifle shocked by the idea of the scandal, and then discovered that he had not been thinking of Brenda.
Perhaps not in that case, he said, but he paused noticeably before adding, The principle remains the same.
Isnt it chiefly a matter of courage? I asked. It isnt as if the mésalliance were in any way disgraceful.
I cant absolve myself from the charge of hypocrisy in the making of that speech. I was thinking of Jervaise and Anne, and I did not for one moment believe that Anne would ever marry him. My purpose was, I think, well-intentioned. I honestly believed that it would be good for him to fall in love with Anne and challenge the world of his peoples opinion for her sake. But I blame myself, now, for a quite detestable lack of sincerity in pushing him on. I should not have done it if I had thought he had a real chance with her. Life is very difficult; especially for the well-intentioned.
Jervaise shrugged his shoulders. Its all so infernally complicated by this affair of Brendas, he said.
Yet it has seemed simple enough to him, I reflected, an hour before. Kick him and bring her home, had been his ready solution of the difficulties he thought were before us. Evidently Annes behaviour during our talk at the farm had had a considerable effect upon his opinions. That, and the moon. I feel strongly inclined to include the moonlazily declining now towards the ambush of a tumulus-shaped hill, crowned, as is the manner of that country, with a pert little top-knot of trees.
Complicated or simplified? I suggested.
Complicated; damnably complicated, he replied irritably. Brendas a little fool. It isnt as if she were in earnest.
Then you dont honestly believe that shes in love with Banks? I asked, remembering his I dont know. How can any one know, of a few minutes earlier.
Shes so utterly unreliablein every way, he equivocated. She always has been. She isnt the least like the rest of us.
Dont you count yourself as another exception? I asked.
Not in that way, Brendas way, he said. Shes scatter-brained; you cant get round that. Going off after the dance in that idiotic way. Its maddening.
Well, there are two questions that must be resolved before we can get any further, I commented. The first is whether your sister has gone backshe may have been safe in bed for the last hour and a half for all we know. And the second is whether she is honestly in love with Banks. From what Ive heard of him, I should think its very likely, I added thoughtfully.
Jervaise had his hands in his pockets and was staring up at the moon. Hes not a bad chap in some ways, he remarked, but theres no getting over the fact that hes our chauffeur.
I saw that. No badge could be quite so disgraceful in the eyes of the Jervaises as the badge of servitude. Our talk there, by the wood, had begun to create around us all the limitations of mans world. I was forgetting that we were moving in the free spaces of a planetary republic. And then I looked up and saw the leaning moon, whimsically balanced on the very crown of the topknot that gave a touch of impudence to the pudding-basin hill.
Whats the name of that hill? I asked.
He looked at it absently for a moment before he said, The people about here call it Jervaise Clump. Its a landmark for miles.