Frank Jervaise, striding on ahead of me, answered at once, with a gloomy shake of his head.
Isnt she there? his mother asked. And Hasnt she been there at all? she persisted when Frank returned a morose negative.
Who did you see? put in young Turnbull.
Miss Banks, Frank said.
You are quite sure that Brenda hadnt been there? Olive Jervaise added by way of rounding up and completing the inquiry.
It was then Franks turn to begin an unnecessary interrogation by saying She isnt here, then? He must have known that she was not, by their solicitude; but if he had not put that superfluous question, I believe I should; though I might not have added as he did, Youre absolutely certain?
Young Turnbull then exploded that phase of the situation by remarking, I suppose you know that the cars gone?
Frank was manifestly shocked by that news.
Good Lord! no, I didnt. How do you know? he said.
I left my own car in the ditch, just outside the Park, Ronnie explained. Dont know in the least how it happened. Suppose I was thinking of something else. Anyway, Ive fairly piled her up, Im afraid. I was coming back from the vicarage, you know. And then, of course, I walked up here, and Mr. Jervaise was good enough to offer me your car to get home in; and when we went out to the garage, it had gone.
But was it there when you went to get your own car? Frank asked.
Im bothered if I know, Ronnie confessed. Ive been trying hard to remember.
Mr. Jervaise sighed heavily and took a little stroll across to the other side of the Hall. He seemed to me to be more perturbed and unhappy than any of the others.
Frank stood in a good central position and scowled enormously, while his mother, his sister, and Ronnie waited anxiously for the important decision that he was apparently about to deliver. And they still looked to him to find some expedient when his impending judgment had taken form in the obvious pronouncement, Looks as if theyd gone off together, somewhere.
Its very dreadful, Mrs. Jervaise said; and then Olive slightly lifted the awful flatness of the dialogue by saying,
We ought to have guessed. Its absurd that we let the thing go on.
One couldnt be sure, her mother protested.
If youre going to wait till youre sure, of course Frank remarked brutally, with a shrug of his eyebrows that effectively completed his sentence.
It was so impossible to believe that she would do a thing like that, his mother complained.
Point is, whats to be done now, Ronnie said. By gad, if I catch that chap, Ill wring his neck.
Mr. Jervaise, who was taking a lonely promenade up and down the far side of the Hall, looked up more hopefully at this threat.
Oh! we can catch him, Frank commented. He has stolen the car, for one thing his inflection implied that catching Banks might be only the beginning of the trouble.
Well, once weve got him, returned Ronnie hopefully.
Dont be an ass, Frank snubbed him. We cant advertise it all over the county that he has gone off with Brenda.
I dont see Ronnie began, but Mrs. Jervaise interrupted him.
It was so unfortunate that the Atkinsons should have been here, she remarked.
Every one will know, in any case, Olive added.
Those avowals of their real and altogether desperate cause for distress raised the emotional tone of the two Jervaise women, and for the first time since I had come into the Hall, they looked at me with a hint of suspicion. They made me feel that I was an outsider, who might very well take this opportunity to withdraw.
I was on the point of accepting the hint when Frank Jervaise dragged me into the conclave.
What do you think, Melhuish? he asked, and then they all turned to me as if I might be able in some miraculous way to save the situation. Even old Jervaise paused in his melancholy pacing and waited for my answer.
There is so little real evidence, at present, I said, feeling their need for some loophole and searching my mind to discover one for them.
It really does seem almost impossible that Brenda should haverun away with that man, Mrs. Jervaise pleaded with the beginning of a gesture that produced the effect of wanting to wring her hands.
Shes under age, too, Frank put in.
Does that mean they cant get married? asked Ronnie.
Not legally, Frank said.
Its such madness, such utter madness, his mother broke out in a tone between lament and denunciation. But she pulled herself up immediately and came back to my recent contribution as presenting the one possible straw that still floated in this drowning world. But, as Mr. Melhuish says, she went on with a little gasp of annoyance, we really have very little evidence, as yet.