As a room it deserved attention, but it was not until I had been there for ten minutes or more, that I realised all that the furniture of that room was not. My first observations were solely directed to Miss Banks.
Jervaise had grossly maligned her by saying that she was frightfully pretty. No one but a fool would have called her pretty. Either she was beautiful or plain. I saw, even then, that if the light of her soul had been quenched, she might appear plain. Her features were good, her complexion, her colouringshe was something between dark and fairbut she did not rely on those things for her beauty. It was the glow of her individuality that was her surpassing charm. She had that supremely feminine vitality which sends a man crazy with worship. You had to adore or dislike her. There was no middle course.
And Jervaise quite obviously adored her. All that tactful confession of his in the park had been a piece of artifice. It had not, however, been framed to deceive me. I do not believe that he considered me worth bothering about. No, those admissions and denials of his had been addressed, without doubt, to a far more important person than myself. They had been in the nature of a remonstrance and assurance spoken to Frank Jervaise by the heir to the estate; which heir was determined with all the force of his ferocious nose and dominant chin to help him, that he would not make a fool of himself for the sake of the daughter of a tenant farmer. I had been nothing more than the register upon which he had tentatively engraved that resolve. But he should have chosen a more stable testament than this avowal made to a whimsically-minded playwright with an absurd weakness for the beauties of a midnight wood.
And if I had been a witness to his oath, I was, now, a witness to his foreswearing.
He began well enough on the note proper to the heir of Jervaise. He had the aplomb to carry that off. He stood on the hearthrug, austere and self-controlled, consciously aristocrat, heir and barrister.
Im so sorry, Miss Banks. Almost inexcusable to disturb you at this time of night. He stopped after that beginning and searched his witness with a stare that ought to have set her trembling.
Anne had sat down and was resting her forearms on the table. She looked up at him with the most charming insouciance when he paused so portentously at the very opening of his address. Her encouraging yes was rather in the manner of a child waiting for the promised story.
Jervaise frowned and attempted the dramatic. My sister, Brenda, has run away, he said.
When?
This evening at the end of the Cinderella. You knew we were giving a dance?
But where to?
Oh! Precisely! Jervaise said.
But how extraordinary! replied Miss Banks.
Is she here? asked Jervaise. He ought to have snapped that out viciously, and I believe that was his intention. But Annes exquisitely innocent, absorbed gaze undid him; and his question had rather the sound of an apology.
No, certainly not! Why ever should she come here? Anne said with precisely the right nuance of surprise.
Is your brother here?
No!
It looks such an absurd little inexpressive word on paper, but Anne made a song of it on two notes, combining astonishment with a sincerity that was absolutely final. If, after that, Jervaise had dared to say, Are you sure? I believe I should have kicked him.
How confounded he was, was shown by the change of attitude evident in his next speech.
Its horribly awkward, he said.
Oh! horribly, Anne agreed, with a charming sympathy. What are you going to do?
You see, we cant find your brother, either, Jervaise tried tactfully.
I dont quite see what thats got to do with Brenda, Anne remarked with a sweet perplexity.
Apparently Jervaise did not wish to point the connection too abruptly. We wanted the car, he said; and we couldnt find him anywhere.
Oh! hes almost sure to have gone to sleep up in the woods, Anne replied. Arthurs like that, you know. He sort of got the habit in Canada or somewhere. He often says that sometimes he simply cant bear to sleep under a roof.
I had already begun to feel a liking for Annes brother, and that speech of hers settled me. I knew that Arthur was the right sortor, at least, my sort. I would have been willing, even then, to swap the whole Jervaise family with the possible exception of Brenda, for this as yet unknown Arthur Banks.
Jervaises diplomacy was beginning to run very thin.
You dont think it conceivable that Brenda he began gloomily.
That Brenda what?
I was going to say
Yes? She leaned a little forward with an air of expectancy that disguised her definite refusal to end his sentences for him.
Its a most difficult situation, Miss Banks, he said, starting a new line; and we dont in the least know what to make of it. What on earth could induce Brenda to run off like this, with no apparent object?
But how do you know she really has? asked Anne. You havent told me anything, yet, have you? I mean, she may have gone out into the Park to get cool after the dance, or into the woods or anything. Why should you imagine that she hasrun away?
I joined in the conversation, then, for the first time. I had not even been introduced to Anne.
Thats very reasonable, surely, Jervaise, I said. And wouldnt itI hardly know her, Ill admitbut wouldnt it be rather like your sister?
So far as I was concerned, Annes suggestion carried conviction. I was suddenly sure that our suspicions were all a mistake.
Jervaise snubbed me with a brief glance of profoundest contempt. He probably intended that commentary on my interruption to go no further; but his confounded pose of superiority annoyed me to the pitch of exasperation.
You see, my dear chap, I continued quickly, your unfortunate training as a lawyer invariably leads you to suspect a crime; and you overlook the obvious in your perfectly unreasonable and prejudiced search for the incriminating.
Jervaises expression admirably conveyed his complete boredom with me and my speeches.
You dont know anything about it, he said, with a short gesture of final dismissal.
But, Mr. Jervaise, Anne put in, what can you possibly suspect, in this case?
Hed suspect anything of anybody for the sake of making a case of it, I said, addressing Anne. I wanted to make her look at me, but she kept her gaze fixed steadily on Jervaise, as if he were the controller of all destinies.
I accepted my dismissal, then, so far as to keep silence, but I was annoyed, now, with Anne, as well as with Jervaise. What on earth could she see in the fellow? I asked myself irritably. I was the more irritated because he had so obviously already forgotten my presence.
Have you no reason to suspect anything yourself, Miss Banks? he asked gravely.
If youre suggesting that Brenda and Arthur have run away together, she said, Im perfectly, perfectly certain that youre wrong, Mr. Jervaise.
Do you mean that you know for certain that they havent? he returned.
She nodded confidently, and I thought she had perjured herself, until Jervaise with evident relief said, Im very glad of that; very. Do you mind telling me how you know?
By intuition, she said, without a trace of raillery in her face or her tone.
I forgave her for ignoring me when she said that. I felt that I could almost forgive Jervaise; he was so deliciously sold.