But I was not left for many minutes to the rapture of contemplation. Even the primitive had to give place to the movement of our tiny, civilised drama. Jervaise and I were of the race that has been steadily creating a fiction of the earth since the first appearance of inductive science in the days of prehistoric man; and we could not live for long outside the artificial realism of the thing we were making. We were not the creatures of a process, but little gods in a world-pantheon.
I made no attempt to check him when he began to talk. I knew by the raised tone of his voicehe was speaking quite a third above his ordinary pitchthat he was pleasantly excited by our interview with Anne: an excitement that he now wished either to conceal, or, if that were impossible, to attribute to another cause.
It occurs to me that there are one or two very puzzling points about that visit of ours, Melhuish, he began.
At least two, I agreed.
Which are? he asked.
Id prefer to hear yours first, I said, having no intention of displaying my own.
He was so eager to exhibit his cleverness that he did not press me for my probably worthless deductions.
Well, in the first place, he said, did it strike you as a curious fact that Miss Banks, and she alone, was apparently disturbed by that dogs infernal barking?
It hadnt struck me, I admitted; and just because I had not remarked that anomaly for myself, I was instantly prepared to treat it as unworthy of notice. I suppose her father and mother and the servants, and so on, heard her let us in, I said.
Jervaise jeered at that. Oh! my good man, he said.
Well, why not? I returned peevishly.
I put it to you, he said, whether in those circumstances the familys refusal to make an appearance admits of any ordinary explanation?
I could see, now, that it did not; but having committed myself to a point of view, I determined to uphold it. Why should they come down? I asked.
Common curiosity would be a sufficient inducement, I should imagine, Jervaise replied with a snort of contempt, to say nothing of a reasonable anxiety to know why any one should call at two oclock in the morning. It isnt usual, you knowoutside the theatrical world, perhaps.
I chose to ignore the sneer conveyed by his last sentence.
They may be very heavy sleepers, I tried, fully aware of the inanity of my suggestion.
Jervaise laughed unpleasantly, a nasty hoot of derision. Dont be a damned fool, he said. The human being isnt born who could sleep through that hullabaloo.
I relinquished that argument as hopeless, and having no other at the moment, essayed a weak reprisal. Well, whats your explanation? I asked in the tone of one ready to discount any possible explanation he might have to make.
Its obvious, he returned. There can be only one. They were expecting us.
Do you mean that Miss Banks was deliberately lying to us all the time? I challenged him with some heat.
Why that? he asked.
Well, if she were expecting us
Which she never denied.
And had warned all her people
As she had a perfect right to do.
It makes her out a liar, in effect, I protested. I mean, she implied, if she didnt actually state, that she knew nothing whatever of your sisters movements.
Which may have been true, he remarked in the complacent tone of one who waits to formulate an unimpeachable theory.
Good Lord! How? I asked.
Brenda may have been expected and not have arrived, he explained, condescending, at last, to point out all the obvious inferences I had missed. In which case, my friend, Miss Bankss suppressio veri was, in my judgment, quite venial. Indeed, she was, if the facts are, as I suppose, perfectly honest in her surprise. Let us assume that she had arranged to let Brenda in, at say twelve-thirty, and having her father and mother under her thumb, had warned them to take no notice if Racquet started his cursed shindy in the middle of the night. The servant may have been told that Mr. Arthur might be coming. You will notice, also, that Miss Banks had not, at one-thirty, gone to bed, although we may infer that she had undressed. Furthermore, it is a fair assumption that she saw us coming, and having, by then given up, it may be, any hope of seeing Brenda, she was, no doubt, considerably at a loss to account for our presence. Now, does that or does it not cover the facts, and does it acquit Miss Banks of the charge of perjury?
I was forced, something reluctantly, to concede an element of probability in his inferences, although his argument following the legal tradition was based on a kind of average law of human motive and took no account of personal peculiarities. He did not try to consider what Anne would do in certain circumstances, but what would be done by that vaguely-conceived hermaphrodite who figures in the Law Courts and elsewhere as Anyone. I could hear Jervaise saying, I ask you, gentlemen, what would you have done, what would Anyone have done in such a case as this?
Hm! I commented, and added, It still makes Miss Banks appear ratherdouble-faced.
Cant see it, Jervaise replied. Put yourself in her place and see how it works!
Oh! Lord! I murmured, struck by the grotesque idea of Jervaise attempting to see life through the eyes of Anne. Imagine a rhinoceros thinking itself into the experiences of a skylark!
Jervaise bored ahead, taking no notice of my interruption. Assuming for the moment the general probability of my theory, he said, maynt we hazard the further assumption that Brenda was going to the farm in the first instance to meet Banks? His sister, we will suppose, being willing to sanction such a more or less chaperoned assignation. Then, when the pair didnt turn up, she guesses that the meeting is off for some reason or another, but obviously her friendship for Brendato say nothing of loyalty to her brotherwould make her conceal the fact of the proposed assignation from us. Would you call that being double-faced? I shouldnt.
Oh! yes; its all very reasonable, I agreed petulantly. But how does it affect the immediate situation? Do you, for instance, expect to find your sister at home when we get back?
I do, assented Jervaise definitely. I believe that Miss Banks had some good reason for being so sure that we should find her there.
I am not really pig-headed. I may not give way gracefully to such an opponent as Jervaise, but I do not stupidly persist in a personal opinion through sheer obstinacy. And up to Jervaises last statement, his general deductions were, I admitted to myself, not only within the bounds of probability but, also, within distance of affording a tolerable explanation of Annes diplomacy during our interview. Butand I secretly congratulated myself on having exercised a subtler intuition in this one particular, at leastI did not believe that Anne expected us to find Brenda at the Hall on our return. I remembered that anxious pucker of the brow and the pathetic insistence on the beliefor might it not better be described as a hope?that Brenda had done nothing final.
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.