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 have--run away
with that man," Mrs. Jervaise pleaded with the beginning of a gesture that
produced the effect of wanting to wring her hands.

"She's under age, too," Frank put in.

"Does that mean they can't get married?" asked Ronnie.

"Not legally," Frank said.

"It's 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