"She might have meant to go up to the Farm," he suggested, "and changed
her mind when she got outside. Nothing very unlikely in that."

"But why the devil should she have made an appointment at the Home Farm in
the first instance?" Frank replied with some cogency.

"If she ever did," I put in unwisely, thereby provoking a repetition of
the evidence afforded by Miss Banks's behaviour, particularly the damning
fact that she, alone, had responded to Racquet's demand for our instant
annihilation.

And while we went on with our pointless arguments and the other little
group of three continued to lay plans for the re-education of Brenda, the
depression of a deeper and deeper ennui weighed upon us all. The truth is,
I think, that we were all waiting for the possibility of the runaway's
return, listening for the sound of the car, and growing momentarily more
uneasy as no sound came. No doubt the Jervaises were all very sleepy and
peevish, and the necessity of restraining themselves before Turnbull and
myself added still another to their many sources of irritation.

I put the Jervaises apart in this connection, because Ronnie was certainly
very wide awake and I had no inclination whatever to sleep. My one longing
was to get back, alone, into the night. I was fretting with the fear that
the dawn would have broken before I could get away. I had made up my mind
to watch the sunrise from "Jervaise Clump."

It was Mrs. Jervaise who started the break-up of the party. She was
attacked by a craving to yawn that gradually became irresistible. I saw
the incipient symptoms of the attack and watched her with a sympathetic