application for this question.

"Miss Jervaise."

"Oh--er--Miss Brenda? No. She hadn't come in when I left the house."

"What time was that?"

"About four. I came straight here."

"Not back, eh?" he commented with a soft, low whistle, that mingled, I
thought, something of gladness with its surprise.

"You don't know where she is, then?" I ventured.

He turned and looked at me suspiciously. "I don't see why I should help
your friends," he said.

I realised that my position was a difficult one. My sympathies were
entirely with Banks. I felt that if there was to be any question of making
allowances, I wanted to be on the side of Brenda and the Home Farm. But,
at the same time, I could not deny that I owed something--loyalty, was
it?--to the Jervaises. I pondered that for a few seconds before I spoke
again, and by then I had found what I believed to be a tolerable attitude,
though I was to learn later that it compromised me no less than if I had
frankly thrown in my lot with the Banks faction.

"You are quite right," I said. "And I would sooner you gave me no
confidences, now I come to think of it. But I should like you to know, all
the same, that I'm not taking sides in this affair. I have no intention,