"You know, Martin,'' Ruth said dreamily, "this means you won't see Jenny tonight"
Jenny! How to explain that he couldn't back out, literally and physically couldn't, if Stannard insisted? You touched a switch, you touched an emotion; you set forces moving, and you must go with them. Jenny would understand it Surely Jenny would understand it! He could telephone her, and then go out to Brayle Manor.
"All the same," Ruth was saying in a troubled voice, "I almost wish I hadn't encouraged this. Or — arranged it"
"Arranged it?" said Stannard, and looked at her with genuine astonishment "My dear girl, Mr. Drake suggested it I arranged it" The blood came into his already reddish face. "I wanted to show you, my dear, that these young men, with their war-records and their infantile prancings, are not the only ones to be depended on."
Abruptly he pulled himself together, as though he had said too much.
"But — Stan." There was an affectionate note in Ruth's voice. "You didn't tell me these 'conditions.'" "A little surprise."
"You see," Ruth braced herself, "I'm going to the prison. And other people are wild to go too. Ricky Fleet and even Dr. Laurier. When they were having that argument at the Dragon's Rest, Dr. Laurier said he'd consider himself insulted if he didn't get an invitation."
Stannard lifted his thick shoulders.
"I see no reason why a dozen shouldn't go," he said. "If they all consent to leave the prison at midnight when the test begins. You agree, my dear fellow?"
"I do."