For a time at least he was, fortunately, out of the piece. Perhaps he thought the influence of his attitude must presently take effect; that Brenda, whom he so habitually adored with his eyes, would be intimidated by his threat of being finally offended?
The three other protagonists took no more notice of the sulky Ronnie, but they could not at once recover any approach to sequence.
“I want to know why you’ve come up here,” Banks persisted.
“That’s not the point,” Jervaise began in a tone that I thought was meant to be conciliatory.
“But it is—partly,” Brenda put in.
“My dear girl, do let’s have the thing clear,” her brother returned, but she diverted his apparent intention of making a plain statement by an impatient,—
“Oh! it’s all clear enough.”
“But it isn’t, by any means,” Jervaise said.
“To us it is,” Banks added, meaning, I presume, that he and Brenda had no doubts as to their intentions.
“You’re going to persist in the claim you made this morning?” Jervaise asked.