“And still, if she will not go?”
“Then we shall bring an action against you for abducting her.”
Mrs. Banks smiled gently and pursed her mouth “To avoid a scandal?” she asked.
“If you persist in your absurd demands, there will be a scandal in any case,” Frank replied curtly.
“I suppose my wishes don’t count at all?” Brenda put in.
“Obviously they don’t,” Frank said.
“But, look here, father,” Brenda continued, turning to old Jervaise; “why do you want me to come back? We’ve never got on, I and the rest of you. Why can’t you let me go and be done with it?”
Jervaise fidgeted uneasily and looked up with a touch of appeal at his son. He had begun to mumble some opening when Frank interposed.
“Because we won’t,” he said, “and that’s the end of it. There’s nothing more to be said. I’ve told you precisely how the case stands. Either you come back with us without a fuss, or we shall begin an action at once.”
I know now that Frank Jervaise was merely bluffing, and that they could have had no case, since Brenda was over eighteen, and was not being detained against her will. But none of us, probably not even old Jervaise himself, knew enough of the law to question the validity of the threat.