"Oh! of course, if you think that..." he said, paused as if seeking for
some threat of retaliation, and then flung himself, the picture of
dudgeon, into a chair by the wall. He turned his back towards Brenda and
glared steadfastly at his rival. I received the impression that the poor
deluded boy was trying to revenge himself on Brenda. At the back of his
mind he seemed still to regard her escapade as a foolish piece of bravado,
undertaken chiefly to torture himself. His attitude was meant to convey
that the joke had gone far enough, and that he would not stand much more
of it.

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.

Banks smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't be silly, Frank," Brenda interpreted. "You must know that we can't
do anything else."

"It's foolish to say you _can't_," he returned irritably, "when so
obviously you _can_."

"Well, anyway, we're going to," Banks affirmed with a slight
inconsequence.

"And do you purpose to stay on here?" Jervaise said sharply, as if he were
posing an insuperable objection.

"Not likely," Banks replied. "We're going to Canada, the whole lot of us."

"Your father and mother, too?"

"Yes, if I can persuade 'em; and I can," Banks said.

"You haven't tried yet?"

"No, I haven't."

"Don't they know anything about this? Anything, I mean, before last
night's affair?"

"Practically nothing at all," Banks said. "Of course, nothing whatever
about last night."

"And you honestly think..." began Jervaise.

"T