t, too,
as we came back. That sense of everything belonging to some one else, of
having no right, hardly the right to breathe without the Jervaises'
permission."

Her gesture finally confirmed the fact that perfect confidence was
established between us. I felt as if she had patted my shoulder. But she
may have been afraid that I might blunder into too obvious a statement, if
I were permitted to continue, for she abruptly changed her tactics by
saying to Brenda,--

"So you ran away in the middle of the dance?"

"Well, we'd finished dancing, as a matter of fact," Brenda explained.

Mr. Banks shifted uneasily in his chair. "Ran away, Miss Brenda?" he
asked. "Did you say you'd run away?"

She flattered him with a look that besought his approval. "I simply
couldn't stand it any longer," she said.

"But you'll be going back?" he returned, after a moment's pause.

She shook her head, still regarding him attentively with an air of appeal
that implied submission to his judgment.

He had stopped eating, and now pushed his chair back a little from the
table as though he needed more space to deal with this tremendous problem.

"You'll be getting us into trouble, Miss Brenda," he warned her gravely.
"It wouldn't do for us to keep you here, if they're wanting you to go back
home."

"Well, Alfred, we've as much right to her as they have," Mrs. Banks put
in.

The effect upon him of that simple speech was quite remarkable. He opened
his fine blue eyes and stared at his wife with a blank astonishment that
somehow conveyed an impression of fear.

"Nancy! Nancy!" he expostulated in a tone that besought her to say no
more.

She laughingly waved her hands at him, using the same gesture with which
she had commanded him to sit down. "Oh! we've got to face it, Alfred," she
said. "Arthur and Brenda believe they're in love with one another, and
that's all about it."

Banks shook his head solemnly, but it seemed to me that his manner
expressed relief rather than the added perturbation I had expected. "No,
no, it won't do. That'd never do," he murmured. "I've been afraid of this,
Miss Brenda," he continued; "but you must see for yourself that it'd never
do--our position being what it is. Your father'd never hear of such a
thing; and you'd get us all into trouble with him if he thought we'd been
encouraging you."

He drew in his chair and returned to his supper as if he regarded the
matter as being now definitely settled. "I don'