. Indeed, she was, if the facts are, as I
suppose, perfectly honest in her surprise. Let us assume that she had
arranged to let Brenda in, at say twelve-thirty, and having her father and
mother under her thumb, had warned them to take no notice if Racquet
started his cursed shindy in the middle of the night. The servant may have
been told that Mr. Arthur might be coming. You will notice, also, that
Miss Banks had not, at one-thirty, gone to bed, although we may infer that
she had undressed. Furthermore, it is a fair assumption that she saw us
coming, and having, by then given up, it may be, any hope of seeing
Brenda, she was, no doubt, considerably at a loss to account for our
presence. Now, does that or does it not cover the facts, and does it
acquit Miss Banks of the charge of perjury?"

I was forced, something reluctantly, to concede an element of probability
in his inferences, although his argument following the legal tradition was
based on a kind of average law of human motive and took no account of
personal peculiarities. He did not try to consider what Anne would do in
certain circumstances, but what would be done by that vaguely-conceived
hermaphrodite who figures in the Law Courts and elsewhere as "Anyone." I
could hear Jervaise saying, "I ask you, gentlemen, what would you have
done, what would Anyone have done in such a case as this?"

"Hm!" I commented, and added, "It still makes Miss Banks appear
rather--double-faced."

"Can't see it," Jervaise replied. "Put yourself in her place and see how
it works!"

"Oh! Lord!" I murmured, struck by the grotesque idea of Jervaise
attempting to see life through the eyes of Anne. Imagine a rhinoceros
thinking itself into the experiences of a skylark!

Jervaise bored ahead, taking no notice of my interruption. "Assuming for
the moment the general probability of my theory," he said, "mayn't we
hazard the further assumption that Brenda was going to the farm in the
first instance to meet Banks? His sister, we will suppose, being willing
to sanction such a more or less chaperoned assignation. Then, when the
pair didn't turn up, she guesses that the meeting is off for some reason
or another, but obviously her friendship for Brenda--to say nothing of
loyalty to her brother--would make her conceal the fact of the proposed
assignation from us. Would you call that being 'double-faced'? I
shouldn't."

"Oh! yes; it's all very reasonable," I agreed petulantly. "But how does it