by J. D. Beresford

The Jervaises were having a lovely dinner party at their home. Towards midnight, the Vicar and his wife requested to leave -- for they were not to dance and be merry on the Sabbath. Everyone waited politely for them to leave before they started dancing again. However, when the stroke of midnight occurred, their driver was nowhere to be seen. Then when the Jervaises suggested that they take the motorcar, their own motorcar driver could not be found and rumors began to spread throughout the party. Had the motor driver stolen Mr. Jervaise's motor car? Had the Vicar's coach driver murdered the motor car driver in order to steal the car?

The truth of the matter was the affair was much more scandalous than that. The Vicar's driver was drunk as a skunk. And the Jervaise's motor car driver had stolen away in the night with their only daughter, Brenda! The scandal that follows embarrasses everyone in the Jervaise family. . . .

J.D. Beresford was an early English writer best known for his pioneering science fiction works such as The Hampshire Wonder, which was a major influence in Olaf Stapleton's work, and the utopian novel What Dreams May Come.