He found, to his consternation, that he had a lump in his throat and he turned away from her quickly to watch the approaching car. She’d upset him horribly, somehow, looking at him like that. It seemed contrary to the laws of nature that that rather good-looking, plump-faced, slightly pompous grown-up could seriously be planning to carry Judy away to live with him. Judy! The boy’s impulse was to grab her by the arm, drag her around the corner of the house, and bolt with her. Hide somewhere until the excitement had blown over. There were plenty of girls whom no one would miss who might be allowed to marry Mr. Applebury if they liked. But Judy wouldn’t go with him, he realized, even if he did grab her arm. She’d said good-by to him, somehow, in that one look. He watched her as she moved off, composedly enough, to meet the car under the porte-cochère. He saw Bruce spring spryly out; he heard Judy’s short little laugh just before she kissed him. Then she turned quickly and began greeting the others. Now they were all coming up into the veranda together, toward the group of three that remained in the corner. A saving idea occurred to Punch. His grandmother’s room up-stairs had been left unguarded now for a long while. Most of the servants were having lunch; everybody else had been occupied expecting the arriving guests. Sentry duty was his job now. He slipped around the corner of the veranda, entered the house and stole swiftly up the stairs. The upper hall was deserted. He tried the door to his grandmother’s room. It wasn’t locked, and he went in, crossed over to the safe and tried the door to that. It was locked all right, so he withdrew to the hall again. Down at the end of it stood a big high-sided davenport. It afforded an excellent post of observation, since by crouching down in the lee of one of the great arms one could make one’s self highly unnoticeable, almost invisible. Through the open windows he could hear cars arriving, one after another, and a steadily rising surge of voices. Sometimes he could isolate Judy’s. Once or twice he heard her laugh. Still the cars kept arriving. Lord, there were a lot of people! And there would be still more to-morrow. He stayed there for what seemed quite a long while, but it couldn’t have been, really, because, of course, as soon as the baggage had come up from the station, the servants would begin carrying up suit-cases and things to the different rooms. Presently he heard a step on the stair, coming up in a hurry but quietly. Instantly he was at gaze, breathless to see who would appear around the turn of the landing. It was Judy. He’d have spoken to her if astonishment had not silenced him. Her face was so white that the color she had put on it stood out unnaturally, and her eyes were wild, like those of a frightened animal.