I don’t know what answer I made; whether, indeed, in words I made any at all. Judy was satisfied at all events, for she went over to her lover, slipped her arm through his, and said, “I knew he would.” Even at that moment I credited this young man with unusually acute perceptions. He made no attempt to express any gratitude of his own, or to speak for Judy in the matter of hers. He’d have annoyed me intensely if he’d done either of these things. What he said was more to the point. “It may not turn out to be quite so bad as Judy makes it look,” he said. “We’ve a plan that will avoid a general explosion of scandal if it works. It’s a near thing, of course, whether it works or not.” “You’re an optimist,” I commented, “if you think you can run off with Judith Corbin less than twelve hours before she was to have married Bruce Applebury without causing a general explosion of scandal.” I was as yet, you see, prepared to be amiable only in streaks. Judy came back to the arm of my chair and patted me consolingly. “You think so,” she said, “because you haven’t any idea how clever Bill is.--Tell him the plan, Bill,” she added. Young Grant stood very straight, and spoke rather stiffly. “The essential thing about it is,” he said, “that we get married as early as possible this morning, before the people at The Oaks are up and about.” “That’s what I told them we were going to do,” Judy put in, “in the notes I left--one for mother and one for Bruce. I told mother that by the time she’d read it we’d be married, but if she wanted us to, we’d come back before anybody knew we’d gone and not let on that anything had happened. I left the note in her room so that she’d have time to think before she started anything.” “But the wedding!” I gasped. “The marriage to Bruce in the afternoon! What would you do about that?” “Oh, they’d have to postpone the wedding,” Judy said easily. (I’m not sure she didn’t speak through a yawn.) “Get up some excuse. You can trust mother for that. Grandmother could be horribly ill. That would be easiest, of course. The people would all go away, don’t you see, and then when they’d stopped thinking about us, Bill and I could be married again. There’s no law against that, is there?” “But why be married now?” I asked. “Why not simply postpone the wedding? The same excuse would serve.” “Tell him, Bill,” commanded Judy. “I know Bruce pretty well,” young Grant said, “and I imagine Judy knows her mother. I don’t believe either of them would submit quietly to anything less than the proved inevitable. And unless they made up their minds to it instantly and put the excuse over--for all they were worth--it wouldn’t be any good. If they know there’s nothing left to argue about, they may plant their excuse at once and send for us.” “Send for you where?” I asked. Judy gave a guilty sort of wriggle.