“But she told me if Gran did give it to me for a wedding present it was likely to be found out that it was an imitation. What she wanted to do was to go back to town next day and get the real one out of the bank and put it back in the safe, instead of the imitation, so that Gran shouldn’t know that an imitation had been made. If Gran ever found that out, she said, there was no telling what she’d do. She’d probably disinherit Punch and me by way of getting even with mother, especially after Uncle Alec had come back and made up their quarrel. “Even if she didn’t do that, mother said, Gran would be sure to make a perfectly frightful row and accuse her of having tried to steal the necklace, which would be pretty rotten right in the middle of the wedding, with the Appleburys there and all. “Mother said it was harder to get the necklace out of the bank than it had been to put it in. There were more formalities about it, especially since it had come out in the paper that Gran was going to give it to me. Mother wanted me to write a note, to show to the bank, saying that Gran had given me the necklace and that they were to let mother take it out. “I didn’t want to do that because she hadn’t given it to me, and I didn’t more than half believe she really would. I didn’t believe that until last night when she did. She’d promised to give it to mother a dozen times. “Mother and I rather quarreled about that. But at last we made it up. She said she’d go and try to get the bank to give her the necklace anyhow without any note from me, but that if she didn’t get it and Gran did give the imitation to me, I was to take it and hand it right over to her; refuse to wear it, you know, and not give anybody a chance to look at it, not even Bruce, and especially not old Mr. Smith whom grandmother said she’d invited to the wedding. Because, of course, he’d spot it for an imitation in a minute. “I was glad enough to agree to that. I didn’t want to wear the beastly thing. Mother went back to town Thursday morning to try to get the bank to give her the necklace, but didn’t succeed. “Well, and then Bill came the same afternoon and I forgot all about the necklace. He’d driven me pretty nearly wild in that first little talk with him. The only question I wanted to decide was whether it would be better to run away then and there with Bill, or to stay and go through with the program, only marry Bill instead of Bruce when the time came. Bill didn’t see it that way at all. He was still being--chivalrous, you know, like he said. “So when grandmother sent for me to try on the necklace and there was nothing there but that silly empty box, it struck me as rather funny. I shouldn’t have laughed, of course.