“And it seems to me,” I went on, “that another advantage of our certainty of Bill is that it makes it possible for you to marry him first and tackle the problem of the necklace afterward.” She smiled at that. “Bill wouldn’t marry me even if I asked him. And I won’t ask him. I should, of course, if I were a little bit in doubt about him, or if I were afraid he’d think I was. But we aren’t like that. We’re---- Oh, you can’t talk about it. Look: you know what it’s been like at home, don’t you, ever since--well, ever since father died? Even Punch has hated it, and it hasn’t been so bad for him because he can’t remember father. And they treat a girl worse anyhow. “I’ve never been educated. I don’t know anything. I’ve been _trained_. When father owned a racing stable he used to breed race horses. Well, I’ve been brought up like that. I hated it so that at last I ran away. “But I didn’t know _why_ I hated it until I met Bill. Of course I’ve known honorable people before, but never anyone that I’d had a chance to see all the way through. It’s different, and it’s going to be different. When I go with him I’m not going to take any of mother’s--bargains along with me.” I’ve never been very enthusiastic about Victoria, but I felt that I had to come to her defense here. “I’m not in your mother’s confidence,” I said to Judy, “but there’s something I don’t think we can lose sight of. Victoria’s had a pretty rotten time herself since your father died. She’s got a small income of her own and she could have been comfortable and independent on it if she’d been willing to give in to your grandmother’s ideas about bringing up you two children. They may have been better ideas than her own, but she didn’t think they were. She took on what’s turned out to be a long battle, as she saw it in your behalf. If she got herself into money difficulties so desperate that she was driven to hypothecate the necklace, she did it so that she could give you what she regarded as a fair chance.” “I’m glad you told me that,” Judy said, after a moment of blank silence. “At least I think I am. But you see it ties me down all the tighter. I’ve got to keep her bargain--one way or the other.” “You don’t mean,” I cried, “that you’d marry Bruce _now_!” She nodded. “But I’m not going to do it,” she said. “We’re going back to The Oaks and find that necklace. You ring for Donovan to come down and help you dress. I’ll leave a note for Bill, and then I’ll go up to the garage and get out your car.” CHAPTER XV BLACK LOOKS