“No, I had a day off without classes,” replied Gloria, retrieving her smile. “But I had no idea it was so late. Mrs. Corday has told us such an interesting story——”
“I feel as if I had been shot out of a cannon,” declared Mrs. Corday, sending a critical hand over her side hair, then smoothing down the closely fitted lines of her smart coat. “Really, I can’t believe I’m awake. First it was the shock of Jack’s accident, then the indignation I felt when I believed those old Alton ladies were plotting to keep me from her. You see, I have had so much of that sort of thing from tricky lawyers. But the cap to the climax came when this little trinket clinked at your feet, Gloria. I love to say the name. It is like a—like a blessing, somehow.”
The owner of the name looked like a blessing fulfilled just then, but she was soon forced to spoil the tableau by helping Jane with her bonnet and coat.
Mrs. Corday seemed more agitated than ever. She insisted upon paying the full check and Gloria noticed she left a generous “tip” on the table for the girl in the Priscilla costume. And the natural color surmounting the artificial in her florid face, betrayed a state of keen excitement.
“Now, where’s that miserable hack driver?” she complained.
“He’ll be along, fast enough,” replied Gloria, wondering where they would go this time, and hoping desperately it would not be directly to Altmount.
“There he is,” said Jane, for faithful Dave loomed up quickly as the party emerged from the tea room.
“Would you be willing to trust me with this, for a short time?” Mrs. Corday asked Gloria, holding up again the much suspected necklace.
“Why, certainly. Keep it as long as you like. I only hope it does not disappoint you in the end,” said Gloria earnestly.
“Then, I believe I’ll go straight back and hunt up Mr. Gilbert. I hate to go without seeing my darling Jack, but if you ever knew how this matter has haunted me! I don’t wonder they thought me crazy at times. I dream night after night that Philip is begging me to get the big stone he was so fond of. Because it was Jack’s mother’s, because it had been given her by some great foreign prince, and because it has some value greater to Jack’s family than mere money. You see,” she was panting from the long, vehement speech, and she was ready now to get into Dave’s long suffering taxi, “you see,” she repeated. “I feel the charge was given me and I must fulfill it. If only this——” The beads were now almost reverently dropped into her handsome bag—“is the clue. How shall we ever, ever thank you?” she asked the perplexed girl, whose cheeks burned and eyes fairly stung with suppressed emotion.