Every one laughed; Mary actually smiled.
“And I did so long to be well bred and like other girls,” she murmured. “I thought, really, that boarding school——”
“Turned the trick,” chirped Gloria, determined to brighten up the atmosphere. “Well, look at me——”
“And I felt the same way,” admitted Jack. “I just had an idea all I had to do was to drop in here and—mock the mighty.” She glanced at Trixy with unfeigned envy.
“Yes,” Mary went on, like one determined to have the worst over, “my one idea was to get to a fashionable school and forget—the circus. I had to bring Yvette’s things with me, I had no time to place them in safety. I put them in a trunk hastily——”
“It was your trunk I opened by mistake!” exclaimed Gloria.
“Yes. And it was my mother’s precious bloodstone that you returned some time later.”
“It had fallen from the trunk. I just found it——”
“I knew or guessed,” said Mary. “But when I thought to give you a little keepsake—”
“The runaway necklace!” broke in Jack.