Judith dashed her hand across her eyes and rose. It took her but a short time to change her house gown for a becoming suit. She was about to leave the room when a thought struck her. Going over to the mantel, she opened the small leather box and took from under its coiled wires the locket which had so engrossed her attention on Wednesday morning. She balanced the locket in her hand in indecision, then, closing the box, she went to her bureau and from its upper drawer took out a jewel box, opened it, and dropped the locket among the other pieces of jewelry the box contained, locked it, and put the box back in place inside the drawer.
On her way to the front door Judith encountered her mother and was promptly stopped.
“Judith!” Mrs. Hale’s accents indicated a crescendo of astonishment. “My dear, didn’t you hear your father say that you were to go to bed?”
“Now, Mother, please”—Judith placed her finger lightly against Mrs. Hale’s rouged lips. “Not another word. As you said at luncheon, I am a married woman now, and—I know best.” Before Mrs. Hale could frame another remonstrance, she had run out of the front door and sprung into her electric car and driven off.
Traffic regulations prevented Judith from parking her car in front of the tall office building where “Latimer and House,” had their stock-brokerage office, and she was obliged to walk almost a block, a distance which she covered in record time and arrived, somewhat breathless, in the anteroom of that firm. At her request to see the senior partner, she was at once taken to Frank Latimer’s private office. With characteristic directness she plunged at once into her errand.
“I have come to see you on business, Frank,” she began, taking the chair his clerk placed for her. “Confidential business.”
Latimer signed to his clerk to withdraw and then turned to her.
“Anything I can do?” he asked. “I am entirely at your service, Judith.”
“Thanks.” Judith’s quick smile enhanced her beauty, and Latimer regarded her with admiration. He and her Uncle John had been her pals since the days when she wore short frocks. “I want your advice about some bonds, Frank.”
“Surely.” Latimer drew a pad and pencil toward him. “Have you decided on your investment?”