now she says she will give him up."

"John Henry!" exclaimed Oliver in amazement. "Why, what in the world
does she see in John Henry?"

"I don't know--one never knows what people see in each other, but she
has been in love with him all her life, I believe."

"Well, it's rough on her. Is she obliged to break off with him now?"

"She says it wouldn't be fair to him not to. Her whole time must be
given to nursing her mother. There's something splendid about Susan,
Oliver. I never realized it as much as I did to-day. Whatever she does,
you may be sure it will be because it is right to do it. She sees
everything so clearly, and her wishes never obscure her judgment."

"It's a pity. She'd make a great mother, wouldn't she? But life doesn't
seem able to get along without a sacrifice of the fittest."

In the afternoon Mrs. Pendleton came over, but the two women were so
busy arranging the furniture in its proper place, and laying away
Oliver's and the children's things in drawers and closets, that not
until the entire house had been put in order, did they find time to sit
down for a few minutes in the nursery and discuss the future of Susan.

"I believe John Henry will want to marry her and go to live at the
Treadwells', if Susan will let him," remarked Mrs. Pendleton.

"How on earth could he get on with Uncle Cyrus?" Ever since her marriage
Virginia had followed Oliver's habit and spoken of Cyrus as "uncle."

"Well, I don't suppose even John Henry could do that, but perhaps he
thinks anything would be better than losing Susan."

"And he's right," returned Virginia loyally, while she got out her
work-bag and began sorting the array of stockings that needed darning.
"Do you know, mother, Oliver seems to think that I might go to New York
with him."

"And leave the children, Jinny?"

"Of course I've told him that I can't, but he's asked me two or three
times to let you look after them for a day or two."

"I'd love to do it, darling--but you've never spent a night away from
one of them since Lucy was born, have you?"

"No, and I'd be perfectly miserable--only I can't make Oliver understand
it. Of course, they'd be just as safe with you as with me, but I'd keep
imagining every minute that something had happened."

"I know exactly how you feel, dear. I never spent a night outside my
home after my first child came until you grew up. I don't see how any
true woman could bear to do it, unless, of course, she was called a