ude. "You--you really like it, mother?"

"I think it's _adorable_!" vowed Mrs. Milo. "A perfect _dream_!--Don't
you think so, Mr. Farvel?"

He smiled. "I've never seen Miss Susan look more charming," he
declared.

His compliment heightened the color in Sue's cheeks. "I--I just
happened across it," she explained, "so I thought I'd try it on."

Mrs. Milo prepared to go. "By the way, Susan," she said. "I've
changed my mind about Europe."

"You're not going?" Sue looked pleased.

"Oh, yes, I'm going. But--I've decided not to take you."

"Oh." Sue looked down, that her mother and Farvel might not guess at
her relief and her happiness.

Her mother went on: "It's quite true what you said yesterday. You
_have_ been tied to me too closely. We need a change from each other."
She spoke with great gentleness. Smiling at Sue, the elder woman noted
how cruelly the bright sunlight of the Close brought out all the lines
in her daughter's face, emphasized the aging of the throat and the
graying of the hair.

"Besides," continued the silvery voice, "it would be a very expensive
trip--with four in the party."

"Four?"

"Poor dear Wallace, I'm going to take him with me. His happiness is
ruined, and where would he go without me? Not to Peru--alone. I
couldn't permit that. He is absolutely broken-hearted. I must try to
heal his wound.--Oh, I'm not criticizing the way Hattie has treated
him. But his mother must not be the one to fail him now,--the darling!"

"I want you to make any arrangement, any decision, that will mean
comfort and happiness to you and Wallace," said Sue. And felt all at
once a sudden, new, sweet sense of freedom.

"And I feel that Mrs. Balcome and I will need a man along," added Mrs.
Milo. "If you were to go also----"

"I am just as satisfied not to."

"--It would take more money than we shall have. And as Hattie's mother
is going, doubtless Hattie will be glad enough to have you here to
chaperone her."

"Yes."

"But then do anything you like. You'll remember that yesterday you
twitted me about having to be waited on. I'll prove to you, my dear,
that I can get on without you."

"Yes," said Sue, again. "And for what it would cost to take me, you
can hire the best of attention."

"That's true, though I hadn't thought of it. But for a woman of my
years, I'm very active. I need no attention, really.--Just see, will
you, if there isn't a hook loose here on this shoulder? Mrs