"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. Balcome was downstairs when I dressed." Sue looked. "It's all right, mother dear." "And this bonnet"--she gave it a petulant twitch--"you know it's heavier on one side than the other. I told you that when you were making it." "I'm sorry, mother." Sue adjusted the bonnet with deft hands. "And now I have a thousand things to do!" It was like a dismissal of Sue. Two things had come between them: on Sue's part, it was the sudden knowledge of her mother's character--of its depths and its shallows; while on the part of the elder woman, it was injured pride, and never-to-be-forgotten mortification. Mrs. Milo floated away to the door. "And Mr. Farvel has a great secret to tell you," she chirped as she went; "--a wonderful secret." She turned to blink both eyes at the clergyman roguishly. "He's going to confess to you." Then she held out the bride's bouquet, and with such a peremptory gesture that Sue came to take it from her. Next she shook a finger at Farvel. "Now out with it, Alan!" she commanded.