"Alan!" gasped Sue, under her breath. She gave her mother a tiny push. "Yes, go, mother! Hurry! You're wanted at the telephone!" "I'm wanted at the steamship office," answered Mrs. Milo. "Oh, think of it!--Egypt! The Holy Land! The Garden of Eden!" Left alone, both Farvel and Sue found the moment embarrassing. She went back to the sun-dial, picking at the flowers of the bouquet. He stood apart, hands rammed in pockets. Presently, "Well, I--I don't have to go to Europe." She smiled at him shyly. "No. That's--that's good." "And--and when I went out you--you were saying----" It helped him. "I was trying to--to make a clean breast of something," he began, faltering. "But--but--oh, she can tell you best." He looked up at the window of his study. "Hattie!" he called. "Hattie!" "Yes, Alan!" A rose fell upon the grass; then Hattie looked down at them, radiant and laughing, her fair hair blowing about her face. "Come here, little woman." "All right." The fair head disappeared. "Hattie!" Sue was like one in a dream. "You're--you're shocked. But wait----" "No--no. That is,--not the way you mean." Then as the truth came to her, she went unsteadily to a bench, sat, and leaned her head on a hand. Now she understood why her mother was willing to leave her behind! Hattie came tearing across the grass to her. "Oh, Sue! Oh, you're crying! Oh, _dear_ Sue, you're crying!" She knelt, her arms about the elder woman. "Of _course_ I'm crying," answered Sue. "That's what I always do when I--I see that someone is happy." "Oh, Sue! Sue!" The girl clung to her. "Don't think too badly of me. It came out last night--when Alan and I were talking. I told him I didn't love Wallace the way I should--oh, Sue, _you_ know I never have--and that it was because I loved someone else. And, oh, he grew so--so white--he was so hurt--and I told him--I had to. It just poured out of my soul, Sue. It had been kept in so long." "You darling girl!" They clung to each other, murmuring. "Now you know why I was so--so broken up yesterday," explained Farvel. "It wasn't--Laura. It was Hattie." "Oh, we've cared for each other from the first!" confessed Hattie. "And we've settled how it is all going to be. I'll stay in New York, where we can be near each other, and see each other now and then--oh, we shall be only friends, Sue. But I'd rather have his friendship than the love of any other man I've ever known. And we'll be patient. And if we can't ever be more than friends, we'll be glad just for that. See how happy you've been, Sue, with no one--all these years. And here I shall have Alan." "Ah, my dear girl!" exclaimed Sue. She stroked the bright hair. "Ah, my dear girl!" "Oh, Sue, you mean you haven't been happy? Why don't you marry?"