Sue turned to Balcome. "And you go with him," she suggested. "But why?"--again it was a nervous, frightened protest. Sue nodded toward Hattie, standing so slim and still beside her father. "So my little sister will feel all right about it," she explained. "Because nothing, Wallace, must worry her. It's her happiness we want to think of, isn't it?--dear Hattie's." "Oh, yes! Yes!" "The address--I'll write it down." She bent over the desk. Wallace went to Hattie. "Good-by," he said, tremulously. "I'll be right back." He leaned to kiss her, but she turned her face away. His lips brushed only her cheek. Sue thrust the address into his hand. "Here. And, oh, Wallace, be very kind to her!" "Of course. Yes. I'll do what I can." But he seemed scarcely to know what he was saying. He fingered the card Sue had given him, and watched Hattie. Urging him toward the vestibule, Sue glanced down at her bridesmaid's dress, then searchingly about the room--for a hat, a wrap. "And bring them together--won't you?" she went on, taking Balcome's arm. At the door, she crowded in front of him. "Susan," challenged her mother. "Yes, mother,"--coming short, with a whimsically comical look that acknowledged discovery and defeat. "They can find their way out. Come back." Sue came. "But I could go with them, and not see Miss Crosby." Once more that note of childlike pleading. "I could just wait near by." "Wait here, Susan.--Oh, I realize that you could be there and back before I'd know it." Sue laughed. "Oh, she's a smart little mother!" she said fondly. "Yes, she is!" "She knows your tricks," retorted Mrs. Milo, wisely. "You'd even trapse out in that get-up.--Please don't fidget while I'm talking." Seeing that it was impossible for her to get away, Sue sat down resignedly. "Well, as Ikey says," she observed, "'sometimes t'ings go awful fine, und sometimes she don't.'" Now, Farvel came breezing in. "I've found a minister, Miss Milo," he announced. Then realizing that something untoward had happened, "Why,--where's Wallace?" "He has followed Miss Crosby," answered Mrs. Milo, speaking the name with exaggerated distinctness. "Miss Crosby?" Farvel was puzzled. "Miss--_Clare_--Crosby." He turned to Sue, and she rose and came to him--smiling, and with a certain confidential air that was calculated either to rescue him from a catechism or to result in her own banishment from the room. "Do you know that you haven't dictated this morning's letters?" she asked. And touching him on the arm, "Shan't we go into the library now?" "Susan," purred Mrs. Milo. "Yes, mother." But Sue, halting beside Farvel, continued to talk to him animatedly, in an undertone. "Will you kindly see that Dora understands about dinner preparations?" "Hattie, do you mind ringing?" Mrs. Milo held up a slender hand to check Hattie. "Susan," she went on, patiently, "do you want your mother to do the trotting after the servants?"