Produced by Beginners Projects, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) SUSAN CLEGG AND HER LOVE AFFAIRS BY ANNE WARNER Author of "The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary," "Sunshine Jane," etc. WITH FRONTISPIECE BY H. M. BRETT BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1916 _Copyright, 1916_, BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. _All rights reserved_ Published, May, 1916 Reprinted, May, 1916 [Illustration: "Nothing but the floor stopped me from falling through to China." FRONTISPIECE. _See Page 144._] CONTENTS I. SUSAN CLEGG'S COURTING 1 II. SUSAN CLEGG AND THE CHINESE LADY 32 III. SUSAN CLEGG SOLVES THE MYSTERY 58 IV. SUSAN CLEGG AND THE OLIVE BRANCH 80 V. SUSAN CLEGG'S "IMPROVEMENTS" 104 VI. SUSAN CLEGG UPROOTED 129 VII. SUSAN CLEGG UNSETTLED 153 VIII. SUSAN CLEGG AND THE CYCLONE 176 IX. SUSAN CLEGG'S PRACTICAL FRIEND 216 X. SUSAN CLEGG DEVELOPS IMAGINATION 236 XI. SUSAN CLEGG AND THE PLAYWRIGHT 256 XII. SUSAN CLEGG'S DISAPPEARANCE 277 SUSAN CLEGG AND HER LOVE AFFAIRS I SUSAN CLEGG'S COURTING Mrs. Lathrop sat on her front piazza, and Susan Clegg sat with her. Mrs. Lathrop was rocking, and Susan was just back from the Sewing Society. Neither Mrs. Lathrop nor Susan was materially altered since we saw them last. Time had moved on a bit, but not a great deal, and although both were older, still they were not much older. They were not enough older for Mrs. Lathrop to have had a new rocker, nor for Susan to have purchased a new bonnet. Susan indeed looked almost absolutely unaltered. She was a woman of the best wearing quality; she was hard and firm as ever, and if there were any plating about her, it was of the quadruple kind and would last. If the reader knows Susan Clegg at all, he will surmise that she was talking. And he will be right. Susan was most emphatically talking. She had returned from the Sewing Society full to the brim, and Mrs. Lathrop was already enjoying the overflow. Mrs. Lathrop liked to rock and listen. She never went to the Sewing Society herself--she never went anywhere.