Apron-Strings Part 46

"Hattie."

"Well,--that is--news."

He bowed, a little surprised. He had expected anger and vituperation.

"Of course, my son---- But as that can't be. And Sue--does Sue know?"

"I was just about to tell her."

She turned, calling: "Susan! Susan! _Su_san!"

There was a rustle at the door--a smothered laugh. Sue appeared. "Who calls the Queen of Lower Egypt?" she hailed airily, striking an att.i.tude. She had changed her dress. This was the "other one" given her by Balcome--a confection all silver and chiffon. And this was Sue at her youngest.

"Oh, my dear," cried her mother, "it's lovely!"

Startled by the unexpected admiration, Sue relaxed the pictorial att.i.tude. "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. 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.

"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 steams.h.i.+p 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 embarra.s.sing. 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 gra.s.s; 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 gra.s.s 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."