A wan smile. "Ah, how dear and good you are!" breathed the girl.
"Will you kiss me?"
"God love you!" Once more Sue caught the slender figure to her.
"So good! So good!"—weeping.
"Now no more tears! Let me see a smile!" Sue lifted the wet face.
Clare smiled and turned away. "I'll finish in here," she said, and went into the other room.
Farvel made as if to follow, but turned back. "Ah, Sue Milo, you are dear and good!" he faltered. Then coming to take her hand, "Your tenderness to Laura—your thought of the child! Ah, you're a woman in a million! How can I ever get on without you!" He raised her hand to his lips, held it a moment tightly between both of his, and went out.
Mrs. Milo had risen. Now she watched her daughter—the look Sue gave Farvel, and the glance down at the hand just caressed. To the jealous eyes of the elder woman, the clergyman's action, so full of tender admiration, conveyed but one thing—such an attachment as she had charged against Sue, and which now seemed fully reciprocated. With a burst of her ever available tears, she dropped back into her chair.
But the tears did not avail. For Sue stayed where she was. And her face was grave with understanding. "Ah, mother," she said, with a touch of bitterness. "I knew my happiness would make you happy!"
"Laura!" It was Farvel, calling from the back-parlor. "Laura! Laura!
Where are you?"
Sue met him as he rushed in. "What——?"