"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."