"Yes, mother." Sue attempted a detour, the bouquet still out of her mother's sight.
A look of mingled fear and resentment--a look that Sue understood; next, breathing hard, "What are you doing with it? You don't want it! Give it to me!" Mrs. Milo caught the flowers from her daughter's hands and threw them upon the grass. "Now go and do what I've asked you to!" She pointed.
Sue glanced at Farvel, who was staring at the elder woman in amazed displeasure. "I'll be back," she said significantly. There was a trace of yesterday's rebellion in her manner as she went out.
As the drawing-room door closed, Mrs. Milo's manner also underwent a change. She hastened to Farvel, her eyes brimming with tears, her lips trembling. "Oh, Mr. Farvel," she cried, "she's all I've got in this world. She's the very staff of my life! And my heart is set on her going abroad with me! It'll be an expensive trip, but I'm an old woman, Mr. Farvel, and I can't take that long journey without Sue! I know you're against me for what I did yesterday--for what I said to your wife. But I felt she'd separate me from Sue--that she'd put Sue against me. And, oh, don't punish me for it! Don't take my daughter away from me! Oh, don't! Don't!" She caught at his hand, broke down completely, and sobbed.
"Why, Mrs. Milo!" exclaimed Farvel, not understanding. "What do you mean?--take her away?"
"I mean marry her!--Oh, she's my main hold on life!"
He laughed. "My dear, dear lady, I haven't the least intention in the world of asking your daughter to marry me."
"None whatever. How can I marry--while Laura is alive?"
"And--and"--doubtfully--"you don't even--love her?"
"Will it make your mind entirely easy if I tell you that I--I care for someone else?" He blushed like a boy.
"Oh, Alan Farvel, I'm so glad! So glad!" Her gratitude was spontaneous. "And I wish you could marry! You deserve the very best kind of a wife!"
"Not at all! You're a good man. You'd make some girl very happy. I've always said, 'What a pity Mr. Farvel isn't a married man'--not knowing, of course, that you'd ever been one.--Could I trouble you to hand me that bouquet?"
"Certainly." Farvel picked up the bride's bouquet from where she had thrown it and gave it to her.