tried to quiet him. And now that Sue was out of the
way I partly succeeded. But he stuck to his purpose. Joe must come and
see Sue here.

"I want to be on hand when she sees him," he insisted. "I don't want to
talk--I've done all that--I won't say a word--but I want to be here. You
think you know her better than I do because you're younger--but you
don't. We've lived right here together--she's been my chum for
twenty-five years, and I know things about her you don't know. She's
wilful, she's as wild as a hawk--but she can't hold out, she hasn't it
in her."

"She will if you act as you did just now----"

"But I won't," he said sharply. "That was a mistake--and I won't let it
happen again. When he comes you do the talking, boy--and if we're beaten
I won't try to keep her, she goes and it's ended, I promise you that.
But, son, don't make any mistake about this--I have an influence over
this girl that you haven't got and nobody has. I want her to feel me
beside her."

He went over this again and again, and with this I had to leave him.

* * * * *

I found Joe in his office. He rose abruptly when I came in, and reached
for his hat.

"Let's go out for a walk," he said. Down in the street he turned on me:
"Sue has just 'phoned me you were there. She thought you were going to
help her, Bill, she thought that you'd stand by her. She didn't get any
sleep last night--she's been through hell with that father of hers----"

"Oh, I've been all through Sue's sufferings, Joe. Don't give me any more
of that."

"You mean you think she's faking?"

"No. But to be good and brutally frank about it, what she suffers just
now doesn't count with me. It's what her whole life may be with you."

"That's not exactly your business, is it?"

"It wouldn't be if I didn't know Sue."

"What do you know?"

"I know that in spite of all her talk and the way she acts and honestly
feels whenever she's with you," I replied, "Sue wants to hang on to her
home and us. She isn't the heroic kind. She can't just follow along with
you and leave all this she's used to."

Joe's face clouded a little.

"She'll get over that," he muttered.

"Perhaps she will and perhaps she won't. How do you know? You want to
know, don't you? You want her to be happy?"

"No, that's not what I want most. Being happy isn't the only thing----"

"Then tell her so. That's all I ask. I'll tell you what I've come for,
Joe. You've always bee