"Then she is the girl who disappeared,"
she said under her breath.

"Well--yes."

"And she'll go again! She'll be lost!" She started toward the hall.

"Susan!" cried her mother, peremptorily. And as Sue halted, "We want
nothing to do with that girl. Come back."

"What harm could come of my going?" argued Sue.

"That is not the question."

"Mother, I don't like to oppose you, but in this case----"

"I shall not allow it," said her mother, decisively.

"Then I must go against your wishes." Sue opened the door.

"I forbid it, I tell you!" That note of shrillness now appeared in
Mrs. Milo's voice.

"Oh, mother!" Sue came back a little way. "Don't treat me like a
child!"

Now Mrs. Milo became all gentleness once more. She put a hand on Sue's
arm. "Your mother is the best judge of your actions," she reminded.
"And she wants you to stay."

Sue backed. "No; I'm sorry," she answered. "In all my life I can't
remember disobeying you once. But today I must." Again she started.

"My daughter!" Mrs. Milo's voice broke pathetically. "You--you mean
you won't respect my wishes?"

Checked by that sign of tears so near, again Sue halted, but without
turning. "I want to help her," she urged, a little doggedly.

"But your mother," went on Mrs. Milo, "--my feelings--my love--are you
going to trample them under foot?"

"Oh, not that!"

Mrs. Milo fell to weeping. "Oh, what do you care for my peace of
mind!" she mourned. "For my heartache!"

It brought Sue to her mother's side. "Why! Why!" She put an arm
about the elder woman tenderly.

Mrs. Milo dropped to a chair. "This is the child I bore!" she sobbed.
"I've devoted my whole life to her! And now--oh, if your dear father
knew! If he could only see----" Words failed her. She buried her
face in her handkerchief.

Sue knelt at her side. "Oh, mother! Mother!" she comforted. "Hush,
dear! Hush!"

"I'm going to be ill," wept Mrs. Milo. "I know I am! My nerves can't
stand it! But it's just as well"--mournfully. "I'm in your way. I
can see that. And it's t-t-t-time that I died!" She shook
convulsively.

Commands, arguments, appeals, tears--how often Mrs. Milo and her
daughter went through the several steps of just such a scene as this.
Exactly that often, Sue capitulated, as she capitulated now, with eyes
brimming.

"Ah, don't say that, mother," she pleaded. "You'll break my heart!
You're my whole life--with Wallace away, why I've