k!--Mr. Farvel, take her!"

"Come, Laura! Come!"

But Clare would not go. "Yes, come--and let her wreak her meanness on
Miss Milo! No! Here's a sample of what you're going to get, Alan, for
insisting on my going to that Rectory. So you'd better hear it. I
told you the plan is a mistake." And to Mrs. Milo, "Let's hear what
you've got to say."

Righteous virtue glittered in the blue eyes. "I've got this to say!"
she cried. "You've been missing ten years--ten years of running around
loose. What've you been up to? Are you fit to be a friend of my
daughter?"

Sue flung an arm about Clare. "I am her friend!" she declared. "I
won't judge her!--Oh, mother!"

It only served to rouse Mrs. Milo further. "Ah, she knows I'm
right!--You're going to lie, are you? You're going to palm yourself
off on a decent man! Ha! You won't fool anybody! You're marked!
Look in this glass!" She caught up the hand-mirror lying on the table
and thrust it before Clare's face. "Look at yourself! It's as easy to
read as paper written over with nasty things! Your paint and powder
won't cover it! The badness sticks out like a scab!" Then as Clare,
with a sudden twist of the body, and a sob, hid her face against Sue,
Mrs. Milo tossed the mirror to the table. "There!" she cried. "I've
had my say! Now take your bleached fallen woman to the Rectory!" And
with a look of defiance, she went back to the rocking-chair and sat.

No one spoke for a moment. Sue, holding the weeping girl in her arms,
and soothing her with gentle pats on the heaving shoulders, looked at
her mother, answering the other's defiant stare angrily. "Ah, cruel!
Cruel!" she said, presently. "And I know why. Oh, don't you feel that
we should do everything in our power for Mr. Farvel, and not act like
this? Haven't we Milos done enough to give him sorrow?" (It was
characteristic that she did not say "Wallace," but charged his
wrong-doing against the family.) "Here's our chance to be a little bit
decent. And now you attack her. But--it's not because you think she's
sinned: it's because you think I'm going--to the Rectory."

Now Clare freed herself gently from Sue's embrace, lifting her head
wearily. "Oh, I might as well tell you both"--she looked at Farvel,
too--"that she's right about me. There have been--other things."

Sue caught her hands. "Oh, then forget them!" she cried. "And
remember only that you're going to be happy again!"

Clare hung