Suzanne looked out of the window and slowly nodded her head. "Yes," she
said, solemnly, "if it could be arranged. Why not? I don't see why."

Her face was a perfect blossom of beauty, as she spoke. Eugene wondered
whether he was waking or sleeping. Suzanne reasoning so! Suzanne reading
"Anna Karenina" and philosophizing so! Basing a course of action on
theorizing in connection with books and life, and in the face of such
terrible evidence as "Anna Karenina" presented to the contrary of this
proposition. Would wonders ever cease?

"You know," she said after a time, "I think mama wouldn't mind, Eugene.
She likes you. I've heard her say so lots of times. Besides I've heard
her talk this way about other people. She thinks people oughtn't to
marry unless they love each other very much. I don't think she thinks
it's necessary for people to marry at all unless they want to. We might
live together if we wished, you know."

Eugene himself had heard Mrs. Dale question the marriage system, but
only in a philosophic way. He did not take much stock in her social
maunderings. He did not know what she might be privately saying to
Suzanne, but he did not believe it could be very radical, or at least
seriously so.

"Don't you take any stock in what your mother says, Suzanne," he
observed, studying her pretty face. "She doesn't mean it, at least, she
doesn't mean it as far as you are concerned. She's merely talking. If
she thought anything were going to happen to you, she'd change her mind
pretty quick."

"No, I don't think so," replied Suzanne thoughtfully. "You know, I think
I know mama better than she knows herself. She always talks of me as a
little girl, but I can rule her in lots of things. I've done it."

Eugene stared at Suzanne in amazement. He could scarcely believe his
ears. She was beginning so early to think so deeply on the social and
executive sides of life. Why should her mind be trying to dominate her
mother's?

"Suzanne," he observed, "you must be careful what you do or say. Don't
rush into talking of this pellmell. It's dangerous. I love you, but we
shall have to go slow. If Mrs. Witla should learn of this, she would be
crazy. If your mother should suspect, she would take you away to Europe
somewhere, very likely. Then I wouldn't get to see you at all."

"Oh, no, she wouldn't," replied Suzanne determinedly. "You know, I know
mama better than you think I do. I can rule her, I tell you. I know I
can. I've done