w, will it? But I thought I ought to tell you this
in person, to ask you about it"--she paused, looking into his eyes.

"I thought we settled all this up in St. Jacques?" said Eugene, turning
to Mrs. Dale, but experiencing a sinking sensation of fear.

"We did, all except the matter of not seeing her. I think it is highly
inadvisable that you two should be together. It isn't possible the way
things stand. People will talk. Your wife's condition has to be
adjusted. You can't be running around with her and a child coming to
you. I want Suzanne to go away for a year where she can be calm and
think it all out, and I want you to let her. If she still insists that
she wants you after that, and will not listen to the logic of the
situation in regard to marriage, then I propose to wash my hands of the
whole thing. She may have her inheritance. She may have you if she wants
you. If you have come to your senses by that time, as I hope you will
have, you will get a divorce, or go back to Mrs. Witla, or do whatever
you do in a sensible way."

She did not want to incense Eugene here, but she was very bitter.

Eugene merely frowned.

"Is this your decision, Suzanne, too?" he asked wearily.

"I think mama is terrible, Eugene," replied Suzanne evasively, or
perhaps as a reply to her mother. "You and I have planned our lives, and
we will work them out. We have been a little selfish, now that I think
of it. I think a year won't do any harm, perhaps, if it will stop all
this fussing. I can wait, if you can."

An inexpressible sense of despair fell upon Eugene at the sound of this,
a sadness so deep that he could scarcely speak. He could not believe
that it was really Suzanne who was saying that to him. Willing to wait a
year! She who had declared so defiantly that she would not. It would do
no harm? To think that life, fate, her mother were triumphing over him
in this fashion, after all. What then was the significance of the
black-bearded men he had seen so often of late? Why had he been finding
horseshoes? Was fate such a liar? Did life in its dark, subtle chambers
lay lures and traps for men? His position gone, his Blue Sea venture
involved in an indefinite delay out of which might come nothing, Suzanne
going for a whole year, perhaps for ever, most likely so, for what could
not her mother do with her in a whole year, having her alone? Angela
alienated--a child approaching. What a climax!

"Is this really your decision, Suzanne?