All this was charmingly like the old Susy, but it did not bid fair
to help him to a serious interview. And, looking at the pretty, pink,
mocking face before him, with the witchery of the woodland still upon
him, he began to think that he had better put it off.

"Never mind about Mary," he said laughingly. "But you said you wanted to
see me, Susy; and here I am."

"Said I wanted to see you?" repeated Susy, with her blue eyes lifted in
celestial scorn and wonderment. "Said I wanted to see you? Are you not
mistaken, Mr. Brant? Really, I imagined that you came here to see ME."

With her fair head upturned, and the leaf of her scarlet lip temptingly
curled over, Clarence began to think this latest phase of her
extravagance the most fascinating. He drew nearer to her as he said
gently, "You know what I mean, Susy. You said yesterday you were
troubled. I thought you might have something to tell me."

"I should think it was YOU who might have something to tell me after all
these years," she said poutingly, yet self-possessed. "But I suppose you
came here only to see Mary and mother. I'm sure you let them know that
plainly enough last evening."

"But you said"--began the stupefied Clarence.

"Never mind what I said. It's always what I say, never what YOU say; and
you don't say anything."

The woodland influence must have been still very strong upon Clarence
that he did not discover in all this that, while Susy's general