He must take the first opportunity of speaking to her alone.
That opportunity came sooner than he had expected.

After dinner, Mrs.
McClosky turned to Susy, and playfully telling her that she had "to talk business" with Mr.Brant, bade her go to the salon and await her.

When the young girl left the room, she looked at Clarence, and, with that assumption of curtness with which coarse but kindly natures believe they overcome the difficulty of delicate subjects, said abruptly:-- "Well, young man, now what's all this between you and Susy?
I'm looking after her interests--same as if she was my own girl.

If you've got anything to say, now's your time.

And don't you shilly-shally too long over it, either, for you might as well know that a girl like that can have her pick and choice, and be beholden to no one; and when she don't care to choose, there's me and my husband ready to do for her all the same.