"Don't you make game of me, George! I'll answer for it, the 'squire is not the man to say no to us; he has always been a kind friend to father:" while the suspicion that he seldom missed an opportunity of asking her how she did, and taking a look at her sparkling black eyes, may have increased her reliance on his kindness to her blind father. "I shall be glad enough if we are so lucky as to get the refusal of it," replied George; "for I see little chance of our finding any other place hereabouts; and I would never be the man to take you into another parish, with your parents such poor afflicted creatures as they are! I'm not one of your high-flown, flighty folks; and I've never read any of such fine books as you and your school-fellows sometimes get hold of, Susan; but I can read my Bible pretty middling, and I know what is the duty we owe to our parents, who took care of us when we could do nothing for ourselves, and I would never wish my wife not to be a dutiful child." Old Sarah Foster looked approvingly at her future son-in-law; and Nicholas said, "You are a young man with good principles, and it will be a pleasure to give our Susan to such a one as you. When I die, I shall rest quiet in my grave if I know she is married to you." "They did not always speak so of you, George!" answered the merry girl. "You used to say I was a wilful girl, did not you, father, when I said I would have George, or nobody? So, after all, I have got an old head on young shoulders, though nobody has given me credit for it yet!" It was not many weeks after Freshfield fair, when the village of Overhurst was all alive with another and a greater jubilee. The church bells rang a merry peal from the very sunrise; the village maidens, in their most trim apparel, were in waiting to strew flowers on the path of Alice Mowbray and Captain Harcourt; an ox was roasted whole in Overhurst Park, and the beer flowed as beer should flow on such occasions. The 'squire had promised Master Mumford's house to George Wells, and he had obtained Susan's consent that they should soon be asked in church. Susan was all blushes and smiles, as among the other maidens she scattered flowers on the path; and she court'sied with a pretty confusion when the bride gave her a nod of recognition, as she hurried past into the travelling carriage at the gate. Hitherto, all had seemed to smile on Susan; for, having been accustomed to them from her youth, her father's blindness and her mother's ill-health did not dwell upon her mind as misfortunes; while the wish to enliven her parents, and the pleasure they took in her sprightliness, had rather tended to increase the natural gaiety of her disposition. But on this, the happiest day of her life, a change came over the destiny of Susan Foster. The festivities of Overhurst Park concluded with a dance on the green; and Susan, gay, blooming, and thoughtless, seemed to be the reigning village belle.