"Why, Susan, I do not know what is come over you; there is no pleasing you. I thought you would like my flowers!" "And so I do, George; and I am very much obliged to you for them," she continued in a tone of gratitude almost beyond what the occasion called for. Presently she added, in a sad, low voice, "You are very good to me, very good indeed." Just at this moment Nicholas and his dame were seen approaching the garden-gate. She was leading him from the stile over which he loved to lean, and to feel the warm sun on his eyes, and turn his face in the direction of the setting orb. Sarah was hobbling back, guiding the blind old man, whose firmer step assisted in supporting her suffering frame. George opened the cottage-door to admit them, and the slant beams of the sun glanced through the opening upon poor Susan's eyes. The sudden light pained her; and although she had one moment before reproached herself with not being sufficiently grateful for the kindness shown her, she exclaimed somewhat pettishly, "Don't you know, George, how it hurts my eyes to have the light glare upon them all at once?" at the same time pushing back her chair with an impatient movement, which was accounted for, but not justified, by the pain which she suffered. The sight of her poor blind father, and of his meek expression of countenance, recalled her to herself. She hastened to him and helped him to his chimney-nook, and then assisted her mother to her usual chair. They each thanked her in a kind and gentle voice, and she felt inwardly rebuked by their patience and their submission. George had stood aloof, awkward and mortified. She drew near him. "I beg your pardon, George," she murmured: "George, I do not know what is come to me;" and she burst into tears. "Never fret, Susan; I don't mind. 'Tis very natural, I dare say, that you should be a little testy or so: don't cry, your mother says 'tis so bad for you. I don't mind, though, to be sure, you do sometimes hurt my feelings a little." Dame Forster thought she saw him brush off a tear with the back of his hand. "Why, what's the matter, Susan? Sure you and George have not been falling out, have you?" "Oh, no! not a bit of it, dame!" "George is very good to me, mother; but I don't know how it is, I believe sometimes I am hard to please;" and she strove to smile.