"Come, don't scold, Susan; I promised to meet Will Dixon; and though we want to have a bit of talk together, we need not make too free with the beer, you know;" and George was gone. Susan remained with an indefinite sensation of uneasiness for which she could not satisfactorily have accounted to herself. The following week they saw no more of George, neither did they on the Sunday; but in the succeeding week he again called. The alarm concerning the benefit club seemed to have subsided: Nicholas's mind was set at ease upon the subject; and Susan timidly asked George whether he and Will Dixon had had a merry bout of it at the Chequers. "Come, come, Susan, you want to get me to tell tales out of school! we drank no more beer than was good for us, and then I went home with Will Dixon to supper." Did these few words re-assure Susan that George was not likely to fall into the habit of frequenting the ale-house, and did they consequently restore her mind to its usual tranquillity? On the contrary, a sensation shot through her which she had hitherto been spared. She remembered that Will Dixon's sister Jane was a pretty girl with bright blue eyes, and one who had for a short time divided George's attentions with herself, before she had finally fixed them. She remembered thinking that Jane Dixon was very partial to George, and she remembered that the neighbours had joked Jane Dixon about wearing the willow. Jealousy for the first time darted through her heart, and she was alarmed and roused by the keenness of the pang. With the rapidity of lightning she pictured to herself George in love with Jane,--George, Jane's accepted lover,--George her bridegroom,--George her kind and affectionate husband! It was with difficulty she could bear her part in the conversation, and her smile was sad and constrained. "I do not think you seem right well, Susan. Are you ill, Susan?" inquired George kindly and affectionately. "No, thank you, dear George; I am quite well--only I feel a little dull--I think 'tis the weather. Mother said she felt heavy this morning."