Upon finding himself observed, George made a sudden effort, and leaping the stile, he crossed the road, came straight up to Susan, and, before she had time to collect herself, he had taken her hand, shaken it, and had hastily uttered,-- "I just came to tell you I was heartily glad you had got your eye-sight back again, Susan; and to wish you health and happiness, Susan: that's all:" and he was gone. Susan trembled all over; she tottered back into the cottage, and sat down. "I have just seen him, mother, for the first time these three years! But it was not so much the seeing him, as the hearing his voice again. It has put me quite in a tremble; but I shan't mind it another time. I _must_ not mind it, you know, mother; and I am so happy, oh! so very happy, to be able to do for you and father, that I do not feel as if I had any thing left to wish for!" In a few days Susan paid her promised visit to Mrs. Otley, and she found her indeed sadly altered. She passed through the kitchen, where all bore the marks of the mistress's eye being wanted: a servant-girl, in greasy _papillotes_, the children in smart frocks, but with unwashed faces; the copper vessels, instead of being the pride of the housewife and of her assistants, all out of their places; the floor, as if it had not been swept and sanded for a week. The slip-shod maid, with a dirty apron, ushered Susan into the parlour within, where Mrs. Otley sat in a shabby-genteel arm-chair, cowering over the fire, although it was in June. Her cheeks were sunk, and there was a hectic flush upon them which alarmed Susan; her voice sounded hollow. The smart cap, of which we have already made mention, had now fallen from being a "dress cap" into being an "every-day cap," a purpose for which it was peculiarly unfitted. Its weak wires, and its heavy ribands, shook in a most unseemly manner as the sick woman restlessly moved her head. She laid down the well-thumbed novel she was reading:--"I am glad to see you, Susan," she said. "Why you look surprisingly well, as blooming as a rose. Mr. Otley told me how well you were, and he said your eyes were as black as sloes: I was quite curious to see you. Sit down, Susan, and tell me all about it." But before Susan could begin to speak, Mrs. Otley continued;--"I am such a poor creature--this cough fidgets me so; but I am a great deal better, only the weather is so unseasonable, and the cold winds always affect my nerves. Do you think I look ill?" "You are something thinner than you were, ma'am," answered Susan; "but it is three years since I saw you last, and three years is a long time." "So it is a long time, Susan; but now tell me, what did they do to you in London? I am so curious! Did you stay in the hospital all the time?" "Yes, ma'am, I never left it, except to come home." "What! did you not see any of the sights? Not the King's palace, nor the theatres, nor anything?"