d. "We don't use it much. Still we
might want to and you might be in bed."

"I'd get up at any hour, m'lady," Susan said eagerly. "I'm a light
sleeper: and it would only be to throw on something in a hurry."

She looked scared, as though her peace of mind was threatened, and Lady
O'Gara felt a pity for such manifest nervousness. Susan would forget
her terror presently as she got further and further away from the bad
days. Obviously she was very nervous. Her eyes dilated and her breath
came and went as she gazed imploringly at Lady O'Gara.

"Don't look like that, Susan," Lady O'Gara said, almost sharply. "You
look as though I were judge and executioner. You shall keep your
padlocked gate. After all it is a bad road, I don't think Sir Shawn
will want to take it, though it is the shortest way to Inch. You did
not find the gate padlocked when you came?"

"No, m'lady. 'Twas Mr. Kenny. He guessed I'd be frightened, so he
brought the padlock and put it on himself."

The finest little line showed itself in Lady O'Gara's smooth forehead.
Her skin was extraordinarily unfretted for her forty-five years of
life. But now the little crease came, deepened and extended itself to
a line, where its presence had been unsuspected.

"Patsy is very kind," she said, with a penetrating glance at Susan.
What a pretty girl Susan must have been, so soft and pale and
appealing, a little human wood-anemone! She would be very pretty again
when she had got over the scared look and the thinness which was almost
emaciation. And how well that print suited her! Lady O'Gara had sent
down a bundle of things to the South lodge, so that Susan might not
appear as a scarecrow to the people. The print had pale green leaves
sprinkled over a white surface. It suggested a snowdrop, perished by
the winter, as a comparison for Susan rather than the wood-anemone one.

"Indeed he's very kind," said Susan; and dropped a curtsey. "The
clothes fitted Georgie as though they were made for him. I'll be able
to use all you sent, m'lady, I'm such a good needlewoman. I hope I may
mend your Ladyship's lace or any fine embroideries. Once we're
settled--with Georgie away at school all day--I'll have a deal o' time
on my hands. I'd like to do something for you, m'lady."

"So you shall, Susan. Margaret McKeon, who has been with me since I
was a child, is no longer able for work that tries the eyes. I promise
I'll keep you busy as soon as you get set