tled in here."

"Oh, m'lady! Thank you, m'lady!" said Susan, colouring as though Lady
O'Gara had promised her something very delightful. "I do love fine
needle-work, m'lady. Any fine damask cloths or the like I'll darn so
you'd hardly know. I'm never happier than when I'm sewin' an' my
Georgie reads a bit to me. He's a good scholar, is my Georgie,
although he's but nine."

"You've made a pretty place of it," Lady O'Gara said, looking round the
lodge with satisfaction. "I was afraid it was going to be a grimy
place for you, for it had been empty since old Mrs. Veldon died. You
see we didn't know you were coming. You've had it whitewashed."

"Yes, m'lady. Mr. Kenny came and whitewashed it. He was very good,
better than ever I can repay. He cleaned out the little place for me.
The pots and pans turned in well. And he lent me a few things
till,--maybe--I could earn a bit, washin' or mendin' or sewin'; I'm a
good dressmaker. Maybe I could get work that way."

"There hasn't been a dressmaker in the village since the last one went
to America. I'll ask the parish priest and the nuns to tell the women
you can dressmake. You'll have your hands full."

Again Susan flushed delicately.

"I'm never so happy as when I've no time for thinkin'," she said. "Any
work pleases me, but fine work best of all. I can do lovely work
tuckin' and veinin'. When I'm at it I'm happy. 'Tis like what drink
is to some people; it makes me forget."

The lodge was indeed altered from what Lady O'Gara remembered it, when
Mrs. Veldon lived there. Mrs. Veldon had been so piteously sure than
any washing or whitewashing would kill her with rheumatism that she had
been left to her murky gloom. Now, with a few gaily coloured pictures
of the Saints and Irish patriots on the walls, the dresser filled with
bright crockery, including a whole shelf of lustre jugs, the pots and
pans set out to advantage, to say nothing of the cans, a clean scrubbed
table, a few chairs, a strip of matting in front of the fireplace,
flowers in a jug on the table which also bore Susan's few implements of
sewing and a pile of white stuff, the place was homelike and pretty.

Lady O'Gara decided that Susan was one of the women who have the gift
of creating a home wherever they may be. So much the worse, she added
in her own mind, not particularizing what it was that was so much the
worse. Round Susan, standing meekly by the table while her Ladyship
sat, floate