Page:Adventures of Susan Hopley (Volume 1).pdf/24

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SUSAN HOPLEY.
11

village; at whose house he spent a considerable part of every day, and under whose instructions he made great progress.

As soon as Andrew was old enough, Mrs. Leeson completed her kindness, by procuring him a situation in the establishment of her uncle, Mr. Wentworth of Oakfield; and there, by his good conduct, he rose from being stable boy to be footman; and a great favourite with his master he was, as well as with honest Mr. Jeremy, the butler.

Susan had been living about five years in Mrs. Leeson's service, when she learned from Dobbs that the Major's regiment was ordered home. For several weeks before, both she and Dobbs had observed an alteration in Mrs. Leeson; her step was lighter and quicker, her face brighter, and sometimes as she went about the house they heard her sweet voice carolling a few snatches of some old song; and Dobbs would say, "There she is, bless her! singing the Major's favourite tune as blithe as she used to be in old times." She had her husband's picture over the mantle piece in the drawing-room, and her first glance in the morning as she entered the room, and the last at night when she left it, was towards that face she loved so dearly. It was most times a melancholy look-a look of fond affec-