sad change that had taken place in Willie. His bodily strength
returned, his appetite was something enormous, but his eyes wandered
continually; his regard could not be arrested; his speech became
slow, impeded, and incoherent. People began to say that the fever
had taken away the little wit Willie Dixon had ever possessed and
that they feared that he would end in being a "natural," as they call
an idiot in the Dales.

The habitual affection and obedience to Susan lasted longer than any
other feeling that the boy had had previous to his illness; and,
perhaps, this made her be the last to perceive what every one else
had long anticipated. She felt the awakening rude when it did come.
It was in this wise:-

One Jane evening, she sat out of doors under the yew-tree, knitting.
She was pale still from her recent illness; and her languor, joined
to the fact of her black dress, made her look more than usually
interesting. She was no longer the buoyant self-sufficient Susan,
equal to every occasion. The men were bringing in the cows to be
milked, and Michael was about in the yard giving orders and
directions with somewhat the air of a master, for the farm belonged
of right to Willie, and Susan had succeeded to the guardianship of
her brother. Michael and she were to be married as soon as she was
strong enough--so, perhaps, his authoritative manner was justified;
but the labourers did not like it, although they said little. They
remembered a stripling on the farm, knowing far less than they did,
and often glad to shelter his ignorance of all agricultural matters
behind their superior knowledge. They would have taken orders from
Susan with far more willingness; nay, Willie himself might have
commanded them; and from the old hereditary feeling toward the owners