It was a quiet Christmas at Tayne Abbey; we had no visitors, for my mother required the greatest care; but she did not forget one person in the house, or one on the estate.

Sir Roland laughed when he saw the preparations--the beef, the blankets, the clothing of all kinds, the innumerable presents, for she had remembered every one's wants and needs.

Sir Roland laughed.
"My dearest Beatrice," he said; "this will cost far more than a houseful of guests." "Never mind the cost," she said; "it will bring down a blessing on us." A quiet, beautiful Christmas.

My father was in the highest of spirits, and would have the house decorated with holly and mistletoe.

He went out to a few parties, but he was always unwilling to leave my mother, though she wished him to go; then, when we were quite alone, the wind wailing, the snow falling and beating up against the windows, she would ask me to read to her the beautiful gospel story of the star in the East and the child born in the stable because there was no room for Him in the inn.