That good lady was alone, quietly reading.

The children had retired, and she was spending her time after her custom.
"Well, Sarah, what sort of a Christmas have you had ?" Mrs.Belcher bit her lip, for there was something in her husband's tone which conveyed the impression that he was preparing to wheedle her into some scheme upon which he had set his heart, and which he felt or feared, would not be agreeable to her.

She had noticed a change in him.
He was tenderer toward her than he had been for years, yet her heart detected the fact that the tenderness was a sham.

She could not ungraciously repel it, yet she felt humiliated in accepting it.

So, as she answered his question with the words: "Oh, much the same as usual," she could not look into his face with a smile upon her own.
"I've just been over to call on Mrs.Dillingham," said he.
"Ah ?" "Yes; I thought I would drop in and give her the compliments of the season.